The Victim

by Kimberley Chambers

  Aware that Frankie was crying yet again, Stuart held her in his arms. ‘Why didn’t you let me know how you felt? You never acted like you wanted to know.’

  ‘Because I brainwashed myself that all men were like Jed and I also didn’t think you’d be interested. I lived with a pikey who just happened to kill my grandad. My mum’s dead because of me and so are my uncles. I’ve got three gypsy kids, two who seem to be uncontrollable. What decent man would want me, eh?’

  Stuart held her tearful face in his hands. ‘Frankie, none of those deaths or anything that happened was your fault. The feud that your dad, grandad and uncles were part of with the O’Haras started long before you ever entered this world. You never caused it, babe, you’re the victim of it.’

  As their lips met romantically for the very first time, Stuart felt as though he was in seventh heaven but remembering the promise he’d made to Eddie, pulled away from Frankie’s grasp and opened the kitchen door. ‘Tel, grab the sports bag on top of the wardrobe in Jordan’s room,’ he shouted.

  Terry ran upstairs, grabbed the sports bag and threw the contents onto the floor. The gun had gone.

  ‘Stu, we’ve gotta go out again,’ Tel shouted as he pushed past Joyce and Stanley and ran down the stairs.

  ‘What did Joey hide upstairs, Stu? Please tell me, was it a gun?’ Frankie cried.

  Instead of answering the question, Stuart kissed her gently on the lips. ‘Lock all the doors and if anyone knocks, don’t answer it. My battery’s gone dead, so ring me on Tel’s phone if you need me.’

  Joyce and Stanley had been standing at the top of the stairs earwigging and had heard the conversation between Frankie, Stuart and Terry.

  ‘Who’s got a gun? Please God, not our Joey,’ Joycie screamed at Frankie.

  Stanley put his head in his hands. From the first moment his Jessica had brought home Eddie Mitchell, he’d known he was trouble. He’d told Joycie his fears at the time, he’d known the Mitchell family’s reputation, but she wouldn’t listen, and instead of warning Jessica to steer clear, she’d encouraged their relationship. With panic in his eyes, Stanley shook his head in despair.

  ‘If only you’d have listened to me, Joycie. If only you’d have bloody listened, woman.’

  Back at the salvage yard over in Dagenham, Eddie, Gary and Raymond had spent the past fifteen minutes sitting in the warehouse where the tyres were stored, being tortured for answers. Like Raymond earlier, Ricky was now the one in and out of consciousness and Ed was desperately worried about him. He was still breathing, but had lost so much blood since being shot that Eddie knew he could die if they didn’t get him to a hospital soon.

  Gary took a deep breath as Jed put the gun to his temple once more. He was more frightened of his brother dying than getting killed himself.

  ‘You’ve got one more chance to tell me where my chavvies are, otherwise I’m gonna blow your brains out. Now, what will it be?’ Jed jeered, his voice full of evil.

  Gary stared at his father and Raymond. Both men had their hands and feet tied up and were sitting opposite him, their backs against a wall. Ricky was lying next to them, in a bloodied heap. Winking at his dad as a sign of letting him know he was OK, Gary answered Jed’s question. ‘Blow me brains out then, you cunt.’

  Realising they were getting nowhere fast, Jimmy urged Jed to follow him outside the building. ‘Look, boy, this technique ain’t working and we can’t go home without them chavvies, ’cause your mother will lose the fucking plot. What I suggest we do is kill one of ’em. That should then give the others a kick up the arse to start talking,’ Jimmy suggested.

  Jed spat a mouthful of blood on the floor. His tongue was still throbbing, but the pain was bearable.

  ‘Let’s kill Gary first. Can you imagine how Mitchell will feel, seeing his trappy cunting son die in front of him?’ Jed replied.

  ‘Nah, let’s kill the other son. He’s virtually out for the count, so can’t give us no answers anyway. We need to keep the ones alive that can still talk, Jed.’

  ‘Can’t you drive over to Pat Murphy’s and see if he knows Ed or Frankie’s addresses? He’s only ten minutes down the road and I can take care of these dinlos until you get back.’

  ‘Sonny Tyler told me that Murphy sold up a year or so back. Moved to Norfolk somewhere, he did. We’ll get the info we need once we start pulling that trigger, boy. The mouthy one ain’t gonna tell us nought, neither is that shitcunt Raymond, so what I suggest we do is blow Ricky’s brains out, then see if Eddie falters. If we’ve killed one of his boys, then he knows we’re capable of killing the others, so he might just start blabbing.’

  Jed smirked. ‘I’ve got something to tell him that’s gonna really get his goat.’

  ‘What?’ Jimmy asked intrigued.

  Jed chuckled. ‘You’ll soon find out. Call it an early birthday present.’

  ‘Be brave and say nothing, boys. If we’re gonna die, let’s do it with our heads held high. I know it’s hard, but let’s try not to think of our families. We know they’re well provided for and we know they’ll never forget us. We’re fucking legends, always remember that,’ Eddie said, trying to keep everybody’s spirits up, even though he knew deep down they were all goners. Eddie had always lived his life with a certain style and if he was going to croak it tonight, then he would die with style as well.

  ‘What yous cunts whispering about?’ Jed asked, as he walked back into the warehouse with a sadistic expression plastered on his face.

  ‘We were just saying what fucking knob-ends you and your father are,’ Ed replied smirking.

  Jimmy strolled over to where Eddie was trussed up. He bent down and ran his fingers across the scar on Ed’s left cheek. It was the one he’d put there back in 1970. ‘If you thought I left you with a reminder of what I was all about then, Mitchell, that’s nothing compared to what I’m gonna do to ya now.’

  Eddie sniffed, collected whatever phlegm he could from the back of his throat and gobbed it into Jimmy’s face. ‘Mug,’ he said forcing a grin.

  Absolutely seething, Jimmy wiped his face with his sleeve, then grabbed Ricky by his lifeless neck. He knew what it felt like to lose a son and now Eddie would know what it felt like, too.

  ‘Where am I?’ Ricky mumbled. He was in cloud cuckoo land.

  When Jimmy grabbed the gun off Jed and put it to Ricky’s head, Eddie shut his eyes. He’s all but dead, anyway, and at least he won’t be suffering no more, he tried to convince himself.

  ‘Fucking pikey cunts,’ he heard Gary scream as the gun went off.

  Eddie opened his eyes again. His wonderful son was lying on the floor with the left-hand side of his head blown away. His eyes were still open, so was his mouth and he had a look of shock on his face rather than one of peace. Images of Ricky’s childhood flooded through Eddie’s mind and he quickly shut his eyes again.

  Gary was crying, not out loud, but Ed was aware of his pain.

  ‘Snap out of it,’ he mumbled, before Jed and Jimmy dragged him across the concrete floor.

  Jed smirked as his father perched Eddie on top of the two tyres they were using as their execution chair. After all these years, it was the perfect time for him to reveal his little secret. He crouched down in front of Eddie and grinned at him.

  ‘I think it’s high time I spilt the beans. Would you like to know the real reason why your Frankie tried to kill me, ya mug?’

  ‘What’s he going on about?’ Gary whispered to Raymond.

  Raymond said nothing. He was too upset to speak. All he could think about was Polly and Chelsea. His beautiful daughter was so looking forward to the big party he and Polly had planned for her seventh birthday and now he wouldn’t even be alive to celebrate it with her.

  Eddie focused his eyes firmly to his right. Ricky was lying to his left and if he looked at his dead son’s body, he was worried he’d crumble.

  ‘I said, do you wanna know why Frankie tried to kill me?’ Jed screamed, punching Eddie in the face.

  ‘
Because she thought you was a cock,’ Eddie replied sarcastically.

  Jed laughed out loud. ‘Never caught the geezer who murdered your father, did they? Ever wondered why, have ya? That’s why Frankie stabbed me. She found out I was the culprit.’

  Eddie stared at Jed. It couldn’t be; Jed had to be winding him up. ‘You weren’t fit enough to clean my father’s shoes, let alone kill him,’ he snarled.

  Jed grabbed Eddie by the chin and manoeuvred his face so it was only inches away. ‘I killed your shitcunt of an old man, and do you know what? He begged me for mercy. Fifteen years old I was and I beat him senseless. Cried like a baby, the old cunt did, so don’t tell me I weren’t good enough to clean his shoes.’

  ‘You’re a fucking liar. My Frankie would never keep something like that from me,’ Ed yelled.

  ‘You fucking scumbag cunt,’ Gary shouted. He would have killed Jed with his bare hands, if only they weren’t tied up.

  Raymond shut his eyes. He just wanted to die now, get it all over with as quickly as possible.

  Eddie was turning redder and redder in the face. ‘You fucking spineless piece of shit. I’m gonna kill you,’ he yelled, as he tried to thrust his incapable body towards Jed.

  Jed laughed at Eddie’s feeble attempt to attack him and turned to his father. ‘I’m sorry I never told ya, but I did it for me Grandad Butch. He was never the same man after Harry shot him. I waited and waited for you to do something about it, but you never did, so me and Sammy took it into our own hands. It had to be done, Dad. Revenge had to be taken.’

  Eddie took deep breaths to calm himself down. He knew he had mugged himself off by wriggling about like a deranged eel, but his reaction had been spontaneous. He wasn’t even thinking of his dead son or Gina and his kids any more; all he could think about was his dad and how Frankie had betrayed him. He was so annoyed with his father, absolutely fucking seething. How could a man of Harry Mitchell’s stance be battered to death by a boy who was barely out of nappies? For years Ed had looked up to his big bad gangster of a dad, and now he’d lost all respect, even though he was about to die in a not dissimilar way himself. As for Frankie, her actions were despicable and if by any chance he came out of tonight alive, she was out of his life for good.

  ‘Dad?’ he heard Gary say.

  With tears of disappointment in his eyes, Eddie looked at his eldest son. The O’Haras were still busy talking among themselves.

  ‘Keep your chin up. Don’t make yourself look a cunt,’ Gary mouthed.

  Eddie nodded. He would not beg for mercy like his father had. He would die like a man.

  * * *

  Dominic’s hands were visibly shaking as he tried to turn the steering wheel. He couldn’t believe this was happening. It was like a bad dream, totally surreal.

  ‘Please don’t do this. Let’s go to the police, I beg you. If something happens to you, I’ll never forgive myself for giving you a lift. You’re a lover, not a fighter, Joey,’ Dominic pleaded.

  Stony-faced, Joey ignored his boyfriend’s little speech. He took the handgun out of its cloth and stared at it. When his dad had first given him a key to his cottage, he had shown Joey where the gun was kept and Joey, having never seen one before, had been interested to know how to use it. Unbeknown to Dom, Ed had given Joey a lesson in shooting. ‘You’re a natural, boy. You never know, it might come in handy one day,’ his father had joked at the time.

  Dominic stopped at the traffic lights and shivered as he glanced at his partner. His earlier anger at Joey for involving him in the drama had now all but disappeared. Whatever Frankie had said to Joey in the kitchen earlier had turned him into a person that Dom barely recognised, and that scared him.

  ‘Joey, I beg you one more time, please don’t do this to me. If you truly love me, you wouldn’t be putting me through this.’

  Joey looked at Dom and felt no guilt when he saw the pain and tears in his boyfriend’s eyes. ‘When you turn onto the A13, drive past the scrapyard, then pull over on the left. Wait five minutes then, if I ain’t back, drive straight back to Frankie’s. I love you, Dom, I always will, but don’t make me choose between you and my family, because you won’t like the fucking answer. As much as you probably won’t understand this, blood is a very special tie, and at the end of the day, I’m a Mitchell.’

  When Jimmy held the gun against his temple, Eddie shut his eyes. He couldn’t look at the fearful expression on Gary’s face. Ricky had been so badly injured he hadn’t really known what was going on, but Gary had only been shot in the back of the leg and although he must be in pain, he was very much in a state of awareness. Ed took a deep breath, wondering if it was going to be his last. After all these years, his colourful lifestyle had finally caught up with him.

  ‘You’ve got one more chance to give us an address, lads, else Steady Eddie ’ere gets his head blown off,’ Jimmy said to Raymond and Gary.

  Eddie opened his eyes and stared at Gary and Raymond. One looked near to tears, the other petrifried, and Eddie knew it was his duty to be strong for them. He wasn’t afraid of death, never had been, but he was very afraid of never seeing his wife and kids again. Who would be there to protect them after he had left this planet? No one, that’s who. He turned to Jimmy. Jed had popped outside to try and locate his phone, which he’d lost in the earlier tussle, and Ed guessed he was hoping to have heard from Georgie and Harry.

  ‘Come on then, shoot me you two-bob cunt. What you waiting for, Christmas?’ Ed jeered.

  Furious with Eddie’s brave and obstinate attitude, Jimmy pushed him onto the concrete floor. He balanced the gun on top of the tyres and punched Eddie three times in his smug face. ‘Where are my fucking grandkids?’ he hollered.

  Jed reappeared. He had managed to find his phone, but was gutted that there were no messages from the kids. ‘You not killed him yet? What you waiting for?’ he asked.

  ‘I was waiting for you. I thought you’d wanna see the cunt take his last breath an’ all,’ Jimmy replied, picking up the gun again.

  ‘I found the phone; no joy. Time for some torture, methinks,’ Jed said.

  ‘I think we’re best to finish ’em all off now and get the fuck out of here, boy. We need to find out if Billy’s OK.’

  Gary and Raymond glanced at one another, then both clenched their eyes firmly shut. They couldn’t watch Eddie die, it was far too horrendous to even contemplate.

  Ed closed his own eyes as he felt the steel of the metal barrel push into his temple. This was it now, the end, and with all the past sins he’d committed, he fleetingly wondered if God would accept him in heaven or banish him to hell.

  Hearing four gunshots, Eddie said a prayer. He was no Bible-basher, had never really believed in God, but what choice did he have other than to put his faith in Him now?

  ‘Dad. Are you OK, Dad?’

  Ed’s body froze as he heard the familiar voice. Was he already dead? Or was he fucking dreaming? Frightened to open his eyes in case he came face to face with the devil, Eddie kept them closed.

  ‘It’s me, Dad. Please be alive.’

  Hearing Gary and Raymond laughing, but also crying at the same time, Ed opened his eyes and took in the scene around him. Jed and Jimmy were both lying on the floor next to him with blood gushing out of their backs and standing over him, with a stunned expression on his face and a gun in his hand, was none other than Joey.

  ‘Thank you, God, and thank you, son. Untie me, there’s a knife over there, I need to check they’re both dead,’ Ed croaked, instinct taking over.

  Joey’s whole body was trembling as he cut the rope off his father’s arms and legs. He then headed over to where Gary and Raymond were tied up and set them free as well.

  Even though he suspected he had a broken leg and arm, Eddie had always had an uncanny knack of being able to rise above pain and still managed to crawl over to where the O’Haras lay. He picked up the gun that Jimmy had been using and slid it across the floor towards Gary. He checked both of their pulses and let out a
sigh of relief. ‘They’re goners,’ he shouted, as he crawled over to where Ricky was lying. ‘God bless you, boy,’ he said in a choked-up tone.

  Raymond and Joey walked over to where Ed was sitting, and stood over Ricky’s body. ‘Rest in peace, mate,’ Raymond said, wiping away a tear.

  Overcome by shock at what he had done, Joey couldn’t speak. He couldn’t even cry.

  ‘I don’t wanna see him like that, I can’t face it. Cover him over so I can say my goodbyes,’ Gary said with a sob in his voice.

  ‘Put your jacket over him, Ray. I can’t take mine off ’cause of me arm,’ Eddie ordered.

  Desperately trying not to cry himself, Ed took deep breaths as Gary limped over and grasped his brother’s lifeless hand. When he’d left Beverley all those years ago, he knew his boys would be OK because they had such a strong bond between them. Inseparable as children, their closeness had continued into adulthood and Ed knew that Ricky’s death was going to hit Gary harder than anyone else.

  ‘I love you, Rick. You were the best bruvver that anyone could ever wish for and I’ll look after your Amy for ya, I promise you that,’ Gary wept.

  Eddie felt distraught. Seeing Gary’s raw pain was breaking his heart. He knew he had to be cruel to be kind, for all of their sakes. ‘Gal, snap out of it, son. I know you’re devastated, we all are, but we really do need to sort this mess out now. We don’t want Ricky to die in vain, do we? The last thing he’d want was for all of us to get life.’

  Gary wiped his eyes with the cuff of his jacket and nodded. His dad was right. Ricky would hate to see them all go down.

  ‘You’d best ring Flatnose,’ Raymond said, suddenly finding his voice. He’d been so disturbed earlier that he hadn’t really been able to speak. Not only had Ricky’s death brought back awful memories of Jessica’s demise, but the thought of never seeing his daughter again, the child he’d waited so long for, had all but torn him in two.

  ‘Someone needs to go out to the van. One of us must have left a phone in there,’ Ed suggested.