“Fuckin’ shut it!” he shouted, aiming a kick at the dog, which reacted by launching itself at him. Before it could latch its teeth around his leg, there was a loud bang followed by a spatter of blood from the dog as it dropped to the ground.
Jenny ran to Tyson and Leroy stood up, heading towards his precious dog. “That’s my fuckin’ dog. You just shot it, you bastard!”
“Shut it, sit down!” said Mad Trevor, aiming his gun at Leroy. “You, get over there,” he said to Jenny, pointing to where Leroy was sitting. “I don’t give a shit about your dog. I wanna know what you been up to. Is it true? You been buying H from the Cheetham Crew, and getting him and Winston to sell it in Longsight?”
Leroy shrugged his shoulders. “You’re a fuckin’ shithouse, Carl! Have you told him about you buying it too?”
In his haste to punish Leroy, Carl hadn’t thought about the possibility of things backfiring on him. “I never,” he protested, but his words were wasted. He couldn’t back them up.
“You know summat, Leroy, you’re right. The guy is a shithouse. I could never figure out why you hung out with him. Anyway, we don’t need him no more.”
Trevor shifted his aim to Carl and took a quick shot at his chest, which was followed by several shots to his head and torso from a fellow gang member. Carl felt the impact of the first bullet, as though someone had jabbed him really hard in the chest. Then there was nothing.
-------------------
Friday 14th June 1991 – 7.33pm
Once they had made it across the grass verge, the car was back on the pavement. It bounced off the edging, then Yansis swung left into the road, skidding, the tyres screeching. The car ricocheted before regaining its momentum and leaving a trail of muddy imprints on the road. Rita spotted a silver Golf GTi passing them in the opposite direction. It seemed to be in just as much of a rush as they were.
Thankfully, there were no cars other than Leroy’s outside Jenny’s house when they arrived. Rita took this as a good sign. When Yansis pulled up, Rita ran out. Then several things happened at once. She could feel a restraining hand on her arm. Sense curtains twitching as frightened neighbours remained indoors. Hear Yansis telling her to wait. See blood on the path. Bloody footprints. Heading away from the house. The blood getting thicker towards the front door. The door left ajar.
They’d already been.
“Wait a minute, Rita. I’ll go in and have a look.”
But she couldn’t wait. She had to know. She had to see for herself.
-------------------
Friday 14th June 1991 – 7.29pm
As soon as Trevor aimed the gun at Carl, Leroy jumped up from his chair. He grabbed Jenny and dragged her in front of him. Then Trevor quickly switched his aim back to Leroy.
“You’re next,” he said.
“Shoot a pregnant woman, would you?” asked Leroy.
“Please don’t,” Jenny begged. “Leroy, let go!”
“Let the fuckin’ woman go!”
“No way!” shouted Leroy.
Mad Trevor was out of options. He took one shot at Jenny. Then, when she dropped to the floor, it was open season on Leroy. As soon as Mad Trevor started shooting, the rest of the gang joined in. Once Trevor was certain there was no way Leroy could survive, they hurried from the house.
-------------------
Friday 14th June 1991 – 7.35pm
Rita raced through the hall. They were too late. Inside the living room, the bodies of Jenny, Carl, Leroy and Tyson the dog lay in pools of blood. It was everywhere; soaked into the carpets, splashed onto the sofas and dotted around the walls. The stench of human excrement hung in the air.
Her first impulse was to run to Jenny, crying and screaming her name. Meanwhile, Yansis checked the other bodies for a pulse, “They’re both dead,” he said. “The dog’s dead too.”
This drew Rita’s attention to Leroy. “I don’t care about that scum! What about my sister?”
Before Yansis could stop her, she rushed up to Leroy and vented her anger by kicking the body repeatedly, shouting, “It’s his fault. The bastard! He killed my sister.”
Yansis grabbed Rita, pulling her away from the body while she fought to break free.
“Rita, Rita! You cannot do this. He is dead! It is wrong. Calm down.”
After a few moments struggling, and with no other outlet, her overwhelming emotions culminated in a flood of tears. Yansis drew her close, attempting to soothe her pain, but there was something more important he needed to do. Gently releasing her, he approached Jenny’s body and checked her for signs of life.
“Rita, Jenny is still alive,” he whispered. Before Rita had a chance to react, he added. “Stay calm now. I think she is in a very bad way.”
Rita knelt down next to Jenny, taking her hand and speaking to her in as calm a tone as she could while trying to stifle her sobs.
“Jenny, can you hear me?”
While Rita was kneeling next to Jenny, Yansis phoned the emergency services. Acting on their instructions, he grabbed a clean tea towel from the kitchen and used it to staunch the bleeding from the wound at the top of Jenny’s left breast.
“What are you doing?” Rita cried out.
“I have to stop the flow of blood Rita until the ambulance arrives. It is important. You mustn’t touch it, not with the mud on your hands.”
His words penetrated Rita’s fuddled brain. She watched as he tried to hold the wound together, noting how the blood seeped through the tea towel despite Yansis’s efforts.
“Rita, I also need to look for an exit wound. Please can you wash your hands and find another tea towel that we can use? It looks as though there is a lot of blood coming from underneath Jenny.”
Rita followed his instructions, rushing around the house so she could be back at Jenny’s side. She relied on Yansis to keep a clear head, and carry out whatever medical attention was necessary until the emergency services arrived. Meanwhile, she gripped onto Jenny’s hand, staring into her face and clinging to every response. When Jenny groaned as Yansis tended her wounds, Rita felt her sister’s pain.
She recalled hearing somewhere that it’s important to keep someone awake to prevent them dying. She didn’t know how true it was, but knowing what a dire state Jenny was in, she was desperate to maintain contact.
“Jenny, it’s me, Rita,” she sobbed. “Don’t you go bloody dying on me. I need you to stay awake. Come on love.”
She was rewarded by a weak blink of Jenny’s eyes. As Rita heaved a sigh of relief, she tried to think what she could talk about. What would keep Jenny going until they could get an ambulance to her? Then it came to her.
“I know you want to see Gran and Granddad, but they’re not ready for you yet. I still need you here. You’ll have to wait for Gran’s home baking.”
Once she had started, she couldn’t stop. The tears streamed down her face as she recounted tales from their childhood and the times they had shared with their precious grandparents.
“Do you remember when my granddad used to take us swimming, and then he’d take us to Sivori’s afterwards for a cup of Oxo to warm us up? He used to put pepper in his, so our John asked to try it once to see what it was like. No matter how much he told him he wouldn’t like it, he insisted on giving it a try. He coughed his bloody head off for ages after, then he had the cheek to blame my granddad for putting it in his drink.”
She kept up her reminiscences despite her upset, watching her sister for signs of life. She and Yansis remained kneeling on the floor next to Jenny for several minutes till they were disturbed. Rita sensed another presence in the room, then heard the sound of someone approaching them. She looked up to see her mother, immobile, her hand covering her mouth in shock as she took in her surroundings.
“Oh my God!” she yelled, withdrawing her hand when she caught sight of Jenny.
Rita rushed to her side. “It’s OK, Mam, calm down. She’s still alive. We’ve called for an ambulance. They’ll be here soon. We need to keep talkin
g to Jenny, keep her awake.”
Her mother took tentative steps on trembling legs, and knelt down next to Jenny. “Jenny, love. Are you alright? Can you hear me?”
Rita watched Jenny’s lips parting, and knelt by her mother’s side. “She’s trying to say something. What is it, Jenny?”
Jenny’s facial muscles tensed as she uttered the words, “Rita … I want you … to …”
But the effort of speech was proving too much, and Jenny’s voice drifted off. Rita and her mother exchanged puzzled looks. Although she was curious, Rita found it distressing watching her sister struggling to speak. “It’s OK,” she said, stroking Jenny’s hair. “Save your energy. You can tell me later, when you’re feeling better.”
Despite her brave words, Rita wasn’t 100% certain whether Jenny would pull through, and she had to walk away for a moment as emotion overwhelmed her. While she was sobbing in the hallway, the ambulance crew arrived. Yansis took Joan gently to one side so the crew could tend to Jenny.
“She’s still breathing,” Rita heard someone announce, and the three of them ran after the ambulance crew as they took Jenny out on a stretcher. Rita and Joan got into the ambulance with Jenny, not wanting to leave her for a minute, and Yansis followed them in the car.
“How did you know? Rita asked her mother on the way there.
“Julie rang me. She’d been trying to get hold of Jenny but there was no answer, so she rang me.”
“What about Dad?”
“He’s in the pub, but I’ve sent Denise from next door round there to tell him.”
There wasn’t much else to say. All they could do now was speculate and leave it in the hands of the professionals. Rita watched the ambulance man looking after Jenny, and hoped to God that they had got to her in time. She was glad when they reached the Manchester Royal Infirmary.
Chapter 33
Friday 14th June 1991 – 7.55pm
It’s funny what thoughts pop into your head in moments of crisis. Rita remembered thinking when they arrived at the hospital that it was just like on TV. The ambulance crew wheeled Jenny into the building and fled along the corridors, shouting out details of her vital signs to nursing staff, on the way to a treatment room. As Rita and Joan rushed to keep up with them, Rita was aware of bright lights, people staring and the drone of other voices in the background.
When they reached their destination, they wheeled Jenny straight in for assessment, and asked Rita and her mother to wait outside. One of the nurses led them to a small waiting room and stopped with them to take Jenny’s details.
“What’s happening in there? What are they going to do to her?” asked Rita.
“We’ll know more when the doctor’s had a look at her and decided what treatment is needed. Once I’ve finished taking the details, I’ll go and see what I can find out for you,” said the nurse.
“OK, thanks.”
They had been waiting for the nurse to return from the treatment room, for a few minutes, when Yansis joined them.
“We’re waiting for the nurse to come out and tell us what’s happening,” Rita babbled. “The doctor’s got to see Jenny. We won’t know anything till then. She’s just asked us if there’s any other family we want to contact. Jesus, Yansis, it must be bad if she’s asked that!”
“It is OK, Rita,” he said. “It is natural for her to ask that. Jenny has been shot. We don’t know how bad it is yet till the doctor has seen her. Do you want me to ring anyone?”
“My mam’s already sent someone to the pub to let Dad know. What about our John, Mam?”
“I’ll ring the army base when your dad gets here.”
“Would you ring Julie and Vinny for me please, Yansis, and tell them what’s happened? I don’t want to go anywhere in case the nurse or doctor comes out. Have you got enough change for the phone?”
“Yes, it is OK. Try not to worry. The doctor might take some time.”
After a few minutes, the nurse came to see them and sat next to Joan.
“Mrs Steadman. The doctors are with your daughter now. I’m afraid there isn’t much we can tell you at the moment. We’re doing everything we can, and we’ll come back to you if we have any more news.”
“What about the baby?” asked Joan. “She’s not due for another four weeks.”
“We’ll do all we can to save the baby too. A 36 week old foetus is fully formed and has a good chance of survival.”
The nurse patted Joan on the knee before standing up and leaving the room.
Rita didn’t know how to feel; despair that the nurse hadn’t given any guarantees, or relief that at least Jenny was still alive. She wasn’t thinking about the baby at the moment as she hadn’t formed an emotional attachment. All her thoughts were with Jenny.
It turned out to be a long wait, during which time her father arrived. As soon as she saw him Rita felt irritated at his inebriated state. He stormed into the waiting room, complaining because it had taken him a while to find them, and demanding to know what was going on.
“I’ve just been to our Jenny’s. The coppers wouldn’t let me near the place. They said she’s been taken to hospital. What’s happened? Is she havin’ the baby early, or summat?”
“The doctor’s with her now,” said Joan. “She’s in a bad way, Ged ...”
Joan’s voice was shaking, and Rita could see that her mother was having difficulty carrying on, so she picked up the story.
“She’s been shot, Dad, and she’s lost a hell of a lot of blood. The nurse came out before, and said they were doing all they could to save her. They’re going to let us know as soon as they can tell us anything else.”
“Shot? How the hell did that happen? How long will it be till they tell us owt?”
“We don’t know. They can’t tell us anything else yet.”
“Well that’s not bleedin’ good enough. I want to know what’s happening to my daughter!”
Rita grabbed his arm before he could get away, and Yansis stood between Ged and the door.
“Don’t, Dad, this isn’t helping,” she said. “The doctors need to spend their time with Jenny, not with us. It’ll take as long as it takes.”
Ged turned back, yanked his arm from Rita’s grip, muttered some profanity under his breath, then plonked himself on the seat next to Joan who explained to him the details of what had taken place.
“What about our John?” he asked, a few seconds later. “Has anyone rang the army base?”
“No,” Joan wept. “I was waiting for you. “Me and Rita didn’t want to go anywhere in case the doctor came in. Would you ring them for me, please love?”
“I suppose I’ll have to, won’t I?”
He returned a few minutes later.
“They couldn’t put him on the phone, but they’ll get an urgent message to him. I don’t know how long it’ll take him to get home, though. He’ll have to get a flight as soon as he can.”
The wait for the doctor seemed interminable. Despite her father’s irritating behaviour, Rita was determined to stay in the waiting room. She wanted to be there to hear any news of Jenny’s condition. Thankfully, her father seemed to sober up a bit during the time they were waiting, so his behaviour improved a little.
When the doctor stepped into the room, wearing a grave expression, Rita could feel her heart speeding up. And when he asked who the next of kin was, it went into overdrive.
“I’m afraid there’s no easy way to tell you this,” the doctor began. “We did everything we could but, I’m sorry, we weren’t able to save your daughter. She had already lost too much blood by the time she arrived at the hospital, and I’m afraid it was just too late. However, we were able to save the baby.”
Nobody spoke, and for a few seconds the doctor stood, awkwardly awaiting their reactions. Rita began to cry, her emotions taking over while her mind was struggling to process the information.
“But she was still conscious when we were with her,” she said, between sobs.
“She lost consciousness s
hortly after arrival. Unfortunately, she never regained consciousness, and we were unable to revive her.”
“C-can we see her?” asked Rita.
“Yes, we’re just transferring her to another room, but once she’s ready, I’ll send one of my nurses out to let you know.”
“OK, thank you.”
Once the doctor had gone, Rita’s grief turned to fury. She thought about how she had warned her father about the danger Jenny was in, and how he’d treated her concern with scorn.
“This is all your fault!” she shouted. “I told you what Leroy was like. I told you Jenny was in danger, but you wouldn’t listen! You were too busy protecting your own interests, and now look what’s happened.”
“What could I have done? As if she would have listened to me! Anyway, it wasn’t Leroy that shot her.”
“Don’t split hairs with me, Dad! It was because of Leroy. If he hadn’t been involved with drugs gangs, they wouldn’t have come to Jenny’s looking for him.”
Once she had vented her anger, she started sobbing uncontrollably. Yansis took hold of her, trying to calm her down while Joan tried to pacify Ged.
“Come on, Rita,” said Yansis. “We need you to be calm so that we can go to see Jenny when the nurse comes for us.”
She was thankful that she had Yansis because, as far as she was concerned, her parents had let her down badly. She wept in his arms for a few minutes until the nurse came to fetch them.
Rita attempted to compose herself as they approached Jenny’s bedside. Her sister looked so peaceful lying there, as though she were sleeping. Rita and Joan each took a seat at either side of Jenny while Ged and Yansis hovered in the background.
Rita held Jenny’s hand, which was still lukewarm; it was hard to believe she was gone. She sat with her for a short while then said her goodbyes and stood up, indicating to her father that he should take the seat. Rita moved to a chair further along. She felt Yansis’s comforting hands on her shoulders.
Once Ged was faced with the grim reality, his sorrow, previously hidden behind a cloak of anger, now manifested itself in a torrent of tears. Rita found it difficult to see her parents in such despair. For a few minutes, she sat weeping silently into a tissue. She was so absorbed in grief that she failed to notice the sound of the baby crying until the nurse approached them with the child in her arms.
A Gangster's Grip: The Riverhill Trilogy: Book 2 Page 22