Blood Brothers

by Josephine Cox

  Joe was shocked to the core. ‘You crazy bastard! What have you done to her?’ Out the corner of his eye he could see Tom hurrying his way towards them. ‘Stay back, Dad!’

  His immediate instinct was to leap at Frank and tear his head off, but he knew he would have to be careful, or both he and his father would pay the price. He had to bide his time, and hope Frank might drop his guard for that one, split second, and he would have him!

  For now though, Alice was uppermost in his mind. ‘What did you do to her, Frank!’ His fists clenched by his sides, he demanded, ‘What the hell is wrong with you? What did you do to Alice?’

  Frank was silent for a moment, then he gave a kind of smirk. ‘She’s craftier than I thought,’ he muttered, as though talking to himself. ‘Witch! I was sure she’d be dead by the time I got back.’

  At the sound of Tom’s voice pleading with him to put down the gun; he swung round. ‘You’d best not try anything…either of you.’ He looked from one to the other. ‘I won’t hesitate to kill the pair of you if I have to!’ He instructed Tom to come closer where he could keep an eye on him.

  Tom had no choice but to do as he was told, so he moved closer to Joe, stopping only when Frank was satisfied that they were near enough for him to keep a wary eye on them, yet far enough apart so they couldn’t rush him together.

  Joe was desperate. ‘Where’s Alice, Dad? What did he do to her?’

  Tom continued to reason with Frank. ‘Listen to me, son,’ he said quietly. ‘You’ve done a bad thing, but thankfully you haven’t killed anybody. If you put the gun down and come back to the farmhouse, I promise we’ll do what we can to help you.’

  When it seemed as though Frank was listening, Tom made the mistake of moving forward. But he quickly halted when Frank yelled at him. ‘Stay where you are, or Joe will go first…then you! And don’t think I’m bluffing!’

  ‘I don’t think that, son. I know you’re angry, but I don’t understand what all this is about. Talk to me, Frank. Why are you doing this? You’re only making matters worse. Look!’ Stretching out his arm, he asked calmly, ‘Give me the shotgun, son. Come home with me.’

  Frank ignored his plea. ‘Where’s the bitch now?’

  ‘She’s in a shocking state, Frank.’

  ‘I said…where is she?’

  ‘Safe in hospital, I hope.’

  The colour drained from Joe’s face. ‘Hospital?’ He turned to Frank. ‘You’d best shoot me now, Frank, because the first chance I get, I’ll make you pay for this. I’ll kill you, Frank, I swear, I’ll kill you for this!’

  Tom looked from one son to the other. ‘This is not the way, Joe,’ he warned quietly. ‘Alice will be all right. She took a beating, but God willing, she’ll be fine.’

  The last thing he wanted was for Joe to learn the truth of how deeply Alice had suffered, and how when Jimmy brought her home in his arms, they had feared the worst.

  With clenched fists, Joe glared at Frank, and spoke in a quiet, trembling voice. ‘It’s me you want to hurt, not Alice! It was me who did the wrong, but oh, I forget! Even as a kid, you preferred to hurt those who couldn’t fight back. That’s right isn’t it, Frank. You were a bully then, and you’re a bully now!’

  ‘Shut it!’ Frank aimed the gun at Joe’s head.

  ‘Leave it, Joe!’ Tom saw the pure evil in Frank’s eyes and for one terrible moment he really thought he would pull the trigger.

  Joe took a chance. ‘I’ve always known about the bad things you did, Frank. I know how cruel you can be, and how you always pick on them that can’t fight back. I know how much you enjoy inflicting pain on others. Like that little boy you tied up and nearly choked to death; or the animals you maimed and killed over the years. You were even jealous of Mum and Dad’s little dog. I always knew you’d killed it, Frank. Deep down I think they knew it too. You were a sadistic bully when we were kids, and nothing changes, does it, eh?’

  ‘Don’t goad him, Joe.’ Tom looked up at Joe, and the younger man was devastated to see how his father had suddenly grown old. ‘I’m sorry, Dad,’ he told him.

  Tom smiled, but it was a sad smile. ‘I knew,’ he said sadly, ‘I always knew.’

  Seeing his father defeated like that, Joe’s rage welled up inside him. ‘Come on then! What are you waiting for? If you want an apology for what me and Alice did, you’ll wait forever! So, you beat her up, did you…put her in hospital, you cowardly bastard? Well, come on, big boy, man to man, you and me! I’ll take you on right now! Let’s see if you can beat me up like you beat her up. Let’s see who’s the better man, eh? Or are you too much of a coward to give me the punishment I deserve, eh?’

  Frank merely smiled, in that sly, knowing way Joe knew so well. ‘Oh, you’ll get your punishment all right. First though I need you to tell Dad what you and Alice did to me. I need him to know that the trollop deserved everything she got, and that it won’t be over until I’ve pulled this trigger!’

  Joe changed tack. ‘Alice is no trollop, Frank. She made a mistake in promising to marry you, but it was more your fault than hers. You saw the land and the opportunities that came with the package and you bamboozled her. The truth is, Alice was too young to know her own mind. She was unsure and didn’t want to hurt your feelings. I took advantage of that, so in the end, we’re both cowards! You and me, Frank, we’re blood brothers, made out of the same mould. Alice made a mistake and I took advantage of it, so in a way that makes me almost as bad as you. But there is a difference. I was weak; I did a selfish thing, whereas you deliberately target the weak. You hurt them just for the pleasure of it. You’re sick, Frank. You need help.’

  Incensed by the truth in Joe’s words, Frank screeched, ‘TELL HIM WHAT YOU DID!’

  Tom was both shocked and saddened. He knew Joe had feelings for his brother’s wife, but he had hoped his suspicions were unfounded. Now though, he knew different. But he had to calm Frank. He had to make him lose concentration; he had to save the situation if he could and to his mind there was only one way.

  In a quiet, shaking voice, he spoke to Frank, ‘You tell me, Frank! I need to hear it from you. What could be so terrible that you should want to hurt Alice like that? What makes you so intent on murdering your brother, and me; because make no mistake, if you pull that trigger on Joe, you’ll have to kill me too.’

  He took a moment to look at Frank, deep down into that dark, wickedness that he and Nancy had somehow bred, and he made a vow there and then. ‘I mean every word I say, Frank. Kill Joe, and I swear before God, I’ll send you back to hell!’

  Because of the manner in which he spoke, with anger and shame, no one doubted his word.

  Tom fervently believed that whatever the provocation, nothing in this world should make a man do the terrible things that Frank had done to Alice. ‘You say you’re here to punish Joe…kill him even. So, what is so mountainous and unforgiveable that you should do these terrible things. I want to hear it from you, Frank, so why won’t you tell me?’

  Frank snapped back, ‘Because he’s the one, him and that bitch! All right, you want to know the details, well I’ll tell you…’

  In a rage, he confirmed what Tom had already feared.

  ‘That bastard took my woman before I did!’

  Out of control, Frank waved the shotgun haphazardly before eventually training it back on Joe. His voice quivered as he went on, ‘They stood at the altar like two innocents! They stood alongside me, as though nothing had happened. Can you believe that? They stood there: he gave the ring and she gave her vows. Like it didn’t matter what they’d done before. Like I didn’t matter!’

  Consumed with rage, he warned Tom in a cold voice, ‘They deserve to die! If you try and stop me, you’ll pay the price. Don’t forget, I’ve got nothing to lose.’

  In a last ditch effort to calm him, Tom asked, ‘How do you know they did these things? Who told you that? Think what you’re saying, Frank. This is a bad thing; how can you be so sure of it?’

  ‘Oh, I’m sure,’ Fr
ank snarled. ‘The trollop told me herself!’

  He turned on Joe. ‘You thought you’d been clever, didn’t you, eh? You thought I wouldn’t find out about you and her…fornicating behind my back…laughing at me! Making a fool out of me!’

  ‘It wasn’t like that, Frank!’

  Joe needed to convince his brother that he had not meant it to happen. ‘I’d already planned to leave,’ he revealed. ‘I know what we did was wrong, and so does Alice, but it’s you she married. It’s you she wants. She told me that herself, Frank. You have to believe me…’

  ‘Liars, the pair of you! I knew there was something…but she wouldn’t admit it at first. But I knew, and in the end I got it out of her. She didn’t want to tell me, but I made her!’

  Keeping a wary eye on Tom, he took a step closer to Joe, his manner much calmer. ‘I’m not sorry for what I did to her,’ he growled. ‘The bitch got what she deserved…’ his finger curled round the trigger. ‘It’s your turn now, Joe.’ When he looked Joe in the eye, there was madness in his smile, his voice a mere whisper. ‘I hope you rot in hell!

  ‘No!’ As Tom lunged forward the ear-splitting crack of gunfire echoed across the valley; Tom saw Joe’s chest burst open and he felt the blood splash on his face. Joe was falling before his eyes, ever downwards, arms out and a look of shock on his face as he seemed to float in slow motion to the gully floor, where he settled against the boulders, his face up towards the skies; his body broken.

  ‘Dear God above!’ Deeply shocked, Tom threw himself at Frank, punching and screaming. ‘You’ve killed him, you mad bastard!’ As the reality consumed him, he could hardly breathe. ‘I should have smothered you at birth!’

  Throwing him aside, Frank held him in his gunsights. ‘I could pull this trigger and it would all be over for you,’ he said, ‘but I’ve decided that would be too easy. Leaving you alive would be the best punishment of all. That way, you can spend the rest of your life remembering what your son and that bitch did to me. You’ll blame yourself for not being able to save your precious Joe, and every minute for the rest of your life, you’ll see him, lying down there, looking up at you. And the guilt will drive you crazy.’

  Too dazed to think straight, Tom sobbed helplessly. ‘What in God’s name have you done?’ Torn apart by what he had witnessed, he pleaded, ‘Don’t leave him, Frank…help me get him up…there might still be a chance…’

  Tom never saw it coming. Without warning and with all his might, Frank swung the butt-end of the shotgun. When the older man slumped like a felled ox at his feet, Frank simply turned, spat on the ground, and walked away.

  Nancy was frantic.

  She was rushing about, collecting what she thought Alice might need: nightclothes, toiletries, a scarf for her head. Though she was mindful of the state Alice was in, and how it might be some time before she was strong again.

  She couldn’t shake the terrible image of Alice’s damaged face from her mind, and though somewhere deep inside she knew it was Frank who had done it, she prayed like never before, that she might be wrong. How could she ever again want to look on her eldest son’s face, if it turned out to be his doing after all?

  She was sick with worry about Tom, and ran to the top of the landing. ‘Jimmy!’ She peered over the bannisters, ‘Look again, will you?’ she called down. ‘Is there any sign of him yet?’

  Jimmy gave the same answer, ‘Not yet, no.’ He rushed outside to scour the horizon again.

  On his way back in, the telephone was ringing. ‘Answer it, Jimmy!’ Nancy called down. ‘See who it is!’

  Gingerly, he collected the receiver into his bulky fist. ‘Hello, who is it please?’

  Holding it away from his ear, he waited for the caller to speak. ‘Oh, Mandy, yes all right, I’ll go and fetch her.’

  Nancy was already hurrying across the room to take up the conversation. ‘Hello, Mandy, what’s wrong, love?’ She feared the worst.

  When Nancy replaced the receiver it was to tell Jimmy that she had to go to the hospital immediately.

  ‘Is it Alice?’ Jimmy was frantic. ‘What’s happened?’

  Ignoring Jimmy, Nancy made for the telephone. Quickly dialling the number, Nancy waited a moment. ‘This is Nancy Arnold. I need a taxi now, please…yes, right away.’ She gave her address, together with the destination, ‘Bedford hospital, and it’s very urgent!’

  Within minutes, carrying her coat and a heavy bag, she was pacing up and down at the front gate. ‘It’s all right, Alice, love. I’m on my way.’

  She was anxious about Tom but she knew she couldn’t wait any longer.

  She thought it alarming how in the space of a single day, her whole life and that of her family had been turned upside down.

  In a surprisingly short time the taxi arrived. ‘Don’t forget what I said, Jimmy.’ Nancy reminded him as she climbed into the back seat. ‘Go and find Tom. See if everything’s all right. Tell him Alice is asking for me. Tell him I waited as long as I could, and now he’ll just have to follow on as best he can.’

  ‘Don’t you worry, Nancy,’ Jimmy reassured her, ‘I’ll find him, and I’ll be sure to tell him what you said, and I’ll keep trying the Jacobs’ number.’

  Before locking the doors behind him, he stood and waved as the taxi carried her off, down the lane and out of sight. ‘Find Tom,’ he muttered over and over as he ran across the fields. ‘Find Tom!’

  With fear in his chest like a clenched fist, he ran down to the brook, where he then followed it for a distance, before heading up towards the rise.

  At first he went at some speed, eager to find Tom, worried about Joe, and remembering what had happened to Alice.

  As the way grew more difficult, he slowed down, calling as he went, ‘Tom! Where are you?’

  He stopped awhile to take a breather, then he set off at a brisker pace. When the frightened horse came careering wildly down the bank towards him, he almost lost his footing. ‘Carter!’ His heart skipped a beat. ‘Where’s Tom? Have you thrown ‘im off, is that what you’ve done? Oh, you bad creature!’

  He shouted out loud. ‘Tom, where are you?’ His voice echoed through the hills and died away. There was no response, no sound, other than the heightening breeze whipping through the valley.

  He glanced back; Carter had skidded to a halt, and was now grazing quietly on the fields. ‘Carter…here!’ He gave a long, soft whistle, the like of which Tom used to call Carter in from the fields. ‘Let’s go and find Tom, eh?’

  In answer, the horse violently threw his head back and began scraping the ground with his hoof. ‘Woah, woah boy!’ As Jimmy started towards it, the horse became increasingly nervous, loudly whinnying and ready to take flight.

  ‘Easy, boy…easy.’ Jimmy was convinced that something bad must have happened to scare him like that.

  ‘I can see you’ve got no stomach for going back up there eh.’ He spoke calmly. ‘You stay here then,’ he said. ‘Don’t go anywhere, Carter! Stay right here!’ He had a feeling that one way or another, he might need that faithful old horse.

  Continuing on his way, he had a bad feeling. Something’s wrong, he thought to himself. Where’s Tom? Did he find Frank? Something’s gone wrong, I know it! And where’s Joe?

  Knowing Frank better than most, he knew he could not rule out anything.

  When he got to the top of the rise, Jimmy looked this way and that, searching for Tom, hoping to catch sight of the brothers, but there was no one in sight.

  Cupping his hands about his mouth, he shouted to the elements, ‘Tom…where are you?’

  Nothing.

  Again, ‘Tom!…Joe!’

  Nothing.

  As he quickened his steps, he realised that the misshapen bundle on the ground before him was Tom.

  For one agonising moment he recalled his horror at finding Alice and now, on seeing Tom, his first instinct was to turn and run; to let someone else deal with it, and he was ashamed at such a cowardly thought.

  He now inched forward, sickened by
what he found. Tom’s face and head were caked in blood, and he wasn’t moving.

  ‘Don’t let him be dead. Please don’t let him be dead.’ Unsure what to do, he continued to stare down at Tom, his eyes big as saucers, his mind in chaos.

  He noted how Tom was lying, very still, face up, and to Jimmy’s mind, he was already gone from this world. ‘It was him, wasn’t it, Tom?’ He muttered to himself, ‘Frank’s the only one I know who’s capable of such a thing. Oh, but what sort of cowardly man is he to do this to his own father?’

  He fell to his knees. ‘I’m sorry, Tom. He’s your son I know, but he’s an evil man. I’ve always said he were dangerous. I tried to tell you what he was like but you wouldn’t listen. Nobody ever listened!’

  Gathering Tom into his arms, he began to quietly sob. Suddenly Tom opened his eyes and whispered brokenly, ‘Help me…’

  ‘Tom!’ Jimmy was laughing and crying all at the same time. ‘God! You gave me such a fright.’

  Aware of how fragile the older man was, Jimmy asked, ‘What shall I do, Tom?’ With extraordinary tenderness, he slid his two arms round Tom’s plump body, shifting him into a more comfortable position. ‘I thought you were dead, Tom…I really thought you were dead! You’re too heavy for me to carry all the way down the valley, so shall we wait together and hope they send someone to look for us? Or shall I go back and raise the alarm? I don’t want to leave you here, Tom, but even if we tried our damnedest, I don’t reckon you’d ever make it down, not the way you are. Besides, if I moved you…put you upon Carter, I might do you a damage.’

  Partly veiled by blood, the extensive wound on the side of Tom’s head was shocking to see. ‘You need help badly, Tom. So, will you be all right if I leave you here while I fetch help?’

  Finding it hard to concentrate his mind, Tom was genuinely terrified that Frank might come back to finish the job. He tried to tell Jimmy this, but his throat felt strangled and he couldn’t get the words out.

  Fearing that Tom would actually consider making an attempt at the arduous journey back, Jimmy had to be brutally honest. ‘You’ll do yourself in if you try and make it down,’ he told him. ‘It’s difficult enough for a healthy man, never mind someone who’s badly injured. Don’t even think of it, Tom,’ he urged. ‘You’ll never make it!’ Even as he spoke, Tom’s breathing had grown increasingly laboured.