Ruthless Girl: An absolutely gripping, gritty crime thriller

by Emma Tallon

  Josephine stepped aside and waved them in, shooting a wary look up and down the road. There weren’t many people around, but the street wasn’t entirely empty. Anna and Tanya walked in and Josephine pushed the door back shut. Now they were inside they could see the true extent of the damage. Whatever it was had been small, something that burned out – or got put out – fairly quickly. The scorch marks didn’t reach further than a couple of feet in, but even that was bad enough.

  ‘Fuck’s sake,’ Tanya muttered. ‘This whole hallway will have to be redone now. Carpet, walls, door, everything.’ She stepped sideways and something crunched under her foot. Moving it to take a look, she found a scattered pile of broken glass.

  ‘That was what set it off,’ Josephine said, pointing down at the glass. I think it was a small bottle with some sort of flammable liquid and, you know…’ Josephine flapped her hands as she tried to describe it. ‘With a rag out of the top as a fuse.’

  ‘A Molotov cocktail,’ Anna said heavily. She sighed and shook her head.

  ‘Well. Her calling card couldn’t come any clearer than that,’ Tanya said. She ran her hands through her hair in agitation, her expression sombre.

  Anna frowned. ‘But it makes no sense. She was all smiles last night, there was no indication that she knew anything about us…’

  ‘She knows.’ Josephine cut Anna off, her large brown eyes wide and watery with fear. ‘She cornered me in the toilet before she left. I was going to tell you this morning, but then this happened…’ She trailed off and looked around at the mess again, misery etched into her face.

  Anna’s gaze sharpened as she stared at Josephine. ‘What did she say?’ Her blood ran cold as all the possible future outcomes flooded through her head. None of them were good.

  Tanya reached forward and squeezed Anna’s arm. ‘Let’s go upstairs and have the hair of the dog, straighten ourselves out a bit so we can think straight. I don’t know about you two, but I’m still absolutely hanging. This mess can wait until later. Go on, Josephine,’ she urged, ‘lead the way.’

  They followed Josephine up to the bar and Tanya set about making three of her special-recipe Bloody Marys, her go-to hangover cure. Anna sat down at one of the tables and Josephine perched on the chair opposite.

  ‘Well, go on,’ Anna pushed.

  Josephine sniffed and rubbed her tired eyes. She’d barely slept a wink, Sophia’s cruel words running around in her head over and over and the worry of what was to come keeping sleep firmly at bay. ‘She said she knew who I was, or rather, what I was. A disgusting creature, apparently.’ Her bottom lip wobbled and she swallowed before continuing. ‘That I would regret the day I met her husband and that no one crosses her. She said, I know what you did. She didn’t elaborate but it doesn’t take a genius.’

  Tanya raised her eyebrows, her expression annoyed. ‘She really called you that?’

  ‘Among other things. All along the same lines.’ Josephine looked down as she felt her cheeks redden and her eyes water. She didn’t want to get upset about it in front of Anna and Tanya.

  Tanya looked at Anna who shook her head, glancing down for a moment. She might still be angry at Josephine, but that didn’t mean she didn’t care for her deep down. And it certainly didn’t mean she would accept one of her own being treated with such prejudice.

  ‘Josephine, you mustn’t listen to her,’ she said quietly. ‘Those are cruel and unnecessary words that mean nothing. You know who you are and you have every right to be yourself. Don’t ever let someone make you feel otherwise.’ She looked back at Tanya. ‘We’ll deal with that, eventually. But right now we need to focus on what sort of corner we’re in exactly. Because at the moment we’re still blind. We have no idea what she knows specifically or what she plans to do. She’s certainly playing some sort of game, that’s for sure, working with us yet making secret threats through you and doing what she’s done downstairs.’ Anna bit her lip as she tried to work out where Sophia could be going with this.

  Josephine looked up at Anna, a feeling of hope shining through as her old friend gifted her the first kind words in weeks. As Anna met her gaze and hardened her expression once more, she looked down and tucked that hope away to mull over later. She wasn’t out of the doghouse yet, but that had certainly been the first step towards it. The first chink of light in their broken friendship.

  ‘Get the hallway cleaned up,’ Anna ordered Josephine, her tone switching back to business. ‘Get a new door, have the decorators do whatever they need and just put it through the books as renovation. I’ll get Bill to put a camera on the front. We should have done that before now, anyway.’

  ‘What do you want to do about Sophia?’ Tanya asked, joining them at the table and handing out her freshly made Bloody Marys.

  Anna took a sip and shot her a look of appreciation. She had no idea what secret ingredient Tanya put in these drinks – and she wasn’t sure she wanted to ask – but they did always seem to soothe a lingering hangover. ‘I’m not sure yet,’ she answered. ‘She needs to be pulled up for what she’s done here. We can’t be seen to let her get away with fire-bombing one of our businesses, even if it was just a small one to make a statement.’

  ‘You think that’s all it was?’ Josephine asked. ‘You don’t think it was an attempt to burn the building down, with me inside?’

  ‘No.’ Anna shook her head. ‘If she wanted to do that it would have been easy enough. That bottle was tiny, the liquid clearly chosen for instant impact and designed to fizzle out.’ Anna twisted her mouth to the side as she thought. ‘On the other hand,’ she continued, turning back to Tanya, ‘if she knows we covered things up, if she knows that Freddie doesn’t know, we need to tread very carefully. We can’t go in there all guns blazing and give her reason to strike back.’ She rubbed her head and drank some more of Tanya’s remedy drink. ‘I need to give it some thought, figure things out. Josephine, you need to just stay out of her way for a while, keep your head down until we know where we stand.’

  ‘Of course,’ Josephine said dutifully. She pulled a wry smile. They had been telling her to keep her head down for a long while now, after everything with Aleksei. A little longer would make no difference.

  ‘I wonder if it’s worth pulling in Sarah Riley,’ Tanya pondered, rubbing her chin.

  ‘We can’t tell her,’ Anna replied with a frown. ‘Her loyalty is with Freddie. She wouldn’t keep this from him.’

  ‘No, I don’t mean tell her, not everything at least. Just tell her we don’t trust Sophia. The facts rack up against her being trustworthy anyway. Make up some shifty look or conversation you half overheard.’ She shrugged. ‘It’s enough to warrant setting a tail on her at least. And even Freddie can be in the know about that.’

  Anna thought it over and nodded slowly. ‘That would be a good start. Perhaps she’ll trip herself up.’ She paused. ‘It could, of course, trip us up in front of Riley, depending on how much Sophia knows.’ She and Tanya stared at each other for a long moment. ‘But it’s the best idea we’ve got.’ She reached for her phone. ‘Let’s just hope and pray this works out in our favour. Because we sure as hell can’t just sit here and wait for her to do her worst.’

  Twenty-Nine

  Freddie marched down the busy street towards Heaven Sent, one of his more lucrative massage parlours. He had been so busy since getting out of prison, getting back up to speed with all the areas of the business, that he hadn’t yet been able to find time to show his face. He knew it had been run well in his absence, he’d seen the books. It was a long-standing enterprise and Linda, the manager, was a competent woman who hardly ever contacted him for assistance. The odd do-good rookie policeman had needed to be dealt with, and a troublesome employee or two, but other than these occasional unavoidable issues, she ran a tight ship. It was still a Tyler business, though, and as such he needed to at least visit to make sure she had everything she needed and to let her know that they were around.

  The bell above the door tinkled as he pushe
d it open and, as always, the scattering of men in the waiting area lowered their gazes even more. No one wanted to be recognised or make eye contact, for fear of people they knew finding out they frequented such an establishment.

  A short, curvaceous woman bustled through from the back at the sound of someone entering. ‘Welcome to Heaven Sent, how can I— Oh! Freddie!’ Her homely face creased into a genuine smile which Freddie returned. ‘I was wondering when I’d see you.’ It wasn’t a dig and Freddie didn’t take it as one. They’d known each other long enough to speak frankly. ‘How’ve you been?’

  ‘I’m good thanks, Linda.’ Freddie walked around the front desk and through to the back office, where he knew Linda would pour them a cup of tea and regale him with anything he needed to know about the business. She followed and they made their way down the long corridor dotted with doors to the booths where the girls carried out their work. ‘You keeping well?’ he asked politely.

  ‘Oh, I’m grand,’ she answered cheerily. ‘Business is doing as well as ever. Well, I’ll show you. Let me just get the tea on and we’ll get into all that.’

  The muffled moans and groans of pleasure seeped through the thin walls that separated the booths from the hallway as each client was given what they came for. As they reached the end of the hall, a door in front of them opened and one such client walked out, still tucking his shirt into his trousers. The young woman who had been servicing him lingered in the doorway behind in her lingerie, a fixed, fake smile on her face.

  ‘Thanks, Janey, you do know how to make an old man young again, don’t ya?’ the man said with a small chuckle. ‘I’ll be back for that again in a couple of days.’

  Freddie paused at the sound of the man’s voice and looked into his face under the dim lighting.

  ‘Jim? I thought you were on the rounds with Dean today?’ Freddie said with a frown. That was what he had instructed anyway.

  ‘Oh, Freddie, hello.’ Jim was clearly taken aback, but he swiftly masked this with a smile. ‘I was. Well, I am. We split off to get it done quicker and as I was passing I decided to take my lunch break in ’ere. Grab meself a little snack, if you know what I mean.’ He winked at Janey and Freddie found it hard not to grimace at how leery the expression was.

  ‘I actually wanted to talk to you about something,’ Freddie said, changing the subject. ‘Something that’s puzzling me.’ He smiled, but the action did not reach his eyes. ‘Linda, would you mind if we use your office whilst you grab that tea?’

  Linda caught on straight away. ‘Not at all. I’ll have a look for some biscuits too. I’m sure I have some, somewhere.’ She disappeared round the corner and Freddie gestured for Jim to follow him into the office.

  Jim rolled his eyes as Freddie turned away, feeling like he was being ordered into detention by the school master. He wondered if he was being pulled in for using the premises as if it was his own. But surely that was his right, as part of the firm? An employee bonus, so to speak. He’d been using this place for his sexual gratification every other day or so since he’d come across it on the collection rounds. The older bird running the show didn’t like him much, he could tell, but she toed the line, knowing he was on the Tyler payroll. She still allowed him free access whenever he liked. And boy did he like it! He’d never had it so good, all these young girls, tight and ripe, professionals in the art of sucking him off and riding him like a horse. He didn’t care whether they liked it or not, the point was they were good at pretending they did. And his balls were getting emptied more regularly than they ever had in his life. He wasn’t giving that up without a fight. So, if Freddie was about to have a go at him for it, he’d just have to remind him of the long stretch he’d just done inside. Surely as someone who’d done time himself, he’d understand how raw his needs were right now.

  Gearing up for this argument, Jim braced himself. The words that came out of Freddie’s mouth, however, were not what he had expected, and for a second he found himself floundering, searching for a suitable response.

  ‘You said you knew my dad, that you were mates. My mum, however, seems to be of a different opinion.’ Freddie cut straight to the chase. He walked behind Linda’s desk and sat down, leaning back in the chair with a frown. ‘She seems to think you’re bad news. Why is that?’

  Jim blinked. ‘Well, I er…’ His mouth flapped a couple of times and then he laughed. ‘Well, she might not have the fondest memories of me. I was your dad’s mate, the one that used to drag him down the pub when she wanted him home and, admittedly, the one who always came up with the bad ideas.’ He forced another laugh, studying Freddie’s face for any clue that he knew more than he was letting on. He found none. He was clearly still in the dark. ‘You know women. They always hate the Jack-the-lad of the group. Always nagging that they’re the bad influence.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Yeah, I’m sure she probably does remember me as that. But that was a long time ago. And certainly nothing to do with my ability in the workplace.’

  Freddie nodded and bit his lip as he studied Jim. It sounded like a feasible excuse, only he knew his mum a lot better than Jim was giving him credit for. Mollie wouldn’t have taken against him for something that simple. If anything she’d always loved the Jack-the-lads of his group, finding them entertaining and coming up with fantastic excuses for their cheeky behaviour, rather than taking a dislike. Plus, he’d never seen her pale so quickly upon hearing someone’s name before. No, it was definitely more than that. But he wasn’t going to find out what it was here.

  In a swift action Freddie smiled and stood up. ‘Thank you, Jim. That’s all I wanted to know. You’d best be off.’

  The door opened and Linda walked in with a tea tray.

  ‘Yeah, ’course. Lots to do. Catch you later then.’ Jim saluted Freddie with a smile and walked out as Linda put down the tray. She came to stand beside Freddie as they watched him walk off down the hallway.

  ‘Can I be honest with you about something?’ she asked.

  ‘’Course you can,’ Freddie answered. ‘Go on.’

  ‘I don’t like that one,’ she answered quietly. ‘There’s something I just don’t trust there.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Freddie nodded. He felt the same way too.

  As Jim walked outside, he glanced behind him to check he was alone before pulling out his phone. Shoving his free hand in his pocket he marched off down the street and began searching his contacts for Sophia’s number. He’d saved it as soon as he’d been able to do so after the party the night before and had been in two minds about whether to take her up on her offer, but that conversation with Freddie had made the decision for him. He was getting a little too close to Jim’s ulterior motive, and this was not in his plan.

  Jim had banked on Mollie being a lot more secretive with her son than this, about where they really knew each other from. But she had already made Freddie suspicious. Now, he would have to accelerate his plan and get to the crux of it sooner. And it certainly wouldn’t hurt to make a bit of extra money on the side whilst he worked on that. Finding Sophia’s number, he pressed the call button and waited for it to connect.

  Thirty

  Tanya rolled off Sammy and onto her back as she tried to catch her breath and cool down after another steamy evening of sneaking around. Sammy put his muscular arm out and she shifted into it, pulling her hair up and over the pillow in an attempt to cool herself down.

  She looked over at his chiselled face and smiled softly. The last week, since they had been running around together like teenagers, had felt like a complete whirlwind, yet oddly comfortable and familiar all at the same time. It was new and exciting, yet she knew Sammy better than she knew most people already. It was also a welcome relief to be with someone who knew her so well, all her faces and her colourful past, and who liked her anyway. She didn’t have to worry that she’d let something slip one day and the façade they had fallen for would fade into a less attractive reality. She didn’t have to worry about hiding anything either – or rather, not too much anyway.
Sammy was one person who she could truly be herself around, and this was something she could definitely get used to.

  ‘What you thinking?’ he murmured, turning his head to face her.

  Tanya half smiled as several quips immediately came to mind, but she decided not to tease him right now. ‘Nothing much,’ she answered. ‘Just that this is nice. It’s nice just being ourselves together, you know?’

  ‘I do,’ he replied. He leaned in and kissed her hungrily.

  She pulled away with a laugh. ‘I need a time out, not all of us were made at the Duracell factory.’

  ‘It’s called stamina. It’s what I gain from that place you might vaguely remember called a gym,’ he responded with a cheeky grin.

  ‘Babe, you try running multiple businesses in London every day in six-inch heels and then tell me what you think a workout is,’ Tanya said, raising her eyebrows at him.

  Sammy laughed and pulled himself up on his side to face her. He ran his hands down her firm body and back up to her face. ‘I’m well aware of the good working order you keep your body in, Tanya Smith. Though it would be fun to have you down the gym with me sometime so I can perv on you whilst you sweat.’

  ‘Not for me, thanks,’ Tanya replied, crinkling her nose. ‘But it would be nice to do something other than just sneak around together like this.’

  ‘We can, if you want. It’s your call,’ Sammy responded. Like Tanya, he was already appreciating the benefits that their long-standing friendship brought to the table in this new relationship. It didn’t feel new, although that didn’t take anything away from the fun of the honeymoon period. They had always got on well, but now things were just getting better and better. He had already decided that when she was ready to go official, he was fully on board. But, laidback as always, he was happy to leave it up to her as to when that would be.

  ‘What do you think about getting away sometime? You know,’ Tanya ran her fingers down his hard chest, ‘like a holiday or something. A little getaway. Some fun in the sun.’