Babs could hear the pain in her eldest daughter’s voice, under all her bluster. ‘You were never a mistake, love; I just couldn’t keep you. It was different back then; people weren’t so forgiving of a young girl straying from the straight and narrow.’
‘But I don’t get it, Mum?’ Jen burst in. ‘What are you doing here with the girls? Your place has been turned over—’
Babs swore. ‘That will be the little bleeders who’ve moved in next door. I’ve tried to get their mum to do something about it but she’s high as a balloon in the sky.’ She took a breath. ‘This was the first time Dee was having me over to her home and, as I had the girls, I thought it would be a nice little treat for them if they came along too. But what are the two of you doing here. That’s what I don’t get.’
Jen and Tiffany shared a look. Then Tiffany explained. ‘Remember some Face came looking for Nuts at Jen’s? Well it was John here, on behalf of Dee looking for her car because the word was Nuts nicked her motor.’
Babs gasped as she fixed her gaze onto her eldest girl. ‘You can’t go around threatening your sisters . . .’
‘I didn’t bloody well know they were my flesh and blood then, did I. I would’ve come straight to you, Mum, if I’d known, to get it sorted. But then, Mummy dearest, you’ve been keeping us all in the dark.’
Courtney laughed out loud as Nicky patted her on the head, which Dee saw. She turned to Jen with a slight smile. ‘And what a pair of princesses they are, if I might say so, sis.’ She called across the room, ‘Aren’t you girls?’
Both children nodded happily at their newly found Auntie Dee. Tiffany noticed that Dee’s smile was blazing like the sun but that it suddenly faded. She looked across the room to see Nicky frantically pointing downwards with his finger at her. Dee looked over at John. ‘Oi, we’ve forgotten about the B-I-L.’
John put his cue down. ‘The B-I-L? Oh yeah – that B-I-L.’
‘B-I-L?’ Jen asked.
‘Yes, sis.’ Dee was clearly enjoying calling Tiffany and Jen ‘sis’. ‘You see, you’re not the only one of my relatives who’s turned up here today. My brother-in-law—’
Jen shot to her feet. ‘Nuts?’
‘The one and only,’ Dee confirmed. ‘Although we had another name for him, back in the day, but I wouldn’t use it in front of children. As you know, the fool stole my motor and instead of giving it back and taking his punishment, can you believe the dickhead brought a fake round and tried to pass it off as the real thing.’ Dee suddenly realised what the implications of Nuts being Jen’s husband were. She dropped the piss taking and muttered at Jen, ‘So is Nuts, like, the father . . . of your little princesses there?’
Jen slumped against the wall of the snooker room as she caught Tiffany’s eye. Now Nuts was here, was the whole sorry story of how they’d fitted him up going to come out?
Dee coughed. ‘Well, Nuts is waiting downstairs in another room having, shall we say, a smoke and a drink. We were going to have a word with him later, after Mum had gone. He only had to tell us where my car was and help get it back, that’s all. We weren’t going to do anything to him. We’re not animals, are we, John?’
John gave her a sarcastic grin and confirmed, ‘No, we’re not animals.’
Dee was doing a reverse ferret faster than a ferret could manage. She looked at Courtney and Little Bea, who were mucking around with the balls on the snooker table. ‘I mean, now we know that Nuts is family, I’m sure we can come to some arrangement. Can’t we, John?’
John picked up his cue and started hitting balls again to the delight of the girls. His sarcasm was leaden. ‘I dunno, dear, it’s your ride after all.’
Dee pleaded with the rest of her family. ‘I mean, he only has to give the car back, that’s all. We don’t care if he’s sold it on. He can keep the money, we’ll retrieve the car from whatever toerag bought it . . . I mean, I’m not being unreasonable here, am I?’
Tiffany stole the briefest of glances at Nicky whose expression begged her not to drop him in it. Tiffany tilted her head back, her brain thinking like crazy. She wanted to claim that she’d stolen the car but she knew that wouldn’t work. She decided to tell as much of the truth as she could get away with, to get Nuts off the hook and keep Nicky out of trouble.
‘Nuts didn’t steal the car. I don’t know who did but it wasn’t Nuts. I got a mate of mine to make the anonymous phone call blaming him.’ That got Dee ominously to her feet. ‘Hear me out. I knew he’d be on John’s list of possible culprits and I was hoping John would exile him out of London and he wouldn’t be able to come back. Jen needs Nuts out of her life. He’s the husband from hell.’
John looked at her as if she’d grown three heads. ‘Exile the bastard? He stole my wife’s car. What did you think I was going to do? Of course I was going to track the Herbert down and give him a hiding. Never mind exile, I’ve got my reputation to think about. Ask any judge, you can’t let people get away with things like that or they start to take liberties.’
‘Well, he didn’t steal the car.’
Dee looked over at Jen. ‘Bad hubbie is he, sis? Rough you up and that?’
Jen’s head was sunk low, so Tiffany explained. ‘He’s worse than pond scum. He belts her one, anytime he feels like it. He nicks the kids’ dinner money.’
Dee clenched her hands as she vibrated with anger. But she kept her silence.
‘Look, Tiff, it’s very nice of you to try and get Nuts out of trouble,’ John said, ‘but I’m afraid it’s his thieving prints all over Dee’s motor. We want it back and then we’ll think about what happens next afterwards . . .’
Nicky cut him off as he called out, ‘He didn’t steal Mum’s car. I did.’
Dee and John looked at their son like they were seeing him for the first time. Dee’s brown skin had turned a sickly grey. She shook her head and blinked rapidly. ‘Don’t be silly, Nicky. This is not the time to wind me up. You’re not even old enough to drive.’
‘I stole it,’ he continued in a high tone. Dee’s face fell, hearing the truth in his voice. ‘I was upset because you and Dad didn’t give me something special for getting back into school, so I took your car to get my own back. I was going to bring it back but then everything got out of hand . . .’
‘You little . . .’ his father started saying, then he briskly walked towards him and grabbed him by the collar. As he was dragged bodily out of the room, Nicky started sniffling. John growled, ‘I should’ve taken my belt to you years ago. You’re spoilt rotten, that’s what you are.’
‘Leave him, John,’ Dee demanded.
John couldn’t believe his wife. ‘Are you for real? He’s taken us both for mugs and caused enough problems to create World War Three and you want me to leave the little shit alone?’
‘John!’ Knowing he wasn’t going to get his own way, John reluctantly let Nicky go. ‘We’ll deal with him later.’ Dee added, ‘We don’t want our guests – our family – to think that we’re running one of those catholic homes for boys.’ Her gaze snapped onto Tiffany. ‘So, if my boy took my car and you all cooked up a story together to kipper Nuts, where is my Marilyn?’
Jen lifted her head and answered: ‘When Nicky told Tiffany about the farm where he’d hidden the car, she went down there and drove it to a safe garage she knew in Southend.’ She touched her heart. ‘On my life, when me and Tiff went to get the car, it was gone. We looked up and down for it—’
‘I swear, Mum,’ Nicky pleaded. ‘I never took it. I didn’t even know anything about this garage in Southend.’
Dee sighed. ‘Well, that’s Nuts defo off the hook, because he says he found the car in a garage in Broxbourne. Silly sod, didn’t think I would realise it was a fake.’
Tiffany quickly held up her hands. ‘Like Jen said, when we went to get it from the garage in Southend, it was gone. Someone must’ve seen me put it there and, when I was gone, they saw their chance and took it.’
There was total silence until Little Bea’s soft voice piped up, �
��Nicky said we could do “The Birdie Song”. I like “The Birdie Song”. I’m really good at it. Watch.’ Then she proceeded to hum the tune as she moved her hands, arms and hips around like a chicken. ‘Come on, Auntie Dee,’ she said as she stretched her hands out. ‘Come and do it with me and Courtney.’
Dee at first looked as if someone was pointing a double-barrelled shotgun at her. Then she smiled and moved to her newly discovered nieces and started humming along and joining in the actions. ‘Come on, you lot,’ she called out. ‘Join in. We might have our troubles but we’re family. A new family.’
Babs was the first to join the party, then Tiffany and soon everyone was prancing around doing ‘The Birdie Song’. No one kidded themselves that there weren’t one or two problems that still needed ironing out, but for now they were going to celebrate the Millers and Blacks being one big happy family. Soon the food and drink was flowing as Nicky hitched up his stereo system and put on some music – although ‘none of that bitch and ho rap stuff’ his father warned him, quietly in front of the girls.
Dee moved over to John and whispered, ‘Well, I suppose I’d better go and get him – my brother-in-law, the innocent man.’
She did one final Birdie Song turn with Little Bea before she left the party behind and was soon walking down the steps to the safe room. When she reached the bottom, she typed the code for the door, stepped inside and switched on the light, and was greeted with a scene of carnage. Blood was splattered on the floor and the walls. The stockings and rope that had been used to secure Nuts were stained with red and scattered around. The chair he’d been bound to was broken into several pieces on the ground. The ceremonial sword and a knife lay on the ground, flecked with scarlet.
But there seemed to be no Nuts.
Until a wild-eyed figure wielding an axe lunged at her from behind a box case.
Sixty-Eight
In the moments before Nuts swung at Dee with the backside of the axe, she hardly recognised him. His light coloured shirt had both sleeves missing. One was clinging around his ankle, damp with blood. The other was wrapped around his wrist. His face was white and had a straggly fringe of hair falling over it. His one bare wrist was swollen and red. His lunge gave the impression of a toy whose batteries were about to run out.
Dee avoided the blow by smartly stepping to one side, while the momentum carried Nuts face down onto the floor, howling in pain. She made no attempt to stop him as he struggled to his feet, turned the axe blade out and tried for a second time to hit her. She held her hands out, grabbed the stock as it came towards her and wrenched it out of his feeble hands. She pulled up a chair and pushed him into it. He lolled like a puppet with cut strings. She was behind him now, axe in hand.
‘You little prick.’ She ran a finger along the blade. Even with only a little pressure, it was sharp enough to cut her skin. ‘Do you know something? I’m going to regret what I have to do now – really, really regret it – which is why I’m going to do it quickly, before I have the chance to change my mind’.
She rested the sharp blade on his scalp like a chef about to chop a melon in two halves. Upstairs, the music was playing and the sound of the girls’ running feet could be heard. She paused for a moment.
‘But circumstances mean I’ve got no choice.’ She examined the blade of the axe. ‘We need to talk.’
Shrunken and looking as if he were about to pass out at any minute, Nuts said, ‘Look, I’ve told you, I didn’t steal . . .’
But she cut him short. ‘Not about the car. I’m done worrying about the car. No, I’m talking about your marriage and your role as a father.’
Nuts blinked in disbelief and seemed to recover his composure slightly. ‘My marriage? Look Dee, if I was you, I’d leave the off-the-wall interrogation techniques to the cops. Stay focused, eh? I’ve told you, I didn’t take the car; I only nicked one for you to get you off my back. That’s it, OK? Even if I had taken it, as soon as I found out it was yours, I’d have brought it right back pronto, straight up. I don’t even know where you got the idea it was me who pinched it. Come on, Dee, you know me from the old days.’
‘You’re not listening, are you?’ She ran her finger along the blade. It was sharp enough to cut silk. ‘I know you didn’t steal the car. But you did steal your kids’ dinner money, didn’t you? And in my book, that’s far worse than stealing my ride.’ She stared at him over the top of the axe head. ‘But you know what makes it even worse? You stole dinner money from my nieces. That really deserves having your head split in two.’ She got up from her chair, swinging the weapon by her side.
‘My kids? Your nieces?’ Nuts stared at her as if she should have the moniker Nuts. ‘Are you popping pills or something? We’d have to be in an episode of The Black and White Minstrel Show for that to happen. Seriously, pack it in. Gimme a beating if you want to, but stop fucking about. I didn’t even know you had any nieces. How would I?’
Dee walked around to the back of her man’s chair and gently laid the axe on his scalp. ‘Of course, it doesn’t help that you’ve been mistreating my sister. Did you know Jen and me are half-sisters?’ The stiffening of his shoulders gave her the answer she was expecting. ‘That really pisses me off too. And she must be really distressed to give John an anonymous tip that you nicked my car so that he would force you to leave London.’
‘She did what?’ Nuts would have exploded out of the chair if Dee wasn’t standing behind him still making up her mind whether to split him in two.
Dee ignored him. ‘Like battering women do you? You’re a big hard boy, aren’t you. Why don’t you slap me around then?’ She leaned over and offered him her cheek. When he didn’t move she pulled back. ‘Bashing women around? You piece of stinking shit. You know what else really does my head in? What really gets on my tits is you pinching money from defenceless little kids.’ She turned the axe and rested the blade on his head again. ‘I know I’m going to regret this. It’s not really my style but I’ve got to do it.’
‘I’ll change. I’ll be better.’ He sounded like the pathetic man that he was.
‘It’s too late for that, Nuts.’
For several seconds they were frozen in time while Dee gently jabbed Nuts’ hairline with the axe. Then she pulled it back and slipped it into her belt. ‘I’m really going to regret doing this.’
She put her hand under his arm and pulled him to his feet. She dragged him to the door of the safe room and then forced him up the stairs to the hallway, warning him to stay quiet. Grabbing him by the collar, like a little boy, she shoved him through the front door and onto the drive, taking care to close it quietly behind her. The avenger and her victim walked together through a high wind to where John had left the car that Nuts had stolen. The key was still in the ignition and Dee ordered him into the driver’s seat to start the engine.
Nuts was now beyond scared and too frightened to argue anymore. ‘Where are we going?’
‘I’m not going anywhere. I’ve got visitors to look after. It’s you who’s going somewhere.’ She laughed when she saw Nuts anxiously looking at the wheel and pedals and wondering if he had an opportunity to escape.
Dee leaned into the car and whispered, ‘I’m going to regret this, probably every day of my life, but I think I have to do it. Here’s how it’s going to be. You can fuck off to A&E and get your wounds seen to. Then you’ll go to whatever rat hole you scuttle about in. First thing in the morning, you’re going to call a solicitor and tell him you want a divorce.’ She pulled a roll of banknotes out of her Ultimo cleavage-enhancing bra, where she always kept an emergency stash. She threw it on the dashboard. ‘You pay for it with that. You can cite unreasonable behaviour in the petition, if you want, I think your wife marrying you in the first place was pretty unreasonable actually. Of course I should split your head open with this but I wouldn’t want that for my niece’s dad, even a crap father like you. So, you can go where you like and do what you like but if I ever, ever find out that you’ve laid a finger on my sister or mistr
eated my nieces, I will hunt you down, Rambo style, chop your fingers off and stick them up your scrawny arse. Do I make myself clear?’
It was obvious that Nuts suddenly saw a chink of light in the dark hole he’d got himself into. ‘Sure, we’re about done anyway, me and Jen. What about this car?’
‘What about it? I don’t want it. You stole it; you do what you like with it.’
Nuts nodded and pulled the door to, exhaling breath like a deflating tyre as he did so. Dee heard him squeal with pain as he tried to put his foot on the accelerator and then the car shunted unsteadily backwards. Dee turned to go into the house but thought better of it. As he left, she turned back and threw the axe with as much force as she could muster so that it crashed through the rear windscreen.
‘You fucking bastard.’
Back in the snooker room, the atmosphere had lightened. Jen had managed to convince the children that their day out in Essex was all a bit of playacting. Babs was telling no one in particular that forgetting to mention that Dee was her other child was the sort of thing any mother was inclined to do. John had told Nicky that he was lucky there were little kids around or he would have a snooker cue stuck up one end and poking out the other. Tiffany in turn had taken Nicky to one side and thanked him for ’fessing up – it was all her fault in the first place, she added. He’d given her a grim smile and told her, ‘That’s alright. I’ll go and get a fluffy kitten from the pet shop and wear it round my neck. Mum wouldn’t dare touch me then.’
John quietly took the Browning, disabled it and put it in a drawer, for disposal later.
But Tiffany, like everyone else, was anxiously awaiting the return of Dee and Nuts. When the door to the snooker room opened, all eyes turned on her and necks craned to look for her rogue brother-in-law. She closed the door behind her and made a beeline for her nieces who she took from Jen and held in each arm. ‘Love ’em!’
Blood Sister: A thrilling and gritty crime drama Page 38
