The Downfall Series Box Set

by Edie Baylis

  Ben stared. Fuck! How had he not noticed THAT?

  Reading his mind, Shelley laughed bitterly. “Yes Ben, you’ve been far too drunk lately to notice my days of fitting in size eights have gone for a good while.”

  Ben slumped down in the chair, willing his mind to work fast. “God, I don’t know what to say...” He smiled apologetically as he fumbled around reaching for the bottle of tequila. “I need a drink!”

  Shelley’s face softened slightly and she moved towards him.

  “So,” he continued, “are you keeping it?”

  Shelley’s face fell. He didn’t want the baby. Oh God.

  Sensing her reaction, Ben panicked. He needed to keep her on side. “I didn’t... I wasn’t suggesting that you... I... Oh God, Shelley this is such a shock.” He gulped from the bottle. “I’m sorry for what I said. All of it.” Come on Ben, work it. Work it.

  “Ben,” Shelley smiled, placing his hands on her belly. “I’m seventeen weeks now.”

  Ben swallowed hard. He didn’t know much about this sort of stuff, but figured that meant it didn’t leave much window on the time to get rid of it. That was ok. He’d probably have a couple more weeks to convince her that having a baby right now was a no-no. In the meantime he needed to play the game.

  “I’m so sorry I was mean to you, honey,” he smiled, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. He pulled Shelley down astride him and lifted her top over her head.

  Releasing the clip on her bra, his eyes moved hungrily over her swollen breasts. At least those were a bonus. “We’ll be just fine,” he whispered. “All of us.”

  Ben released himself from his jeans, remembering he’d have to force himself to take it easy on her for a bit. He’d find someone else for that side of things until she’d got rid.

  Shelley sighed happily as she eased herself onto Ben’s cock. It was now all out in the open and she could tell he was over the moon. She rocked back and forth on his lap enjoying the feel of him inside her and was happier than she’d been for a long time. “You know I’ll sort that stuff out for you, don’t you. I’ll do the flat,” she whispered,.

  “You mean that?” Ben asked, forcing himself to run his hands over her rounded belly.

  “Of course I do. The sooner we can sort it all out and be a family, the better.”

  “I love you, Shelley,” Ben lied, bracing himself to up the pace. With any luck if he fucked her hard it might dislodge the kid.

  THIRTY SEVEN

  DAN FOLLOWED MAGGIE into the kitchen and sat down at the table. He noticed the half-finished bottle of vodka with the empty glass next to it and correctly guessed she’d been busy drinking it.

  Reaching for another glass he helped himself, then gestured to see if Maggie wanted a top up. Seeing her nod, he poured the spirit into her glass and wondered what on earth was going on.

  He’d been surprised to get a call half an hour ago asking him to come round, because as far as he knew she was out with Sally. It wasn’t an issue. He hadn’t much on. Jim had disappeared earlier saying he needed to meet someone and the prospect of keeping Charlie company again was not exactly top of his list, so he’d made his way straight over.

  Dan eyed Maggie’s shaking hands as she picked up her glass and frowned. “So what’s up sweetheart?”

  Maggie took a deep breath and wondered how to ask what she needed to without causing too many questions she’d be unable, or rather unwilling to answer.

  It had been difficult to get rid of Sally after she’d insisted on turning the taxi around and going home. Sally had understandably been a bit peeved, but Maggie had finally convinced her she’d suddenly got a migraine. Time of the month and all that.

  “Maggie? Are you going to tell me what’s going on? You were out with Sally and now you’re back. Have you had a bust up with her or something?”

  Maggie realised she hadn’t even answered Dan’s first question. She smiled shakily. “No, nothing like that. Oh, I don’t really know how to explain this. It’s all going to sound really weird...”

  Dan frowned. Was Maggie about to dump him? It was a strange feeling because he hadn’t questioned whether he saw himself as being in a relationship with her, but judging by what he’d just asked, it appeared that at least some part of him thought so. It hit home quite sharply that he didn’t want her to dump him. He liked her. Liked her very much. “What is it then?”

  Maggie nervously raised her eyes, but feeling unable to hold Dan’s gaze, lowered them back to the table. It was easier to formulate what she needed to ask if he wasn’t staring at her. “Who’s Jim?”

  Dan was about to take another gulp of vodka, but his hand froze mid-way, leaving the glass he held in suspended animation between the table and his mouth. “Jim?” he repeated blindly. Why the fuck was she asking about Jim?

  “I take it you know someone called Jim?” Maggie continued.

  Dan felt his hackles rising. “What do you want to know that for?” he replied a little too sharply.

  Maggie finally raised her eyes from the table and saw the anger in Dan’s face. There was something going on alright, she thought, her nerves jangling. “When Sally turned up the other week after she’d met that weird bloke who had been looking for Jim - her ex, you acted really strangely and then disappeared.”

  “That doesn’t mean I know him does it? Maybe I was just trying to give you two a bit of girly time?” Dan lied.

  Maggie frowned. “You only decided to leave after Sally had mentioned Jim’s name.” She took a long sip of her vodka and fiddled with her cigarette packet. “I didn’t think anything of it until tonight. On the way into the city, Sally reckoned she saw this same bloke who had tried to meet with Jim.”

  Dan attempted to weigh up the situation. “So what if she did? Maybe the guy lives in the city. What’s the issue? Besides, I don’t even know what this big geezer looks so how am I supposed to know who he is?”

  “I wasn’t asking you who he is,” Maggie snapped, frustrated. “You don’t understand. When I looked at who Sally was pointing to I recognised him.”

  Dan frowned. “What do you mean?”

  Maggie sighed. “It was someone I knew a long long time ago.”

  A spark of jealously spontaneously sparked from within Dan. “You mean an ex?”

  Maggie shook her head. “God, no! Nothing like that. Just someone I know.”

  “What’s the big deal then?”

  “Well, I want to know who this Jim bloke is and how he knows this other guy.”

  Dan began to wonder. Jim did say he was going to meet someone tonight. Could he have been going to meet this bloke? “Was there anyone else there?”

  Maggie sparked up a cigarette. “There was another guy with him who I also used to know, but I didn’t see anyone else. They were getting in a car. A big car with blacked out windows.”

  Dan bit his lip and helped himself to one of Maggie’s cigarettes. He could easily tell her Jim was at present living with him and to come round, meet him and find out for herself. He wasn’t going to though. She’d probably decide she was more interested in him, like every other fucker seemed to be. He felt his fist clenching underneath the table.

  Dan knew Maggie was watching him closely. “Ok, I do know him,” he explained, “but not well. In fact I know absolutely nothing about him. He just does a bit of work with me occasionally.” Well that was true wasn’t it?

  “What sort of work?”

  “Oh this and that. Nothing interesting.” Dan made a mental note not to invite Maggie around again until Jim had moved on. “I can tell you though I’ve no idea what association he has with the other guy. We don’t talk like that. Like I said, I only know him in passing.”

  Maggie tried to read Dan’s face. She wanted to believe he was levelling with her, but there was something she didn’t buy. “Please Dan, if you know anything you need to tell me.”

  “For God’s sake Maggie! What’s the problem? What’s the big deal? I didn’t know Jim had been involved with Sal
ly. Why would I? Tell her not to worry about it.”

  Maggie twisted her hands together nervously. “It’s not just Sally I’m worried about, babe. It’s you as well. I don’t know this Jim – only from what Sally’s told me about how he treated her, which was not good to say the least, but I do know these other guys and they’re fucking dangerous. And I mean dangerous, babe. You don’t want to be involved with them, I’m telling you.”

  Dan tried a little bit too hard when he laughed. “Like I said, I hardly know this Jim guy and I’m certainly not ‘involved’ with him and so therefore not these other people either.”

  “But how does this Jim know the other two?”

  “Well if what you’ve said is correct it’s best not to get involved right?” Dan needed to change the subject. “Now stop worrying and come here.”

  He leaned over and pulled Maggie onto his lap, nestling her into his chest. He didn’t like the sound of any of this. How come she knew all of this about those guys? It seemed there was a fair bit she hadn’t told him.

  He didn’t want any more shit brought to his door. He’d had more than his fair share of it lately thanks to all this stuff spiralling out of control with the Carter and Benson feud, his girlfriends going AWOL and bloody Charlie using his place as a safe house and he’d had enough.

  Charlie would have to go and so would Jim. Enough was enough. In fact, he’d tell them both tonight when he got back, or in the morning if his was luck was in with Maggie.

  BARRY STRAIGHTENED HIS bow tie and checked his reflection in the tinted glass of the corridor as he made his way down to the lobby of the Glint. It was almost time to get the door ready for the influx of punters for tonight’s show.

  Thanks to that dickhead David pulling a no-show, he’d had to scrat around to find someone else to cover his shift at the last minute.

  If the scrawny fucker thought he’d get away with pulling a stunt like this he was sadly mistaken. The skinny bastard had already booked the next three nights off – no doubt for some dirty weekend away with his bloody bum-boy boyfriend, but he was taking the piss trying to skive an extra night on top.

  Barry ground his teeth in frustration. He’d already had to pay the smug cunt who’d agreed to cover the shift double for his ‘inconvenience’. Still at least it was now sorted and he’d just make sure he dealt with David when he finally had the bollocks to show his face.

  He was in the act of shrugging on his black double-breasted jacket when the blasting of a horn made his ears prick up. “Noisy bastards,” Barry muttered, rolling his eyes at the cloakroom attendant.

  As he made the final checks of the night’s guest list he heard a door slam and then loud screeching of tyres, so he headed quickly to the front doors.

  Opening them, Barry peered outside, seeing the back end of a white Transit van disappear around the corner at the end of the road. No one else was outside and there was no one queuing either.

  Shrugging, he was just about to close the double doors until he spotted a bundle of sacking resting at the bottom of the steps. Seeing it move slightly as he moved closer, Barry blanched and hastily made his way down the steps, knowing instinctively he needed to get the contents of that bundle inside as soon as possible.

  ERNIE WAS ON HIS FOURTH scotch and second cigar since Matt and Pete had removed Benson’s barman from Crystals. He glanced at his watch noticing half an hour had passed and smiled. Any time now they’d be dropping the silly bastard off at the Glint.

  He looked around the room. It was still a mess. Blood everywhere. He glared at the remains of the ear sitting in the middle of the rug and presumed Matt and Pete knew well enough that they’d be expected back to clear it up. He should have put that in an envelope for Benson.

  Now, the question remained as to how long he was going to sit here. Should he wait for the boys to return or just go home?

  Deciding he’d have a couple more of these very nice whiskies, Ernie got up from the chair and wandered back to the drinks cabinet, questioning whether there were any crisps or nuts in the place. He was bloody starving.

  Walking briskly into the kitchen and seeing Eliza pressed up against the far wall, Ernie stopped stock still. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he roared, his face livid with rage.

  Eliza stood like a rabbit caught in the headlights and for a split second she was rendered dumb.

  “Well?” Ernie screamed, still unable to comprehend that this treacherous bitch was somehow in here. In his gaff. They’d told him the place was clear, so why the hell was she here right now? In fact, what was she doing here at all? His eyebrows knitted together.

  “Hi Ernie,” Eliza said as confidently as she could. She’d been dreading this moment and had been plucking up the courage as to how she would approach him, which of course had only got more complicated when she’d found herself bang in the middle of him slicing some fucker’s ear off. Still, she knew enough to realise she must keep it together and keep it together well.

  “You little tramp!” Ernie snarled, making his way towards her. “I told you not to darken my door again.”

  “Wait! Before you go crazy, hear me out. Please!” Eliza cried, raising her hands up in a vague attempt to deflect anything he may have been planning to do to her.

  “I don’t think there could be anything you’ve got to say which would possibly interest me girl,” Ernie continued, moving closer.

  Eliza willed her brain to clear enough to formulate the words she needed to say quickly and in the correct order. She also made a concerted effort that no sign of a sneer, hatred or contempt for the man in front of her showed on her face.

  “I think you’ll want to hear this Ernie.” Eliza attempted a small smile. “It’s about Charlie.”

  Ernie stopped and studied Eliza. Was the bitch lying? Was it a set up? Was she pulling a fast one again?

  “Look, I know we didn’t part in the best of ways and I know I said some awful things, which I’m truly sorry about,” Eliza lied, hating the fact she was spouting apologetic bullshit to the disgusting old toad. “I wasn’t in a good place at the time and I took it out on you, which was wrong.”

  Watching Ernie’s lips purse together, she knew she’d better not lay it on too thickly and that her womanly guiles were unlikely to work on the man any more. “But that’s not what you want to know, I realise that,” she said meekly.

  Ernie picked up his glass of whisky and sat down, beckoning Eliza to do the same. “Speak then, girl.”

  Eliza perched herself uncomfortably on the edge of a chair, not wishing to sit back too far in case he suddenly went for her. “After I left yours I got involved with Charlie,” she said quietly, knowing it would immediately have an effect.

  “Charlie?” Ernie yelled. “The two-faced bastard!” So Charlie had immediately nicked his bird had he?

  “He said I could stay at Crystals and that you wouldn’t find out.”

  “Did he now...” Ernie’s teeth began to grind together. And to think he’d thought Charlie loyal...

  “Well I didn’t have anywhere else to go, so I didn’t have a lot of choice!” Eliza continued, blatantly omitting that she’d been desperately in love with Charlie, not the other way around.

  “The thing was, Charlie wanted to marry me and I-I was missing you so much... I knew you wouldn’t have me back, so I thought I could perhaps grow to love him...” She raised her eyes slightly. “There was also a part of me which thought you might eventually forgive me and take me back... I admit I used Charlie a little – after all he was a member of your firm and therefore if I stayed with him, at least there was a small part of me remaining close to you...”

  Eliza glanced at Ernie’s face and saw a slight flicker in his expression. She tried not to smile. She knew him well enough that veiled flattery would stroke his huge inflated ego.

  She dared her eyes to wander lower and risked a glimpse at his crotch, pleased to see the beginnings of life stirring within. He still wanted her then, the randy old fucker?
/>   “Right, so where the fuck is Charlie and why are you telling me this?” Ernie asked.

  Eliza crossed her legs over each other, aware Ernie was staring at them. “Well, the more I got to know him the more I realised he wasn’t who I thought he was. And the more I learnt, the less I liked him. This continued until it got to the point that I could stand it no longer. I had to tell you. You have a right to know.”

  “A right to know what? That you and one of my men have been shagging behind my back?” Ernie snapped, getting impatient.

  Eliza took a melodramatic deep breath. “Charlie’s working for Bill Benson,” she said quietly - for effect rather than anything else.

  Ernie sat up quickly. “Benson? What the fuck do you mean?”

  Eliza nodded solemnly. “It’s true I’m afraid, Ernie. Charlie has always worked for Benson. He’s Benson’s spy. I didn’t know this until several weeks after you’d kicked me out,” she lied.

  “And you didn’t think to tell me? The fucking two-faced wanker! The fucking cunt!” Ernie screamed, launching his tumbler of whisky against the wall.

  Eliza jumped to her feet and put her hand on Ernie’s arm, “Calm down Ernie. I didn’t tell you before because I didn’t think you’d believe me, we hardly parted in th...”

  Ernie shook her away. “But he was working for me to firebomb Benson’s club the night he disappeared.”

  “No Ernie. He pretended he was working for you. He told Bill what you’d got planned and knew he was going to get jumped. It was a set up.”

  Ernie sank back down in his chair. “So where the fuck is he?”

  Eliza smiled. “He’s absolutely fine of course. He’s being looked after by Bill who’s waiting for you to retaliate, which I’m afraid you just have.”

  She risked walking over and put her hand on Ernie’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. I really am. I tried to reach you first. I was plucking up the courage to come and see you, but it all kicked off suddenly with that guy. I-I couldn’t tell you in time.” She forced a crocodile tear from her overly-painted eyes.