Maura's Game

by Martina Cole

  She felt the sting of tears once more. Benny had no time for her, and nor did any of the others. She had friends, but they weren’t real friends. They ran each other down and laughed at each other’s misfortunes while pretending they were so close they were like family. The big joke had always been how no one wanted to be the first to leave any gathering because they knew they would be in for a hammering as soon as their back was turned. These were the people she had spent a major part of her life with and she knew that she was wasting her time with them. If they heard what had happened with Maura they would drop her like a hot brick. After all, Maura Ryan was what had made them her friends in the first place. They loved hearing all about her and now, when she thought of some of the things she had said about her aunt to her so-called friends, Carla felt hot with shame.

  She had been bitchy and nasty and Maura really didn’t deserve that; she had done more for Carla than any of her friends would have. In fact, their mindset being what it was they would enjoy hearing about Carla’s fall from grace even while they outwardly sympathised with her.

  She needed to get back into the fold and not just because of her finances. She also needed a friendly shoulder to cry on and all through her life Maura had been the only person freely to offer her that. Opening the door she was surprised to see her brother standing there. Her face lit up with surprise and then she remembered what he had done.

  ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’

  Benny pushed through the door past her, knocking her flying as he went.

  ‘Nice greeting, Sis. Remind me to use it next time I see you, eh?’

  He was in the kitchen now and she followed him through it to the garden.

  ‘Make me a cuppa, there’s a good girl.’

  He shut the shed door in her face and she knew better than to go in there if she wasn’t welcome. She went back inside and made him some tea. Two minutes later he was storming back into the kitchen.

  ‘Who’s been in the shed?’

  Carla shrugged.

  ‘The place was cleared before you was busted. I mean, use your loaf, Benny, they came here and tore the place apart.’

  He nodded then as if it had just occurred to him what had happened. He forgot important things sometimes. He was staring into space and Carla watched him uneasily.

  ‘Who was that in the car?’ she asked, remembering the slumped figure in an unfamiliar BMW outside. ‘Looked like Dezzy to me.’ Her words penetrated the fog in his brain and he walked from the house without another word. She chased him out to the car.

  ‘Have you got any money, Ben?’

  He put a hand into his back pocket and took out a wad of notes he’d picked up at Abul’s, throwing them at her as he got in the car. By the time she had picked them up he was long gone. Carla strolled back into the house lighter of heart. At least she had a few quid now anyway.

  Joey waltzed down the stairs in her dressing gown and said gaily, ‘Oooh, money. How much did he give you?’

  She saw him then as her grandmother did, and saw herself as everyone else did: a covetous, greedy and unlikeable ponce. It was a startling moment.

  ‘Fuck off, Joey.’

  He grinned.

  ‘Get out the wrong side of your bed this morning? Sorry, I forgot, you don’t have a bed of your own, do you?’

  He smiled at the hurt expression on her face. He wasn’t smiling, however, when her fist connected with his cheekbone.

  He stamped up the stairs crying and she shouted after him, ‘And get my bleeding dressing gown off and all!’

  Somehow, clumping him had made her feel much better. She went into the kitchen and counted the money Benny had given her. Only then did it occur to her that maybe she should let someone know her brother was on the rampage.

  Jack was a bloody mess on the floor. The Dooleys were seriously impressed. He had been burned and tortured over and over again. Now he was delirious with pain and he still wouldn’t tell them a thing.

  Tony lit himself yet another Benson & Hedges. He phoned Maura on her mobile and explained the situation. She listened grimly to his description of Jack’s condition. Feeling sick at the thought of what he had gone through, she asked, ‘What are you going to do now?’

  Tony smiled.

  ‘Keep at it, Maws. I have an injection of adrenaline and I’m going to administer it in a minute. Hopefully that should keep him alive for a while longer, but I’ll be honest, I don’t think he’ll crack. I never thought I’d say this but he is one strong old fucker, Maws.’

  ‘So it would seem. Keep me informed.’

  ‘What’s happening with Benny?’

  She laughed but there was no humour in it.

  ‘You tell me, Tone. We can’t seem to locate him.’

  ‘You need this, girl, eh?’

  ‘Like a hole in the fucking head. Keep me posted, OK?’

  ‘Will do. But he won’t go long.’

  Tony turned the phone off and listened with half an ear to Shaggy singing ‘Oh, Carolina’, tapping his foot to the beat. Jack really looked a mess. His face was nearly gone and most of his bones were broken. He was awake again and mumbling, but incoherently. Tony watched his sons as they drank their McDonald’s coffees and smoked a joint. He was so proud of them. They were good boys. Decent and hardworking, they made sure their women and kids wanted for nothing. They were a family to be looked up to as far as he was concerned. He wondered what would happen with Benny Ryan and voiced his thoughts to his sons.

  They discussed the legal ramifications as they finished the coffees and the joint. By then Jack was all but dead. They hosed him down again and administered the injection to his heart.

  Jack was awake but he was barely lucid. His eyes were burned clean out of his head. Tony poured petrol all over him and the fumes seemed to penetrate the man’s senses. He was making a terrible noise and even Tony’s sons looked askance at one another.

  ‘If you can understand me, Jack, you’d better tell me what I want to hear and I’ll see you go quick, man. I promise.’

  Tony was shouting in Jack’s ear now or what was left of it.

  ‘He’s talking . . . shut the fuck up! He’s trying to talk to me.’

  Tony leant forward and listened intently. He heard Jack say clearly, ‘Fuck you!’

  Tony jumped up. Flipping open his silver Zippo, a present from his dead son, he dropped it on to the wreck of a man at his feet. Jack went up like a bonfire and Tony and his sons watched him writhe about the floor in agony.

  ‘What a fucking waste of time, Dad.’

  Tony shrugged and watched the burning body.

  ‘Not entirely. We’ve paid him out for Tony and that’s the important thing, but he was strong and he was determined and as much as I hated him I have to give him respect for that. Not many men could have taken what we gave him and not cracked.’

  They all nodded at the wisdom of their father’s words.

  Tony yawned.

  ‘Dump him on the rubbish tip, but bag him up first. I’m going home to get some kip.’

  With that he left the lock-up and went home to his grieving wife. He phoned Maura on the way and told her the score. He had not enjoyed that one bit. He was getting too old for all this gangsta rubbish. Time was he would have enjoyed meting out punishment, but those days had passed and it was definitely time to hand over the reins to his boys. Today had proved that to him.

  He threw up twice before he reached his house and had to stop the car in a lay-by to empty his guts, but he knew the smell of burning flesh would haunt him for days to come.

  Kenny and Vic were drinking coffee in Jack’s state-of-the-art kitchen.

  ‘Wonder who’ll get this little lot, eh?’

  Vic snorted another line as soon as he had spoken.

  ‘You know something, Vic, you want to lay off that gear. It’s doing your head in, and mine come to that,’ Kenny told him.

  Vic laughed.

  ‘I bet you’re into Maura Ryan’s drawers by now, Kenny me ol
d son. Any good, is she?’

  He laughed at Kenny’s glowering countenance.

  ‘Only a joke, but you used to have the hots for her years ago. I just wondered if now that golden boy has queered his pitch you might be limbering up to take his place, so to speak?’

  He pulled a lewd face as he spoke and despite everything Kenny wanted to laugh. Vic was just being Vic.

  ‘How did all this happen? My Sandra, your little Lana. What cunt caused so much mayhem, eh?’

  Kenny didn’t answer.

  ‘Shall I tell you what it was all about, Ken? So you can run back and tell the Ryans and get me the coke back, not to mention my brother?’

  Kenny nodded, hardly daring to breathe.

  Vic grinned, his nasty grin, the one that frightened everyone, even his old mum.

  ‘As if! You tell your Maura that I will deal with her and her alone, right?’

  Kenny shook his head.

  ‘The Ryans won’t swallow that . . .’

  Vic interrupted him.

  ‘Fuck off, Kenny! And fuck them all, for that matter. If they want to know then that’s what they have to do. I’ll give them the time and place at some point in the next twenty-four hours, OK?’

  There was not a lot more to say after that. Vic was already snorting another line and Kenny knew he would not listen to a word that was said to him while he was busy with that.

  ‘They took me brother . . . I can swallow me knob over that one, it’s business. But you’d better warn them all that if they harm one hair on his ugly bastard head then I will really be out for revenge. But you tell them it’s the coke I’m after now, or more to the point Jack’s coke. Me and him was in partnership and it’s a mean few quid there.’

  Kenny nodded.

  ‘They understand that. Be fair, they ain’t tucked no one up, have they?’

  ‘Not yet, no. Though Tommy would tell you a different story, I suspect.’

  ‘Where is Tommy?’

  Vic tapped his nose, and winked.

  ‘Keep that out. You’ll hear soon enough. I might even push Benny Ryan out of the headlines.’

  Kenny had that sinking feeling again.

  Radon ‘Coco’ Chatmore was surprised and not a little intimidated to see Benny on his doorstep. The fright was exacerbated by the fact that Benny was holding up Dezzy Haseem by his turban, a very badly beaten and obviously unconscious Dezzy Haseem. Benny threw the boy on top of Radon who dropped to the floor under the dead weight of his friend and business partner.

  ‘Hello, cunt. Tucked up any more of your mates lately?’

  Radon was trying to pull himself up off the floor when Benny caught him with a heavy kick to the stomach.

  ‘Me and you need to have a little chat, Coco, and guess what?’ He grinned. ‘I ain’t got any Super Glue.’

  Benny saw the man’s relief and taking something out of his coat, said happily: ‘But look what I found in Casha’s car.’

  He was holding up an industrial stapler.

  ‘The only question now is whether I should staple your eyes open or shut. What do you think?’

  He was seriously asking for Radon’s opinion as if the answer was the most important thing in the world to him. Dezzy was groaning. It was only then that Radon noticed his eyelids had been stapled open and the eyeballs themselves had dried out and were looking horribly sore.

  ‘What are you doing, Benny? We’re your friends, yeah?’

  Benny grinned once more, his handsome face positively beaming with camaraderie mixed in with a lethal dose of psychotic malice.

  ‘Not any more, Radon. Not any more, you two-faced wanker. You are filth to me, you are the shit on my shoes, and you are going to die in extreme pain with your last sight being me stapling your fucking eyes shut!’

  He was laughing again.

  Radon saw Dezzy stirring once more. He was moaning and Benny quickly bent down and put a staple into his forehead.

  ‘Handy tool this, eh? Can’t wait to get started, can you?’

  Benny forced Radon to drag Dezzy through to the lounge. When he saw Radon’s girlfriend of the moment, Shamilla, sitting there, he said happily, ‘Hello there, Sham, and how are you, love?’

  She stared at Radon as he dragged the beaten and stapled Dezzy into the room and then she said, ‘I was just going, actually.’

  Benny tutted.

  ‘Oh, were you? Got an appointment then?’

  She nodded, relief written all over her face.

  He leant forward and bellowed into her face, ‘You’re going nowhere, slag. Now make me a sandwich and a pot of tea. Strong and sweet, just how I like it.’

  Shamilla burst into tears and he dragged her through to the kitchen by her little T-shirt with ‘Hard Bird’ emblazoned across the breasts. He smiled at her once more.

  ‘There now, don’t make me a crosspatch, Sham, you’ll only regret it. Make the tea and don’t even attempt to aggravate me because then I will kick you all over the fucking place, OK?’

  She nodded.

  ‘Good girl. You know it makes sense.’

  She could hear him whistling as he tied Radon to a chair and made the tea as fast as she could. There was trouble brewing and she wanted no part of it. Absolutely no part of it at all. But she had a feeling she was stuck here for the duration. She opened the fridge and started to make the sandwiches Benny had asked for. If he wanted her to dance naked round the room she would do it, and anyway, she told herself, it wouldn’t be the first time she had been required to do something like that.

  She walked into the lounge with the tea just in time to see Radon get his left eye stapled shut. His scream of pain and fear made her drop the cup of tea on the floor, scalding her legs in the process. Luckily this made Benny laugh. Taking the kettle of boiling water from the kitchen, he threw the contents into Radon’s face.

  As she heard his screams and saw him trying to break his bonds Shamilla felt faint. Benny was mad, everyone knew that, but seeing him at work still came as a horrible shock.

  Radon had told her stories about Benny and she had listened, laughed, and been impressed at her boyfriend’s association with a well-known headfuck. Seeing him in action, though, it didn’t seem so funny or clever any more. Especially as she knew he would turn this violence on her without a second’s thought to gain whatever it was he wanted.

  All she wanted was to be back in her mum’s house, sitting in the front room watching Emmerdale. She hurried out to make him more tea. She couldn’t look at her boiled boyfriend one second longer.

  Benny stapled Radon’s other eye roughly and found it was surprisingly easy to ignore the man’s begging and pleading. He finished his work and pulled up a leather footstool. He sat on it and said seriously, ‘Now then, tell me all about Abul and you and Vic fucking dead man Joliff.’

  Radon’s grotesque head and shoulders were shaking with shock. The tremors soon overtook his entire body and Benny sipped his tea and ate his sandwiches while he observed his old friend’s dilemma. At length he called Shamilla in and complimented her on the food.

  ‘Lovely grub, Shamilla, but your mum and dad are in catering, ain’t they? Still got that nice little café in Islington, have they?’

  She nodded, her eyes on poor Radon. This was what Benny loved, this complete power over another human being. He loved to create such fear, an emotion that was so acute it was almost tangible in the room. He could practically touch it in this girl’s eyes.

  ‘Seen much of Abul lately?’ he queried.

  She shook her head.

  ‘He rang, though, last night. Said he was delivering a parcel to Vic at Jack’s old barn. I don’t know what that meant, I only passed the message on.’

  She was racking her brains for more information and Benny was smiling at her as he watched her desperately trying to tell him what he wanted to hear.

  ‘Where does Radon keep his guns, love?’

  ‘In the bedroom, in the back of the wardrobe. He has a false panel at the bottom . . .’
>
  ‘Shut up, you stupid fucking bitch!’

  Radon’s voice was high-pitched with pain. Benny slapped him hard, the boiled skin coming away on his hand. Shamilla felt sick at the sight of Benny wiping it off on Radon’s wet shirt.

  ‘Let’s go up to the bedroom, Shamilla.’

  She followed him eagerly. If he wanted a fuck she would give him the best ride of his life. Anything Benny Ryan wanted she was going to give him. This was about saving her own life now, and she was determined to do just that. She had things to do and people to see, and just because she’d been stupid enough to get involved with Coco Chatmore it did not have to mean her life was over.

  At least she hoped that was true anyway.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  ‘He will give you a time and a place. You know Vic, he has to keep everyone on their toes. Be the big fucking I Am.’

  Kenny had gone straight round to brief Maura after leaving Vic. She was looking tired and drawn.

  ‘Vic is the least of my problems at the moment, to be honest. Benny has left a trail of destruction all over the smoke as usual and we can’t find the bastard anywhere.’

  Kenny was not really interested. Benny was Benny as far as he was concerned. A headcase, the local nut-nut.

  ‘Vic wants a meet, Maws. He was holding out for you on your own but I told him that was a non-starter. He’s agreed I can be present and says he’ll tell you everything you want to know then.’

  She nodded, resigned to the prospect.

  ‘In exchange for his brother and the coke, I suppose?’

  Ken looked her in the eye as he said, ‘His brother is part of it, yeah, but the coke’s probably more important. He understands why his brother was taken, though. As long as Justin is being treated OK he will swallow his knob over it. I get the impression his brother is not up on what Vic does so I’m assuming you lot have got fuck all from him?’