by Jake Arnott
‘What, no envelope?’
‘No George. No envelope. As a matter of fact, Harry wants to know where all the money’s been going. You’ve been keeping it all for yourself, haven’t you?’
He smiled coyly.
‘I’ve been a naughty boy, Ruby.’
‘Cut it out, George. Some of that cash needs to go upstairs. That was the deal.’
Mooney shrugged, noncommittal.
‘And a whole shipment from Scandinavia’s been seized. What’s going on?’
‘I’m afraid Customs and Excise is a little out of my patch.’
‘So who tipped them off ?’
He shrugged again.
‘Look,’ I said. ‘I thought the deal was that you’d be able to hand up grasses.’
‘I can. If it’s in my jurisdiction.’
‘Can’t you ask Customs for a name?’
Mooney laughed.
‘I’m afraid that the Excise men don’t really trust the Dirty Squad. They have this nasty notion that stuff we impound simply turns up on the market again with just an extra mark-up price.’
‘Well, Harry needs to know where he can bring the stuff in safely.’
‘He’ll think of something.’
‘And the money you owe your Chief Super?’
‘Well, that’s another matter. Mr Starks might just have to make another payment.’
‘Harry won’t like that.’
‘No, I don’t suppose he will. But then I would have thought that he has more pressing matters on his mind at the moment.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Harry’s headed for a fall. Tony Stavrakakis is now officially an RI.’
‘RI?’
‘Resident Informer. Doesn’t fancy such a long stretch, so he’s dictating his memoirs to the Serious Crime Squad.’
‘Harry needs to know about this.’
‘Oh, well, I’ve got the feeling he already does. Not much he can do, though. Not with Stavrakakis in a nice secure cell with a colour telly and all. Once this Kray trial is over and they’re put away for good, Harry’s next in the firing line. There’s a lot of pressure from up top to make sure no one fills the vacuum. So maybe Mr Starks won’t be with us for very much longer. We need to think how we might go about business without him.’
‘You can’t be serious.’
‘Why not? We just need to find somebody who can take over. This racket won’t last for ever. The Sunday People are snooping around, trying to stir up an anti-filth crusade. And some of the top rank of the Met are beginning to get suspicious about the Dirty Squad. It’s good for a couple of years, I reckon. Plenty of time to make plenty of money, Ruby. Harry or no Harry.’
‘And then what?’
‘I’m thinking of taking early retirement. With all of this cash I should be able to find somewhere warm and quiet to live out my days. Southern Spain, I was thinking. Somewhere on the Costa del Sol.’
He gazed off, looking wistful. Then his eyes narrowed on me.
‘It would be nice to have a companion, Ruby.’
‘What?’
‘I mean it, Ruby. Starks has run out of luck. I could offer you a safe haven. Protection. You never know, you might need it. I wouldn’t ask much in return.’
‘George . . .’
‘Think about it, Ruby.’
I phoned Harry the next day.
‘Harry, we need to talk.’
‘Ruby!’ he sounded excited. ‘Come over. We’re going for drinks with Johnnie. Guess where we’re going?’
‘Harry, this is important.’
He didn’t seem to hear me.
‘We’re going around to see Judy.’
‘Harry . . .’
‘Judy, Ruby. Judy Garland. Can you believe that? Come and join us.’
Judy Garland was staying in a mews house just around the corner from Sloane Square with her new fiancé, Mickey Deans. Judy was wearing a psychedelic paisley trouser suit, her deathly pallid face framed by a shock of dyed-black hair. Mickey had carefully tousled shoulder-length hair and sideburns. He wore a polo-neck sweater under a mohair suit. He had a washed-out look about his face that made him look older than he was. He still looked a lot younger than Judy. But then everybody did.
Harry, of course, insisted on photographs. Finally completing his showbiz gallery with the long-sought-after prize of his collection. Harry with Judy Garland. The gangster looking stern but benevolent, Judy’s death mask suddenly coming to life with instinctive eyes and teeth animation by the miraculous light of the flashbulb. Everybody took turns at lining up as if we were all old friends at a reunion.
Tommy was camera shy, which wasn’t like him. It may have been because he was sporting a bit of a black eye but there was something else as well. He’d become kind of sullen in the past couple of days. He’d given up all his dreams of acting. Instead he’d started getting involved in Harry’s businesses. He’d become serious. He seemed to be viewing the whole occasion with a newly found disdain. He sidled up to me and nodded towards Judy.
‘Look at her,’ he muttered conspiratorially. ‘She’s falling apart right in front of us.’
‘Tommy,’ I chided him softly.
‘Well,’ he said with a casual cruelty, ‘who needs a healthy Judy Garland?’
Meanwhile Harry talked up his charity work to Judy.
‘Boys’ clubs, deprived kids, that sort of thing.’
‘That sounds nn, very rewarding,’ slurred Judy.
‘In fact, I often organise special events. Charity evenings. If you could be a guest at one of them . . .’
‘You mean nn, sing?’
‘No, not sing. Well, you could if you wanted to. But I mean if you could make an appearance. The boys would really appreciate that.’
Judy smiled and nodded blankly.
‘An appearance,’ she repeated.
‘At my club.’
‘You run a club?’ Judy asked. ‘My fiancé runs a club in New York. Don’t you, Mickey?’
Mickey nodded. Harry looked over and they sized each other up for a second, and then smiled. The talk was all Judy and Mickey getting married once the divorce had come through, Judy and Johnnie Ray working together. They’d done an impromptu duet one night at the Talk of the Town and brought the house down. No one mentioned what terrible shape she was obviously in or how she’d barely made it through her last residency. Everyone colluded in the Judy Garland Lazarus act.
I finally cornered Harry in the kitchen as he was preparing the next round of martinis. I told him about Mooney keeping the money.
‘Bastard,’ he hissed. ‘Well there’s not much we can do for now. I’ll just have to pay his superiors direct. He thinks he can have me over. We’ll find some way of dealing with Mooney. In the meantime, we need to get our hard-core stuff into the country. We need to know where we’re safe bringing it in. Does he know anything?’
‘He said it was out of his jurisdiction.’
‘Well, we’ll have to think of something otherwise no one’s getting any gelt. Look, let’s talk about this tomorrow.’
We went back into the drawing room. Johnnie and Judy were at the piano going through a rather shaky version of ‘Am I Blue?’ Harry talked with Mickey in a quiet, business-like intimacy. They talked up clubs and possible joint-business ventures.
I took a drink over to Tommy. I couldn’t help staring at the yellow-edged bruise under his right eye.
‘What happened to you?’
He frowned.
‘Your face.’
‘When he’s in a bad mood he takes it out on me,’ he replied flatly.
I felt a sudden stab of anger towards Harry. He could be a real bastard. I gently stroked Tommy’s face, then quickly took my hand away, looking around guiltily.
Johnnie’s and Judy’s harmonies grated. Bill looked on, forcing encouragements. Harry and Mickey talked of a European tour. They’re still big stars there.
‘Can I walk you home after this?’ asked Tommy. ‘I want to
talk to you.’
I nodded. Piano chords plodded like a funeral march. Harry mentioned Scandinavia. Judy squawked off key. Mickey winced.
‘You’ll have to do better than that!’ he hollered. The music stopped.
‘Now, Mickey that’s not nn, very nice,’ Judy muttered softly.
Then it all started to get ugly. Brandy, their alsatian dog, started to bark along to the row like he knew the routine. Johnnie and Bill looked on helpless. Me, Harry and Tommy made our excuses and left.
‘What a bloody farce,’ Tommy commented as he walked with me back to my flat.
‘Tommy,’ I said to him. ‘We need to talk.’
‘I know, Ruby,’ he replied, almost indignantly. ‘I know.’
‘What happened the other night, well, it was a mistake. It’s best if Harry doesn’t know about it, though. It’s best if we just forget it.’
‘Ruby . . .’
‘Please, Tommy. Let’s be sensible about this.’
Tommy chuckled softly.
‘You worry too much.’
‘Yeah, and with good reason.’
‘It’ll all be all right, Ruby. I promise.’
We reached the door to my flat.
‘I’ve got plans,’ he said rather grandly. ‘It’ll all be fine.’
I didn’t like the sound of this.
‘Goodnight, Tommy,’ I said and went to kiss him on the cheek.
He grabbed me and held me in an embrace, pressing his mouth into mine. I gave in to it. Stupid cow, I thought to myself. But I couldn’t help it. My resolve just melted inside me. He drew his head back and looked at me. His eyes looked grey and determined.
‘We’ll be all right,’ he said, and then he was gone.
I was going through a new routine with the girls at The Stardust. We spent most of the morning working on how to get tit tassels to rotate properly. Harry arrived about lunchtime. He looked terrible. His face was pallid, eyes all puffy from booze and anti-depressants.
‘Very nice,’ he commented wearily, looking up at the stage.
‘OK girls,’ I called out. ‘Let’s break for lunch.’
I followed him up to the office. He had a bundle of daily papers under one arm. He dropped them on the desk. All the headlines screamed out about the Krays. END OF A REIGN OF TERROR, THE FIRM THAT RULED THE EAST END BY FEAR, THE NEAREST WE CAME TO AL CAPONE.
‘Thirty years for the Twins,’ Harry muttered. ‘They’re really crowing over this one, Rube.’
‘An end of an era.’
Harry gave a hollow laugh.
‘Yeah. And no love lost there. But it means I’m vulnerable. I’ve got a feeling that I’m next in line.’
‘Really?’ I acted surprise.
‘Yeah. Somebody’s grassing. And I can’t get to them. There’s a case being built up against me. I need to start pulling a few strings myself. I want you to talk to Mooney about it.’
I nodded.
‘See if he can’t bring some influence to bear on the Serious Crime Squad,’ he went on. ‘Slow it all down a bit, at least. Buy me a bit of time.’
‘I’ll try.’
‘In the meantime I need to sort out our wholesalers. We need to keep our supplies coming in, whatever else is happening. I might have to go abroad for a few days soon.’
He lit up a fag. I stood up.
‘I’ll talk to Mooney,’ I said.
‘Thanks. There is one other thing.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Tommy.’
I froze.
‘I’m worried about the kid,’ he said. ‘Something’s bothering him. I know he’s disappointed about this acting business not working out. He’s got involved with the firm but he’s acting all lairy. Throwing his weight about like he owns the racket. I don’t know what’s got into him.’
Harry took a drag and sighed the smoke out.
‘I know I’m not easy to get on with. But it’s like he’s winding me up.’
‘How?’
‘I don’t know, Rube. Little things. I don’t know what he’s talking about half the time. Could you have a word? I know you’re close. And he talks to you.’
‘Yeah, Harry,’ I said. ‘Sure.’
‘Thanks, Rube.’ He stared at me. ‘I love that boy.’
Mickey Deans became Judy Garland’s fifth husband at Chelsea Register Office at noon on March 15. They both looked slightly bewildered as the registrar droned out their real names. Will you, Michael De Vinko, take you, Frances Ethel Gumm? Judy slurred her words so that when she tried to repeat the line: ‘I know of no lawful impediment why I cannot marry this man,’ it came out as ‘I know of no, nn awful impediment . . .’. One of the journalists sniggered and quickly scrawled something in shorthand.
Judy wore a chiffon mini dress festooned with ostrich feathers. Thick eye liner darkened sockets in a ghostly white face. She looked like some strange bird. Exotic and near extinction. She clung on desperately to Mickey with claw-like hands. He sported a plum-coloured suit with a regency-style collar and a cravat. Johnnie Ray was best man.
The reception was at Quaglino’s. There was an impressive guest list, including many American stars who were currently working in Britain. Bette Davies, Veronica Lake, Ginger Rogers, Eva Gabor, as well as John Gielgud, James Mason, Peter Finch and Lawrence Harvey were all invited. None of them turned up. There was Glyn Jones and Bumbles Dawson, Johnnie Ray, Bill, me, Harry and Tommy. The small crowd of journalists and photographers present were unable to make the occasion look well attended. The only other guest was a crippled fan who believed that listening to Judy sing could make her walk. She was treated to a croaky rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ but she remained in her chair throughout the reception.
The cake arrived, courtesy of the Talk of the Town, but it hadn’t been defrosted. It was frozen solid and could not be cut. Judy got horribly drunk. Harry talked intently with Mickey Deans.
Judy and Mickey then left to fly off to Paris for a honeymoon. Four concert dates in Scandinavia with Johnnie Ray had been booked by Mickey, and they were all going to meet up in Stockholm for the beginning of the short tour.
After the party Harry broke it to us that he was going to go over to Sweden for a few days too. He’d been involved in the bookings in some way and he had some business lined up as well. No doubt sorting out a way of getting Scans into the country safely.
We saw him off at the airport a few days later. He and Tommy said their goodbyes awkwardly. Harry patting Tommy on the shoulder, wary of showing affection in public. Tommy nodding solemnly as Harry said a few words. Then Harry quickly leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.
‘Keep an eye on the kid,’ he whispered and turned to walk through to his Departure gate.
But I kept away from Tommy. Harry being away was a great temptation. I tried not to think about it. It was all too dangerous.
Instead I concentrated on business matters. I met Mooney in a hotel bar in South Kensington. Kray talk was still in the air.
‘Nipper Read held this big party in a hotel in King’s Cross. I wasn’t invited. Once the celebrating’s over, Harry will be definitely in the firing line.’
‘Harry wants to know if there isn’t anything you can do about that.’
‘I doubt it. The squad is notoriously incorruptible. They’re not even based at the Yard. They’re running everything across the river at Tintagel House. Can’t be got at. No, I think our mutual friend’s days are numbered. He’s out of the country, I believe.’
I nodded.
‘Well, it’s probably good for him to be out of the way for a while. And it’s a good time to think about how we can work things out without him.’
‘Come on, George.’
‘I’m serious, Ruby. I’ve already talked to someone on his own firm who’s ready to take over once he goes down.’
‘And what if I tell Harry that you’re planning to stitch him up?’
‘Oh, you wouldn’t do that, Ruby.’
‘Wouldn’t I, no
w?’
‘No, I don’t think so. You see, it might force me to let slip a certain bit of information.’
‘Like what?’
‘Like about you and this young lad, Tommy.’
Mooney gave an evil little smile. I sat staring with my mouth open. How did he know?
‘He wouldn’t like that, now. Would he?’
‘How . . .’
‘How do I know? Oh, you’d be surprised what I know about people. I can’t say that I approve, Ruby. But I’m willing to keep quiet about it. For now. But maybe you’ll consider my offer more seriously.’
‘What do you mean?’
Mooney fished about in an inside pocket and pulled out a photograph. He handed it over to me. It was a picture of a whitewashed villa.
‘Llanos de Nagueles,’ he announced. ‘It’s near Marbella. My little place in the sun. A couple more years of making money out of filth and then I’ll have somewhere to retire to. The day might come when you’ll need somewhere to escape to.’
‘I don’t think so, George.’
‘Oh, I can understand your reluctance. But you’ll come around. I can fix things, Ruby. I can fix things so that you come out of all of this all right. Or, I could fix things so that—’
He shrugged. His little eyes blinked.
‘Let’s put it this way, you wouldn’t want me as your enemy.’
I spent the next few days just trying to carry on and trying to figure out what the hell to do. Everything was out of control. A husband in prison I didn’t love any more. Harry out of the country using the Judy Garland/Johnnie Ray Scandinavian tour as a cover for hard-core porn smuggling. The Serious Crime Squad all ready to nick him for a list of past misdemeanours as long as your arm. Detective Chief Inspector Mooney virtually trying to blackmail me into becoming his ‘companion’. I tried to think it all through. And I kept coming back to Tommy.
How did Mooney know? Who else knew? Whatever happens, I thought, we need to get our story straight. At first, when there was no word from him, I felt relieved, as if I could put the whole thing out of my mind. Then I started to worry. Then I had a thought as disturbing as any of the others. I missed him.
Finally he phoned.
‘Why are you avoiding me, Ruby?’ he asked.
