‘I ain’t just got off the banana boat, you know. I saw you puffing away, boy, so don’t bastard-well lie to me. How long you been smoking, eh?’
Little Vinny stood up and stared at his feet. ‘Sorry, Nan. Me and Ben found a couple of fags in a packet and decided to smoke ’em as we had never tried one before, had we, Ben?’ he said, nudging his pal.
Queenie didn’t particularly like Ben Bloggs. His gran Ivy was well-known for her pilfering, his mother Alison for being a prostitute, and Queenie couldn’t help but feel that coming from such a notorious family, Ben could only prove to be a bad influence on her grandson.
‘Everyone’s inside, Nan. Lenny had a great birthday. He met a man with green hair and a safety pin through his nose. He had a photo taken with him and Uncle Michael said he is called a punk,’ Little Vinny said.
Queenie gave her grandson the evil eye. Little Vinny resembled his father at the same age so much that Queenie found it quite uncanny. It wasn’t just his looks. He had the same streetwise personality as his dad, and possessed his charm as well. Ordering Ben Bloggs to sod off home, Queenie clipped Little Vinny around the ear. ‘Get upstairs to your bedroom and stay there. I had enough of your antics yesterday.’ Queenie had been terribly embarrassed when Big Stan had knocked on her front door late last night to inform her he had caught her grandson and Ben Bloggs thieving items from the shed in his back garden.
‘You won’t grass me up to Dad about anything, will you, Nan?’ Little Vinny asked. ‘I swear I’ll be a good boy from now on.’
Queenie knew her son would go absolutely apeshit if he knew Little Vinny had broken into the shed. Like herself, Vinny was a big believer of the rule, you never thieve off your own. It was unwritten tradition in their neck of the woods.
‘I’ll say nothing, boy, but if you play me up one more time, I’m gonna tell your father everything, understand me? This is the last time I save your bacon and I mean it.’
When Little Vinny strolled into the house behind his grandmother, he couldn’t help but smirk. Most of Whitechapel was frightened of Queenie Butler, but he wasn’t. He had his nan right in the palm of his frightfully intelligent hand.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Vinny Butler booked two big tables at Nick’s restaurant for his son and Lenny’s joint birthday celebrations.
Nick had once been the manager of the steakhouse in Canning Town where Vinny had taken Karen on the evening she was murdered, but he now ran his own restaurant in Stratford thanks to Vinny and Ahmed’s generosity. They had provided the money to enable Nick to open, and in return demanded a fifty per cent stake in the gaff.
Nick greeted his business partners with open arms, then politely shook hands with Lenny and Little Vinny.
‘Anyone else here yet?’ Vinny asked. His mum and aunt had gone to visit Roy first and were making their own way to the restaurant. Michael, Nancy, Brenda and Dean were coming with their kids, and Vinny had also invited Karen’s mum Maureen and her sister Rose.
Vinny was on reasonably good terms with Maureen now. She had never truly believed that he’d had anything to do with Karen’s death and once she had severed contact with Karen’s nosy next-door neighbour, she had been as good as gold towards him. Karen had apparently had quite a bad drug problem as a teenager, and it suited Vinny no end to learn that Maureen believed Karen’s demons had resurfaced. That left him in the clear.
In the past year, Maureen and Rose had sold their respective properties and now shared a house in Hornchurch, Essex. They saw Little Vinny at least twice a month, which was OK with Vinny.
‘Go and give your nan and Auntie Rose a kiss,’ Vinny ordered his son. Michael and Nancy were also at the table, so after greeting Daniel and Adam, Vinny shook hands with his brother and nodded politely at Nancy. He didn’t like Michael’s wife at all. Nancy gave him the distinct impression that she looked down on him, and that riled Vinny no end.
Within the next twenty minutes all the family arrived and the birthday celebrations got underway with Lenny insisting that ‘Happy Birthday’ was sung to him first. ‘It was my birthday before Little Vinny’s,’ he reminded everybody.
Watching Maureen and Rose both fawn over his son, Vinny smirked at Ahmed. Apart from the pest of a neighbour spouting all kinds of accusations, the police had never had anything on him for Karen’s murder. They had classed it as a drug overdose, and now he had Karen’s mum and aunt on side, it had shut up all the gossip-mongers too. What type of man would top the mother of his child, then befriend the mum and aunt? An innocent one, that’s who.
As the jovial atmosphere continued around the table, Brenda clocked Dean and Nancy share a smile and felt her stomach tie in knots as usual. When a conversation began between the two of them, Brenda dashed away from the table and outside the restaurant.
‘Where’s Mummy gone, Dad?’ Tara asked Dean.
When his brother-in-law stood up, Michael ordered him to sit back down. ‘I’ll deal with this,’ he said.
Queenie raised her eyebrows at Vivian.
‘What happened?’ Vivian whispered in her sister’s ear.
‘I think Bren got the hump because Dean spoke to Nancy. She’ll drive that boy away one day, if she ain’t careful, Vivvy. If I’ve told her once, I’ve told her a hundred times to rein her jealousy in. Only she can lose that weight and make herself feel better. She ain’t gonna do that while she’s stuffing packets of biscuits down her gullet like they’re going out of style, is she?’
‘She is turning into a big old heifer, ain’t she?’ Vivian replied bluntly.
‘Got an arse like a fucking elephant,’ Queenie added.
Seeing that both Nancy and Dean felt totally embarrassed, Queenie decided to clear the air. ‘Yous two carry on talking. Take no notice of Nutty Nora. You are both part of this family and have every right to get on well.’
‘Who’s Nutty Nora, Dad?’ Tara asked innocently.
Dean kissed his daughter on the forehead. ‘Nobody you know, darling.’
Michael lit up a cigarette and handed his sister one. ‘What’s up with you?’
‘Just wanted some fresh air. Not a crime, is it?’ Brenda replied, arrogantly.
‘You’ve got to get off Nancy’s case, and Dean’s, Bren. They are only friends for fuck’s sake, and if it don’t bother me, why should it bother you?’
‘Dunno what you’re on about, Michael. I haven’t got the hump with Dean or Nancy. Why would I have? Haven’t done anything wrong, have they?’ Brenda spat.
‘Look, sis, tell me to mind my own business if you want, but if I were you, I would plaster a smile on your face, get your arse back inside that restaurant, and try to be jovial. We don’t go out that often, not all together, and I think our family have had enough dramas to last us a lifetime over the years, don’t you?’
Brenda nodded, took a deep breath to try and calm herself down, then, knowing she had little choice, put on a fake smile, and followed Michael back inside the restaurant.
Roy picked up his address book and flicked through the pages until he reached the letter P. He was sweating like a pig today, but knew that was more to do with nerves than the freak summer England was experiencing.
It had taken Roy a lot of courage and thought to come to the decision he had, but now he had made his mind up there was no going back. Vinny had ruined his life, therefore retribution was the only answer.
Choosing the right person to help him had been Roy’s biggest bugbear. There was no way he could chance his request reaching unwanted ears, that would spell disaster. After toying with involving Michael in his plan, Roy had decided against it and had opted for Paul instead. Paul had been his best pal at school, and had worked the door on both clubs of his. He still worked for Vinny now, but Roy was sure he could be trusted.
Roy wiped his brow with a tissue, then dialled Paul’s number. ‘Hello, mate. It’s me, Roy. I need a favour, but you have to swear to me that what I ask you will go no further. I don’t even want you to tell Pete. Can you promi
se me that?’
‘Roy, we go back a long way. You can trust me, you know that. It’s so good to hear from you, pal. I was gutted when you didn’t want me to visit you again. Are you OK?’ Paul asked. This was the first time he had spoken to Roy since he had moved to East Ham and even though it broke Paul’s heart to hear his lifelong friend sound a shadow of his former self, he was still pleased to hear from him.
‘I want you to visit me, Paul, but I need you to bring me a gun as well. Can you do that for me?’
‘What do you want it for? You ain’t gonna shoot yourself, are ya?’ Paul asked, with alarm in his voice.
‘No. I plan to shoot somebody else. I’m not in the mood to play games, Paul, so can you help me or not?’
Paul’s mind wandered back to when he and Roy were young. His pal had always looked out for him and if it wasn’t for Roy, Paul wouldn’t be living in a decent house and earning the good wage he was now. ‘OK, Roy. I’ll sort it for you. Who are you planning on shooting though, mate?’
Roy smirked. ‘Nobody you know, Paul, I swear.’
Vinny was the first to notice Denise Thompson walk into the restaurant with Michael’s kid and a tall dark-haired geezer in tow. Denise had given birth to a boy called Lee. ‘Fuck me. It’s all gonna go off in here in a minute,’ Vinny whispered in Ahmed’s ear.
‘Why?’
‘Michael’s ex and his kid have just walked in. Nancy won’t have him around her or the boys, will she? I don’t even think that Daniel or Adam know that Lee exists,’ Vinny explained, smirking.
When Queenie walked out of the toilets and came face to face with her second-eldest grandson, she had no alternative other to pick the boy up and hug him tight to her chest. She rarely saw Lee. At the most, Michael brought him around twice a month for a short visit.
‘All right, Queenie? Didn’t expect to see you here. This is Glen, my boyfriend,’ Denise said politely.
Queenie said a quick hello and, seeing the arrival of a birthday cake, made her excuses then dashed back to the table. ‘Michael, Lee’s over there with Denise and her fella. Now, whether you like it or not, Nancy, Michael is going to have to go over there and speak to his son. I won’t allow him to blank him,’ Queenie told her daughter-in-law.
Nancy immediately felt her hackles rise. She knew that Michael supported Lee financially, and that he saw him a couple of times a month, but there was no way she wanted her own sons confused by finding out they had a half-brother. They were too young to understand and it wasn’t fair on them. She also hated the thought of sitting in the same restaurant with another woman her husband had made love to. She felt physically sick. ‘I want to take the boys home now, Michael. Can you drop us off, please?’
Before Michael could even answer, he heard a child yell ‘Daddy’ then saw Lee run towards him with his arms outstretched.
Nancy stared at Lee. She had never seen the child before, and couldn’t help but hate him on sight. Stifling a sob, she grabbed Daniel’s hand, picked up Adam, and ran from the restaurant as though their lives depended on it.
‘Are you going to watch me blow my candles out now, Michael?’ Lenny asked, prodding his cousin’s arm impatiently.
‘You stay with Lee and watch Lenny blow his candles out and I’ll check if Nancy’s OK for you,’ Dean said, as he stood up.
‘No, you fucking won’t,’ Brenda spat.
‘Shut it, you, and mind your bloody language,’ Queenie said, wagging a finger of warning in her drunken daughter’s face.
Brenda, who’d been necking white wine all through the meal, sat there seething as the whole of the table sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Lenny. She was sure Dean fancied Nancy. She could see it in his eyes.
‘Can I have me cake now, Dad?’ Little Vinny asked.
‘Yeah, in a minute, son,’ Vinny said, snatching the bottle of wine out of his sister’s grasp. Brenda had topped up her glass three times in the last ten minutes and Vinny knew if she drank any more she was bound to kick off. If it had been just his own family present, he’d have found it hysterical, but he didn’t want Brenda to create havoc in front of Maureen and Rose. For obvious reasons, he always liked to make a good impression in front of those two.
Seeing Dean lead Nancy back inside the restaurant with a comforting arm around her shoulders, Brenda lost the plot completely. ‘You no-good fucking cuntbag,’ she screamed, forcing all the other diners to look round at her.
‘Brenda, sit back down now,’ Queenie ordered, totally embarrassed.
Brenda was now beyond control. She picked up Lenny’s cake and marched towards Dean.
‘That’s my cake, Bren. Give me it back,’ Lenny yelled.
‘Do something, Vinny,’ Vivian demanded.
‘Too bloody late,’ Queenie mumbled, as her daughter plunged the cake into Dean’s face.
When Lenny burst into tears and Nancy ran out of the restaurant again, Michael stood up. ‘This is my problem and I’ll sort it.’
A couple of hours later, Queenie and Vivian were sitting side by side on the sofa with a glass of sherry.
‘Weren’t it a terrible day, Queen?’ Vivian said.
‘Bleedin’ awful.’
‘Give them boring old trouts Maureen and Rose something to talk about, eh? Felt sorry for my Lenny though.’
Lenny had been extremely upset that his birthday cake had been ruined and in an attempt to cheer the lad up, Vinny had said he could stay at the club with him for the night.
‘Did you hear what my Vinny said about Roy moving?’ Queenie asked.
‘No.’
‘Reckons he’s found him a nice place by the sea. Vinny’s going to view it on Tuesday.’
‘Whereabouts is it?’ Vivian asked.
‘Eastbourne. I don’t know what I’m gonna do if he moves that far away, Viv. We ain’t gonna be able to visit him much and say Roy don’t like it when he gets there? It could be a shithole for all we know.’
Vivian squeezed her sister’s hand. ‘Why don’t we go for the ride with Vinny to view it? We know a nice, friendly, clean place when we see one, don’t we? In fact, why don’t Roy come with us? The four of us can fit comfortably in Vinny’s car. If it’s Roy that’s gonna be living there, he should be the one to decide if it will suit him or not.’
Queenie nodded. ‘That would make me feel a lot better if we all went and I knew my Roy liked it. I can tell when he’s lying, even now.’
‘Well, let’s do it then. Ring Vinny now. Ask him how my Lenny is as well. I hope he ain’t still upset over that bleedin’ cake.’
Queenie picked up the phone. The club didn’t open on a Sunday evening, so it was unusual there was no answer.
‘Leave it. Ring him tomorrow. I’m sure my Lenny’s having a good time with Vinny anyway. He always bloody does.’
Over in a seedy bar in Dalston, Vinny grinned as he saw Lenny’s face light up. ‘Well, what do you think, Champ?’
‘I can’t believe all the women are showing their titties,’ Lenny gabbled, excitedly.
When his cousin had burst out crying because his birthday cake had ended up splattered all over Dean’s face, it had been Ahmed’s idea to bring Lenny to his pal’s strip club. ‘He needs to get laid,’ were Ahmed’s exact words.
Vinny couldn’t agree more. As much as he loved his mum and Auntie Viv, they did wrap Lenny in cotton wool and treat him like a child in some ways, and it was doing the lad no good. Ordering Ahmed to get the drinks in, Vinny led Lenny to the back of the small club. ‘You see them stairs there?’
‘Yeah,’
‘Well, them women on stage go down them stairs a bit later. If you choose what one you like, then I will make sure you have sex with her.’
Lenny looked at Vinny open-mouthed. ‘But, say my mum finds out?’
Putting an arm around his cousin’s shoulder, Vinny led him outside the club. ‘I won’t tell no-one, but neither must you. It will be our little secret.’
‘Is it like that other secret when I gave Karen that drink whe
n I was little?’ Lenny asked, innocently.
Vinny couldn’t help but smirk. Lenny had never mentioned that incident to anyone since Vinny had told him not to many years ago, and he was amazed his cousin still remembered it. At least it proved the boy could be trusted. ‘Yep. It’s a bit like that, Champ. Now, do you want me to sort you out with a bird, or not?’
Finally making his mind up, Lenny nodded excitedly. ‘Yes please, Vinny.’
Back in Whitechapel, Queenie and Vivian were in deep conversation about the family.
‘I do like Nancy, but didn’t she make herself look a fool when she stomped out that restaurant, Queen? I mean, she knows Michael has nothing to do with Denise, so why won’t she just accept Lee as part of their lives?
‘Nancy ain’t strong enough, Viv. I said that to you on their wedding day. Lovely girl and all that, but she weren’t meant for our world. My Michael reckons she’s been struggling to cope ever since she gave birth to Adam. He says she’s suffering from depression, but I think that’s a load of old toffee. Look what we went through during the war. If anyone should have been fucking depressed, then we should. Soppy little mare needs to get her act together if you ask me.
Lenny was as nervous as hell when the girl sat on the bed next to him.
‘I’m Layla,’ the girl said rubbing Lenny’s thigh. She really didn’t want to be in the room any more than he seemed to, but she had just been paid fifty pounds to entertain this simple looking chap.
Lenny’s erection felt as though it was going to burst through his trousers. The only naked women he had ever seen in the past were the ones in the pornographic magazines he used to buy. His mum had gone mental when she had found a stash of them under his mattress. She had been even more horrified when she tried to look through them and noticed that most of the pages were stuck together. She had told him he was a pervert, just like his father had been.
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