Frankie looked at Gary in horror. ‘No, he won’t, will he?’
Knowing his lie had had the effect he had hoped for, Gary elaborated. ‘He’s even planned how he’s gonna do it, Frankie. He said if he gets life, he’s gonna kill himself on your mum’s birthday with a belt.’
As Frankie began to cry, Gary gave her an awkward hug. ‘Look, the ball’s in your court. Say the right thing and there’s a good chance Dad will get a shorter sentence. Obviously, what you choose to do is up to you, but if you can live with both your parents’ deaths on your conscience, you’re a better person than I am. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I had that much blood on my hands.’
Ricky’s voice stopped the conversation from continuing. ‘Gal, that pig’s looking for Frankie. Joey told her that she’s outside having a fag, so you’d better send her out before she comes back again.’
Gary unlocked the cubicle. ‘Go on, you’d better go.’
Traumatised, Frankie grabbed his arm. ‘Dad won’t hang himself if he only gets done for manslaughter, will he?’
Gary shook his head. ‘Nah, he can handle a short stretch. He said he’d only end his life if he’s looking at life.’
Seeing his sister walk towards him, Joey grabbed her arm. ‘Quick, DI Blyth is looking everywhere for you. Let’s get back to the witness room before she sees us.’
Joey and Frankie ran along the corridor. ‘I can’t believe Gary called me a fag,’ Joey said.
‘He said much worse to me. If Dad gets life, he’s gonna kill himself, he reckons, and he said it’s all my fault.’
Reaching the witness room, the twins stopped outside. ‘Why don’t you tell DI Blyth about Gary? She saw Ricky standing there, but she didn’t know that I knew him.’
Frankie shook her head. ‘No, we mustn’t say a word, Joey, not to anyone.’
‘There you are! Where have you been, I’ve been looking everywhere for you,’ Blyth said running towards them.
Frankie put on a false smile. ‘Sorry, I was dying for a fag, then I had the runs. I think it’s nerves.’
Blyth nodded understandingly. ‘Quick, follow me. They’ve just called your name out, and don’t forget to address the men in the legal teams as “Sir”, and the judge as “your Honour”.’
CHAPTER TWENTY
Frankie took her hand off the Bible and then nervously glanced at the gallery.
Joey was now sitting there, along with many other familiar faces. Her uncles, Paulie and Ronny, stared at her and she quickly averted her eyes. Glancing back, she caught the eye of her dad’s auntie, Joan. Seeing Gary glaring at her, she quickly looked away again.
As the prosecution began to cross-examine her, Frankie could barely comprehend the questions. She had just seen her dad and was struggling to breathe properly.
‘Could you answer the question please, Miss Mitchell,’ the judge said softly.
‘I’m sorry, your honour. I didn’t hear it properly,’ Frankie replied in almost a whisper.
‘On the twenty-eighth of August 1988, is it true that you and your uncle, Raymond Smith, drove to Tilbury in search of your mother, Miss Mitchell?’
Frankie glanced at her father again. He looked a bit older than she remembered. He also looked tired and had lost some weight. Tearing her eyes away from him, Frankie cleared her throat. She had never felt so nervous in her life.
‘Yes, that’s true,’ she mumbled.
‘Could you please speak up, Miss Mitchell? The jury can’t hear you properly,’ the judge said, in a much sterner tone than the one he had previously used.
‘I said yes, that’s true, your Honour,’ Frankie repeated, remembering DI Blyth’s words about the way she had to address people.
Aware of DI Blyth staring at her, Frankie looked at her feet.
The prosecution addressed her once more. ‘Miss Mitchell, how would you describe your father’s relationship with your boyfriend, Jed O’Hara?’
‘My dad never really met Jed, sir,’ Frankie replied honestly.
‘So why hadn’t you introduced your boyfriend to your father, Miss Mitchell? You were pregnant and planning to marry Mr O’Hara, were you not?’
‘Because we hadn’t been together for long, sir. I sort of accidently got pregnant and then Jed proposed. It all happened very quickly.’
‘So the reason, Miss Mitchell, that you never told your father about your relationship with Jed O’Hara, was not because your father, Eddie Mitchell, passionately hated Mr O’Hara’s family?’
‘Objection, your Honour,’ someone shouted.
‘Objection overruled,’ the judge stated.
Frankie looked at her dad again. His eyes looked terribly sad, haunted almost. Thinking of what Gary had said to her earlier, she knew what she had to say.
‘My dad never hated Jed’s family, sir. He never really knew them. If he was upset, it was because I’d got pregnant at such a young age, nothing else.’
The prosecution team looked at Frankie in despair. What was the silly girl doing?
DI Blyth felt defeated. Frankie had been so sure of what she was going to say on the journey here, so what had gone so bloody wrong with her answers? Glancing into the gallery, Blyth saw the man who had been standing outside the toilets with Joey. She knew immediately that Frankie had been got at.
‘Shit,’ she mumbled under her breath. She knew she should never have let Frankie out of her sight.
The prosecution QC wasn’t a happy man. ‘Isn’t it true, Miss Mitchell, that your father is a well-known gangster, who will stop at nothing to get his own way?’
‘Objection, your Honour,’ someone shouted again.
Frankie began to cry. Whatever her dad had done, she knew she still loved him.
‘Objection sustained,’ the judge said.
The prosecuting QC had planned to ask Frankie many more questions, but now decided not to bother. He glared at DI Blyth.
‘No more questions, your Honour,’ he said, as he sat back down.
Eddie’s defence team were thrilled with Frankie’s performance. His own QC, James Fitzgerald Smythe, stood up. ‘Is it OK to call you Frankie? Miss Mitchell seems too formal for someone so young, don’t you think?’
‘Yes, sir,’ Frankie said. This man seemed much nicer than the last one.
‘How would you describe your relationship with your father, Frankie? Were you close?’
‘We were very close. I was always a daddy’s girl, sir,’ Frankie replied honestly.
‘And how would you describe your father’s relationship with your mother, Frankie? Would you say they were happy? Did they argue much?’
Frankie shook her head. ‘They rarely ever argued, sir. My mum and dad were very much in love – so much so, me and my brother used to take the mickey out of them, didn’t we Joey?’
As Frankie turned to her brother in the gallery, the judge cleared his throat. ‘Can you just answer the questions without involving anybody else please, Miss Mitchell?’
‘Sorry, your Honour,’ Frankie said meekly.
‘Was your father ever violent indoors, Frankie? Did he ever hit you, your mother or your brother?’
Catching her dad’s eye again, Frankie took a deep breath. ‘No sir, my dad wasn’t a violent man. He loved animals and he honestly wouldn’t hurt a fly.’
In the gallery, Joey was furious. How could Frankie say that their dad wouldn’t hurt a fly, after what he’d done to their mum? He’d tried to choke Joey with a sandwich once and had even tried to chop Dominic’s cock off, for fuck’s sake. Unable to listen to any more of his sister’s bullshit, Joey stood up and left the courtroom.
Eddie’s QC smiled at Frankie. ‘No more questions, your Honour.’
Back in Rainham, Joycie and Stanley were in their element. Having baby Georgie to themselves for the day was the tonic both of them had desperately needed. Even though they hadn’t attended the court case, it had still taken its toll on them, and babysitting their beautiful granddaughter was a welcome distraction.
‘My turn for a cuddle now,’ Joyce said to Stanley.
Smiling, Stanley stood up and placed the gurgling baby on Joycie’s lap. ‘I wasn’t sure of her name at first, Joycie, but I like it now. Do you remember that film, Georgy Girl?’
Joyce smiled. ‘Yeah, it had that song in it, “Hey there! Georgy Girl”, didn’t it?’
‘Weren’t it The Seekers that sang that?’ Stanley asked.
‘I can’t remember,’ Joyce replied.
Stanley looked at the clock. ‘I wonder how Frankie’s getting on? Let’s hope she’s brave enough to get justice for our Jessica.’
Joycie sighed. Unlike Stanley, part of her felt sorry for the predicament Eddie found himself in. She hadn’t forgiven him, of course, but she couldn’t hate him – not like Stanley did, anyway.
The shrill ring of the phone saved Joyce from answering Stanley’s awkward question. ‘Get that, love. It might be Frankie.’
Stanley ran to the phone. ‘What’s a matter, Joey? Calm down, I can’t understand you.’
As Joey repeated what had happened in court, Stanley was shell-shocked.
‘What’s up?’ Joyce asked, as her husband slammed the phone down.
‘Our Frankie fucked up. Told the court that Eddie wouldn’t hurt a fly, apparently. Joey’s fuming with her. He walked out and left her. On his way home, he is. How could she do that, Joycie? How can she stick up for that monster after what he did to our Jessica?’
‘Maybe she had her reasons,’ Joyce said defensively.
‘Reasons! What fucking reasons? I want no more to do with her. How can our Jessica have died in vain? It ain’t right and I won’t stand for it.’
Joyce stood up, put Georgie in her cot and faced her furious husband. Pointing a finger in his face, she gave it to him. ‘Now you listen to me, Stanley Smith. What happened was horrendous, but it was a bloody accident. There’s not an hour of a day goes past when I don’t think of our Jessica, but she’s gone and being bitter isn’t going to bring her back. Eddie was devastated over what happened. Why do you think he gave us this bloody house?’
‘Because he was trying to ease his own bastard guilt,’ Stanley yelled.
As her husband tried to leave the room, Joyce grabbed him by the arm. ‘Don’t you dare kick off with Frankie, ’cause if you do, we will lose contact with the baby and if that happens, I’ll never forgive you, Stanley.’
Stanley pulled his arm away. ‘Leave me alone, woman.’
DI Blyth collared Frankie as soon as she stepped outside the courtroom. She pulled her to one side, away from her villainous family.
‘What happened in there, Frankie? Somebody threaten you, did they?’
Frankie could barely look Blyth in the eye. She had been so kind and Frankie felt terribly guilty. ‘Nobody threatened me,’ she lied.
Blyth shook her head disappointedly. ‘I saw the men in the gallery. One of them was with your brother, Joey, when I was searching for you earlier. Did the other one that was with him get to you, Frankie? You were not outside having a cigarette because I looked everywhere for you.’
‘Yes, I was. I went round the back of the building as I didn’t want to bump into any of my family. Anyway, that was my stepbrother, Ricky, who was with Joey. He’s my dad’s son from his first marriage.’
After Frankie’s failure to produce the goods, Blyth couldn’t be arsed to drive her home.
‘Your family are waiting for you, I think. Are you OK going home with them?’
Frankie nodded. She couldn’t get away from DI Blyth quickly enough. As she went to walk away, she turned around. ‘I’m really sorry, but he’s my dad and I love him.’
Gary and Ricky Mitchell were standing outside the court having a cigarette as Frankie approached them.
‘You did great, sis. Did you see the look in Dad’s eyes? Now that he can see you still love him, I know that whatever happens, he won’t top himself,’ Gary said. His little white lie had worked wonders.
‘I don’t know how I’m gonna get home. Where’s the nearest station?’
Ricky handed Frankie a fag. ‘We’ve got a motor, we’ll drop you back.’
‘Where’s Joey?’ Frankie asked.
‘I dunno. Gone home I suppose,’ Gary replied.
Taking her phone out of her bag, Frankie switched it on and rang her brother. ‘It’s switched off,’ she said dejectedly.
‘Bless ya, you angel. You did a great job in there, your dad’ll be ever so proud of you,’ said a voice.
Frankie hugged her dad’s aunt Joan. ‘How are you keeping?’ she asked politely.
‘All the better for your testimony. You dad’s a good man, Frankie, and whatever anyone else tells ya, don’t you ever forget that. You remember Vi, don’t ya?’
Frankie nodded, kissed both old ladies politely on the cheek, then turned back to Gary and Ricky.
‘Can we make a move? I need to get home to the baby.’
Memories came flooding back as Frankie spotted her dad’s Land Cruiser. ‘I didn’t realise you had Dad’s car,’ she said.
‘He told us to use it. Ain’t much use to him at the moment, is it?’ Ricky replied bluntly.
Frankie sat in the back. Five minutes into the journey the interrogation started.
‘So what really happened to your face, sis?’ Gary enquired.
‘I told you, I fell over.’
Ricky wasn’t driving. Positioning himself, he turned around and faced her. ‘I know you’re lying. While you was in the boy’s room with Gary, I was talking to Joey, remember? He’s worried about you, Frankie, we all are. He was gonna write to Dad, but I told him not to.’
Frankie was furious with Joey. How dare he involve their father in her relationship after everything that had happened? ‘Well, you’re all worrying for nothing. I fell over, I swear I did. Jed’s good to me, he would never hurt me.’
Ricky turned back round. If Frankie wouldn’t admit to anything, then there was sod all they could do.
Gary stared at her in the interior mirror. ‘OK, we believe you. But I’m telling you something now, Frankie: if I ever find out that Jed did that to you, I’ll break every bone in his puny, pikey body.’
With court adjourned for the day, Eddie was bundled into the back of the meat wagon that would take him back to the prison. Thinking of the day’s events, he rested his head against the van’s metal interior. He hadn’t even been able to bring himself to look at his gay son, but Frankie still loved him, he could see it in her eyes, and just knowing that had lifted his spirits no end.
Eddie knew through Raymond that Frankie was back in touch with Joyce and Stanley. Biting his lip, Ed made a decision. As soon as he got back to his cell, he would write Frankie a letter and send it via her grandparents. Perhaps once the court case was over, Frankie could come and visit him. She might even bring the baby with her, if he was lucky.
For the first time since Frankie had given birth, Eddie thought deeply about his granddaughter. What did she look like? What colour was her hair? Did she look like Frankie? Or did she favour him or Jessica?
Eddie had originally vowed never to have anything to do with the kid. ‘It’s an O’Hara, not a fucking Mitchell,’ he’d said viciously to Raymond.
Seeing Frankie today had changed Ed’s mind. Whoever the father was, that kid was still Frankie’s and also part of himself and Jessica.
As the meat wagon got stuck in traffic, Eddie felt a serenity within. Whatever the jury decided, his daughter had stuck her neck out for him today and proved her worth not only as his daughter, but also as a Mitchell.
Sitting in his shed with only his pigeons for company, Stanley thought long and hard about Joycie’s harsh words.
He’d calmed down a bit now and even though he thought it was awful that Frankie had stuck up for her father, he realised that him kicking off wasn’t the answer. Slurping the last of his bitter, Stanley screwed up the can and
lobbed it in the bin. He locked the shed and made his way back to the house.
‘Frankie’s just rung. She’ll be here soon,’ Joyce told him.
Lifting his granddaughter off Joycie’s lap, Stanley held her close. He planted a kiss on the child’s forehead.
‘I thought about what you said, Joycie, and you’re right. Losing contact with this little one would break my heart, so I’ll keep me mouth shut and me thoughts to meself.’
Joyce smiled. ‘You’re a good man, Stanley Smith.’
After the initial awkward conversation about her bruises, Frankie had quite enjoyed the rest of the journey. It was good to catch up with her half-brothers and she’d loved telling them all about Georgie.
As the Land Cruiser pulled on to the drive, Frankie urged Gary and Ricky to come and say hello to her grandparents. ‘And you can meet Georgie. She needs to know who her family is,’ she told them.
Gary and Ricky felt awkward as they stepped into their dad’s old home. They hadn’t seen Stanley since the day of Jessica’s funeral and they didn’t really know what to say to him.
Joyce invited them in and, sensing their awkwardness, was friendly and warm.
‘Stanley, make the boys a nice cup of tea,’ she ordered.
Gary felt all choked up as Frankie placed Georgie in his arms. ‘She’s a little darling, bless her,’ he said lovingly.
Ricky smiled. ‘She definitely looks like a Mitchell, Frankie. She’s dark, like Dad.’
Unusually for Gary, his eyes welled up. ‘The old man would just love her. You must take her to see him, Frankie.’
Ricky agreed. ‘It would cheer him up no end. We’ll drive you to Wandsworth if you like. And we’ll wait for you and bring you home.’
Frankie smiled. It felt so good to have her family around her once more. ‘OK, let’s arrange it.’
Less than a mile down the road, Jed O’Hara was seriously annoyed. ‘She must be out of court by now. Why ain’t the silly cow got her phone on?’ he said, as he cracked open another can of lager.
The Traitor Page 19