by Martina Cole
Inside, the kitchen was state of the art, the marble in the bathrooms alone had come to over two hundred grand. This was part of Leary’s pension, and now it was left clean but neglected by a woman whose idea of cooking was a burger, and who only used her en suite and nowhere else. It was a crying shame.
‘How much is it worth do you think?’
Alan shrugged. ‘Fortunes. You should see inside it, man. No expense was spared, the cunt went mad when he was designing it. He was caked up with money and at the time this was the place to spend it.’
‘You been in there lately?’
He nodded once more. ‘I provided the alarms, didn’t I, for Siddy? Leary thought he was so clever getting an outside firm from Ireland. But they just sub-contracted it to me as always. I’d already sewn that all up by then. Even now, security is one of the biggest money-spinners in Europe, and I have the monopoly. Too many English out here now, boys. If you’re going to be robbed, nine times out of ten it will be by your own.’
He grinned. ‘It was me who recommended the company to him in the first place. He was back in the smoke when the work was done, you see. I had a moody round there a little while ago; we’ll walk straight in, she ain’t changed nothing. It was when Tammy was knocking about with that fucking Squeak. Right little fucker he was and all. Right lairy. Thought he was the dog’s knob.’
The men laughed.
‘She’s a fucking girl ain’t she. I heard she wore him out.’
The big man’s grin widened. ‘Tammy would knacker anyone. King Dong would have to ask her for seconds out! You’ve had some, or so I heard.’
Billy laughed. ‘Everyone’s had some, and in fairness to her, knowing what we know now, who can blame her, eh?’
Alan pretended to wave a fan at his face to cool himself down. ‘You should have seen them in her hot tub. I was watching from the hill back there. Fuck me, if she filmed it she’d make a fortune for Hammer Horror. More Jaws than Deep Throat, old Tammy with them railings. But it was a bit too close to home, if you know what I mean.’
They all nodded soberly.
‘Never a truer word was said, my son.’
They stared again at Nick’s home in the sun.
‘He was one slippery fucker.’
’Ain’t we all.’
The man laughed once more.
Laurie and Tammy were sitting in the Coliseum Restaurant in La Cala de Mijas. It was Tammy’s favourite place and she loved it there. Only twenty minutes from the hub of Marbella, it was a popular place with residents and tourists alike. And she lived only around the corner. This was her stomping ground and she loved it.
When Nick had shown her the building plot for the villa all those years ago she had not been too sure. It was quiet, away from Marbella itself and, Tammy being Tammy, she had wanted a penthouse overlooking the sea. She had wanted to be where it was all going on. Nick had told her in no uncertain terms that this was it and, as she had always done, she had eventually acquiesced.
And he had been right, this was a jewel of a place and it had grown on her. And in fairness to her she adored it, going to Marbella when the fancy took her and retreating back here when she needed to.
Tammy had decided that she was going to make this man work for his supper. It had taken her a while but she had finally placed Laurie Metcalf. Nick had always said she had a memory like an elephant and she did. Even nowadays, when people had all their numbers in a phone, she could remember them easily. Kept them in her head. It was a knack she had; like her account numbers at the bank, they stuck in her head and no matter how much she drank or coked, she never forgot them. She was useless with names most of the time, but with faces and numbers her memory was superb.
It was Laurie’s smile that had given the game away in the end but she wasn’t going to let on. If he wanted to act like they had all been on the fringes of the same circle that suited her no end. The past was the past, but at least she had an idea what she was dealing with now and, as her dead husband had often said, knowledge is power.
She leant across the table and gave him her most dazzling grin. ‘So what exactly was you banged up for, Laurie?’
It was said in all innocence, but he was sure he detected a slight hint of sarcasm there all the same. ’Armed robbery. Why, what did you think I was away for?’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t know, drugs maybe, firearms.’
It was a fair observation and he knew it.
‘I robbed a post office in Durham, thought I was home and dry but we were rumbled. One of the blokes on the firm had already grassed us all up. So instead of just doing us for conspiracy, the filth let the raid take place and then captured us when we were distributing the money.’
She sighed at the skulduggery of the serious crime squad. ‘Bastards, ain’t they. All that talk about protecting the public yet they still allowed the job go down.’
He sighed. ‘They were lucky and all. One of the blokes was a right nutter. Came out of the pokey and shot up his local pub. Someone was shafting his old woman, by all accounts.’
‘Who was that then, you?’
Laurie laughed once more. ‘I ain’t really the violent type, Tammy, I am more of a lover than a fighter.’
Tammy was laughing too, her blue eyes held merriment but also a touch of fear. It made her look very sexy and very vulnerable. ‘Oh for fuck’s sake, are you sure, Laurie Metcalf?’
‘You’ll have to wait and see won’t you.’
They were grinning at each other. Tammy liked a bit of danger, and this man was dangerous to her and hers. She was sure of that much yet the knowledge just made him more appealing to her.
An older version of Tammy was walking towards them and Laurie’s smile became fixed, but his heart wasn’t really in it. Tammy saw he was like a rabbit caught in a proverbial headlights and her heart sank. She looked at the woman properly and stopped dead in the action of picking up her glass of wine but she recovered so well it was not noticeable to the naked eye.
The woman had deep-tanned skin, a killer smile and the face of a woman whose tan had been there much longer than the botox. She was obviously a resident, and also a woman who had seen better days. She stood in front of Laurie Metcalf her grin wider than it had been for years emphasising the laughter lines around her eyes.
‘Hello, Lol, long time no see.’ Her voice was like warm syrup, it said there was history between them and, knowing the woman standing there, the history was of the sexual kind.
Laurie grinned then, but the fear was in his eyes. ‘Hello, how are you doing these days?’ He knew it was inane, knew it sounded not only inadequate but also childish.
‘I was thinking about you only the other day,’ the woman said.
Laurie was recovering fast. ‘Well, to be honest I ain’t thought about you for years.’
It was a guarded insult and they all knew it.
Tammy watched them warily and then, pulling herself up in the chair, she said icily, ’Ain’t you talking to me then?’
The woman turned towards her and said gently with the utmost sarcasm. ‘I thought it was you, Tams, how are you, sweetheart?’
Tammy sighed and shook her head in desperation. ’All the better for seeing you, Mum, as always.’
‘Hello Billy boy, long time no see.’
Siddy Haulfryn was all smiles and as the men hugged, Colin Clarke nodded at Siddy’s girlfriend, Soraya.
Soraya was in her thirties and she was the proud owner of a sports bar, a double D cup size and huge dark eyes. She also had the brain of an accountant, which she hid with such cleverness, Siddy Haulfryn had not realised how much he had actually needed her until he had left her six months earlier for a newer model.
His life had fallen apart in weeks.
Soraya had taken him back with a smile and a contract. She knew that she was a lot of things, but stupid was not one of them.
In short, she was everything Colin Clarke liked in a woman. But being a man of few words he only nodded now as she offered
him a glass of red wine.
Soraya, for her sins, liked Colin Clarke on sight. After her run-in with Siddy she was looking for an alternative pay packet, and Colin was everything she liked in a man: he was quiet, big, bald and liked a good fuck. She knew in her heart of hearts she had sussed him big time.
She smiled at him and he smiled back. They held eye contact for a long moment and he was the first to look away; without a word being spoken the contract was signed, sealed and delivered.
Soraya, like many a woman before her, was amazed at how easy it was to take a man and manipulate him. Siddy had the shock of his life coming to him and she was looking forward to seeing his face when he realised what was going on. God paid back debts without money. She had seen suicide bombers with more empathy than she had, so as far as she was concerned Siddy should have realised that, after his last performance, she was going to tuck him up big stylie.
And Colin was going to be the man she left him for.
Billy and Siddy were oblivious to her machinations, they were just thrilled to be in each other’s company and it showed. They were mates, but now they had the added bonus of being in on a game that only they knew the rules to. Siddy, however, as Soraya could vouch for, was also guilty of making his rules up as he went along, something Billy was going to pull him over at some point in the next twenty-four hours.
They were a crowd of accidents waiting to happen, but for the moment they were like lottery winners in Liverpool, kissing and cuddling but watching each other like hawks. Everyone in the room knew that was not going to last any length of time. But while it did they made the most of it.
Chapter Two
’A penny for them.’
Tammy grinned, her front was back in place, larger than anything she had ever fronted out before. ‘Don’t you mean a euro, we are in Spain after all?’
‘Come on, Tammy.’ He glanced at his snide Rolex, unaware that Tammy had sussed it from the first glance. She knew what sweeped and what ticked. ‘We are literally hours into our new friendship, girl. So tell me what is on your mind.’ She was rattled and he knew it.
‘It was just really weird seeing my mum, fucking old bag she is.’ She was hurt but fronting it out, which just made him like her more. And he did like her. That was the funny thing about it all. He really liked her, and was feeling bad that he was trying to use her. He had also sussed out that she had recognised him, and now he was at the stage where he didn’t give a toss. He didn’t like seeing her so upset.
Laurie laughed. Tammy, in fairness, was recovering a lot quicker than he had expected. ‘You remembered me, didn’t you?’
They were easier together now, and they could both feel the difference in the atmosphere. Tammy relaxed back in her seat and attacked her food with relish; the steak was cooked to perfection and the lobster was divine. Surf and turf, Nick’s favourite, and hers now she was trying to avoid the coke. She gulped at her wine once more, her mother had rattled her more than she would admit. They had always avoided each other as much as possible.
She had never cared about Tammy and that had hurt. Even as a kid she had known her mother had no real time for her, had in fact felt her mother’s annoyance at having to take care of her daughter. She had never been tucked in, made a mug of hot chocolate or been cuddled to sleep. She had never had a pet name, she had never had anything that made her feel safe, really safe. It had followed her all her life, and she knew she had carried the behaviour on with her own children. How sad was she?
The tears were too near the surface. She had a reputation as a hard nut and she was determined to keep it. Her mother was nothing, she had got by without her, why let it bother her now?
So what if her mother had danced on Laurie’s hips? She had danced on everyone’s hips. At least Tammy knew that her old man had not been in the frame. Nick bless him, could not raise a smile for her, let alone anyone else. She had actually seen that as a redeeming feature. Where had her head been all those years?
Laurie was watching Tammy and trying to enjoy his food. He had a feeling he would be aimed out of the door later but until then he was having a nice time, why not see what occurred? He had given it his best shot, done everything possible to crack it. Now all he could do was wait and see what the upshot was going to be.
He had known Old Bev, as she was called in those days, when he had been between wives and jobs. She was older than him, but in her day she had been a looker. He had moved in with her when there had been nothing else going on in his life. Just out of gaol, he had needed a place to stay and she had provided it. A bit like her daughter was doing now. It had lasted for a while and they had parted amicably. Who would have thought all these years later she would turn up in the same restaurant where he was trying to romance her daughter? Her old man had been a case, a hard case, and yet years later he had bought Laurie a drink; it was a drink that said no hard feelings. Laurie had drunk that drink faster than an alcoholic in a Wetherspoon’s Pub. Life was a funny old thing, just when you thought it was safe to go in the water . . .
Tammy was staring at him, and being honest for once, not hiding behind her usual hard countenance. ‘I recognised you as soon as I saw you but I couldn’t place you at first. Then I remembered you and Jurassic tart had had a fling.’
‘Why didn’t you say anything?’
She shrugged and said honestly, ‘None of my business was it? You were both over the age of consent.’ She laughed nastily then. ‘Especially my mother, she was knocking forty-five even then.’
The sarcasm was evident and Laurie wanted to laugh, Tammy was actually really funny, she had comic timing and she left the proper beat between her sentences. He really liked her, and he knew that that was dangerous, he had a job to do and he had to do it. No matter what. But once more he reminded himself that he couldn’t make her like him, he could only give it his best shot.
She attacked her food again with gusto. The drink had got her now and she was past caring. ’Anyway, fuck it, it’s all in the past, ain’t it?’ She looked straight into his eyes making him feel worse than ever. So he just nodded, unsure now of the way the conversation was going.
Tammy was talking, her arms all over the place as she gave expression to what she was saying in her drunkenness. ‘My Dad you know, was a face’s face. Bare-knuckle boxer, a fighter. A drunk and all, I admit. But he was one hard old fucker, even my Nick was wary of him, but he was often away. Me mother would then take in what my dad referred to as scrag end, and you were one of her scrag ends.’ She was being nasty now and they both knew it.
Laurie looked suitably crushed as he said sadly but with irony, ‘Scrag end, eh? Well, Tammy Leary, I have been called some things in my time.’
Tammy knew that they were at an impasse, she could keep him with her or frighten him away. He was telling her he was ready to walk away. That it was her call. She didn’t want him to go, she didn’t know why exactly but she did not want him to leave her.
‘I bet you have, mate.’ She was enjoying him again. He was funny and funny was important to Tammy.
If a man could make you laugh they were halfway home. Men never realised that you could laugh most women into bed, so many men never realised that even if they weren’t exactly the biggest poker in the fireplace, at least you still had a good time. And Tammy loved a good time, loved it when she could forget her life for a few hours. ‘Funny thing was, my mum loved him, and he loved her.’
He knew what she was saying was true. ‘Like you and Nick you mean?’
The similarities were too close to home for Tammy and so she did what she always did when she didn’t like where the conversation was going. She backtracked, changed the subject, deflected the conversation away from her. Said what had been in her mind for a long while. ‘This is all about my Nick, ain’t it?’
Laurie smiled. ‘Now why would you think that?’
She grinned and said sadly, truthfully, ’All my life it’s been about Nick, so why should it be any different now?’ She stared into s
pace as she said seriously, ‘But I always looked out for meself, no one ever realised that fact. But they will soon, I can guarantee that much.’
Laurie, for all his years as a roustabout was suddenly sorry for the woman before him. Tammy was hurting, and it showed. Her mother had walked out of the restaurant without a backward glance, without asking about her daughter’s life or grandchildren. They were like acquaintances. And for someone like Tammy, that had to hurt. Her blue eyes were glittering with unshed tears, and the face that he had grown to like was older looking as if all the hurt was rising to the surface. She was lonely, so lonely, and no one knew about loneliness like he did. He was expert in loneliness, God knew he had had enough practise. ‘You really miss him, don’t you, Tammy?’
She actually thought about what he had said for a long moment before she answered him honestly, ‘ ’Course I do, he was my life for so long he became a habit, and habits, as you probably know, are hard to break.’
He looked into her eyes. She looked younger, the real Tammy was now sitting before him and she was shrewd and she was dangerous and she was like a little kid who needed a hug. Needed to be loved, wanted someone close who cared about them. Especially now, after her mother had broken into her life and walked carelessly away once more. She was the female version of himself, though he wouldn’t say that out loud of course. You hid your weaknesses in their world.