by Jacqui Rose
He’d been as protective over her as he had his sister. Caring for her, feeding her, even buying her clothes. But then one day she’d just disappeared. No warning. No communication. Nothing. And he’d been devastated. It’d broken his heart. The loss of Bree affected him as his mother had affected him when she’d taken her own life.
Eventually he’d tracked Bree down to a foster home and after making sure she was alright, he’d got Sandra to keep in touch with her. And they had done, for a while. But over the years Sandra had got on with her life and he’d been too busy ducking and diving, making a name for himself, to see what had really mattered.
The last time he’d heard about her was through the rumour mill. She’d got herself hitched to some guy in Essex. And oddly, when he’d heard, he’d worried. Because Bree was special. Kind. But worse, she was vulnerable. Desperate to be loved and cared for. But his worry hadn’t lasted long because he’d just got on with his life, not giving her a second thought. Until now that was. Because now he couldn’t get Bree out of his head.
24
Dripping wet, Eddie Styler stood in front of Johnny and Ma Dwyer. He shivered, cold and drenched after trudging half a mile across a large, deep, muddy field to avoid the two loose Rottweilers at the gates of Johnny’s mobile site, near the village of Ashdon.
Looking longingly at the hot tea, brought in by Johnny’s nervous- looking wife, Eddie sighed, licking his lips. No wonder Johnny was so protective of his woman. Her boat race was bruised with a big old shiner, along with a swollen lip, but underneath he could see what a sort she was. He wouldn’t kick her out of bed any day of the week, certainly not with that body.
As Bree walked out of the room, Eddie brought his thoughts back to the matter at hand. He smiled and in return was greeted by a hostile stare from Johnny.
‘See something you like, Eddie?’
Not realising he’d been so obvious in his lustful admiration and knowing Johnny’s vicious reputation when it came to any man even glancing at Bree, Eddie’s eyes quickly darted around, then smiled again, feigning innocence.
‘Yes actually, I was thinking how nice that tea looks and whether it’d rude to ask for one.’
‘That better be all you was having a butcher’s at.’
Eddie shrugged whilst Ma’s slurps filled the room. ‘What else?’
Johnny leant forward on his elbows. ‘Don’t push it, Ed … Anyway, I suppose you’re here to give me our money.’
It took everything Eddie had not to explode into anger. The man had some front. He’d lost his lorry, his horses, but more importantly the geezer had lost his diamonds, yet he still had his finger up his arse about being paid. But now wasn’t the right time to show any kind of resentment because that would come. And when it did, Johnny Dwyer and his big fat ma wouldn’t know what had hit them.
‘No, not really.’
Ma growled. ‘Are you taking the Michael? You come here unannounced in the middle of the bleedin’ night and you ain’t got the greens. You better have a seriously good explanation.’
‘I got a proposition for you.’
Johnny’s handsome face darkened. ‘No, Ed. That’s not how it works, mate.’
Eddie’s temper got the better of him as it always did. ‘Not so bleedin’ long ago it was me who was telling you two what to do …’ He trailed off, trying to catch his rage. ‘… Sorry. I’m sorry about that, Johnny. I’m under a lot of pressure. No hard feelings.’
‘That all depends, don’t it?’
‘Jesus, Johnny, you ain’t making this easy for me … Look, the reason why I’m here is because I need you to go all out to find me lorry or rather the goods in it,’ Eddie said tightly.
Contemptuously, Johnny shook his head ‘Not this again, Ed. You sound like you’re on a loop. You ain’t paid us, so we ain’t going to do anything for you, and you must have proper lost it if you think there’ll be anything left of the coke. Whoever jacked the lorry will have banged it out quick. Maybe taken it up north or across to Cardiff. But either way, the whole batch will have been nostriled by the sniff heads by now.’
Eddie looked at Ma, who scowled. He turned away quickly to look at Johnny before taking a deep breath, then hesitantly said, ‘It wasn’t coke though.’
Ma leant forward. ‘Come again.’
There was a pause as Eddie worked up the courage to repeat it. ‘It wasn’t coke … It was diamonds.’
The silence strangled the air and the tension was palpable. Then without a moment’s hesitation, Johnny stood up and brought back his fist, slamming it hard into Eddie’s stomach, which sent him sprawling on the floor. And as Eddie curled up in a ball, coughing out phlegm, Johnny pulled out a cosh from his pocket, smashing it down across his skull.
Eddie screamed as the blood splattered across the room.
‘Stop! Johnny! Stop! I’m sorry!’
With his eyes wild, Johnny brought back his foot, kicking Eddie over and over.
‘You piece of shit! You was going to pull a fast one over us! Paying us to bring a lorry of coke when all along it was stones! You know that would’ve cost you more. Our cut would’ve been bigger, because the risk to my men was greater, and if they’d been caught, the time they’d have to serve would’ve been longer. You know you have to pay for all that, Ed, you know how it works, but you wanted to skank your way out of it.’
His mouth full of blood, Eddie gasped. ‘No! No, I didn’t, I swear. I would’ve paid you properly when I got them. I just didn’t want to tell no one. You got to believe me!’
Stopping for a rest, Johnny stared down at Eddie. ‘Why?’
‘Cos, you got to see it from my point of view. The only reason I never told you was because the less that people knew the better. Everything depended on it. I didn’t want to risk anything going wrong. But ain’t that fucking ironic … But I would’ve told ya. It was all planned out. Your men were supposed to drive the lorry to my lot. After that I was going to knock out the diamonds to one of my contacts who would’ve paid good money. Then I would’ve given you your money. And like you say, it was going to be a bigger cut to what I said.’
‘That’s crap Eddie, and you know it.’
‘Think what you like. That was how it was going to be and to show you how much I meant it, I’m willing to give you ten per cent of those diamonds.’
It was the second time in less than twenty-four hours someone had laughed in Eddie Styler’s face, a fact which didn’t go unnoticed by him and a fact which made him seethe.
‘Eddie, you’re lying on me front room floor having just had the shit kicked out of you and you’re willing to give me ten percent of diamonds which you haven’t actually got! You fuckin’ muppet.’
Ma, now on her second cup of tea and sniffing the white bottled, nasal plastic pump spray she always carried, smirked. ‘You’ll have to do better than that, Eddie.’
Johnny sneered back. ‘What do you reckon, Ma?’
‘I say that Eddie needs us more than we need him. I heard that Jason Robinson is on a countdown to when he next comes and visits you. It ain’t looking good, Ed.’
Holding out a hand to Eddie – whose face was covered in blood from the gash to his skull – Johnny said, ‘And now we know about them, what would stop me going out there and finding the people who’ve got the diamonds meself? Cutting you right out of the picture.’
Taking the tissue Ma had passed him, Eddie gently wiped his head, wincing at the pain. ‘You could find them, but what then? Who you going to sell them to? You need contacts Johnny, because you deal in coke, trafficking drugs and stolen goods, not diamonds. Big difference.’
‘Why don’t you get Reggie’s men to help you?’
‘You know why. I owe them, I’ve borrowed a lot of money from a lot of people, and it ain’t like they work on a no win, no fee basis, is it? They want their money straight up front and it’s the same story all over. I owe too much money, ain’t no one touching me with any poxy bargepole. But what I can do, is get rid of the diamonds
quickly; something you might find harder than you think. And the problem is the longer you hold onto them trying to get rid, the more likely it is that some big face will hear about them, then come sniffing around and will be only too happy to put a bullet in your head for them.’
Ma yawned widely with a line of spit attached from her bottom to her top lip. ‘Save us the Jackanory, Ed. We’ll do it, but I’m looking for a sixty-forty share in our favour.’
‘How am I supposed to pay anyone if that’s what I’m getting?’
Ma craned forward. ‘Eddie, listen to me, this ain’t fucking Dragons’ Den you know. Take it or leave it.’
After a long pause, Eddie said bitterly, ‘I ain’t got any other option, looks like I’ll have to take it then, don’t it?’
Johnny winked. ‘Then we have a deal. But Eddie, just out of interest, how much are we talking about? What are those rocks actually worth?’
‘About three million big ones.’
25
‘Oh my God, stop! What are you doing? Stop! Please! Leave him alone!’
Bree pulled at Ma Dwyer’s hand as she raised it in the air, bringing a whip cracking down on her son. ‘He ain’t going anywhere!’
Begging, with tears streaming down her face, Bree screamed.
‘Please! This isn’t his fault, it’s mine! It was my idea. Please let go … Look he’s bleeding. Please, stop.’
Standing, shadowed in the darkness of the small opening in the woods, Ma cracked down the whip again, her huge body pushing Bree aside, sending her stumbling forward into the mud.
Bree watched in horror feeling helpless. They’d planned to get away, planned to be together, and Ma – somehow knowing of their plans – had followed, taking them unawares.
Standing over her son as he tried to scramble away, Ma, not caring to listen to his cries nor hear his terror, snarled at Bree. ‘He ain’t going anywhere. If you want to go and have that baby, go on, but he’s staying here.’
‘Why are you doing this? He can do what he likes, he’s old enough.’
Ma’s face was red, vicious with anger as she held onto her semi- unconscious son. She shook him like he was a rag doll. ‘This is your fault. You should’ve stayed away.’
Drenched and crying, her pregnant stomach protruding, Bree dropped onto her knees, her hands sinking into the sodden earth.
‘Please leave him alone!’
‘Then go, and let us be.’
Bree shook her head. ‘I love him though. I can’t just walk away.’
Ma stopped to look at Bree. She put down the whip and stepped towards her, and Bree just for a moment thought she could see a tiny smile.
‘You’re learning Bree, you’re learning that nobody leaves Ma.’
26
In Emerson Park, Eddie Styler watched with disgust as Sandra clipped her long toenails, which flew across the kitchen floor with such force he could’ve been forgiven for thinking they’d been fired out of a cannon.
‘Do you have to do that in here?’
Sandra gazed darkly. ‘You saying I can’t clip my toenails in me own house now?’
‘It’s our house, Sandra.’
Getting up and walking across to where Eddie sat with a swollen, battered face, Sandra proceeded to poke the metal nail clippers into his chest.
‘Is that right?’
‘We’re married.’
‘Oh, and don’t I bleedin’ well know it. I married you when I was sixteen and we’ve been married seventeen years, so by that reckoning, if I’d murdered you, I’d have done less time. But never mind all that, what I want to know is where’s Barrie?’
As Sandra poked him again, Eddie shrugged, enjoying the memory of dumping Barrie at the side of the road. ‘I haven’t seen him.’
‘Then you best go and find him, and don’t bother coming back until you have.’
About to say something, Eddie’s mouth was left hanging open as a loud crash followed and the backdoor was broken down. Sandra ran out of the kitchen, leaving Eddie frozen to the spot. And standing with his men, looking like a lion who’d spotted his prey, was Jason Robinson.
‘Hello, Eddie. How’s it going?’
Stepping over the broken glass, Jason walked into the kitchen. With his perma-tan leathering his skin, he grinned widely at a shaking Eddie Styler. ‘I hope you’ve got my money, sunshine, because time’s up … and before you think about it, don’t bother trying to leg it. I’ve got men outside who’d be only too happy to stop you.’
Eddie’s forehead prickled with sweat. His eyes darted round. Pupils dilating with terror.
‘I … I … Look, I ain’t got your money.’
Jason nodded his head towards one of his men, who stepped closer to Eddie, grabbing him and packing a hard punch to the face, sending Eddie careering into the stainless-steel oven.
Deciding his best bet was to stay lying down, Eddie pleaded with Jason, who picked up one of the heavy kitchen chairs, ready to smash it over him. ‘No! Please, wait. Hold on! Hear me out. I got a deal for you.’
‘It’s a bit late for that.’
Fervently, Eddie shook his head. ‘It’s never too late for three million pounds’ worth of diamonds.’
‘What?’
Eddie, ignoring the shocked look of amazement on Jason’s face, continued to plead his case, speaking quickly. ‘I got these diamonds, you see, but the lorry got proper mugged. But if you can wait, I’m going to get them back, we can cut it down the middle. We can do a two-way split. Fifty-fifty. Let me tell you about it, before you make up your mind.’
And as he began to recount a version of the story he wanted Jason to hear, even though he’d failed miserably at school, Eddie Styler understood that between Johnny’s sixty percent and Jason’s proposed fifty, the math just didn’t add up. And as he lay staring at the kitchen ceiling next to a scattering of large toenail clippings, Eddie knew that if he wanted to avoid being fed to the seagulls, somehow he’d have to come up with a plan B – and fast.
On the other side of the kitchen door, Sandra Styler listened in amazement. She had no idea. No idea at all that her low-life, lying, scheming husband, had been dealing in that kind of money. But now she did, the question was what she was going to do about it.
27
Bree Dwyer sat with Kieran’s duffle bag on the floor of her silver and velvet bedroom. She could see Ma pottering about the caravan site with the dogs and Johnny was out at a business meeting, which meant for the next few minutes at least she was confident no one would walk in.
She sat staring at the blue plastic bag she’d found in Kieran’s bag, not wanting to open it but at the same time needing to know more. What she’d seen in his bag had chilled her.
Had it not been for the shawl, she might have put it down to a dead animal. But she couldn’t ignore what it was.
The thought alone made her panic because what was she supposed to do? What was she even supposed to think? She had no one to talk to about it but she had so many questions. And Kieran, had he seen inside the bag? And if so, did he know what it was?
She was scared but what if she was just being stupid and it turned out to be nothing … perhaps it was. Perhaps it was just her imagination running overtime. But what about the shawl? She kept coming back to that. Maybe it was someone’s idea of a joke and they’d dressed up an animal carcass … But nobody would do that. Would they?
But if she went to the police what would she say? And how could she go anyway? She wouldn’t be able to steal the time and besides, Ma was following her, and now she’d seen her with Alfie … Alfie. She stopped, her breath catching in her chest as she thought of him, which she hadn’t done since the car park. Since she hadn’t allowed herself since the car park.
He’d been her everything when she was a kid. He’d saved her. He’d been her protector. So kind. So strong. So funny. The only person who’d ever cared about her. And she’d loved him, how she’d loved him, how she’d clung onto his hand when he’d picked her and Sandra up from th
e school gates. She’d never wanted to let go.
But she’d had to when they’d ripped her away and taken her to another foster home. And although she’d tried to hang onto it, the despair of her daily life had caused Alfie’s face to fade from her memory like a ghost of the past. Until one day he’d come and found her, wanting to know if she was fine, and the love she saw in his face had filled her with warmth again. With hope. With the strength she’d needed to get through.
And as Bree Dwyer watched Ma through the window she realised that maybe that was her answer. Maybe Alfie Jennings would save her again.
28
It was dark and the sound of the banger racing cars filled the air as Johnny, Ma and Eddie stood above the two naked men tied tightly to wooden chairs in the small portacabin behind the track on their land.
Johnny, patting the blood-covered cosh in the palm of his hand and dripping with sweat, spoke in a dangerously low tone. ‘So, let’s try again, shall we? Did you or did you not have something to do with the lorry doing a magic trick?’
Jeff Rogers, a long-time employee of Johnny and Ma, his mouth full of blood and a three-inch, deep cut across his forehead, shook his head. ‘Johnny, you know me. There’s no way I would do something like that. I ain’t muggy. I’d never betray you.’
Johnny pulled a face, his tone loaded with derision. ‘You see Jeff, that’s what I thought, but I’ve had me trust pissed on before.’
Eddie Styler winked at Johnny, enjoying the feeling of power again. It’d been a rough few days but if he played this right with Ma and Johnny, and was careful, maybe, just maybe, things might work out as he’d planned. He watched with joy as Johnny traced the cosh across Jeff’s face whilst he stuttered his reply.
‘But … but that ain’t me! I’ve never turned you over.’
‘But there’s always a first time for everything, ain’t there?’