Broken

by Martina Cole

  Natasha was at breaking point.

  She would talk.

  David Reilly had taken Jenny’s advice and got himself the brief she had recommended. Her name was Karen Lawson, a pretty woman in her thirties.

  She was well aware that her client was something of a hero in the police station and this pleased her. At least she could communicate freely with CID now and wouldn’t have to hide behind legal jargon and other tricks to get her client a good deal. In fact, they were already talking about bail on his own recognisance.

  David Reilly was charged with attempted murder under extreme provocation. As he gave his statement, his voice was lucid and quiet. He had expended all his energy on the attack.

  Kate and Jenny listened to him explain how he had tripped his father up.

  ‘I had him lovely. He came in, he had had a few beers like. So he was well oiled - talkative. I asked him if he had seen Tash, and he laughed. Then I made a few jokes about her. I dropped her kids’ names into the conversation, saying how I had seen her with them. And he starts telling me all about them.’

  He lowered his head and took a deep breath. ‘He forgot himself, see. Knew their names off pat. Told me how the youngest one had a real mind of her own.’

  He wiped his hand across his face aggressively. ‘I mean he knew them. And I said to him straight: “Are you a fucking beast?” But I knew the answer to that all right, and so did he. Tash had let the cat out of the bag and I told him and all. Dirty fucking bastards.’

  He licked his lips and stared at the two women in abject disbelief.

  ‘Can you imagine asking the man you loved all your life a question like that? I mean, to even have to ask it is unbelievable.’

  ‘What did he say?’ Kate’s voice was low.

  He looked straight into her eyes. ‘He didn’t answer me. He couldn’t. That’s when I lost it.’

  They were all quiet now as he pulled himself together.

  ‘I am glad me mum’s dead. This would have killed her faster than the cancer, I can tell you.’

  Kate looked at the man before her. A nice man, a kind man. A man who worked and had always been a productive member of society. Law-abiding, he had his own set of morals. Now he had tried to kill his own father and Kate knew he had done wrong. But somehow, she saw it from his point of view.

  He had suffered the ultimate betrayal.

  He had to live with what he had done; that in itself was going to be punishment enough. At least he could console himself with one fact. He had taken a predatory child-abuser off the streets.

  She knew she was thinking like Patrick Kelly, but cases like this made everyone want retribution. Real retribution.

  Kate lit a cigarette and placed it in his shaking hand. He nodded his thanks and took a deep drag.

  ‘I should have finished him. But I didn’t have the courage.’

  She knew Patrick would have applauded him, and somewhere inside herself she did too.

  ‘Another thing - he has a mate in the police force. Barker. Used to be here years ago. Don’t let him use his contacts to get him an easy ride, OK?’

  Kate and Jenny stared at the man in front of them. He was like manna from heaven.

  ‘Were they good friends?’

  ‘Pretty much so. Still sees him now and again. His numbers and that are in his address book in the kitchen at the house.’

  ‘Do you know him?’

  He shrugged and answered Jenny’s question with a question of his own. ‘Do you think he might be involved?’

  ‘What makes you ask that?’

  ‘I often wondered what they had in common, to be honest. Barker always liked the girls - the old man used to joke about it. But now I think it was the kids he liked more than the mothers.’ His voice was bitter. ‘A bit like me father, eh?’

  ‘What do you know about Kevin and Jeremy Blankley?’

  He sighed. ‘Not a lot really. Kevin drank with the old man. I never really knew the brother. All fucking nonces though, I suspect. I think the whole crowd of them was in on it. When Kevin was done by Parkes I half guessed there was more to it all than met the eye. But you don’t want to think things, do you? Not about your own anyway. Plus me old man went on about it for ages. Cunting Blankley and calling him names.’

  ‘Was Blankley friends with Barker?’

  ‘I really don’t know. I wish I did. You’ll have to ask Barker, won’t you?’ There was a challenge in his voice now and Kate knew what he was thinking. If Barker was Filth he would walk away. That is what was usually assumed by everyone, especially the general public.

  ‘Can I get you a drink?’

  He nodded. ‘A coffee would be great, and can I have some more cigarettes?’

  Kate walked from the room. She had a lot to think about and she wanted to set everything straight in her own head before she questioned the man further.

  If Barker was involved then this was going to blow up in their faces at some point and she wanted to make sure it was tighter than a duck’s proverbial before she set down one word.

  She also wanted to bring it to the attention of Ratchette in such a way that he could not dismiss it without giving her a damn good reason. At last they were getting the breaks and she only hoped that this luck stayed with them, for she had a feeling they were going to need it.

  Whoever was behind it all was obviously well protected. It seemed everyone was terrified to name the ringleader.

  Evelyn and Grace sat together in silence. Violet was still in the hospital chapel, praying for her dear brother.

  The two elderly women seemed to have decided on a truce, both realising this was no time for unseemly argument. Plus, each could clearly see the worry in the other’s face.

  Grace had her hair set immaculately, and was dressed smartly as always, though in a style that was much too young for her age: a bottle-green suit which made her look like a parody of an old-style secretary. Whereas Evelyn was wearing a navy-blue dress and her regulation fur-lined boots even though the weather had been marvellous.

  A nurse walked towards them and they both looked at her with the apprehension hospitals always seem to induce. Fear of finding out what the score was could often be worse than the actual news itself.

  The young woman clattered past them without giving them a second glance and Grace’s lips thinned in anger.

  ‘Might as well be fucking invisible in this place for all the notice they take of you.’

  Evelyn nodded her head in agreement. ‘Sure, once your face is lined you’re finished. I can remember turning a few heads when I was a girl, as I’m sure you did. I understand you worked for years, Grace. What did you do?’

  The other woman looked at her suspiciously to make sure she wasn’t taking the piss.

  ‘Didn’t your darling girl Kate tell you about the family business then?’

  Evelyn looked genuinely nonplussed and realised she had inadvertently opened up an old wound.

  ‘I was on the game for years,’ Grace said defiantly. ‘It’s well known, Evelyn, and I ain’t ashamed of it. Me mother was ill a lot of the time after me old man went on the trot and I just sort of drifted into it, really.’

  Evelyn tried her hardest not to look shocked.

  ‘I was a good-looking girl, then a good-looking woman, then I was used up and dried out. It happens. I never married or anything, just wanted to be on me jacksy like. I don’t really like men very much but I don’t think that was just because of my profession. Our generation had it hard really, what with the war and that. I had me moments then, too. I had a baby while I was unmarried and it died. But it soiled me reputation.’

  She laughed bitterly.

  ‘One girl in our street gave birth when she hadn’t seen her old man for three years but she was married and that seemed to make it all right. At least these days women have a bit of a choice even if the silly bitches still marry a geek and produce one after the other till he gets sick of the sight of them all.’

  The bitterness in her voice m
ade Evelyn feel for the woman beside her. She saw Grace picking nervously at her skirt and wondered what made people take the paths they did. Even at an advanced age Eve could see the traces of her former beauty in Grace. Her fine bone structure was still evident and she had the look of a woman with money, even class, if she didn’t open that cockney gob of hers.

  She understood why Grace had decided to unburden herself today. She had assumed that Evelyn had known. That Kate would have gossiped about it. Most people would not have been able to resist it. After all, it was sensational and shocking. At least it was to Evelyn. But Kate, God love her, had never said a word and Evelyn, far from being miffed, admired her daughter’s loyalty.

  ‘We all did things we regretted. The shame of it is when you get to our age you realise it doesn’t matter a fuck. Sure, I regret more the things I never did, the opportunities I never took, more than I regret things I have already forgotten about.’

  They were quiet together. Calm descended as they both thought back over the years and were reminded of things now far in the past.

  ‘Still, I had some laughs,’ Grace sighed contentedly.

  Evelyn patted her hand. ‘So did I, but I was lucky. I only ever had the one man and he was lovely. I had the two kids and devoted myself to them all. Some people would think that a wasted life. Especially today, women think you have to be rustling up dinner dressed like a fecking lingerie model, have a baby on the hip and sex all hours of the day and night while holding down a full-time job! Meself, I’d rather have it the old way. It suited me.’

  Grace laughed with her.

  A man walked towards them then in his operating greens. But they were clean and he looked relaxed. They both stared up at him expectantly. He smiled professionally and Evelyn listened to him talk even though the words were not penetrating properly. All she took on board was the fact that it was over. At last it was over.

  When Grace began to cry she automatically put an arm around her shoulders, drawing her close.

  ‘Whist now. Get it out of you, girl. It will do you the world of good.’

  Grace cried harder. Her eyes were torrents of water and even her nose was running. Evelyn looked up at the doctor, who didn’t seem embarrassed by this display of emotion. He was more than likely immune to it all by now.

  ‘Did everything go well?’ she asked.

  He shrugged. ‘The next twenty-four hours are critical. We will know more tomorrow.’

  Eve nodded. She could tell from his tone that he did not hold out too much hope. She patted Grace’s hand and kept her peace. Evelyn was a great believer in worrying when it was necessary and not before.

  She was still gripping Grace’s hand when Violet came up from the chapel.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Natasha Linten was still crying, only now it was a silly whine that was as forced as it was irritating. ‘Oh, shut up!’ Jenny’s voice had an angry edge to it that Kate was beginning to recognise.

  The girl did shut up momentarily. Then: ‘I didn’t know what they was doing, I only borrowed them out like . . .’ And she started to cry again.

  Kate sighed. ‘Listen, Natasha, we might be able to help you, but you have to tell us who you borrowed your children to, OK?’

  The sarcasm was not lost on the girl, who had the grace to look ashamed. Then she shook her head, her ridiculous poodle hair-do bobbing up and down.

  ‘No fucking way. I ain’t saying a dicky bird. You don’t realise who you’re dealing with, mate.’

  Kate and Jenny were silent for long moments.

  ‘Well, why don’t you tell us?’ Jenny said finally.

  Natasha leaned back in her chair as if it had just occurred to her that she held all the cards. She had once heard someone say that knowledge was power, and she suddenly saw what they’d meant.

  ‘As much as I would like to help you, ladies . . .’ she laid great stress on the word ‘ladies’, eyes boring into Jenny’s, ‘I don’t really know meself. Only that they’re well connected and you don’t mess with them if you can help it.’

  She smiled again, tears forgotten as she looked at them with an almost animal cunning.

  ‘This bird used to knock at me door, slip me a ton and take the kids for a walk, see. I thought they was just taking photos, nothing more or less. Proper modelling like.’

  ‘Where did you meet this bird?’

  Natasha shrugged. ‘I can’t remember. I think she just knocked on the door one day, said she wanted some nice-looking little kids and my eldest is a right little looker. Put make-up on her and she looks like a grown-up . . .’

  She realised she had made a stupid slip and shut up.

  ‘Did you put the make-up on her or was it the bird who just happened to knock at your door one day and ask to borrow your kids?’

  Kate thumped on the table and hissed, ‘Don’t fuck me about, Tash, I ain’t in the fucking mood. Now you’d better open that trap of yours quick. We know all about Billy, see. David smashed his father’s face in and he’s coming after you next. Almost killed his dad. You should have seen what he did to him - nearly flayed him alive. Now David, who found out about his father over you mouthing off in a pub, was following you. We know what you were up to, lady, and you’d better think long and hard before you lie to us. Mess us around and we’ll put you away for the fucking duration, if not longer. Do you get my drift, you piece of shit?’

  Kate could feel her anger spinning out of control. Every time she thought of what Natasha and her cronies were capable of, she felt it burn inside her guts like a smouldering fire. Seeing this girl with her dirty nails, her face plastered in make-up and with that idiotic hair scraped up on her head in a brightly coloured band, she felt an urge to slam her fist right into the centre of her ignorant face.

  She wanted Natasha to feel fear and pain, to know what it was like for her children when she gave them to someone to use at their whim.

  She wanted to impress on her the enormity of what she had done in the eyes of other people. Those who didn’t live in a twilight world of drugs, drinking, fucking and using others for their own ends, even their children. Their most precious possessions.

  She wanted a reaction, but she knew she would never get one. The Natashas of this world live by a different code.

  As the girl pulled open her packet of Benson’s, Kate’s hand flew out and knocked the cigarettes from her fingers with such force they hit the wall with a loud crunch. Natasha sat back as far as she could in her seat, fear on her face as she realised that the woman before her was poised to strike again.

  She knew about police brutality; it was a fact of life where she came from. Something to be discussed when talking about their nickings and their prison terms. Natasha had thought she was immune, and was suddenly conscious of the fact that she wasn’t. She looked absolutely terrified.

  ‘Don’t wind me up, girl. I am on a short fuse and every time you open that ignorant mouth of yours the fuse gets shorter. Do not even attempt to take the piss out of me, lady, or I will rip your head off and ram it right up your jacksy!’

  Natasha was really crying now and neither Kate nor Jenny felt any sympathy for her.

  ‘I want a brief,’ she whimpered.

  ‘Well, you’ll know what it’s like to want then, won’t you?’ Kate said cruelly.

  Natasha cried harder.

  Willy stared around him in surprise.

  Jacky and Joey were lying trussed up on the floor. After another two days of being tied up himself he had just been given a few sandwiches, a Thermos flask of tea laced with whisky and they had removed the ropes that had bound him.

  As he sat waiting patiently for the numbness in his hands to subside, and the painful and tormenting pins and needles to arrive, he studied the two men who were gazing fearfully up at him from the floor.

  Jacky was near to tears and Willy sneered at him. He was trying to rub his hands together to bring the circulation back as fast as possible. As he did so he spoke to the two men in a low sing-song voice.


  ‘I’m going to enjoy meself, lads, and it will be at your expense.’

  He was talking like a man who knows he is fully in control.

  ‘I can smell me sandwiches, lads. Beef and tomato, cheese and cucumber. Know how to look after you, the Ruskies, eh? But then, you two treacherous bastards would already know about that, wouldn’t you? Having tucked up everyone while you worked for them yourselves.’

  He kicked out with one bare foot at Jacky’s head, the blow landing hard and giving Willy total satisfaction.

  ‘Where’s all your mates now, then? Ain’t got so much trap when you’re on your Jack Jones, have you?’ He was winding himself up now, aware that the Russians were either watching it all or listening in somehow. He knew he was being used by them and was glad of the fact.

  ‘Enjoy tucking me and Pat up, did you? I bet you and Tommy Broughton pissed yourselves laughing at us, eh? Well, there’s an old saying: God pays back debts without money. And look at what’s happened here. You two have dropped into my lap like manna from fucking heaven and once my hands have a bit of feeling in them, I am going to take the pair of you apart.’

  He laughed again and Jacky and Joey closed their eyes in despair.

  Willy Gabney was a nutter of the first order. He was also Patrick Kelly’s oldest friend.

  They were dead men and they knew it.

  ‘So come on, Tash, cut the waterworks and tell us the truth.’

  Kate and Jenny had let her cry for a while, both sitting absolutely still, their eyes trained on her. It was a good act she put on, but an act all the same.

  Eventually she picked up her cigarettes from the floor and amid much sniffing and coughing she lit one. Drawing the smoke deep into her lungs, she muttered, ‘You bastards, you’ve always had it in for me.’

  Kate rolled her eyes at the ceiling. ‘Oh, change the bloody record for Christ’s sake. No one has it in for you. The reason you are here, Tash, is because you allowed your kids to be used for degrading and immoral purposes. You were the cause of David nearly killing his father; you have made us have to arrest a man who unlike you is a decent and productive member of society. Thanks to you and Kerry Alston, we are having to put beautiful children into care and arrest their so-called mothers. So if that is having it in for you then yes, perhaps you were right. But I will get to the bottom of this, Tash. If I have to keep you here all night then I will.’