Jail Bird

by Jessie Keane

  He didn’t miss loitering outside the five-star complexes waiting for the rich white females to wander out to shop. He remembered the low wall beside the hotel that he and his mates had targeted, and they sat there smiling big smiles and urging the ladies to join them. They had pieces of foam to place upon the wall so that the ladies could be comfortable, and many did ‘take the foam’, enticed by buff young bodies and offers of cooling slices of watermelon. As a living, it was pretty okay. The ladies were often lonely and middle-aged, they liked the fit young bucks paying them attention; and the ladies were generous in their gratitude, buying the boys and him meals, drinks, clothes – and dishing out free sex, too.

  Here, he didn’t have to work quite that hard. Here, he’d met Suki and Bev in a club, and before long they had become not a twosome but a threesome. Suki and Bev seemed to like operating that way, and it suited him too.

  So he was happy. He bopped along to the radio as he washed up in the kitchen. It was late; the girls were already in bed – one in his, one in the spare. He didn’t know who he would get from night to night, he never knew, they said they liked to surprise him. He was just tidying up, bopping along to Bob, and yes, he was happy.

  Only there was something niggling away at him. Just a little bit. It wasn’t Bev. Bev was no trouble at all with the chatlines, and boy did they pay.

  ‘I just say naughties down the phone and they come, then it’s over,’ Bev had told him. ‘Money for old rope – kerching!’ And she’d laugh.

  Bev was cool. Detached. He liked that. She was a fine woman, a bit edgier than Suki, you had to give her space, respect. Suki was the emotional one, prone to getting all sorts of airy-fairy ideas about how she was in touch with the spirit world and all that crap.

  Spirit world, my fine black arse, thought Winston.

  She might believe she had the gift, but that was all bollocks as far as he was concerned. So it was seriously annoying, how the visit from that King woman and her hired help had unsettled poor Suki. More than annoying. He’d picked up Jack Rackland’s card after him and the King woman had left, tucked it into his shirt pocket out of Suki’s way. Winston knew trouble when he smelled it, and any more of this shit with the King woman and he was going to pay a visit, set them straight. He didn’t know where to find Lily King, but Jack Rackland was only a stone’s throw away – Winston noted the address, committed it to memory. Winston wasn’t having anything upsetting his girls, no sir. Jack Rackland would be sorry if he did; that was for sure.

  Now Suki was imagining all sorts, talking about Death and how she had gone on to do the full cross spread after Lily had shuffled the cards, and it had been the worst hand she had ever seen.

  ‘The worst,’ Suki kept telling him, and her eyes were spooked. She was really, really frightened about all this. Having dreams, too. Nightmares.

  Which only confirmed Winston’s opinion that it was all bullshit, and troublesome bullshit at that, if it could upset their normally happy home the way it was doing right now. He’d been tolerant of her tarot crap, but now he was thinking it was like all this ouija board stuff like that film he’d seen, scary shit, The Exorcist, that was the one – and he was thinking that if he could persuade Suki to hang up her crystals and burn those cards, then he would. And why should he care about the King woman’s problems?

  ‘Hey, that’s her worry,’ Winston had told Suki. ‘Not ours.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Suki, but she looked unconvinced. She had seen something in the cards that had rattled her.

  He really hated to see her or Bev upset. They had such a good life here, the three of them. He loved both his women with a passion, and would protect them with his own life if necessary.

  ‘You want to talk about this?’ asked Winston, keen to play the supporting role, although it was a pain in the arse.

  Suki only shook her head, which surprised him. He was used to Suki running off at the mouth like there was no tomorrow, telling him all about swords and cups and auras and shit.

  She’d get over it. Winston cast an eye around the little kitchenette, checked he’d turned off the gas, then put the tea towel on its hook, silenced Bob with regret, switched off the lights, and took himself off to bed.

  Hey, nice surprise. Bev tonight, who welcomed him with open arms as he snuggled down naked with her beneath the crisp white sheets. The sex was good, like always. Bev was uninhibited after a toke or two, would do anything, venture anywhere, to give pleasure. So it was cool. And finally they slept, wrapped in each other’s arms. They never heard the dull thud of the lit rag as it dropped onto the doormat downstairs.

  55

  Nick thought that if Freddy was mad enough to get Tiger Wu under contract to do Lily this soon, then a drive-by wasn’t beyond the bounds of possibility either. One of his and Si’s gofers was favourite. He suspected Jase Conway, because there had been talk on the street that Jase had fallen from grace, lost the door on the club, and was keen to ingratiate himself with the brothers. And how better than to do what they had long promised – to off Lily?

  He had no proof, but his gut was telling him that Lily outside was in far greater danger than Lily inside. He drove over to see her, stopping at the electronic gates to use the intercom. He was aware of the camera above, tracking him. That was good. He was pleased about The Fort’s good security, because by Christ she certainly needed it.

  She was waiting for him at the open kitchen door as he drove up, looking fine. She was wearing figure-hugging jeans and a turquoise t-shirt, her blonde hair falling around her shoulders. She looked ridiculously young, and her eyes smouldered at him as he got out of the car and walked over.

  ‘Hi,’ he said huskily, and leaned in and took her in his arms and kissed her.

  ‘Hi,’ breathed Lily against his mouth, relishing the hard male feel of him, the heat, the strength. She’d missed that. She’d missed him. This was the man she should have married. The man she should have been with all these long, cold years. Not Leo.

  She caught herself thinking these things and then thought, Oh Jesus I can’t go here again…can If

  But maybe it was too late for second thoughts. Because she’d slept with him, and it had been wonderful. And she wanted to sleep with him again. She was sad to think that they’d lost all those years…but what good were regrets? You could only start from now. The past was dead. The future was uncertain. Only now mattered.

  She clung to him, and just for a moment she forgot about Julia, forgot all her suspicions, that he could be the one who had let her rot inside…but only for a moment.

  ‘Something wrong?’ he asked.

  Everything. She was glad she’d called him. But now he was here…now she wasn’t sure. She looked at his face, such a strong face: the dark hair, the deep and dark eyes staring into hers.

  Lily shook her head and looked away. She led him into the kitchen. Oli was there, chatting on her mobile. She gave him a wave and a mouthed hi, but she looked wan, pale, not her usual bubbly self.

  Lily knew why.

  Oli had finally taken the pregnancy test this morning. Together they had stood, clutching each other, and watched the single blue line appear. Oli was going to have Jase’s baby. It was definite now.

  Oli left the room, still talking on the phone.

  ‘I wanted to have a word with you,’ said Nick.

  ‘Okay,’ said Lily, trying to compose herself, trying not to behave like an overexcited teenager around this man. ‘I’m listening.’

  ‘About Jase Conway,’ he said.

  Lily sat down and gestured for Nick to sit, too. He seemed to take up a lot of room in the kitchen. His sheer presence was overwhelming. ‘What about him?’

  ‘I heard a rumour that Oli’s been seeing him. Is that still the case?’

  Lily shook her head. ‘No. It ain’t. She’s dumped him.’

  ‘Tell her to make sure he stays dumped.’

  ‘Why?’

  Nick looked around him. ‘He’s been right here? Inside the house?’ />
  ‘Yeah. Sure he has. Seeing Oli.’

  ‘Don’t let him in again. Under any circumstances.’

  He was frightening her. Lily stared at him anxiously. ‘Why?’ She wanted to tell him about Oli’s pregnancy, she wanted to confide in him, but she knew she couldn’t. She was still unsure about him. And she couldn’t subject Oli’s private life to public scrutiny.

  ‘Freddy set Tiger Wu on you. If he’d do that, he wouldn’t draw the line at a drive-by.’

  Lily’s mouth dropped open. ‘What, you think Jase could have been in that car?’

  Nick shrugged. ‘Can’t prove it. Yet.’

  ‘But you think it was him.’

  ‘Yeah. I do. He’s looking to regain favour with Si and Freddy. How better than to get to you? I’m telling you, Lily, you don’t ever let him in here again. Not ever, you got me?’

  This was all getting messy. Too messy. She thought again of what Jack had said. Fuck off to a distant shore and sip pina coladas. It was looking more and more appealing. Saz still hated her. Leo had boffed a whole tribe of women, any one of which could have taken it into her screwy head to kill him. The Kings were trying their damnedest to see her in hell. And now this.

  All right, she’d never liked Jase. She thought he was muscle-bound, thick-headed and handsome, nothing more. When he’d hit Oli, he’d screwed any chance of making Lily alter that opinion. But now…now she was supposed to believe that he was in that car, shooting at her, trying to kill her?

  But I’m Oli’s mother.

  Would Jase for a single moment baulk at causing Oli pain? The bastard had hit her. Impregnated her too. What else had he done to her, Lily wondered? And the thought of how Oli’s life could have panned out made Lily’s blood turn to ice. Married to an aggressive oik like that. Tied to him. Used and abused as a punchbag when his temper boiled over – as inevitably it would.

  ‘He’s never coming in here again,’ she said to Nick.

  Nick let out a breath. ‘Good.’

  Oli came back into the kitchen. She was off the phone at last.

  ‘Hi, Nick,’ she said with a smile.

  ‘Hiya, Oli,’ returned Nick.

  ‘I’m gonna have to love you and leave you,’ said Oli, giving Lily a peck on the cheek. She glanced at her watch. ‘I’m late already. Bye.’

  She was gone, out the back door, revving up her little car and shooting off down the drive.

  ‘She don’t seem broken-hearted,’ said Nick.

  ‘She ain’t, and I’m pleased about that. I think…’ Lily caught herself.

  ‘You think what?’ Nick was looking at her curiously.

  Lily stared at his face. Finally she decided to say it. ‘I think she got over him the moment he hit her.’

  ‘He what?’

  Lily nodded. ‘When he did that, she switched off. It was finished.’

  ‘The jumped-up little tick,’ said Nick.

  ‘I never liked him.’

  ‘Well, thank God she saw the light.’

  Silence fell between them. They were inches apart. Around them, the house was silent, waiting. The phone started ringing. Lily stiffened, let it ring.

  ‘You want to get that?’ he asked.

  ‘No,’ she said, because it could be the breather again, saying nothing, trying to frighten her. Fucking well succeeding, too. He’d called several times now. It could be Freddy. Could be anyone. No, she didn’t want to get it.

  ‘Nick…did you know about Julia? About what happened to her face?’ asked Lily.

  He stared at her for long moments. Then he let out a breath. Nodded.

  ‘Is that why you didn’t want me seeing her?’

  ‘I thought…’ He paused, his nearly black eyes holding hers. ‘…I thought it would distress you. And maybe make you doubt me. Make you think I had something to do with it.’

  ‘I didn’t think that,’ said Lily. ‘I don’t think you’d do something so fucking cowardly.’

  ‘Don’t they say poison and acid are a woman’s tools?’

  ‘God, do they?’ Lily shuddered.

  ‘Tell me you’ve stopped looking into all this troublesome shit,’ he said, and took her hand.

  ‘All right. I’ve stopped looking into all this troublesome shit.’

  Nick sighed. ‘Now tell me the truth.’

  ‘I can’t stop. Not until I know the answer.’

  ‘The answer to who killed Leo.’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘Look, if you’re going on with this, at least take me with you on your next escapade.’

  ‘Tell me again that it wasn’t you who did it.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Killed Leo.’

  ‘It wasn’t me who killed Leo, Lily. Are you mad? And let you stew inside all those years? Are you crazy? No, Lily – it wasn’t me.’ He was smiling slightly. He leaned forward and kissed her again, parting her lips with his tongue, invading her, taking her over. Lily actually felt her head start to spin. He pulled back a little, looked deep into her eyes. ‘Kill Leo and inflict all that on you? Never. Let’s go to bed.’

  ‘It’s ten o’clock in the morning.’

  ‘Perfect,’ he said, and kissed her again.

  Lily was asleep when the phone started ringing. She sprang up in the bed, alarmed, bewildered, wondering what was going on, where she was…then it came back to her. Nick had been here, and after a couple of blissful hours he’d left, and she had fallen asleep and now it was one o’clock, her stomach was growling with hunger and the damned phone was ringing again.

  The breather, she thought, looking at it as if it might be about to bite her. It rang and rang, and then she thought, Fuck this.

  Lily picked up. ‘Hello?’ she asked, feeling her chest constrict, dreading the sound she just knew she was going to hear.

  ‘Lily?’ asked a masculine voice on the other end of the line.

  ‘Jack?’ She thought it was him, but he sounded odd. Not his usual chirpy self.

  ‘Lily, turn on the BBC news. Turn it on right now.’

  Lily scrabbled under the pillow for the remote. She aimed it at the little TV over on the dresser, and the set hummed into life. She pressed one. The reporter telling the nation about what had happened. Saw the picture, the little arcade of shops cordoned off with police tapes, the blackened front door, the upstairs windows all blown out from the heat of the blaze…

  Jesus!

  ‘Where are you?’ she managed to say to Jack at last.

  ‘At the office. Lily, I’m getting a bad feeling about all this. Julia. Alice. Now this.’

  Lily felt sick to her stomach. She thought of Saz, saying over and over, I’m sorry, Daddy. Thought of her and Leo out in the grounds, shooting clays. Thought of Adrienne and her list of rivals for Leo’s affection.

  ‘Look, I’ll come over,’ she said, although she didn’t want to, she didn’t want to set foot outside the house now. She was safe in here. Out there…who knew? She thought of Leo’s Magnum, tucked safely away. This is what it’s like for Julia, she thought, and her whole being rebelled at that. She would not become like Julia, caged by her fears. No way.

  ‘Jack…?’ she said.

  But there was a brief noise in the background and then Jack was gone.

  Jack dropped the phone. A very large black man with dreadlocks and a machete had just kicked open his office door. He thought, Winston, the plantain man at Suki and Bev’s place, and then Winston launched himself at Jack, screaming, yelling about how they’d brought death to his home, him and the King woman, and death was all they deserved in return, and he thought, Oh shit, this is it, gonna die, and Winston waded in and there was only pain, pain, pain.

  Lily quickly switched off the TV. She tried Jack’s number, but only got the engaged signal. She swore and dialled a different number.

  ‘Come on, come on, pick up,’ she muttered.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘Adrienne?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Caution in her voice now. ‘Who’s that?’

/>   ‘It’s Lily. Adrienne, did you ever discuss that list of yours with Saz or Oli?’

  ‘What, the list of tarts Leo was bedding?’

  You were one of them, thought Lily, but bit it back. No good riling Adrienne up. ‘Is there any other fucking list?’ she snapped.

  ‘No. Of course I didn’t. Why would I want to upset them? It had nothing to do with them, they never hurt a soul.’

  Oh God, please let her be right about that, prayed Lily.

  ‘Adrienne,’ said Lily, and then paused, unsure of what she wanted to say.

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Take care.’ She didn’t know what was kicking off here, and she didn’t want to run around spooking anyone, but Jack was right, this was all starting to look very odd indeed.

  That blackened front door was burned into her brain. Oh God. Suki and her death card…

  ‘What?’

  ‘Look, just take care. People on that list are coming to grief. So…just be careful, will you?’

  Before Adrienne could reply, Lily put the phone down. She was going to have to go out again. But she was frightened. She thought of Julia, locked inside by fear, and her own fear ate at her. She went upstairs and fetched the Magnum, loaded it and slipped it into her bag. She wouldn’t use it. She daren’t. But just carrying it would make her feel safer. She came back downstairs and dialled out again. Nick picked up straight away.

  ‘I need you to come with me somewhere,’ she said.

  ‘Okay. I’ll come back over.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Pleasure,’ he said, and hung up.

  56

  Nick was there in his Mercedes within the hour, and boy was Lily glad to see him. He asked where she wanted to go and without fuss he drove her there. She’d had time to get washed and dressed, but she’d been too shaken to eat. Anything she swallowed would just come straight back up, she was sure of that.

  In her mind’s eye she saw again the blackened door beside the little shopping arcade, the drone of the newsman’s voice. A woman dead in a house fire. But the police suspected arson. And the dead person was Suki Carmody, who had seen something bad in Lily’s cards, who had been afraid and had tried to warn Lily to take care.