Born Evil (28 page)

Charlie patted his mate on the back. ‘Kev, that’s a blinding idea. Why didn’t I think of that?’ he said, snatching the phone.

Charlie’s heart leaped as the call was answered immediately. ‘Hello, Lois. Guess who this is?’ he said, putting his thumbs up at Kevin.

‘I’ve no idea. Who is it?’ she replied truthfully. She didn’t recognise the voice at all. The next sentence made her blood run cold.

‘It’s me, babe, Charlie. I’m in Romford, standing by the cinema. I’ve been here hours searching high and low for you. Do you fancy meeting up? Are you in Romford?’

‘I can’t, Charlie,’ Lois replied, unable to think of anything else to say. Undeterred, he carried on talking.

‘I’ve been dying to get together with you, you know. Why didn’t you take my calls? Was it because your mum and Mickey found out about us?’

Lois felt like screaming ‘There is no us’, but instead tried to be diplomatic. ‘Look, Charlie, I really like you but we’re cousins and I’d rather you didn’t ring me again. I’ve got a boyfriend now, so it’s a bit awkward if I get calls from other lads. I don’t want to fall out with you but it’s best this way.’

He could feel his face redden with anger. ‘A boyfriend! Whaddya mean you’ve got a boyfriend? How can you do this to me? You two-timing fucking slag!’

Lois couldn’t believe what she was hearing and was determined to get him off her case once and for all. ‘You’ve got to leave me alone, Charlie. There never was a me and you, it was all in your mind. I just look upon you as family, nothing else, and you have to accept that. If you contact me again, I’m going to tell my mum and dad. And I mean that.’

‘You fucking whore!’ he shouted, before ending the call. He was fuming. How dare she make a mug out of him? Especially in front of Kevin.

‘What’s the matter? What did she say?’ his friend asked innocently.

‘Fuck off, you fat cunt! I don’t wanna talk about it,’ Charlie shouted, before running off and leaving his astonished mate standing in the middle of Romford.

Debbie was dishing up spaghetti bolognese for the girls when she heard Charlie come in.

‘Hello, love. Did you have a nice time? There’s plenty of spag bol here if you want some.’

‘Leave me alone,’ Charlie shouted as he ran up to the tranquillity of his bedroom.

Gracie and Rosie shot one another knowing glances. They’d avoided their brother like the plague since the night they’d been left alone with him. Thankful that he wasn’t about to join them, they shared a secret smile and tucked into their meal.

Charlie lay on his bed. Thinking of Lois, obscenities spewed from his mouth.

‘Slut. Whore. Cunt. Slag,’ he muttered viciously.

Putting on one of his special films, he stood a chair against the door handle so that he couldn’t be disturbed. As he watched the three men take the girl by force, he fondled himself and came within seconds. All women were slags and they all deserved to be fucking raped.

Turning off the film, he put on his Slipknot CD. His jacket was hanging on the wardrobe and he stared at it for ages before taking the empty cigarette packet out of the pocket. Three times he punched the number into his phone, and three times he erased it. On the fourth attempt, he plucked up the courage to let it ring. It was answered immediately.

‘All right. It’s me, Charlie,’ he mumbled.

Billy McDaid ended the ten-minute call smiling to himself. He was meeting his boy tomorrow and taking him out for the very first time. He was so excited, he could hardly wait.

Charlie lay awake for hours that night, thinking about his dad. Their conversation had gone well and he was now looking forward to the meeting. Desperate not to be tired for his big day, he tried to force himself to sleep. Other people counted sheep to nod off, but not Charlie. He counted rape scenes that he’d watched in his special films. It never failed.

Tonight was different, though. Nervous, apprehensive and incredibly excited, Charlie tossed and turned all night.

Billy McDaid left the pub early and staggered towards Andy’s. Charlie was half of him, they shared the same blood, and together they would set the world alight.

‘Who’s the Daddy?’ Billy shouted happily. ‘
I’m
the fucking Daddy!’

‘YOU’RE UP EARLY
, love. Where you off to? Anywhere nice?’

Lying came easy to Charlie; in fact, he was an expert at it. ‘Romford, Mum. I’m meeting me mate Kevin and we’re going to watch a film.’

‘That’s nice, love.’ Debbie was as pleased as punch that Charlie had finally found a friend. Being a protective mum, she wondered what the lad was like. ‘Why don’t you bring Kevin round one night for tea, Charlie, so I can meet him?’

Snatching a bit of toast off Rosie’s plate, he looked at his mum in horror. ‘Why would I wanna do that? It’s better where he lives, there’s more to do there. It’s boring round here.’

‘Okay, love, it was only a suggestion,’ Debbie said, deciding to shut up quick.

After cadging a lift off his mum to Brentwood station, Charlie sat on the platform, feeling nervous but excited at the same time. He was meeting his dad at eleven at Romford station. After originally feeling dubious, he was now looking forward to the rendezvous.

Billy leaned against the car door and lit up a fag. Dressed in light denim jeans, a black leather jacket, white Reebok trainers and a black baseball cap, he felt good but in reality looked completely ordinary. ‘All right, son?’ he said as Charlie walked towards him.

Charlie smiled and got into the passenger seat of the Escort. His heart was beating like a drum, but he was determined not to show his nervousness. He wanted to impress his father, not make a prick of himself.

‘What do yer fancy doing then, Charlie?’ Billy asked, flicking the ignition into life.

Deciding to speak the truth, but not knowing if he was doing the right thing, he decided to chance his luck.

‘I wouldn’t mind going for a beer.’

Billy looked at this son and smiled. Apart from the kid’s attitude, his first impression of Charlie had been neither here nor there. His son’s answer had just washed away any fears he may have harboured about the lad.

‘We’ll go over my way, Charlie. No one will ask questions about your age there.’

Billy flicked through the radio channels, found an illegal rave station and turned the sound up full blast. ‘Do you like this type of music, son?’ he asked, banging his hands against the steering wheel.

Charlie nodded. It wasn’t the kind of music that usually floated his boat, but he pretended to like it. The more he and his father had in common the better.

Billy drove as fast as he could to Barking. He wanted to impress the boy, show him he was with it rather than past it. Screeching to a halt in a side road, he turned the engine off and led his son into a rundown-looking alehouse.

Charlie felt all grown up as he sauntered in behind his father. He’d been drinking for ages, but only when alone indoors or in the privacy of Kevin’s bedroom. Pleased that this father was treating him like an adult rather than a child, as his mother did, he was now more than willing to give Billy a chance.

As father and son sat face to face for the very first time, conversation was awkward to say the least. They knew nothing whatsoever about each other and managed only to talk about music, films and football for the first half an hour. Billy was a big Glasgow Rangers fan and was quite disappointed that Charlie had little knowledge of the beautiful game. He shouldn’t blame the kid, mind, he’d had no dad there to teach him the basics. Things would’ve been very different if only he’d stayed around.

Three pints later both of them started to open up.

‘How’s your mum, son?’ Billy asked cautiously.

‘Okay, I suppose. I don’t have that much to do with her, really. I can’t stand Steve. He’s the bloke she married. They’re both too wrapped up with me little sisters to worry about me, so I spend most of me time in me bedroom.’

Billy looked intently into Charlie’s eyes. He could tell by the way he spoke that the boy really wasn’t close to Debbie and that pleased him immensely. Fucking bitch! It was her fault he’d missed his son growing up in the first place.

‘Who’s the dude that your ma married?’

Ramming cheese and onion crisps into his gob, Charlie spoke between mouthfuls. ‘He’s a wanker. He hates me. He was Uncle Mickey’s best mate, apparently, and that’s how she met him.’

Billy’s blood ran cold as memories of Uncle Mickey’s best mate came back to haunt him. Surely not? It couldn’t be the same geezer who had nearly killed him, could it? Trying to keep his voice calm, Billy asked the all-important question. ‘Is this Steve a fat bastard, by any chance? I remember some of Mickey’s mates. The one I’m picturing was a big bloke. He used to have cropped hair.’

‘That’s him,’ Charlie replied instantly. ‘He’s still got cropped hair now. I hate him, and I hate my sisters. I don’t like my nan much either, or Granddad Peter. In fact, I hate them all.’

Making the excuse that he needed to use the loo, Billy dashed off. He needed five minutes alone to recover from the shock he’d just had. Memories of the day he’d nearly died often come back to plague him. He couldn’t believe that Debbie had ended up marrying the same brutal bastard who had helped to terrorise him that fateful day. After dousing his flushed face in cold water, he stared into the filthy, cracked mirror.

He couldn’t tell Charlie the whole story, that was for sure. He would only make himself look like some weak cunt, and he couldn’t risk Charlie blurting something out to Steve or his Uncle Mickey either. Billy would be dead meat if that were to happen, that was a dead cert.

By the time he’d pulled himself together and headed back to the table, his son had thought of some questions of his own.

‘I’ve got some things I wanna ask you now. Like, why did you walk out on me when I was little?’

Billy could barely answer, such was his guilt. Not for the way he’d treated Debbie – that bitch had deserved everything she got – but because of the way he’d treated his son.

‘Me and your ma never got on, Charlie. We used to fight a lot. I loved you more than words can say, but her … she was no good. I wouldnae have abandoned you, you know, but after I split up with your ma, I got arrested and then put in prison. By the time I was released, your ma had moved on. I tried to track you down, but I was skint at the time. When my money ran out, I had no option but to move back up North to sort myself out.

‘You have to believe me, Charlie, when I say this. There wasnae a day went by that I didnae think of you. In fact, when I was in prison, the only thing that kept me going half the time was the thought of meeting up with you again one day. To be honest, son, I cannae believe that day has finally come. I wanted to contact you before, but I had to wait till you were old enough. I couldnae have got you on your own when you were younger. I had to wait till you were at an age where you’d understand.

‘I swear, Charlie, if your mother, Uncle Mickey or Steve got wind of me meeting up with you, there’d be murders. You must promise me, whatever happens, you never breathe a word to them that you’ve seen me. Can you promise me that?’

‘I promise,’ Charlie said, liking this man sitting in front of him more and more. He was well impressed that his dad had done a bit of bird. He couldn’t wait to tell Kevin. ‘What did you go in prison for?’ he asked excitedly.

‘Violence, son, fighting. I did someone over real badly. Two stretches I did for the same thing.’

Charlie looked at his dad in awe. Obviously, he had no idea that one of this father’s victims was his own mother. Feeling that they had more in common than he could ever have dreamed, he confessed to his dad about his own love of violence. ‘I’ve beaten up loads of lads at school and I’ve got a stash of really brutal films and computer games.’

Billy smiled.

Desperate to impress, Charlie carried on. ‘And I love a good porno, I’ve got loads of them. I’ll lend ’em to you, if you like.’

‘Good lad,’ Billy chuckled, amused to find that his son had plenty of the old McDaid spirit. ‘One thing you must remember, Charlie … women are slags. They fuck you and then they fuck you up. Do yourself a favour, son. Pull ’em, shag ’em, then get rid.’

‘I totally agree with you,’ Charlie said excitedly. ‘There’s this girl, Lois, and she’s a prick tease. One minute she’s all over me, and the next she don’t wanna know. She’s Uncle Mickey’s stepdaughter, but me and her ain’t properly related. I know she’s gagging for it. What should I do about it?’

Billy thought long and hard. Uncle Mickey’s stepdaughter? What a result. What an opportunity for revenge. ‘How close is Mickey to this Lois?’

Charlie swigged his pint. ‘He proper idolises her. He’s adopted her and everything. Apparently her real father was an arsehole – that’s what I heard me mum say anyway.’

‘Really?’ Billy said with interest. ‘You leave it to me, son. I’m blinding with birds and can get my wicked way with anyone I want. I’ll give you some tips, show you how to reel her in.’

‘Cheers, Dad,’ Charlie replied, holding his pint aloft.

Realising that this was the first time he’d said the D word, Billy smiled with happiness. Acceptance was a wonderful thing and he’d waited a long time for it.

‘Do you like to have a puff, Charlie?’

‘Yeah. Why, you got some, Dad?’

Patting his son on the shoulder, Billy picked up his car keys from the table. ‘Come on, I’ll take you round my mate Andy’s. I’m staying there at the moment. We’ll go round there for a smoke, eh?’

Charlie was in his element as he followed Billy out of the pub. His dad was well cool. He was almost bursting to tell Kevin what a dude he was. He’d never felt like he belonged at home, felt almost alien somehow to his mother, sisters and big wanker Steve. Well, now he belonged. Not only that, he had the coolest dad in the whole wide world and was loving every single minute of being with him.

Andy was as stoned as stoned could be, but still managed to welcome the boy with open arms. Charlie thought he was pretty cool as well. Andy reminded him of Ozzy Osbourne, and he’d always been a big fan of him and Black Sabbath. The way he’d bitten the head off live bats made Ozzy a hero in Charlie’s eyes.