The Betrayed: A shocking, gritty thriller that will hook you from the first page

by Casey Kelleher

  Leading the woman over towards it, he couldn’t wait to get back to the station. Just like his colleague, he wasn’t in the mood for this shit tonight. He’d only started his shift a couple of hours earlier, and already they’d been called out four times tonight for similar offences.

  This was what was known as a typical Saturday night in Richmond High Street. The end of the month, payday. Tonight, the world and his wife were out on the lash and didn’t he know about it.

  The other bars hadn’t started kicking out yet, so it was only going to get worse from here. This was the calm before the storm.

  ‘Get your fucking hands off me.’ The woman snapped her head to the side then, trying to bite the officer; only PC Adams was two steps ahead of her, pushing her into the back of the police van.

  ‘What are you gawping at?’ he said, as the woman stopped resisting, looking down next to the officer, her eyes trying to focus on something else.

  He followed her gaze, almost doing a double take when he saw the small child standing next to him.

  A head of red hair. The little girl’s face streaked with tears. Wearing only her pink pyjamas, the kid’s feet were bare and, judging by the shade of blue that they had turned, the poor kid must be freezing cold.

  ‘What the fuck?’ PC Adams signalled over to where PC Taylor stood behind him. ‘Where’s this kid come from?’ Then turning back to the woman he glared at her in disgust. He wouldn’t put it past this pair to have dragged a kid out with them. Selfish fuckers.

  ‘Is she yours?’

  ‘Behave,’ the woman squawked, as if the police officer was trying to set her up for something else. ‘I don’t even like kids.’

  PC Adams closed the van door on the woman, ignoring her loud angry protests, before crouching down to the little girl’s level.

  ‘Hey, darling, where have you come from, huh?’ he asked, his voice softened as he took in the sight of the child. ‘Where’s your mummy and your daddy, eh?’ he persisted as the little girl continued to sob loudly. Seemingly too young to be able to talk, the child was near hysterical.

  Scanning the street behind the child, PC Adams checked to see if any front doors were left open on the High Street, or if there was anyone frantically searching for the girl.

  No one seemed to be looking for the poor mite.

  ‘Here, Taylor. Grab us the blanket out of the boot, will you? The poor kid’s freezing.’

  Jack Taylor did as he was asked. Grabbing the blanket he marched over to his colleague. And then, taking a good look at the child, his reaction mirrored PC Adams’s: he did a double take.

  ‘Nancy?’

  He was eyeing the little girl more closely, recognising her from the many occasions that he’d been up at Jimmy Byrne’s house. She was like a little doll, he remembered. Jack Taylor couldn’t believe his eyes.

  ‘It can’t be? Jesus. There’s no way Jimmy Byrne would let his kid out of his sight.’

  ‘Hang on. This is Jimmy Byrne’s kid? As in THE Jimmy Byrne?’

  Jack nodded. Then crouching down to Nancy’s level as he wrapped the blanket around the little girl’s shoulders, he spoke softly to her.

  ‘It’s okay, Nancy. My name’s Jack. I’m a friend of your daddy’s. I’m going to take you home.’

  ‘Ain’t we supposed to call this in?’ PC Adams asked warily. He was still fairly new to the job, but he knew the protocol for dealing with a missing child.

  ‘No. I’ll sort it,’ Jack said, placing Nancy in the back of the police car and fastening the seat belt around her. Nancy had stopped crying now. Recognising Jack, and knowing that she was being taken home, she’d sunk down into the blanket. Glad of the warmth. ‘Trust me, you call this in and Jimmy Byrne won’t thank you for it, mate. You might have heard a few stories about the man, and let me tell you, every one of them is true. See this little thing here, the man is besotted with her. I don’t know why the fuck she’s roaming the streets on her own, but I do know this: you call this in and Children’s Services will probably end up taking the child into care. Do you really want to be the man that takes Jimmy’s kid away from him?’

  PC Adams shook his head, indicating to his colleague that his imminent threat had been heard loud and clear. He had quickly cottoned on to the way things worked around this part of London. Certain people were above the law it seemed and Jimmy Byrne was one of them. He had heard the rumours about Byrne having a few police officers in his pocket, and judging by the way that Taylor was acting, his colleague was clearly one of them.

  There was no way that Adams was leaving himself in the firing line of either man. It would stand him in better stead to turn a blind eye, he decided.

  ‘Yeah, you’re right. Besides, we’ll only be lumbered with a week’s worth of fucking paperwork to fill out,’ he said, showing willing that he was playing along.

  ‘You go and sign in those two numpties and I’ll meet you back down at the station,’ Jack said before jumping in the police car and pulling away.

  Jack had saved Jimmy a whole world of dramas tonight by dealing with the situation. He’d be set to make a nice little earner from it too, he reckoned.

  Jimmy would owe him for this. Big time.

  * * *

  Joanie Byrne padded down the stairs, wrapping her dressing gown around her body tightly. If the loud banging on the door wasn’t enough to make her feel suddenly wide awake, the shrill coolness of the marble tiles beneath her feet had done the job. The great big marble staircase was her son’s pride and joy; if it had been down to her, Joanie would have opted for a nice thick carpet.

  ‘Hold your horses,’ she shouted, as she reached the middle landing. Then staring down at the open front door, at the police officer standing in the hallway with little Nancy wrapped in a blanket asleep in his arms, Joanie never moved so fast.

  ‘Sorry to disturb you, Mrs Byrne,’ the officer said, seeing the horrified expression on the older woman’s face as she clearly wondered what the hell was going on. ‘The front door was wide open. I’m guessing that’s how this little one got out. She must have moved that chair so she could reach the latch.’ Jack Taylor pointed to where the chair sat in the middle of the doorway.

  ‘Nancy? What in God’s name is going on?’ Joanie asked, reaching the officer. She stared down at her granddaughter lying in the officer’s arms, wrapped in a blanket, sound asleep, blissfully unaware of all the drama.

  ‘We found her wandering down the High Street,’ Jack explained. ‘She’s okay. Just a bit cold. Poor kid didn’t have any shoes on her feet. Must have just decided to go for a wander. Who knows what goes on in the little one’s head, eh?’

  Joanie nodded, knowing full well that the policeman was trying to play down the seriousness of tonight’s events.

  ‘I don’t understand. She was in bed with her mother tonight,’ she said, staring at the clock as she wondered what time it was. And then bristling as she saw that it was almost midnight.

  Jimmy still wasn’t home. He stayed out most nights, and Joanie wasn’t convinced that the business he was tending to at this time of night was strictly professional. She wouldn’t be surprised if her son had some fancy piece somewhere. With Colleen as a wife, Joanie couldn’t blame him.

  That girl.

  Joanie would murder Colleen for this. The one and only night her useless excuse of a daughter-in-law had insisted on looking after her own child, and Joanie’s precious little granddaughter had been roaming the streets in the middle of the night.

  ‘COLLEEN!’ Joanie Byrne bellowed up the stairs, her voice booming out louder than PC Taylor would have ever given the slight woman’s tiny frame credit for. ‘COLLEEN. Get your arse down here! The police are here!’

  Shuffling awkwardly on his feet, still holding the child, PC Taylor could feel the anger radiating from Joanie Byrne. If she wasn’t careful she’d wake up Nancy with all her shouting. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck here tonight with two feuding women and a screaming baby.

  ‘Shall I carr
y Nancy upstairs for you, Mrs Byrne?’ he asked, trying to be helpful. ‘I’m still on shift and we’re a bit understaffed tonight. I just wanted to make sure that Nancy got home safe and sound. And that Jimmy didn’t get any repercussions from anyone else tonight,’ he added, making sure that he got that nugget of information in before he left.

  ‘Thank you, officer. Jimmy will appreciate that.’ Joanie hadn’t even thought about repercussions. Colleen could have caused a world of shit for them all tonight. ‘And yes, if you don’t mind carrying Nancy up. You can put the child in my bed. It’s the second room on the left. I’m going to go and see to my daughter-in-law.’

  Marching towards the younger woman’s bedroom, Joanie threw open the door that she now realised was already ajar and snapped on the bedroom light, hoping to drag the woman from her slumber with a short, sharp shock.

  Colleen was lucky that Joanie didn’t drag her out of the bed by her hair.

  The smell hit Joanie as she entered the room, the acrid stench of vomit so strong that it caused her to recoil. Her eyes were watering as she stared over at her daughter-in-law lying in the bed.

  The bedroom was immaculate. A giant double bed in the middle of the room. The decor, simple, understated. The dressing table pristine: everything sitting in neat little rows, immaculately tidy. It was almost clinical. Void of the personality of the woman lying there.

  She wasn’t moving, splayed out on the bed, the covers tossed to the side, wearing only a nightshirt, her bare legs and knickers exposed. Her body twisted awkwardly. Her head turned to the side, as if she was half hanging off the bed.

  ‘Colleen?’ Joanie said, her voice faltering as she realised something wasn’t right. Had the girl been sick? Stepping around the bed, Joanie let out a scream.

  Her gaze was focused on the awkward angle of Colleen’s head as she spotted the spray of vomit that was dripping down the side of the duvet, forming a puddle on the floor. The girl’s skin was deathly white; her eyes had rolled to the back of her head.

  Next to her lay a discarded bottle of vodka. Empty. Along with what looked like a number of plastic bottles of prescription medication.

  ‘Oh, my God. Colleen! Call an ambulance,’ Joanie shrieked as the police officer came running into the room. ‘We need to call an ambulance.’

  Joanie ran downstairs to the telephone, as Jack Taylor tried his best to find out if Colleen Byrne was responsive. Feeling for a pulse, he stared down at Colleen’s glassy expression.

  Then, relief when he felt the faint throb under his fingertips.

  She was still with them. Just barely.

  ‘It’s all right, Colleen. You’re going to be all right,’ he said, the calmness in his voice surprising even him. Tonight was turning out to be a major fucking fuck up of epic proportions, and judging by the state of Colleen Byrne it didn’t look like it was going to get better anytime soon.

  Twenty-Seven

  ‘Oh Jimmy! Thank God, you’re here. I take it Jack Taylor got hold of you, son,’ Joanie Byrne said, as her son marched down the hospital corridor towards her. His thunderous expression melted the instant that he saw Nancy, sleeping peacefully, wrapped up in a thick hospital blanket, on the seat next to his mother.

  ‘Thank Christ Nancy’s okay!’ Jimmy said, immense relief washing over him as he looked down at his daughter. That was a small mercy, at least, he figured, which was more than could be said for Colleen. Jimmy could kill Colleen for what she’d put them all through. Having already got the general gist of tonight’s events from Jack Taylor, to say he was not impressed was a massive understatement. Jimmy Byrne was bloody fuming.

  ‘She’s fine, son, just exhausted. The poor little mite has been around the bleeding houses tonight, quite literally,’ Joanie said, seeing the concern in her son’s eyes.

  ‘Where’s Colleen?’ Jimmy asked, his tone vexed, and Joanie could understand why. Summoned to the hospital in the middle of the night, he’d better things to do with his time than have to come and deal with another of his hapless wife’s dramatics. But that was Colleen for you, though: a selfish little mare through and through; that girl only ever thought of herself.

  She’d proved it tonight. By putting their Nancy at risk, Colleen Walsh had crossed the line.

  ‘The doctors are in with her, Jimmy. Edel’s in there too. They said they’d let us know when we can see her. Stay here for a bit, yeah? Let her mum have some time alone with her. You can’t go in there in the mood you’re in. You need to calm down, son. Get your head straight.’ Praying that Jimmy wouldn’t storm into the room where Colleen was with all guns blazing, Joanie got up and slipped some money into the vending machine next to them, hoping that a nice hot cup of tea would entice him to stay by her side.

  Joanie couldn’t face anymore drama. Jimmy was stressed out enough as it was, without her having to mention that the tension between her and Edel Walsh was at an all-time high.

  Edel had been wailing like a banshee when she’d arrived at the hospital earlier, distraught at hearing Colleen had been brought in for attempted suicide; she’d flown at Joanie when she’d heard the lack of empathy as she’d recited the night’s events, still enraged at the trial Colleen had put young Nancy through.

  Heartless. That’s what Edel had called her before the doctors had quickly ushered Edel into the private room, so that she could stay by her daughter’s side.

  ‘Take a seat, Jimmy. Drink this. They don’t have any alcohol in them things; shame, as they’d probably make a fortune if they did,’ Joanie quipped, disappointed when her son turned down her offer, shooing the hot drink away. She placed it down on the table beside them instead.

  ‘I don’t want to take a fucking seat and I don’t want any poxy tea. I want to know what the fuck’s been going on! Taylor said it was attempted suicide? He said Nancy had been in the bed beside her?’ Jimmy said. The initial fleeting concern for his wife had dissolved completely by the time he’d got off the phone to Jack Taylor, once he’d had time to process everything.

  ‘I don’t know what she was thinking, Jimmy, I really don’t. The main thing now, though, is Nancy is fine and the doctors said Colleen is stable,’ Joanie said, trying to placate her son.

  ‘“Colleen’s stable”?’ Jimmy spat. ‘Fuck me, now there’s two words I’d never thought I’d hear in the same sentence,’ he sneered. ‘I tell you what, she may not have succeeded in topping herself, but I’d be happy to have a fucking good go at it when I get my hands on her!’ he said, his temper getting the better of him.

  ‘The state of her, Jimmy. You should have seen her. Covered in vomit, her skin tinged blue. She was completely lifeless. It was no wonder Nancy went out bloody wandering. She must have been petrified waking up and seeing her mother in that state. Thank God Jack Taylor found her and knew to bring her back up to the house. Anything could have happened to her, Jimmy. All those nutters out there these days. The perverts. It just doesn’t bear thinking about,’ Joanie continued, hoping her words would sink in. She was sick of Jimmy trying to pretend that Colleen was okay. Sick of the man trying to play down Colleen’s ‘problems’. The girl was sick. Jimmy needed to realise that he couldn’t just sugar-coat this anymore.

  Colleen needed real help.

  ‘Jack Taylor is the only reason we haven’t had any of the Old Bill and Children’s Services snooping around. Can you imagine the bloody field day that lot would have had with tonight’s drama?’

  Jimmy nodded in agreement. Taylor had done well tonight. Jimmy Byrne wasn’t going to forget that in a hurry. The man had not only made sure that his Nancy got home safely, but he’d also made sure that tonight’s events had been kept away from the knowledge of anyone in authority. On top of that, he’d personally dealt with the staff here at the hospital too, so that they didn’t inform anyone else down at Richmond nick. The last thing Jimmy needed was the local plod or the do-gooder social workers poking their noses in.

  His mother was right, the authorities would have bloody loved that, wouldn’t they
? They were always trying to get the notorious Jimmy Byrne on something. Though the fuckers hadn’t succeeded thus far.

  He certainly owed Jack Taylor big time for his help tonight.

  ‘The only reason I agreed to Nancy sleeping with her is because Colleen was so insistent on taking her for the night. She slapped me, Jimmy. In front of Nancy. The poor child was so distressed, I didn’t know what else to do.’

  ‘It’s not your fault, Mum.’ Seeing the genuine upset on his mother’s face at what she’d been left to deal with, Jimmy could barely contain his anger from rising once more. ‘How were you supposed to know that Colleen would do something so fucking stupid, huh? It’s not your fault, Mum. You can’t watch Nancy twenty-four-seven: Colleen is her mother. She should have been able to look after her child without pulling stupid stunts like this.’

  ‘She’d drunk a litre of vodka and thrown back enough painkillers to put a horse out of its misery. She isn’t right in the head, son,’ Joanie said, choosing her words carefully; she was only saying out loud what they both knew to be the truth.

  ‘The doctors said it’s postnatal depression, she’ll be fine,’ Jimmy said unconvincingly, repeating the little mantra that he’d used to excuse Colleen time and time again.

  ‘Depression?’ Joanie rolled her eyes at that. ‘And what in God’s name has that one got to be depressed about? She has it good, Jimmy. She has everything a woman could wish for. A loving husband, a beautiful child, that grand old house. Everything handed to her on a plate.’ She shook her head in disgust. ‘Is it any wonder the girl is feeling depressed? She’s so far up her own arse, all she can see is darkness. You can’t keep making excuses for her. She hasn’t been right for a long time,’ Joanie said, leaving her words to hang in the air between them. They both knew what she was referring to.

  Neither of them had mentioned it since.

  ‘You can’t keep turning a blind eye to the woman’s antics and making excuses for her, Jimmy. You need to deal with her. She’s getting worse.’ Keeping her voice down, Joanie was speaking with only brutal honestly now, as only she could. As Jimmy’s mother, she was perhaps the only person in the world that could say her bit, and Jimmy had no choice but to listen to it.