‘Mum’s put on a slap up bit of tuck and all you two wanna do is go at it like two Z Celebs on Big Brother. Have some respect.’
Jen knew better than to respond, but Tiff had never quite mastered the art of not being a mouthy sod. She curled her lip. ‘You might be my boss lady down the Three Sisters but not around our mum’s, comprende?’
Babs held up her palms before this got out of hand. ‘Can we give the verbal a night off, eh? For once in our lives.’
Dee and Tiff still gave each other the eye, but stopped trading verbal blows.
Babs lowered her hands and turned to Jen. ‘I’m done up for Courtney that she’s liking her new school.’
Jen perked up, face glowing. ‘Dead proud of her I am. I will admit I was scared to death of her going across town on her tod and probably being the only girl in her class who weren’t from one of them nob families, but my girl has put her head down and done me proud.’ She preened, ‘Her form mistress says that her grades are one of the best in the class.’
‘I’m glad,’ Babs replied.
She didn’t add anything about the business with Courtney and Stan because it was an unstated rule that they didn’t go there. The few times they had it had only brought Jen to tears and how it hurt Babs seeing her girl crippled in pain. Best to let sleeping dogs lie.
The remainder of the meal was spent nattering about this and that ‘n’ then they settled in the sitting room with a bottle of pink gin, courtesy of Dee’s bar at the club, and a large bowl overflowing with sea salt and balsamic vinegar Kettle crisps. Babs popped the latest Bond movie in the DVD, a bootleg copy she’d purchased for a couple of quid on the communal staircase, no questions asked.
‘That Daniel Craig‘s a bit of alright,’ Jen uttered breathlessly five minutes into the film. She ran her tongue over her lips watching his high jinx every step of the way.
Then she and Dee, who cradled a sleeping Natty in her arms, started laughing and chanting, ‘Go Daniel! Go Daniel!’
Babs shook her head as she munched. ‘As if this Danny boy has got a patch on Roger Moore…‘
Tiff wasn’t joining in. Instead she eyeballed her belongings sitting in the corner of the room. Last night she’d sofa surfed at a mate’s in a last ditch attempt not to go to her mum’s. The sharp springs had nearly crippled her. No way was there going to be a repeat performance of that tonight.
Her mum pointedly asked, ‘Is there something on your mind Tiffany?’
Tiff inwardly groaned. That’s what she’d be coming back to if she moved in again. A mum with eyes at the back and side of her head. It would be like being back in school and not Egerton Academy either.
Tiff avoided her mum’s suspicious stare to mask the glint in her eye that showed she was up to no good. ‘Why? Should there be?’
‘You tell me.’
Tiff hesitated for a moment and then made a big show of touching the side of her head as if she’d just remembered something. ‘Oh, nearly forgot mum, I need my old room back for a couple of days.’
Jen tutted and Dee muttered with disapproval. Screw ‘em, Tiff mentally raged. Since when did they have a say who their mum let stay in her drum? Since for never.
Babs passed the bowl of crisps to Jen and folded her arms. ‘I beg your pardon?’
Tiff still avoided her mum’s piercing stare and went for the kill with her hard luck story. ‘See, thing is, I was renting a room in Bow but the landlord booted me out coz he wants the house back to do it up and sell it on. Got another place sorted out. Can’t move in yet though. Being tarted up, ain’t it, so I need somewhere to crash for a couple of days…or maybe just a week.’
Babs gave her kid one of her mum looks. ‘What did I say to you Tiffany the last time this happened? Told you point blank it was the last time. You’re a grown woman now. You can’t keep coming back here like the Boomerang Kid every time things go tits up. You should have had your own four walls and a roof sorted out by now.’
‘Which she did, let’s not forget,’ Dee backed up their mum as she passed Natty to Jen.
Jen put in her two pence worth as well. ‘But ballsed it up, splashing the cash like a drunk sailor until she had debts coming out of her rear end.’
Tiff turned on her sisters. ‘Thanks for your input ladies but I’m not asking you.’ She twisted back to Babs and, in a sweet as pie tone, begged, ‘ain’t got nowhere else to go mum, its here or nowhere.’
‘Don’t try to guilt trip me, my girl,’ Babs threw harshly back. ‘I’m sorry, but I’m putting my foot down. Go down the housing and talk to the council; they’ll sort you something out. You’re not coming back here and that’s final.’
Tiff looked like she’d lost her dinner then her hot temper scorched through her rapid-fire words. ‘What do you want me to do? Go down a doss house and bunk up with the smack heads? Kip in a shop doorway? Eh? I told ya, it’s only for a couple of days.’
‘Mum’s got a point.’ Tiff almost screamed at hearing Dee’s interfering gob again. ‘It’s a bit much you treating her place like a hostel. I mean, how old are you now?’
‘Who asked you to stick your beak in?’ Tiff scoffed. ‘I notice you’re not offering me a room at Dee Mansions. Oh no, worried ‘bout the neighbours probably.’
Babs was firm. ‘Pack it in Tiffany. You’re not staying here and that’s that. Now then.‘ She turned back to the telly and squealed, ‘look at 007 go! Swinging off that building like Spiderman.’
Tiff rubbed her teeth against each other in a see-saw motion. If mum thought the battle for her old room was lost she had another thing coming.
She got to her feet muttering, ‘Fuck James Bond.’
With grim determination she strode across the room and yanked up her plastic bags. When Babs clocked what was happening, she flashed to her feet and grabbed Tiff by the arms to stop her heading across the hallway towards her old room.
‘I’m warning you my girl.’
There was a brief struggle as Tiff grappled with her mum before she broke free. Dee and Jen were up and out of their comfy seats as Tiff escaped from the room slamming the door behind her.
Tight-lipped Babs gestured for them to sit down. ‘Leave it ladies. Let her go. Your sister will be back very shortly, I can promise you that.’
Babs was right. A few seconds later, an ear-piercing wail filled the hallway followed by shouting. Then the sitting room door banged back open. Tiffany strode in, face white, fists clenched and her body vibrating with rage.
She yelled, ‘What the fuck is that fucking dungeon tart, Flo, doing in my fucking room?’
14
‘Ah yeah, I should’ve told ya, I’m letting Florence stay for a few days.’
The shoe was on the other foot now. It was Babs’ turn to pretend to have remembered something.
‘Poor kid turned up on my doorstep earlier like a drowned mouse. I will admit I turned her away at first, but then I got to thinking she’s my Tiff and Jen’s half-sister. Her granddad turned her out with nowhere to go. What a brute, eh? There’s something a bit funny about that family if you ask me.’
Tiff had an apoplectic fit. ‘Are you off your fucking nut?’
Hyperventilating, she couldn’t believe it. She knew it was going to be a struggle getting her old room back. She even admitted to herself that she was taking the Arthur Bliss by asking for it. But never, ever, did she expect to find that high-rent, low budget Paris Hilton wannabe tucked up and cosy in her room. Her fucking room!
Jen and Dee were having trouble coping with their mum’s unwelcome news as well. They couldn’t have looked more shocked if Babs had informed them that Stanley Miller was popping by for a drink and a yarn later.
Dee’s eyes flashed with fury, but kept her tone civil. ‘Mum, what’s going on?’
‘That girl’s trouble mum and you know it.’ Jen was having trouble keeping her voice hushed, trying not to let her wrath wake the sleeping baby in her arms. ‘We’ve been sat here for a couple of hours and you never said a word. Why di
dn’t you tell us, as soon as, when we got here?’
Babs wrung her hands, but her features remained stubborn. ‘Coz I knew there would be ructions and I don’t expect to have to answer to my own kids for what happens in my own home. To save trouble, I told Flo to stay put in her room.’ That explained why Stan’s daughter hadn’t put in an appearance when the girls arrived.
Babs reached for her drink and knocked the last of it back to give her some much-needed strength. ‘There’s no point in jumping outta your pram. I’ve told her she can stay for a couple of days and that’s all there is to it. Last time I looked, my name was on the rent book, so it ain’t Tiff’s room, it’s mine, which means I can let it to who I like.’ She slammed her glass down on the side table and stood. ‘Now, who wants a cuppa?’
Tiff dogged her, haranguing her all the way. ’Can you hear that mum?’ she blasted as soon as they got inside the kitchen.
‘Hear what?’
‘The sound of me puking,’ Tiff fired back, ‘coz how could you let dad’s wrong side of the blanket past the doorstep much less park her posh pussy in here? After all she did?’ She shook her fists like she wanted to shake her mum. ‘All she did to you and all she did to us? How could you?’
Babs knew where her daughter was coming from; she’d asked herself the same questions before deciding to open her home to Flo. The awful things that Flo had put them through weren’t easy to push aside. But after she’d told the girl that kipping at hers was a no-can-do, Babs’ heart had almost broken at the wretched sobs coming from Flo as she’d walked away.
The last time Babs had heard such anguished weeping was from a broken teen on her wing in prison who’d howled for forgiveness and her mum every night.
So Babs had called Flo back, sat her down and read her the riot act so she got it through her posh locks that Babs wasn’t going to put up with her shenanigans here. Made sure she understood what was in, what was out. None of Flo’s old tricks in her drum, thank you very much. And so far, so good.
Babs was tired of having to explain herself inside her own four walls to a daughter who should’ve sorted her act out yonks ago.
‘Now you listen to me.’ She turned on Tiff. ‘I’m no more a fan of the girl than you are. But at the end of the day she’s still your flesh and blood and she’s a girl in trouble. Your old man might’ve been the work of the devil but that’s no reason to take it out on the girl. It’s ain’t her fault.’
Tiff wiggled her head in disbelief. ‘I’m your actual flesh and blood and I’m in trouble! And I ain’t stabbed you in the back, the front and sides! Now go and tell Lady Muck to piss right off or I’ll do it!’
Babs lost her rag and grabbed her daughter’s ear, pinching it so tight Tiff yelped. ‘Don’t you backchat me, little madam. And don’t think you’re too old to feel the back of my hand across that thick skull of yours. I gave her my word. If you want to sleep on the sofa for a few days, that’s alright with me.’
Tiff got her ear back. ‘Ta. That’s nice. I’ll tell you what though,’ sarky as thick as butter on bread, ‘perhaps I should check with Flo before I lay my hat on the sofa? You know, just to make sure she’s alright with it too.’
Suddenly Babs was shagged to the bone, especially after seeing Pearl, the gold doing a Houdini and bumping into Tricky Dickie. And, as if that wasn’t enough, she was having a tropical moment. This menopause business was a right headache. She could’ve lit one of her ciggies easy with the heat coming off her face.
‘Let’s all just try and get along, eh?’
She jacked open the window. Ah! Heaven. Her face began to cool down.
A seething Tiff sloped off to the sitting room.
But Babs was interrupted from making the tea when she heard Dee shout, ‘Oi, what you doing with that?’
More trouble! Babs banged the cup in her hand down and flew into the sitting room to find her youngest marching to the doorway with the ornamental poker. Strangely enough she got out of the way and let Tiff proceed to her old room.
‘Mum, bloody well stop her,’ Jen barked, the change in her voice making Natty whimper, but mercifully he didn’t wake up.
Babs sagged against the wall. ‘You know what, those two are both gonna be stopping under this roof, so the sooner they have it out the quicker we can get it outta the way and find some peace.’
Dee shook her head. ‘But Tiff will do some serious damage with that bit of iron.’
Babs’ face became grim. ‘You’re both forgetting that Flo’s Stan Miller’s daughter.’
As soon as Tiff got inside her old room she placed the poker behind her back and used her other hand to close the door quietly. Snob gob Flo was sitting up on the bed, cushioned against a pillow, wearing only a T-shirt and skimpy thongs, her long blonde locks thrown over one shoulder. Her head bopped from side to side in time with the music coming through the earphones stuck in her ears.
Tiff viciously whispered, ‘I’ll make your head bop, you bitch.’
Her half-sister seemed oblivious of the row she’d engineered or that Tiff stood at the foot of the bed like a doctor with bad news.
When she finally looked up, she pulled off her earphones and shook her head back like a model on a fashion shoot.
‘Oh, hello there sis.’ Her words were pleasant enough except for the invisible poison dripping from the side of her chops. Well, that’s how Tiff saw it anyways.
That lah-di-da-di-da accent of hers grated on Tiff’s nerves, big time. ‘What are you playing at?’
‘It’s an old Prince album.’
Oh, it’s like that, is it? Think’s she’s the mutt’s nuts, does she? Tiff pulled the poker from behind her back and waved it menacingly. ‘Yeah, that’s right, you keep running your Notting Hill trap and I’ll fill it in for you.’
Flo smirked, not a care in the world. ‘I don’t think you will. Look at the state of you. You couldn’t knock the top off a rice pudding as our old man used to say. You need to pack it in with the poncing about, sofa surfing and squatting sis; such an unhealthy lifestyle.’
Tiff was both needled and slightly alarmed that Flo seemed to know her business. Probably been listening, with her ear pressed to the door at the row going on between her and mum.
‘What are you playing at Flo? I mean really playing at?’
The other woman sank back into the pillow. ‘Didn’t Babs explain? I was staying at my grandfather’s – you remember the Commander? Well, he’s never really forgiven me for messing up on the gold and when he got the chance, he made me walk the gangplank. I got thrown out. Not that I blame him for having the hump, of course. No one likes to be robbed of gold bullion after all. Anyway, I had nowhere to go, so I thought I’d throw myself on the mercy of the woman who could’ve been my mum.’
Tiff could feel herself getting riled up again, but reined it back in, playing it cool. ‘First off, she could never be your mum. As fucking if! She’s my mum.’
Flo sighed as if this sit-down wasn’t even worth the time o’ day or night as it were. ‘Alright, step-mum, half-mum, sub-mum - families are all over the place these days, aren’t they?’
Tiff ignored her. ‘And second, there’s a thousand other places you could’ve found to rest that big head of yours. Dopey boyfriends or dopey wannabe boyfriends, you could even have gone back to your own old lady.’
Flo shivered. Her control was slipping. Her accent became East End girl to the core, no doubt learned at the knee of Stan Miller.
‘I ain’t going back to that looby-loo, she’s one stop on the district line from East Ham, you get me?’ Realising what she’d done, she swiftly switched back to her upmarket voice. ‘No, I made the right choice coming here. It’s not a problem, is it? We can get along, can’t we? We share a father’s blood after all, you can’t deny that.’
Tiff parked herself on the edge of the bed, gaze sharp and knowing. ‘You’re up to something, I can tell. You’re like Stan; he was always up to something. That’s why you’re here. You’ve got a plan. What
is it? Tell me. I won’t grass, especially if there’s something in it for me.’
Flo gave her an appraising glance. ‘You’re right. I am like dad. I’ve always got a plan just like he did.’
Tiff leaned triumphantly closer. She’d been right; this bint was on the make.
But she was disappointed when Flo continued. ‘And my plan was to find somewhere to stay.’
Tiff shot to her feet in disgust.
Flo reached for her earphones and said, ‘But then that’s the difference between you and me...sister. I’ve always got a plan and you haven’t.’
As soon as the door was shut Flo chucked the earphones and picked up her mobile.
Her thumbs beat away as she texted:
‘The daughters know I’m here. Should be no problems now.’
Two minutes later the answering text pinged on her phone.
‘Well done. I knew I could rely on you. Now get to work and find your inheritance, the gold.’
Flo sent loads of kisses back to her granddad, The Commander.
15
‘Hang on a moment please,’ Dee called out regally as the final candidate for the job of Natty’s nanny knocked at the door.
Dee was sitting pretty in her custom-made, red, gold and green executive chair in her office on the top floor of the Three Sisters Club. She leaned back on the headrest, trying to shift some of the anxiety gnawing away at her. You heard all kind of stories about what nannies got up to once the parents were out of sight. Take what happened last year to one of her neighbours. Turns out the nanny had been using the place as a pop up brothel and doing the nasty with all sorts right in their marital bed. Dirty scrubber! And, as if that wasn’t enough, she’d had the nipper in the same room. Poor kid! Probably grow up to be a serial killer. No way was that kind of carry-on happening in her beautiful home. Nathan, along with her older son Nicky, were the most precious people in her life and she owed it to John to make sure they grew up right. Ah, John!
Blood Secrets_A gripping crime thriller with killer twists Page 9