Ruthless Girl: An absolutely gripping, gritty crime thriller

by Emma Tallon

  Ali held his hand out and Sophia stepped back and handed over the gun. Her body began to shake with elation. She had done it. She had avenged her husband’s death – or rather, she was halfway to doing so. Paul was still to be dealt with. But she had overcome the biggest challenge tonight. And it felt amazing.

  Freddie Tyler – the man who had run London for so long – was no more a force to be reckoned with. His businesses would crumble, his firm would fall into chaos and London would once more become fair game to those who wished to rise up from the positions they had been forced to stay in. A new day was about to dawn, and although for most life would still go on, it was about to change forever.

  Forty-Three

  Paul exhaled sharply in annoyance as Freddie’s phone went to voicemail once more. It was early in the day, but that didn’t usually stop his brother from picking up. Chucking his phone on the bed, he set about getting dressed. He’d heard his mother shuffle downstairs just a few minutes before, which meant that there would soon be some strong hot coffee brewing on the side. And he could certainly do with some of that today.

  Shrugging on a fresh white shirt – one of the many identical ones he owned, being a creature of habit – Paul walked downstairs, doing up the last few buttons and tucking the tails into his trousers as he reached the kitchen.

  ‘Very smart, as always,’ Mollie said chirpily. ‘What do you fancy? I’ve got some black pudding in today. I was at the butcher’s yesterday getting me beef joint and he was just putting a fresh lot out. I thought to myself, I know who’ll like a bit of that.’ She grinned at him as he sat down at the large kitchen table.

  ‘Not right now, Mum,’ Paul answered tiredly.

  ‘What do you mean, not right now? You can’t start the day without a bit of breakfast,’ she scolded. ‘Growing boy like you needs to eat. Breakfast is the most im—’

  ‘Most important meal of the day, I know,’ Paul said, cutting her off. ‘Not that I’d really class myself as a growing boy any more, Mum, I’m in my thirties.’ He pushed a chair out and gestured towards it. ‘Sit down. We need to have a chat.’

  Mollie paused, her expression suddenly wary. ‘A chat about what? This isn’t your brother putting you up to this, is it?’ she asked, her tone tinged with annoyance. ‘Because I’ve told him—’

  ‘The manager at the bank called me yesterday.’ Paul cut straight to the point. ‘They’re under strict instruction there that if anyone in the family tries to make a big withdrawal, they’re to check with us first, you see.’

  Mollie paled and her expression turned to one of guilt. ‘Wh-why have you set that up?’ she stuttered, trying to brazen it out. ‘I thought our family trusted each other.’

  Paul shook his head sadly. ‘It’s not about trust. We’re at the top of our game and have a lot to lose if someone smart enough decides to make us a target. So this arrangement is to make sure if one of us is ever in a corner being blackmailed and can’t talk about it, we’re alerted.’

  He laced his fingers together and waited as Mollie slowly sat down in the chair he had offered her, her face as white as a sheet. ‘So come on, Mum,’ he said gently. ‘What’s going on? Why would you try and mortgage the house?’

  Mollie sat there in silence for a moment, aghast. Of course they were watching the family assets, why wouldn’t they be? Her sons hadn’t risen to the position they were in today by taking their eye off the ball. She squeezed her eyes shut in stress and leaned forward on her hands. What had she done? More importantly, what was she going to do now?

  ‘Does Freddie know?’ she whispered eventually between her fingers.

  ‘Not yet,’ Paul replied, watching her carefully. ‘But I can’t keep it from him forever. So you need to tell me what’s going on.’

  Mollie sat up and leaned back, deep lines of worry etched into her forehead. Paul frowned. His mother looked as though she had aged ten years in the last two minutes. Whatever she was hiding had to be bad. Suddenly, to his horror, Mollie began to cry. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks and shallow sobs rocked her body as she tried and failed to gain control.

  ‘Jesus, Mum!’ Paul’s eyes widened in shock and he moved forward to pull her into a hug. ‘Christ, don’t do that.’ He squeezed her tight as she clung to him like she never had before. ‘Come on.’ He rubbed her back. ‘It can’t be that bad.’

  ‘Oh, but it is, Paul.’ Mollie pulled back and sniffed. She wiped the tears from her cheeks with her apron and swallowed hard, forcing herself to get a grip. ‘It is that bad. And if I tell you, you’ll never look at me the same again.’ She squeezed away another tear, refusing to give into the fresh wave that threatened to fall. ‘And if I tell Freddie…’ She shook her head and stared out of the kitchen window, fear shining through her eyes. ‘Well, I might just lose him for good.’

  Paul felt the cold fingers of fear grip his heart. Mollie was truly beginning to scare him now and he didn’t like that one bit. ‘Mum,’ he said strongly, ‘you need to tell me what’s going on right now.’

  Mollie took a deep breath in and exhaled unhappily. ‘OK,’ she conceded, her whole demeanour suddenly quiet and defeated. ‘About thirty-five years ago…’ She paused as Paul’s phone began to ring.

  Paul pulled the phone out of his pocket and dismissed the call. ‘Go on,’ he urged.

  Before Mollie could continue the phone began to ring again instantly. Paul tutted in annoyance and he warred with his priorities as he looked at the caller ID. It was Bill. For Bill to call this early in the day and so insistently there had to be something up.

  ‘Answer it,’ Mollie pushed.

  ‘Alright, one second. Hello?’ Paul listened as Bill spoke urgently down the line. ‘What?’ he uttered, his eyebrows shooting up towards his hairline. He stood up abruptly and his mouth gaped open. ‘No…’ he whispered. ‘No,’ he repeated, stronger this time. He shook his head and began to pace.

  Mollie strained to listen, worried at her son’s response to whatever news he was receiving. She could just make out Bill urging Paul to get to wherever he was as quickly as possible before Paul ended the call. There was a long silence as Paul stared down at the blank screen in his hand. Mollie bit her lip, waiting for him to lead the conversation. Eventually Paul blinked a few times as if seeing more clearly might undo what he had just heard. He turned to his mother.

  ‘Um…’ He tailed off and shook his head in disbelief. ‘Er, look, um…’ He stared off out of the window again, the shock beginning to settle in.

  ‘Paul? What’s happened?’ Mollie asked, beginning to feel worried.

  ‘I, um…’ Paul ran his hands down his face. ‘I need to go. I need to… I’ll be back later, I’ll explain then.’ Turning on his heel, he walked out of the kitchen and Mollie stared after him as the front door was opened and then slammed behind him.

  She blinked and twisted the bottom of her apron worriedly. What on earth was going on?

  Forty-Four

  The tyres screeched on the tarmac as Paul pulled to a stop outside the back of Ruby Ten. He leaped out of the car, not bothering to lock it as he raced into the building and through to the main club. Terry, the general manager, was standing behind the bar, his face ashen. Paul glanced at him in question.

  ‘Up there, in the office,’ he said quietly, pointing towards the stairs.

  Paul paused and nodded, trying to collect his thoughts. ‘Um… lock the back door.’ He cleared his throat gruffly. ‘Don’t let anyone else in now I’m here until I say otherwise. Did anyone…?’

  ‘No, no.’ Terry shook his head. ‘I found him. I only came in to let the cleaner in and popped up to grab the staff rota. Lucky I did. I sent the cleaner home, she didn’t see nothing.’

  ‘Good.’ Paul steeled himself for what he was about to see.

  As he walked up the stairs, he felt the disbelief wash over him once more. He couldn’t be dead, not really. The thought of that being a genuine reality just didn’t seem possible. Not now that it had really happened, anyway. The possi
bility of any of their deaths was always there hanging over them, in their line of work. They lived and worked in a dangerous world. Not just that, but they were at the top of the food chain, a position coveted by many. A position many people would kill for.

  Paul paused as he reached the door to the office and closed his eyes, briefly wishing he didn’t have to walk in. Wishing that he didn’t have to see what was inside. Because if he walked away now, then he could pretend that everything was OK for just a little while longer. But there was no point. Because it wasn’t OK. Things would never be quite the same again. He took a deep breath, straightened up and walked in.

  As he entered the room, his eyes were drawn straight to the body slumped over the desk and the lake of blood that had pooled and dried on the floor. He swallowed as his stomach clenched and threatened to eject whatever little was left in it from the night before. It wasn’t that he was squeamish. He’d dealt with many a body in his time. But this was different. Because this was someone he cared about.

  After a long moment, Paul turned to the two other men in the room and shook his head in defeated sadness. ‘What happened?’ he asked. ‘Who did it?’ He glanced back at the desk, misery etched on his face. ‘What was Sammy even doing here anyway?’

  Freddie exhaled heavily from across the room where he sat in one of the chairs, his shoulders slumped defeatedly as he stared at the body of his best friend. ‘He was here running an errand for me,’ he answered, his voice quiet and heavy with guilt. ‘He was sorting through some files on a potential new job. You know what it’s like, one set of documents, no copies, less risk… He was going to go over them then leave them here before he went off to do a recce for me. That’s why he’s dressed like that.’ Freddie gestured towards Sammy. ‘He was going to go to Sophia’s place and scope her out a bit. She has cameras.’

  Paul glanced back at Sammy’s body. He was dressed all in black with gloves and a thin black hat covering his bright blond mop of hair. Not that it would have been particularly bright anymore without the hat, Paul realised, looking at the amount of blood that had come from the hole in his head.

  Grief washed over him, as he stared down at his friend. Sammy had been like a brother to them since they were kids. He was their oldest friend – Freddie’s best friend. He had been with them since the beginning, since before they were rich and infamous. Sammy had been by their side since they were collecting rubbish off building sites as kids, to help make ends meet. He’d fought beside them in the alleys when bigger boys had fought them over which side of the street they lived on. From the moment they had all met, Sammy had been the most loyal friend and ally they had ever had. He was family. And now he was gone, it felt like someone had ripped off one of their arms.

  Paul stepped to the nearest chair and sat down heavily. He wanted to cry. Looking over at Freddie, he could see his brother was barely keeping the tears at bay too.

  Bill walked over and squeezed Paul’s shoulder in a show of support. ‘We don’t know who did it or why yet. We still need to work that out. The strange thing is, no one knew he would be here. It was a last-minute arrangement.’ Bill shook his head. ‘It may have even been a chancer looking to rob the place.’

  ‘Except nothing’s been taken,’ Freddie interjected.

  Paul frowned, trying to make sense of it all and failing. He cast his eyes over again towards Sammy’s body before looking away, unable to look for very long and keep a hold on his emotions. ‘What do we do now? I mean…’ he glanced at Bill and then Freddie, ‘we can’t exactly call it in. A murder in one of our clubs with a known associate – we can kiss our parole goodbye. They’d have us linked to this in seconds.’

  Freddie nodded. ‘I know.’

  ‘But we can’t just get rid of him either. It’s Sammy…’ Paul’s voice cracked and he paused to clear his throat before continuing. ‘If he disappeared he wouldn’t be buried, and that – that, er…’ He looked down and swallowed hard, shaking his head.

  ‘That don’t bear thinking about, you’re right,’ Bill finished for him, gently.

  ‘That’s why we ain’t doing either,’ Freddie replied. He sat up in his chair and sniffed, before leaning forward and putting his face against his clasped hands. ‘We’re going to move him.’

  The desk phone rang out shrilly, making them all jump in the quiet room. Bill stepped forward and answered it. ‘Yeah? Good. Send her up.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Paul asked, looking over at his brother.

  ‘I mean we’re going to move him somewhere he’ll be found. It will be investigated, of course, but we’ll make sure we leave no link to us or here, then the case will just go unsolved. But it means we get his body back and can give him a proper burial like he deserves,’ Freddie answered. ‘It’s risky, but it’s better than the alternative.’

  Paul blew out his cheeks. ‘OK. But how exactly are we going to make sure we properly cover our tracks?’

  There was a brief knock at the door before it flew open and Sarah walked in, hands casually pushing down her jacket pockets and a slightly distracted expression that swiftly disappeared as she clocked Sammy. Jumping back, her hands flew out of her pockets and up to her cheeks as her eyes widened in shock.

  ‘Motherfucker!’ she exclaimed loudly. ‘Is that… is that Sammy? What the hell happened?’ Her eyes darted between the three of them as she waited for answers. ‘And you have to be kidding me right now. Tell me I am not looking at a dead body in your office, Freddie.’

  ‘Believe me, I wish I could,’ he replied.

  Sarah leaned forward on her knees and grimaced. When Freddie had called her in citing an emergency she’d expected a number of things, but this had certainly not been one of them. Her gaze roamed the room critically. It was a bad situation. There was blood everywhere.

  ‘Well,’ she said eventually. ‘You need to tell me that you’ve got one hell of a plan here, Tyler. Because it’s going to take something big for me to keep your head off the block on this one…’

  Forty-Five

  Anna stared across the lounge at Freddie in shock. Ethan was in his room playing on his Game Boy, much to her relief. Breaking the news that Freddie had just imparted to her was going to be hard. Ethan had grown very close to Sammy, especially whilst Freddie had been in prison. Sammy had made a special effort to take him to places like football practice and out for one-on-one time at least once a week in Freddie’s absence. It had shown how true a friend Sammy had been to Freddie, that he had taken such special care of his son during that time. As this thought rested in her mind, her heart broke. He had been such a special friend to them all.

  She crossed the room and knelt at Freddie’s feet, picking up his hands in hers. ‘Freddie, I’m so sorry,’ she breathed.

  Freddie leaned forward and put his forehead to hers, letting the tears that had been threatening all morning silently fall. ‘He was family, you know?’ he said, his voice full of pain. ‘I just didn’t see it coming.’

  ‘No one could have,’ Anna replied, putting her hand to his cheek in comfort. ‘There was no reason to think anyone would do this. I mean, who would have had beef with Sammy? I think there may be something in what Bill said, that this may have been a break-in gone wrong.’

  ‘But nothing was taken, Anna.’ Freddie sat up and wiped the tears from his cheeks, clearing his throat and regathering himself. ‘That’s what doesn’t make sense.’ He sighed, tiredly.

  ‘Maybe they got spooked,’ she replied. ‘Maybe they spooked themselves – guns can be louder than people expect. Perhaps they decided to forget their plan and run, thinking someone would have heard.’

  ‘Maybe…’ Freddie didn’t sound convinced.

  The doorbell sounded and Anna stood up, brushing off her skirt. She leaned down and kissed the top of Freddie’s head. Freddie breathed in the sweet floral smell of her hair as it brushed over his face, grateful that she had been at home when he got in. It wasn’t often he felt so taken aback, but right now he did and he was glad of the comf
ort her presence brought him. He rubbed his face as she walked away and grabbed a tighter hold on his emotions. Standing up, Freddie moved into the kitchen and set about making a pot of coffee. Whoever it was at the door he was not about to show them this moment of vulnerability. That was reserved for Anna’s eyes only.

  Mollie gave Anna a watery smile as the door was opened and bit her lip, her resolve wavering now that she was here.

  ‘Oh, hi, Mollie,’ Anna greeted her with a smile and a look of surprise. She hadn’t expected to see her today. ‘Come in.’

  ‘Hi, Anna.’ Mollie stepped inside and took off her jacket, placing it carefully on the same hook she always did. ‘Paul said Freddie was heading home for a bit – is he here? I really need to speak to him about something.’

  Paul had only flown into the house for a few moments to change his clothes before running back out the door again. He’d seemed distracted and Mollie still hadn’t found out what had been said on the phone call that had spooked him so much, but she had at least managed to find out where Freddie was. After Paul had left that morning, Mollie had sat down and thought over things long and hard. She was up against a wall now, and there was no getting out of it. Paul knew that something big was going on and he wouldn’t keep it from Freddie for long. And once Freddie knew, there would be no stopping him. She knew that for certain. He wouldn’t give up until he had found out every last detail.

  Mollie’s worst nightmare was finally coming true. She wanted nothing more than to bury it all back where it had lain all of these years, but whether she liked it or not this was no longer possible. Freddie would soon know one way or another and although the thought of telling him terrified her, she knew that it was the best way for him to find out. So, after hours of attempting to find the right words – and a very large glass of wine – Mollie had worked up the courage to come over. The day she had dreaded for the last few decades was finally here. It was time.