Scorned

by Kerry Kaya

  “Have to be, don’t I?” There was an edginess to her voice. Sat with her hands folded in her lap, she began twirling her wedding band around her finger. “What was that all about? Why were you and my Jake cossetted together?”

  Jimmy shrugged his shoulders. He could hardly tell her the truth about Jake and the murder of Ronald Browning. “I was just seeing if he was okay, that’s all. It’s been a tough day for everyone.”

  “He isn’t cut out for your world, if that’s what you were wondering.” She took note of her brother-in-law’s raised eyebrows and gave a hollow laugh. “I’m not blind, or stupid, for that matter, Jimmy. I know what Tommy did for a living, and I don’t want my baby dragged into that.” She paused, trying to find the right words. “That line of work, okay?”

  Jimmy nodded his head, and turning in her seat to face him, Stacey stopped twirling her wedding band. Her eyes were cold as she spoke. “Someone in this room must know what happened to him.” Her voice began to rise, and there was a hint of underlying hysteria. “Someone must know.”

  “I don’t think so.” Jimmy looked around him at the mourners. The majority of them were business associates, men who Tommy had trusted. They would have had nothing to gain from his death.

  She continued to stare around the room. “My Jake is innocent, and I want to keep it that way. So leave him be.”

  “Point taken, Stace.” Jimmy averted his eyes. It was too late. Whether she liked it or not, Jake was a Carter, and he had already proved that fact to be more than true.

  Stacey watched as her brother-in-law lifted a balloon glass to his lips and she eyed him warily. “I mean it, Jimmy,” she warned.

  * * *

  Two hundred miles away, Karen Carter balanced a tray filled with used crockery on her hip. With her free hand, she wiped the sweat away from her forehead, as she manoeuvred her way around the busy café.

  Talk about a greasy spoon. No matter how much she showered, she could still smell the stale stench of chip fat on her hair and clothes. Not that she was complaining. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was lucky to have been able to land a job so soon after arriving in Liverpool. And even though she was earning less than half of what she did at her old job at the estate agents, she was making enough to be able to pay for a small box room in a run-down house.

  The majority of the occupants were either students, or dossers on the dole, who had no intention of working, preferring to spend their day getting stoned. They gave her a wide berth, and that suited Karen, down to the ground. She didn’t want anyone poking their nose into her business, and more than anything, she didn’t want anyone to find out who she really was.

  “Karen, these pots need washing.” Maria Mariano’s shrill voice rang out. As the matriarch of the Mariano family, she may have been tiny in stature, but her temper was fierce. With a mop of thick, dark hair piled high on top of her head, she gave Karen a cold stare. “Look how many customers are waiting. You need to move quicker if you want to keep a job here.”

  “Leave her be, Mum, she’s been working flat out.” Standing beside the cash register, set on top of a tea stained counter, Marco Mariano rolled his eyes, as he flashed Karen a wide smile.

  Smiling her gratitude, Karen rolled up her sleeves and delved her hands into a sink full of hot, soapy water. She could hear Maria tutting behind her, and kept her eyes lowered, as she heard the older woman give her son a clout around the ear.

  She wasn’t stupid. She knew Marco found her attractive. On more than one occasion, she’d noticed him watching her as she worked. She could only hope and pray that he didn’t try anything on. He wasn’t her type, and more than anything, she needed this job.

  The last thing she wanted was a boyfriend to complicate matters. No, the only thing she wanted was a roof over her head until she could work out what she was going to do with her life, and more importantly, how she was going to stay one step ahead of her uncles.

  * * *

  With brandies in front of them, Jimmy, Mad Dog, Danny, and Moray were standing at the bar.

  “I still say he knew the shooter,” Danny stated.

  Jimmy shrugged his shoulders. No matter how much he tried to wrack his brain on the subject of his brother’s murder, he was still no nearer to finding the answers he so desperately wanted. Only Tommy and Gary had known about the meeting in Tilbury, and unless he’d been followed there, he just couldn’t see his brother knowing the gunman.

  He glanced across the bar and watched Gary laughing out loud as though he didn’t have a care in the world. In that moment, he envied his brother’s lack of emotion. He would give anything to not be able to feel the loss of his elder brother. He continued watching. If only Gary had arrived at the warehouse ten minutes earlier, then just maybe, Tommy would still be alive.

  “Maybe he stumbled across something? And it’s simply a case of he was in the wrong place at the wrong time? You said yourself, the area is desolate. Maybe he was a witness to something?”

  “I dunno.” Moray broke Jimmy’s thoughts and he shook his head. The possibilities were endless; he knew that much. Ever since Tommy had been gunned down, in his mind, he had gone over every possible scenario, and still nothing added up; still nothing made sense to him. He gulped down his brandy and smiled his gratitude as a second filled glass was thrust into his hand. This one is for you, Tommy, he thought to himself, as he silently made a toast to his brother.

  * * *

  Two days later, Jimmy was sat behind the desk in the scrapyard office.

  “So, where do you want me to work?”

  Looking across at his nephew, he rubbed his hand over his jaw and inwardly groaned. A large part of him had hoped that Jake would have forgotten all about wanting to join the business.

  “You promised me,” Jake added. When he sensed his uncle begin to falter, he placed his hands on the desk and leaned forward. His voice was strong as he spoke. “Where do you want me?”

  “Look, Jake, your mum isn’t gonna be happy about you working …”

  “I don’t care what my mum thinks,” Jake interrupted. “I’m not a little kid anymore. I need to do this for my dad. Where do you want me?”

  Reluctantly, Jimmy nodded his head. “Yeah, you’re right, you are not a kid.” Jake was a Carter all right. He had the same steely glint in his eyes that Tommy had had, and ever since he’d cut his long hair into a short-cropped hairstyle, he was his father’s double, even more so than Liam, and that was saying something. “Okay, I’ll send you out with Jonny to collect the debts. He’ll show you the ropes.”

  Satisfied, Jake straightened up. “Thanks, Uncle Jimmy. I won’t let you down.”

  “I know you won’t.” Deep in thought, he pushed a stack of paperwork across the desk as he watched his nephew walk out of the office and jog across the scrapyard to catch up with his uncle.

  “So, you’ve got the kid working here as well now?”

  “Yeah.” Jimmy turned to look at Gary. “Stace will go ballistic. She’s already warned me that she doesn’t want him getting involved.”

  “Fuck Stacey. The silly bitch doesn’t know anything,” he answered, hiding the fact that he was annoyed that another of Tommy’s sons had joined the business.

  “Well, she has just lost her husband,” Jimmy reasoned.

  “And?”

  “Yeah, you’re right.” Jimmy thought it over. “And besides, the boys will take over the business at some point. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that he’s so keen.”

  Gary could barely keep the snarl from his face. “So, you’re still gonna go down that route then, and gear up for the boys to take over?”

  Jimmy spread out his arms. “They are Tommy’s sons. It’s only right, bruv, and it’s what he would have wanted.”

  It was the last thing that Gary wanted to hear, and once again, his eyes wandered to the filing cabinet.

  “It’s empty, Gal, I’ve already told you that.”

  “What?” Gary shrugged his shoulders. “I didn
’t even ask.”

  Rolling his eyes, Jimmy sighed. As Tommy had often pointed out, Gary would be Gary, all the while, he had a hole in his arse.

  * * *

  Bethany glared at her son. She was sick and tired of seeing his miserable face. If anyone should be miserable, then it should have been her. After all, she was the one who had just lost the love of her life. “What’s wrong with you?” she snapped.

  “You know what.” Pushing himself away from the breakfast bar, Cameron walked across the kitchen to the patio doors, and leaning against the wooden door frame, he stared out across the sprawling manicured lawn. The problem was, he hadn’t expected to miss Karen as much as he did. From day one, he’d known that this moment would come, and that he would have to severe ties with her, but still, it didn’t make the situation any easier.

  “You’d best buck your ideas up.” Bethany pointed her finger across the room. “Moping around the house isn’t going to help you, is it?” She watched him sigh and then storm out of the kitchen, and had to fight the urge not to throw her coffee cup at his retreating back.

  She sat down in the seat her son had vacated and rested her chin on her hand. Despite her confidence, she was worried. By rights, Gary should have had in his possession the deeds to Tommy’s businesses, and for the life of her, she couldn’t understand what was taking him so long in retrieving them.

  Never send a boy to do a man’s job. It was an old saying of her dad’s, and not for the first time, did she believe it to be true where her son’s father was concerned. No, there was only one thing for it. If Gary Carter didn’t come up with the goods, and soon, then she would have to take matters into her own hands. She had no other choice on the matter.

  * * *

  Stepping out of the scrapyard office, Jimmy looked around him before striding across the forecourt. He stopped beside the burnt-out wreckage of what was once a well-loved silver Ford Capri. Glancing over his shoulder, he checked that the coast was clear, then crouched down and reached his hand up inside the rusting wheel arch. With relative ease, he pulled out a tattered notebook, and with the book tucked safely underneath his arm, he made his way back inside the office.

  He sat down heavily in his chair, placed the notebook on the desk, and spread it open. The pages were well worn, yellowing, and spotted with rust, the corners dog-eared. Flicking through the thick book that had been passed down after the death of their boss, Davey Abbott, he bypassed jagged stubs of torn paper. The worn pages containing details of previous armed robberies they had carried out had been crudely ripped out and destroyed by Tommy himself.

  Finally, he came to the last entry his brother had made. As usual, he could make head, nor tail of the cryptic notes that had been written down. He sat back in his seat, thinking it over. He couldn’t help but smile. Trust Tommy, he thought to himself. The planning of his brother’s next heist was virtually impossible to decipher.

  He rubbed at his temples, shifted his weight in the seat, and stared down at the book once more as he pondered over the sprawling writing. Two words circled in thick, red marker jumped out at him. Diamond Geezer. What exactly Tommy had meant by that, he had no idea.

  The arrival of Gary forced him to slam the book closed and shove it inside the desk drawer. “You okay, bruv?”

  Gary lifted his eyebrows in the way of a greeting, and lounged back in a torn and battered brown leather tub chair. In his hand, he held a half-eaten bacon sandwich and he took a bite, chewed, swallowed, and then wiped away a trickle of grease from his chin.

  Clearing his throat, Jimmy spoke. “Did you know that Tommy was planning another job?”

  “No.” Picking a newspaper up from the floor beside him, he continued to eat his sandwich and read through the headlines.

  “So, he didn’t say anything?”

  “No.”

  “What, nothing at all?”

  Gary looked up from the newspaper. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you not listening to a word I’m saying? I’ve just told you, no.”

  Jimmy shrank back in the chair. “All right, keep your fucking hair on, I was only asking.”

  Rolling his eyes, Gary brushed bread crumbs away from the front of his shirt and went back to reading his newspaper. “I’ll tell you what you could do,” he said, looking up. “Get the two boys to plan the job out. After all, they are the future of the business.”

  “Don’t try and be fucking funny, Gal.”

  “What?” Gary asked with mock innocence. “You said yourself, you’re gearing up for the boys to take over. This’ll be their chance to prove they’ve got what it takes.”

  “They’re kids. They know fuck all about planning a robbery.”

  “And?” A smirk spread across Gary’s face. “You’re the one who keeps banging on about it.” His voice took on a sing-song tone as he mimicked Jimmy’s voice. “They’re Tommy’s boys. So,” he said becoming serious, “let’s see just how much like their old man they really are.”

  Ignoring his brother, Jimmy leaned back in the chair. After what seemed an age, he spoke. “I think we should do this last job, in Tommy’s memory.” He watched Gary’s reaction closely, and continued. “Tommy was working on something and I think we should see it through. We owe him that much.”

  “Whatever.” Uninterested, Gary went back to his newspaper.

  With his fingers steepled in front of him, Jimmy was deep in thought. Diamond Geezer. In his mind, he went over the two words circled in thick, red marker. Diamonds. With a sudden clarity, he sat upright. It was so obvious, he had to stop himself from physically slapping his palm across his forehead.

  There could be no other explanation for it. Tommy must have been planning on stealing a haul of diamonds. All he had to do was decipher the notebook to find out where and when. A smile spread across his face as he lit a cigarette. Inhaling the smoke deep into his lungs, he exhaled slowly. This one will be for you, Tommy, he grinned to himself.

  * * *

  Marco Mariano watched Karen through hooded eyes. With slicked back collar-length dark hair, he ran his tongue across his fleshy lips. Just the mere thought of her sent his mind into overdrive and his cock standing to attention. He watched her as she slipped on her jacket and fetched her handbag from the peg beside the staff toilet.

  “Night.”

  Hastily, he tore his eyes away from the tight sweater covering her ample breasts to look at her face. “Night,” he called after her. He counted to two and then grabbed up the shop keys, switched off the overhead lights, and made his way outside.

  After locking the shop up for the night, he began to walk down the street. He could see Karen a few feet ahead of him, and maintaining a reasonable distance, he began to follow. There was something about the little Cockney girl that sent his pulse racing. She was just his type, and whether she liked it or not, he was determined to get to know her a lot better.

  Chapter 15

  Sat at the desk with his head bowed, Jimmy worked his way through the notebook. As far as he was aware, there was just one area in London that specialised in diamonds—just one area that was at the centre of the diamond trade in the United Kingdom, and that place was Hatton Garden. He continued reading. Could this be where Tommy was planning the next heist?

  Flipping the notebook closed, he stood up and walked across to the window. He could recall Tommy telling him he had seen the perfect venue. That must mean his brother, at some point, had visited the location, but where that was and why he had even visited in the first place, he had no idea.

  The shrill ring of the telephone broke his thoughts, and he strode across the office to answer the call. It was Stacey. He listened intently to what she had to say and rubbed at his temples. “I’ll be there in thirty minutes, Stace.” He replaced the telephone receiver onto the cradle and sighed. He just hoped and prayed that she hadn’t got wind of young Jake joining the business.

  * * *

  Stacey scooped two tablespoonsful of coffee granules into the percolator. Unlike Tomm
y, she wasn’t much of a coffee drinker, and had always much preferred a cup of tea, but seeing as she had dark rings underneath her eyes and felt so drawn and tired of late, she had switched to coffee, hoping that the caffeine would make her feel somewhat more alive.

  She heard a car pull onto the drive and walked out to the hallway. Flinging open the front door, she stood on the doorstep waiting for her brother-in-law to join her.

  “Jimmy.” She gave him a small smile and tilted her head to the side so he could dutifully kiss her cheek. No sooner had he stepped across the threshold, when she began to weep.

  “Come here.” Jimmy pulled his sister-in-law into his arms and kissed the top of head. She looked so sad and vulnerable that his heart went out to her. The death of his brother had, as predicted, hit her hard, and as his arms went around her slim frame, he could feel her bones jutting out of the thin woollen sweater she wore. “It’s going to be okay, Stace.” He led her into the kitchen, sat her down at the oak table, and crouched down beside her. “I promise you that you will get through this. It’s just going to take time adjusting, that’s all.”

  Stacey swiped her fingertips across her eyes. “I know,” she answered, sniffing back her tears. “I just miss him so much; I feel lost without him.”

  “I know you do.” Jimmy gave her a sad smile and straightened up. “We all miss him.”

  “It’s this house; it’s too big.” She spread out her arms and slumped back in the chair. “I feel like I’m rattling around in it all by myself. It doesn’t feel like home anymore. The boys are never here. I don’t think they want to be left alone in the house with me. And Karen …,” she let out a strangled sob. “Where the bloody hell is Karen?”