Maura's Game

by Martina Cole

  Her voice held a note of command. It was the one she had used years ago when her nine children were rampaging through the house and she had to make herself heard above the din.

  The young man stared at her, and suddenly his dark eyes didn’t look very friendly at all.

  Dr Jamie Snell shook his head in disbelief.

  ‘How the hell he survived is beyond me. We have had to put over forty stitches in his neck and he took a serious beating beforehand. It seems that when they hung him, they actually stopped the blood flow. Lucky really.’

  The Prison Officer shrugged.

  ‘Strong old boy, Vic.’

  ‘Well, he’s not out of the woods yet. He’s still unconscious and until we see how he goes through the night . . .’

  Dr Snell left the sentence unfinished.

  PO Boston grinned.

  ‘An easy night for me anyway. At least the bastard can’t wake up and give me any aggravation.’ He sat himself down by the bed in Intensive Care and opened up the Sun. He folded the paper at the crossword and licked his pencil earnestly.

  Dr Snell wrote his notes quickly, and after talking to the nurse in charge, left the ward.

  Vic Joliff had listened to everything through a haze of pain; he was much stronger than any of them thought.

  But Vic being Vic knew how to play the game.

  Benny and Abul dropped Coco off at the local hospital at 8.45. Benny was silent as Abul assured their victim that it was nothing personal. Just business. Coco was heartbroken at what had occurred and also knew he needed medical treatment as soon as possible.

  Before getting out of the car he said sadly, ‘I would never betray you, Benny, you must believe that.’

  He nodded, like a bored benevolent pontiff.

  ‘Just fuck off now, Coco. I heard you the fiftieth time.’

  As they drove off Abul glanced at him and they both started laughing.

  ‘Did you hear him squeal when I stuck the cattle prod in his ribs?’

  ‘They will guess what happened by the burns, Ben, but he won’t say a word.’

  Abul sounded very certain of this. Benny just shrugged.

  ‘Who gives a fuck if he does. Prick, he is.’

  Forty minutes later the car pulled up outside a block of purpose-built flats in Southend. Benny left the car and made his way up to the penthouse. The door was opened by a small-boned, dark-haired young woman of seventeen.

  ‘Hello, Benny.’

  Her voice told him how pleased she was to see him. He smiled at her, one of his blinding smiles that made people want to like him, want to please him.

  ‘Get your kit off, Carol, I have an appointment in an hour.’

  Carol tutted as she put her hands on her hips. Her cross expression made Benny laugh.

  ‘Mr fucking Romantic.’

  He laughed harder.

  ‘I told you, girl, you want Mr Romantic then give me back the key and go and find him.’

  He took her where she stood, up against the wall. He was rough with her, and she cried out in pain. He slapped her hard across the face and she held her breath, frightened to move or make a sound until he had finished. All the time it went on he spewed filth into her ear and she tried to block out what he was saying to her. He would be back tomorrow or later in the evening with money and sweet words to soothe her. That was the Benny she loved, not this maniac who turned up frequently and just used her.

  Fifteen minutes later he was back in the car with Abul on his way to Camden. Carol was sitting on the hall floor, sore and hurt and crying her little heart out. She could see the smears of blood on the wall beside her and it made her cry harder.

  She kept repeating one word like a mantra under her breath: ‘Bastard, bastard, bastard.’

  ‘Hello, Kenny.’

  Maura half-smiled at him and he was made aware of how powerful her presence actually was. He liked Maura, always had; she was one of the few women he actually respected. But then, she wasn’t really like other women. She had the same coldness in her that her brother Michael had had. That unpredictability that all successful people in their line of business shared. She was also still very good-looking even if she would never see forty again.

  ‘Maura.’

  His voice was clipped. He had no intention of showing his fear though he had an idea that Maura Ryan could probably smell it coming off him in waves. That was what they said about bitches and she could be a bitch when the fancy took her, he was more than aware of that fact.

  ‘Do you need anything to eat, Ken? A drink?’

  He shook his head once more.

  ‘What I want, Maura, is some kind of explanation. No more, no less.’

  She poured herself a drink, sat opposite him and looked him straight in the eye before saying innocently, ‘That was exactly what I was hoping for from you.’

  Kenny Smith was struck dumb and as Garry watched the changing expressions on his face he felt an urge to laugh.

  ‘You murdered my old woman!’

  It was Maura’s turn now to shake her head.

  ‘I don’t think so, Kenny. We’ve kept our head down and our arses up for a good few years now. We have no argument with anyone that we are aware of. But it seems someone out there is trying to cause us untold aggravation by making it look as though we’re on the rampage.’

  ‘I lost my fucking wife, the mother of my child!’

  Maura kept silent for a moment as if digesting the information. Finally she told him, ‘Kenny, I am sorry for your loss, but you forget that someone tried to nut me. Instead they killed my partner.’

  Kenny’s tirade started up again.

  ‘He was a filth, and he wasn’t even a friendly one. I’m sorry, Maura, but people didn’t trust you any more once he was part of the fixtures and fittings. Surely you must have guessed that much, love? Clever girl like you.’

  Garry stood up. Towering over the man in the chair, he bellowed, ‘Who the fuck do you think you are talking to, eh? My fucking family has made you plenty of wedge over the years and we have never once tucked up a single solitary person. We own judges and filth and have helped out many a fucking old lag in our day – so you keep your fucking opinions to yourself and stick only to what is relevant.’

  Maura pulled him away forcibly and Kenny realised again how close he was to death.

  ‘Let me and Benny have him, Maws. Give the cheery fucker to us,’ Garry insisted.

  The thought of Benny Ryan the Airfix King, as he was nicknamed, made Kenny feel even worse than he already did. A feat in itself. But he wasn’t beaten yet.

  ‘Don’t you fucking dare threaten me, Garry Ryan. I was in this game when you was still polishing your brother’s fucking shoes for him. You don’t scare me. I’ve dealt with them all, mate, from the old masters to the young punks, and you fucking remember that.’

  Kenny stood up, his anger so acute he could almost taste it.

  ‘Fucking Super Glue and threats of violence! Do you lot think you’re the first hard nuts ever to walk a fucking pavement? Shall I tell you something I learned many years ago, Garry? There is always someone harder out there, and they want what you’ve got and will do anything to get it. What goes round comes round, remember that. But nobody ever touched wives or family before. That has always been taboo . . .’

  ‘Until now, that is.’

  Maura’s voice was still level.

  ‘Just sit down, the pair of you, before I take me ball back and then you’ll have nothing to fight over. Listen to you, like a pair of fucking kids.’

  Both men sat down shamefaced and she continued in the same level tone.

  ‘Kenny, I swear on Michael’s grave I had nothing to do with Lana’s death and neither did anyone in this organisation, OK? Now I need to know why people suddenly think we’re out to cause hag. I want the name of your grass, whoever told you we were behind it, and I want them now, tonight, so we can go and have a friendly chat with them and get to the bottom of this once and for all.’

  Ke
nny still didn’t answer her.

  She motioned with her head for Garry to leave them and he did so reluctantly. Then, pouring two more brandies, she handed one to Kenny. As they sipped the drinks she felt the tension gradually leave the room.

  ‘I am truly sorry, Kenny.’ Maura’s voice was warmer now they were on their own.

  He hung his big shaven head so she couldn’t see his face past the livid white scar that neatly bisected one of his eyebrows.

  ‘She was all right, my Lana, whatever people thought. She was a good kid.’

  Maura could hear the grief in his voice.

  ‘Now the fucking baby . . .’

  He couldn’t finish the sentence.

  Maura grasped his hand and squeezed it.

  ‘I know what you are going through, Kenny, but you must believe we had nothing to do with it. Or with Joliff’s old woman either. There is skulduggery afoot, mate, and me and mine are in the firing line. I have to sort this out and I have to sort it out fast. You understand that, don’t you? I need your help, Kenny, more than ever before.’

  He nodded.

  ‘I believe you, Maura, you was always straight with me.’

  And he did. Something told him to trust her and he had always trusted his instincts. It was why he was still alive after all these years on the front line.

  Maura topped up his glass.

  ‘So, Kenny. Who gave you the information?’

  ‘Rebekka Kowolski – you’d know her by her maiden name. Goldbaum.’

  The name made Maura feel dizzy and sick. Took her back to a time in her life she would rather forget even as it haunted her dreams.

  ‘How would she know that?’

  ‘Her old man, of course. He’s a minor cog in a big wheel. Works for Joe the Jew, in a firm that runs out of Silvertown.’

  ‘I know Joe well. Why would he be involved with something like this? It’s too heavy for him, he would never take me on.’

  Kenny shrugged once more.

  ‘What am I, the fucking Oracle? Joe runs with the pack now. He has dealings with most of the crews around about. He can locate any kind of licence, from pubs to boxing matches. Done well for himself actually.’

  ‘How does Rebekka come into it?’

  He finished his drink and held out the glass for more before saying, ‘She’s the brains of the outfit from what I can gather, and she loves drugs – selling them anyway. She is astute, Maura, I know that much. Has a good business brain. Her husband is a fucking Muppet. She’ll hold a grudge against you and all, won’t she? If memory serves me correctly, you and Michael wasted her old man.’

  Maura refilled the glasses, her mind whirling. Once more she was back in the past, and not in any part of it she wanted to revisit.

  The door burst open and Garry walked in, his face red with temper.

  ‘Someone has clumped Mother.’

  Both Maura and Kenny stared at him in shock.

  ‘What?’

  Maura could not believe what she was hearing.

  ‘She’s in hospital, I just had a call from a filth on me mobile. She actually gave him my number, can you believe that!’

  ‘Fuck the mobile, Garry, is she OK?’

  He nodded.

  ‘More shaken than anything. I’ll get Roy to go and see her. Lee’s had a phone call from an old-timer – thought it was worth a punt so he’s gone for a meet. Now are we out tonight or what?’

  Maura nodded.

  ‘Wait till you find out where we’re going, Garry. Talk about a blast from the past.’

  Kenny watched them warily. As far as he was concerned whoever had decided to take them on must be mad. And if it wasn’t the Ryans, then who was behind the death of his wife? That was what he wanted to know more than anything. When he found that out, the Ryans wouldn’t be in it.

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ he offered.

  Maura glanced at him and said casually, ‘You were coming anyway, Kenny, but thanks for the offer. Until we’re sure you have told us the truth we’ll stick to you like shit to a blanket.’

  It was no more than he’d expected.

  Chapter Four

  Roy watched as his mother was bandaged up. She had a black eye and a sprained wrist. To see her sitting on a hospital bed in that state made him feel as if he was about to explode with rage. When she looked vulnerable, as she did now, he remembered all sorts of things from his childhood. How she’d fed them and clothed them with hardly any help from their father, a man who’d wanted his drink and his gamble far more than he’d wanted his family. When Benjamin Ryan Senior finally departed this life on the floor of a bookie’s in Kilburn five years back, Roy and his brothers had made no secret of their relief. Only Maura seemed to miss the old sod – and their mum, of course. He wanted to put his arm about her shoulders and comfort her now as she had comforted him while he was growing up.

  She looked so small, until she started one of her tirades and then as usual she made him close his eyes with unconcealed irritation.

  ‘Don’t you look at me like that! I blame you lot for this. Her, that hard-hearted whore of a sister of yours, I bet she’s behind it.’

  The nurse was trying not to laugh and suddenly Roy realised that his domineering mother was the archetypal figure of fun to most people. He only wished she was to him.

  A young policewoman pulled back the curtain to the casualty cubicle and raised her eyebrows. She was amazed at what was going on and it showed. The Ryans were notorious, and yet here was one of them being shouted at and abused by his own mother. It was said in the station that her boss was in the pay of this family. That they told him to do the things he did, including blocking the promotions of regular policemen and women and bringing through the ranks only the ones who would kow-tow to the Ryans. Her boss was the joke of the station. When he went on holiday one wag had set a rumour going that he was really in hospital, having his chair removed from his arse. He was notoriously lazy. The fact that the holiday in question had been three weeks in a five-star hotel in Florida had caused a few comments as well.

  ‘Mr Ryan, my superior is outside and would like a word with you.’

  Roy stood up. Towering over the three women, he growled, ‘About fucking time and all.’

  As he left the cubicle the girl smiled at Sarah.

  ‘Can you give me a description of the intruder, please?’

  Sarah’s wrinkled face took on the look of a contestant in a big-money game show.

  ‘He was neatly built, he was good-looking, and he was dressed as a priest.’

  The policewoman smirked.

  ‘A priest? That’s a new one.’

  ‘He’ll be a dead one when I finish with him.’

  Benny’s voice made the policewoman jump and he smiled at her coldly. She was young and pretty but Benny didn’t notice. All he registered was the uniform and she knew immediately that he saw her as the lowest of the low. For the first time in her life she felt seriously threatened and yet this good-looking young man had done nothing to her. She saw the expression on his face as he observed his battered grandmother and was very glad she would not be on the receiving end of his anger.

  Sarah tried to defuse the situation.

  ‘Oh, Benny, would you take me home, please?’

  She looked very old and very frail and the young policewoman listened in surprise as he answered her in an offhand way.

  ‘You’ll survive, Gran. Me dad’s getting you picked up.’

  He walked from the cubicle and Sarah’s face settled into its habitual frown.

  ‘Little fucker.’ The strength was back in her voice now and the policewoman quickly took the statement required and was glad to leave them all behind her.

  It was only back at the station that she fully realised who she had actually been dealing with. The higher echelons of the Ryans were now known to her personally and she was amazed. She was queen of the canteen and enjoyed every second of it. She was just glad she didn’t have to deal with them any more.

&nb
sp; Rebekka Kowolski’s house in Totteridge was a shock to Maura. It was huge with electronically controlled gates and the requisite guard Dobermans roaming the grounds.

  ‘Couple of mil here or what?’

  Garry sounded annoyed.

  ‘Good luck to them. As long as they tell me what I want to know, I don’t give a toss.’

  Maura was deliberately dismissive and this annoyed Garry, as she’d known it would. But all she could think about was Sammy Goldbaum’s face when she had come for him with Michael. It was the only actual murder she had ever taken part in and it still preyed on her mind. It was so long ago yet it felt as real to her now as it had then. The sickness was in her stomach again and she swallowed it down.

  They were now directly outside the property and Kenny was asking for entry on the intercom but no one was answering them. He turned back to the car.

  ‘No one home.’

  ‘We’ll see about that.’

  Garry opened the panel and tinkered with it. A minute later the electric gates opened. As they drove towards the house they watched with pleasure as the Dobermans made a hasty exit through the open gates.

  The house was even larger close up. From the winding driveway they could see the indoor swimming pool and sauna in a glass-sided extension. It really was some property. It was also lit up like Battersea power station yet there seemed to be no one about.

  Garry sighed.

  ‘Not Hide and Seek, surely? He’s supposed to be a bit of a face, ain’t he?’

  Kenny shrugged.

  ‘So are you, Garry, remember?’

  They finished the drive in silence. When they got to the front door they all climbed out of the car. It was eerie; the whole place had the feeling of echoing emptiness that large houses always have when unoccupied.

  ‘Break in, Garry,’ Maura ordered.

  He was already working on it. She saw that Kenny was nervous and smiled nastily.

  ‘Don’t worry, he’s an expert. No Old Bill will arrive. Garry could get into the Bank of England.’

  ‘Knowing him, he’s a frequent visitor.’

  Even Maura had to laugh at this quip and the atmosphere calmed down a little.