Eddie sat down in the visiting room and thought of his daughter as he waited for Gina. Frankie had come to visit him again last week and he was becoming increasingly worried about her. Pale and drawn with dark bags under her eyes, Ed was positive that Frankie wasn’t happy with her life. Sadness seemed to be written all over her face.
‘Don’t be silly, Dad, everything’s fine at home,’ Frankie had insisted.
As Gina walked towards him, Eddie forgot about his daughter and concentrated on her. She always dressed in a classy way, but today she looked amazing in a black knitted coat, faded jeans, and knee-high black leather boots.
‘Wow, you look good enough to eat,’ Eddie joked as he kissed her.
Gina hugged him, then sat down. She’d had her fair share of blokes over the years, but none of them could hold a torch to the charismatic Eddie Mitchell.
‘So, how have you been?’ Eddie asked her.
‘I’ve been fine, thanks. Well, that’s apart from wishing every morning that I was waking up with you instead of on my own,’ Gina said teasingly.
Eddie held her gaze. Every time Gina had visited, they flirted that little bit more and he got off on tantalising her. Unbeknown to Gina, he’d had the occasional wank while thinking of her recently and his orgasms had been blinding.
‘Did you have any joy finding out any more stuff about me dad?’ Ed asked her.
Gina shook her head. Eddie had been paying her, via Raymond, to see if she could find out some new information about his father’s murder. ‘I went everywhere you told me to go, but no one knew anything, Ed. I’ll keep trying, but at the moment the trail is as cold as ice.’
As disappointed as he was, Eddie nodded understandingly. Bringing his old man’s killer to justice had kind of become an obsession with him, but apart from employing Gina and keeping his eyes and ears open in nick, there was very little he could do about it while he was on the inside.
Deciding to change the subject, Eddie squeezed Gina’s hand. ‘So, have you decided where you’re spending Christmas yet?’
‘Yeah, I’m going to my friend Claire’s on Christmas Day. She’s single, like me, so I’m going to stay there until the day after Boxing Day.’
Ed leaned towards her, tilted her chin and gazed into her eyes. ‘Why are you still calling yourself single when you’ve now got me?’
With the undeniable sexual tension between them, Gina lowered her eyes. ‘So are we officially an item then?’
Eddie noted that her hands were shaking and he smiled. She wanted him badly, he knew that. ‘It all depends if you’ll wait for me,’ he replied.
Gina nodded. ‘Of course I’ll wait.’
Eddie stroked her cheek and, unable to stop himself, leaned towards her and kissed her passionately. As one of the screws told him to calm things down, Ed pulled away and grinned. ‘You won’t regret waiting for me, babe, I’ll promise you that.’
On the day before Christmas Eve, Jed offered to drive Frankie over to her mother’s grave to lay some flowers.
‘Can’t I drive, Jed?’ Frankie asked him.
Jed shook his head. ‘The truck’s too big for you, Frankie. You’ve only just passed your test, ain’t ya?’
Instead of arguing, Frankie accepted his decision. She had passed her test six weeks ago now and she was positive that Jed hadn’t got her a car yet because he was planning on surprising her on Christmas Day.
‘Please give me a clue about what you’ve bought me,’ Frankie had begged him only yesterday.
‘No, it’ll spoil the surprise. All I’m telling you is it’s something I should have bought you ages ago and it’s something you really want.’
Frankie was thrilled by his answer. Georgie was nearly nine months old now and Frankie desperately wanted to be able to take her daughter to visit Joey or her grandparents while Jed was out working and stuff.
Joey and Frankie had called a truce a couple of weeks ago. They hadn’t spoken for months after her father’s court case but, with Christmas approaching, Frankie had called him again. She hadn’t told Jed the truth, she’d told him that Joey had rung her. They hadn’t met up yet, but Frankie was planning on spending Boxing Day with Joey and Dominic at her grandparents’ house and she was really looking forward to their reunion.
On the journey to Upminster Cemetery, Frankie sat daydreaming about her forthcoming independence. She could just imagine herself going shopping with Georgie in Romford Market or driving to that new Lakeside shopping centre that was to open in Thurrock during the next year.
‘You’re quiet, babe. You ain’t got the hump ’cause I wouldn’t let you drive, have ya?’
Frankie snapped out of her trance and smiled. Jed might be surprising her with a car on Christmas Day but, little did he know, she had an ever bigger surprise for him.
With the end of visiting time fast approaching, Gina decided to take the bull by the horns. There was one important question she needed to ask Eddie and, after her past experiences with men, she couldn’t avoid it any longer.
Gina felt hot under the collar as she began her planned speech. ‘Ed, there’s one thing I really need to ask you. My ex-boyfriend, Grant, the one I told you about, well, when me and him first got together we never discussed the subject of kids. That’s when it all went wrong because, after we’d moved in together, I found out that he’d had a vasectomy and had conveniently forgotten to tell me about it. I blew a fuse, so he had it reversed, but the operation wasn’t successful.’
Aware that Gina was having trouble spitting out the actual question, Eddie burst out laughing. ‘So you wanna know if I’ve been gelded, do ya?’
Usually so cool, calm and collected, Gina was annoyed as she felt herself blush. ‘I want to be with you whatever the situation, Ed, but I don’t want to build my hopes up of us perhaps one day having a family and that’s not possible. By the time you get out I’ll probably be thirty-five. I just need to know where I stand on this one. I know it’s a bit early to ask but, obviously, with you stuck in here, I have no choice.’
Eddie leaned towards Gina. Being in prison made you think strangely and he knew that he had already sort of fallen for her. ‘If you want my babies, then you shall have my babies, sweetheart.’
Gina’s eyes welled up. She had always dreamed of one day having a family, but until now had struggled to meet Mr Right. ‘I know we haven’t known one another very long, but I’m sure we can make this work, Ed.’
Eddie agreed. When Jessica had died he had never believed that he would find happiness again, especially this quickly and he was desperate to make things work.
Gina stood up. ‘I’d better go now. Will you be able to ring me tomorrow?’
Eddie grinned. ‘Only if you promise to keep that bed warm for me.’
Frankie hated visiting her mum’s grave. She found it too upsetting, so she only went at Christmas or on her mum’s birthday. She never stayed for long; just laid the flowers, said hello, told her mum she loved and missed her, and walked away.
‘Christ, that was quick,’ Jed said, as she got back in the truck.
Frankie lifted Georgie off her dad’s lap. ‘Where are we going now? I’m hungry. Shall we stop for some lunch somewhere?’ she asked.
‘Why don’t we go and put some flowers on your grandad’s grave first?’
Frankie shook her head. She hated visiting graves of any kind and, even though what had happened to her grandad was awful, she hadn’t been particularly close to him. ‘I never saw much of my grandad, so I’d rather just go for lunch, Jed, if you don’t mind.’
Jed did mind. He had his own reasons for wanting to go. ‘Let’s just take some flowers over there. You can stay in the motor if you want and I can lay them with Georgie. It’ll be nice for your dad. You can write to him and tell him that Georgie’s been to the grave.’
Frankie shrugged. Jed had no idea that she had taken Georgie to visit her dad in prison, but he knew that her dad had rung occasionally and that she had written to him. Deciding that her boyf
riend was only being thoughtful, she smiled at him.
‘OK, but you lay the flowers for me.’
Being quite a deep person, Eddie told Stuart very little of his conversation with Gina.
‘You ain’t ’arf quiet. Are you OK, Ed? They ain’t told you you’ve gotta move to another wing, have they?’
Eddie cracked a smile. ‘Don’t worry, I ain’t being moved. I’ve told you before, the guvnor in here is shit-scared of me, and of losing his poxy job, so they ain’t ever gonna split us up, Stuie boy. I’m just tired, mate. I’m gonna read me book, see if it makes me fall asleep.’
As he pretended to read, Ed’s mind was a whirlwind of emotion. When he was with Gina, he felt no guilt whatsoever, but as soon as she wasn’t there, he was consumed by remorse.
Putting his book down beside him, Ed stared at the ceiling. He’d just promised to have kids with a woman he barely knew. They had never even been out on a date or anything, let alone lived together. Wondering if the prison system was fucking with his brain, Ed tried to erase his doubts from his mind. Gina obviously felt the same way as he did and she wasn’t banged up, so maybe it was the real deal. His thoughts turned to Frankie. Would she accept him moving on and having kids with another woman? Somehow he doubted it.
Thinking of Gina’s fit body, Eddie sighed. By the time he got released, Jessica would have been dead for about five years, so surely no one would begrudge him a bit of happiness, including Frankie?
Jed smiled as he bent down and showed his daughter Harry Mitchell’s grave.
‘Your great-nan and great-grandad are buried next to one another ’ere, Georgie girl. I never knew your great-nan, but great-grandad Harry was a horrible old shitcunt.’
Georgie looked at him inquisitively. Obviously, she couldn’t understand what her dad was saying, but Jed still got a buzz out of telling her.
As a grieving family walked past them, Jed nodded. ‘Bit nippy, ain’t it?’ he said politely.
He waited for them to be far enough away, then took all the flowers and cards that other people had left off Harry’s grave. ‘Where shall we put these, Georgie girl? Shall we move them to that grave over there that’s not got none?’ he said in a silly voice.
Jed moved all the tributes, then walked back to Harry’s now extremely bare grave. He knelt back down again and gobbed at the headstone.
‘Are you enjoying yourself up in the sky, Harry boy? Never caught me, did they, mush? And, do you know why? Because, unlike you, I am one slippery cunt. I killed you, shagged and nailed your granddaughter. Then, to top all that, I got your daughter-in-law murdered and your son banged up for killing her. Life’s a bitch, ain’t it, you old bastard?’
Aware of an old couple staring oddly at him, Jed stood up. ‘Horrible time of the year if you’ve lost someone, ain’t it? I brought me daughter ’ere to see her mum’s family.’
The lady smiled at Georgie. ‘What a beautiful baby. What’s her name?’
‘Georgie girl. And she takes after her dad in the looks department, not her mother,’ Jed replied cockily.
As the couple carried on asking questions about Georgie, Jed became extremely bored. ‘I’d better be going now. Her mum’s waiting in the motor for us.’
Jed started to chuckle as he walked away. He had just had a brilliant idea, but it was far too busy, being Christmas time, to do it today.
If he came over here again, he would go to the toilet, shit in a carrier bag, and smear it all over Harry Mitchell’s headstone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Terry Baldwin was woken up at 7 a.m. on Christmas morning by somebody ringing his mobile phone.
‘Who is it?’ he asked, still half-asleep.
Hearing his pal Keith’s voice, Terry sat bolt upright. ‘One sec, let me get a pen and paper.’
Terry scribbled down the address and listened intently to what Keith was telling him. ‘No probs. I’ll meet you for a beer tomorrow lunchtime and settle up with you then, if you like.’
Terry ended the call and ran back up the stairs. He entered his daughter’s bedroom and gently shook her awake.
‘What’s up? What’s the time?’ Sally asked, bleary-eyed. She’d been on the wine again until late last night.
Terry smiled as he waved the piece of paper at her. ‘Happy Christmas, darling. Now get your arse out of bed, because me, you and Luke are going to pay Jed O’Hara a little visit.’
Another person up with the larks on Christmas morning was Frankie. She was so excited about receiving her first ever car as a gift, she’d barely been able to sleep.
Jed had gone out the previous evening with his cousin, Sammy, and brother, Billy. Frankie had heard him roll in about two in the morning and she wondered if he’d brought the car home with him.
She flung open the trailer door and walked outside. There was no sign of any new vehicles, just the usual ones that belonged to the people on the site. Feeling disappointed, Frankie went back inside to get herself and the baby ready. Although Jed was reluctant, they were spending the day at his parents’ house.
‘Why can’t we invite them over here, Frankie?’ he’d asked her repeatedly.
Frankie had refused. There just wasn’t enough room, especially as Shannon, Billy and their monster of a son was joining them. Jed’s other brother, Marky, was going to his wife’s parents. Jed had never been back to his parents’ house since the day they’d left. It had obviously frightened him when he had been beaten up by that awful man, and what annoyed Frankie was that Jimmy, the actual culprit, had got away with it, the womanising arsehole.
Jed got up as Frankie had just finished dressing Georgie. He looked rough, and Frankie guessed that he’d got well pissed the night before.
‘Did you have a nice evening? Where did you go?’ she asked him.
‘The Derby Digger in Wickford. Proper night it was, full of travellers in there. Billy didn’t come in the end, he went over Marky’s, so it was just me and Sammy boy.’
Frankie nodded. She didn’t really care where he’d been or how inebriated he’d got; all she was interested in was getting her hands on her log book and car keys. Guessing that he might have hidden the car down the road, away from her prying eyes, she smiled.
‘Shall we open our presents now?’
Jed nodded. He’d hidden Frankie’s in his horse-box, so went off to get them.
Frankie sat Georgie on her lap and they opened her presents first. She laughed and clapped her tiny hands, even though she was far too young to understand what Christmas was all about. In fact, she seemed more interested in the wrapping paper than the actual gifts they had bought her.
‘Your turn,’ Frankie said, handing Jed a big gift bag.
Jed loved the black leather bomber jacket that Frankie had bought him. He studied himself in the mirror. ‘Where did ya get it? It’s well cool,’ he asked.
Unable to get out shopping a lot, Frankie had asked Gary and Ricky to choose a decent leather jacket for her. They had seemed reluctant when they knew it was for Jed, but had done what Frankie had asked them because of what she’d said in court.
‘I got the bus into Romford one day,’ Frankie lied. Jed didn’t like her mentioning either of her half-brothers and if he found out they had chosen the jacket, he probably wouldn’t wear it.
As Jed handed her a big sack of gifts, Frankie could barely contain her excitement. Perfume, gold earrings, a pair of leather ankle boots – he’d even bought her a funny-looking machine with a load of disc things to put inside it.
‘That’s one of them CD players, Frankie. No one plays cassettes any more. You’ll love it, trust me. My cousin Sammy’s got one and the music sounds so much better on it,’ Jed explained.
Frankie left the smallest present until last. Surely this had to be the car keys? As she undid the paper and a pink plastic Swatch watch fell out, she struggled to hide her discontent.
Jed winked at her. ‘Your big present is over at me mum and dad’s. You can open it later in front of the family.’
>
Frankie clapped her hands in glee. He’d obviously hidden her car at his parents’ house, bless him.
Over in Rainham, Joyce was sipping a large Baileys while indulging in a bit of present-opening herself. Last year, the first Christmas since Jessica’s death, had been bloody awful, but this year Joyce was determined that they would all have a fabulous time.
‘Who wants another Baileys?’ she asked, topping her own glass up to the brim.
Stanley glared at her. ‘Take it easy, Joycie. It ain’t even twelve o’ bleedin’ clock yet.’
Joyce poked her tongue out at Stanley. ‘Open that one, you miserable old sod,’ she said, handing him a present.
Stanley got excited as he tore the paper off and stared at his gift. Joycie had already given him the usual jumper and slippers, but this was a specialist book, all about breeding top-class racing pigeons. Thrilled, he thanked his wife and immediately began flicking through the pages.
‘That’ll keep the old bastard quiet,’ Joyce whispered, as she handed Joey another present. Her grandson had already opened his aftershave and had loved that.
Joey tore off the paper and held the T-shirt up in horror. It was plain black and had the words GAY AND PROUD printed across the front in bright pink letters.
‘I can’t wear this, Nan,’ he said bluntly.
‘Why not? What’s the matter with it? I told the man in the shop that you were gay and he said you would love it.’
As Dominic burst out laughing, Joey couldn’t help but giggle himself. ‘You’ve still got the receipt, ain’t ya, Nan? I won’t wear it. Take it back and get your money back.’
Joyce was annoyed. ‘I can’t take it back, I had it printed at one of them T-shirt places where you tell ’em what you want on the front.’
‘Well, I’m afraid you’ve wasted your money then, Nan, ’cause I wouldn’t be seen dead wearing this.’
‘Give us it ’ere then, if you don’t want it. Your grandad can wear it when he’s cleaning out the pigeon shed,’ Joyce said, tutting.
The Traitor Page 23
