by Pam Howes
And it was Saturday night again, so no doubt the Ugly Sisters would be making their usual drunken racket outside. She shook her head as she rinsed Jackie’s hair. How long she’d be able to stand living here, she really didn’t know. She needed to write the letters she’d been meaning to since she moved in; one to the council to get her name on the rehousing list and the other to the welfare department to ask for custody of Carol again.
11
On Sunday morning Dora opened the front door to an ashen-faced Frank. He was a bit earlier than usual and she led him into the back room where Jackie was sitting waiting patiently with her teddy and the three bears book on her knee. ‘What’s wrong?’ Dora asked. ‘You look dreadful. Has something happened?’
Dora made Frank sit on a chair and got him a glass of water. His hands trembled as he took it from her and sipped slowly. She waited until he’d composed himself and then he nodded and took a deep shuddering breath. ‘It’s Mam. I’ve taken her to the hospital. She was in the kitchen preparing veg and I nipped out to the paper shop. The lad had left the wrong paper so I took it back to swap it. When I got home she was on the floor, her head was bleeding at the back and she couldn’t remember what had happened. I think she must have been knocked out for a few minutes. I wrapped a towel around her wound and took her straight to Fazakerley hospital.’
Dora’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘Oh my God. Do you think she had a dizzy spell and fell, or something? We’d better get over there. Oh, we can’t take Jackie with us. What am I going to do with her? Vi’s away at her son’s for a few days, he came for her earlier, and I saw Sadie and Stan go past with their lot a while ago.’
‘Let’s think about it on the way,’ Frank suggested. ‘Come on, lock up and let’s go.’ He lifted Jackie up and hurried out to the car with her while Dora picked up the bag she’d packed earlier for their day in Knowsley, dashing outside and putting it on the back seat next to Jackie. The gangly youth, Lenny Smyth, was sitting on the doorstep opposite, watching every move through narrowed eyes. She ran back to the door and checked to make sure it was locked. All the windows were closed. She’d done them before Frank got there. As he started up the engine and shot off down the street, Dora had a thought. ‘We can take Jackie to Agnes’s. It’s on the way and I’m sure she’ll look after her.’
Frank nodded as he drove up Scotland Road. ‘I think Mam might have caught her head on the corner of the table as she went down,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t a big cut, but it might need a couple of stitches. The nurse that took her off me said they’d clean her up and take her to X-ray to make sure she’s not fractured her skull or anything. They put her in a wheelchair and I said I’d come and get you. We’ve to go back to the accident department.’
Frank screeched to a stop outside the bay-windowed house on Second Avenue and Agnes came out. She was only too pleased to help. ‘I hope your mam’s okay,’ she said, giving Dora a hug after her hurried explanation. ‘Don’t you worry about Jackie now; I’ll give her some dinner with Patsy and they can play nice in the garden. You get yourselves off and see to your mam.’
At the hospital they found Mam on a trolley in a curtained-off cubicle, her head swathed in a big bandage; her face was devoid of colour and her eyes closed. But as Frank banged into a chair she opened them and half-smiled. ‘Always the clumsy one, our Frank,’ she croaked through dry lips.
‘Mam, oh Mam, what happened?’ Dora sat beside the trolley and held her hand. ‘Did you faint or something?’
‘I’m not sure, chuck. One minute I was peeling spuds, next thing I’m on the floor with our Frank calling my name and slapping my cheeks.’
A nurse bustled into the cubicle and smiled. ‘We’re going to keep Mrs Evans in for a couple of days,’ she told them. ‘She’s got mild concussion, so we need to observe her for a while. There’s no skull fracture, but we’ve inserted three stitches in the wound. Would it be possible to bring her some nightclothes and toiletries at visiting time? It’s at two o’clock, so you’ve got an hour to dash home. She’ll be up on the first floor, ward B2.’
Dora nodded. ‘Of course. We’ll be back in a bit, Mam.’ She dropped a kiss on her cheek.
‘Don’t bring that tatty white nightdress that’s on the chair,’ Mam said. ‘I’m cutting it up for dusters. I’ve a nice blue one in the top drawer, and there’s a new pink one in a TJ Hughes bag next to it. I was keeping it for best in case I go away, but it’ll do nicely for in here. My slippers are on the floor by the bed.’
Dora sighed with relief. Her mam giving orders even though her face was so pale was a good sign. ‘Don’t you worry. We’ll make sure you look nice. See you in a while.’
Dora looked around the Sugar Lane kitchen. All seemed to be in order. The abandoned carrots and potatoes were in the sink, but there was no sign of anything else to go with them. ‘Frank, did Mam make a beef and onion pie for dinner? She bought some mince from the butcher on Friday when she was down at mine looking after Jackie.’
‘Yes, she did,’ Frank replied, coming into the kitchen. ‘She baked it after she came back from morning service at the church. It was cooling on the table with an apple pie when I popped to the paper shop. She was muttering about putting them in the sitting room oven to keep warm.’
Dora hurried into the sitting room, but the bread oven was empty and the fire almost out. ‘Where the hell are they then?’
Frank shrugged and went to try the back door. It was unlocked and the gate at the bottom of the garden was swinging open. ‘Shit, looks like the phantom pie thief has struck again while we were at the hospital.’ He ran down the path to close the gate; he checked first to make sure there was no one on the narrow dirt lane beyond it, but there wasn’t a soul in sight.
Dora shook her head as he came back inside. ‘Maybe they struck before Mam had her accident. Oh God, Frank, what if they came in, attacked her, pushed her over or something and stole the pies? Shall we call the police?’
Frank chewed his lip. ‘Let’s get back to the hospital before we jump to conclusions. See if Mam’s remembered anything.’
As they made their way out to the car, Dora carrying a bag packed with Mam’s things, their elderly neighbour from across the lane came limping over. ‘Is Mary okay?’ the old lady gasped. ‘Only I was cleaning the upstairs window when I saw Frank come out with her. By the time I got downstairs again you’d driven off. I saw she had her head all wrapped up. Has there been an accident?’
‘Yes,’ Dora said. ‘She’s had a fall, Maisie. I’ll pop over later and let you know how she is.’ She got in the car beside Frank and they set off back to Fazakerley.
The ward sister, who introduced herself as Sister Ashton, called them into her office as Dora and Frank arrived on ward B2. She gestured to a couple of chairs in front of her desk.
‘Is everything okay?’ Dora asked, sitting on the edge of her chair and clutching the shopping bag.
Sister tapped her teeth with a pen as she looked at the notes in front of her. ‘Your mother is settling down with us, but she’s having a few flashbacks as to what happened this morning. Now I’m not too sure whether she’s confused because of the bang on her head – delayed concussion can cause a patient to ramble a bit – or whether she’s affected by the strong painkillers we’ve administered, but she told me there was someone behind her in the kitchen and she thought it was Frank come back from the shop. She says she can’t remember anything other than that. If you would like to chat with her, see if she says anything else that might help us to understand how she got her head injury.’
Frank nodded. ‘I definitely wasn’t back – it was me that found her on the floor. But we have reason to believe someone may have been in the house. A couple of items are missing and the back gate was open. It never is, no one ever comes in that way except for the dustbin men on a Wednesday and the coalman on a Monday.’
Dora got to her feet, feeling sick. If someone had attacked their mam, it didn’t bear thinking about. ‘We’ll let you know if Mam says
anything significant. But if someone was in the house, they could’ve caused her injury.’
Sister nodded. ‘And in that case we will need to report it to the police.’ She patted Dora’s arm. ‘Just see how you get on now and we’ll take it from there.’
Mam had her eyes closed as they sat either side of the bed. Her face looked sunken and Dora realised she hadn’t got her teeth in. She always looked older without them. She stroked her worn hands, feeling tears welling. She couldn’t bear it if anything happened to Mam. She’d always been the rock Dora depended on, getting her through those awful times after Joanna and Joanie died – and then it had been Dora’s turn to be the strong one for her following Dad’s death from lung cancer the following year. She looked across at Frank, who was chewing his lip, his eyes moist with unshed tears.
‘She’s a tough old girl. She’ll be fine, you know. She has to be.’
He nodded. ‘Her eyelids are flickering; I think she’s waking up.’ As he spoke Mam’s blue eyes opened slowly.
‘I wasn’t asleep,’ she mumbled, trying to focus on the two of them. ‘I was just resting my eyes. Have you two had your dinner? Where’s our Jackie?’
‘Jackie’s with Agnes, and we’ll get something to eat later,’ Dora said.
‘The pie’ll be cold by now. I was going to put it in the bread oven to keep warm. You’ll need to reheat it and finish peeling the spuds.’
‘Mam. Stop fretting. We’ll sort ourselves out,’ Frank said, raising an eyebrow in Dora’s direction. ‘Just concentrate on getting yourself right.’
‘Did you bring my nighties?’
Dora lifted the bag onto the bed. ‘I’ll put them in your locker and maybe later one of the nurses will help you get changed out of that hospital gown. There’s a nice bar of soap, a flannel and towel and the Polydent and pot for your teeth as well.’
‘Mam, can you remember what happened?’ Frank probed gently. ‘Sister said you thought I was behind you in the kitchen. But I wasn’t there.’
Mam screwed her eyes tight shut for a few seconds. ‘I heard you coming in at the front door,’ she said. ‘I called out that you’d been quick and you came into the kitchen and I didn’t turn around because I was busy with the vegetables. But you came up close behind me and then…’
‘And then what, Mam?’ Dora prompted.
She sighed loudly. ‘I don’t know. Next thing I recall is Frank slapping my cheeks and calling “Mam”. But if it wasn’t you that came in, Frank, who the heck did?’
‘That’s what we need to find out,’ Frank said. ‘Mam, listen carefully now. We need to tell the police about this. From what you say, it sounds as though someone was watching as I went out earlier. As soon as I was out of sight they came into the house by the front door. They either assumed the house was empty or that you were in there alone. When I left you those pies were definitely on the table. And now they’ve vanished. So it looks like our mystery bread thief is getting bolder and more dangerous.’
Mam chewed her lip, looking frightened. ‘Do you think I was attacked, son?’
Dora clutched Mam’s hand and nodded. ‘It is possible, and we’ve got to stop this person from hurting anyone else. So me and Frank, along with Sister Ashton, are going to speak to the police. They may want to ask you a few questions, but don’t be scared. We need to catch whoever did this to you.’
‘I can’t believe that anyone would attack your mam in her own kitchen for the sake of stealing a couple of pies,’ Agnes said, handing out cups of tea and sandwiches to a starving Dora and Frank. ‘What’s the world coming to?’
‘It’s very worrying,’ Dora agreed. ‘The police have asked us not to touch anything from the scene of the crime, as they put it, so that they can dust for fingerprints. They’re meeting us at the cottage at seven. All we’ve done is lock the back door to secure it and grabbed some bits for Mam.’
‘I tell you what. Leave Jackie with me and she can sleep top to tail with Patsy tonight. She’ll be tired and cranky when the police are there and you don’t want that. I’ve got spare pyjamas that will fit her and something to dress her in tomorrow. You’ll need to give work a call to let them know you’re not able to go in for a couple of days while you get your mam settled at home, Dora. You can come over and make the call from here in the morning.’
Dora nodded. ‘Thank you. And it had gone completely out of my mind with all this happening, but Mam was supposed to be looking after Jackie early in the week because Vi is at her son’s until Wednesday. They were going to swap their days over.’
‘Sis, you need to work. Just have tomorrow off, I’m not going in either, and then I’ll take a couple of extra days to look after Mam and Jackie.’
Dora frowned. ‘Frank, you can’t do that. It’ll be too much. It should be me looking after Mam, after everything she’s done for me.’
‘We’ll manage,’ Frank insisted. ‘Tomorrow I’m going to call at every house in the village, see if anybody has seen anything that might help find this weird thief. I mean, what sort of burglar just nicks food and nothing else? It doesn’t make sense.’
Dora blew out her cheeks. ‘Somebody who’s hungry, I guess. There’s the strange woman in the long black coat that hangs about occasionally. She helped herself to all the street party leftovers. And I can’t help wondering if there’s any connection with that nasty message left with the dead flowers on Joanie’s grave.’
At the mention of Joanie, Frank shook his head and went outside to join Alan and the girls in the garden. Agnes leaned forward, a questioning look on her face, so Dora told her what had happened.
When she’d finished Agnes looked shocked. ‘You must make sure you tell the police everything you’ve told me. There could be something significant in there.’
Dora nodded. ‘I think there could be too, although I couldn’t tell you why. It’s just a gut instinct.’ Telling Agnes the tale, it didn’t seem half as daft as she’d first thought it sounded.
12
Frank dropped Dora at Agnes’s on Monday morning while he went to knock on doors in the village to make his own enquiries. The police officers who had come to the cottage last night had taken statements from both him and Dora and this morning they were visiting their mam in hospital to see if she could help any further. There was little evidence to go on, but they informed the police that several neighbours had reported having food stolen, and people living down Old Mill Lane, opposite Palmer’s now demolished factory, had also complained that food left out cooling in kitchens had gone missing. One woman had even had a saucepan of lamb scouse lifted from her stove last week while she was out in her back garden bringing in the washing. She’d gone back inside to find her tea missing and the front door wide open. But not a single neighbour had seen a thing.
The police could offer nothing at the moment other than advising everyone to keep all their doors locked, even when someone was in the house. Now Mam had been injured, possibly by the intruder, they were taking the matter more seriously and making door-to-door enquiries. They said they would be in touch as soon as they had something to report. Frank wasn’t holding his breath. He thought he might be able to get more information from their neighbours than the scuffers would.
Maisie across the road waved him over as he parked the car. He remembered that Dora had told her they’d let her know how Mam was, but by the time they’d got back from Agnes’s last night and the police had been and gone, Maisie’s house had been in darkness, so they’d assumed she’d gone to bed. He hurried across the lane as the old lady leaned on her gate.
‘How’s Mary doing?’ she asked.
‘She’s okay, needs to rest,’ Frank replied. ‘We’re going to see her later.’
Maisie dug in her faded apron’s pocket and pulled out a small bottle of 4711 cologne. ‘Take her this. Sprinkle it on a hanky and dab it on her forehead. It smells lovely and it’s quite soothing. And give her my love.’
‘Thanks, Maisie. I’ll do that. I don’t suppose you saw any strange
rs hanging around near the house yesterday, before I took Mam to the hospital?’
Maisie shook her head. ‘No, chuck.’ She screwed up her face as though thinking. ‘But there was a woman I didn’t recognise in church yesterday morning. She was sat right at the back and I was with your mam near the front. Funny though, ’cos as we were coming out, she dashes away sharpish like, and then Mary says, “There’s that woman who pinched food from the street party.” She’d gone when we got outside. Mary said her usual hellos at the graves to Jim and the babby and your Joanie and then we walked back up here.’
‘Okay, thanks, Maisie. I’ll let you know how we get on and when Mam comes home, you can pop over for a cuppa with her.’
Frank brought his motorbike round the front. It would be easier to observe things if he rode slowly along the lanes, rather than if he was in the car. He called at houses in the immediate vicinity on foot, but got the same answer from each one. No one had seen anything out of the ordinary, although a few reminded him that they’d had bread, cakes and pies stolen over the last few weeks. He covered the rest of the village on his bike with the same results.
He drew a deep breath as he turned into Old Mill Lane. Since Joanie’s death he’d been unable to face coming down here and would go out of his way to get where he was going rather than drive this way. But since Dora had found that strange message on her grave, he’d almost felt like he should face his demons. He parked his bike against the sandstone factory wall: all that was left, apart from the brick-built bike shed nearby, to mark Palmer’s once-thriving clothing business – a business that had survived the war, only to be brought to its knees by the feckless son-in-law of the late owner. Once orders for clothes ceased and debts began piling up, George Kane had paid his foreman Jack Carter to commit arson by burning down the factory that Frank’s lovely new wife and his sister had worked in since leaving school. Kane had promised Carter further money when the insurance company paid out.