Jessie Keane - Black Widow

Annie sat up. Couldn’t rest. Couldn’t even think. Had to do something. Walk, or yell, or something.

She picked up the box with shaking hands. Looked at it, and at the broken chain, the fallen heart. Love you forever , the inscription said. Max had bought it for her. Love you forever.

Her life was officially in the toilet. She felt the beginnings of a scream building at the back of her throat. Turning, she swept the brush set from the top of the dresser with one hard swipe. Dolly’s treasured silver-backed brush set.

Shit , she thought, and instantly fell to her knees and scrabbled about. The brush and comb were okay, but the mirror, had she broken the hand mirror? That was seven years’ bad luck. Her heart was in her mouth; she felt sick with panic now.

No. It was still in one piece.

Dimly aware that tears of terror and despair were slipping down her face, she carefully picked up the brush set and placed it with trembling fingers back on on the dresser.

Sorry, Doll.

She looked in the large dressing-table mirror. Saw her own haggard reflection there and barely recognized herself. Angrily, she brushed the tears away, picked up one of Dolly’s lippies from the dresser and quickly rubbed some colour into her cheeks and applied it to her mouth.

She looked again at her reflection.

Better , she thought. Not a fucking mark on me.

She raised a mirthless smile at the woman in the mirror. Then she went back to the bed and sat down. Gently, she opened the box.

Careful not to disturb its gruesome contents, she tucked the broken chain and the gold heart in beside Layla’s finger. Then she slipped the box into her pocket, pushed her hair back out of her eyes, and took a breath. Stood up. Went to the door. Opened it and went out on to the landing, closing the door softly behind her.

‘Fuck, not you again,’ said Una, wandering past wearing her white PVC outfit and trailing her feral scent of cheap perfume and stale sweat. ‘Thought you’d be gone by now.’

Annie turned and stared at her. Una was six and a half feet tall in her four-inch heels, staring straight back with her weirdly pale blue eyes, the pupils dilated.

Druggie , thought Annie.

Annie suddenly felt very calm. ‘No, you lucked out,’ she said. ‘I’m still here.’

Una stopped walking. ‘You see, there it is again. That attitude.’ Una turned and came back to where Annie stood near the top of the stairs.

Una leaned in very close to Annie’s face. Not a pleasant experience.

Annie locked eyes with the bigger woman, aware that there was movement along the landing, near Darren’s room. Ellie had come out to see what was going on, and Darren now followed.

‘Annie’s upset,’ Darren said too loudly to Una, nerves making his voice harsh. ‘She’s had bad news about her daughter, Una, go easy…’

Una turned her head and looked at Darren. He fell silent.

‘She don’t know the meaning of bad news yet,’ said Una. ‘But if she keeps up with this attitude of hers, she’s going to find out.’

Darren looked uncomfortable. Ellie was silent, watching.

Trust Ellie not to put herself in harm’s way for a friend , thought Annie.

In the end, all you had was yourself. Hadn’t she learned that over the years? You had to fight your corner. You had to dig deep, and stand alone.

Una’s head turned back and her eyes were on Annie again. Her face was close to Annie’s. Trying to intimidate me , thought Annie, almost amused.

Annie’s brow hit Una square in the nose and the blonde reeled back, blood spurting out. She slammed up against the wall and then tried to turn to the side, clutching at the top banister, hand slipping, blinded by sudden and unexpected pain.

Into Annie’s brain came Max’s words: ‘If you get in a fight, finish it. Don’t stop until they’re down and no longer a danger to you. Get them down, and make sure they stay down.’

Annie brought Tony’s kiyoga up out of her pocket in a high arc, whacking Una’s shoulder, knocking her off balance. Una tumbled backwards and shot down the stairs, end over end, coming to rest at the bottom. Ross stood there, open-mouthed, looking down at the toppled blonde.

He looked up.

Annie came down the stairs like the wrath of God and threw herself on to the squirming woman’s chest. She gave Una a hard smack on the side of the face with the kiyoga and felt the woman’s screams reverberate around the house. Then she grabbed her waistcoat and shook her violently, cracking Una’s head on the floor, before she spoke.

‘Now listen,’ said Annie as Darren and Ellie came pounding down the stairs and stopped near to where the toppled Una lay sprawled beneath her.

Annie gave the woman another vicious shake.

‘You’ve broken my fucking nose…’ burbled Una, blood and tears all over her face.

‘I’ll break your fucking neck next time,’ Annie promised her. ‘Now, are you listening? Nod if you are, or are you so spaced out you don’t understand me? Because if you don’t, I’ll spell it out r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w-l-y for you.’

Una nodded, wincing.

‘Good. Now listen. You got another single word you want to say to me, you write me a fucking letter, okay? You don’t talk to me, not a single word. You got that, you cheeky cow? You keep out of my way, that’s all you need to do, and we’ll get along just fine. And you don’t give my friends a hard time or you’ll be very sorry. You watch your behaviour with them, you got that? Nod yes, you still with me?’

Annie gave Una another shake.

‘Now you show Dolly respect,’ Annie went on. ‘She’s the boss here, not you. You remember that and act accordingly. Got it?’

Una groaned.

‘Got it?’ Annie gave her another shake.

‘All right, I got it,’ Una moaned.

‘I hear any more trouble coming from you and you’re out that door and walking the streets. So you keep a really low profile now and everything will be just fine. Yes?’

A shake.

‘Yes,’ mumbled Una.

‘See, now was that so hard?’ Annie dropped the waistcoat and Una’s head thumped back on to the floor.

Annie stood up and looked at Ross.

‘Help her get cleaned up,’ she said, and walked off into the front room and shut the door behind her.

Darren and Ellie looked at the groaning and bleeding Una, who was being dragged upright by Ross. Then they glanced at each other.

‘See that?’ said Darren. ‘Told you she still had it.’

Jimmy Bond was back two days later. He found Annie in the kitchen and she went straight to work.

‘So, what’s the news with Barolli?’ she asked urgently.

‘That’s what I came here to talk about.’

‘Okay, so talk.’

Jimmy sat down and stared at her across the table.

‘This is a dangerous thing you’re thinking of doing,’ he said carefully.

Annie shot out an exasperated breath.

‘Jimmy, we’ve had this conversation.’

‘Yeah, but Annie-’

‘It’s Mrs Carter to you,’ Annie pointed out coldly.

‘Sodding hell. All right. Mrs Carter. Look, if you let Constantine Barolli know Max is dead, there’s every chance that fucker’s going to move in on us. On the manor.’

Annie stared at him. ‘I won’t do that,’ she told him firmly. ‘I’ll tell the Barollis that Max had to take off, do some business.’

Jimmy was shaking his head.

‘You ain’t got a fucking clue, have you? You really don’t know what you’re playing around with here,’ he warned.

‘I know they’re the only ones with this sort of cash at their disposal,’ said Annie irritably. ‘What else is there to know?’