The Wild Heart

by Menon, David

  ‘ Oh is that right? Well enjoy your little moment in the sun, Richard. It won’t last I can assure you of that’.

  ‘ I’m going to make sure they throw the book at you, Angela. Terrorism, money laundering, concealing evidence of paedophilia committed against your own daughter. You’ll go down forever’.

  ‘ You’d really do that to me? Has the time we’ve spent together meant so little to you?’

  ‘ The time we’ve spent together has been so full of lies and deceit. I can barely look at you anymore. I’ll be back for the rest of my stuff’.

  ‘ Richard, wait!’ she called. ‘ You’ve got to let me explain’.

  Richard stood at the top of the stairs. ‘ Explain what? I already know everything. You may not have admitted to being with Peter Irvine in London last night but I know that’s who you were with. I had you followed, Angela. I’ve got pictures. I’ll be sending copies to his wife’.

  Angela grabbed Richard’s arm. ‘ No, you can’t, please, Richard. Peter and I aren’t like that. We’re in … well we’re in business together’.

  ‘ What kind of business?’

  ‘ I’ll make you a settlement offer and we can have a quiet divorce once it’s all over if that’s what you really want’.

  ‘ Once what is all over? Angela, what are you talking about?’

  ‘ I can’t say, Richard, but it’s for our community, for unionism … ‘

  ‘ … ah save it!’ He pulled his arm away and turned back to the stairs.

  ‘ Richard, no, please!’

  Angela grabbed hold of Richard’s arm again but he was too far forward and it caused him to lose his balance. She took her opportunity and pushed him over the banister. He fell head first onto the hall floor below and she watched his blood pour out of the back of his head.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Mark walked up to his desk and slumped heavily into his chair. He really couldn’t care less about whether or not his team was meeting the bank’s target of getting people to place all their unsecured debts into a loan secured on their property. What they were saying to them is that basically we don’t want you to be fucked by lots of little pricks, we want you to be totally fucked right royal without lubrication by one massive big prick and if you can’t subsequently afford the repayments we’ll take your house and totally fucking fuck you! He needed some time out.

  ‘ Mark … ‘

  Lynne’s trembling voice came behind him and he turned round to see her crying her eyes out. He stood up and put his arms round her.

  ‘ Russell’s left me’ she whimpered. ‘ He said some horrible things’.

  ‘ Oh love, I’m sorry’.

  ‘ The thing is I’m furious’.

  ‘ What about?’

  ‘ That he did it to me before I had the chance to do it to him. How can I tell people in Alderley Edge that I’ve been dumped for another woman?’

  Mark could’ve laughed. There she was, doing her best to secure his sympathy and yet underneath she was more upset because Russell had outplayed her.

  ‘ I suppose it does happen to the best of them, love’.

  ‘ But not to me, Mark! It doesn’t happen to me!’

  She was really throwing her toys out now. Tantrums and tiaras had nothing on her.

  ‘ Sit down’ he said, pulling up a chair next to his. She sat down and held his hand as she went on.

  ‘ I mean, could you see it coming?’ she asked.

  Mark decided that the only thing for it was to tell the truth. She never backed off from doing that to him when she thought it was necessary, no matter how hurt it had sometimes made him feel, so she was going to get some of her own medicine.

  ‘ Yes’ he said.

  Lynne’s face turned sour. ‘ How?’

  ‘ Well … I think you made him feel like a stranger in his own house’.

  ‘ I see’.

  He knew she didn’t want to hear this but so be it. ‘ Everything in your house is about you and Amelia, Lynne’.

  ‘ But Russell should understand that’ she insisted.

  ‘ Why should he? You were supposed to be a family of three’

  ‘ Because he’s the adult and she’s the child’.

  ‘ I don’t follow?’

  ‘ Well he should understand that I give all my attention to my daughter because she’s a child and wouldn’t understand if I didn’t give her all my attention’.

  ‘ First of all, I think that’s a load of old crap and second of all, what’s your husband supposed to do in the meantime? ‘

  ‘ Amelia needs me’.

  ‘ So does he. And what about the way you treated him?’

  ‘ Oh so we’re back to the sex thing again. I won’t be a slag for anybody, Mark’.

  ‘ Lynne, you haven’t had sex with Russell for years, not just months. If he still wanted it after all that time I don’t think that’s treating you as a slag’.

  ‘ Well that’s how I felt’.

  ‘ And what about how he felt, Lynne? Just think of the way you spoke to him. Like that time I came over for dinner and he was late because he was in Manchester with some clients. It didn’t bother me, it was part of his job, but you rang him and told him how you were not impressed and that you expected him home on the next train. He’s a grown man, he’s your husband, and you were talking to him like he was some wayward teenager who could expect to be grounded when he got home’.

  ‘ I have to have things my own way and he’s always known that’.

  ‘ Oh for Christ’s sake! You need to grow up, Lynne, I’m sorry to say it but you do. Do you want to save your marriage?’

  ‘ Well financially it doesn’t really make any difference’ she said in a level voice devoid of all emotion. ‘ I’m more concerned about losing face and being the only divorcee on our little private road. But in terms of me and Amelia living our day-to-day lives it would probably be easier if Russell wasn’t there to tell you the truth’.

  ‘ And you wonder why he’s fallen in love with someone else?’

  ‘ You mean you know about Linda? How do you know about her?’

  Oh shit! He’d let the fucking cat out of the bag now. He rubbed his face in his hands and then looked up at her.

  ‘ Mark?’

  ‘ Lynne, I promise you, I didn’t know it was Russell who’d rented my house’.

  ‘ He’s renting your house?’ she exclaimed. ‘ Oh this just gets better and better! You bastard. You’re supposed to be my friend’.

  ‘ Lynne, I’m not going to condemn Russell as a bastard because I don’t think he is and I didn’t tell you when I found out he’d rented my house because he asked me not to and I respected his confidence’.

  Lynne snorted. ‘ Oh how touching. Gay or straight you men stick together. I feel so let down by you, Mark'.

  ‘ Yeah? Well you’ll get over it’.

  ‘ What has got into you? You’re not the only one who’s suffered you know’.

  Mark seethed with anger. ‘ You’re not bringing my parents into this?’

  Lynne held her hands up. ‘ I’m only saying’.

  ‘ You’ve got a fucking nerve! If it wasn’t for your neurotic manipulation of your husband we wouldn’t be having this conversation. You decided what Russell wanted and you used your womb to get it. Falling pregnant? With all the contraception that’s in any chemist’s shop? Don’t insult my intelligence. Then you got the ring, the house, the 4x4 and Russell becomes completely irrelevant so you push him until he falls down and now you’ll have at least half of what he’s spent years earning. Someone who’s got such a hang-up about sex has used it to commit daylight robbery’.

  ‘ Excuse me, I’m entitled to … ‘

  ‘ … yes and he’s entitled to a life that you were no longer prepared to give him! I don’t think you’ve ever got beyond believing that nothing in this world matters except you. Do you know what it's like to lose both your parents in one go when you're still a child yourself? Well of course you wouldn't know. All y
ou know about is giving away a child that was inconvenient to you’.

  She swallowed hard. She hadn’t bargained on him bringing that up.

  ' Still haven't told Russell about your first marriage and child? Did you give a shit about how humiliated Matthew must’ve felt when you left him and the baby?'

  She looked daggers at him but didn't speak.

  ' No. I didn't think so. It would make your life look untidy and you can’t stand a mess, can you. Your first baby was no good to you because the poor little thing had already committed two cardinal sins before it had even taken its first breath. First he was a boy and you didn’t want a boy and second he had Down’s syndrome and that just didn’t fit into your neat and tidy colour co-ordinated world, did it. It really wouldn’t go with the image you wanted of the perfect family so you packed your bags one day and left him and his father. They were just inconvenient to you'.

  ' You really are a bastard' said Lynne, weakly.

  ' I never thought I’d ever use Matthew and the baby in an argument against you but then I never thought you’d ever use the death of my parents in an argument against me’.

  ‘ Matthew is taking good care of him’

  ‘ Who, your son? I can’t call him by his name because you didn’t get that far did you. Does Amelia know she has an older brother?’

  ‘ It wouldn’t be fair on either of them!’

  ‘ You mean it wouldn’t be fair on you because you’d have to deal with the consequences of your actions like everybody else has to! Well yes I’m sure your son is well taken care of because he’s away from you. He’ll have the chance to grow into a decent human being instead of the self-obsessed little madam that Amelia is going to be’.

  Lynne paused and then asked. ‘ Have you met this Linda?’

  ‘ Lynne, don’t speak her name like it’s vomit you’re trying to spit through your teeth. No I haven’t met her but I’ve no reason to think of her as a bad person’.

  ‘ She’s taken my husband away from me!’

  ‘ No, you drove him away!’.

  ‘ I did not!’

  ‘ And now you’re trying to act like the victim. Well like I said Lynne, grow up’.

  Freddie Burnside decided to defy Angela Patterson and fly over to Manchester to be there for Derek. His conscience had got the better of him. But when he got to the house in Oldham that Derek was staying at, Derek turned on him. He bent him backwards over a dining table and pushed the end of his gun into the flesh of his neck. Angela had got to Derek first and told him that Freddie had killed Shaun.

  ‘ Why would Angela Patterson lie?’ Derek bellowed. ‘ She sounded pretty convincing when she called me’.

  ‘ Because I had something on her!’

  ‘ What do you mean?’

  ‘ Angela killed her husband and got me to dispose of the body. I said I would if she handed over another five thousand. I shouldn’t have accepted the first lot of money from her given the circumstances but Derek, I was desperate. Five thousand was like winning the lottery for me, you’ve got to understand that. I’ve never let you down before, Derek, so can’t you cut me a bit of slack for God’s sake?’

  ‘ You sold me out for money, Freddie’.

  ‘ I had to do something for my family, Derek. Just for a bloody change. If I’d been that intent on doing you harm then why would I have flown over here today? I’d have taken the five grand and walked off into the sunset but I didn’t, Derek. It’s Angela Patterson who’s betrayed you, Derek, not me’.

  Derek loosened his grip on Freddie and pulled his gun away. His eyes were all over the place whilst he tried to get a hold on what was going on.

  ‘ Angela never gave a damn about you for twenty years, Derek’ said Freddie, sensing the moment to be a little more brave. ‘ I stood by you the whole of that time and this is the bloody thanks I get. You take her word over mine?’

  ‘ Then who did kill Shaun?’

  ‘ It was Natalie, the Judas’ daughter’.

  ‘ What are you saying?’

  ‘ Natalie is the Judas’ daughter, Derek. She was the one who killed him’.

  ‘ And where is she now?’

  ‘ Heading for Dublin and a life far away from her past’ said Freddie.

  ‘ I don’t know what’s going on, Freddie, so I don’t’ said Derek, his face turned to the wall. ‘ I came out of gaol to a world that may as well be another planet to me. And now Shaun … my wee boy … I never even saw him growing up. He hadn’t even started school when I was sent down. Then Angela Mills tells me that you killed him. What am I supposed to think, Freddie?’

  ‘ That Angela Mills is mixing it’ said Freddie. ‘ She told you I’d killed Shaun because she was mad as hell at me for getting ten grand out of her. But I could never kill your boy, Derek. For God’s sake, you must realise that’.

  ‘ Alright, alright, I will believe you about that’.

  ‘ It all comes back to the Judas, Derek’.

  ‘ Oh so it does, Freddie, so it does. He’s a dead man walking. I’m playing games with him, Freddie, and it must be driving him mad. But he’ll be dead before I am. Make no mistake about that’.

  ‘ Angela was mad as hell that you’d used some of the stuff Kevin Matheson got for us to blow up Graham Armstrong’.

  ‘ Yeah, well, she’ll get over it’ said Derek who then turned to Freddie. ‘ Why did you wait to tell me that Shaun was dead?’

  ‘ You know why, Derek’ said Freddie who’d seen that look in Derek’s eyes before. It terrified him. Angela Patterson had done a good job on Derek.

  ‘ Remind me how much she paid you, Freddie?’

  ‘ Five grand’ said Freddie, weakly.

  ‘ How much?’ Derek demanded.

  ‘ Five grand!’

  ‘ Five lousy grand! You sold me out for five lousy rotten grand! My son was dead and all you could do was count fucking bank notes?’

  ‘ Derek, I … ‘

  ‘ … ah save it for when we meet in hell!’

  Derek shot Freddie in the neck, bursting his jugular and sending torrents of Freddie’s blood all over the room. Freddie struggled desperately to hold on to life but in a matter of seconds it was all over and his body which had been flailing about madly was suddenly lying there motionless. It brought to an end a friendship that had lasted decades.

  .

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Alice went round to Ian’s flat to give him all the details of his final assignment. She hadn’t bargained on having to contend with someone who showed more spine than some of the operatives she had to deal with.

  ‘ I’m not going anywhere’ said Mark, firmly.

  ‘ Look, the information we’ll be discussing is classified’ Alice stated.

  ‘ Then get me to sign the bloody official secrets act if you want’ Mark countered. ‘ I know things that could cost me my life and I’m not in the mood for being dismissed’.

  ‘ I don’t think you understand …

  ‘ … no it’s you who doesn’t understand’ said Mark. ‘ You’re not dealing here with some brainless poof who throws a tantrum if someone hands him the wrong hairspray. I saw the look on Graham Armstrong’s face just before he was murdered so don’t hide behind procedure with me’.

  She was furious and looked up sharply at Ian.

  ‘ Mark stays, Alice’ said Ian, noting the annoyance on her face. ‘ Or you leave. That’s the way we do things round here now’.

  Alice’s blood was boiling at the way they’d cornered her.

  ‘ This is totally against my better judgement’ said Alice. ‘ Obviously, Mark, it hasn’t been made clear to you how much danger you’re putting yourself in’.

  ‘ Oh it’s been explained to me in great detail’ said Mark. ‘ And since I possess a tad of grey matter I have managed to work a few things out for myself’.

  ‘ An amateur like you getting in the way could risk the whole operation!’

  ‘ Well then you’d better make sure you get the organising of it
right then hadn’t you’ said Mark, calmly. ‘ It seems to me that’s the best way of ensuring nothing goes wrong. That’s your responsibility’.

  Mark felt like he’d been given a slow, painful death by the sharpness in her eyes but then she seemed to cool it a little.

  ‘ You’re to stay well out of it’ she ordered.

  ‘ Agreed’ said Mark.

  ‘ That much is not open to discussion or debate’.

  ‘ I’ll make sure he complies’ said Ian, smiling at Mark knowingly. ‘ I’ve got an interest in his survival’.

  ‘ You can trust me, Alice’ said Mark. ‘ I’m not your enemy. Think of me as the friend you never knew you had’.

  ‘ Then sit down and don’t interrupt’ said Alice who wouldn’t tolerate any fuck ups from any quarter. Her bloody neck was on the line. ‘ This, after all, is a briefing’.

  Alice turned off the main road through Chorlton and into one of the leafy avenues that made her think she could be in any suburb of any city in the country. At the end of the row of indistinctive semis was the Irish community centre and a sizeable crowd had gathered to get a glimpse of their VIP visitor who was due to arrive any minute. Journalists and television news cameras were also there and in amongst the throng was a face she recognised. She hadn’t taken to Mark Earnshaw initially but during their exchange in Ian’s living room she couldn’t help but develop a grudging respect for his directness and that had made her think. She parked her car just short of the centre and went up to him.

  ‘ I thought I told you to stay away’ she said.

  ‘ And did you really think I would do that?’ said Mark.

  ‘ Do you ever do as you’re told?’

  ‘ Sometimes’ said Mark. ‘ But only if I can see the merit in it’.

  ‘ Well come and sit in the car with me’ said Alice. ‘ And I don’t care if you see the merit in it or not’.