by Jacqui Rose
The plan was simple. Basic. Old school. Find Jodie and force her to leave before Chloe even got here – or if Chloe had come here already and been caught like before, they’d simply outgun any of Lee’s men, then get the fuck out as quickly as possible.
As Alfie continued to ascend the stairs, he realised how quiet the building was. Eerily quiet; he had an uneasy feeling they were walking straight into a trap. But there was no other choice but to try and find Jodie before Chloe did, or more importantly, find Chloe before Mr Lee.
From the fire door in the stairwell, Alf peered through the safety glass down the dimly lit second-floor corridor. No sign of anyone. Frankie pushed his head alongside to have a look.
‘I don’t like this, Alf; something doesn’t feel right. The place is like a frigging ghost town.’ Frankie cocked the trigger of his revolver. ‘My suggestion is we take the place head on. Storm it, rather than play the mouse to their cats. There are four of us, so let’s just kick open all these doors, get what we came for, then get the hell out of here. I ain’t waiting to be ambushed by people who know the layout round here. What do you say?’
Alfie nodded. ‘I say you’re on, mate.’
And with that, they swiftly ran from down the corridors, bursting into every door, guns pointed and at the ready. All of them together, moving with one mind and one goal.
One by one they discovered the rooms had been stripped bare; no people, no furniture and no Chloe-Jane. Breathless, they gathered in the last room. Frankie closed the door as they all stared at one another.
Franny was distraught. ‘The building’s been abandoned. Everything’s gone. She isn’t here, is she Alf? What the hell are we going to do?’
‘What about upstairs? We haven’t tried there.’
Del seemed puzzled. ‘There ain’t an upstairs, Alf, we’re on the top.’
‘No, I counted five floors from outside. Five sets of windows and this is only the fourth. I saw a door at the end of the corridor I didn’t try, and I’m guessing it leads to the top floor but by a different flight of stairs.’
Frankie looked at Alf. ‘Then what are we waiting for?!’
With Alfie still leading the way, they ran through the door at the end of the fourth-floor corridor and up the stairs.
‘Bingo.’ Alfie gave a thumbs-up as he found himself on the top floor. The four of them hurtled along and like before, burst into rooms, only to find nothing.
Alfie glanced around at the others. Pride, shame and revenge ran through him. Pride for his friends, shame for himself, and revenge for Chloe. Mixed emotions raced through him as the pain from the exertion clutched hold of his body. But the adrenaline drove him on. Revenge drove him on.
Kicking open the next door, he heard a scream. It was Franny. Frantically swinging his gun round the room, a movement in the corner of his eye made Alfie pivot and instinctively fire three rounds.
Feeling the familiar numbness in his ears when he fired his gun, Alfie experienced ten seconds of deafness, not hearing the words of Del, as he burst into the room behind him.
‘Alf get down! Get down! I got you covered.’
Del pointed his gun, assuming one of Mr Lee’s men had targeted Alf, but only a splattered rat lay bleeding, shot into the floorboards by Alf.
Del breathed out, and shook his head. ‘Fuck me, Alf. Wanna give me a heart attack? Carry on shooting up the rodents. Jesus …’
As Alfie’s hearing slowly returned, both he and Del heard another scream. Alfie’s blood ran cold.
‘Franny!… Fran, where are you?’ he shouted desperately, not caring who heard or who might shoot at him as he ran towards her cries.
Chasing down the corridor, with Del closely behind, as well as Frankie, who had also heard the screams and gunshots, Alfie was relieved to see Franny standing in the last room with the gun he’d given her in her hand.
‘Fran, are you okay?… Fran?’ From where he was standing in the corridor he could see she was pale and shaking. ‘Fran, can you hear me? What’s going on? It’s me, babe.’
But Franny didn’t say anything. She just stared ahead.
Alfie hurried into the room, with Del and Frankie directly behind him. A powerful smell hit them. Alf turned to follow Franny’s gaze until his eyes rested on the swollen purple face staring back at them, a limp body hanging only inches from the floor. It was Jodie.
Alf shouted, ‘Cut her down!… Cut her down! It’s Jodie!’ He ran forward, tugging at the belt, then stood on the chair to try to get her down. He called out to Del and Frankie.
‘Help me guys, help me!’ They ran forward, lifting her body weight up, allowing Alfie to undo the loop.
Jodie fell into Alfie’s arms. ‘Call the ambulance! Call the ambulance!’
Franny put her hand gently on Alfie’s shoulder as he knelt on the floor by Jodie’s body.
‘She’s gone, Alf … She’s gone.’
Alfie buried his face into his hands. ‘She was only a kid. She was only a kid.’
‘I know sweetheart. I know … Look, you guys better go.’
Alfie looked up. He wiped the tears away. ‘We can’t leave her here. I can’t leave her on her own.’
‘I’ll call the ambulance and wait for them,’ Franny answered. ‘It’s better that way. Fewer questions. And I’ll see you back at Lola’s.’
Del put his hand on Alfie. ‘Franny’s right. She can say she was looking for her niece and came across this … Well, you know what I mean.’
Alfie got up, he touched Franny’s face gently, then kissed her on her forehead before turning to the others. ‘Okay. But Lee’s going to pay for this. And I ain’t going to rest till I put him in the ground.’
60
It was gone one in the morning. They were all crammed into Lola’s tiny kitchen, all subdued by their grim discovery and all fearful but not speaking about their deep concern for Chloe-Jane. Lola’s kettle clicked off.
‘Tea, anyone?’ No one answered. ‘Alfie, come on love, have some tea.’ Alfie shook his head.
‘Fran, you’ll have a cup won’t you?’ Franny didn’t say anything, looking down to the tiled floor.
‘Del, Frankie … Anybody. A cup of tea.’
With an empty mug in each hand Lola held open her arms, bursting into inconsolable tears. Her whole body shook. ‘For the love of God, someone have a cup of tea … Please … Oh my God, the poor kid … Poor Chloe … Oh, Jesus, what we going to do?’
It was Franny who spoke first. ‘On second thoughts, I’ll have a cup of tea, and so will Alf, won’t you, Alf?’
Alfie nodded. ‘Let’s all have a brew, Lola. That would be good.’
Del chipped in. ‘Yeah, and perhaps even a biscuit or two, then we’ll see if we can’t get our heads together and come up with a plan.’
Lola smiled gratefully, happy she had something to do to try to avoid just thinking about Chloe.
Alfie watched Lola busying herself about. He had an overwhelming fear that finally his luck, or rather Chloe’s luck, had run out. They had no idea where to even start to look for Chloe; the only real lead had been the building in Paddington and Jodie. Thinking about her made him pull his breath in. He didn’t think he’d ever get rid of that image out of his mind. He’d seen a lot, but that … That kid hanging there was another thing completely. A tragic waste of life. And the saddest part? The saddest part was besides everyone congregated here in Lola’s kitchen, none of whom really knew Jodie at all, no one would care that she was dead.
As Lola counted out the PG tips, Alfie thought of all the times he’d knocked back Chloe when all she wanted to do was belong. Even with his own daughter Emmie, he’d never stopped to listen. Of course her mother had driven him mad with her nagging but it wasn’t Emmie’s fault. All the designer gifts he’d bought her to smooth things over and to replace him being there a lot of the time, along with his behaviour, had hurt his daughter to the point where she didn’t want anything to do with him.
Chloe had been a second chance to care for a
Jennings kid. Someone who’d needed him, like he’d needed someone when he’d been growing up. But he hadn’t cared for her properly. Not even a tiny bit. And even though he’d known about her childhood, Alfie’s care of his own niece had been so inadequate she’d still needed to turn to the likes of Mr Lee for help.
The image of Jodie came into his mind again. Again it made him shudder; a tight knot in his stomach. She’d risked her life to save him and Chloe and now she was gone; taking her own life had been better than living. He took a sip of his tea to stop him feeling more physically sick than he did already.
Half an hour later, they were all sitting in the front room, the fear and worry still palpable. Inwardly, Del Williams felt uncharacteristically shaken at having seen that poor kid obviously so desperate she’d do that to herself. It made him think of all the times his missus Bunny had talked about her miserable childhood in care, the abuse and God knows what else. He wondered if she ever came close to ending it all herself. When he got back to Marbella, he was going to take her in his arms and not let her go.
Frankie also sat and thought about Jodie. His heart broke for the tragedy of it all. He knew only too well from his own difficult, neglected childhood how it was easy to find yourself lost and alone. He had been lucky, he’d got through it and he had a wonderful family of his own now, and the first thing he was going to do when he got back was tell them how much he loved them.
Alfie had been a prick who’d brought a lot onto himself. But not this; no one deserved this. And he would do everything he could to help him bring Chloe back. Frankie sighed. He wasn’t used to feeling useless, powerless, but that’s exactly what they were all feeling as they all drank their tea, each one of them silently wondering what they were going to say, and what they could possibly do next.
Franny Doyle sat quietly by the window in Lola’s lounge, holding Chloe’s note in her hand, barely able to contemplate the guilt she now felt for pushing Chloe away. She’d taken Chloe in and given her hope and support, then, despite knowing how vulnerable she was, had taken her lifeline away for purely selfish reasons.
Alfie’s phone started to ring, interrupting everyone’s thoughts. He answered, urgently. ‘Yes? Hello?’ As the voice on the other end started to talk, Alfie kicked the table in front of him in frustration, and before the caller had even had time to finish his sentence, Alfie cut in, ‘I ain’t got time for this now, just put everything in the club and don’t bother me with anything. I couldn’t give a flying fuck where you put the frigging beer.’ Clicking the phone off, he stuffed it back in his pocket.
Almost immediately, Alfie’s phone rang again. Enraged, he snatched it off again, barking down the phone. ‘Christ, al-fucking-mighty, I told you, just leave everything at the club.’
But then, Alfie froze. Instead of the heavy cockney accent of his driver, a much softer voice spoke calmly.
‘Mr Jennings, I too have a club, an exclusive club that I think you might be interested in.’
Then the line went dead.
Franny who’d been watching Alfie, saw the mix of anger and confusion on his face as he looked down at the blank screen.
‘Who was that, Alf?… Alf?’
Before Alf could reply, a text message pinged out from his phone.
V.I.P. – You are invited to enjoy a special event.
As Alfie opened the message in full, it triggered an internet link which opened directly into a video stream. What Alfie saw next made him visibly pale, and for a moment he wondered if he was going to throw up
‘Alf, what’s going on?’
Franny took the phone, turning it round so she could see it. They both stared in horrified disbelief at a scantily clad Chloe-Jane tethered to a chair with various torture tools hung neatly behind her; a rolling footnote passed across the screen.
R.I.P. Chloe-Jane, click here to subscribe.
When Alfie clicked on the link, he saw a counter ticking down. 0 days 18 hours and 10 minutes, 9, 8, 7, 6, seconds.
Dropping the phone onto the table as if it were suddenly burning into his hands, Alfie slumped into the chair next to Franny. ‘Oh, fuck Fran. Fuck … I don’t believe this.’
The others gathered round the table and everyone stared at the horrifying video. Del and Frankie caught each other’s eye. Franny placed her hand on Alfie’s arm partly to comfort him but more to steady herself as she felt her head start to spin.
Looking up from the phone, Lola spoke, ‘What the hell is this, Alf?’
Alfie buried his head in his hands. ‘It’s my worst nightmare.’
Lola’s voice was shrill. ‘You mean it’s Chloe’s worst nightmare. Look at her. Alfie, you’ve got to sort this. Don’t matter what you do, whatever it is, you have to get her back, Alfie!’
They were interrupted by Alfie’s phone ringing again, the number withheld.
Lola leaned forward. ‘Answer it, quick Alfie!’
Snapping into movement Alfie picked up the phone. ‘Yes?’
‘Ah, Mr Jennings.’
‘Lee, just tell me what you want. You can have it. You can have anything.’
There was a chuckle. ‘I don’t want anything. I have everything I want right here.’
‘You’re dead, Lee. Do you hear me … dead.’ Alfie gripped the phone, spitting his words.
The sarcasm dripped from Mr Lee. ‘No, Mr Jennings, I’m clearly not. That’s Jodie’s department.’
‘You fucking bastard.’
‘That’s as maybe, Mr Jennings, but like I told you, right at the beginning. You brought this on yourself. And besides, this is just a courtesy call. I can’t help but notice that your introductory free subscription to my video service is about to expire. Just about eighteen hours left.’
Alfie was desperate. ‘What do you want, Lee? This has gone too far, I want her back.’
‘Mr Jennings, she’s not yours to take back.’
‘Just answer the question. What is it you want?’
‘I don’t want anything.’
‘Stop playing games, Lee. How much? Name your price.’
‘I don’t think you’re listening to me. I said I don’t want anything.’
‘You want me to beg? Is that it? I’ll beg, I’ll do whatever it takes.’
‘No, Mr Jennings, I expect you to watch. Watch the clock and watch what happens. People pay a lot of money for this, and you’re getting it free.’
‘What the hell are you going to do?’
‘I think the clue’s in the title. R.I.P. Chloe-Jane. There’s nothing left for you to do now, except sit back and enjoy the show.’
61
They all sat out in the car. All five of them, squeezed into Del’s Range Rover.
‘You sure this is going to work, Alf?’
Alfie stared at Frankie. ‘No, but I ain’t got any other ideas. But if I know this man, I know he’ll do anything to get what he wants. Wouldn’t you say, Lola?’
Lola nodded, looking around at them all. ‘He’s right. From what I hear through the Soho grapevine the man would put his grandmother on the street if it meant he was going to get a catch.’
Del shrugged. ‘It’s not the way we usually do things. Feels … I dunno, unclean somehow. Makes me feel dirty. But okay, I’m in.’
Franny agreed. ‘We’re all in.’
Alfie’s eyes brimmed with tears. He was feeling overwhelmed with all the emotion. He choked on his words as he spoke. ‘Thank you guys … Thank you. I know you’re going on the line to do this.’
Del winked at Alf. ‘Don’t worry about it, mate … After all, we’re family.’
Detective Spencer leaned back in his chair. He pushed his hands against his desk, forcing out a loud noisy fart, letting the cannelloni he’d had for lunch have a final word. A knock at the door came, before his sergeant popped his head round.
‘Gov, there’s someone here to see you.’
‘I’m busy, so tell whoever it is they need an appointment.’
‘Actually Gov, it’s …’
<
br /> Del Williams pushed into the room, followed by Frankie, Alfie, Franny and Lola. Del gave a hostile stare to the sergeant, before turning his attention to Spencer.
‘We ain’t got time for all this; we need your help.’
Detective Spencer stared at them incredulously. To see a handful of gangland faces standing in his office, voluntarily, was something he thought he’d never get to see.
‘To what do I owe this … this dubious honour? You lot shot any more of your girlfriends?’
Stepping forward Frankie Taylor grimaced, partly at Spencer’s attitude but also at the rancid smell that hung in the messy office.
‘We’re trying to find a missing person and much as it pains me to say it, we can’t trace her without your help.’
Spencer roared with laughter, much to the annoyance of all assembled, but his laughter soon turned into a sneer. He banged on his desk. ‘You lot have some front. You come here wanting my help, yet I recall only a small while ago, all of you had either conveniently gone AWOL or had a severe case of amnesia about events which happened right under your nose.’
Del spoke, hating every moment of talking to the Old Bill. ‘Well we’re here now, and strangest thing is, we seem to have got our memory back.’
Spencer leaned forward. He shook his head, not believing what he was hearing. ‘Come again.’
‘You heard Spencer, we’ve got our memory back. All of us. And we’ll all give you a statement about what happened. About us being there … when Casey was shot.’