‘Great show, boss.’
Dicky scowled at him and growled, ‘When you’re not riding, you’re supposed to be maintaining the rest of the bikes, not sneaking off to watch the show.’
Julie flinched at her husband’s nasty tone. She had to suffer his manner because she wasn’t in a position to walk away from it, but the rest of the team didn’t; they’d get jobs easily with another fair or speedway track, and he was lucky that none of them as yet had told him what to do with the job and gone off to find a boss who appreciated their loyalty and hard work. Speedy might still be wearing his congenial look, but his eyes told her a different story. He was inwardly fuming at the way Dicky had spoken to him – and in front of her, too. He didn’t speak out, though, as he valued his job too much, but one day Dicky would go too far and Speedy wouldn’t be able to hold his tongue.
‘I only watched from the gallery for a couple of minutes during my break, as I wanted to know how the show was going. Won’t happen again, boss.’ Speedy seemed to be deliberating, as though he had something to tell Dicky and wasn’t sure whether to speak up about it or not. Eventually he said, ‘I’ve made some adjustments to one of the practice bikes. I’ve enlarged the sprocket to give better acceleration speed and improved the suspension to make it more stable when circling the wall. I’ve test-run it and I can really feel the difference, but you’re the boss and I need your approval before I make these modifications to the performing bikes. I’ll bring the practice bike through to the wall, shall I, for you to trial?’
Dicky lit a cigarette and blew a plume of smoke in the air before he said offhandedly, ‘Another time.’ He cast a sly look at Julie before adding, ‘I’ve something I need to do.’
‘Oh, well what about you then, Julie, if you’ve nothing else important on just now?’
Julie felt honoured that Speedy thought her capable enough to give her opinion on the improvements. ‘No, I haven’t, and I’d love to—’
Dicky cut across her, shouting at Speedy. ‘What the fuck are you asking her to do that for? She might be a passable rider but she knows nothing about the workings of a bike. Wouldn’t know a fuel pipe from a brake pipe.’
This was untrue. Julie might not be mechanic standard, but even before she had learned to ride she had picked up quite a lot about the workings of the bikes through watching Speedy and the others tinkering with them when she brought them mugs of tea. Sometimes when Dicky wasn’t around she would stay and talk to the lads, feeling it would be wise to learn more about the bikes since she was putting her life at risk on them.
‘Bring it to the wall, and I warn you these modifications better be good,’ Dicky told Speedy. He looked knowingly at Julie. ‘You needn’t think you’re sloping off anywhere while I’m testing the bike. You’re coming too, then we’ve unfinished business, haven’t we?’
An icy shiver shot down her spine and she solemnly nodded.
Inside the wall, Dicky sat astride the practice bike that Speedy had wheeled in and was just about to rev it up when Jenny appeared. Her impending date with Tom might have been all-consuming to her, but there had still been room for her conscience to prick her over the worrying matter of her friend’s husband. Wise woman Velda had had no answer to offer her other than that this was a decision that only she could make, so after much soul-searching she had finally decided that the right thing to do was to tell Julie what she had witnessed and offer her support should she need it. To Jenny, friendship was based on truth and honesty, and she wasn’t being a friend to Julie if she kept a secret of such magnitude from her.
She smiled over at her and called, ‘Time for a cuppa and a catch-up before your next show, Julie?’
Before Julie could respond, Dicky called back. ‘No, she can’t. I need her to help me test out some new modifications I asked Speedy to do.’
Julie sighed inwardly. Dicky had had no hand in the modifications and had no right to claim them as his, but that was typical of him, declaring that he was responsible for any new idea a member of the team came up with to better their performance. Only moments ago he had insulted her in front of Speedy, saying that she was inept when it came to the workings of a motorcycle, but now he was stating that she was expert enough to help him test the new modifications in order to stop her going off with her friend. She smiled apologetically at Jenny. ‘Another time?’
Jenny smiled back. ‘Yeah, sure.’ She left reluctantly. She had wanted to get the problem dealt with and off her conscience, but it seemed she was going to bear the burden of it for a while longer.
Glaring at Julie standing alongside Speedy in the middle of the well of the wall as though it was her fault Jenny had disturbed them, Dicky snapped, ‘Not expecting anyone else, are you? I want to get this over.’
Kick-starting the engine, he twisted the throttle until the bike was revving at its highest and let go of the brake. The wheels squealed as the machine hurtled forward up onto the sloping part of the wall. After only two circuits of the vertical sides, Julie could already tell that the bike had reached its speed much faster than normal and appeared more stable, and she was just about to tell Speedy what she thought when suddenly the back wheel abruptly stopped spinning. The engine stalled, and the bike seemed to hang in mid-air for a second before it plunged thirty feet into the basin below with a loud thud.
Stunned at what she had unexpectedly witnessed, and for the second time in only a few weeks, Julie momentarily froze before her wits returned and, letting out a shriek of horror, she ran over to the crumpled figure of her husband lying under the wreckage of the bike, parts lying scattered around him. Speedy, though, had reached him first and having heaved the remains of the wrecked bike off him was squatting down beside him checking for vital signs.
Julie stared down at him frenziedly, her thoughts rolling one way then another. How many times had she longed to be free of her husband’s tyranny, but she had believed it would be on her own death or from some other miracle that came to part them. Never would she wish anyone to die in such a terrible way, even Dicky. ‘He’s all right, isn’t he, Speedy?’ she cried fervently. ‘Please tell me he is.’
Speedy looked up at her. ‘I can’t find a pulse. Go and phone for an ambulance.’ She seemed rooted to the spot, so he shouted at her. ‘Now, Julie. Don’t waste time stopping to tell anyone; you need to make that call as quickly as you can.’
His order brought her to her senses. ‘Yes, yes, I’ll be as quick as I can.’ Kicking up her heels, she dashed out of the small door in the side of the wall and out of the fairground, ignoring fair folk she belted past who tried to stop her and ask her what was wrong. She didn’t stop until she had reached the red telephone box on the corner of the street a quarter of a mile away from the fairground site.
Fifteen minutes later, she was back, to be greeted at the door by an ashen-faced Speedy.
A great fear washed through her as he laid a hand on her arm and said gravely, ‘I’m so sorry, Julie, there was nothing I could do.’
She gasped, horrified as the significance of his words sank in. ‘You mean… Oh no, you can’t mean he’s dead?’
He nodded his head. ‘I’m afraid so.’
Her eyes filled with confusion. ‘But… but what caused the bike to stall like that? I mean, you’d just finished doing the modifications, and I know you’d have given it a thorough check before you allowed Dicky… any of us to ride it.’
‘I don’t know, Julie. I’m as stumped as you are. That bike was mechanically sound. It must have been rider error. Dicky must have taken his hand off the throttle… Look, there’s no point us trying to guess; we’ll have to wait for the police report.’
Julie stared blindly at him for several long moments before she whispered, ‘I should be with him until the ambulance arrives.’
Word had obviously got around that something dreadful had happened inside the Wall of Death, as several worried-looking fair folk had arrived. One of them asked, ‘What’s up?’
Speedy told them there’d been
an accident and that they were waiting for the ambulance to come. Mr Grundy ought to be informed, and would one of them find and tell him.
A volunteer shot off to do the deed as the clang of the ambulance bell sounded in the distance.
Whilst Speedy had been enlightening the fair folk about the accident, Julie had slipped back inside the Wall of Death. When the two ambulance men arrived, they found her squatting dazed by Dicky’s crumpled body. Whilst one turned his attention to Dicky, the other, a kindly middle-aged man, placed his arm around Julie and urged her to her feet. ‘Is there anyone who’ll make you a cuppa while we attend to your husband?’
‘I will,’ Jenny replied, running in and dashing over. As she led Julie gently outside, she said to Speedy, ‘My dad’s on his way. Nobby Jessop was fetching him when he bumped into me and told me there’d been an accident, so I came on ahead to see what I could do. I heard the police siren as I came in, so they’ll be here too in a minute. I’ll take Julie to my van and make her some sweet tea to help with the shock – when the police need to speak to her, they’ll find her there. You’re in shock too, Speedy, but are you all right to stay here to tell them what happened?’
He nodded.
‘When they’ve finished with you, come and find me and I’ll have tea or a stiff drink ready for you.’
Jenny was desperate to find out herself just what had happened, but that would have to wait. Dicky might be beyond help, but Julie wasn’t. She eyed her friend worriedly. It was like she was frozen; as though her husband’s death hadn’t yet sunk in, but soon it would and then she was going to need all the support Jenny, Ren and the rest of the Grundy community could give her to help her through this dreadful time.
Chapter Fifteen
Julie still hadn’t said a word all the way to the van and was sitting now like a puppet who had lost its strings, slumped on a chair at the kitchen table. She even hadn’t replied when Jenny had offered her tea, coffee, water or a stiff drink, so she made her all four, but they remained untouched on the table in front of her.
Having lost her adoptive mother after a long illness, Jenny was well aware of the pain the death of a loved one brought, but then she had had time to prepare for the inevitable. To lose someone you loved without any warning, though, no time to say goodbye… She couldn’t imagine the level of pain and devastation, the emotional turmoil that Julie was suffering now. From experience she knew that nothing anyone said or did would ease her pain – only time did that – so all she could do was let Julie know she was there for her as a shoulder to cry on, someone to talk to, get drunk with, while she travelled through her grief.
Pulling a chair to Julie’s side, Jenny sat down and tried to coax her. ‘Try and drink something, it will make you feel better.’ When she still received no response, she picked up the cup of tea and placed it in Julie’s hand, then put her own hand under Julie’s and guided the cup to her lips, saying, ‘Please, Julie, just a sip.’ But still Julie didn’t utter one word or move a muscle.
Resigned, Jenny put the cup back down in its saucer, then turned her head as she heard the door opening and saw her mother entering. Gem looked worried. She walked over and pulled out another chair parked under the table to sit next to her daughter. She whispered, ‘Your dad is at the Wall of Death, so I thought I’d come and let you know what’s going on and see how things are here. Not so good, going by the look of her. Anyway, the ambulance men have left.’ The way she said this indicated to Jenny that they had taken Dicky’s body with them, she presumed to the mortuary. ‘The police are still questioning Speedy over how the accident happened. Poor Speedy is beside himself, as he did all the modifications to the bike that Dicky was testing out when the accident happened, but he’s adamant they won’t find anything wrong with it and that it was Dicky who caused the accident himself. We’ll have to wait for the results of the police examination of the bike and see what they decide. Has Julie said anything about it?’
Jenny shook her head. ‘She’s not said a word. It’s like she’s not in, if you know what I mean.’
Under normal circumstances Gem would have laughed at her daughter’s description of someone who was so consumed in their own thoughts that they were unaware of anything going on around them. ‘She’s in shock. Poor girl. I can’t imagine what’s she’s going through, losing her husband so young and actually witnessing him die. They seemed such a happy couple.’
They might have appeared it, but Jenny knew that things weren’t all they seemed behind closed doors in the Otterman household. The only consolation for Julie – not that she would ever know it – was that there was no reason now for Jenny to tell her that her husband had been cheating on her. She was suffering enough emotionally without bearing that on top.
‘I can’t get her to drink anything, Mum. Hot sweet tea is supposed to be good for shock, but she won’t even take a sip.’
‘She will when she’s ready.’
‘I expect Ren will be here any minute. The news of this must have reached her by now. She might have an idea of how to get Julie to start facing up to things.’
‘Ren’s not here, love. She came to tell me she was leaving Betty and Sadie in charge of her stall while she went to the wholesaler’s, as her stocks were running low. She won’t be back until six. I happened to pass her stall about an hour ago and saw Sadie and Betty sampling all the sweets. I’m just hoping they leave enough for customers until Ren gets back with the new stock.’
Jenny didn’t comment as she herself had been doing likewise yesterday whilst helping Ren. ‘Oh, I remember now. When I saw her last night she did tell me she was going to the wholesaler’s today, and whilst she’s got the chance she’s buying Donny a present as it’s his birthday next week.’
Gem laid a hand on her daughter’s and gave it an affectionate squeeze. ‘It’s not surprising you forgot, given what’s happened.’ She sounded concerned when she asked, ‘What about you, love? Julie is your friend, so this is bound to affect you too.’
Jenny sighed heavily. ‘I’m okay, Mum. I just feel so sad for Julie. I wish I could wave a wand and magic her into the future, so she doesn’t have to go through this.’
‘Well you can’t, dear. All you can do is be there for her. Now, I’d best make myself visible in the fairground, make sure everything is running smoothly there while your father is helping the police. The inspector asked me to tell you that he’ll be along to speak to Julie after they’ve interviewed Speedy.’
Jenny turned her head to look at Julie, then turned back to her mother. ‘Whether they’ll get anything out of her at the moment…’
Gem look sadly at Julie, then kissed her daughter on her cheek before she got up. ‘I’ll pop back later to see how she is. I know she’s in safe hands with you.’
The hot drinks were now stone cold and the cold drinks tepid, and still Julie was sitting slumped in the chair, her head hung low, chin almost touching her chest. She hadn’t uttered one word. Jenny was becoming increasingly worried that the shock of her husband’s death had affected her mentally. She was wondering if they should try and locate a local doctor who wasn’t against giving medical aid to fair folk, as many were, when without warning Julie lifted her head and said matter-of-factly, ‘I need to talk to the police. You have to take me to them. I need to tell them that I am responsible for Dicky’s death. It was me that killed him.’
Jenny gawped, astounded by this unexpected and shocking admission. ‘You caused the accident?’ she spluttered. ‘But how? Oh my God, did you do something to the bike, Julie? Did you sabotage it?’
Julie looked aghast. ‘What? Deliberately kill Dicky, you mean? No, no, of course I didn’t. I wouldn’t do such a thing.’
Jenny frowned, bemused. ‘Well, how do you think you’re responsible then?’
Julie heaved a deep breath. ‘You know that saying, that if you wish for something enough times it comes true? Well it does, Jenny.’ She hung her head and wrung her hands. ‘I wished Dicky dead, you see, many times, after…
after…’
Jenny laid a hand on her arm. ‘It’s difficult for you to say out loud what he did to you, but I know, so you don’t have to say it.’
Julie gasped. ‘You knew? But, how could you?’
‘I saw him.’
Tears of distress and humiliation sprung to Julie’s eyes. ‘You saw him… you saw Dicky beating me?’
‘Oh Julie, none of it was your fault. Thinking you’re responsible for Dicky’s death just because you wished it is silly and you know it. Either something was wrong with the bike or Dicky made a mistake while he was riding it, and the police will confirm this once they’ve done their investigation.’
Julie stared at her for several long moments before she whispered, ‘Yes, I know I was being stupid. It’s just that I feel so guilty for wishing him dead.’
‘I’d be wishing my husband dead if he was doing to me what Dicky was doing to you. How long had he been hurting you, Julie?’
The grief-stricken woman’s eyes glazed distantly. ‘It started nearly as soon as we got married. If something didn’t go his way, he’d take it out on me. I should have left him, but I’d no money and nowhere to go except back home, but my parents were against me marrying Dicky in the first place and I couldn’t bear them going on and on about how I should have listened to them and this proving them right.’ She heaved a miserable sigh. ‘At first, he was always sorry when he beat me, begging me to forgive him and promising he’d never do it again, but then he changed and stopped apologising and instead insisted that it was something I’d done that had caused him to lose his temper. I won’t blame you for thinking I was pathetic, but despite what he was doing to me, I still loved him, Jenny. Well, I loved the man I thought I had married, not the one that I actually did.’
‘I wish you’d told me, Julie.’
‘I couldn’t. I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone knowing and pitying me and thinking me weak for staying with him.’ She looked at Jenny directly. ‘You know about the other woman too, don’t you?’
All is Fair Page 17