by Liza Cody
Bella stalled the car. She turned to look at me and she took her foot off the pedal to do it. Bad drivers are like that.
‘You’re insane, Eva,’ she said. Cars piled up behind us hooting.
‘Shit!’ said Bella, and started off again, lurching and grinding.
‘I thought Crystal was bonkers,’ she said. ‘But you’re ten times worse. How could it be Carl? If Carl had come in the pub and gone out with Dawnie don’t you think someone would’ve noticed? Carl’s outstanding. All the girls would’ve seen him. If Dawnie’d scored a hunk like Carl it would’ve been big news.’
‘It was him,’ I said. ‘I saw it in his eyes. He could of killed you. He could of killed me!’
‘Who could’ve killed you, Mum?’ little Elton said.
‘Shut up, Elton,’ Bella said. ‘Could of! Could of!’ ’Course he could of.’
‘There, then!’
‘But he didn’t, did he? And he didn’t cut Stef. And he didn’t kill Dawn. So don’t be stupid?’
‘Who you calling stupid?’
‘You!’ Bella said. ‘Okay, so Carl’s a total freak and he hates us. So what? So do thousands. Millions. I said the same to Crys. I said, “The bastard knifed Stef. He wants our business. So what? Does that make him different? He’s not worth ruining your life over,” I said. But she won’t have it. No. The bastard who knifed Stef killed Dawn, she says. “Why?” I said. “There’s bastards all over the streets who want to hurt us or take our money. Why pick him?”’
‘The polizei nicked another one last night,’ I said. ‘They say he killed Dawn.’
‘There you are, then,’ Bella said. ‘I’m surprised they haven’t nicked twenty. But try telling Crys that! She says that Stoat bastard killed her Dawnie, and he’s going to pay. Pay! She’s the one who’ll pay. Her and Justin. They’ll pay and pay and pay. They could spend the rest of their lives paying.’
There was this big black hole under my ribs and my heart went dum-dum-dum, all by itself in there. I said, ‘What’s she going to do, Bella? What’s that stupid little monkey wrench going to do?’ Because I knew Crystal wouldn’t give up. She’s like that – take it from one who knows – if she gets her teeth into someone, she never lets go. Never. Not till she’s had satisfaction.
‘Something,’ Bella said. ‘I don’t fucking know. They had two boxes. Crys had one, Justin had the other.’
‘What was in the boxes?’
‘Puppies,’ said little Elton. ‘There was puppies in the boxes. But they wouldn’t let me see.’
‘Shut up, Elton,’ said Bella.
‘Why did you bring him along?’ I asked.
‘No one to leave him with,’ she said. ‘Granpa went to church.’
And we bumped and ground all the way to St Thomas’s hospital with Bella swearing at the traffic, and everyone else swearing at Bella.
She swung in where it said, ‘No Entry’, without using her indicator, and whizzed round the side of the hospital in second gear – always in second – and then she stalled.
‘Where are we?’ she said.
‘Just get the fuck on with it,’ I said. What with her driving and all I was feeling an up-chuck coming on.
‘Over there!’ shouted little Elton. ‘They’re over there with the puppies.’ He was kneeling on the back seat pointing with his Terminator toy.
‘Shut up, Elton,’ said Bella. She was twisting the car key and squinting over her shoulder at the same time.
But Elton was right. On the other side of a little wall, where the sane people had parked their cars properly, was Justin and Crystal.
I flung my door open. Bella twisted the key. But she hadn’t put the motor in neutral so the car bucked forward and stalled again. The open door crashed against the wall. I tangled my foot in my plastic shopping bag and I fell out the car on my arse.
‘Hurry,’ Bella squealed. ‘Stop them.’
‘Stop what?’ I said. I jumped to my feet. I climbed on the little wall. I looked.
And from up on the wall I saw Crystal and Justin with two cardboard boxes resting on the bonnet of a car.
I saw Crystal pointing and Justin turning to look.
I saw Stoat walking slowly down the entry ramp, half his face hidden in white bandage.
I saw Crystal reach in one of the boxes. She pulled out a bottle. An ordinary glass milk bottle. It was full of liquid. The neck was stuffed with rag.
I jumped off the wall.
‘Stop!’ I yelled. But the wind from the river whipped the word out of my mouth and blew it the wrong way.
I started to run. I dodged between parked cars. I whacked into wing mirrors.
I saw Crystal hand the bottle to Justin. She took a cigarette lighter from her pocket. She cupped her hand round it. She struck the flint.
‘Don’t!’ I bellowed, and the wind blew it back down my throat.
The little flame flared. Crystal touched it to the rag in the neck of the bottle.
I couldn’t run fast enough. The cars were parked too close together.
Justin shielded the flame with one hand. He turned and started to trot towards Stoat. All unawares, Stoat walked slowly towards him.
I was close. But I wasn’t close enough.
‘Justin!’ I howled. ‘Don’t!’
Crystal turned to me. Her little face was all bare and waxy. ‘Eva,’ she said. ‘You came.’
Stoat saw Justin. He saw the flaming bottle. He threw up his hands to protect his face.
Justin chucked the bottle.
I stopped. There was nothing I could do anymore.
The bottle flew in an arc. The flaming rag fluttered. Over and over, it spun. It landed at Stoat’s feet. Stoat watched it coming. He watched it somersaulting over and over till it fell at his feet.
The glass splintered. Crack.
Two ladies with flowers in their hands started to scream.
The bottle shattered. For a split second nothing happened. And then whoosh! Justin ducked. Crystal ducked. I ducked. The ladies with the flowers flung themselves down on the ground.
The flames went ker-flump whoosh. They shot up Stoat’s legs. They bloomed on his clothes like red and orange roses.
Justin picked himself up and legged it to Crystal. He grabbed her hand. She tried to grab the second box, but it fell.
They ran. They raced away to the Embankment. They looked like two kids playing. They ran hand-in-hand as fast as their legs would take them.
I could smell burnt meat.
Everyone was screaming. People poured out of the hospital entrance.
I closed my eyes. I couldn’t stand to look. I sank down on my haunches between the parked cars.
‘You wasn’t quick enough,’ Bella said from behind. ‘You just wasn’t quick enough.’
‘Oh yeah?’ I snarled. ‘And where was you?’
‘Oh look,’ said little Elton. ‘Puppies!’
‘Fucking shut up,’ Bella screeched. ‘Shut up and get back in the car. Who said you could follow me?’
‘No, look,’ said Elton. He ran away from us to the car where Crystal had waited for Stoat. He was right. The box which fell had fallen on its side. And tipped out, near it, was two small grey balls of fluff.
‘He’s fucking right – the little tyke’s right,’ I said. I scrambled to my feet. I turned my back on Stoat and the screams and the smell. Bella didn’t want to watch either.
She said, ‘Let’s get out of here, Eva, before someone starts taking names and asking questions.’
‘We never saw nothing,’ I said.
‘’Course not,’ she said. ‘But let’s go before anyone asks.’
‘We better take the pups,’ I said.
‘Fuck the pups,’ she said. But she went to where Elton was bending over the two balls of fluff.
‘What’s wrong with this one?’ Elton asked. He picked up one pup, and its head lolled out of his hand like it was hanging on a thread.
‘Oh shit!’ Bella said. ‘Put it down, Elton. It’s sleepin
g, isn’t it, Eva?’
Stupid cow. She brought little Elton to a cremation, but she couldn’t admit to him that one of Queenie’s pups had died.
The burnt meat smell on the air was Stoat, but Bella wouldn’t tell her kid a pup was dead.
‘Come away!’ she shouted at Elton. ‘Do as you’re told.’ She snatched his hand and yanked him away from the puppies, dragging him back to her car. He started yelling and kicking her ankles.
That was the last I saw of them. Her squawking, him wailing. They didn’t wait for me.
I didn’t want them to. I’d had enough of Bella to fill a dumpster.
I squatted down and picked up the puppies. The littlest one was stone dead. It never even got its eyes open. There was nothing to be done. I put it back in the box.
But the bigger one was alive. Just.
It looked like a blind fluffy maggot. Queenie’s pup. It shivered in the wind. I smoothed the grey fluff with one finger, and the little maggot turned its nose towards my finger.
‘Oh shit,’ I said. I stuffed the little thing under my sweat shirt next to my skin, and I tucked my sweat shirt into my jeans.
It was what Justin should of done. I told him to keep the pups warm. But did he listen? Oh no. He’d rather listen to Crystal and throw petrol on bastards she didn’t like. He brought Queenie’s pups out in the cold with only a cardboard box for shelter.
‘Oy, you!’ someone said.
I got up and saw a dirty great uniform coming straight for me. It wasn’t polizei. It was a hospital security guard.
‘What you got there?’ he said.
‘Dunno,’ I said. ‘Looks like a dead puppy.’
I buttoned my jacket so he wouldn’t see I had a live one under my jumper.
‘Oh,’ he said. ‘Well, never mind that. There’s been an attack on one of the hospital patients. Those ladies over there say you might have seen something.’
I looked over, at last. But I couldn’t see Stoat. There was a bunch of white coats and nurses and blankets and stuff. But thank gawd I couldn’t see Stoat.
‘You must’ve seen something,’ the guard said.
‘Not me,’ I said.
‘The ladies said a young hooligan threw a petrol bomb,’ the guard said. ‘You couldn’t have missed that.’
‘I heard a bit of an explosion,’ I said. ‘And I ducked. But I never saw nothing.’
‘Nothing?’
‘Well,’ I said, ’cos I had an idea. ‘I saw three lads running away.’
‘Three?’ he said. ‘What were they like?’
‘Oh you know,’ I said, ‘kids. Scruffy. Just kids.’
‘Okay,’ he said, all official. ‘You’d better wait till the police arrive. They’re going to want to hear your description of the three boys.’
‘All right,’ I said. But I was having a hard job not laughing, because he believed me, and ’cos Queenie’s little pup was nosing round my belly-button.
But as soon as the guard turned his back I walked away. I walked to the river and along the Embankment, back towards home. You think I should’ve stopped around to answer questions? You’re barmy. Tell more lies for monkey face and Justin? Where’s the satisfaction? I done my bit. It was the same old story – me doing Crystal’s dirty work. If there was any satisfaction up for grabs, she grabbed it. As usual. She thought she’d fried the bastard who killed Dawn. Stupid monkey. She thought she’d had her eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Well, let her. I wasn’t going to tell her different. At least it got her off my back. I was going home.
I wasn’t following Justin and Crystal. No. When they ran away hand-in-hand they ran to the station. To Waterloo, where I first met Crystal, and Justin met the rich man the day he came to London.
I walked along in the wind with Queenie’s pup tucked up under my ribs. And my heart went dum-dum-dum. And his little heart went dit-dit-dit-dit.
And I thought, I’ll call you Milo. I’ll call you Milo after the greatest fuckin’ wrestler of all time – Milo of Croton who won the Greek Olympics five times straight.
‘You better grow up big and strong,’ I told the pup. ‘Because this ain’t a world to be small and weak in, believe me.’
But the pup just squirmed and tickled my belly.
‘You hear me, Milo?’ I said. ‘Big and strong, or Ramses will eat you up.’
I knew I’d have to keep the pup under my sweater for a long time. I’d spoken for true. Because Ramses would eat Milo alive if I didn’t watch out for him.
But Milo would grow up big and strong. He had all the makings – a German shepherd for a mum and something huge and bull-nosed for a dad. All he had to do was learn how to fight and learn mental discipline. Like me. I learned all that, so I could teach him.
And then I thought about how much I know. And it’s a lot. I know lots and lots of things. And I’m fucked if I’ll let a bolly-whacker like Mr Deeds or California Carl take it all away. I was born to fight – so I’ll bleeding well fight. There’s more than one promoter in the world, isn’t there? Somewhere out there, there’s a promoter, and he’ll be honoured to have the London Lassassin fight on his bill. Honoured.
‘You and me,’ I said to little Milo. ‘Born to fight. The bastards won’t know what bit them.’
If an ancient Greek could win the Olympics five times, what couldn’t I do? Eh? Tell me that!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Liza Cody grew up in London. She studied painting at the City and Guilds of London Art School and the Royal Academy School. She has worked as a painter, furniture-maker, photographer and graphic designer. Her first novel, Dupe, won the John Creasey Award for the best first crime novel of 1980 and was nominated for an Edgar Award in the USA. Under Contract was shortlisted for the Gold Dagger Award, and in 1992 she won the Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger Award for Bucket Nut, her first Eva Wylie novel. Liza Cody now lives in Somerset.
By the Same Author
Rift
Anna Lee Novels
Dupe
Bad Company
Headcase
Under Contract
Stalker
Backhand
Eva Wylie Novels
Bucket Nut
Musclebound
This electronic edition published in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published by Chatto & Windus Ltd in 1994
Copyright © Liza Cody 1994
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved
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