‘You can see her again soon, Champ, I promise,’ Vinny replied, cranking up the volume on the radio.
‘We had a good time, eh? I think group sex is far more fun than just shagging a bird on your own,’ Ahmed said to his pal.
Vinny turned to his friend and grinned. ‘Yeah, it was a right fucking giggle.’
It was ironic that the song playing on the radio was Manfred Mann’s latest chart success ‘Blinded by the Light’ as when Vinny glanced back at the road, he was blinded by the beam of an approaching van. Desperately trying to control a car he had never driven before was impossible when drunk, coked-up, and driving fast, and as he swerved to the left, Vinny hit a building, and his head and the steering wheel made immediate contact with one another.
Aware of the loud bang and the sound of crunching metal, the van driver put his foot on the brake, before driving off at speed.
‘Ahmed, Champ, are you OK?’ Vinny asked, dazed. His head hurt and he felt as though somebody had hit him across his forehead with a shovel.
When he looked at his pal, Vinny realized that Ahmed was anything but OK. The passenger side of the car had completely caved in and part of the metal doorframe was stuck in his pal’s head and chest. ‘Wake up, mate. Please wake up,’ Vinny pleaded, as he grabbed Ahmed’s wrist and checked for a pulse. He couldn’t find one, so, panicking, he staggered out of the car.
Luckily for Vinny, the accident had occurred in a quiet back street that was home to a couple of disused buildings rather than houses and people, and seeing as it was four a.m. there wasn’t a soul about. ‘Champ, you OK, boy?’ he asked, as he yanked open the back door. ‘Oh my God! No, no, noooo,’ Vinny screamed as he sank to his knees. Lenny’s head was hanging on by no more than a thread. He had taken the brunt of the accident and was smothered in blood from head to toe.
Crying like a baby, Vinny slammed the car door and vomited. He had loved Lenny immensely ever since he had first laid eyes on him. Vinny had only been a kid himself at the time, but even at his young age, he had grasped that his cousin had been born with something wrong with him, and would need looking after for the rest of his days. Now, he had accidently killed him and how he would live with what he had done, he would never know.
Wiping his eyes with the cuff of his jacket, instinct suddenly kicked in. Lenny was all but beheaded, Ahmed had pieces of metal protruding from his body and head and the quicker he himself got away from the scene of the crime the better. Going to prison was not something he could deal with. It would break his mother’s heart which would then break his.
Taking a deep breath, Vinny opened the driver’s side of the car once again. ‘I’m so, so sorry. I love you, pal,’ he said, as he desperately tried to move his friend into the driver’s seat.
Ahmed’s body seemed to weigh a ton and as Vinny tried to shift it he felt physically sick once more. This was the geezer he loved, the only person outside of his family he could trust, but Vinny knew in his heart that Ahmed wouldn’t want to see him go to prison.
Doing the best job he could to make it look like Ahmed had been driving the car, Vinny kissed his pal on the forehead, shut the driver’s door, then opened the back door once more. He shut his eyes. ‘Champ, I love you so much, and at least you died a happy boy. Please forgive me,’ he whispered.
Vinny did not open his eyes again until he had slammed the car door. He then ran down the road as fast as his legs would carry him. He needed an alibi and he needed one fast.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Michael was just dozing off on the sofa when he heard the frantic banging on the front door. ‘What the fuck’s happened? You’ve got blood all over your shirt,’ Michael said, shocked by the obvious distress on his brother’s face.
Vinny sank to his knees in the hallway, covered his face in his hands and sobbed. ‘Champ’s dead, so is Ahmed. I need an alibi, Michael. You have to say I was here with you. I’ll go to prison if you don’t, and Mum and Auntie Viv will never speak to me again.’
‘What do you mean? Champ can’t be dead,’ Michael whispered, his face etched with fear.
‘Get me a change of clothes. I need you to burn everything I’m wearing. I must have a bath in case the Old Bill turn up here.’
When Vinny stood up, Michael grabbed his brother by the neck, dragged him into the lounge, and slammed his trembling body against the wall. ‘Where is Champ, Vinny? What the fuck have you done?’
‘It was an accident. I was driving Ahmed’s car back from a club and a van came towards me with its full beam on. I loved Champ, you know I did. I’ll never forgive myself, Michael, but you have to help me. I’d usually ask Mum for an alibi, but I can’t this time. I need you to say that I came here just after midnight and we had a long chat and a few beers. Say we were discussing money.’
Michael shut the lounge door as he didn’t want to wake his sons, then paced up and down the room like a man possessed. ‘How can you be sure that Champ was dead? Did you even call an ambulance?’
‘His head was hanging off, Michael. It was an awful sight and one that will haunt me for the rest of my living days. There was no point calling an ambulance. Ahmed wasn’t breathing either. They were both sitting on the left-hand side of the car and that took all the impact. I wish it had been me that had died, honest I do. I’m gonna miss both of ’em so fucking much,’ Vinny wept.
Michael shook his head in utter disbelief. He didn’t give a toss about Ahmed as he had never really liked the geezer, but Champ’s death was going to rip the family to shreds. His Auntie Viv and mum would never recover from it. Lenny was loved by everybody, and Michael could barely believe that he was never going to see his wonderful cousin again. ‘You make me want to vomit, Vinny. I can see by the state of your eyes that you’ve been snorting that shit again. You reek of fucking Scotch too. How could you even drive a motor in that state when you had Champ with you? You fucking fool. I ain’t giving you no alibi because you don’t bastard-well deserve one. Auntie Viv and Mum are gonna be beside themselves with grief, and it’s all your fault, you no-good cunt.’
‘Michael, you have to give me an alibi. I’ve no-one else to ask. I ain’t just thinking of me, I’m thinking of how much worse it will be for Auntie Viv and Mum if they know I was driving the car. It’s better they think it was Ahmed, trust me on that one.’
‘Where did this fucking accident happen? And what club did you go to?’
‘It happened in that little road that Stan’s garage used to be in. I’m so sorry, Michael. I had taken Champ to a strip club, he’d been with me and Ahmed before. He loved it there. It was the only time he ever got laid. Please back me up on this one? Say I got round yours just after twelve if anybody asks. We’re fucking brothers, you can’t dob me in it.’
Michael felt physically sick. ‘How did you get here? I mean surely the Old Bill are gonna know that somebody else was driving if the driver’s seat is fucking empty?’
‘I ran back to my car and drove here. I could hardly get in a cab covered in claret, could I? I put Ahmed in the driver’s seat, I had to. I feel so bad, Michael. I loved Champ like a son and Ahmed like a brother. Please give me an alibi? You have to. If not, I am finished around here and our business will be finished too. I couldn’t bear it if Mum and Auntie Viv hated me. I know I’ve done wrong, but it was an accident. Stand by me, bruv, please?’
Michael looked at the state of his usually well-groomed and composed sibling, then reluctantly found himself nodding. Vinny might be top of his hate list right now, but he was still his sibling. ‘Run a bath, get them clothes off, and I’ll get rid. Wear something out of my wardrobe. Don’t think I’m doing this for you though, Vin, I’m doing it for Mum and Auntie Viv’s sake. Finding out Champ is dead will be tragic enough for ’em, without ’em finding out you fucking killed him while out of your nut. That would finish the pair of them off. I know it would.’
The knock on the door woke Vivian up at six in the morning. Putting on her dressing-gown, she shuffled down the stairs. Her L
enny had a habit of losing his key, but surely he hadn’t come home this early? He often stayed with Vinny at the club now, but never came home for his fry-up until at least ten a.m. the following day. ‘Who is it?’ Vivian asked cautiously.
‘It’s the police, Mrs Harris.’
Vinny had recently had chain locks fitted for her and Queenie, and when Vivian opened the door and peered around the side, she could tell that they were real policemen. She even recognized one from bringing Little Vinny back to Queenie’s house a year or so ago. ‘Whatever’s wrong?’ Vivian asked, taking off the chain. She hated being seen with a hairnet on and without her make-up, but what could she do? ‘Well?’
‘Can we come in, Mrs Harris?’ one of the policemen asked, removing his helmet as a mark of respect.
‘Oh dear God! What is it?’ Vivian gasped, as the other policeman also removed his helmet when he walked into the hallway.
‘I’m so sorry, Mrs Harris, but your son was involved in a fatal car accident earlier. We need one of your family to identify the body, but we feel it is best if one of your nephews do it rather than you. Lenny suffered major injuries.’
Letting out an almighty scream that woke up nigh-on the rest of the street, Vivian’s legs buckled from under her and even though she tried to save herself by grabbing the banister, she couldn’t stop herself from falling. ‘Not my baby. Not my Lenny. You must have got it wrong. It can’t be him. Not my fucking baby,’ she shrieked.
Queenie Butler always slept with one ear open, and she heard the scream immediately. Leaping out of bed, she looked out of the window and spotted the police car parked outside her sister’s house. Queenie was another proud woman who slept in a hairnet and despised being seen without full make-up, but she decided not to be so pretentious for once. She was sure that scream had belonged to her sister, so darted down the stairs.
‘What’s up, Nan? I heard someone,’ Little Vinny said, opening his bedroom door and rubbing his tired eyes.
‘Bring me my dressing-gown, boy. I think the police are at your Auntie Vivian’s house,’ she said, flinging open the front door.
Queenie’s very worst fears were confirmed when she heard her sister wailing like a critically injured animal. Not even waiting for her dressing-gown, Queenie ran outside in her pale-blue flannelette nightie and up her sister’s path. ‘It’s me, Vivvy. What’s wrong?’ she called, hammering on the door.
When a policeman answered, Queenie flew into the hallway followed by Little Vinny who had chased after his nan.
‘Is everything OK?’ Queenie heard Nosy Tilda shout out. The noise must have woken her up too. Slamming the front door shut, Queenie crouched down next to her sister who was sitting on the hallway carpet, hugging her knees to her chest, and making strange noises like foxes did in the mating season.
When she realized she wasn’t going to get an answer out of Vivian, Queenie stood up and faced the two policemen. She recognized one immediately. He had brought her grandson home after catching him shoplifting a while back.
‘I’m so sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Mrs Butler, but Mrs Harris’s son was involved in a car crash earlier. Unfortunately, her son never survived, and the driver of the vehicle is in a bad way also.’
‘Noooo! That can’t be right. Lenny was at the club working. He don’t go out in cars,’ Queenie gabbled, her voice a mixture of hysteria and dread.
‘We have every reason to believe that the deceased is Mrs Harris’s son, but we do need somebody to formally identify the body. Perhaps one of your sons could do this, Mrs Butler?’ one of the officers suggested. The Butlers and their relations were notorious to the East End police force, and the officer who had turned up at the scene of the crash, after it had been reported by a passer-by, had immediately recognized young Lenny Harris. Ahmed was a well-known character too, because of his connection with Vinny, and when a faint pulse had been found in his wrist, he had immediately been rushed off to the nearby London Hospital.
‘It weren’t my dad driving the car, was it?’ Little Vinny asked, petrified of the answer.
‘Oh no! Please God, no,’ Queenie stammered. If this was true, it must have been her Vinny driving the car. Lenny wouldn’t have been out with anybody else.
‘No. The driver, who is now critically ill in hospital, was Ahmed Zane. We believe him to be a good friend of your family.’
‘I want my Lenny. I need to see and hold my baby boy,’ Vivian screamed hysterically.
Absolutely shell-shocked, a sobbing Queenie crouched down and held her wonderful sister in her arms. She was truly lost for words for once. Lenny had been the apple of all their eyes, and to think they would never see him again just didn’t make sense. Life was cruel at times, it really was.
Vinny Butler hadn’t slept a wink. When Michael had gone to bed an hour or so back, all Vinny could think about was his beloved cousin partially decapitated and the shocked expression in Lenny’s big brown eyes.
Vinny sat on Michael’s brown leather sofa and put his head in his hands. Not only had he killed his cousin, he had also wiped out the life of his best mate too. How he would ever recover from such a traumatic experience, Vinny would never know, but he had to try to act as normal as possible, else his mother would suspect that he was involved. Obviously, he could express his grief, but other than that, he had to be the strong one of the family, like he always had been. He knew his mother and Auntie Viv were bound to ask why Lenny was out with Ahmed alone, and Vinny didn’t have a story prepared yet. He must think of something soon, but it was so difficult when he had just watched two of the most important people in his life die before his very eyes.
Not quite ready to face the music, Vinny crept upstairs and went into Michael’s bedroom. ‘I thought you’d be asleep,’ he whispered.
‘And how the fuck do you expect me to sleep when I know what you’ve done and I’m the cunt who has to cover up for you,’ Michael replied.
Vinny knelt down next to his brother’s bed. ‘I’m gonna shoot back to the club now. You burnt my clothes properly, didn’t ya?’
‘Of course I fucking did. Not the first time I’ve burnt clothes for you when you’ve got yourself in the shit, is it, Vin? The difference, though, is you never wiped out any members of our own family before, did you?’
‘Listen, Michael, I’m so fucking sorry. My heart is literally broken in two. Just stand by me with the story, please. I need your support. We’re brothers.’
Michael sat up in bed. ‘I won’t grass, don’t worry, but don’t you dare leave me to deal with Mum and Auntie Viv’s grief alone. I have enough on me plate with Nancy and the boys.’
‘I’ll be there for Mum and Auntie Viv, I swear I will. I’ll shut the club until after Champ’s funeral as a mark of respect, and as soon as I get that dreaded phonecall, I will go straight round Mum’s house.’
When Vinny had left the room, Michael fiercely wiped away the lone tear that ran down his cheek. Lenny was going to be immensely missed, but the thing that Michael thought about the most was how his Auntie Viv and mum would survive such a tragedy. They would never get over it, surely?
After a restless night’s sleep, Mary Walker ordered her husband to open the café while she went to visit Nancy again. She had made her daughter a selection of sandwiches in the hope Nancy would eat them. Nancy had always been such a pretty, healthy-looking girl, and Mary had thought how skeletal she’d looked yesterday. The hospital nightdress had been far too big for her daughter and the bones in her wrists and ankles were protruding through her skin.
‘Hello, my darling. How are you today? I’ve bought a bag full of goodies with me, including some sandwiches I made you myself,’ Mary said chirpily, as she sat down on the chair next to her daughter’s bed. Mary had spoken to a doctor on the way in, and he had said that Nancy had definitely suffered some kind of nervous breakdown. He had asked if Nancy’s behaviour had changed since the birth of her youngest child, and implied that the breakdown might have been caused by a severe case of post-n
atal depression.
‘I’m really not hungry at the moment, Mum, but I will have a sandwich later,’ Nancy said, doing her best to force a smile.
‘Christopher’s been asking about you, and your dad wants to visit you too. We’re all so worried about you, love. I spoke to Michael last night. He is desperate to bring the boys up here, but said he will come alone if you would prefer him to.’
‘I don’t want to see Michael, Mum. It’s all his fault I’m in hospital. He was the one who made me take on a child that I didn’t want. I could barely cope with Daniel and Adam, without him dumping a stranger’s kid on me as well,’ Nancy mumbled, her eyes welling up with tears.
Mary squeezed her daughter’s hand. ‘Don’t upset yourself, darling. I shall tell Michael you’re not ready for visitors yet, OK?’
Relieved, Nancy nodded. ‘I would like to see Dad though. But, not today. Wait until I feel a bit better.’
‘Whenever you’re ready, love, but I know Dad will be thrilled that you want to see him. Life’s too short to hold grudges, eh? I think your dad finding out that you were found in an alleyway after trying to walk here to visit your brother was a real wake-up call. Christopher had tears in his eyes when I told him as well. Can you remember anything more yet? You know, about how you ended up in that alley?’ Mary asked gently.
‘I remember feeling tired and my slippers had fallen apart, so I had to take them off. Then, I just remember my feet hurting and I think I sat down for a rest. I’m not sure what happened next.’
‘Well, you’re safe now, sweetheart. I reckon you just fell asleep in that alley, you know. The police and doctor said there is no sign of any injuries other than the cuts on your feet. Nothing of a sexual nature either, thank God. Now, will you do me a big favour?’
‘What?’
‘Eat a sandwich for me. You’ve lost so much weight over the past couple of weeks, Nancy, it’s worrying the life out of me.’
Deciding to oblige to stop her mother from further worry, Nancy nodded her weary head.
The Trap Page 44
