Tainted Lives

by Mandasue Heller

  Looking from Sarah to his mother, Glen narrowed his eyes as he sensed that this was no ordinary visit. ‘What’s going on?’ he demanded.

  ‘Sit down, son,’ Pam told him quietly. Waiting until he’d pulled a chair up to the other side of the bed, she said, ‘Now, whatever you think when you hear what you’re about to hear, you’d better stay in that seat till I say you can get up. D’y’ hear me?’

  ‘Don’t play games,’ he replied irritably. ‘Just tell me what’s going on.’

  ‘I’m not playing,’ his mother scolded him sharply. ‘Now stay put, or else.’

  ‘Fine,’ he muttered, folding his arms.

  ‘Good. Are you on your own?’

  ‘Joe dropped me off, but he’ll be back in a bit. Why?’

  ‘Vinnie’s not with him?’

  ‘No.’ Glen frowned darkly. ‘You’re pissing me off now, mother. Get on with it. I’ve not found Carina yet and you’re wasting my time.’

  ‘I’ll think you’ll find I’m not,’ Pam said quietly. ‘Now button it, and listen. This is Sarah.’

  Glancing back at Sarah, Glen nodded.

  ‘She’s the daughter of a very old friend of mine,’ Pam went on. ‘So you just keep that in mind. Now, she’s got something to tell you, and you’re going to listen until she’s finished. Right?’

  ‘Yes.’ Tipping his head to the side, Glen gazed at Sarah with pained resignation.

  Feeling as though she were walking into a very bad place from which there was no way out, Sarah told him what she had already told Pam. Reaching the same point she’d been at when he interrupted her, she took a very deep breath before saying, ‘I think Vinnie killed Karen.’

  ‘Why would you think that?’ Pam asked, keeping Glen pinned in his seat with a stern look.

  ‘Because he said he would if she told Glen, and she was about to,’ Sarah replied, keeping her own gaze on Glen, in fear of him making a dive for her. ‘The day you found those business cards, Glen. She said you got really mad and had a go at her. She’d been crying when Vinnie turned up and he thought she’d told you. He said he could snap her neck and put her in his jeep and no one would ever know. She was terrified.’

  Glen still hadn’t spoken. His chest was heaving, his nostrils flaring as he listened, his unblinking eyes riveted to Sarah’s face.

  ‘When he attacked me,’ Sarah went on, ‘he as good as admitted that he’d killed my husband. I believed him. And Karen believed he would kill her. She wanted to tell you, but she loved you so much she couldn’t bear the thought of hurting you. And she didn’t want to risk losing you, either. I know she was flashy, but you were her world. All she wanted was to get married and have your baby. That’s all she ever wanted.’

  Tears had begun to stream from Glen’s eyes, but he still hadn’t spoken. Then, just when Sarah thought he never would, he said, ‘He’s a dead man.’

  It was so calm and flat, it almost didn’t register that he had said it. Then Sarah felt the icy trickle of relief down her spine. He believed her, and he wasn’t going to cross-examine her. She didn’t know if she’d have been able to stand up under that.

  Patting his hand, Pam said, ‘You do what you have to do, son.’

  Looking at Sarah now, completely unashamed of the tears, he said, ‘No doubt the police will release her body to you?’

  ‘I suppose so,’ she murmured numbly. It hadn’t even occurred to her.

  ‘Well, I’ll pay,’ he said. ‘For everything.’

  ‘He means it,’ Pam told her. ‘Anything you want, you just ask, yeah?’

  Embarrassed, Sarah looked down at the tissue she had been shredding. ‘I’d appreciate your help with the funeral,’ she said after a moment. ‘But that’s not what I came for. There’s something I want to do, but I need your help.’

  ‘Name it,’ Glen said, sniffing loudly as he rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms.

  45

  Vinnie got out of the shower and strolled naked into the bedroom to get ready for a night that he was really looking forward to.

  Glen had called that morning, telling him to come to a meet later that evening. He was to leave his jeep behind the old cottages in Styal Woods, then walk to the watermill on the other side of the timbered area and wait to be picked up.

  It sounded shady and he was buzzing, sure that some sort of promotion must be on the cards if they were letting him in on the action. Maybe he was about to get his own crew to run, at long last.

  Dressing in dark clothes as directed, he splashed his face with cologne and looked himself over. Perfect.

  Switching off the lights, he set the alarm, locked up and went outside.

  It was a warm night and the moon was hiding behind a murky orange haze, making the streets dark and anonymous. The perfect setting for a hit.

  Vinnie was whistling as he strolled to his jeep, feeling better than he had in ages. Life was definitely on the up now that Carina – or Karen, or whatever the stupid cunt’s name was – was sorted, and there was no danger of Glen hearing things he didn’t need to know.

  It had been so easy getting her to tell him everything. All he’d had to do was lay on the charm and she’d been putty in his hands. He’d had no problem getting Carina to drive out to meet him. She was literally begging for it when he slipped her the last shag she would ever have in the back of her car, and getting her to smoke the smack-spiked spliff straight after was a piece of piss. She’d been so high already – buoyed by Vinnie’s promises of running away to start a new life with her and the baby.

  She’d been wrecked after the spliff, but not so much that she wasn’t convinced she was capable of driving. Following her – to make sure she got home in one piece, he’d said – he’d kept a watchful eye out as she slewed across the road markings. Fortunately, he’d chosen the perfect spot for their rendezvous, and they hadn’t seen a single civilian, let alone police car on the way. His timing was spot on when he nudged her through the fence and down the embankment. And once again he was in the clear.

  And he had all the information he needed to get his woman and child back since Carina had told him where they were and who they were with. As soon as this job was out of the way, he would go to that hotel and take back what was rightfully his. And maybe he’d teach Harry Shaw another little lesson in the process.

  Arriving at the woods, Vinnie killed his lights and parked up. Lighting a cigarette, he used the flare of his lighter to peer around in the pitch dark. There was nothing to see, and nothing to hear but the slight breeze whispering through the ancient trees, the occasional owl hoot, and the rustling of small animals going about their business in the undergrowth.

  Finishing the smoke, he ground it out underfoot and made his way through the wood to the watermill. Under cover of the swooshing waters rushing by beneath the bridge, he walked across the gravel path leading out to the road.

  Emerging from the shadows cast by the trees, Vinnie spotted Glen’s car parked up ahead. Adrenalin began to course through his veins as he approached it, but he kept his cool.

  Joe was in the driving seat, Glen beside him in the front, and Al in the back. Climbing in beside Al, Vinnie was grinning as he greeted them all. But he quickly settled down when he picked up on the tense atmosphere. Whatever they were doing tonight, it was heavy.

  Joe started the car and eased out onto the road. Gazing out of the window, Vinnie realized they were heading back towards Manchester. Breaking the cardinal ‘no question’ rule, he dared ask why.

  ‘Are we meeting the others somewher—’

  Al’s fist connected with Vinnie’s nose before the words had completely left his mouth. Doubling over as the pain tore through his face, Vinnie felt his first flush of true, unadulterated fear. Then Glen reached across the back of the seat and grabbed Vinnie’s lapels with both hands. Yanking him forward, Glen sank his teeth into his ear and shook his head like a pit bull in battle.

  Vinnie screamed until he blacked out.

  46

  Sarah was
shivering. She was freezing, and she felt dizzy and nauseous. She didn’t know if it was regret at having got herself into this or fear of it all going wrong. She just wanted to get it over with.

  Wrapping the coat that Glen’s man Freddie had given her tighter around herself, she peered around the old swimming baths. She had passed it many times throughout her life, but had never been inside before. It had been closed down way before she was born and no one had ever bothered to do anything with the place. It had been boarded up for as long as she could remember, but it felt eerily inhabited, as if the ghosts of its former patrons were watching from the dressing stalls that were no longer there. Sarah almost imagined she could hear their whispers, but it was only the faint leaking-in of passing traffic.

  Freddie took a small silver hip flask from his pocket. Taking a swig, he offered the flask to Sarah. She shook her head. She wanted to be as clear-headed and sober as humanly possible when the others arrived.

  Her heart catapulted into her mouth when she heard the metallic clang of the outer door-covering being wrenched back a short time later. She glanced at Freddie wide-eyed, gripped by the sudden fear that Vinnie might have escaped and beaten Glen here. If he walked through that door, gun in hand, that awful smile on his face, she wouldn’t wait for him to kill her – she would kill herself.

  ‘Steady,’ Freddie murmured, stepping in front of her, his hugeness shielding her as he drew a sawn-off from beneath his coat and aimed it firmly at the jagged spears of metal jutting down over the doorway. Dropping his aim when Glen ducked beneath them and stepped inside, he turned to Sarah and gave her a reassuring wink.

  ‘Fuck a duck, it’s colder than a friggin’ abattoir in here,’ Glen said, clapping his hands against his arms. ‘You all right, Sarah? Freddie been taking good care of you?’

  ‘Yes, thanks.’ She was acutely aware of how utterly ludicrous such politeness was in these surroundings, under these circumstances.

  She gasped out loud when Joe and Al came through the door dragging Vinnie between them. In the faint beams of light filtering in through the gaps in the boards covering the windows, she could see that his nose was broken and the left side of his face was dark with blood.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Glen told her, putting an arm around her shoulders as he walked her towards the deep end where the others had dragged Vinnie. ‘We didn’t do too much damage. Just enough to let him know we ain’t messing – and give me a bit of satisfaction. The rest is yours. Do you still wanna go through with it?’

  Sarah inhaled deeply, desperately trying to draw oxygen from the air. She felt as if she were hyperventilating, and she wasn’t sure she could stand up, breathe, and do what she had to do.

  ‘You can leave it to us if you want to call it off,’ Glen told her, peering down at her concernedly. ‘It’s gonna happen whatever, but you don’t have to watch if you can’t stomach it.’

  Gritting her teeth, Sarah shook her head and forced herself to look at Vinnie. Sitting where Joe and Al had propped him beneath the diving board, he was staring straight at her as they bound his hands and feet with rope.

  Freddie climbed the wrought-iron steps to the top of the board and attached another rope to the handrail. Al caught the noose end when Freddie dropped it down and looped it around Vinnie’s neck.

  ‘Don’t let them do this, Sarah.’ Vinnie spoke for the first time.

  ‘Belt up, dickhead,’ Joe snarled, kicking him in the stomach.

  Sarah steeled herself. This wasn’t a game she could stop at any time. It was revenge – for every terrible thing this man had done to her and to the people she loved.

  ‘Sarah?’ Glen said, conscious of the length of time they had already been here. ‘You’re gonna have to make your mind up.’

  ‘I’ll do it,’ she told him. ‘But I want to do it alone.’

  He peered down at her for a moment, then nodded. ‘All right, but we’re right outside if you need us.’

  Looking up then to Freddie, who was crouching at the head of the board like a huge bear about to leap off a cliff, Glen said, ‘Reel him up till he’s on his toes, then come down.’

  Motioning the men out of the room when they were done, he handed Sarah a small handgun. ‘This ain’t to kill him, it’s to hurt him. We’ll finish it, you just get what you need in the meantime. Remember what I told you?’

  ‘Yeah.’ She nodded.

  ‘Gloves on?’ He checked her hands. ‘Hair back? Got them boots I give you? Good girl.’ Smiling at her now, he turned to Vinnie and mimed aiming a gun at his head. Making a slow BOOM! sound, he walked out, laughing.

  Alone now, Sarah took a step back, the irrational fear that Vinnie would somehow spring forward, miraculously unshackled, and attack her all too real in her mind.

  ‘Sarah, please,’ he implored, his voice a whisper. ‘You don’t have to get involved in this. It’s not about you. Glen’s got it all wrong. Untie me, babe. We’ll find a way out of here. Please, Sarah. I love you.’

  ‘No, you don’t.’ Sarah was shaking from head to foot. ‘You don’t know what love is. You wouldn’t have hurt me if you did.’

  ‘I never meant to. You’ve got to believe me.’

  ‘Fuck you!’ she hissed. ‘You’re a filthy bastard liar, Vinnie! I know all about you now, and I hate you with all my heart – just like I always did!’

  Realizing that she wasn’t going to help him, Vinnie felt the anger course through him. After everything he had done for her, this was how she was going to repay him? He would kill her with his bare hands! Bucking against the rope around his neck, he laughed when she almost fell over with fright.

  ‘What’s the matter, Sarah?’ he sneered. ‘Scared?’

  ‘Not at all.’ She forced herself to calm down. ‘If anyone should be scared, it’s you, you sick bastard.’

  ‘Oh, tut tut,’ he hissed, his eyes flashing with impotent anger. ‘That’s not very nice, is it? Feel brave with your friends behind you, do you? Think I won’t get out of this and hunt you down?’

  ‘Big words,’ Sarah spat back at him. ‘Coming from the man who’s all tied up and helpless. How does it feel, Vinnie? To know you’re at my mercy now? Aren’t you going to try and sweet-talk your way out of it? Aren’t you going to beg me to save you?’

  ‘Vinnie Walker don’t beg, darlin’!’

  ‘Did my sister beg?’ Sarah’s voice was deathly calm now.

  Vinnie laughed, a strange, strangled, nasty sound. ‘Oh, she begged, all right. She was always begging, that one. Begging for my dick like the whore she was!’

  Raising the gun, Sarah held it between both hands and aimed at one of Vinnie’s knees.

  ‘Don’t talk about her like that,’ she warned. ‘Karen was innocent compared to you.’

  ‘Come off it,’ he sneered, goading her, convinced that she would never have the nerve to pull the trigger. ‘She was a ten-quid slag with a cunt like the fucking Channel Tunnel!’

  Glaring at him, Sarah stepped as close as she dared and pulled the trigger. The recoil wrenched her shoulder and threw her back, but she hit her mark. Roaring with pain, Vinnie bucked and jerked on his rope as the pain tore through his leg.

  ‘Cunt!’ he snarled, when it subsided to mere agony. ‘You’d better finish me off, bitch, ’cos I’m gonna rip your heart out when this is over.’

  ‘Why did you do it, Vinnie?’ She felt strangely detached now that she had begun. ‘Why did you have to kill her? That’s all I want to know.’

  ‘Because she deserved it,’ he hissed. ‘And I don’t know why you care ’cos she hated you, you stupid bitch.’

  ‘And did I deserve what you did to me?’

  ‘Which bit? The birthday fuck? Or the fuck to plant my seed in you? Missed your period yet?’

  ‘Oh, don’t worry about that.’ Sarah smiled nastily. ‘I made sure that didn’t get a chance to grow. I told you I wasn’t having your bastard. Didn’t you believe me?’

  ‘Bitch!’ he spat, swinging his feet out to kick her, almost hang
ing himself in the process.

  ‘Calm down, Vinnie,’ she told him, shaking her head. ‘I was a bit late for the morning-after pill seeing as you kept me prisoner for so long, but they can do wonders these days at getting rid of trash.’

  ‘Just like I got rid of your husband,’ he hit back.

  ‘Now that wasn’t nice, was it?’ she said, her tone facetious. ‘There was just no need for that. What did he ever do to you?’

  ‘Don’t try and fuck with my head.’

  ‘Why not? You fucked with mine. This is payback. For me . . . for Harry . . . for Karen. Say bye-bye to your other knee, Vinnie. Then say bye-bye to me, because I’m gonna walk out of here and get on with my life. And guess what? . . . You ain’t gonna be part of it ever again.’

  Stepping towards him then, Sarah aimed the gun at his other knee. Missing first time, she calmly straightened up and tried again. Gazing on dispassionately as his face contorted with pain, she shook her head.

  ‘You’re really not that good-looking when you get right down to it, are you? Looking at you like this, I remember why I wanted Pete instead of you. He was so handsome. Oh, and that reminds me. You haven’t seen Harry Shaw lately, have you? He’s really changed, Vinnie, and he loves me as much as ever.’

  Pausing, she narrowed her eyes and licked her lips before delivering the killer blow.

  ‘And Kimmy adores him. She’s with him right now. In fact, you know what I think I’ll do when I leave you here, Vinnie? I think I’ll go home and marry him. Give Kimmy a real daddy.’

  Laughing at Vinnie’s screams of rage and frustration, Sarah turned her back and walked out of his miserable, soon-to-be-over life.

  EPILOGUE

  A year later

  Sarah heard the car tyres crunching gravel and ran to the window.

  ‘Oh, God! The limo’s here! I’m not ready.’