She said gravely, ‘Oh, it’s a con all right, Tom.’ She proceeded to tell him what she had gleaned from Bessie Topper.
When she had finished, he was frowning. ‘Like you said, it’s a really clever plan this Steve Smith has come up with, but we still can’t prove that document is a fake.’
She scowled angrily. ‘Maybe we need to kidnap Barry and his mother and wring the truth out of them,’ she snapped.
Tom shook his head. ‘They’re never going to admit it considering what’s at stake for them – enough money to start a new future with. What are the chances of another opportunity like this ever coming their way again? We’d better get back to your father and tell him what you’ve found out and see what we can do about it. If anything, that is.’
He made to start the engine but she laid a hand on his arm to stop him. ‘We can’t be that far away from Southsea, Tom. Can’t we just go and pay a visit to the fair there? I’d like to see this Steve Smith for myself.’
‘Why? What good will that do?’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I just want to get a look at the man who’s trying to ruin my family. Just a thought. Do you think Barry Topper and his mother might be open to bribery from us? Dad could offer to pay them more than Steve Smith is promising, on the understanding that Bessie admits she never found that document amongst her father-in-law’s papers.’
Tom nodded. ‘That’s worth mentioning to your father to consider.’ He thought for a moment. ‘But while it would put a stop to Steve Smith’s plan, it would still leave him free to try another scheme to extort money out of your father, or some other innocent businessman. We need to stop him from conning money out of people, but how we do that when he’s getting others to carry out his schemes on his behalf? If it hadn’t been for you getting Mrs Topper to talk, we’d never have known Steve Smith was the one behind all this.’
‘I still want to get a look at him. I just need to see the face of the man who’s trying to ruin my family.
He smiled at her. ‘Then you shall.’
* * *
Dobson’s fair, on the seafront at Southsea, was dilapidated to say the least, the rides poorly maintained and rubbish and weeds abundant. How the local council hadn’t condemned the place as a danger to human life was a mystery. After snooping around and making discreet enquiries, Jenny had managed to find the man who was attempting to con her father out of a substantial amount of money – and as matters stood, looking like he was going to succeed. Dressed in black trousers and a grubby white American-style T-shirt, he’d been lounging against the support post of a swing boats ride, smoking a roll-up cigarette. He was just as Bessie Topper had described him: in his early forties, slim-hipped, with muscular shoulders, and extremely good-looking in a dark, brooding kind of way. As soon as Jenny set eyes on him, she instantly got the feeling that she had seen him before somewhere, but however hard she tried, she just couldn’t remember where that had been, and it was really annoying her.
Now that she had satisfied her curiosity, they were well on their way back home. Tom took his eyes off the road for a second to flash a quick look at Jenny cuddled next to him before he returned them to the road. ‘Penny for them,’ he said. ‘Or shall I save myself the money and tell you I know you’re still trying to remember where you think you’ve seen that man before. Maybe you haven’t. Maybe he just reminds you of someone you know and that’s why you think you’ve seen him.’
She sighed. ‘Yes, maybe you’re right. But now I’m left with the problem of who he reminds me of.’
Tom laughed. ‘The best way to remember is to forget about it and let it come to you naturally.’ He sighed himself. ‘I just wish we were returning with better news to tell your parents, at least something that would help us prove that document is fake.’
When she didn’t answer, he flashed another quick look at her and smiled tenderly as he saw she was asleep. The whole experience had obviously taken its toll on her.
Hours later, at just after two in the morning, Tom drew the lorry to a halt inside Grundy’s fairground. The jolt of the vehicle stopping woke Jenny.
‘Why are we stopping?’ she asked sleepily.
‘Because we’re home.’
‘What! I slept all the way back?’
He laughed. ‘You certainly did.’
She yawned loudly and stretched before issuing a deep sigh. ‘Mum and Dad will be anxious to hear whether we found out anything useful, so we’d better go and tell them the bad news.’
* * *
A while later, Solly was standing with his back to the stove looking worriedly at his daughter. ‘So it’s not the Toppers who are behind all this. Who is this Steve Smith? Out of all the fairs operating in the country, why did he pick on Grundy’s to swindle?’
It was Tom who responded. ‘Shouldn’t we be concentrating all our efforts into coming up with a way to put a stop to this conspiracy?’
Solly nodded. ‘Yes, you’re right, Tom. But it boils down to us being able to prove that signature of my father’s is a fake – in fact that the whole document a fake – and I still can’t see a way of doing that.’
Feeling useless, Gem got up from the armchair she was sitting in. ‘I’ll put the kettle on. Unless anyone wants anything stronger?’
‘I could down a bottle of whisky, but that won’t solve anything, will it,’ Solly said dispiritedly.
‘I wish you’d let me loose on this Steve Smith. I’d soon beat the truth out of him,’ snarled Jimmy.
Slouched next to him on the sofa, Robbie gave his brother a hefty nudge in his ribs. ‘Yeah, and then we’d be visiting you in jail for murder, wouldn’t we.’
‘If you haven’t anything useful to say, then don’t say anything,’ Solly scolded. He heaved a despairing sigh. ‘I suppose there’s nothing else for it but for me to find out the value of the fair. I’ll organise for an agent to come tomorrow.’
‘Oh Solly.’ Gem’s voice was choked. ‘I can’t bear it, I really can’t. We can’t give up so easily.’
He shook his head sadly. ‘What’s the point of prolonging the agony, love? This Steve Smith has us over a barrel. He knows as well as we do that the only person who can dispute the signature on that document is my father himself.’
Squashed at the side of Robbie on the sofa, Jenny was again racking her brains to try and remember who the man reminded her of. She absently watched her father lean his back against the tall cupboard beside the stove and take a tin out of his pocket to extract a roll-up cigarette. He put it in his mouth and struck a match, then tilted his head slightly over as he lit it. At this action, Jenny gasped. ‘That’s it!’ she exclaimed. ‘That’s who Steve Smith reminded me of. You, Dad. He has a look of you about him.’
Solly looked stupefied at his daughter. ‘Me! This Steve Smith looks like me?’ Then, as the horrible truth dawned, his face turned a deathly grey and he looked over at Gem to see that she was thinking exactly the same thing. ‘It can’t be him, Gem, surely it can’t?’ he blurted.
‘Oh my God, Solly, of course it is. Your father might not have left him the fair, but that hasn’t stopped him believing he was robbed, and he’s obviously determined to get his revenge no matter what.’
Solly’s whole body sagged dispiritedly. ‘We should have known we hadn’t heard the last of him. He knew it was unlikely he would get any money out of me if he came and asked, and there was always the fear that we’d report him to the police, so he must have decided that the only way to get what he felt he was owed was to swindle it out of us. It was Sonny that Jimmy saw slinking out of Dad’s van. He must have found something amongst Dad’s old papers with his signature on it so he could practise forging it.’
‘Uncle Sonny!’ Jimmy exclaimed. ‘It’s him that’s behind this?’
At the mention of Sonny’s name, Tom leaned over the back of the sofa and whispered in Jenny’s ear. ‘You told me the night we met that your Uncle Sonny had emigrated to Australia to work on a sheep farm and that’s why you were living
in his van.’
She shrugged. ‘Not something you brag about to someone you want to impress, is it: that your uncle is a villain on the run from the police.’
He gravely shook his head. ‘No, I suppose it isn’t.’
‘We need to stop Uncle Sonny ruining us, Dad, we just have to,’ cried Robbie.
‘Yes, we do, Dad. What are we going to do?’ Jimmy demanded.
Solly held out his hands in a helpless gesture. ‘I have no idea yet, but I won’t lose the fair through him, I just won’t. Now all of you go to bed. Me and Gem need to sit down and decide what we’re going to do about this, and we still have a fair to run tomorrow.’ For how much longer, though? he thought worriedly.
He waited while they all reluctantly obeyed his order before making his way over to the kitchen table, where he sat down with his head in his hands. Gem sat opposite and laid a tender hand on his arm.
‘So, love, now that we know it’s Sonny behind this, we can threaten him that we’ll tell the police where he is if he doesn’t drop his plan to swindle us. They’re still looking for him to charge him with working for those criminals.’
Solly sighed forlornly. ‘He’s my brother, Gem, despite all he’s done to us. I still love him and I can’t do that to him. Anyway, Sonny believes he should have been Dad’s heir, and he won’t stop until he gets his hands on what he believes is his by rights. A prison sentence will only halt him temporarily; as soon as he gets out, he’ll try again. If we don’t sort this out now, we’ll always be worried about when he’s going to strike next. We can’t live like that, love.’
Suddenly he knew what he was going to do to put a stop to Sonny once and for all. He pushed back his chair and stood up.
Gem eyed him, puzzled. ‘Where are you going, Solly?’
‘To do the only thing I can do. To give Sonny what is rightfully his.’
Chapter Twenty Four
Lounging back on the lumpy mattress on the narrow bed in his dilapidated accommodation, Sonny took a long draught from a bottle of beer and smiled smugly to himself. Thanks to his ingenious idea – well, really it was that imbecile Freddy who deserved the credit for sparking it in the first place, but then he himself had come up with the rest – very soon he’d be waving this miserable life goodbye for one a damned sight better. Somewhere hot, where the police couldn’t touch him.
He didn’t care one iota where Solly got the money from to settle the fictitious deal he’d concocted between his father and Topper’s grandfather – burn down Grundy’s and claim off the insurance, sell it or hock himself up to the eyeballs – as long as he got it. He knew his plan was solid and couldn’t fail, but still, the waiting to get his hands on the money, feel it between his fingers, was hard. Patience had never been one of Sonny’s virtues – if indeed he possessed any virtues. Still, he was sending Barry Topper back again in a couple of days to find out how Solly was progressing. Hopefully he would come back with good news.
Having Topper around was getting on his nerves, so to give himself a bit of a break, he’d sent him off for a walk along the front with enough money to buy himself some chips, warning him not to come back until later tonight. He really should be working himself, but the boss had gone out, so leaving a gaff lad in charge of the ride he was running, Sonny had taken the opportunity to come back to his van for a rest.
He was just about to take another swig of his beer when a tap came on the door and the huge, lumbering figure of Freddy appeared.
‘Oh for God’s sake, Freddy,’ snarled Sonny. ‘Can’t a man have a few minutes’ peace without you disturbing it?’ Then he sat bolt upright and asked worriedly, ‘Boss not back, is he?’ He needed to keep this job for a while longer, just till his plan came to fruition.
Freddy shook his head. ‘No. Just come to bring a bloke who’s looking for yer. You weren’t at the waltzer, so I knew you’d be here skiving as the boss is out.’
Sonny frowned. Apart from Topper, the only other people he knew around these parts were fellow workers, and none of them would need Freddy to show them where he lived. ‘What bloke?’ he asked.
‘Me,’ announced Solly, pushing past Freddy into the caravan.
Sonny’s face was wreathed with a mixture of confusion and bewilderment at the arrival of this unexpected visitor, and it was a moment before he managed to find his voice. ‘How did you—?’
Solly interjected. ‘—find out you were the mastermind behind Barry Topper trying to swindle me out of the fair?’ He smiled. ‘You can blame Mum and Dad for having two sons that resemble each other for that.’
‘Eh?’
‘Do you really want this man to hear what a nasty piece of work you are?’ Solly asked him.
Sonny flashed a look at Freddy hovering just inside the doorway. ‘Sod off,’ he ordered.
As soon as he’d left, Solly went over and sat down on the bed opposite Sonny’s. He looked hard at his brother. ‘I can’t believe how low you’ve sunk, Sonny.’
Sonny smirked and flashed a look around before bringing his eyes to rest back on Solly. ‘You can see for yourself how low I’ve sunk, brother. But not for much longer, eh, once you settle that deal our dad made with Topper’s grandad.’
‘We both know that document is a forgery.’
Sonny snorted sardonically. ‘You’ve still got to prove it. I spent hours and hours practising Dad’s signature after finding one amongst the papers in his van. Even an expert wouldn’t be able to tell the real one from the fake.’
‘So, it was you Jimmy saw coming out of Dad’s van?’
‘Certainly was, brother. Thankfully I was quicker than him and managed to scarper before he could catch me.’
‘You did a good job forging that signature. I believed it was genuine and so did Gem. I have to say, I can’t find a fault with your plan, Sonny. Very clever.’
‘Yeah, it is,’ agreed Sonny smugly.
‘Well, apart from the fact that you forgot one thing when you planned out your grand scheme.’
Sonny frowned, bewildered. ‘What’s that then?’
‘That our dad never borrowed a penny in his life, was always bragging about how he started the fair from the sale of the two stalls our grandfather left him and money he’d saved up himself. That was what got us thinking that the document couldn’t be genuine.’
Sonny shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Makes no difference. You still can’t prove that Dad’s signature is a fake. So how are you getting on with raising my money?’
Solly scowled darkly at him. ‘It’s not your money and I’ve done nothing about raising it, nor am I going to either.’
It was Sonny’s eyes that darkened thunderously now. ‘Then it’ll be a judge that makes you pay up.’
Solly smiled. ‘And you’ve got the money it will cost to see me in court, have you? That’s providing you can persuade Barry Topper and his mother to stand up and lie for you under oath. They believe that you’re carrying out this scam because a man owes you money and is refusing to pay it. They have no idea that in truth you’re swindling your own brother out of money you’re not entitled to. They’ll run a mile when they realise they’ve got themselves involved in something that could land them in jail.’
Sonny gawped, startled. ‘How do you know all this?’
‘You can thank my daughter.’
He looked bemused. ‘What daughter? You have two boys.’
‘A daughter too, but I’m not here to discuss that with you. You gave up your right to know anything about my family when you left us to the mercy of those thugs and facing jail for crimes you were guilty of committing. Your plan is dead in the water, Sonny, so give it up. And be warned, if you try anything like this again, you won’t get off so lightly.’
Sonny froze as the realisation that his carefully planned scheme was not going to come to fruition sank in. Then a great rage filled him, and if he hadn’t been wedged in the small space he would have reared up, but instead he just balled his fist and swung his arm back, his intention to land a blow u
nder his brother’s chin. But Solly was too quick for him and grabbed his wrist mid-air.
‘At one time I was no match for you, Sonny,’ he declared. ‘But since you left the fair you haven’t done so well for yourself and are far from the man you used to be. Unlike you, I have never believed that problems are resolved by violence.’ He released his grip on Sonny’s arm before adding, ‘But go ahead and give me a hammering if it’ll make you feel better. I won’t humiliate you further by putting up a defence, but it won’t make any difference to your plan. As I said before, that is dead and buried.’
Fist still raised, Sonny stared wildly at his brother for several long moments before he hissed, ‘I wish you knew how much I fucking hate you. You’d fall into a cesspit and come up smelling of expensive soap.’
Solly shook his head sadly. ‘Still bearing that grudge, eh, Sonny? Once and for all will you finally accept that it wasn’t my fault that Gem accepted my proposal while Belinda belittled yours to her, and Dad made me his heir over you?’ He thrust his face towards Solly, eyes hard. ‘Belinda was a nasty piece of work, and instead of you seeing her for what she was, you chose to allow your resentment to fester and sour you against your own family. You got yourself involved in criminal activities because you wanted to turn up at her door in a fancy car, dressed in a hand-made suit and shoes, with a wad of banknotes in your pocket, and make her see what a fool she’d been in turning you down. Had you managed that, I very much doubt that she would have regretted her choice; she would have been relieved instead that she hadn’t saddled herself with such a bad lot.
‘And why should Dad have made you his heir when you hardly showed any interest in Grundy’s but instead concentrated your efforts on your criminal activities? Besides, you told me yourself that you intended selling the fair once you got your hands on it, and didn’t give a damn what happened to your family or the rest of the folk that worked for us. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll admit that Dad was right to leave me as ringmaster. And it’s not like he disinherited you, which he was perfectly entitled to do given the way you were with him. Since the night you suddenly changed which we now know was because of how badly you took it when Belinda turned down your marriage proposal you hardly spoke to dad, let alone treated him like a son should. You might have come to greatly disappoint him, but he never stopped loving you, or he wouldn’t have left you a ride to do what you wanted with.’
All is Fair Page 27