by Joan Jonker
Phil was pulling on his jacket as he crossed the cobbles. ‘Very realistic, Mrs Mac. It’s a pity there’s no Indian tribes living round here, ’cos ten to one the chief would make you his number one squaw.’
Nellie rose to her full four feet ten inches. ‘Now that’s nice of yer, lad. And although I haven’t seen no Indians round here, I have seen a tent in Walton Park. So if yer come across an Indian chief on yer travels, let me know and I’ll ask him if he feels like making me his number one squaw in a wigwam in Walton Park. Mind you, yer’d have to tell him the truth. There’s no buffalo round these parts, but we do have a good butcher what sells beef.’
It was Corker who told her, ‘Yer best bet, Nellie, is to ask Derek. He travels the world and is more likely to come across what you’re looking for.’
Derek waved an open palm. ‘I don’t travel the world any more, Mrs Mac. I’ve signed on for one more trip, and that’s only Rotterdam. And I know for a fact that Red Indians are few and far between in Holland.’
By this time Doreen had lost her patience. ‘Mam, are yer coming or not? It’ll be nearly time for us to go to bed.’
Molly nodded. ‘Yeah, ye’re right, sunshine. Come on, Nellie, let’s be having yer. And you, Ellen. There’s nothing to stop yer coming for an hour. It’ll get yer out of the house.’
‘I’ll nip in and put the fireguard in front of the fire, Molly, just to make sure. Tell Doreen to leave the door open for me.’ Ellen wagged a finger at Corker. ‘Don’t you dare come home the worse for wear, or yer’ll get the length of me tongue. And that goes for you, Derek. Yer mam will wonder what sort of friends yer’ve got if yer go home tiddly again.’
‘Me mam’s known Corker a long time, Ellen, and she won’t hear a wrong word said against him.’ Derek smiled at what he was going to say. ‘In fact, if me mam saw me and Corker staggering along the road, it’s me she’d clout, for getting him drunk. She’d say I was leading him astray.’
Phil saw his wife was agitated and he touched Molly’s arm. ‘Doreen’s waiting to put the baby to bed, Mrs B. She kept him up so yer could see him. I think yer’d better get over there.’
‘Right! Nellie, come over with me. Ellen, you follow when ye’re ready. Jack, don’t drink so much I’ll have trouble getting yer up for work. And from me and Nellie, it’s goodnight to Corker and Derek.’
‘That’s the second game I’ve won,’ Ruthie said, bragging as any fourteen-year-old girl would in front of boys. ‘We should have been playing for money.’
‘If we’d been playing for money, yer wouldn’t have got away with cheating,’ Gordon Corkhill said. He wasn’t very happy because Johnny Stewart had beaten him to the chair next to Ruthie, and Jeff Mowbray had bagged the chair next to Bella. Which meant Gordon and his kid brother, Peter, had been left with the chairs each end of the table.
‘I didn’t cheat,’ Ruthie said with indignation. ‘I won fair and square.’
Gordon was equally indignant. ‘Yer did too, Ruthie Bennett! I saw with me own eyes that on two occasions Johnny passed yer a card. Yer did it sly, under the cover of the cloth, thinking yer wouldn’t be seen. But I saw yer.’
‘It’s only a game of cards, for heaven’s sake,’ Johnny said. ‘It’s not as though yer’ve lost money. And I didn’t pass Ruthie a card twice, it was only once.’
Ruthie blushed. ‘What did yer have to go and tell him for? It was only in fun.’
‘He’s me mate, that’s why,’ Johnny said, also rather red-faced. ‘And yer never tell a lie to a mate.’
Bella’s jaw dropped. ‘That’s not fair! I could have won if I’d cheated. In fact we could all win if it came to that.’
‘Yer’ll win the next game, Bella, I’ll see to that,’ Jeff Mowbray said. ‘If I’ve got a card yer can use, I’ll throw it on the pack and yer can pick it up.’
‘We won’t have another game yet.’ Ruthie pushed back her chair. ‘Me and Bella are going to make us all a drink.’ She didn’t mention the food, she wanted it to be a surprise. ‘Will yer put the cards back in the packs while me and me mate play hostess?’
Out in the kitchen, Bella said softly, ‘Hadn’t yer better put a white tablecloth on, in case something gets spilled on the chenille? Yer mam would go mad.’
Ruthie nodded. ‘Yeah, I better had. I don’t want to give me mam anything to complain about, or she won’t let me invite them again.’
‘Oh, ay,’ Gordon said, ‘what’s the cloth for?’
‘To stop tea stains on me mam’s best cloth.’ Ruthie felt very grown up shaking out the white cloth and throwing it on the table. She was helped the other end by Gordon, who would have done anything to get in her good books. ‘If any spills on the chenille, it’s hard to get out. But any stain will come out of this if it’s steeped in bleach.’
When the two girls came in carrying a plate in each hand, the boys’ faces lit up and they cheered.
‘It’s not much, but me mam and Bella’s mum thought yer might be glad of a snack. And yer can either have tea or lemonade.’
The boys opted for lemonade, and once they were all seated again, the atmosphere was happy and noisy. The sandwiches and sausage rolls were much appreciated, and in what seemed no time at all the plates were empty and the girls were carrying them out again.
‘Shall we wash them?’ Bella asked. ‘Or leave them until later?’
‘Leave them for now,’ Ruthie replied. ‘Me mam said she thought our guests should leave by ten o’clock, so we’ll wash them when they’ve gone. They’ll only take five minutes.’
‘Did yer mam really say that?’ Bella couldn’t believe this was happening. Any minute she was expecting her mother to come knocking on the door. ‘We’ll have to make sure everywhere is clean and tidy for when she comes home.’
‘Don’t let’s play cards again,’ Johnny suggested when they were all seated. ‘Let’s play a parlour game and have a laugh.’
The youngsters were having the time of their lives playing ‘pass the parcel’. They took turns in standing with their back to the table and shouting ‘Stop’. And the one who did that was allowed to choose the unfortunate loser’s forfeit. The one left holding the parcel wasn’t allowed to choose what they did for a forfeit, they had to do as they were told. It might be to tell a joke, to sing or even dance. And the whole house seemed to be alive with the laughter of young friends enjoying themselves.
It was nine o’clock when Mary Watson thought she would call, as Molly had said she could, to see her daughter and friends were all right. And she had her hand on the knocker when she heard an outburst of young laughter. She listened for a while, and there was a smile on her face as she dropped her hand. She didn’t have the heart to spoil the night for her daughter, so she turned and crossed the cobbles, content and happy that Bella was enjoying herself.
When she set foot on the pavement opposite, Mary heard another burst of laughter. This time it came from her neighbour’s house. And once again Mary smiled, as in her mind’s eye she could see Nellie McDonough standing in the middle of Miss Clegg’s living room, and either impersonating someone, or making up the most outrageous stories as she went along. She was never short of stories, was Nellie, and she never failed to cheer people up and make them laugh.
Mary wasn’t to know this, but had she been in the street about half past ten, she would have heard still more laughter. This time it came from five men who strolled down the street after enjoying more than a few pints in each other’s company. They’d exchanged jokes, discussed their jobs, and finally decided the world wasn’t such a bad old place after all.
Chapter Sixteen
In the butcher’s on the Tuesday morning, Tony was in fine fettle. There were no other customers in the shop and he had the two friends in stitches with tales of his next-door neighbour. And for once, Nellie didn’t object to not being the centre of attention.
‘She’s got up to some queer tricks, has Mrs Middleton.’ Tony was leaning back against the thick wooden cutting table, his straw hat pu
shed to the back of his head. ‘The funniest thing was when her washing line snapped one day, and she hung her husband’s long johns out of the front bedroom window to dry.’
‘Go ’way! She didn’t, did she?’ Nellie was tickled pink. ‘I bet the whole street had a good laugh at that. And eh, I bet her husband had to put up with a lot of stick from the neighbours.’
Molly wasn’t so sure that Tony was telling the truth. She had a feeling he was making it all up for a laugh. It was something he often did, and a lot of his regular customers knew him well enough to take everything he said with a pinch of salt. But Nellie was enjoying herself so much Molly didn’t want to spoil her fun. So she joined in. ‘Your wife wouldn’t be too happy, would she, Tony, having a pair of long johns dangling from the window next door?’
‘The wife was blazing, Molly, and knocked to give the woman a piece of her mind. It didn’t do no good though, ’cos Mrs Middleton told her to sod off. Her husband needed those underpants to wear the next day. And as the sun was shining on the front of the house, then that’s where they were staying, to dry off. And if the neighbours didn’t like it, well it was just too bleeding bad.’
Nellie was bent double as her imagination took over. In her mind she could actually see the long underpants hanging from the window, blowing when there was a gust of wind. A rare sight to be seen. ‘Ooh, she must be a right one, your neighbour, as daft as a brush.’ She wiped away tears of laughter with the back of her hand. ‘Mind you, I wouldn’t mind her coming to live in our street. It would cheer us all up.’ She quickly added, ‘But a few doors away, not right next door.’
Tony was really enjoying himself. It wasn’t often he could hold forth when Nellie was in the shop, for she usually took over. ‘Oh, yer wouldn’t want her for a neighbour, Nellie, she can be quite dangerous. I remember one day, she set fire to her living room. Her curtains were alight, and her carpet. If the fire engine hadn’t come as quick as it did, our house could have gone up in flames along with hers.’
Nellie’s face was a picture as she drank in every word. ‘Go ’way! Ay, Tony, yer want to move away from there. She sounds doolally.’
Two more customers came into the shop then, followed quickly by another two. ‘I’ll tell yer the rest of the tale next time yer come in.’
As Tony attended to the first two customers, Ellen came from the store room to help serve. She winked at Molly. ‘He’s almost as good as Nellie when he gets going. They make a good pair.’
Outside the shop, Molly put her basket in the crook of her arm. ‘Come on, sunshine. It’s Hanley’s now for the bread, and we’ll get our spuds on the way back. They’re heavy to cart around when there’s no need for it.’
Nellie linked her arm, but her mind was back at the butcher’s. ‘Ay, girl, I wouldn’t like to live next door to Tony’s neighbour, would you? I wouldn’t feel safe in me bed with a maniac like her living next door.’
Molly looked sideways. Should she tell her mate that everything Tony told them had been made up, just for a laugh? No, better leave her with something to think about. It would keep her out of trouble. Or halfway, or somewhere in between, perhaps. ‘I wouldn’t take what Tony told us as gospel, sunshine. I think he exaggerated a bit, to give us a laugh.’
‘Oh, I don’t think …’ Nellie’s mouth gaped in surprise as she was unceremoniously pushed across the pavement towards the wool shop. ‘What the hell …’
‘Keep quiet and pretend to look in the window,’ Molly said, in hushed tones. ‘There’s someone coming towards us that I think we know. Yer can take a sly look, but don’t make it obvious.’
Nellie was almost cross-eyed as she tried to look without appearing to. ‘What is it, girl? I can’t see nothing.’
‘Look to your right, sunshine, and see if yer recognise the man walking towards us. He’s got a blonde hanging on to his arm.’
Nellie took another peep. ‘Oh, yeah. That’s the bloke …’ A hand across her mouth prevented Nellie from saying any more. But as soon as she could breathe, she said, ‘Ay, that’s the bloke what’s asked Claire to go out with him.’
Molly nodded as the couple passed. The woman was looking up into the man’s eyes, all lovey-dovey, and neither noticed the two friends. ‘By no stretch of the imagination is she his mother,’ Molly said. ‘More like a girlfriend.’
‘I wonder what he’s doing round here, girl? We’ve never seen him before, have we?’ Nellie’s eyes narrowed, a sure sign her brain was working. ‘And what’s he doing with that woman, when he’s asked Claire to go out with him? There’s something fishy going on.’
Molly nodded. ‘It certainly looks that way, sunshine. The woman he’s with is certainly not his sister, that’s for sure.’
‘Ay, let’s follow him,’ Nellie said, ‘and see where they go.’
‘I don’t think so, Nellie. We may get caught.’
‘It won’t be us what gets caught, girl, ’cos we wouldn’t be doing nothing wrong. It’s a public street: we’ve as much right to be on it as he has. And even if he sees us, so what? He doesn’t know us from Adam, and my curiosity is roused now. Come on, girl, before he gets too far away and we lose sight of him.’
Molly wasn’t so sure. ‘What good will it do us if we do find out where he’s going?’
Nellie was prepared to follow the couple on her own if it came to the push. ‘So I’m nosy, Molly, is that a crime? And why am I nosy? Because he’s asked a friend of ours to go out with him, and for all we know he could be a rotter.’
That was enough to sway Molly. ‘Okay, but we stay well behind. I don’t want him to see us. So promise to behave yerself.’
‘If I behaved meself every time yer told me to, I’d have a miserable bleeding life. And as this involves a friend of ours, I think we should open the McDonough and Bennett Private Detective Agency. So come on, girl, we’re in business.’
Molly allowed herself to be propelled forward, but she wasn’t going to let her mate have it all her own way. ‘Yer’ve got a terrible memory, sunshine. Yer keep forgetting it’s the Bennett and McDonough Private Detective Agency. Unless we get caught and hauled off to the police station. Then you can be senior partner.’
‘Right now I don’t care what we call it, we can argue about that later. Just put a move on, girl, before they get too far ahead of us and we lose them.’
The friends kept up a steady pace until they were about thirty yards away from the couple, who were arm in arm and laughing into each other’s face. ‘They’re like a young courting couple,’ Molly said. ‘Yer were right about there being something fishy going on, sunshine. And it would be interesting to see what they are up to, and if they live together. I know he told Claire he wasn’t married and lived with his aged mother, but it could have been a pack of lies. So we’ll carry on following them to see if they split up, or go into a house together.’
Nellie was in her element. She loved playing detective, and she often said to anyone who would listen that her and Molly made good sleuths. They’d never lost a case yet. ‘Yeah, we’ll find out what he’s up to. We don’t have to rush home, so we’ve got plenty of time.’
‘I think we should split up, though,’ Molly said. ‘Two of us together are more noticeable than one on their own. So what d’yer think about one on the opposite side of the street, and one walking behind them?’
‘I think that’s a good idea, girl,’ Nellie agreed, feeling very important. ‘You go on the other side, and I’ll stay behind them. I’ll move a bit closer, see if I can hear what they’re saying. But from the looks of them, it’s all lovey-dovey.’
‘Perhaps we shouldn’t jump to conclusions, sunshine, because there might be a very good reason for their behaviour. She could be a long-lost cousin, or something.’
Nellie huffed. ‘Aye, and pigs might fly! No, they’re no more cousins than the man in the moon. I keep expecting him to kiss her any minute. You mark my words, there’s something phoney about that man. He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.’
‘Let’s not hang the man until we know he’s guilty, sunshine. For Claire’s sake I hope there’s a good explanation for what we’re seeing.’
‘That’s your trouble, Molly Bennett, yer can never see bad in anyone. But I’ll have yer a bet on this. I bet he’s not what he makes out he is. Still, time will tell, so let’s wait and see.’
‘I’ll cross over now, sunshine, and we’ll meet up at the bottom of the street. I’ve got a feeling they’ll go into one of these houses. Or at least one will, and the other will carry on walking. We’ll see whether I’m right or not.’
Molly crossed the street, and when she glanced back over to the other side she was horrified to see Nellie had quickened her pace, and was shortening the gap between herself and the couple. Trust her mate to pull a stunt like that. She was probably trying to get close enough to hear what was being said. ‘Let’s hope she doesn’t get so close they notice her,’ Molly said under her breath. Not that Nellie would be in the least bit put out, even if they accused her of following them. She’d have a good excuse: she always had an excuse for everything.
Molly had to walk faster to keep abreast of her mate, but when she saw the couple stop outside one of the houses she automatically slowed down. But Nellie didn’t slow down until she was only a couple of yards from the couple, and she was able to hear clearly when the man she thought of as Graham said, ‘What about half past two this afternoon? The kids won’t be in from school then.’
‘Aren’t yer coming in now?’ the woman asked. ‘We’d have a couple of hours on our own.’
The man shook his head. ‘I’d love to, darling, but I have a job to do. I’m going home to pick up a case, then I have two calls to make. But I’ll be here at half two.’
Nellie was walking very slowly, but to have listened in any longer she would have had to stand still. So she had to walk past the couple, and missed seeing the kiss they exchanged. But Molly had a good view, and when the mates met up on the corner of the street the words poured from her lips. ‘Yer should have seen the kiss he gave her! In broad daylight, too!’