by Martina Cole
Chapter Twenty-Three
‘Where you off to, Aiden? You smell like a poke of devils!’
Patsy was holding his nose and laughing. Aiden punched him lightly on the shoulder.
‘I’m off out to learn a new trade, my son. How’s it going with you?’
Patsy smiled, looking pleased with himself. ‘Yeah, good. I’m earning so much money but, like you told me, I am not flashing the cash and bringing any interest down on me.’
Aiden nodded in approval and Patsy preened at the praise.
‘Remember that, mate. People get jealous when you are earning, and they ain’t. The Old Bill might be cunts but they ain’t stupid. So, just save your money somewhere that ain’t a fucking bank, all right? Eric is well pleased with you. Before you know it you will be out there with me.’
Patsy grinned. That was his ultimate goal.
‘So, what’s it like, this new place you’re working, Ade?’
Aiden sighed. ‘To be honest with you, Patsy, I wasn’t too enamoured at first. But once I got me head around it I was all right. It’s interesting, and a bit of an eye-opener, if I am being truthful with you. But it’s a big money-spinner and Eric has got it all sewn up there.’
Aiden smiled, bent down and kissed Agnes and then, walking out to the kitchen, he hugged his mum tightly, saying quietly, ‘Don’t know when I will be back. You all right for a few quid?’
Reeva grinned and said quickly, ‘Well, I could do with a couple of bob, son.’
Pinching her cheek hard, he said jovially, ‘Then ask Tony. I left it with him. Can’t have you going on a bender, can we!’
Reeva was annoyed and it showed – but she laughed anyway. ‘You’re a right wanker at times, do you know that?’
He grinned once more and kissed her on the cheek, saying, ‘I had a good teacher, didn’t I?’
She chased him out of the house, hitting him with a tea towel, making the other kids laugh at their antics. But deep inside Reeva was hurting. There were jokes, and there were jokes. She knew that he didn’t mean any real harm − it still hurt, though.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jade Dixon was watching her new protégé with experienced eyes, and she had to admit he was a clever one. He took everything in without endless explanations on her part or questions on his. Now, though, she saw his eyes widen and she stifled the urge to laugh.
‘Yes, Aiden. That is who you think it is. He is not the only one either. We get all sorts here, from MPs right down the scale to TV stars and family entertainers. That is why it’s so expensive. It’s our guarantee of privacy that they pay for, plus we don’t act as if we are judging them. Though that bloke over there with his cock out is actually a judge!’
They laughed together and Aiden looked around him in amazement. There were more than a few household names here and for some reason that disgusted him further. One man he remembered from a kids’ programme when he was younger. Somehow that made it all the more sinister.
Jade pulled him through to the offices and poured a couple of large Scotches. As they sipped them she said gently, ‘Look, Aiden, someone is going to provide for people like these. Have done since the dawn of fucking time, I should imagine. As Eric so rightly points out, it might as well be us on the earn as someone else. Plus the girls are treated well here. It’s much better than a lot of places − believe me, I know that for a fact.’
Aiden downed the Scotch in one burning gulp and tried to shrug. Despite herself, Jade was pleased at his revulsion. It showed her that he still had some kind of moral code. Not that he would keep it for long − you couldn’t in this game. Whether you were the seller or the sold, it broke everyone eventually.
She poured him another stiff drink and said calmly, ‘Get that down your Gregory and we will go out and mingle with our perverted, fucking well-paying guests and we will smile and act like this is all normal. Take my advice, mate. That is the only way to stay sane.’
He was shocked to hear the rough cockney come out of her perfectly shaped mouth and, despite himself, he laughed at the incongruity of it. He didn’t know what to think, if he was honest.
She held her hand out and he took it, and together they went out and he learned how to play this particular game. But all the time his eyes were on her and they both knew it. Somehow, with her there, he didn’t notice what was really going on around him – the old men with the young girls and boys, the debauched look of them and the way they acted like what they were doing was perfectly natural. He saw a couple of the men look at him speculatively and he felt the anger rising inside him, even as he let them down gently. There were thousands of pounds passing through this place on a nightly basis and, as Jade had pointed out to him, it was a job. Someone was going to do it so it might as well be them. Aiden was a realist and he could see the sense in what she said.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Reeva opened the door to her old friend and neighbour, Francis Mullaney, and she smiled widely in genuine pleasure as she ushered him into her home. Francis was a small man; it was rumoured that in Ireland he had been an aspiring jockey but he had caught the gambling bug. Now he worked at Fords and spent his weekends in the pub like most of the men in their neighbourhood. He had three daughters, if she remembered rightly, and an English wife with badly dyed hair and an underbite.
‘Can I get you a cup of tea?’
He shook his head and also declined the seat she offered him. She saw him looking around in wonder and, instead of her usual pride in her home, she felt a faint uneasiness.
‘So, what can I do you for?’ She was smiling but it didn’t reach her eyes.
Francis shrugged and took a deep breath. ‘Look, Reeva, I need to talk to you about your Patsy.’
Reeva nodded, not offering a word about her son.
‘My eldest, Siobhan, is on drugs and tonight the police brought her home. She had been missing since yesterday morning. When they left I hammered the fecking bejasus out of her. She told me who her dealer was and I went and hammered the bejasus out of that bastard too. The bottom line, Reeva, is it’s your Patsy who’s supplying him, and plenty more besides, according to him.’ Francis stood there expectantly, waiting for her to react.
‘Have you told the Old Bill any of this?’
He looked insulted. ‘Of course not, Reeva. I’m not fecking stupid. Give me some credit, woman.’
‘You can see yourself out. I will sort this, OK?’
Francis left, taking her at her word. Once he was gone she picked up the phone and dialled the pub. Tony needed to get his arse home and get it home now. Then she went upstairs and systematically pulled her two eldest sons’ room apart until she found what she was looking for. Such was her anger it didn’t cross her mind that Aiden might not appreciate her looking through his private stuff. But she was too far gone to think about that.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Patsy O’Hara was amazed to see Tony Brown. He had been talking to a girl called Lisa Gordon at a party inside a tower block in East Ham when Tony came in. He left the party immediately, a worried look on his handsome face. The music was far too loud, and it wasn’t until they were in the lift descending to the ground floor that he finally understood what Tony was telling him. He felt his stomach turn to ice water as he realised the consequences of what was being said. It didn’t help that he was half-drunk and very stoned.
Tony bundled him into his car, a Mark I Cortina, and started driving back to the house while Patsy lamented his actions and questioned exactly how he was going to justify his stupidity to his older brother. Tony listened to him with half an ear; he knew exactly how this was going to end and, if Patsy had half a brain and dropped the drugs, he should know that too.
Patsy was sweating and the fear sobered him up in double-quick time.
Reeva he could handle – he knew she was on his side no matter what – but with Aiden and his new persona, he wasn’t sure about him at all. And it seemed that Tony Brown was feeling exactly the same way.
&n
bsp; Chapter Twenty-Seven
Jade Dixon had set out to ensnare Aiden, and he was not averse to her actions. In actual fact he could not believe his fucking luck! She had taken him into an empty bedroom in the house that he soon realised was exclusively for her use. There was make-up, clothes and even jewellery there. The room had the particular smell that seemed to emanate from her: expensive perfume and Sobranie cigarettes. And, as she kissed him, he felt as if he was going to explode.
He’d had his share of girls, but this was his first real woman, and it was heady stuff. She even kissed differently, slower, exploring his mouth with her tongue. He could feel the energy pulsing from her and he hoped against hope that he wouldn’t embarrass himself by finishing before he had even started. Pushing him back gently on to the bed, she stripped him and caressed him, and she made him feel like no one ever had before or would ever again. She was good at her job, and he never realised for one second that it was all an act on her part. She did what she always did with men: she used them to her advantage and that always started by her fucking their brains out. Once she had him in her thrall, she knew she would have the advantage over him.
Aiden O’Hara was quite happy to let her use him – in fact, he had never wanted anything or anyone so much in his life before. When she finally let him come, he knew what nirvana felt like and he was eager as fuck to feel it again and again and again. As they lay together afterwards, smoking and drinking Rémy Martin, he felt as if he had finally arrived.
A discreet knock at the door broke the bubble; it seemed he had a private visitor waiting for him downstairs. Jade lay back as he quickly dressed, and she stretched herself out and waited calmly for him to return to her. She was eager to get on to round two. She could see herself in the huge mirrors on the walls, and she eyed herself dispassionately. She knew she was beautiful and she knew exactly how to make the best of herself so the man involved got the best views. It was her life’s work, after all.
She stood up and poured herself another brandy, all the while admiring her reflection. When she finally realised he wasn’t coming back she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. For the first time in years a man had fucked her and left her. Not even a man − a boy. She finally got dressed and went back to the so-called party. If he had achieved nothing else, he had certainly piqued her interest.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Agnes was crying, and her elder brothers were trying to calm her down. But Patsy’s cries and Aiden’s anger were permeating the whole house.
Aiden had never felt such an urge to smack his brother as he did at this moment. How could he be so fucking stupid? Had he taught him nothing?
Patsy was terrified and, as he looked at his older brother, he felt the terrible force of the man’s personality. He was a big lump, was Aiden, but it was more than that. There was an edge to him that told anyone with half a brain that he was capable of killing you without a second thought.
‘You are selling locally? After all I told you about keeping a low profile, after everything I fucking said? Now we have that cunt Mullaney coming round here calling us fucking drug dealers! What are you fucking on?’
Patsy looked at his mother for help, but she just sat there calmly smoking a joint and watching the proceedings without expressing a word. She had served him up, but would she let Aiden really harm him? He feared that she would.
‘I have sent for your little fucking muckers, especially the bastard who grassed you up to that silly whore’s father. Francis might have used a baseball bat on him, but that will seem like heaven after I have finished with him, you useless stupid piece of shit.’
Patsy knew that when his brother was like this the best way to deal with him was to keep quiet − extremely quiet.
Reeva watched her sons dispassionately. This was something that needed to be said, something that needed to be sorted. They could have got their collars felt thanks to this useless lump. But at least now Patsy would heed the warning and listen to his brother’s advice in the future. Her Aiden was going places and he would take them with him, of that much she was sure. And there wasn’t anyone − not even her own flesh and blood − who was going to stop that happening, not on her watch anyway. She knew when to keep her trap shut, what was admissible and what fucking well wasn’t. Dealing to your friends, who then went on to deal to your neighbours, was the height of foolishness and folly. Patsy might just as well have handed himself in to the Filth and been done with it. But then her lad was still young and, as everyone knew, the young were lazy. The only good thing was that the young were still able enough to learn from their mistakes. At least, she hoped so where her Patsy was concerned. He needed a fucking wake-up call, all right.
As Aiden’s fist connected with Patsy’s head, Reeva watched the ensuing beating without a reaction. She was with Aiden on this one.
It was only when the other kids ran downstairs and intervened that Aiden seemed to calm down. Reeva watched him as he pacified them, picking up Agnes and hugging her, talking to them calmly as he sent them back to bed reassuring them that everything was going to be OK and that he would make them pancakes for breakfast.
Patsy lay on the floor, bloodied and bleeding while this was going on, and Reeva left him where he was. He needed a lesson. She felt a moment’s irritation when Tony came into the room with a bucket of ice and started to administer aid to her errant son. But that was Tony all over these days, as soft as shit. It was part of why she cared for him. But, unlike her, he couldn’t see the big picture. She knew her Aiden had deliberately kept his work away from his home, and the fact that Patsy had not understood the importance of that left a lot to be desired where she was concerned. Aiden had pulled them up out of the shit and given them all a good life and that was an achievement in itself.
When Aiden came back in and gently started to help his brother she was happy to do the same. But the message was loud and clear to Patsy and Tony: Aiden called the shots.
Patsy understood then that, as much as his mum loved her children, she would not stand between any of them and her oldest son. He was heartbroken that she could stand by and not intervene as he was beaten. But it was also a learning curve, because he knew now that he had to look out for himself. Patsy needed to man up and prove himself as someone to be trusted in every way.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Eric Palmer was waiting patiently for Aiden to come and explain the situation to him, confident that the boy would have it in hand. He was disappointed that young Patsy didn’t have the nous to know right from wrong but he made allowances because he was Aiden’s brother.
When a contrite Aiden finally arrived, Eric listened to the boy and let him know, in a nice way, that it was deeds such as this that could bring them down. Little acorns and all that, but he was sure that Aiden had sorted the situation out to everyone’s satisfaction. His bloodied knuckles were proof of that.
But Aiden was not appeased. His brother had nearly brought disaster on the family and that would not be easily forgotten, or indeed forgiven. One thing that most people never realised was, like Eric Palmer, Aiden O’Hara held grudges. And he never forgot anything that he felt had in any way cast him in a bad light. He talked his way back into Eric’s good books and left him to go back to the brothel in Kensington. But by the time he got there, Jade Dixon had long gone. Aiden O’Hara was not happy.
Book Two
A man’s character is his fate.
Heraclitus (c. 540–480 BC)
Am I my brother’s keeper?
Genesis 4:9
Chapter Thirty
1990
‘What on earth is Agnes on about, Aiden?’
Reeva was annoyed and it showed. Tony had disappeared again which wasn’t, in itself, a big blow. The bugbear was he had not come back for three days and now Reeva was getting worried.
Aiden shook his head in despair and said patiently, ‘Your young daughter, your “baby” as I believe you refer to her in your more friendly moments, needs money for a school trip t
o, of all places, Westminster Abbey.’ He pulled his sister on to his lap and hugged her close saying, ‘Don’t worry, sweetheart, I will sort you out.’
Agnes was squirming to get away from him as he kissed her over and over again, his stubble scraping against her skin. Even Reeva laughed at the scene and she didn’t think she had a laugh in her. Aiden slipped his sister twenty quid and she ran from the room to get ready for school. He looked at his youngest brothers and, sighing, gave them both twenty quid too.
Patsy, who was ironing his shirt, said jokily, ‘Costs a fucking fortune, keeping this lot sweet, Ade.’
‘Can’t give to one without the others, can you?’ Aiden smiled at Porrick and Eugene as he spoke and they grinned back, well pleased with this outcome. He poured himself another cup of tea and, as he sipped it, he said in a mock-tragic voice, ‘Don’t worry, Mum. He’ll be back when he’s hungry.’
Patsy chimed in then with a snide, ‘Or when he’s skint!’
The boys laughed and Reeva felt her simmering anger begin to boil. Yet she knew deep down they all liked Tony. The two-faced bastard that he was − he was still her Tony.
Eugene, who was the joker of the family, said, completely deadpan, ‘He must be fucking starving by now. He’s been gone nearly four days!’
They all started laughing again and Reeva willed herself not to react. It wasn’t often her Aiden was home in the mornings. He usually spent most of his nights with his fancy woman; so she didn’t want to spoil the mood.