CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The following morning, Queenie and Vivian arrived at the hospital at eight a.m. and soon realized that even though she had promised to go home and get some sleep, Colleen had stayed at Roy’s beside again all night.
Queenie sat down next to her future daughter-in-law and squeezed her hand. ‘Look, sweetheart, I know how much you love Roy, we all do, but sitting here nigh-on twenty-four hours a day isn’t the answer. You need to eat, kip, and start looking after yourself. You heard what the doctor said yesterday: they have no idea when Roy will wake up, so you must get a grip, darling. Every human being needs food and sleep. We can’t survive without it.’
‘Queenie’s right, Colleen. You look ill, and your Roy ain’t gonna want to wake up to a skeleton, is he?’ Vivian added.
‘You OK, love?’ Queenie asked, as Colleen stood up and stared blankly at her and Vivian.
‘No, I feel a bit …’ Colleen mumbled, and then collapsed before finishing her sentence.
Unaware that the police were currently at the hospital talking to his mother, Michael was on his way there. Since Roy had been shot, apart from the first night, Michael had barely seen or spoken to his eldest brother. Unlike the rest of the family who had visited Roy on a daily basis, Vinny had stayed well away, his excuse being that it broke his heart to see his brother in a coma, and it was pointless being there until he actually woke up.
‘Michael, why do they call this area the Waste?’ Lenny asked.
Michael couldn’t help but smile. Ever since the lad had started work at the club, he seemed to ask questions all day long. Last week, Michael had spent the whole day trying to explain why elephants had trunks to his young cousin.
‘Michael, why are you living at Auntie Queenie’s now? Why ain’t you living with Vinny no more? Have yous two fallen out?’ Lenny asked, without even waiting for the first answer.
Putting a protective arm around Lenny, Michael led him safely across the road. ‘No, ’course me and Vin haven’t fallen out. He’s been staying with his Turkish mate in Camden, and I’ve been stopping at your Auntie Queenie’s house because Nancy has now moved in with me.’
‘Do you love Nancy? Are you going to marry her?’ Lenny asked bluntly.
‘Yes, I love Nancy, Champ, and one day if she is lucky, I might just marry her,’ Michael said, with a wink.
Lenny chuckled, but Michael missed his inquisitive cousin’s next question, as he had just spotted his father standing by a wall, waving frantically at him.
Over in Dagenham, Karen had spent the past hour deciding what she was going to take to her lovely new home. Vinny had sworn her to secrecy about her new gaff. He had insisted he wanted her to surprise her mum and friends by organizing a little flat-warming for them.
Desperate to tell somebody about her stroke of good luck all the same, Karen debated whether to inform her next-door neighbour, Debbie. Guilt stopped her from doing so, as she knew her mother would never forgive her if it came out that she wasn’t the first to hear the good news. Karen couldn’t afford an indoor phone, so she picked up her purse and headed off towards the nearest phonebox.
Not wanting Lenny to spot his father, Michael had taken him inside the hospital, then pretended he had left his wallet at home. ‘Go and sit with your mum and Auntie Queenie. I won’t be long, Champ,’ he said.
Dashing back down the corridors, Michael ran out of the entrance and around the side of the building, where by a flick of the head he had gestured to his father to wait.
‘Hello, son. I’m so glad you came back. I didn’t know whether you were telling me to sod off, or meaning for me to wait here,’ Albie said.
‘You’ve got some brass neck coming here, Dad, after what you did. How could you pretend you were dying?’
‘I did it because I knew it was the only way I would get to see or talk to yous. I’m really sorry. It was a stupid thing to do.’
‘You can fucking say that again! Now, what do you want?’ Michael asked.
‘Well, obviously I want to know how Roy is? I’ve been ringing the hospital, but they won’t tell me anything. Worried sick, I’ve been.’
‘Roy’s in a coma. He’s very lucky to even be alive, so the doc reckoned.’
‘Do the doctors think he will make a full recovery?’
Michael shrugged. ‘Nobody knows until he actually wakes up. There was bleeding to the brain which might result in permanent damage. We just have to keep our fingers crossed. The quack we saw yesterday said that most patients in comas wake up within a month.’
Albie’s eyes welled up. ‘Why couldn’t it be Vinny lying in a coma instead of poor Roy? There’s something I need to tell you, Michael, and I want you to listen carefully to me.’
‘What?’
When Albie began to explain about Vinny’s evil plan to split up Roy and Colleen, Michael’s face went white and he leant his back against the brick wall for support. Part of him wanted to believe that his father was spinning another of his yarns, but in his heart Michael knew that Albie wasn’t lying. The pieces of the jigsaw seemed to fit too well. ‘So, what did you actually say to Colleen’s parents?’
‘Well, I started to tell them what Vinny had asked me to, but then I backtracked. Roy and Colleen look so happy, I just couldn’t go through with it, boy. Then Vinny came and threatened me, said if I didn’t do what he’d asked, he was going to jump up on stage and tell everyone I had lied about my cancer. Vinny ain’t right in the head, Michael. He has real problems and I’m worried he will start on you next. He won’t like you being with that Nancy. He doesn’t want to lose you and Roy, therefore will stop at nothing to get his own way. He wants to be in total control.’
Michael put his head in his hands and sank to his haunches.
Albie crouched down next to Michael, took a small bottle of brandy out of his raincoat pocket and swallowed a large gulp. He then handed the bottle to his son, who did the same. ‘You ain’t got to tell your mum, boy. I’ve written everything down in a letter for her to save you the task.’
‘Where is it?’
Albie handed him two envelopes. ‘The bigger envelope is the letter I wrote for you. Now I’ve told you all this, I think Vinny will try and finish me off. If I disappear or die, hand your one over to the police. Can I trust you to do that for me, son?’
‘Oh, don’t say shit like that. Vinny might not be your greatest fan right now, but you’re still his dad. He wouldn’t harm you.’
Albie took another swig of his brandy and screwed the top back on the bottle. ‘Do you remember that time I was in hospital with two broken legs and broken ribs?’
‘Yeah, ’course I do. You were mugged and it was while you were in hospital that Mum found out about that Judy Preston bird, weren’t it?’
‘Yeah. Your mother came to visit me and bumped into Judy. The thing is, I never got those injuries through being jumped. There was no mugging. Vinny beat me up.’
‘No! You’re lying, Dad.’
‘I swear I ain’t, boy. Roy knows. He turned up just after Vinny had nearly killed me. Your mum and Auntie Viv know too. Ask them if you don’t believe me. You and your sister were quite young at the time, so the truth was hidden from you.’
‘I weren’t that young. That all happened around my sixteenth birthday. I remember it clearly as when I found about about you and that tart, I went for a long ride on my moped to clear my head.’
‘Well, I don’t know why you wasn’t told. Perhaps it was because I was always closer to you than your brothers. You and Brenda were always the apple of my eye. Your sister wouldn’t even talk to me at her engagement party, you know. I tried to wish her good luck, but she all but told me to eff off.’
‘So, where are you living? I know you’re not at the bedsit as I popped round the other day and the bloke downstairs said you’d moved out,’ Michael asked, changing the subject.
‘I had to, didn’t I? That’s why your brother leapt on the stage and outed my lie. He knew I would never be able t
o stay in Whitechapel after that. You know what people are like around here. I’d have every bastard gunning for me and rightly so, I suppose. I’ve had to move back in with Pauline for the time being, but I can’t stay there for much longer. Once you give your mother that letter, I need to get away. I have to go somewhere where Vinny won’t find me.’
‘Dad, you know we were talking about that Judy Preston? Did she have your kid? Or, do you truthfully not know?’
‘On my life I don’t know, son. I swear I ain’t ever seen or heard a word from her since that day she visited me in hospital.’
Satisfied that Albie was telling the truth, Michael smiled at him. His father wasn’t a bad person. He might be a pisshead and do and say stupid things at times, but his heart was certainly in the right place, which is more than what Michael could say in Vinny’s defence right now. ‘So, where you gonna go? Do you need money?’
‘Yeah, I could do with some readies, boy. I was thinking of going to stay with Bert down in Ipswich. Ivy died last year and he’s rattling about in a house on his own down there now.’
‘Who are Bert and Ivy?’ Michael asked.
‘Your uncle and aunt. Bert’s my elder brother. You have seen him, but not since you were a kid. Your mother never had any time for my family. She reckoned they all had a screw loose.’
Michael put his hand in his pocket and handed his dad three ten-pound notes. ‘Take that for now so you’ve got some beer money. Then tomorrow, I will drive down to Pauline’s gaff and give you some money to go away with. I won’t give Mum the letter until after you’ve gone, OK?’
Albie nodded his head gratefully and pocketed the thirty quid. ‘Do me a favour, boy. I don’t want Pauline to know I’m leaving, so can you meet me at a pub with the dosh?’
‘Which one and what time?’
‘Meet me at the Royal Oak in Green Lane tomorrow at twoish. Pauline’s barred from there. I’ve only got a dustbin liner full of clothes, and I’ll pretend to her that I’m going to the launderette. How will I get to Ipswich by train, Michael? Do you know what station takes me there?’
For the first time in ages, Michael felt dreadfully sorry for his father. Having to leave London and never return because you were frightened of being murdered by one of your own kids was horrendous. ‘I’ll tell you what, Dad. Why don’t you let me drive you to Ipswich? I’ll get Nancy to take a day off work and she can come for the ride too. It will be nice to see Uncle Bert again, and also I’d like to know where you are living so I can pop down and see you from time to time.’
Choked up because one of his family was being so kind to him for a change, Albie let out an uncharacteristic sob and put his arms around his youngest son. ‘You’re a good boy, Michael. The best. Please watch your back with Vinny, won’t you?’
Wiping the tears away from his own eyes with the cuff of his shirt, Michael cleared his throat. ‘Right, I’d better get inside and see how Roy is now. See you tomorrow at two.’
‘Oh, that reminds me. Inside your letter, there is also a short letter for Roy and Brenda too. Make sure you give or read them to ’em one day. But, only when you feel the time is right, of course.’
Nodding, Michael walked away.
Disappointed by her mother’s reaction to her good news, Karen decided to give her neighbour Debbie a knock.
‘Aw, Kaz, I ain’t ’arf gonna miss you, but I am pleased for you at the same time,’ Debbie said, when her friend finished explaining the situation.
‘I wish I could say the same about my mum. I thought she would be thrilled for me, but I just rang her and she said I was a silly girl for rushing into things.’
Debbie chuckled. ‘She sounds just like my mum.’
‘You must come round when I move in. There’s enough room for you and the kids to sleep over,’ Karen said, referring to Debbie’s sons.
‘Oh, I’d love to. Anything to get me away from this shithole for a day or two. Honest, Kaz, I am so thrilled for you. Vinny is incredibly handsome. In fact, on both occasions I’ve met him, he has literally charmed the knickers off me.’
Laughing at her mate’s way with words, Karen put her hand inside the carrier bag she had brought with her. ‘I got this, although I dunno what it tastes like. It’s fizzy wine. I thought we could open it to celebrate my news.’
Debbie ran into the kitchen and came back with two cups. ‘Sorry I ain’t got no glasses. The kids broke the few I had.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Karen said, pouring the drinks out.
Grabbing a pen and paper, Debbie handed it to her pal.
‘What’s that for?’
‘To write your new address down, you div.’
‘Oh, that’s another thing my mother had a go at me about. I was so excited when I went to view the property, I didn’t look at any road signs. It’s in Beckton, I know that, but I’ll have to ask Vinny for the exact address tomorrow. I’ll give it to you then.’
Debbie held her cup aloft. ‘To new beginnings, eh?’
Karen smiled broadly. ‘And health and happiness.’
When the police left the hospital, Queenie took Michael to one side so she could have a word in private with him. The officers had popped in to inform her that they had charged a man called Johnny Preston with the attempted murder of Roy, and he would be appearing in court to be remanded in custody the following morning. ‘Is he to do with that little tart Judy, Michael? Don’t lie to me. I deserve to know the truth, and his name rings a bell,’ Queenie said.
‘Yeah, Johnny’s her brother.’
Queenie was furious. ‘This is all your bastard of a father’s fault. If he hadn’t have suffered from wandering cock syndrome my Roy would still be as fit as a fiddle, not lying in a fucking coma in hospital.’
After the emotional conversation he and his father had just shared, Michael couldn’t help but stick up for him. ‘This ain’t Dad’s fault, Mum. This is revenge for Vinny killing that Dave Phillips. Preston was there when Phillips got stabbed.’
‘Yeah, and why did that happen? To do with your father humping Preston’s sister, if I remember rightly.’
‘Preston only came to the club because Vinny went round his sister’s gaff and threatened her. He just wanted to have it out with Vinny, but Vinny being Vinny had to go one step further and murder his fucking mate. There’s no way Preston meant to shoot Roy. It would have been Vinny he wanted dead, so if you want someone to blame, then blame your own son.’
Queenie was furious that Michael had sided with his father rather than his brother. ‘You should be ashamed of yourself, you. Been a wonderful brother to you, Vinny has. Who do you think put food on the table when you and Brenda were young, eh? Well, it weren’t that useless drunken old man of yours, that’s for sure.’
Very nearly blurting out what Vinny had planned to do to Roy at his own engagement party, Michael shut up as he saw Brenda and Dean walking down the corridor with his cousin.
‘Where’s Vinny, Mum? Is he here? Really annoyed with him, I am. He promised me faithfully when he dumped Little Vinny on me and Dean yesterday that he would pick him up first thing this morning and we ain’t seen hide nor hair of him. Dean’s taking his nan out for lunch and I’m going shopping with Susan, so you’re gonna have to look after him. He ain’t my bloody responsibility.’
‘Is Roy dead yet, Nanny?’ Little Vinny asked innocently.
‘No, he is sleeping, and how many times have I told you not to ask that question, eh? What’s the matter with you? Do you want your Uncle Roy to croak it, do you?’
Realizing that his mother was stressed out and in a foul mood, Michael picked Little Vinny up. ‘I’ll look after him. I’m taking Nancy out for a bite to eat after she finishes work, so he can come with us, can’t you, boy?’
Watching her grandson and son share a hug, Queenie quickly forgave both. Michael had a heart of gold, and Little Vinny was far too young to understand what a coma was, or the seriousness of his uncle’s condition.
‘Right, me and Dean are go
nna go now,’ Brenda said.
‘Oh, no you are not, young lady. You go and see your brother for five or ten minutes first. You didn’t visit him all day yesterday.’
‘That’s only because I was stuck indoors babysitting. I was gonna come up here last night. How’s Colleen today? Has she eaten or slept yet?’
‘Colleen ain’t well. She collapsed earlier next to Roy’s bed. The doctors are doing some tests on her, apparently. It’s probably just stress, or lack of sleep and food, but they haven’t come back and told us anything yet. Viv asked a nurse to find out what was going on about an hour ago, but she never came back either.’
‘Right, I’m gonna make tracks, Mum. Give your nan and aunt a kiss, Vinny.’
Queenie hugged her grandchild, then turned to Michael. ‘Do us a favour, love. Before you go for your meal, see if you can find your brother. It ain’t like him not to pick the little ’un up, is it? I hope he’s all right and nothing bad’s happened to him. My heart can’t withstand any more drama.’
‘To be honest, Mum, since Roy got shot, Vinny has hit the bottle a bit. I spoke to him for about a minute yesterday when he dropped the little ’un off, and he said he was going to some club up the West End with Ahmed. I will see if I can find him, but if I can’t, he’s probably just on a bender somewhere.’
‘Well, best you encourage him to open the club up again, Michael. I’ve got enough on my plate without worrying about Vinny going off the rails as well.’
Michael couldn’t help but smirk. Did his mother honestly think that Vinny had ever been on the fucking rails?
Mary Walker felt sick with anxiety as she approached the entrance of Woolworth’s. Christopher had been full of it yesterday evening, saying how rude Nancy had been to him, and how she wasn’t worth bothering with any more because she was already one of them. Well, Mary didn’t believe that for a second. Her daughter would never be a Butler other than in perhaps name one day, and Mary just prayed that things didn’t even get that far. Donald had insisted last night that he was now completely washing his hands of Nancy for good, and Mary had been so angry listening to husband and son speak about the girl as though she had committed the crime of the century. She was a smitten teenager for goodness’ sake, and her only crime was to fall head over heels in love.
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