by Daisy White
‘TRAGIC LOVE TRIANGLE . . .
Rita Stonehill, who threw herself in front of the Derby Trial runners at Brighton Racecourse on Saturday, was devastated after her love affair with two men ended in embarrassment. Miss Stonehill’s boyfriend, jockey Joey Castle, was apparently unaware that his girlfriend had also been seeing his trainer, Tommy O’Mara. Our source confirms that on Friday night Miss Stonehill was seen arguing with both men, after another jockey blew the whistle on the sordid threesome.’
No wonder Rita’s brother was on the warpath. Normally the Herald is pretty careful with their stories, so it must all check out, but it’s a nasty little gossip piece. I peer at the byline — Benjy Harley. Is he one of the much-hated night editors? I can’t quite remember, but I make a note to ask Kenny.
Eileen is ushering another customer out as I stagger in with the loaded tray. “Ruby, can you do Miss Canvell’s nails, please? She’s over near the basins, and she wants that poppy red colour.”
Shoving Rita out of my mind, I dole out the tea and then settle down to paint the girl’s nails.
* * *
By Friday night I haven’t heard from Rita’s brother again, so I assume he has calmed down and gone on annoy somebody else. The only reason people call and ask for me when there’s trouble is because occasionally I run Ruby Baker’s Investigation Bureau out of Johnnie’s back room at the salon. Well, I’ve only done it twice actually, but I do get calls asking me to get people out of, or sometimes, into trouble. Life has been so busy with bringing up Summer and getting my hairdressing qualifications that I’ve been saying no to everything lately, but I haven’t ruled out doing another investigation. Although I’m trying not to make assumptions, I haven’t forgotten that Joanna told me Rita didn’t kill herself, and now Rita’s brother gets in touch . . .
After work, I get changed quickly, chucking my sweaty dress into the laundry basket and splashing my hot face with water. Mary has gone straight over to the beach to meet Ted, because he’s doing the vegetable delivery for the markets tonight. I’ve only managed to speak to Kenny once since we kissed, and he was so normal I wondered if I’d dreamt the whole thing.
Today, Johnnie has arranged a party at a friend’s house in Falmer. Apparently, his friend, Roger, is an English student at the university, and since his parents are away, he and his sister have decided to have a few friends round. The university students are always pretty wild, and they throw great parties, so I’m looking forward to the night out. And I’m sort of looking forward to kissing Ken as well . . . I really hope it isn’t going to be awkward between us, though.
Walking down to the pier, I wave at Pearl whizzing past on her Lambretta, and I can see Victoria’s sleek blonde head in the crowd near the fish and chip stand. The sea air ruffles my short hair, and the sizzling heat of the day is cooling to a gentle warmth. The familiar Brighton smells of candy floss, cigarette smoke and seaweed float around me. I spot Kenny leaning against the railings with James, and my heart does a silly little flip. Johnnie is sitting in his car, one long leg on the kerb, the other propped on the door seal. He’s laughing at something Victoria is telling him. Sometimes I can’t believe how different my life is now. I was desperate to leave Croydon. I never want to leave Brighton.
“Hi, Rubes!” Kenny grins at me, with no trace of embarrassment whatsoever. He pecks me on the cheek just like he normally does, but there is a twinkle in his grey eyes.
In contrast to his cool manner, I am a total idiot, and act like a schoolgirl on her first date. I can feel my cheeks reddening every time I catch his eye. We all squash into the back of Johnnie’s car. Kenny puts an arm round my shoulders to ‘make room’ for the others, pulling me closer than is actually necessary. I catch Johnnie watching us. He winks.
The party is in a large, rather grand house, on the edge of Falmer and not too far from the university. Johnny’s friends seem to own properties all over the place. His parents have a place in Chelsea, he goes shooting in Scotland, and stays at grand country houses in Cornwall. Wherever he goes, he seems to be welcomed with open arms. When he happens to be in Brighton, the rest of us sometimes trail along behind him.
Abandoning any pretence, Kenny and I spend most of the evening sitting on the stairs, me on his lap. All our friends are laughing and congratulating us. Victoria even asks why it’s taken us so long, and Johnnie claims to have predicted our romance.
“Where’s Donovan tonight?” I ask Pearl, who is swaying to the music in a purple mini skirt and flowered shirt. With her long red hair cascading down her back, cigarette in one hand, drink in the other, she looks stunning, and is drawing admiring glances from a group of boys sitting further up the rather grand staircase.
“Oh, he’s got a race at Sandown tomorrow, so they’re driving up tonight. He’s got four rides, but only two of them are for Tommy.”
“Right. Do you really like him?” I ask.
She shrugs. “He’s good fun.”
Not that serious then. I can’t help a tiny flicker of relief. There’s just something about him that I don’t trust.
The party starts to get out of hand at about midnight. The host, a languid blond boy, who could be Johnnie’s twin but clearly lacks his iron will, is feebly telling people to go home. He gets more and more flustered as people pour in through the front door. Everyone already inside totally ignores his pleas to go home. The music is pounding, and the smell of pot, cigarettes and sweat permeates the house. A girl is being sick in the corner of the hallway. Two bulbous blue vases crash to the floor, scattering shards of china and red flowers. Kenny puts his drink down, glances at the chaos, and promptly suggests we round up our gang and head off.
“I saw Victoria going into the lounge, so I’ll grab her if you want to get the boys? Oh, and Pearl’s just over there with Johnnie,” I say, pushing through a group of boys who are all talking loudly and gesticulating with their beer bottles.
There are two girls dancing on the polished wooden table in the centre of a large dining room, surrounded by a number of appreciative boys. Luckily the girls have matched the colour of their knickers to that of their miniskirts. Various couples are ensconced in armchairs or corners of the rooms, but I can’t see Victoria anywhere. I open one white-painted door, and discover a foul-smelling toilet.
It seems to be blocked. Filthy water is spreading across the floor, and a girl is hopefully dipping a saucepan in, holding her nose with the other hand. “It’s blocked up! Can you get me a broom handle or something?” There is an empty bottle of wine beside her, and the sink appears to be filled with vomit.
I quickly shut the door on her and continue my search. There is a shout from the hallway and some scuffling sounds but I ignore them and continue to run from room to room, eventually finishing up in the library.
Victoria is talking to a tall, dark girl with glasses perched on the end of her nose like a school teacher. They are bent over a camera and some textbooks. Trust Victoria. She’s very clever, and turns over boyfriends faster than my cousin Pearl, so it was either going to be something academic or a man. Victoria is also very classy, and once told me she prefers not to make out at parties because it’s common.
“Vic, we need to go. The party’s getting a bit ape crazy and I reckon we need to head off before someone calls the police. Kenny’s rounding up the others.” I smile at the other girl, but she ignores me, and shoves a book at Victoria.
“Take this one. It has far more depth than the others. Just give it back to Johnnie when you’ve finished, and he’ll give it to Roger.”
“Thank you so much, Sophie. It’s so kind of you. I’ll give you a call to arrange something. Oh, sorry, Ruby this is Sophie, Roger’s sister. Ruby works at Johnnie’s.”
Sophie stares at me for a moment, ignoring the introduction, and then focuses on Victoria. “Fabulous. Don’t forget, you’re welcome to borrow it because I’ve just bought another one.” She waves the camera. “See you soon, darling.” Still freezing me out, the girl kisses Vic on both che
eks and ushers us into the wide passage.
Yells and shrieks are now coming from the main hallway, and Victoria hesitates. “Will you be alright?”
Sophie nods. “They never come down here, and I can shut the door to the kitchens.”
“Well, if you’re sure.”
We hurry back towards the noise. Victoria tells me Sophie is a student as well. “But she isn’t at the university down here, she’s doing her degree up at Cambridge.” Victoria’s voice is respectful and slightly awed. “She even said I could borrow that camera just to see if I like it. It’s much better than mine. It’s a Kodak Instamatic, brand new.”
“Great, good for her, she seems like a barrel of laughs. Now let’s get out of here,” I say. I saw Sophie’s expression change, that flicker of disdain when Vic mentioned I worked at Johnnie’s, but really, who cares what some bitchy posh girl thinks?
The crowd of partygoers has separated into little knots of people, all clutching their drinks and chatting. Everyone is enjoying the half-serious antics of two larger boys, who seem to be wrestling at the foot of the stairs. The stairwell is lined with cheering onlookers, others are placing bets and screaming with laughter as one boy crashes into an expensive looking bureau. Glass shatters from a large ornate mirror which was perched on top, raining glittering shards onto the bystanders.
I wave to Kenny, and we edge towards the open door. As we reach it, it bursts open and three men rush in, shoving us out of their way with enough force to slam me against the wall. Shakily, I stagger to my feet, brushing off Kenny’s concern, and focusing on the intruders. They are dressed in dirty jeans and oversized leather jackets with the collars pulled up around their faces. One is swinging a bicycle chain, and the other holds a monkey wrench. The third, a smaller, slighter figure, his eyes darting about nervously, is clutching a leather belt with an ornate buckle.
Chapter Seven
There is a sudden silence, as though all the partygoers are holding their collective breath. “Where’s Roger Harper?” one of the men yells, pushing the nearest boy roughly in the chest. He staggers against his friends, spilling drinks and crashing against the wall.
Roger pushes his way down to the bottom of the stairs. “What do you want? This is a private party.”
I mentally award him five points for not simply turning and running. Not only that, he actually starts to walk towards the men, to gasps from the girls and murmurs from the boys. Johnnie, who is standing with Kenny, reaches out as his friend passes, and takes his arm.
“Roger, don’t. This isn’t your doing.”
Roger turns, and smiles. “Yes, it is.” He shakes off Johnny’s restraining hand, and continues towards the menacing figures.
Swiftly, stealthily the hall starts to empty of guests. There must be another way out of the house, because the crowd thins to around fifteen of us in minutes. The music still blares, but the chatter has stopped.
Johnnie leans on the banisters watching his friend. He’s deceptively casual, but I can see that his whole body is tense. One of the intruders suddenly lifts his belt and swings it towards Roger with a sound like a whip cracking, and Johnnie leans forward and neatly catches it.
Giving no sign that he has been hurt, he just hands the belt back to its owner. “You need to leave,” he says. “This isn’t what you think. You don’t know what really happened.”
“Go away, pretty boy,” the one with the bicycle chain says.
“We know exactly what happened,” says the smallest one, who I see now is just a boy, probably a few years younger than I am. He cracks his belt again as he speaks. His voice is familiar, although I can’t think how I would know him. His eyes dart around the hallway, and when he gets to me he stops, eyes widening, mouth opening as though to speak.
He doesn’t get a chance, as the burly man with the chain swings it threateningly towards us, and we shrink away. Ken shoves Vic, Pearl and me behind him, and pushes us back towards the dining room. We’re frozen with horror, moving away yet unable to take our eyes off the scene in front of us. I grip my cousin’s hand, heart pounding against my ribs, breathing fast.
“Once we’re in, you three get out the window and run. Call the police,” Ken murmurs.
“I loved your sister, and I would have married her,” Roger says suddenly. “I didn’t know she was with Tommy as well as me until a few weeks ago, but I still loved her. She said she was sorry, and she needed to make a choice between us.”
Instead of making our escape, we’re nailed to the floor by these revelations. Roger loved Rita? If it’s true, it means she had a third lover. I suppose these thugs are her brothers.
“Lies! Why was she so upset on the Friday night after she came back from yours?”
“I told you, she’d been rumbled. She was confused. She said Tommy’s wife had suspected for months that he was having an affair, but that day she confronted him. I thought I was the only one who knew she was seeing Tommy.” Considering the fact that his girlfriend seems to have been generously sharing her favours with all and sundry and now he’s facing her grieving brothers, Roger is remarkably calm. “I told you, I loved her.” For the first time his face changes, and a flicker of pain crosses his perfect features.
Johnnie shifts his weight, and the tallest aggressor eyes him, swinging the monkey wrench, rolling his shoulders like a prize fighter.
“What about the jockey? Joey says he didn’t know about Tommy, but I reckon he’s lying. They both live at the same yard. I’ve seen you on the racecourse. You must have known about Joey.”
“No, I didn’t. Not until that piece in the paper today. She said she liked the racing crowd, they were fun, but she never mentioned anyone in particular. I was going to tell the police all this tomorrow.”
“Tell us first. You owe it to us.”
I mouth, “Did Johnnie know about this?” to Kenny and he shakes his head quickly, eyeing the swinging chain.
“I didn’t know about Joey, but it would have been harmless. She loved me, and all the others were just for fun.”
“Don’t you care that she was with all these other men?” The youngest boy asks incredulously. “All this claptrap about marrying her! Of course you wouldn’t marry a girl like Rita. You were just playing with her, same as the others.”
Roger smiles at him, but his eyes are steely. “She was a fun girl, and that’s what I loved about her. I didn’t care about the others because I knew she’d choose me in the end.”
“You didn’t know any such thing. Did you know she was having a baby, Roger? Did you know whose baby it was? Because she didn’t. She was in a hell of a state on Friday night, and we were there for her. You weren’t.”
Roger has gone white, and he clenches his fists. “I didn’t know that, but I would still have taken care of her.”
“Do you think we’re stupid? You wouldn’t. Who told Tommy’s wife about Rita? Who told Joey Castle his girl was going with Tommy? It was you, Roger. You found out about the baby, and then you screwed everything up, and Rita killed herself because she was so upset. It was your fault.”
The chain swings in earnest now. The first lash goes across Roger’s arm. The metal cuts through his shirtsleeves, and blood trickles down his arm, but he ignores it. He does nothing to defend himself. Now Kenny and Johnnie weigh in, blocking punches, dodging and darting like seasoned fighters. The smaller boy looks uncertain, darting worried glances at Victoria, Pearl and I, and then at the front door.
“We should get the police,” Victoria says quickly. “Look, we can get to the front door now they’ve moved.”
“What about Johnnie and Ken?” I ask.
“The best way we can help is by getting the coppers to come and break it up,” Pearl says. “Our boys are tough, they’ll try to protect Roger as best they can.” She starts edging me closer to the door.
As the fight progresses, we edge around the hallway, keeping to the wall. The smallest attacker comes over and grabs my arm. I go to shake him off, but he hisses low and urgen
tly. “Call the coppers. Josh and Derek are evil once they get going. You gotta get the coppers.” He’s slightly smaller than me, and his face is pockmarked, but those little black eyes are kind. “And get yourselves out of danger. Go and find a telephone box.” With that, he shoves us towards the door.
I take a last look back. The fight is still in progress. Roger is taking a beating despite the efforts of Johnnie and Kenny. There is a lot of blood on the marble floor, and my stomach twists in horror as I see a fist slam into Kenny’s cheek. I turn to Victoria. “We can’t just leave them! Wasn’t there a telephone in the library?”
Pearl is already out of the door, calling us from the steps. But as Victoria turns to answer me, there is a wail of sirens and I see blue lights flash outside the house. Any remaining onlookers scarper into the road, and the attackers run down the steps, knocking us to one side. I run to the boys. Kenny has a cut down one side of his face, and Johnnie’s shirt is ripped, his forehead already swelling to display a purple and red bruise. But Roger is far worse off. He is lying half propped on the lowest stair, breathing heavily. His face is a mess, and his forearms are a mass of slashes from the bicycle chains. There is blood seeping through his shirt.
Uniformed police rush in, closely followed by ambulance men with a stretcher and medical kits. Someone has turned the music off, and the house is finally quiet.
I lean against the wall, one hand on Kenny’s shoulder while he is treated. “Well that was a mess, wasn’t it? I never saw that coming. I assume we just met Rita’s brothers. No wonder her parents wouldn’t let us talk to them. How much of that did you know, Johnnie?”
Johnnie sighs. “I knew Roger was seeing Rita, but I never imagined anything like this.” He turns to his friend. “No offence, Roger, but she was seeing two other men at the same time as you! Did you really tell Tommy’s wife he was having an affair?”