East End 02-East End Diamond

by DS as Dani Oakley Butler

  * * *

  Babs whimpered with fear. That horrible bitch still held her by the hair, and Babs didn’t dare try and escape, thanks to the knife pointed to her throat. Images of Old Mo having his throat cut kept flashing through Babs’ mind. She hadn’t prayed for years but now muttered the Lord’s Prayer.

  She wasn’t ready to go yet, not like this. One reassuring thought in a tide of terror floated into her mind — if she were to die, she would be reunited with Emily and her mother and father. But with all the bad things Babs had done over the years, she’d be more likely to go to hell than heaven.

  She squeezed her eyes tightly closed and willed herself not to cry.

  She thought about poor Ruby and Derek. She hadn’t done well by either of them, but she loved them to distraction. She swore to herself if she got out of this alive, she would be a better mother. After Emily had died, she had first neglected them and then gone overboard with affection, spoiling them. No wonder the poor kids had turned out like they had. It was all Babs’ fault. She had messed everything up.

  Babs had never been a quitter, though. She wasn’t dead yet, and although she didn’t have any weapons or anything with which to fight back, she could still use her wits.

  “I don’t have anything to do with this, so you had better let me go,” Babs insisted.

  The young Chinese woman smiled. “Mr. Carter is a very good friend of ours. He told us somebody was cheating us and told us where to find you.”

  Those words were like a punch in the gut to Babs. Dave Carter? That didn’t make any sense. Dave Carter had wanted a cut of the Patterson’s business, and it had taken Babs’ skill in the art of persuasion to convince Gerald to work with the Mortons instead. Was this sour grapes? Had Dave punished them by telling this Chinese gang they were pushing drugs on their patch?

  Or had it all been a ruse? Had he only tricked them into thinking he was interested in the Patterson’s business?

  Oh, Babs hated Dave Carter! Why had he done this to her? Surely it was Martin he really wanted to hurt? But then, maybe Dave had thought Martin would muscle in and take over when he got out.

  Babs wished Martin was here, or Tony. Why had she come alone? She could have brought Freddie or Henry along and at least had some protection.

  She twisted in the other woman’s grip and through gritted teeth, said, “I’m warning you. I’m married to Martin Morton, and when he hears about this, he will be out for your blood.”

  To Babs’ irritation, the woman simply smiled. “I’m sure Mr. Carter can handle Martin Morton.”

  * * *

  Just when Babs began to accept it was all over, she heard the sound of sirens in the distance.

  “You’d better get out of here,” she warned. “That’s the coppers.”

  Babs tried to come up with a plan quickly. She’d need a good story to tell the police when they turned up. Babs smiled. The best plan of action was to set the blame at somebody else’s door. She planned to tell the police the drugs belong to the Chinese.

  The young Chinese woman looked distracted and barked out orders to the men who had been carrying the crates down the stairs. Suddenly, it was pandemonium. The young Chinese woman released Babs with a shove and everyone tried to run to the exit.

  Idiots, thought Babs. That was exactly where the police would be. Going that way, they would run straight into them.

  Babs knew her best chance of escape was slipping out the back alleyway, so she rushed across to the changing rooms. There was no sign of any of the boxers. They had obviously done a runner at the first sign of trouble. Typical men, Babs thought.

  At the back of the gym, Babs saw what she had been hoping to find— a small window. She climbed on top of the bench, which was scattered with discarded boxing gloves and men’s shorts.

  Luckily the window opened easily. Unfortunately, Babs wasn’t as young as she once was and didn’t have much strength in her upper arms. Four times she tried to leap up to the window, her feet scrabbling against the wall, only to collapse back down into a heap on the bench.

  Sodding hell, thought Babs. Where was a ladder when you needed one?

  With one last burst of strength, Babs jumped, gripping onto the windowsill and heaving herself up.

  Holding on tightly to the window frame, she tried to manoeuvre her body carefully, swinging one leg over the window sill until she was sitting akimbo.

  Nearly there, she thought with a grin.

  She slid her other leg over, intending to slip down into the alleyway.

  Sadly for Babs, her descent wasn’t quite as graceful as she had planned. Her skirt caught on the window latch, and there was a loud ripping sound as Babs tumbled to the ground, leaving most of her skirt attached to the window.

  But there was no time to worry about that now. Babs scrambled up onto her hands and knees, but before she could make her getaway, a deep voice behind her said, “Mrs. Morton, are you aware that your knickers are on show?”

  Shocked and mortified, Babs turned around to give the pervert a piece of her mind. But before she did so, she realised the man standing next to her was Inspector Peel.

  Of all the bleeding coppers in London, it had to be him.

  Babs got to her feet and put her hands on her hips. “Had a good look, have you? You dirty old man.”

  She would have loved to smack the smirk off Inspector Peel’s face, but instead she was manhandled along the alleyway and led back to the spot in front of the boxing club, where all the other policemen were handling the suspects they’d rounded up.

  Babs could have died of humiliation. A crowd had already gathered on the opposite side of the street, and people were laughing at the fact she was standing there in her undergarments.

  Finally, one of the young policemen handed Babs his jacket, and she quickly wrapped it around herself gratefully.

  “You haven’t got any right to hold me here,” Babs shouted out at Inspector Peel. “I haven’t done anything wrong. I just happened to be passing.”

  “Do you often go for a walk half naked, Mrs. Morton?” Inspector Peel enquired loudly, and there was laughter from the nosy parkers gathered on the other side of the street.

  Babs scowled. “My skirt was ripped. It could have happened to anyone.”

  But none of the policemen paid her any further attention until one of the officers escorted her to a police car.

  * * *

  Tony Morton drove like a maniac to get to Patterson’s boxing club. It was only a few streets away, but he had to get there as fast as possible. What he had heard about the altercation at the club had made his blood run cold.

  He couldn’t believe Martin just didn’t care. He had always been a cold bastard, but this defied belief. Babs could be difficult and bloody-minded, but she was still his wife and the mother of his children.

  As Tony approached the boxing club, he realised he was too late. The police had beaten him to it. He didn’t dare drive down the street and instead parked up just on the corner. Although he wanted to help Babs, there was no point in getting himself involved.

  He quickly spotted Babs as she was being escorted to a police car. She was mouthing off and generally making life difficult for the officers, but the thing that really caught Tony’s eye was the fact that Babs wasn’t wearing anything other than her knickers on her lower half. He blinked in shock. What the bloody hell had gone on?

  He held back, watching, even after the car containing Babs had driven away. Someone was taken out of the building on a stretcher, but Tony wasn’t close enough to see who that was. The rest of the people being rounded up by the police were Chinese. He thought he might recognise a couple of them as belonging to the Fang family from Ming Street, but he couldn’t say for sure.

  After the last police car left, Tony approached the group of gossips on the opposite side of the road, who had been watching the show and enjoying the entertainment.

  “What happened?” Tony asked addressing them all.

  The smirks and whispers q
uickly died down when they saw it was Tony Morton standing beside them.

  Most of the men and women kept their heads down and rushed off, but big Martha, who liked to think of herself as a woman who spoke her mind, remained behind.

  “They arrested your sister-in-law.”

  “I saw that. Do you know why?”

  “Drugs,” big Martha said bluntly, folding her arms under her ample bosom.

  Tony shook his head. Drugs? Since when had the Mortons had anything to do with drugs?

  “Are you sure?”

  “I heard one of the police officers talking about it.”

  “Why wasn’t Babs wearing a skirt?”

  Big Martha broke out into a huge grin. “She ripped it, trying to escape.”

  Tony chatted to big Martha for a little longer, trying to find out as much as he could about what had gone down at the boxing club. He probably stayed longer than he needed to, but he was dreading what he had to do next.

  He had to go back to the club and tell his brother that Babs had been arrested.

  CHAPTER 41

  T ony wasn’t sure how he expected Martin to react when he gave him the news that Babs had been arrested, but he certainly hadn’t expected him to laugh.

  They were sitting down in the living area of the flat above the club. Ruby was downstairs, talking to Frieda Longbottom, who was cleaning the club.

  It wasn’t just a chuckle, either. It was a full on belly laugh, and as Martin wiped the tears from his eyes, Tony asked, “What the bloody hell is wrong with you? Has prison softened your head?”

  Martin’s laughter disappeared. “There’s nothing soft about me.”

  “What are we going to do, Martin? She’s been arrested, and they were talking about drugs.”

  “Drugs are a mug’s game,” Martin said with a sly smile.

  Tony shook his head in exasperation. He just couldn’t make his brother see sense. How was he supposed to drive the information through his thick skull?

  “This is serious. She could go to prison.”

  Martin shrugged. “It serves the stupid cow right. She wanted to get involved, well now she is. I’m pleased the Old Bill are going to take the daft mare off my hands for a bit. They are doing me a favour.”

  Tony ran his hands through his hair. He and Babs had certainly had run-ins during the time Martin was inside. But she didn’t deserve this. At the end of the day, she was family.

  “You can’t just leave her to rot, Martin. She’s done a lot for you. She stood by you while you were inside.”

  Martin snorted and looked unimpressed. “Don’t think that was down to loyalty, bruv. She just knew which side her bread was buttered. Babs has only ever been interested in money. Clearly she got greedy, and that’s why she went after the drugs.”

  Tony shook his head. He couldn’t believe that. Surely even Babs wouldn’t have taken a decision like that without informing him or Martin.

  “I don’t know, Martin. There’s something fishy about the whole thing.”

  “You’re reading too much into it. They’ll probably just give her a slap on the wrist anyway.”

  “Tell me you are at least going to sort her out a brief.”

  “No, Tony. She wanted to do this alone so she can find out what alone really means.”

  Both men turned as Ruby entered the flat. She’d obviously overheard a little of their conversation.

  “What’s happened, Dad?” she asked as she walked towards them.

  Martin got to his feet and stretched. “Nothing, sweetheart. It was just a bit of business. Now, are you ready to go to visit Grandma Violet?”

  Tony couldn’t believe it. Surely Martin wasn’t going to try and hide something like this from his own daughter.

  “So you are just going to leave her there?”

  Martin gave him a scowl, warning him to shut up.

  “Who?” Ruby asked.

  “Nothing,” Martin snapped. “Go and wait outside. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  CHAPTER 42

  Ruby’s cheeks burned in humiliation as she left the room. Clearly, her father still considered her a child and didn’t want to discuss matters in front of her. She was slowly coming to realise her father wasn’t all she’d believed him to be. It was easy to look up to somebody and idolise them when you hardly ever saw them, but listening to how he talked to Ruby’s mother and Grandma Violet, had opened Ruby’s eyes. She still thought he was clever, and she was proud of him, but Ruby realised he wasn’t the infallible man she had once thought.

  Uncle Tony was really upset about something, and Ruby wanted to know what it was. She walked down the stairs and thought about eavesdropping at the bottom, but then she heard her father’s voice, ordering her to wait outside.

  Ruby huffed out a breath and stomped outside the club.

  She thought about pressing her ear to the door, but that was pointless. There was no way she would hear anything from outside.

  She leaned back on the wall beside the club and clutched her cardigan around her tightly. There was a chill in the air, and she wished she had brought her coat. Of course, her father didn’t care that she was out there freezing to bits while he was toasty and warm in the flat.

  Ruby gazed up at the grey clouds overhead and hoped it wouldn’t start to rain. If it did, she decided she would go back inside the club whether he liked it or not. If he wanted a private conversation why didn’t he go outside?

  She was supposed to be going to visit Grandma Violet with her father, but she wasn’t looking forward to that much. They had seen less and less of Ruby’s grandmother over the years because Ruby’s mother really didn’t get along with her. If it wasn’t for Uncle Tony, they would have hardly ever seen Grandma Violet.

  Not that Grandma Violet ever looked particularly happy to see Ruby or Derek when they turned up. She was a prickly so and so, and she made Ruby feel like she was a disappointment to her.

  After everything that had happened recently, especially their father getting out of prison, Ruby couldn’t believe that Derek hadn’t come home. He’d spent the whole summer with friends and then had gone straight back to that horrible school. Ruby couldn’t understand it. She had hated being away from the East End, but Derek seemed to have taken to the posh life like a duck to water. He hadn’t even wanted to rush home to see their father.

  When their mother had telephoned him, Derek had promised to return at half-term, which was still weeks away.

  Ruby folded her arms and shifted position, so now she had her hip resting against the wall. She suppressed a shiver and sighed. She hoped whatever they were talking about up there wouldn’t take much longer.

  Lost in her thoughts, she didn’t even notice the young boy approaching her until he spoke, “Excuse me, is Mr. Morton in there?”

  Ruby turned around to see a young, dark-haired boy with a slight dimple in his chin. She narrowed her eyes and wondered why a young lad would want to talk to her father.

  Ruby frowned. “Yes. What did you want to see him about?”

  The lad looked down the street as if he was considering running off.

  “It’s private,” he eventually replied.

  Ruby didn’t bother to hide her scorn. What on earth could a little pipsqueak like that have to talk to her father about? “You can tell me,” Ruby said. “He’s my dad.”

  The boy nodded. “I know.” He hesitated for a moment and then he added, “I’m Jimmy, Jimmy Diamond.”

  Ruby tensed and looked at Jimmy again, this time paying more attention. She had heard gossip while she was growing up. She remembered being tormented by a group of nasty children at school, who’d teased her and said her father had fathered a bastard.

  Ruby had gone home in tears and asked her mother about it. Her mum had sat her down and told her it was a load of old bollocks. Her mother had always had a way with words. She reassured Ruby that it was just nasty gossip spread by people who were jealous of the Mortons’ success. She said Ruby should just ignore the rumours
and tell the children at her school it wasn’t true.

  Although children could be cruel, they also had short memories, because after those first couple of years at school, everyone seemed to forget about the matter, and nobody gossiped about the Morton bastard anymore.

  “I think I might be your brother,” Jimmy said, chewing on his lower lip nervously.

  Ruby wasn’t angry. The poor lad had probably just heard the same gossip she had. She actually felt sorry for him.

  “You’re not my brother,” Ruby said kindly. “I don’t know who told you that, but it isn’t true.”

  Jimmy’s face fell, and he looked down at the ground in disappointment as he shook his head.

  “My nan told me, and she wouldn’t lie.”

  Ruby shrugged. “Maybe that’s because she heard the gossip, but it’s not true, Jimmy.”

  Ruby turned her head when she heard raised voices in the club. Uncle Tony and her father were obviously getting into quite a heated row.

  “Look,” Ruby said. “You seem like a nice boy, and I’m not saying this to be mean, but I heard some rumours years ago as well. I asked my mum about it, and she told me it was just silly gossip.”

  Jimmy looked disappointed at first, and then he tilted his chin in an obstinate fashion. “I still need to talk to him.”

  Ruby shook her head. She couldn’t even imagine what her father’s reaction would be today. He wasn’t normally an easy man to talk to, and he barely had enough time for his own children, let alone some silly boy who’d been listening to gossip. And today he was going to be even worse than usual after his argument with Uncle Tony.

  “I wouldn’t do it if I were you,” Ruby said.

  But Jimmy’s face took on an even more determined expression, and Ruby realised she was fighting a losing battle.

  “Suit yourself, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  Suddenly, a loud bang sounded from inside the club, and then her father and Uncle Tony exploded out of the swing doors, tumbling onto the street.