by D. S. Butler
After everything she’d done for those kids, they could have shown a little more gratitude. With Martin inside, it had only been her taking care of them, and they repaid her by lying and giving her cheek when she dared to confront them about it.
A small smile played on Babs’ lips. She couldn’t wait to hear the inventive lies the pair of them would come up with to try and get out of their latest little escapade.
The truth was Babs was too busy to keep an eye on them all the time. So she needed somebody who could.
There was a rattle as the front door opened, and Babs turned around to see Ruby and Derek both trudging through the front door, bickering as usual.
Babs stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray and then said, “Both of you come into the kitchen.”
She kept her voice steady so the children wouldn’t suspect anything.
Reluctantly they both entered the kitchen and gave their mother matching sulky stares.
Babs turned to Ruby first “How was school?”
Ruby shrugged. “It was all right.”
“What lessons did you study today?”
Ruby looked at her mother, startled. She knew something was going on. Babs didn’t normally pay this much attention to Ruby’s schooling. She wasn’t normally interested.
“The usual subjects,” Ruby said, but she shot her brother a panicked look.
“Your cheeks look a little flushed, Ruby. Maybe you’re coming down with something. You’re not sick, are you?” Babs added, glaring at her daughter.
Ruby’s cheeks flushed. Now she knew her mother had caught her in a lie.
Babs wasn’t finished yet. She turned to Derek next. “Anything you want to tell me, Derek?”
Derek looked towards his sister and then back at Babs, blinking rapidly. She could tell he was trying to work out just how much his mother knew. But she wasn’t going to make it easy for him.
Derek shook his head.
“Are you sure about that? No letters you want to hand over?” Babs arched an eyebrow.
“It’s not as bad as you think… Mum… Honestly. It wasn’t my fault…” Derek stammered as he flinched under his mother’s angry glare.
“I had a visitor at lunchtime. Your English teacher. He informed me that Ruby was off sick today and that you had been fighting at school. So well done, Derek, you’ve got yourself suspended, and Ruby, you should be ashamed of yourself, young lady. Can you imagine the embarrassment I felt with that man on my doorstep asking to come in and visit you at your sickbed, so he could give you a bit of extra work to do at home?”
Both children started to talk at once, but Babs put her hands up. “Enough,” she roared, furious with both of the little bastards.
“I have had it up to here with your behaviour. I’m not standing for it any longer.”
“But Mum, I’m almost old enough to leave school now anyway,” Derek said. “Uncle Tony said it was about time I started working for the family business.”
Babs’ nostrils flared as she laid into her son. “No, it is not time for you to start working. Over my dead body. I’m not having you working for the business when you can’t even stay out of trouble at school. You need a cool head for this business.” She jabbed a finger into Derek’s chest and then turned and did the same to Ruby. “Both of you are going to boarding school in Surrey. If that doesn’t sort you out, nothing will.”
With that little declaration, Babs fell back into her seat beside the kitchen table, feeling exhausted from the confrontation.
Both children gaped, looking at each other in horror, and then looked back at their mother as if they couldn’t quite believe she was serious.
“But Mum,” Ruby said, “I don’t want to go to boarding school.”
“Well, you should have thought about that before you started giving me the runaround,” Babs said unsympathetically as Ruby began to cry.
She could turn on the waterworks for as long as she liked as far as Babs was concerned, but it wasn’t going to move her. She had made her decision, and boarding school would hopefully instil some sense into her children.
She hadn’t made the decision lightly. It wasn’t exactly the done thing around the East End to send your kids to boarding school, or even to pay for education, but they had the money, and Babs knew that if she didn’t do something now, she’d look back on this in ten years, see the mess her children had made of their lives and she would blame herself.
Next, Derek tried appealing to his mother, desperate to change her mind, but Babs wouldn’t budge an inch.
Derek stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind him, and Ruby spent the rest of the evening wailing in her bedroom.
Neither child ate the dinner Babs had prepared, but it didn’t make her feel sorry for them. If anything, it reinforced her decision and made her certain that she’d made the right choice.
Her kids had somehow turned into spoilt brats, and it was time they woke up and learned to live in the real world. They needed to learn some life lessons, and Babs was too busy to teach them herself. So she just had to hope that boarding school would shake some common sense into the pair of them.
Chapter 8
When Linda got home from work, the house was dark and deserted. Geoff must be down at the pub, she thought with a sigh, as she hung up her coat on the hook by the front door.
She carried her bag of shopping into the kitchen and began to unpack it. She’d popped out at lunchtime to the grocer’s and the baker’s, which were just round the corner from Bevels.
She’d made a stew yesterday and that would do for dinner again tonight with some bread and butter on the side.
She often made stews or meals that wouldn’t be ruined if they had to be kept warm, because Geoff was often down at the pub, and Linda never knew when he would return.
She lit the gas beneath the pot to warm the stew and then began to butter the bread.
She usually tried to wait until Geoff got home to have her dinner, but today her stomach was rumbling, so she fixed herself a slice of bread and butter as a stopgap.
But the fluttering in her stomach had nothing to do with hunger. Her stomach was churning because she was nervous.
Lost in thought, she munched on the bread as she leaned against the kitchen windowsill and looked out of the window at the small backyard.
She had made an appointment with the doctor for tomorrow and now she was starting to panic.
Geoff had strictly forbidden her to go to the doctors, but she needed to know what was wrong with her. She should have fallen pregnant by now, so there had to be something wrong.
Every time she brought the matter up in the past, Geoff had flown off the handle, but this time, she had decided to take a different approach and hoped he would understand.
When the front door slammed, Linda jumped.
She put the piece of bread she’d been eating on the breadboard and quickly washed her hands.
“Hello, love,” Linda said to Geoff as he walked into the kitchen.
He stank of booze. Linda suspected he’d been in the pub all afternoon.
Geoff walked across to the stove and peered into the pot.
“Stew again. I’m sick of bleeding stew,” Geoff grumbled.
Linda nodded. “I know, but I’ve been at work all day, and I didn’t –”
Geoff cut her off. “I’ve got a good mind to stop you going in to work. That Mr. Bevel treats you like dirt and only pays you a pittance while you don’t even have time to cook me a proper evening meal.”
Linda shook her head. She knew that she often cooked stew, but there was a reason for that. It was because she never knew what time Geoff would be home!
She was about to tell him so when she stopped herself. She didn’t want to get into an argument. Not when she had to broach the subject of the doctor. That was a sensitive enough issue on its own.
Instead, she said brightly,” I thought I’d pick us up some lamb chops tomorrow, and I’ll cook some potatoes and garden peas t
o go with it.”
Geoff grunted in what Linda took to be approval.
She turned back to the stove so he wouldn’t see how annoyed she was. Honestly, that man! He was going to stop her from going to work, was he? And how exactly would they afford to put any food on the table then? Geoff hadn’t brought any money into the home for over a year.
If Linda hadn’t managed to get her pay rise and promotion, they wouldn’t even be able to afford the rent on this place, let alone buy meat every week.
Linda kept quiet and laid the table as Geoff took his shoes off and got comfortable.
They always ate in the kitchen because it was quite a large size, and they never had visitors or any reason to use the little folding dining table in the front room.
Linda put down a bowl of stew and plate of bread and butter in front of Geoff and stood beside him, waiting.
Eventually, with his mouth still full of stew, he looked up at her and said, “Well, what is it? You’re as jumpy as a rabbit.”
Linda smoothed her hand down her skirt, licked her lips, took a deep breath and then said. “I’ve made an appointment with the doctor tomorrow.”
Geoff stopped eating and looked up at her through narrowed eyes. “What for? Are you ill?”
“Not exactly. It’s just I wanted to see the doctor and find out why we’ve been having so much trouble… you know…” She gestured to her stomach area.
Geoff slammed his fist on the table so hard the cutlery rattled, and Linda jumped.
“Not this again,” he growled. “I’ve told you. You are not to go to the doctors for that. Do you hear me?”
Linda nodded. “Yes, but I don’t see what harm it can do to just ask him if…”
Geoff slammed his fist again on the table and then stood up, leaning intimidatingly over Linda. “You are my wife, and you will do what you are bleeding well told. You will cancel that appointment first thing tomorrow.”
Linda tried to blink away the tears in her eyes and put a hand over her mouth to stifle her sobs.
Geoff straightened up and looked down at her in disgust. “I’ve had enough of this. I’m going back to the pub.”
“But what about your dinner?” Linda asked, pointing at Geoff’s bowl.
“Stick your bleeding stew,” Geoff said, and with one hand, he flicked the bowl over, sending it spinning onto the floor.
It cracked in two, and the meat and gravy spilled onto the tiles.
He stormed out, leaving Linda crying behind him.
* * *
Jimmy Diamond whistled as he strolled along Narrow Street. He was heading towards Linda’s house to return the money she’d given him for the chips the other night.
He was sure Linda wouldn’t mind if he kept the money, but his nan was proud and wouldn’t hear of him taking handouts.
It was just beginning to get dark, and Jimmy suspected his nan had wanted him out of the house so she could have a quick mouthful of the gin she’d stashed in the kitchen cupboard behind the tinned fruit.
He’d just turned the corner when he saw the door to Linda’s house open and Linda’s husband storm out, slamming the door behind him.
Jimmy paused where he was. He didn’t like Linda’s husband very much. He had big ears, big hands, and Jimmy had never seen him smile.
Jimmy didn’t trust people who never smiled.
It was like his nan had always said: There was always something to smile about if you looked hard enough.
He leaned against the brick wall and watched Geoff stalk off in the opposite direction.
When the coast was clear, Jimmy continued to Linda’s house and knocked on the door.
He could hear footsteps, but Linda didn’t open the door straightaway.
He saw the curtains twitch in the front room and then his cheeks flushed. Perhaps Linda had seen it was him and decided she didn’t want to speak to him.
Jimmy turned on the step, preparing to go back home. He would have to tell his nan that Linda hadn’t been home.
But before he could make his getaway, the door opened.
Linda didn’t have the lights on, so it was difficult to see her clearly as she stood in the doorway.
Jimmy dug his hand in his pocket for the money and then held it out to Linda.
“Nan said I should give you the money back.”
As he moved closer, he saw that Linda had been crying. Her eyes and nose were red and she had tear stains on her cheeks.
Jimmy clenched his teeth. He bet Geoff had made her cry.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes,” Linda said wiping her eyes. “I’ve just been cooking and the smoke got in my eyes.”
Jimmy didn’t think she was telling the truth. He thrust his hand forward again, waiting for her to take the money.
Linda poked her head out of the door and looked down the road in the direction her husband had just walked off.
Seeing there was no sign of Geoff, she said, “Do you want to come in for a minute, Jimmy, and have a glass of orange squash?”
Jimmy thought about it for a moment. His nan hadn’t specifically told him to get straight back home after he delivered the money, and he was pretty sure she’d be asleep in the armchair by now and wouldn’t miss him, so he nodded. “Yes, please.”
He followed Linda through into the kitchen. Linda’s house was very much like his nan’s home. The furniture was a little more modern, and she didn’t have so many knickknacks and ornaments, but all the rooms were the same size and layout.
Jimmy sat down at the kitchen table as Linda poured him a glass of orange squash and then set it on the table in front of him.
“How is your nan, Jimmy?”
“She’s very well, thank you,” Jimmy said politely and took a sip of his orange squash.
The sad look on Linda’s face made Jimmy feel bad. He couldn’t help thinking that Linda had been very good friends with his mother, so he should look out for her.
Sometimes, Jimmy wished he was older. He’d like to wallop that horrible Geoff for making Linda cry.
He answered Linda’s questions about school and general things for a little while, and then he edged forward on his chair and asked a question about his mum.
He almost didn’t do it. It always made Linda look sad to talk about Jimmy’s mother, and she was already sad enough today.
But the only way Jimmy could understand what his mother had been like was by talking to people like Linda, who had known her. Other than his nan and Linda, he didn’t know who else he could ask.
“What did she look like?” Jimmy asked, even though he’d asked the very same question just a few months ago when they’d had a similar conversation.
Linda smiled sadly. “She was very beautiful, Jimmy. Everybody thought so. And she liked to wear nice clothes in the latest fashions.”
Jimmy nodded eagerly, waiting for Linda to continue.
“It didn’t matter what she wore, though. She always looked stunning. She would help me with my hair and pick out clothes for me to wear.”
“How long did you know her?”
“A long time. First at school, and then we worked together at Bevels.”
Jimmy nodded, taking all the information on board. The more he knew about his mother, the better chance he would have of finding her killer when he was older.
He stared down at his orange squash, trying to gather the courage to ask his next question.
He didn’t dare look at Linda when he asked, “Do you know who killed her?”
Linda gave a muffled exclamation as she slapped a hand over her mouth. Then after a shocked pause, she reached out and clutched both of Jimmy’s hands. “I know it’s horrible, Jimmy. But the police never found out who did it.
Jimmy wasn’t daft, and he knew Linda was hiding something. For some reason, she didn’t want to tell him the whole truth. Maybe she didn’t think he was old enough yet. He got the same impression from his nan as well… as if they knew more than they were letting on.
&nb
sp; It wasn’t really fair. Kathleen Diamond had been Jimmy’s mother, after all, and he deserved to know the truth.
“I know the police didn’t find out who did it, but I thought you might have some idea? Maybe she said something to you before… you know…”
Linda’s grip on Jimmy’s hands tightened, and her face paled.
“It’s a complicated business, Jimmy, and I don’t know much more than you. You’re better off talking this through with your nan. But maybe you should wait until you’re a little bit older.”
Jimmy pulled his hands away. He didn’t want to wait until he was older. He was plenty old enough right now.
He’d thought that Linda might understand, and as he drained his orange squash and said goodbye, he felt let down.
Chapter 9
When Arthur Patterson got home from the boxing club where he worked, his wife, Barbara, met him at the door.
“Thank goodness you are home,” she said in an urgent whisper as she took Arthur’s coat from him.
Arthur frowned. “Why? What is it? What has happened?”
He was more than a little concerned. His wife was a sensible woman and dealt with the problems in the home without much fuss.
Arthur was a real man’s man. He’d enjoyed a short career as a boxer when he was younger, but he was past all that now. These days, he spent his time cleaning the club. But that was hard graft, and all he wanted to do when he got home was eat his tea and then sit with his feet up in front of the fire in his favourite armchair.
Studying his wife’s worried face, it occurred to Arthur that his son may have got himself in trouble again. It was becoming a frequent occurrence, and despite the fact Arthur had given him the belt three times this week already, it seemed like the boy’s spirit couldn’t be broken.
“I had a visitor this afternoon,” his wife said. Then she lowered her voice and moved even closer, whispering in Arthur’s ear, “From Dave Carter.”
Arthur’s eyes widened, and he felt the blood drain from his face as he stared at his wife. “Dave Carter?” Even to his own ears, Arthur’s voice sounded panicked.