The Victim

by Kimberley Chambers

  Unable to stand one minute more in the same room as her children, Frankie let out a stifled sob and bolted.

  Jimmy and Jed led Eddie to the warehouse where the tyres were kept, and laughed as they pushed him violently onto the concrete floor.

  ‘Tie his legs up while I bring the next one in,’ Jimmy ordered his son. Mickey had now taken Billy to the hospital and Jimmy insisted that his son wasn’t to be left alone until the extent of his injuries were known.

  ‘If he were to die, I don’t want him dying alone, Mick,’ Jimmy had told his friend.

  Jed picked up the rope and smirked at Eddie. ‘What’s it feel like, knowing you’re gonna die soon?’

  Aware that Mickey had taken Billy to hospital, Eddie knew, with Jimmy outside, this might be his last chance to get to the guns. He waited until Jed bent down to tie his feet up then, with all his might, kicked him full in the face with his right foot. Jed flew backwards, clutching his chin and cursing.

  ‘You fucking wanker,’ he mumbled, as he stood up and spat out a mouthful of blood. Eddie’s kick had caught him completely by surprise, so much so that his teeth had nearly severed the end of his tongue.

  Aware that Jed was in shock, Eddie leaned his back against the wall and tried to heave himself up by crawling up against it. He needed to get outside to see if one of his lads was in a fit state to untie his hands.

  In excrutiating pain, Jed put his hand inside his mouth. The tip of his tongue was literally hanging there by a thread. Aware that Eddie was back-crawling up the wall, Jed forgot about his own predicament, and grabbed the hammer.

  ‘You ain’t going nowhere you fucking piece of shit!’ he screamed as he repeatedly smashed it against Eddie’s legs. When Ed fell to the floor, Jed ran over to where the tyres were kept. He picked up one that was attached to an alloy wheel and ran back over to where Eddie lay. ‘Tell me where my chavvies are, you cunt,’ he slurred, repeatedly smashing the wheel against Eddie’s left leg. The injury to his tongue was stopping him from pronouncing his words properly.

  Eddie winced as he felt his shin snap in two, but he still didn’t groan or utter a word. The O’Haras might be capable of breaking his arms and legs, but they would never break his spirit.

  Joey held his inconsolable sister in his arms.

  ‘Can yous two sit in the front room and keep an eye on the kids while I have a chat with Frankie?’ Joey asked Dominic and Babs.

  Dom and Babs both nodded and Joey shut the kitchen door. He opened a bottle of wine and poured two glasses.

  ‘What the hell am I gonna do, Joey? They’ve changed so much I don’t even feel like their mother any more. I knew they would have been brought up badly, but they’re worse than my wildest dreams. I don’t like either of ’em, especially Harry – I think he’s horrible. What type of mother does that make me, eh?’ Frankie sobbed.

  Joey sat his sister down at the kitchen table and handed her a glass. ‘Drink that, it will make you feel better,’ he said, before downing his own in one. Joey put his empty glass on the table and let out a worried sigh. Apart from the day that his mother had been murdered, this was probably the worst and most stressful day of his entire life. His dad’s life was in danger along with his uncle’s and stepbrothers. He’d rowed with Dom and, unbeknown to Frankie, had a gun hidden upstairs.

  ‘Where’s Dad? I can’t cope, Joey. I think he should take ’em back to Jed. They’ll never acclimatise to living here with me; they hate me,’ Frankie wept.

  Forcing himself to be strong, Joey took his sister’s hands in his. ‘Don’t you dare fucking give up, Frankie Mitchell. Getting them kids back was never gonna be a bowl of cherries within hours of their return, was it? They’re victims of Jed, just the same as you are. They’ll settle in and grow to love you eventually, but it’s going to take a hell of a lot of patience and hard work, on your behalf especially.’

  ‘I don’t think I can do it, Joey, and what about poor Brett? It’s gonna be awful for him living with them two, I just know it is.’

  ‘You can’t surrender at the first sign of problems, Frankie. Brett will get used to them being around, and me and Babs will both be here to help you.’

  ‘I wish Stuart was here. He would know what to do. Ring him for me, Joey. I haven’t heard from him today.’

  ‘He rang earlier, just after the kids got back. I told him they were home and he said he’ll call you back later,’ Joey told her.

  Frankie stood up. ‘I’m gonna ring him back now. I need his advice.’

  ‘No,’ Joey insisted grabbing her by the arm. He knew that she would start firing questions at Stuart about where her dad was and he didn’t want to put Stu in an awkward position. His dad had told both of them that under no circumstances were they to breathe a word of the O’Haras following them to Essex.

  ‘What’s going on, Joey? I know something’s wrong. Where’s Dad?’ Frankie asked with suspicion.

  Joey had never lied to his twin sister in their younger years. Even when she’d first suspected he was gay, he’d admitted the truth immediately, but just lately, because his dad had encouraged him, he’d become good at fabrication.

  ‘Don’t start worrying. All it is, is Stu was with Terry and their van broke down on the way home from Scotland. Dad couldn’t send the AA ’cause the van’s a ringer, so he had to get his own mechanic and send him up the M1. You know, the phone calls I told you about earlier.’

  ‘But you said that Dad’s van was the one breaking down and I thought Stu was staying in Scotland for a bit.’

  ‘Nah, it was the other van, and Dad told Stu to forget about staying in Scotland, he said there was no point. I think the vans belong to a mate of Dad’s and he can’t leave one on the M1 in case he gets the guy in trouble. The mechanic is gonna drop Stu and Tel back here and when Dad and the boys have burned the vans, they’ll come back, too,’ Joey fibbed.

  ‘Thank God for that! I had an awful feeling that Jed and Jimmy might be following Dad. There’s something I need to tell you, Joey, something I should have told you years ago, but I was so worried about Dad getting hurt or banged up again that I kept it all to myself. Please don’t have a go at me when I tell ya, ’cause I was gonna tell you when I was in prison, but when the O’Haras did a runner with Georgie and Harry, I didn’t want them caught up in the crossfire. Now we’ve got them back, it’s the right time to tell you, I know it is. I want you to decide whether we should tell Dad or not, because the burden of keeping it from him is tearing me apart.’

  Joey felt a shiver run down his spine. He had no idea what his sister was talking about, but he knew that whatever it was, it was going to be bad news. ‘Tell me, Frankie,’ he demanded in a hushed tone.

  Frankie took a deep breath. ‘It was Jed that killed Grandad Harry.’

  Joey looked at his sister as though she’d gone mental. ‘Don’t be so ridiculous. If Jed told you that, he’s a liar. He was winding you up, Frankie.’

  Frankie felt her eyes well up once more. Apart from Babs and DI Blyth, she had kept the secret to herself for so long, the guilt of revealing it to her brother was almost unbearable.

  ‘He wasn’t lying, Joey. Me and Kerry planted a tape in Jed’s Shogun; we heard him talking about it with our own ears. Sammy was with him. They both murdered our Grandad.’

  Joey counted back the years and shook his head. Jed would have only been about fifteen at the time, how could he have been the one to kill his gangster of a grandfather? ‘You’re wrong, sis, you’re so fucking wrong. Jed was only about fifteen. I bet you any money you like that he saw you and Kerry plant the tape and because he wanted to split up with you, he said all that on purpose.’

  With tears now streaming down her face, Frankie crouched down and clutched her brother’s hands. ‘We only planted the tape because me and Kerry knew that Jed and Sammy were cheating on us. That’s why I tried to kill him, Joey, it’s true, I swear it is. You ask DI Blyth if you don’t believe me; I even told her.’

  Taking four deep breaths to sto
p himself from losing it completely, Joey pushed his sister out of the way and and ran upstairs to retrieve the gun.

  ‘Joey, I’m sorry. Come back, please,’ Frankie wailed.

  When Joey ran back down the stairs, he bore a look on his face that Frankie didn’t even recognise. ‘Dominic!’ he screamed.

  ‘Whatever’s the matter?’ Dom asked as he came out of the lounge.

  ‘I need you to drive me somewhere. It’s important,’ Joey said, his voice as cold as ice.

  ‘No way. I’ve had enough of driving you about today to last me a lifetime,’ Dom replied sarcastically.

  Grabbing his boyfriend by the neck, Joey slammed him up against the wall. ‘You either drive me or we’re finished for ever, and I mean that.’

  Dominic stared at the coldness in his partner’s eyes. He didn’t even recognise the man he’d been in love with for the past twelve years. Knowing he only had a split second to decide whether to stand by his man or lose Joey for good, Dominic made his choice.

  ‘Come on, let’s go,’ he shouted, as he grabbed his leather jacket.

  As the front door slammed behind her brother and his boyfriend, Frankie guessed the truth and let out the most piercing scream her voice could reach.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  When Babs ran out of the room to tend to Frankie, Georgie turned to her brother. ‘I’ve got a plan. I think we should start being nicer to Mum, because if we do that, it will make it easier for us to escape.’

  ‘I don’t like her, though. Can’t we just ring Dad? He’ll come and get us.’

  ‘I don’t know Dad’s number off by heart, or Grandad’s. Do you?’

  Harry shook his head. ‘Don’t you know Nan’s number or Ryan’s?’

  ‘No. They’re all stored in my phone. Try and remember some of the numbers, Harry. Don’t you know your own?’

  ‘No, don’t you know yours?’ Harry asked.

  ‘I knew my old number, but not the new one,’ Georgie replied.

  ‘How we gonna escape if we can’t ring anyone? I wanna go home,’ Harry whinged.

  Seeing that her brother was about to cry again, Georgie hugged him. ‘We will go home, I promise you that. Dad and Grandad will definitely find us, but in the meantime let’s try and be a bit nicer to everyone, because that way they’ll leave us alone a bit more. If we need to escape, we don’t want them watching us all the time and if they think we’re unhappy, they will.’

  ‘But say Eddie hurts Dad and Grandad. They won’t be able to come and get us if they’re ill,’ Harry wept.

  Georgie had the same fear, but being the eldest, put on a carefree attitude for her brother’s sake. ‘Dad and Grandad are far too clever to let anything bad happen to ’em. Now, just be strong for me, Harry, until I can sort something out. We won’t have to stay ’ere long, I promise you that, but while we’re stuck ’ere we might as well get to know Frankie a bit better. She is our mum, after all.’

  Babs was having little joy calming Frankie down so, at her wits’ end, rang Kerry. ‘It’s Babs, Frankie’s friend. I’m sorry to ring you so late. Did I wake you up?’

  ‘Yeah, but not to worry. Has something happened to Frankie? Is she OK?’ Kerry asked worriedly. She had been furious with Frankie when she’d all but told her to stay out of her life, but they had been through so much together, she could never hate her or wish her any harm.

  Babs explained that the kids were home and that Frankie was in pieces. ‘She’s upstairs crying now. I ain’t told her that I were gonna ring you, but I know she could do with your help. Georgie and Harry have been real nasty to her. If you could ring her over the next couple of days and lend your support, that would be wicked.’

  ‘OK, I’ll call her first thing tomorrow.’

  Joyce thought she was having a bad dream when she heard someone sobbing uncontrollably. Rubbing her eyes, she sat up and turned on the light. No, she couldn’t have been dreaming, someone was crying. Joyce got up, put her dressing gown over her nightdress and went to investigate.

  ‘Whatever’s the matter?’ she asked as she spotted Frankie sitting on the landing, rocking to and fro.

  ‘Joey’s in danger, so is me Dad, Raymond, Gal, Ricky and Dominic. Jed and Jimmy have followed ’em back from Scotland and now Joey’s chasing after ’em. I’ve tried to ring Stuart, but his phone’s dead. Say he’s been hurt an’ all?’ Frankie sobbed.

  Joyce felt her heart start to pound at double its usual pace. She had already lost her beautiful daughter because of Eddie’s feud with the O’Haras, and the thought of losing her Raymond as well didn’t bear thinking of. She crouched down next to her granddaughter. ‘Who told you all this, your dad?’

  ‘No, it was Joey’s reaction when I told him a secret that gave it away. I had a feeling Dad had been followed, that’s why he kept ringing Joey earlier. Jed’s evil, Nan, he murdered my grandad.’

  ‘What?’ Joyce asked incredulously.

  Frankie fell into her grandmother’s arms. ‘Jed killed Grandad Harry, Nan.’

  Overcome by sudden tiredness, Harry had fallen asleep on his sister’s lap.

  ‘Wake up, Harry. Someone’s at the door – it might be Dad,’ Georgie said, poking him in the shoulder. They’d been in the lounge on their own for ages now. Her mother and the black woman had both disappeared.

  ‘Frankie, it’s Stu and Tel,’ Georgie heard a voice say.

  ‘Can’t we nick some money and just run away?’ Harry asked, rubbing his tired eyes.

  ‘No. We must wait for Dad to come and get us, in case the gavvers find us and lock us up.’

  Frankie ran down the stairs and threw herself into Stuart’s strong arms. ‘I was so worried about you, Stu. Have you seen my dad and Joey? Are they OK?’ she wept.

  ‘I ain’t seen ’em. Your dad told us to come ’ere to look after you and the kids. Where’s Joey gone, then?’ Stuart asked, enjoying Frankie’s warm welcome. He’d missed seeing her so bloody much and he’d only been in Scotland a couple of days.

  ‘I need to speak to you alone,’ Frankie said, dragging him into the kitchen by the arm.

  Upstairs, Stanley was having one of his recurring nightmares about Pat the Pigeon. In this particular dream, she had his John Thomas in her mouth and she was laughing as she snapped the end of it off with her teeth.

  ‘Stanley, wake up, Stanley,’ Joycie said, shaking him furiously by the shoulder.

  ‘Get off me, leave me alone, you old slapper,’ Stanley mumbled.

  Absolutely livid, Joyce punched her husband as hard as she could in the side of his ugly bald head. ‘How dare you call me that after what you did! I have never been so insulted in my entire life.’

  Stanley sat up, clutching his sore head in his hands. ‘That bleedin’ hurt. What did you do that for?’

  ‘Because you called me an old slapper. You no good, philandering, bald-headed, old bastard.’

  ‘No I never. I didn’t even know you was in the bleedin’ bedroom.’

  ‘Get up. The kids are back home and there’s a drama going on downstairs. Apparently Jed killed Harry Mitchell and Frankie reckons our Raymond’s life’s in danger. Jimmy and Jed followed the lads home from Glasgow, by all accounts, and no one knows where they are now.’

  As his wife dissolved into tears, Stanley forgot about the pain in the side of his head and jumped out of bed to comfort her. ‘Our Raymond will be fine, love. He’s a big boy and he knows how to look after himself. Now, go outside while I get dressed and I’ll come downstairs with you.’

  ‘Just hurry up and put your bleedin’ clothes on. You ain’t got nothing I ain’t seen before, Stanley. We produced two kids, you senile old fool.’

  Stuart felt his blood run cold as he listened to what Frankie had to say.

  ‘You know what your dad’s like, Frankie. If this is true, he’ll never forgive you, so best you don’t tell him you knew about it. When I was inside with him, all he ever spoke about was how much he loved your mother and how he needed to track down his father’s kill
ers. If this comes out, he’ll disown you,’ Stuart said truthfully.

  ‘But I’ve already told Joey and me nan. I can’t keep it secret now, can I?’ Frankie wept, feeling totally sorry for herself.

  Stuart stood up. He was furious with Frankie for burdening him with her knowledge. How was he meant to keep schtum to Eddie about this?

  Frankie clocked the look of disappointment on Stuart’s face and threw her arms around his neck. ‘Please don’t go, Stu. Stay ’ere with me.’

  ‘I need to carry out your dad’s orders, Frankie,’ Stuart said, loosening her grip from around his neck.

  Worried that if Stuart left, she might never see him again, Frankie looked at him in a totally different light. He’d always been a great mate, a rock who offered a strong shoulder to cry on, but realising his life might now be in danger brought Frankie’s true feelings bubbling to the surface. For the first time ever, she admitted to herself how handsome Stuart was, how when he held her in his arms his touch made her feel safe and womanly. Jed had destroyed her faith in men, but Stuart wasn’t Jed. He was the total opposite of her ex and, as Frankie let her barrier slip, she realised just how much she loved him. With no time left to mess around, Frankie grabbed Stuart by the arm.

  ‘Do you love me?’ she asked him bluntly.

  ‘You know I love you. I wouldn’t bleedin’ come and visit you every day if I didn’t,’ Stuart replied.

  ‘I don’t mean a friendship kind of love. I mean, are you in love with me, as in, do you want to be with me?’

  Unable to look Frankie in the eye in case his answer repulsed her, Stuart stared at his feet. ‘Yeah, I am in love with you, Frankie, and I do wanna be with you.’

  Frankie punched him gently in the chest. ‘Why didn’t I wake up and smell the coffee earlier? We’ve wasted so much time.’

  Stuart looked at her in amazement. Was she trying to tell him that she felt the same way? ‘What you trying to say, Frankie?’

  ‘I’m trying to tell you that I love you as well, you dickhead.’