‘How was he? Did he settle in all right?’ Vinny asked, when he picked his mum and aunt up from Roy’s new care home at two p.m. as pre-arranged.
‘He seemed OK, didn’t he, Viv? I think he quite likes his new room,’ Queenie replied, hopefully.
‘He loves the view there as well. Where’s my Lenny? Why didn’t you bring him with you?’ Vivian asked, worriedly. Neither she nor her son had mentioned the awkward moment they had shared again, but Vivian couldn’t forget it. What she had witnessed would probably haunt her for the rest of her living days.
‘Champ’s with Ahmed and the boys. They were playing the machines in the amusement arcade when I left and I guarantee they will still be there when we get back. I just changed ’em up a tenner’s-worth of two- and ten-pence coins. Why you worried anyway, Auntie Viv? Champ’s twenty now. He’s a man not a boy any more.’
Vivian pursed her lips and glanced at her sister.
‘Tell Vinny what happened, go on. He won’t say nothing,’ Queenie urged her sister.
‘Have you noticed my Lenny acting inappropriately with any girls at the club? And do you know someone called Lola or Layla?’ Vivian asked her nephew.
Vinny froze momentarily. If Lenny had blabbed and his mum and aunt found out he had paid for his cousin to sleep with a prostitute, it would cause murders. Doing what he did best, Vinny decided to bluff it. ‘Yeah, there’s a barmaid at the club called Lola, but I’ve never seen Champ act inappropriate towards her or any other girl. Why do you ask?’
‘I can’t tell him. You tell him,’ Vivian ordered, putting her hands over her ears. She couldn’t bear to be reminded of her terrible ordeal.
How Vinny kept a straight face when his mother told him what had happened, he would never know. At one point he started to laugh, but managed to cover it up with a coughing fit.
‘Take your hands off your ears now, Vivvy. I’ve told him,’ Queenie said, in all seriousness.
Trying not to laugh again, Vinny cleared his throat. ‘Champ is just a normal twenty-year-old lad who hasn’t got a girlfriend. Just because he isn’t like the rest of us, doesn’t mean to say he don’t get urges.’
‘Standing in front of a mirror with your dingle-dangle in your hand while spewing obscenities is not what I call fucking normal, Vinny. I bet you don’t bastard-well do it,’ Vivian spat.
‘Well no I don’t, but you really are worrying over nothing, Auntie Viv. Now, can we talk about something else please?’
When his mum and aunt started to talk about Roy again, Vinny turned up the volume on the radio. His brother hadn’t uttered one word to him on the whole of the journey down to Eastbourne, and Vinny was getting very poxed off with his behaviour. He could understand Roy feeling bitter and depressed, he would if he was in the same boat, but anyone would think by the way Roy was acting that it was Vinny who had actually shot him
.
Over in Barking, Mary saw Michael’s car pull up outside and gave her daughter some last-minute advice. ‘Now, just keep calm and remember that poor little mite has lost his mum and his gran.’
‘Is our brother here, Nanny?’ Daniel asked, jumping up and down excitedly.
‘Yes, love. Now don’t forget to share your toys with him like I told you to.’
‘I won’t,’ Daniel said, running towards the front door. Adam toddled after his brother, but wasn’t quite as clued-up as to what the excitement was all about.
‘Come on. You can’t sit there,’ Mary said, nudging her daughter and following her grandsons.
When Michael opened the door, both Daniel and Adam flew at Lee as kids do and hugged him. Lee hadn’t really understood what had happened to his mum and nan. He was too young to grasp the fact that both were dead and he would never see them again.
‘Hello, Lee. I’m Mary and this is Nancy. It’s lovelyto meet you,’ Mary said, crouching down to hug thechild. Her heart went out to the poor little sod, it really did.
Michael had been thrilled when Nancy had mellowed, agreed not to leave him, and had said that it was OK for his orphaned son to live with them. ‘Say hello to Lee then, babe,’ he urged his wife.
Nancy stared at the child. Lee had blond hair and, apart from having green eyes, looked nothing like Michael or her own sons. She obeyed her husband’s orders and awkwardly hugged the child. She felt nothing, just as she knew she would. Why should she? Lee wasn’t her flesh and blood.
Within an hour of arriving at Kings Holiday Park in Pevensey Bay, Queenie and Vivian had both fallen in love with the place. ‘Ain’t it grand, Vivvy? I thought my Vinny was winding me up when he said Showaddywaddy were appearing here tomorrow night, but he weren’t. Look, it says so on that poster.’
‘And look at this brochure. They have loads of famous acts here. Jim Davidson is here in a fortnight’s time. Makes me laugh, he do,’ Vivian replied. She was ever so impressed by the whole set-up.
‘Look, bingo tonight at seven. Shall we have a game?’ Queenie suggested.
‘Yous two coming in the club? Or you gonna stand in reception all day? Your lager will go flat if you stand out here any longer,’ Vinny said, gesturing for his mum and aunt to follow him.
‘Dad, can me and Ben go and find Steve and Gary now?’ Little Vinny asked, keen to see the two lads he had met on his last visit.
‘Yep, off you go. You do know what one our bungalow is, don’t you?’
‘Yeah. Come on, Ben, let’s go,’ Little Vinny said, before gulping down the last of his drink.
‘Dunno why you invited that Ben Bloggs down here if Little Vinny has already met some mates. Bad influence, that boy is,’ Queenie said curtly.
‘Ben’s OK, and I invited him in case them other lads ain’t about. This is a holiday for all us, and as long as Little Vinny has a pal to knock about with, he can roam free. I’m sure you and Auntie Viv don’t wanna be saddled with him, and neither do I.’
‘Did you win any more?’ Vivian asked her son, as Lenny walked over to the table alongside Ahmed.
‘Yeah, loads of two-pence pieces fell out the bottom, but then I lost them again.’
‘I told him not to put them all back. He should have saved them for later,’ Ahmed said, ruffling Lenny’s hair.
‘Right, me and Ahmed are gonna love and leave you now. Take that fifty quid, get yourselves whatever you want to drink, and can you get a few bits from the shop for dinner tonight, and we need some breakfast stuff for the morning.’
‘Where you going?’ Queenie asked suspiciously.
‘To spend some time with two birds we met here last week.’
‘Can I come too?’ Lenny asked.
‘You’re going nowhere, you. Now, sit down and drink your lemonade,’ Vivian ordered her son.
When two youngish-looking girls appeared at the back of the club, Queenie sat open-mouthed as her son dashed towards them with Ahmed in tow. ‘Well, I never,’ she muttered.
Michael Butler sat on the edge of his wife’s sun-lounger and smiled as he watched Lee splashing about in the paddling pool with his two half-brothers. ‘Seems to have settled in well, doesn’t he?’ Michael remarked, as he cracked open a can of cold lager. He really wished he didn’t have to go to work tonight, but with Vinny away, he couldn’t leave Dean to run the joint on his own. It wasn’t fair.
Realizing her daughter wasn’t going to answer Michael’s question, Mary did so instead. ‘Yes, he has. Poor little mite. Thank God he has you, Michael. How did you tell him the news? Did he understand?’
‘Not really. I just said that his mum and nan had gone to live in heaven, but I would take good care of him from now on. He did ask if his mum and nan would still be able to see him, and I told him if he looked at the sky of a night, two of the stars shining down would be them watching him. I didn’t really know what else to say.’
‘Aw, that was a lovely thing to say, Michael, wasn’t it, Nancy?’
‘Did you find out if Denise’s bloke was drunk?’ Nancy asked, in a none-too-sympathetic tone. It had been Denise’s boyfriend, Glen, driving the car when the accident had occurred.
‘He wasn’t drunk. It was the guy in the other car who was pissed out of his brains by all accounts. A witness came forward. Said they had seen the driver of the Ford Capri weaving all over the road a few minutes beforehand, and had had to swerve to avoid being hit themselves. Denise and her mum were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. A fucking tragedy, especially for Lee. I’ve spoken to the funeral directors and I’m gonna pay for their funerals. I want Lee to have nice graves to visit with proper headstones where he can remember his mum and nan. That will comfort him, especially as he gets older.’
When Lee and Daniel ran over to Michael together, and it was Lee who her husband picked up and swung in the air above his head, Nancy couldn’t watch any more. Not only were they footing the bill for the funerals, the child was obviously now more important in Michael’s eyes than the two sons that she had given birth to.
‘Where you going, love?’ Mary asked her daughter.
‘Upstairs for a lie-down. I don’t feel too well. I think it’s the heat.’
In a pub called the Beach Tavern, Vinny and Ahmed had just had a bite to eat and a few bevvies with Joanna and Chloe.
Vinny turned to Joanna. ‘That food was smashing, but I feel bloated now. How about me and you take a little stroll? I’d like to spend a bit of time alone with you.’
Vinny’s eyes mesmerized Joanna. Ever since he had swiftly left earlier in the week saying he had a family crisis to deal with, Joanna had thought of little else. The only time she could ever remember feeling slightly like that before was with Jamie Draper, her first love, but that was nowhere near as intense as the feeling she secretly harboured for Vinny. ‘Yes, I’d like that,’ Joanna replied.
‘Where’re you going?’ Chloe asked, when Joanna and Vinny both stood up.
‘They go for walk, but you no need worry. I will stay to keep you company, beautiful one,’ Ahmed said, laying on the accent and schmooze.
‘How long are you going to be?’ Chloe asked, directing the question at Vinny.
‘An hour, tops. See you in a bit,’ Vinny said.
Joanna experienced a massive surge of excitement as she felt Vinny’s hand envelop hers. It was a lovely feeling, and one she had never ever encountered before.
Queenie and Vivian were keenly waiting for the bingo to start. Both women loved a game, but rarely ever ventured to their local bingo hall any more. It was full of nosy old bats that always wanted to ask questions about family members. Vivian smiled at her son. She still didn’t feel quite the same about him since she had caught him masturbating, but knew for the sake of their relationship, she must try to put the awful experience behind her. ‘You all right, boy? You seem a bit quiet tonight.’
‘I wanted to go out with Vinny and Ahmed, Mum. I don’t know how to play bingo. It’s a woman’s game and I feel like a wally.’
Vivian suddenly felt a bit guilty. She did baby him a bit. ‘How about you go up the bar and get yourself a pint of lager? You can get me and your Auntie Queenie another drink while you’re up there as well.’
Lenny grinned. ‘I don’t need your money, Mum. I earn my own. Men buy women drinks.’
Watching her son walk up the bar, Vivian turned to Queenie. ‘I still can’t believe that Denise and Madge are dead, can you? Don’t get me wrong, I never liked Madge, but I wouldn’t wish death on the woman. What a tragic way to go, eh?’
‘Yep, bloody awful. Now pick your pen up, the bingo is about to start.’
In a nearby chalet, Joanna Preston was all of a fluster. Vinny had kissed her earlier as they had returned to the pub, and even though it wasn’t a proper tongue-in-mouth kiss, it had been on the lips, and had sent her in a bit of a manic state. ‘What do you think then, Chloe? Shall I wear this? Or do you think the red dress looked better?’
Chloe sighed. Joanna had already tried on six different outfits, and was beginning to get on her nerves. ‘Look, Jo, I’m not trying to burst your bubble here, but don’t you think that we should be a bit cautious with Vinny and Ahmed? We don’t even really know them, and I can just tell by the way you are acting that you have got it bad.’
‘No, I haven’t,’ Joanna replied.
‘Yes, you have! In all the years I’ve known you, I can’t remember you ever being like this over any boy or man.’
‘Well, so what if I like him? I thought you liked Ahmed as well?’
‘Yeah, I do, but not in the way you seem to like Vinny. Look, it is nice to go out with blokes who want to wine and dine us for a change, but we shouldn’t be reading too much into this, Jo. Let’s just have a laugh with them.’
Joanna sat down on the bed next to Chloe and squeezed her hand. ‘Look, I know you are worried about me, but there really is no need. I know my own mind, mate, and I’m far from bloody stupid.’
When Michael went to work, Mary Walker bathed her grandsons and Lee then, once they were all tucked up in bed, decided to have a heart-to-heart with her daughter. ‘I’m gonna have one of them nice cold lagers that Michael put in the fridge earlier. Do you want another glass of wine, love?’
‘Yes please.’
‘I phoned your dad today just to check everything was OK at the café. He asked when I was coming home, and I told him I wouldn’t be back for a while. I told him you weren’t very well and you needed me here. He was quite polite and even asked what was wrong with you. Perhaps he is starting to mellow a bit, eh? Leaving him always seems to knock some sense into him. I reckon he will want to build bridges with you, and have a relationship with the boys before too long, you know.’
‘Well, I don’t want to build bridges with him, thank you. Not after he crossed the road to avoid my sons. Dad’s a fucking arsehole and so is Christopher. I wonder if Chris has told his superiors in the police force that he once witnessed a murder and lied at the identification parade to protect Vinny, eh? I bet that would go down a storm with his boss.’
Shocked by the bitterness in her daughter’s voice, Mary glared at her. ‘What are you raking up the past for? And don’t ever mention that story to anybody, for goodness’ sake. Nobody has spoken about it for years, and Christopher was only a kid at the time so has probably forgotten all about it now.’
‘I very much doubt it, Mum. Witnessing a murder then lying to the police is hardly something that is going to be erased from the memory, is it? Christopher just wants to forget about it, like he has managed to forget about me and my sons. Sanctimonious little shit, he is.’