by Emma Tallon
She needed to tell Freddie. Anna grabbed her phone and began scrolling through her call list before she paused. Her thumb hovered over his name. What was she going to say to him? Frank’s words crept into her head, creating a sliver of self-doubt. She had done the right thing, hadn’t she? She couldn’t cower to Frank; she couldn’t be bullied into handing over all her and Tanya’s hard work. It was her livelihood, their work baby. They had built this place up with their bare hands, from nothing. Why should they allow it to be stolen from them? But refusing to sell to Frank meant that Freddie’s business suffered.
What if Freddie was angry? What if he felt that she had let him down? The Mafia weren’t normal people; there weren’t normal rules at play. What if she was expected to make the sacrifice, so that Freddie could move forward? What if now there were other consequences? Frank had said something ominous about leaving Freddie a message of his own.
Anna jumped as her phone began to ring in her hand. It was Freddie. A stone forming in her stomach made Anna realise she couldn’t bring herself to tell him. At least not yet. Not until she had got her head around it herself. She let the call ring out.
14
Shelley Mitchell glanced sideways at the man who’d picked her up off her usual corner as they mounted the stairs in the house he had taken her back to. He was a bit of alright, she thought. She’d lucked out tonight. She wouldn’t mind shagging this one at all. She had been surprised that he hadn’t gone with one of the younger, prettier girls on the main strip. Shelley wasn’t deluded – she knew she was past it these days. After four kids and too many years on the game to remember, she was puffy around the middle with stretch marks and saggy tits. Her face was weathered and deep lines made her look older than she was. Still, in the dark with some decent make-up on she was still alright, even if she did look a bit rough around the edges.
Shelley figured it was probably his first time, or that he was nervous about being seen. That would explain why he hadn’t gone to the main strip. It was too busy. Her little corner around the back of The Swan pub was quiet and secluded. It offered that extra bit of privacy, something she always made sure she mentioned to her clients.
He wasn’t much of a talker, but that was OK. They weren’t here to hold hands and exchange life goals – they were here to empty his balls and line her pockets.
Entering the bedroom, Shelley sat back on the bed and pulled her legs apart, showing him the goods. She wore a lacy red thong underneath the denim miniskirt, but it didn’t hide much.
‘Fancy what you see, darlin’?’ she asked with a saucy smile.
‘Looks good to me,’ he responded.
‘Got somewhere I can quickly clean up before we start?’ Shelley asked. He was her third full-package customer of the night and she was feeling a little stale. Best to have a little wash down there before he got started. It didn’t matter so much when she’d had a string of blowies. There was usually more of them than anything else, a quick, cheap release on their way home from a night out. But tonight had been quite busy, which she was pleased about. Her youngest son Kyle had been pestering her for a new PlayStation game. She could get it for him now.
‘Through there.’ He pointed to the en suite and waited tensely whilst she cleaned herself up.
He hadn’t been with a woman in ages and although he had been suppressing his natural urges for a while, he couldn’t ignore them forever. She wasn’t exactly up to his usual standard, but she had been the easiest one to pick up in an area with no cameras. And that was important.
Shelley came back out of the bathroom in just her underwear and laid herself on the bed. He looked down at her. Rough as she was, it had been a while and she still had all the right parts, so it wasn’t difficult for him to get a hard-on.
Pulling down his trousers, he didn’t bother to get undressed, just knelt down on the end of the bed and drew her thighs up. He plunged into her, closing his eyes and ignoring her fake noises of pleasure as he focused on getting to where he wanted to be. The warm wetness of her body around him spurred him on and his thrusts became faster.
Barely a couple of minutes passed and he felt himself reaching a crescendo. With a deep groan of relief, he released all of his pent-up frustration and was done. He let go of her legs and pulled himself away.
‘Wow, that was amazing,’ Shelley lied. She was half glad and half disappointed that he was done so quickly. It gave her more time to earn, but on the other hand she wouldn’t have minded a bit of extra bump and grind with him. ‘Best I’ve ever had, that was.’
‘Yeah?’ he barked a laugh at the blatant lie. ‘Well, that’s good,’ he continued quietly, leaning forward over her again. She grinned excitedly, assuming he was gearing up for round two. ‘Because it’s the last one you’ll ever have.’
‘What?’ she asked. Her eyes bulged as he wrapped his large hands around her neck and began to squeeze, hard. She grappled with his hands, trying to prise them off her throat but it was to no avail. He was too strong.
‘Thing is, you’ve seen my face and where I live,’ he explained conversationally, as she struggled beneath him. ‘And that’s a problem. Because when the police come round and start asking you girls questions there’s a good chance you’ll mention this and then they’ll find me and all my careful planning would have been for nothing. And I just can’t risk that. So we’re just going to have to put you down to collateral damage.’
Shelley tried desperately to shake her head, to tell him she wouldn’t say a word, but she couldn’t even do that. He was holding her too tightly. Her windpipe was fully closed; she couldn’t pull in any breath at all. Her lungs were burning and she could feel her face turning red. His body and legs were pinning her down and she couldn’t get a hold on anything.
Shelley stared into her killer’s vacant eyes and wished to God she had never got into the car. He was going to murder her and there was nothing she could do about it. Tears escaped the corners of her eyes as she thought about her kids waiting up for her at home. They would never know what happened to her. They’d think she had abandoned them.
She wished she had just taken that cleaning gig the Job Centre had offered her. She might not have been able to afford new PlayStation games, but at least her kids would still have a mum.
Shelley’s vision turned dark as her body finally gave in to the lack of oxygen. Who the hell was this evil bastard? It was the last question that ran through her mind before he squeezed the last few fighting beats of life from her body.
15
It had been a few days since Tom had come home as white as a sheet. He hadn’t talked to Tanya about why, and she hadn’t asked questions. But something had shaken him up, she could tell. She was preoccupied, still thinking about it all as she walked through Club Anya. She barely heard Carl’s warm greeting, not turning until he repeated himself and asked if she was OK.
‘What? Oh, sorry… Yeah, I’m good as gold, mate,’ she said, forcing a tight smile.
‘Yeah alright, pull the other one. What’s up?’ Carl was concerned. As good a businesswoman as Tanya was, she rarely seemed serious. Even when she was juggling both clubs on the busiest night of the week, she always had a joke on the tip of her tongue and a cheeky wink at the ready. Something about her wasn’t right today.
Tanya paused for a moment and seemed to regard him thoughtfully. After a second she looked away and pulled the same tight smile again. Whatever she had been going to say, she had clearly decided to keep to herself.
‘Nah, honestly, I’m good. Far too sober though. Think I’ll stick about for a cocktail or two once I’m done with Anna,’ she said brightly.
‘You realise it’s eleven in the morning?’ Carl asked with an amused expression.
‘It’s twelve o’clock somewhere, Carl,’ Tanya replied over her shoulder as she walked through to meet Anna in the office.
She pushed the door open and found her best friend bent over the desk, frowning at an invoice. Anna looked up at the noise and immediately her f
ace cleared into a warm smile.
‘How are you?’ she asked as Tanya sat down in the chair opposite her.
‘I’m OK, mate. But Tom isn’t. That’s what I wanted to talk about.’ As blunt as ever, Tanya cut straight to the point. She rubbed her forehead, worry lines appearing. ‘Do you know anything about what’s going on at the moment, with the stuff Freddie has got Tom involved in?’
‘Yes,’ Anna answered carefully.
‘OK. I don’t know anything, for the record, and I’m not asking either. But whatever it is, it’s riled Tom right up. He hasn’t slept or eaten properly since he came home the other day. He just keeps staring at his phone all tense and chain-smoking like a fucking chimney.’ Tanya sighed heavily. ‘Is he alright? That’s all I want to know.’
Anna took a deep breath and sat back in her chair. She bit her lip as she thought about how to frame it.
‘Listen, you know Freddie. Yes, there are risks to getting involved with him like Tom has, but he’s not top of his game for nothing. He hasn’t been taken down yet and I doubt that today is his day of reckoning. He faces new problems and threats all the time and he always finds a way to overcome them. That’s “the life”. You know that. Tom’s just new to it all. And from what I understand, Freddie isn’t keen to bring him into much more on that side of things anyway. So just let it settle. It’ll be fine,’ Anna said, her gaze unwavering.
‘OK.’ Tanya nodded. ‘Fair enough. But with all that goes on, how do you always keep such faith that things will be OK for Freddie?’ she asked.
‘Because I know Freddie, and I trust that he knows what he’s doing. And,’ she added, ‘because I have to. Otherwise I would just go crazy.’
‘Christ, Tom’s only been working for him for five minutes and I’m halfway to crazy town,’ Tanya joked, breaking the sombre atmosphere. Anna grinned.
‘Babe, you arrived there years ago,’ she joked back. ‘They’ve built you a castle and crowned you mayor.’ She laughed and pulled back to escape Tanya’s friendly swipe.
‘Oh, get out of it. I’m the sanest person I know. It’s everyone else who’s nuts,’ Tanya replied indignantly. ‘Anyway. OK. If you say things are fine, then things are fine.’
‘Yes… Tanya, there’s something else I think you should know.’ Anna’s face clouded over into an expression of worry. ‘I think I know who’s responsible for the issues that Freddie’s had to deal with lately.’
‘What do you mean?’ Tanya asked.
‘Have you heard of Frank Gambino?’
‘Gambino the Gambler, yeah of course. He’s the Billy Big Balls of the casino scene,’ Tanya answered.
‘Right. Well, I met him recently.’
‘Ooh, what’s he like?’ Tanya’s eyes widened in excitement.
‘Tan, please! That’s so not the point right now,’ Anna said, rolling her eyes.
‘Oh right, yeah. Go on,’ Tanya said, curbing her curiosity.
‘Freddie wanted to meet him, talk about the possibility of working together on something. We were invited over to one of his casinos in Mayfair for dinner, so we went and Freddie was taken off to a meeting room. I was keeping busy with a bit of blackjack and he joined the table. He wanted to get me alone, away from Freddie, to ask me to sell him the club.’
‘This club?’ Tanya asked, surprised.
‘Yes. Apparently, we jumped the queue when we signed the lease. He had set his sights on it. He said he would give Freddie what he wants, in exchange for me selling him the club,’ Anna confirmed.
‘Wow.’ Tanya wasn’t sure how to respond to this revelation. ‘What did you say?’
‘I told him no, obviously. This is our club. We’ve worked hard for it, why would we sell it?’ Anna said vehemently.
‘Well… yeah, but he’s the Mafia, Anna,’ Tanya replied gently. ‘He’s technically offered you a fair trade. In their world I’m not sure where we stand on not accepting that. I take it you were to get me to fall in line too?’
‘Well, I don’t live in their world, Tanya. I live in the normal world where if I don’t want to sell my business, I don’t have to. But anyway, I told him no and then he got angry and informed me that I would regret the decision and that he wouldn’t work with Freddie unless we sell out.’
‘Shit,’ Tanya breathed. She looked very worried.
‘When I first suspected, I met with him and told him that even if I wanted to sell to him, I couldn’t. Because the business isn’t mine. I just work here,’ Anna continued. ‘I made him a counter-offer to try to appease him, but he declined.’ She chose not to share how nasty things had got in their last meeting. There was no way she was going to be seen as some sort of helpless victim, just because Frank had tried to intimidate her.
‘But hang on, that’s not true, about the club not being yours. Surely he saw through the lie immediately,’ Tanya replied.
‘Actually…’ Anna pulled the file out from underneath the invoices. She had prepared for this moment. ‘It is true. Take a look at this. You remember a year ago, all that stuff with Katherine Hargreaves?’
‘Yeah…’ Tanya opened the file and looked at the photocopy of the document inside with a confused expression.
‘Well, there was a point at which we were ready to run, if the worst happened. Ben Hargreaves was going to fit us both up, everything left here would have been seized, including the club. I couldn’t leave things like that; it would have been a nightmare for you. So I had papers drawn up transferring my half of the business into your name.’ Anna pointed at the details on the document. ‘I, er, forged your signature. Figured you wouldn’t mind if it was between that and losing my half of the club to the government.’
‘Oh my God.’ Tanya was shocked. ‘Why didn’t you destroy this when everything was OK again? Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Well, I knew as long as it was only me who knew about it, that the choice was in my hands. I could destroy it or keep it that way if the need arose. And I had a feeling it might. Turns out I was right. The offer Gambino made to me may have been “fair” as you say, but it has no bearing on you, does it? It’s not a fair deal to you; he has nothing to offer you in exchange for the club. So I told him and showed him that it’s out of my hands. I had hoped that it would put an end to the problems Freddie’s been facing. But I think if anything, I made it worse.’
‘Christ, Anna.’ For once Tanya was at a loss for words. She closed her mouth, aware that it had dropped open. This was not good. ‘What did Freddie say?’
‘I haven’t told him,’ Anna admitted.
‘What?’ Tanya said, aghast. ‘Anna, you need to tell him.’
‘What can he do, Tanya? Gambino was pretty clear – either we sell him the club, or he won’t do business with Freddie.’ She took a deep breath. ‘There isn’t anything Freddie can do to change that. If anything he’ll just get angry and it will start an all-out war. I think we need to sit on it and just wait for it to go away. He said he would let me tell Freddie myself, so I don’t think he’ll talk to him about it.’
‘Anna, people like Frank Gambino don’t just go away. There will be consequences.’ Tanya’s tone was deadly serious.
Anna remembered Gambino’s parting words. And I’ll make sure to leave Freddie a message myself. She shook it off. It wasn’t going to make a difference if Freddie knew that he’d said that or not. In his line of work he habitually watched his back.
‘Look, he’s not here for long. Soon he’ll be gone back to New York, back to his real business and this crap will all be forgotten about. And I will tell Freddie why Gambino won’t work with him. I just…’ She sighed heavily. ‘I need to find the right time.’
Tanya nodded and bit her lip in worry. ‘I hope you’re right,’ she said eventually.
‘So do I, Tan,’ Anna replied. ‘So do I.’
16
Freddie knocked on the door of the Portakabin as he entered. ‘Alright, mate?’ he asked Tom cheerily. He held out a takeaway cup. ‘Bought you a coffee. Thought you c
ould use one.’
‘Thanks.’ Tom took the cup gratefully.
‘Hope you don’t mind me saying, but you don’t look like you’re getting much sleep,’ Freddie remarked. He looked Tom over with a critical eye. ‘Everything OK?’ The question was loaded.
Tom nodded. He knew what Freddie was doing – he was sussing out how well he was coping with the knowledge of what was now underneath several tons of concrete stairs. He hadn’t been sleeping well, but not for the reasons Freddie thought. Freddie believed he was weak, that the guilt was keeping him up at night, perhaps the fear of hell and damnation for his soul. But it wasn’t that. Tom had never been the religious type and viewed life and death in a pretty factual manner. You came, you went, your body was recycled through the earth and the world kept moving on.
Sure, the realisation of what Freddie was capable of and had done had been a shock. The sight of that rotting body had made him sick to his stomach. It had been gross and something he had never seen before. Who wouldn’t be sick and shocked? But that wasn’t what was keeping him up. He’d talked himself through what he’d seen and had placed it neatly in a box at the back of his mind.
What was keeping him up was the memory of how they’d all laughed at him. The look in Paul’s eyes when he’d regarded Tom. It filled him with embarrassment and anger, every time he thought back to that night. Perhaps if Freddie had told him what was going to happen, he could have prepared himself. The others had known, but he had been thrown in at the deep end. He’d been made to look like an idiot, when all he was trying to do was be taken seriously. That was something he wouldn’t forget.
‘I’m fine, Freddie. You don’t have to worry about anything. My lack of sleep has nothing to do with what you’re thinking,’ he said, looking Freddie in the eye. ‘It’s all good.’ Tom gave him a friendly grin to prove his words.
‘OK, if you’re sure,’ Freddie replied.