The stairwell smelt of bleach, reminding Eddie of the children’s home in Mile End where he’d spent three miserable years. Taking in the doors, he saw they all had spy holes. For all he knew, the neighbours could be spying on him now. He wasn’t sure how he was going to play this. Knocking would bring unwanted attention, as would booting the door in. Shit. He was worrying too much. As long as he got out and back to London without being caught, that was really all that mattered. He didn’t know why Johno wasn’t doing all this, but he knew it wouldn’t do to ask questions.
Eddie made sure the corridor was clear before he stepped on to Arnold’s landing. He walked along, listening at the different doors for people talking, until he came to the right one. He was going to make this as painless as possible. Well, for Tasha anyway.
He’d sort out the geezer first then get Tasha out of there, before taking her away to sort her out too. He hoped he wouldn’t crash in to find Tasha naked with the guy. He wasn’t sure if he could take that.
‘Hello? Are you lost?’
Eddie had his foot raised in mid-air, about to kick down the front door. He froze and turned to see a slippery looking man standing next to him.
‘Can I help you?’
‘Yes mate, you can do one. Get lost.’
‘I suggest you leave before I call the police.’
Usually Eddie would’ve baited the man some more, not giving a shit if the boys in blue turned up or not. Things were different now however, and he certainly didn’t have an ego so big it wouldn’t allow him to back down.
Trying a new tactic, Eddie grinned, lowering his leg as he did so.
‘Sorry mate. I didn’t mean to be rude; I’m just a bit tense. I’m looking for the missus. Found out she’s cheating on me. Broke my heart it has. I’m not looking for trouble.’
Eddie saw the man’s face turn into a veil of curiosity.
‘I’m sorry to hear that. May I ask who you’re looking for? Perhaps I could help.’
It took Eddie all his willpower not to sneer at the man. He was like a woman, hungry for gossip, with his eyes lighting up for information.
‘No, it’s fine. I’d rather sort it myself.’
‘I see you’ve hurt your arm. Is it broken?’
Eddie looked down at the cast on his forearm. He’d been lucky it hadn’t been his shoulder which had been broken, only dislocated. Though it’d been excruciatingly painful when they’d popped it back in. One of his contacts who’d been a doctor in his time had done the handy work for him. It still hurt like fuck but at least now it had a chance of healing.
‘Yes, I did it playing rugby.’
The man nodded, then looked at Eddie’s hands. ‘Aren’t they hot in the gloves?’
‘I have psoriasis. I prefer to keep them covered.’
Again the man nodded, taking in and seemingly analysing the information. ‘Was it Arnold you were looking for? I’m his next-door neighbour. He doesn’t seem the type to mess around with other people’s wives. Nice man.’
‘Sorry to break the news to you but your nice man is the very same one who’s shagging me wife.’
It was almost like a light had gone off in the man’s head. He spoke in a rush, full of excitement.
‘It all makes sense now. Why Arnold was calling her Izzy. I fell for it completely. Called her Izzy myself, but it was only when she let slip her name was Tasha I thought something was strange. When I asked him, he swore it was Izzy. Covering up you see; didn’t want anyone to find out. Well I never. Arnold, the old devil.’
‘Now you know, I hope you can just let me get on with it.’
‘Oh no. I can’t possibly let you kick down the door. I’m on the housing committee you see. I cover for the caretaker when he’s away.’
‘Well, I won’t tell if you won’t.’ Eddie leered at the man, who backed, off feeling slightly threatened.
‘I really think you should knock don’t you?’
‘And I really think …’ Eddie stopped himself and remembered the magic word. Money. He went into his pocket and pulled out the wad of fifty-pound notes which were rapidly disappearing. He started peeling them off, seeing the greed in the man’s eyes.
‘So, how about you didn’t ever see me? You didn’t see and you won’t hear anything in the next ten minutes. Do you think you can do that?’
The man didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. Eddie watched him hurrying back into his flat, holding tightly on to the money.
Eddie waited for a couple of minutes. The neighbour had given him pause for thought. He couldn’t now go the whole way with this Arnold geezer.
It was one thing for the next-door neighbour to keep his mouth clamped about a few slaps to Arnold’s face, but a different one to keep his mouth shut for murder. A change of plan was needed. He’d give the guy a few kicks to give him a warning, then he and Tasha would get out of there. He’d deal with her in private. He didn’t think Freddie would have a problem with the new plan. After all, he knew it was Tasha he wanted sorted; anything else was only a bonus.
Eddie raised his foot once more in readiness. He savoured the moment. It was the best part. The quiet, before the fucking storm.
‘See Izzy, you don’t need these on if you’re going to behave, it was only ever for your own good you know.’ Arnie smiled as he untied Tasha’s wrists after taking off her gag. ‘That’s better, now we can have fun. I know you’ve been looking forward to it as much as I have.’ He smiled in contentment, heading towards the bathroom.
The crash of the front door caving in had Tasha screaming for a moment until she saw who it was, making her blood run cold. Arnie jumped in fright, his face drained with shock.
Eddie stormed in, shouting and kicking at the side of the wall. He grabbed hold of Arnie, shaking him viciously, before head-butting him, his nose exploding into a fountain of blood.
‘You’re lucky mate; you’re not really the one Freddie’s pissed off with, otherwise you’d be pushing up daisies. So do yourself a favour and keep it closed.’ Eddie slapped Arnie hard, using the knuckledusters he was wearing over his gloves to do most of the damage. The metal sank into Arnie’s cheek and he stumbled towards the side, knocking the lamp over.
‘Get your fucking clothes on Tash, we’re going.’
Tasha stood up, she blinked but didn’t move.
‘I said put your fucking clothes on.’
Eddie could see Tasha was in shock to see him. He looked round and saw her clothes meticulously folded up in the corner of the room. He grabbed them, throwing them at her.
‘Hurry the fuck up, Tash.’ As he waited he saw Arnold moving to get up but he pushed him back down with his foot.
‘Don’t bother mate, not if you want to ever wake up again.’ Eddie turned angrily to Tasha, when he saw she still wasn’t moving or bothering to get dressed, but was just staring at Arnold who had curled up into a ball, whimpering. He grabbed her arm at the same time as throwing her shirt over her. ‘I said, put them on. It’s no good eyeballing loverboy over there. It don’t look to me like he’s going to be doing you any good.’
‘Izzy, please don’t leave me.’
Eddie jumped on Arnie’s fingers, hearing the crack. ‘I said, shut the fuck up.’
Seeing Tash had at least got her trousers on, he dragged her out by the arm, ignoring Arnie’s cries.
‘What do you expect me to do Tash? Go on, tell me. Just tell me what I’m supposed to do.’ Eddie stared at Tasha a few hours later as they stood in the countryside above Bradford. He was finding this harder than he imagined, especially as she was trying to tell him some story about the fella. But then from his own experience he knew women would tell you anything to get out of shit.
‘I expect you to listen Ed.’
‘I ain’t got time to listen darling. Freddie didn’t ask me to hear some
Jackanory
. You knew the score babe.’
Tasha’s voice was pleading. ‘Ed, I ain’t saying what I did was right. But what you saw just now, well it wasn’t what you thought it was.’
‘You don’t even want to know the last time I heard some woman tell me that Tash.’
Tasha shook her head, trying to keep her composure, but she could hear the hint of hysteria coming into her voice. ‘I ain’t Nora, Ed. Please Ed. I ain’t your wife babe. I know how she treated you, we all did.’
‘But none of you thought to tell me?’
‘Look … I dunno, maybe we should’ve done it differently, and I’m sorry, but it’s hard to tell someone their missus is bringing half a dozen men home to shag each week.’
‘So what’s the difference between you and her?’
Tasha’s eyes implored him, needing him to believe her. ‘You’ve got to believe this is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this to Freddie, and unlike Nora, I didn’t do it to hurt him. I never even slept with him darling. Ask Linda if you don’t believe me.’
‘Linda? You’re having a bubble ain’t you Tash? Your sister would swear the day was twenty-five hours long if it meant sticking up for you.’
Tasha fought back the tears. ‘I’m telling the truth.’
‘I don’t think it matters to Freddie one way or another if you slept with him or not, do you? All that matters to him is you never turned up because you were shacked up with another fella.’
‘I was all ready to come to him. I’d gone to tell Arnie it was over because he wouldn’t leave it. You know me Ed, I ain’t ever turned anyone over in me life. As much as I’m pissed with Freddie, I’d never wish bad for him.’
Eddie stared at Tasha. She seemed so sincere. Unlike his wife, no one ever had anything bad to say about her. Hell, it didn’t matter what he thought or didn’t. Freddie wanted it sorted, and that’s what he was here to do.
‘He was going to kill me.’
‘Now you’re talking fucking shit. I can believe it when you say you didn’t have any intention of hurting Freddie; I can even believe it you never actually got boned by that geezer. But him wanting to kill you? I ain’t buying it Tash. Didn’t you see the way he was blubbering in the corner? He makes a postage stamp look hard.’
Tasha began to cry. ‘You saved my life Ed.’
‘Yeah, and now I’m about to take it away.’
Eddie walked up to Tasha, ignoring the fear in her eyes. He pulled out the gun from his pocket.
‘On your knees Tash.’ He pushed her down. It surprised him she wasn’t begging for her life like he’d seen a lot of men do. He was surprisingly touched by her dignity. Her voice was a whisper.
‘Tell Ray-Ray … tell him I love him, and tell Freddie, well, just tell him I never wanted to hurt him.’
Eddie pushed the gun into the back of her head. His finger trembled as he began to pull back on the trigger. Pull it. He just needed to pull it.
‘Fuck!’ He let out a shout as he fired the gun into the air. ‘I can’t do it. Shit Tasha, I can’t fucking do it.’
Eddie stood with the gun pointing into the air. He reached down and gently touched the top of Tasha’s head with his other hand. Tasha turned slowly round. She was shaking and tears of pure relief ran down her face. It was a few minutes before she said anything.
‘Thank you Eddie.’
Eddie gave a wry smile. ‘You won’t be thanking me when Johno catches up with us both.’
Tasha looked at him, confused. ‘Why didn’t you do it Ed?’
Eddie stared at her then quietly said, ‘Because you’re family. As near to family as I’ll ever get and I never knew it meant anything until now. I love you, you dozy cow. I love all of you.’ Eddie turned away rubbing his head, the gun still in his hand.
He felt Tasha’s hand touch his shoulder gently. She leaned up and kissed him on his cheek. ‘If it matters any, the feeling’s mutual Ed. I love you too you donkey.’
Eddie walked towards the car. He didn’t want Tasha to see him choked up. It was the first time in his life anybody had said they loved him.
Back in the car, Tasha and Eddie sat in silence, both looking out on to the rolling barren landscape, contemplating their next move. Opening the window to smoke a cigarette, Eddie talked, sounding slightly absentminded. ‘Thing is now Tash, we’ve got to work out what we’re going to tell Freddie.’
‘You worried?’
‘I ain’t going to lie to you honey. I’m shitting fucking boulders.’
‘You mean bricks?’
‘No babes. When it comes to Freddie, you know as well as I do that shitting bricks just ain’t enough.’ They both laughed before falling into silence again.
‘I need to use your phone Ed.’
‘What for?’
‘To call the police.’
Eddie sprang backwards as if he’d just been burnt. ‘You are clowning me?’
‘No. I need to make a call about Arnie.’
Eddie sighed. ‘Listen babe. We sort things out ourselves. You know that.’
‘I know, but not this. This is different.
Please
. When I get me head round it, I’ll tell you about it.’ Tasha swivelled round to face Eddie, her face drawn with anguish.
Eddie studied Tasha’s face. The whole thing was beyond him. ‘No, Tash. I don’t know what’s going on babe. It’s bad enough I’m going to have to make some story up to feed to Freddie. So please Tash, leave me out of anything else. I don’t want to know. Don’t tell me nothing. If you care for me at all, at least do that for me.’
Eddie blew smoke out of the window before shaking his head and passing the phone to Tasha. She stepped out of the car to make the call.
‘Women’s problems?’ Johno stared at Eddie as he spoke.
‘Yeah, women’s problems.’
‘What the fuck are women’s problems?’
‘How the fuck do I know?’
‘So why didn’t you ask her?’
‘What the hell difference does it make what’s wrong with her fanny? It’s women’s problems.’
‘So you’re trying to tell me her fanny stopped her being able to meet Freddie?’
‘Yeah, exactly.’
‘I ain’t buying it Ed.’
‘It don’t matter if you do or not, you ain’t a gynaecologist are you?’
‘So you saw it?’
‘Of course I didn’t see her fanny, what do you take me for?’
‘I meant her doctor. Did you see him?’
‘Yeah, I saw her in hospital and spoke to him.’
‘But I only spoke to her the other night. She seemed perfectly fine to me.’
Eddie opened his arms in a huge gesture. ‘What can I say? That’s women’s problems for you. Just happens when you least expect it.’
‘Are you taking the piss Ed?’