Satisfied that Albie was telling the truth, Michael smiled at him. His father wasn’t a bad person. He might be a pisshead and do and say stupid things at times, but his heart was certainly in the right place, which is more than what Michael could say in Vinny’s defence right now. ‘So, where you gonna go? Do you need money?’
‘Yeah, I could do with some readies, boy. I was thinking of going to stay with Bert down in Ipswich. Ivy died last year and he’s rattling about in a house on his own down there now.’
‘Who are Bert and Ivy?’ Michael asked.
‘Your uncle and aunt. Bert’s my elder brother. You have seen him, but not since you were a kid. Your mother never had any time for my family. She reckoned they all had a screw loose.’
Michael put his hand in his pocket and handed his dad three ten-pound notes. ‘Take that for now so you’ve got some beer money. Then tomorrow, I will drive down to Pauline’s gaff and give you some money to go away with. I won’t give Mum the letter until after you’ve gone, OK?’
Albie nodded his head gratefully and pocketed the thirty quid. ‘Do me a favour, boy. I don’t want Pauline to know I’m leaving, so can you meet me at a pub with the dosh?’
‘Which one and what time?’
‘Meet me at the Royal Oak in Green Lane tomorrow at twoish. Pauline’s barred from there. I’ve only got a dustbin liner full of clothes, and I’ll pretend to her that I’m going to the launderette. How will I get to Ipswich by train, Michael? Do you know what station takes me there?’
For the first time in ages, Michael felt dreadfully sorry for his father. Having to leave London and never return because you were frightened of being murdered by one of your own kids was horrendous. ‘I’ll tell you what, Dad. Why don’t you let me drive you to Ipswich? I’ll get Nancy to take a day off work and she can come for the ride too. It will be nice to see Uncle Bert again, and also I’d like to know where you are living so I can pop down and see you from time to time.’
Choked up because one of his family was being so kind to him for a change, Albie let out an uncharacteristic sob and put his arms around his youngest son. ‘You’re a good boy, Michael. The best. Please watch your back with Vinny, won’t you?’
Wiping the tears away from his own eyes with the cuff of his shirt, Michael cleared his throat. ‘Right, I’d better get inside and see how Roy is now. See you tomorrow at two.’
‘Oh, that reminds me. Inside your letter, there is also a short letter for Roy and Brenda too. Make sure you give or read them to ’em one day. But, only when you feel the time is right, of course.’
Nodding, Michael walked away.
Disappointed by her mother’s reaction to her good news, Karen decided to give her neighbour Debbie a knock.
‘Aw, Kaz, I ain’t ’arf gonna miss you, but I am pleased for you at the same time,’ Debbie said, when her friend finished explaining the situation.
‘I wish I could say the same about my mum. I thought she would be thrilled for me, but I just rang her and she said I was a silly girl for rushing into things.’
Debbie chuckled. ‘She sounds just like my mum.’
‘You must come round when I move in. There’s enough room for you and the kids to sleep over,’ Karen said, referring to Debbie’s sons.
‘Oh, I’d love to. Anything to get me away from this shithole for a day or two. Honest, Kaz, I am so thrilled for you. Vinny is incredibly handsome. In fact, on both occasions I’ve met him, he has literally charmed the knickers off me.’
Laughing at her mate’s way with words, Karen put her hand inside the carrier bag she had brought with her. ‘I got this, although I dunno what it tastes like. It’s fizzy wine. I thought we could open it to celebrate my news.’
Debbie ran into the kitchen and came back with two cups. ‘Sorry I ain’t got no glasses. The kids broke the few I had.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Karen said, pouring the drinks out.
Grabbing a pen and paper, Debbie handed it to her pal.
‘What’s that for?’
‘To write your new address down, you div.’
‘Oh, that’s another thing my mother had a go at me about. I was so excited when I went to view the property, I didn’t look at any road signs. It’s in Beckton, I know that, but I’ll have to ask Vinny for the exact address tomorrow. I’ll give it to you then.’
Debbie held her cup aloft. ‘To new beginnings, eh?’
Karen smiled broadly. ‘And health and happiness.’
When the police left the hospital, Queenie took Michael to one side so she could have a word in private with him. The officers had popped in to inform her that they had charged a man called Johnny Preston with the attempted murder of Roy, and he would be appearing in court to be remanded in custody the following morning. ‘Is he to do with that little tart Judy, Michael? Don’t lie to me. I deserve to know the truth, and his name rings a bell,’ Queenie said.
‘Yeah, Johnny’s her brother.’
Queenie was furious. ‘This is all your bastard of a father’s fault. If he hadn’t have suffered from wandering cock syndrome my Roy would still be as fit as a fiddle, not lying in a fucking coma in hospital.’
After the emotional conversation he and his father had just shared, Michael couldn’t help but stick up for him. ‘This ain’t Dad’s fault, Mum. This is revenge for Vinny killing that Dave Phillips. Preston was there when Phillips got stabbed.’
‘Yeah, and why did that happen? To do with your father humping Preston’s sister, if I remember rightly.’
‘Preston only came to the club because Vinny went round his sister’s gaff and threatened her. He just wanted to have it out with Vinny, but Vinny being Vinny had to go one step further and murder his fucking mate. There’s no way Preston meant to shoot Roy. It would have been Vinny he wanted dead, so if you want someone to blame, then blame your own son.’
Queenie was furious that Michael had sided with his father rather than his brother. ‘You should be ashamed of yourself, you. Been a wonderful brother to you, Vinny has. Who do you think put food on the table when you and Brenda were young, eh? Well, it weren’t that useless drunken old man of yours, that’s for sure.’
Very nearly blurting out what Vinny had planned to do to Roy at his own engagement party, Michael shut up as he saw Brenda and Dean walking down the corridor with his cousin.
‘Where’s Vinny, Mum? Is he here? Really annoyed with him, I am. He promised me faithfully when he dumped Little Vinny on me and Dean yesterday that he would pick him up first thing this morning and we ain’t seen hide nor hair of him. Dean’s taking his nan out for lunch and I’m going shopping with Susan, so you’re gonna have to look after him. He ain’t my bloody responsibility.’
‘Is Roy dead yet, Nanny?’ Little Vinny asked innocently.
‘No, he is sleeping, and how many times have I told you not to ask that question, eh? What’s the matter with you? Do you want your Uncle Roy to croak it, do you?’
Realizing that his mother was stressed out and in a foul mood, Michael picked Little Vinny up. ‘I’ll look after him. I’m taking Nancy out for a bite to eat after she finishes work, so he can come with us, can’t you, boy?’
Watching her grandson and son share a hug, Queenie quickly forgave both. Michael had a heart of gold, and Little Vinny was far too young to understand what a coma was, or the seriousness of his uncle’s condition.
‘Right, me and Dean are gonna go now,’ Brenda said.
‘Oh, no you are not, young lady. You go and see your brother for five or ten minutes first. You didn’t visit him all day yesterday.’
‘That’s only because I was stuck indoors babysitting. I was gonna come up here last night. How’s Colleen today? Has she eaten or slept yet?’
‘Colleen ain’t well. She collapsed earlier next to Roy’s bed. The doctors are doing some tests on her, apparently. It’s probably just stress, or lack of sleep and food, but they haven’t come back and told us anything yet. Viv asked a nurse to find out what was going on about an hour ago, but she never came back either.’
‘Right, I’m gonna make tracks, Mum. Give your nan and aunt a kiss, Vinny.’
Queenie hugged her grandchild, then turned to Michael. ‘Do us a favour, love. Before you go for your meal, see if you can find your brother. It ain’t like him not to pick the little ’un up, is it? I hope he’s all right and nothing bad’s happened to him. My heart can’t withstand any more drama.’
‘To be honest, Mum, since Roy got shot, Vinny has hit the bottle a bit. I spoke to him for about a minute yesterday when he dropped the little ’un off, and he said he was going to some club up the West End with Ahmed. I will see if I can find him, but if I can’t, he’s probably just on a bender somewhere.’
‘Well, best you encourage him to open the club up again, Michael. I’ve got enough on my plate without worrying about Vinny going off the rails as well.’
Michael couldn’t help but smirk. Did his mother honestly think that Vinny had ever been on the fucking rails?
Mary Walker felt sick with anxiety as she approached the entrance of Woolworth’s. Christopher had been full of it yesterday evening, saying how rude Nancy had been to him, and how she wasn’t worth bothering with any more because she was already one of them. Well, Mary didn’t believe that for a second. Her daughter would never be a Butler other than in perhaps name one day, and Mary just prayed that things didn’t even get that far. Donald had insisted last night that he was now completely washing his hands of Nancy for good, and Mary had been so angry listening to husband and son speak about the girl as though she had committed the crime of the century. She was a smitten teenager for goodness’ sake, and her only crime was to fall head over heels in love.
‘Hello, Mrs Walker. Are you looking for Nancy? She has just gone out the back,’ Rhonda informed Mary.
‘That’s why I came in at this time, love. Didn’t want to disturb her while she was working. To be honest, I was hoping she might spend her lunch break with me. I miss her terribly at home.’
‘Oh, I’m sure she will. Michael isn’t meeting her for lunch today. Here she is now.’
‘I hope you haven’t come here because of what happened yesterday with Christopher, ’cause if you have Rhonda will tell you he was bang out of order making a scene in the middle of the shop, weren’t he, Rhon?’
Mary smiled. ‘Do you think I live in cloud cuckoo land, love? I know exactly what your brother is like. My fault for marrying your father I suppose. Now, seeing as I’ve missed you so much, will you make your old mum happy by allowing her to buy you a sandwich somewhere? It would make my day if you said yes.’
Realizing that her wonderful mum still loved her as much as she always had, Nancy grinned from ear to ear. ‘You try stopping me.’
Vinny Butler thought he was having a surreal experience when he dreamt that some bird was giving him a blowjob, but when he opened his eyes he was appalled to find that the encounter was actually real. Apart from treating his mother, aunt, and sister with respect, Vinny had never regained the art of being diplomatic towards women since Yvonne Summers had broken his heart, so instead of telling the tart to stop sucking his penis, Vinny punched her gently in the side of the head.
Astounded, the girl looked up. ‘What’s the matter? Are you not enjoying it?’
Vinny stared at the girl. She only looked about eighteen, had long blonde hair, decent breasts, amazing hips, and a bit of a Janis Joplin look about her. However, Vinny couldn’t wait to get shot of her, so he leapt out of bed, grabbed his trousers that were lying on the floor in a crumpled heap, put his hand in the pocket and threw forty quid at the girl.
‘What’s that for? I ain’t a prostitute if that’s what you think. You invited me here.’
‘Well, now I’m uninviting you. Just get dressed, take the money, and fuck off.’
The girl hurriedly put her clothes on. Furious with the way she had been treated, she screwed up the two twenty-pound notes and threw them at Vinny. ‘Stick your money up your arse, you bastard. And, please do not add me as a notch on your bedpost. You couldn’t even get it up, you loser.’
No bloke liked their manliness to be knocked and the words he had just heard were like a red rag to a bull for Vinny. Stark bollock naked, he grabbed the girl by the neck and slammed her stupid head against the door of his wardrobe.
‘Stop it! Look, I’m sorry. Please, can you just let me go home now?’ the girl begged tearfully. She wasn’t a slag, had never even had a one-night stand before, but last night she had taken a stupid LSD tab, and because all her friends were into the free love scene, had decided to go back to Vinny’s empty club with him. How she regretted that now. Trust her to pick a lunatic.
Aware that the girl seemed absolutely petrified, Vinny released his grasp on her hair. ‘Look, I’m sorry. I just ain’t thinking straight at the moment. Go on, go home.’
The girl didn’t need telling twice. She ran for her life.
Nancy held her mother’s arm and led her to the tiny park where she and Michael usually went. ‘So, I take it you haven’t told Dad that you were coming to see me?’ she asked, as they sat down on the bench.
‘No. You know what he’s like, Nance. So set in his bloody ways. I told him I wanted to have a mooch around the shops before Christopher went back to school next week. I had to see you, love. I read about that shooting and it worried the life out of me.’
Nancy sighed. ‘Me and Michael wasn’t there when it happened. We had already left the club.’
‘Well, thank God for that.’
‘It’s still been awful though. Roy is in a coma, and the doctor said that he might wake up with brain damage.’
Mary squeezed her daughter’s hand. ‘Nance, I know you love Michael, but do you really want to be connected to a family like that? Say they try to shoot Michael next and you’re there with him? I would die of a broken heart if anything ever happened to you.’
‘Nothing bad will happen to me, Mum, so please try not to worry. Michael will protect me. He loves me and I love him.’
‘So, where are you living?’ Mary asked.
‘At Queenie’s at the moment. Michael did live above the club, but I told him there is no way I am living with Vinny. We will get our own place soon, but things have been so hectic with Roy being ill that we haven’t had a chance to look yet.’