Victory for the East End Angels

by Rosie Hendry

  ‘I’ll go.’ Rose got up from the table and, as she went out into the hall, Sergeant Jeffries nodded at his constables who positioned themselves either side of the kitchen door, out of sight of the front door but where they could listen.

  Frankie couldn’t hear what was being said but when Rose returned to the kitchen a few moments later, she looked worried.

  ‘It’s a man, he says he’s a friend of Micky Chandler and has come to collect some things Micky left here,’ Rose said.

  Frankie glanced at Sergeant Jeffries who beckoned his constables over and spoke to them in a low voice. ‘Go out the back door, one wait there, the other go round the back alleyway and round to the front door and both be ready.’ They quickly went off. Turning to Rose he said, ‘Tell him to come in, the rest of you act normally, I’ll be in the scullery.’

  With surprising speed for a man of his height and build, Sergeant Jeffries hurried into the scullery which led off from the kitchen, where he could listen to what was going on but not be seen.

  ‘Who are you and what do you want?’ Frankie asked when Rose led the man into the kitchen. He had the same look as Micky had had, smart suit, shiny slicked-back hair, and a sense of cockiness about him. He wasn’t a bit put out by them all staring at him.

  ‘All you need to know, darlin’, is I’m a friend of Micky’s, you could say ‘is business partner, and I’ve come to get the stuff he left ’ere since he can’t any more.’ He smiled, the thin moustache on his top lip wrinkling like a furry caterpillar, while his crooked, nicotine-stained teeth looked more like a snarl than a smile. ‘He was sadly killed this morning in a V2 attack.’

  ‘I know, I saw his body there,’ she said. ‘And Ivy’s.’

  The man looked surprised for a moment, but quickly recovered himself. ‘Like I said, I’ve come to get ’is stuff; he won’t be needing it any more and as we’re business partners it now belongs to me.’

  Frankie frowned. ‘Well there ain’t nothing here for you to get.’

  ‘Well that’s where you’re wrong, cos I ’elped bring it in myself. Ivy has been ’elping us out, kept it in her room, so I just need to go upstairs and get it and then I’ll be on my way.’

  She folded her arms, her stomach twisting at the thought of what Ivy had been up to. It looked like the woman had stooped to even lower depths than Frankie had thought. Buying a bit of black-market butter was one thing, but to be involved with harbouring such goods was a far greater crime. ‘And just what sort of things are you talkin’ about?’

  ‘Nothing for you to worry about, darlin’. Ivy was ’appy to keep them here for us, that’s all you need to know. Now she’s gone, I’ve come to take it away. Me van’s outside ready.’

  Frankie sensed Winnie bristling beside her and reached out and put her hand on her friend’s arm. She didn’t want her bursting out with something to try and stop him, she knew enough about policing that it would be best for Micky’s business partner to be caught red-handed with whatever Ivy had been keeping upstairs, especially as she’d been implicated in the whole nasty business and needed to prove her innocence.

  ‘All right then, you go up and get it, we need to finish our sandwiches.’ She picked up her Spam sandwich and took a bite, nodding for the others to follow suit, which they did, although they all looked uncomfortable as they ate.

  ‘Right you are.’ He touched the brim of his hat and with a last snarly-looking smile went out of the room, clumped up the wooden staircase and went into Ivy’s room which was at the front of the house.

  Sergeant Jeffries appeared in the scullery doorway, a look of disgust on his face. ‘Ivy was up to her neck in it then,’ he whispered. ‘I’ll nip out the front door and wait there to catch ’im on the way out. You lot stay in here.’ Again, with surprising speed and lightness of foot, he went out into the street ready to catch Micky’s friend red-handed.

  ‘I wanted to smack that spiv’s smarmy face!’ Winnie hissed.

  Frankie smiled at her friend. ‘You and me both. Let’s just hope they catch him red-handed.’

  ‘Shouldn’t we do something?’ Rose whispered. They could hear Micky’s friend moving around in Ivy’s room, it sounded as if he were dragging boxes across the floor.

  ‘No, we need to stay here for the moment until he comes down but be ready to catch him in case he bolts back out this way when he sees Sergeant Jeffries outside.’

  Frankie and Rose positioned themselves just inside the kitchen door on one side, ready to pounce on him if he came that way, while Winnie and Bella stood ready on the otherside. They heard him lumbering down the stairs, whistling a tuneless song between his teeth, clearly very pleased with himself, but his whistling stopped abruptly when he opened the front door and saw the looming bulk of Sergeant Jeffries. Like a rabbit faced with a waiting fox, he turned tail and ran back towards the kitchen, but they were ready. As he came through the door Frankie stuck out her leg and he tripped, the box he was carrying flew through the air and there was the sound of breaking glass as it crashed to the floor, closely followed by the pungent smell of whisky. Sprawled on the floor, Micky’s friend didn’t have a chance to struggle up as Bella and Rose jumped on him, pinning him down.

  ‘You stay right where you are!’ Winnie said, kneeling on one of his arms and twisting the other back behind him so that he lay there like a stranded fish.

  Sergeant Jeffries and the constable who’d been positioned outside the back door hurried into the kitchen and swiftly locked the man’s wrists into handcuffs.

  ‘Came here to offer your condolences for Ivy’s death, did yer?’ Sergeant Jeffries said. He made a show of sniffing the whisky fumes. ‘Looks like quite a black-market haul you’ve got there.’

  ‘It ain’t mine!’ Micky’s friend blurted out as he was hauled to his feet. ‘I was just collectin’ some friend’s belongings, that’s all. It was Ivy’s, she’s been looking after it for us, I mean him.’

  ‘You can tell me all about it down the station,’ Sergeant Jeffries said. ‘Take him away,’ he ordered his two constables.

  ‘With pleasure, Sarge,’ one of the constables said as they marched the man out.

  ‘What about that?’ Frankie pointed to the box from which whisky was now leaking onto the tiled floor.

  ‘It’s evidence, just put some old newspaper around it to soak it up for now. I need to ’ave a look in Ivy’s room.’

  He, along with Frankie, Rose, Winnie and Bella, went into Ivy’s room. ‘Looks like quite a stash!’ Sergeant Jeffries said. There were boxes piled up against one wall, under her bed, and on top of her wardrobe as well.

  ‘Is it all whisky?’ Frankie asked.

  ‘Some, by the look of it.’ Sergeant Jeffries pulled a box out from under the bed and opened the top to reveal tins of meat, fruit and cocoa. Another had packets of stockings and make-up. ‘They had quite a racket going on ’ere and the perfect hidin’ place – who’d have thought the widow of a policeman would be storing it in her bedroom?’

  Seeing all this stuff snuffed out any last feeling of remorse that Frankie had for the way Ivy’s life had panned out: the death of her husband and then her own in a V2 attack. The woman had had no scruples and Frankie would not miss her one tiny bit. She was furious that she’d been dragged into this mess by association when she’d had nothing to do with it, hadn’t known anything about it. If she had, she’d have thrown Ivy out.

  ‘I really didn’t know anything about this, Sergeant Jeffries, honestly I didn’t,’ Frankie said. ‘Ivy must ’ave taken advantage of my shift work to bring it here when I wasn’t in.’

  ‘Are you still going to take Frankie to the police station?’ Winnie asked, one hand on her hip.

  ‘No, it’s clear you knew nothing about this.’ Sergeant Jeffries laid a hand on Frankie’s shoulder. ‘I’m sorry if I upset you, it didn’t feel right coming ’ere and accusing you of being involved, I was just following orders . . . but there’s no doubt that Ivy was part of it.’ He looked around the room and sighed. ‘
Your grandad would ’ave been horrified at what she’d got herself involved with, she’d now be facing a prison sentence. Perhaps it’s just as well she died this morning.’

  Frankie nodded. It was bad enough now but how much worse would it have been if Ivy had still been alive and brought the wrath of the law down on herself and number 25 Matlock Street? She shouldn’t think about the what ifs because Ivy was gone and, after this final horrible mess, the woman wouldn’t be casting a shadow over Frankie’s life any more. For that she was nothing but grateful.

  Chapter 56

  Station Officer Violet Steele was enjoying the warmth of the April sunshine as she strolled down towards the Tower of London. It was a delight to be outside with a cloudless blue sky soaring above the city, and now that the terrible V2 rockets had stopped and the Allies were in Germany, it could only be a matter of weeks before Hitler was captured and the war would finally be over. After more than five long years the idea of peace once more seemed simply incredible. Of course, it meant her life would change again, and she had to admit she would sorely miss her job at Station 75, especially the crew members who worked there. They had made this awful time so much more bearable and she felt honoured to have served with them.

  Approaching the dry moat where the allotments were, she could see that Frankie, Winnie and Bella were busy at work, their tunics off and shirtsleeves rolled up in the warm April sunshine. Bella and Frankie were hoeing between the rows of vegetables, while Winnie knelt, doing the finer weeding between plants. Trixie spotted her before the young women and rushed over to greet her with a yelp of delight, her golden plume of a tail wagging joyfully. Bending down to stroke the little dog, she thought that she would miss this delightful creature as much as any of the crew.

  ‘Come on, Trixie,’ she said. ‘Let’s see how things are growing.’

  Trixie’s rush to greet her had alerted the young women to her presence and their reaction was odd – they were like rabbits that had just spotted a fox approaching, making them scurry this way and that. A guilty-looking Bella darted forward to meet her, while Winnie scrambled to her feet, aided by Frankie, and hurried over towards where the pile of discarded tunics lay, but in her haste she tripped over a rake, sending her sprawling down onto the ground with a cry.

  ‘Winnie!’ shouted Frankie running over to help her friend, closely followed by Bella who’d turned and run back.

  Violet stood rooted to the spot, stunned at what she’d just seen and which Winnie had been in such a hurry to hide – from the definite swell of the young woman’s belly straining at the front of her shirt, there was no doubt about it, she was expecting a child, and from the look of it, she only had a few months left to go before it was due. Her instinct had told her there was something up with Winnie, but she never expected this. A surge of disappointment and anger that Winnie had hidden it and defied the rules swept through her, but she hastily pushed it aside for the moment and hurried over to where Bella and Frankie were now crouched by their friend.

  ‘I’m all right.’ Winnie struggled to sit up, her rounded belly making it more difficult than usual.

  ‘Don’t get up yet,’ Violet Steele said. ‘Are you in any pain?’

  ‘I think I’ve just bruised my side where I hit the ground.’ Winnie rubbed her hip, but then her face suddenly went white as she put her hand on her belly. ‘It’s not moving! I can’t feel it moving any more, it’s been so active today until now. Oh no, have I hurt it?’ She started to cry.

  Bella put her arm around her. ‘I’m sure it’s all right, just a bit shocked, that’s all.’

  ‘I think we’d better make sure,’ Violet Steele said. ‘Frankie, go and get an ambulance, bring it down as close as you can. Hurry.’ She mouthed the last word so that Winnie didn’t hear.

  ‘I’ll be right back.’ Frankie ran off towards Station 75.

  ‘Do you think I’ve hurt it?’ Winnie croaked. ‘I never meant to.’

  ‘Of course you didn’t, but I think we should take you to hospital just to be sure, and luckily we have ambulances at our disposal to take you there.’ She smiled as she put her hand on Winnie’s shoulder. ‘All you need to do for now is keep calm. Frankie won’t be long.’

  ‘I don’t need to go in an ambulance . . . ’ Winnie went to get up.

  ‘Stay where you are. You’re going in an ambulance whether you like it or not, and that’s an order!’ She met Bella’s eyes who nodded her agreement.

  Winnie sighed and sat back down, not arguing for once, her hands cradled around her stomach, while Trixie leaned against her, giving her mistress comfort.

  Lying on a stretcher gave the back of an ambulance a whole new perspective, Winnie thought, trying hard to distract herself from her fear for her unborn baby as Frankie closed the back doors, shutting her and Station Officer Steele inside. Bella had taken Trixie to sit on her lap in the front of the cab after the boss had insisted that she would ride in the back so that she could keep an eye on her. If Winnie hadn’t been so worried about her baby she might have protested, wanting to put off the moment when she’d be given her marching orders and no longer be a crew member at Station 75. The boss hadn’t said a word about discovering her secret, but she knew it was only a matter of time before she did and now, trapped in the back of the ambulance with her, it felt like her world was about to crumble, the job she loved gone and her baby . . .

  ‘Are you warm enough?’ Station Officer Steele fussed with the edge of the blanket spread over Winnie, as the ambulance’s engine started and they began to move, making the vehicle rock gently.

  ‘Yes . . . Are you going to sack me?’ The words were out of her mouth before her brain had time to stop them.

  The boss arched her eyebrows, her brown eyes warm behind her owlish spectacles. ‘Don’t worry about that now, let’s just get you to hospital.’

  ‘I was going to tell you eventually,’ Winnie said. ‘It’s just I didn’t want to leave my job. If I’d told you, then I knew I’d have to go, and I really didn’t want to. Working at Station 75 has been the best thing I’ve ever done . . . I didn’t like deceiving you, but I wanted to keep my job. And . . . ’ Her eyes filled with tears, as the words poured out of her. ‘I didn’t really want this baby, or how it would change my life . . . but now it might be . . . I might have . . . ’

  Guilt for not wanting her baby had whacked her hard in the chest when she’d realised it had stopped moving, that she might have harmed it and it could die. Be dead already. That guilt had been closely followed by a rush of longing as she had finally realised just how much she wanted this baby, her feelings for it had silently crept up on her and grown, growing inside her like her child. But now it might be too late . . .

  Station Officer Steele paced up and down the waiting room of the casualty department of the London Hospital, oblivious to the stares she was attracting from others waiting there.

  ‘Any news?’ Frankie asked as she and Bella came hurrying in after moving the ambulance to somewhere they could leave it once they’d dropped Winnie off.

  She shook her head. ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Please don’t sack her,’ Bella said. ‘Winnie loves her job and we can help her do anything she finds difficult. We can go out on calls instead of her, we can work through our breaks to do her jobs.’

  ‘She ain’t done no harm,’ Frankie added. ‘She ought to be commended for carrying on when she didn’t ’ave to.’

  She held up her hand to silence them. ‘I admire your loyalty, and I presume you both have known about Winnie’s condition for some time and have probably helped her to hide it, but the fact is she should have told me. What she did is against the rules.’

  ‘The rules won’t matter any more if the baby’s . . . ’ Bella’s brown eyes filled with tears.

  Frankie put her arm through her friend’s. ‘Don’t think that, we’ve got to keep hoping it’s all right.’

  ‘I hope it is too.’ Station Officer Steele sighed. ‘You know I would hate to lose Winnie from Station 7
5, but the fact is, a pregnant crew member is not permitted. I . . . ’ She paused as the doctor who had been seeing Winnie came out from the treatment rooms and, spotting them, walked towards them.

  ‘Here he comes.’ Bella grabbed hold of Station Officer Steele’s arm with her free hand and the three of them stood there, united, waiting for news.

  Approaching them, the doctor’s face broke into a smile. ‘I’m glad to tell you that everything appears to be fine. Mrs McCartney’s baby is moving again and has a good strong heartbeat. I suspect it had just been having a doze, despite its mother’s gymnastics, it’s well cushioned in there, but as a precaution I’m prescribing rest for twenty-four hours and if there’s any bleeding or pain she should come back straight away.’

  ‘I’m very glad to hear that, and I will make sure that she rests.’ Station Officer Steele smiled at him. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Here comes Winnie,’ Frankie said, rushing forward to meet her friend, who was being led out by the nurse, looking a great deal more relaxed than she had when they’d brought her in.

  ‘Right, let’s get you home so you can rest,’ Violet said. ‘Bella, will you go and bring the ambulance round to the door? We’ll meet you there.’

  Going over to Winnie, Violet linked her arm through the young woman’s. ‘I’m very glad everything is all right.’

  Winnie looked at her and smiled, placing her hand on her stomach. ‘So am I. I want my baby born safely. That’s the most important thing now.’

  Lying on a stretcher in the back of the ambulance once more, again at Station Officer Steele’s insistence, Winnie felt a huge sense of relief that her baby wasn’t harmed. It was back to its normal wrigglyness and none the worse for her tumble – unlike herself with her hip blooming into a large purple bruise. She gasped as what must be an elbow passed across the inside of her belly, the oddest of sensations but most welcome.

  ‘I’m very glad that everything is all right.’ Station Officer Steele was leaning against the stretcher frame opposite her to keep herself steady as they drove along. ‘You must be very relieved.’