by Martina Cole
She saw the look of horror on Donna’s face and sighed.
‘You know something, Donna? I thought I was blinkered where Davey was concerned. But you with Georgio . . . Jesus wept, you were blind as a fucking bat!’
Because she was hurting so much she wanted someone else to hurt, too. Wanted Donna, the person who had blown her world wide open, to hurt more than she did.
‘Do you know what makes all this worse? Georgio’s got a child himself, a son.’
Dolly shook her head in disbelief.
‘Be quiet now, Carol. Leave it. This isn’t the time or the place . . .’
‘Oh fuck off, Dolly! Still protecting your Golden Boy, are you? She has a right to know. Once he’s out that’s where he’s going. Shall I tell you something else, Donna? You turned up there once, at Parkhurst, and she was there too, going in for a visit with the child. She’d come all the way from Marbella with Georgio junior. You even spoke to her. Davey told me. He said Georgio nearly fainted when you walked in instead of her.
‘He’s going to leave you high and dry, love. That’s why he wanted the house sold. He wanted it all, everything, and he would have left you with nothing!
‘Even you, Dolly, his surrogate mother, were going to be fucked off out of it. He is evil, evil - and he has brought my old man as low as him. He was in this with Harry and Bunty. Oh, you may well look surprised. Why do you think Harry come up trumps the night you was turned over, eh? Loyalty to Georgio, my arse! He couldn’t drop you lot quick enough when Georgio got the capture, and this is why, love. These little children are their road to riches. Untold riches, as my Davey put it. The dirty, weasel-faced, little bastard!’
Donna stared down at her hands in distress. Of all the things she had found out, the fact that Georgio had a child, a living child, was the worst of all. In her mind’s eye she could see the tall blonde girl with the handsome dark-eyed child. As Donna walked into the prison, the girl had walked out. Donna had admired the child. She felt a scream spiralling up inside her, and fought bravely to keep it inside her head, not let it come barrelling out into the faces of the two women before her.
‘What a mess, eh? What a godawful dirty mess.’
Donna was amazed that her voice sounded so normal, when inside she was screaming.
Screaming at the injustice of a God who allowed Georgio to beget a child and left her barren. Allowed things like child prostitution to flourish, to be easily available to debauched men. Who allowed her to love someone, to trust someone who was a nothing. A dirty filthy NOTHING.
The thought of Georgio’s hands on her made her want to gag. The knowledge that she had lain in bed longing for his touch made her insides rise up as her mind rebelled.
Carol, her anger spent, sorry now for what she had said, grasped Donna’s hand in hers and said softly, ‘What we have to decide now is what we are going to do?’
Donna’s face finally crumpled, her strength finally gave out and the three women cried together.
Each betrayed in her own way, each reliant on the others now to make something good come out of it all.
Wiping her eyes, Donna said in a voice stronger than she would have believed possible: ‘What we do now is blow this thing wide open.’
Georgio stood in the rec room watching a game of pool. Big Ricky was playing the new man on the Wing, Alfie Heartland. He was a well-known face in Parkhurst and other maximum security nicks; he was respected, handsome and violent. An armed robber, Alfie was now doing a fifteen for a raid on a local building society where he had pistol-whipped a have-a-go artist. Alfie was known for his sense of humour and his knowledge of horses. An avid gambler, he had already sorted himself a screw to put his bets on, and had established a book.
As Georgio watched them play, he saw Beavis and Butthead having a conversation in a corner. They were supposed to be playing cards but were deep in conversation, and Georgio noticed that they looked over at him now and again.
Nervous already, because of the jump planned for the next day, he began to feel paranoid. They knew a lot about him, and if they opened their mouths he could find himself in big trouble. He sauntered over to their table and sat with them for a few moments. No one noticed, everyone was too busy watching either TV or the game of pool. Only Sadie observed this and she kept an eye on Georgio from her chair by the TV, her face set in a frown. Georgio spoke to the men, then stood up and stretched languidly before going back to the pool table.
Sadie watched him for a few more seconds then slipped from the room unobtrusively.
Georgio didn’t see her go.
Alan Cox sat in his office nursing a brandy and smoking a cigar. All he wanted to do was crawl away somewhere and come back in forty-eight hours, when it would all be over. But he knew he couldn’t do that. He knew he was too involved with Donna Brunos to do that.
If it hadn’t been for her, he told himself, he would have blind-eyed the whole bleedin’ affair. Then he shrugged mentally, telling himself that was a lie.
He was blaming her because he was involved, and he wanted a scapegoat. Donna, with her airs and graces, her clean-living good looks, was perfect for the part.
What was really bothering him was the fact that he’d thought he knew Georgio Brunos, when he hadn’t. He hadn’t even scratched the surface.
He recalled Georgio as he had been when they were young, when Pa Brunos had taken them boxing. Once they had gone their separate ways, they had both changed. But the boyhood friendship had lasted. Look at what Georgio had done for him when he had been put away . . .
Now, Stephen was dead, Georgio was for the out . . . and Alan had to try and prevent it.
The knock on his door disturbed his thinking and he said loudly: ‘Enter!’
The door opened and he was amazed to see Donna walk into the room.
‘Hello, Alan.’
He looked at her as if she had just appeared out of a glass bottle.
‘Donna?’ It was a question and she smiled slightly as she took a seat opposite him.
‘Surprised to see me, are you? Well, I had to come. Carol Jackson knows everything now, and thanks to her, so do I. It wasn’t just Georgio and Davey and Paddy involved, it was also Harry and that horse-faced bitch he’s married to. Donald Lewis was ripped off and he hasn’t an inkling why. He thinks Stephen is just a greedy bastard. Carol has told us all she knows. She also told me that JoJo O’Neil and Jack Coyne are in this up to their armpits, and that Georgio got JoJo a hiding from Nick Carvello to teach him a lesson because he was getting greedy. The more I find out, the more involved it gets and the more I hate Georgio Brunos. But then I expect you guessed most of this, or even knew about it?’
Alan blinked for a few seconds as if digesting what she’d said, and Donna, looking at him, felt the full masculine force of him, and the memory of him unclothed rose up in her mind. As if reading her mind, he reddened. A flush crept up from his neck and enveloped his handsome face.
Donna noticed he was the first to look away and felt a momentary euphoria. She was growing up at last. She was a woman in her own right. And, she added to herself, not before time.
‘Yes, I had guessed most of what you said, Donna, but something I don’t understand is why, if Paddy was involved in everything, he was not to know about the jump? There’s skulduggery everywhere we look, and your husband seems to be the main instigator of it all.’
Donna bridled in her chair. ‘Don’t call him that! He’s not my husband any more. I spent the best part of twenty years with that man, and the truth is I know you better than I ever knew him. Physically and mentally.’
Alan placed his hand on hers, leaning towards her. She could smell the cigar on his breath as he said gently, ‘Donna . . .’
She pulled her hand from his and said quickly, ‘I want the jump stopped, Alan, and this time I will not take no for an answer. Tomorrow Georgio Brunos is once more let loose on to the world, and I can’t allow that. I will not allow that to happen. I want him locked up for so long, his brain,
his cock and his legs will have long been useless to him.’
Alan’s eyes widened at her terminology and she smiled, a hard, brittle smile.
‘Have I shocked you, Alan? It’s a pity I didn’t spend more of my life saying what I really thought, doing what I wanted to do, instead of saying and doing what Georgio wanted. Well, that’s all over now. One good thing has come out of all this. I am a person in my own right, and I’ve found out that I am a fighter. I’ll fight anyone who tries to stand in my way over this. Anyone at all.’
Alan looked at her, really looked at her, and what he saw was a woman of potential. The woman she would have been, had she been married to anyone but Georgio. Her whole world had disintegrated around her, and like the phoenix, she was rising from the ashes - and rising with a vengeance. He felt privileged to know this woman. Felt the pull of her, the want of her. Georgio Brunos must have been stark staring mad ever to have looked at another woman with her waiting in his bed.
‘I can’t stop the jump, Donna . . .’
She made a deep guttural sighing noise in the back of her throat and Alan held up his hand to stop her from talking. ‘Hear me out, darling, just hear me out. I can’t stop the jump - but I can make sure that Georgio is on his own. That’s the best I can do. Make sure he doesn’t make it to Ireland.’
Donna frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
Alan stood up and poured them both a cup of coffee before he answered her.
‘What I mean is this. Eric will only stop the jump on the say-so of Georgio now. If I go to him and try to call it off he’ll need Georgio’s confirmation. That would come through Anthony Calder or someone closer. That’s the law of the criminal world. I mean - think about it. I could be setting Georgio up for a number of reasons. The worst thing of all is this: Stephen Brunos is dead, and that shit hasn’t hit the fan yet. When it does Georgio will suspect a lot more than he does now. He’ll know we’ve tumbled him. As it stands now, Stephen’s death will be a holiday accident. It happens all the time: it nearly happened to you, love. But Georgio, unlike the authorities, will know it’s more of a hit. If we fuck Georgio now, he’ll come after us with everything he’s got. Because he will put two and two together. No, the jump has to go ahead. We have to fuck him up after the jump. Then, when he’s back inside, when he’s finally putting everything together, we’ll have to sort him out from there.’
Donna looked into Alan’s eyes and took a deep breath.
‘You don’t mean . . . you’re not saying . . .’ Her expression was one of utter confusion.
Alan nodded, his face hard now. The face Donna had seen when he had attacked Stephen Brunos.
‘That’s the only way out for any of us, Donna. While Georgio is breathing we’re in mortal danger. He’ll hear the whisper about us, and believe me, we will be gossiped about. Especially to Georgio. He’s shrewd, he’ll have sussed everything out before anyone else does. I know him, he’s got someone waiting for him in Ireland, someone who will be amazed and then frightened when he doesn’t arrive, someone who knows a lot more about what’s going on than you ever did.’
Donna nodded. ‘You mean Vida, the mother of his child?’
Her voice was bitter as she spoke and Alan’s eyes opened wide in amazement.
‘I know everything now,’ she whispered. ‘I told you that. Carol filled me in about her, along with everything else.’
‘Well, you’ll know that Vida is the one setting up the final stage of the jump from Ireland. I suspect you were to be left high and dry. I sussed that out at the beginning of all this.’
‘Well, thanks for letting me know,’ she cried. ‘I was under the impression we were friends!’
He shook his head. ‘While you were still all over that Greek ponce I had to keep me peace, didn’t I? He could have fucked Vida off out of it. I didn’t think he would, but that could have been the scenario. I was doing a mate a favour. And with respect, Donna, look where the fuck it’s got me.
‘I now have to make sure the mate - and believe me when I say, for all his faults, Georgio was a mate to me when I needed him - I have to make sure that this mate, this good old mate, stops breathing at the first available opportunity! So don’t sit there like fucking Britannia, all knowing and womanly strength. Remember I am also in this up to my neck and I still have to live in the criminal world afterwards.’
Donna acknowledged that what he said was true.
‘So what is your plan, Alan. What do you want to do?’
‘Nick Carvello is well-known for his hatred of beasts and nonces,’ Alan began. ‘A while ago, Lewis put it about that Georgio was beasting. He obviously knew that it was true because, with Stephen, he was going to try and take the lot from Georgio. Now Nick believed it all: he wanted out of the jump. I was the one who talked him into staying with it, gave him my word it was all bullshit. You see - I thought it was at the time. Everyone did. Georgio the nonce-hater, Georgio the man’s man.
‘Anyway, all that aside, I’ll tell Nick on the quiet that it’s true. I’ll tell him everything, and that will be for our good as well because Nick will go after JoJo and Jack Coyne like a maniac. He hates them. He will hate Georgio for putting him in the position he is in. Helping him, knowing he’s a nonsense - that will send Nick into a mental the likes of which you couldn’t even imagine. Consequently, when Georgio reaches Liverpool, Nick will either be waiting for him with a twelve-bore sawn-off shotgun, or your hubby will arrive up there to fuck-all help. No safe house, no safe passage, nothing.
‘If I was you I’d pin your hopes on the former. Because one thing you must understand: Georgio will have to die. If he doesn’t, me and you are in more trouble than you realise. Especially you, because he’ll find out you went to Sri Lanka and he’ll know you put the fuck on him.’
Donna listened to Alan in wonderment. Everything was like a nightmare. Her life was in danger, her whole world was collapsing around her, and instead of running from it all, running from Georgio, she still wanted to fight him.
‘Ring Nick Carvello now. I’ll wait until the jump’s over. But I warn you, Alan, if he gets to Ireland, I go to the Old Bill and I tell them everything I know. And I don’t care if they lock us all up and throw away the key, I’ll see my day with that bastard I married.’
Alan nodded, stifling an urge to throttle the woman before him, without whom none of this would be happening. Yet even as he raged, he had to admire her. Donna Brunos had more scruples than anyone he had ever met in his life.
She would fight for what she wanted.
He hoped to Christ she finally got it.
Lewis smiled at Sadie as she sipped at her small scotch and water.
‘So, Sadie, what’s this big story you want to tell me?’
Sadie looked at Donald Lewis and took a deep breath.
‘Did you know I was deaf until I was sixteen, Mr Lewis?’
Donald shook his head. ‘How the fuck would I know that? Why would I be interested in that?’
Sadie licked her lips nervously.
‘Well, I lipread till then - you know the life I had, Donald, everyone does. I suffered from what’s known as glue ear. I was as deaf as a post. Anyway, I still lipread, even now.’
She saw Donald’s eyes narrow and sipped once more at her whisky before finishing what she had to say.
‘I lipread something tonight I think you ought to know about, Mr Lewis.’
Donald Lewis looked through slitted eyes at Sadie and said gently, ‘Go ahead, love, tell me what’s on your mind.’
He refilled her glass with scotch and sat waiting for her to talk again.
‘It concerns Georgio, Mr Lewis. Georgio, and Beavis and Butthead.’
He nodded. ‘Go on.’
Sadie gulped at the drink now, needing Dutch courage. ‘In the reccy room, a while ago, Georgio went and sat with them. I watched them, out of curiosity, you know. I often do it. I know a lot of what goes on, but I keep me own counsel. It doesn’t pay to get involved in other people’s troubles an
d I just want to do me time in peace. I ain’t out to get on anyone’s tits, like.’
Lewis sighed heavily. ‘All right, Sadie, we’ve established you’re not a grass. Now will you tell me what the fuck this is all about?’
She pushed her hands through her hair nervously.
‘Georgio sat down and said to them: “You open your traps about me, the kids, Sri Lanka or the merchandise and I’ll rip your hearts out.” I couldn’t get the answer from them as their faces were obscured but then Georgio said, “Our business was just that, our business,” and then he said that no one would believe them anyway, because he was the last person anyone would take for a beast.’
Sadie saw the blank look on Lewis’s face and said quickly, ‘I know what I read, Mr Lewis. I wouldn’t have come to you if it was about anything else. But from the look on his face, he was involved with them all right. He was warning them off. He’s supposed to be fucking them up in the morning to get on a laydown. You’d be surprised what I read around this nick. Now, you’d better believe me, Mr Lewis, because I am laying my life on the line here.’
Lewis looked at her and said expressionlessly, ‘And why are you doing that, Sadie? What’s in it for you?’
She laughed mirthlessly.
‘What’s ever in anything for the likes of me, Mr Lewis? But I had dealings with them two, years ago when I was a kid. They’re filth, Mr Lewis. They murdered little kids - raped, tortured and murdered them. I was the one who told Georgio who they were. I wanted to come straight to you, but he stopped me. Now I know why. Also I know Georgio has a hotel in Sri Lanka, or at least business dealings there.
‘Their case involved international paedophile rings, Mr Lewis. They turned Queen’s evidence against the others in their ring. That’s why they’re in here. No one saw their faces before or after the trial. Now Georgio is frightened they’re going to blow his cover, I don’t know what made him think that, or what they might have said to him. All I know is what I read off his lips, and you have to do something about it. You’re the only person I can trust with this. And now, Mr Lewis, my life is in your hands. My gift is also now at your disposal, I realise that.’