Jessie Keane - Black Widow

Fuck it.

One of the boys came up the stairs behind him.

‘They haven’t been gone long. Trash in the bin. Stove’s been used.’

A miss is as good as a mile , thought the one in charge.

’You want us to do door-to-door round the area?

‘Yeah,’ he sighed. ‘Do it.’

‘Two days and we’ll be out of here,’ said Danny confidently.

They were in a scruffy family safe house near Epping Forest. Vita sat at the kitchen table with her watercolours. Phil was leaning against the worktop, sipping tea. They said nothing.

‘We’re nearly home and dry.’

There was no response.

‘We get the money, drop the kid off, smooth as silk. Well, ain’t you got nothing to say about it?’ Danny asked Vita, nudging her shoulder.

Vita pulled a face. ‘Just that I’ll be fucking glad when all this is over,’ she said.

‘Now what’s bit you up the arse?’ hollered Danny. ‘Christ, you’re a moody cow.’

‘I hate this place. I’ve hated all the places we’ve been in, they’re pigsties.’

‘They got to be, Dumbo. What, you think we should stay in some posh neighbourhood where people would say, who the hell are they, mooching about? And tell the fuzz all about it? It’s quiet here, out in the sticks, it’s ideal.’

‘I just want it all over,’ said Vita, dabbing at a duck’s wing with a little turquoise paint.

Amen to that , thought Phil. The pair of them were arguing again. They were always arguing. Nutters, both of them. Talk about bad blood. Vita was half-simple but Danny was seriously demented. Killing that couple on the island, that had been bad. And harming the kid had been worse. He hadn’t signed up for anything like that. He looked at Danny and thought, Mad bastard.

‘You got something to say?’ Danny asked Phil with a challenging grin.

Phil shrugged. ‘Not a thing,’ he said.

‘Well, good,’ said Danny, and poured himself some tea, thinking that really everything was working out just fine.

By Friday he would have more money than he’d ever had before, and that felt good. He might give Vita a small share, but he wasn’t planning on letting Phil have any. In fact, he was planning on giving Phil a very nasty surprise, a terminal sort of surprise, poor old Phil. And of course, he wasn’t going to hand over the kid. It was a pity, but after all, it made perfect sense. She had seen his face. And he couldn’t have that.

Constantine got the call at dawn on Friday morning. He was an early riser-most of the family were-so he was already up and in the study, talking to Lucco, when the conversation with his son was interrupted by the phone. Lucco listened to his father speaking and his lips grew tight. He was getting everyone working hard to help the Carter woman. Lucco knew why. Lucco had seen her and, more important, he had seen the two of them together.

‘What you got?’ Constantine asked the man on the phone.

‘We got an address. A Byrne cousin’s got a house out in the wilds near Epping. We got it staked out, from a safe distance.’ He gave Constantine the address. ‘I’ve seen two guys going in and out, no one else. What you want us to do?’

‘Hold back. Keep watch. I’m coming.’

Constantine put the phone down and stood up. ‘Got to go, Lucco,’ he said. ‘Business.’

Lucco nodded. ‘For the Carter woman, yes?’

‘For Mrs Carter.’ Constantine looked at Lucco, sitting there, pouting like a truculent five year old. ‘You got a problem?’

Lucco shrugged and stood up. ‘No, not at all,’ he lied. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’

Constantine watched his son leave the room. Lucco. Dark and deep, just like Maria, his mother, had been. He had loved that trait in Maria, loved her mystery, her sensuality. Annie Carter had that quality too. You never knew which way she was going to jump, you only knew that her direction would surprise you. He liked that. He liked her.

But shit-he’d blown his chances with her, big time.

And anyway, for today, the girl must be his priority.

Annie, Dolly, Aretha, Darren, and Ellie were having breakfast. Annie was sunk in gloom. Today was it. At midday the kidnapper would phone her.

Within the next hour she had to get her arse over to Constantine’s and do the deed. Last chance. Get the cash from him. Christ knew he could spare it; he was loaded. Save Layla. Or, if not, lose Layla for good.

Dolly was moaning on about Una not showing up for work again.

‘Friday’s party day. I’ve told her time and again, we need to get everything in place ready for the party, no hanging around in bed and no going out on the piss on Thursday nights with your druggie mates, but does she listen? Does she fuck as like.’

‘Hey, no sweat, I can fill in,’ said Aretha, glancing at Annie with a sigh.

Ross stuck his head round the kitchen door. He was holding out a note and he looked narked.

‘Another one of these bloody things just came. For you again.’ He held it out to Annie.

What the fuck now? she wondered, taking it. Another fifteen minutes and she’d have been on the road to Constantine’s place, all primed and ready to do the deed and bag the money. Now what?

‘What’s it say?’ asked Darren.

Annie looked up at him briefly.

Poor bloody Darren. His eyes looked sunken. His hair, once so lustrous, was dry. He coughed all the time now-a dry, hacking cough. No clients now. He wasn’t up to that; didn’t even look good enough to attempt it any more.

Her eyes drifted on to meet Aretha’s, and she saw her own concern for Darren reflected there. And on to Ellie. Ellie the traitor, given another chance by Dolly, who was so kind, the best friend any woman could ever have; and look at the shit Annie had brought to her door, and yet still, still , Dolly hadn’t turned her away.

She looked at the note from Constantine. Spread it out on the table. She was now so panicked, so completely driven by dread, that she found it hard to break the code. Possibly because he was saying something different this time. Oh sure , she thought. Like, Your arse is mine. But then, she knew that already.

She had to force herself to concentrate, to break the very simple code. A was four, B was five. She read it, very slowly, struggling with the numbers and the words this time because she was in a dark place in which her baby could die unless she complied with Constantine’s demands.

Well, she had already decided that she was going to do it. She had a second bite of the cherry, and she had to take it. She knew that.

She would read this note, and then she would go over to Holland Park, get it over with. Get the money. Get Layla. Please God, let her get Layla.

‘Come on, Annie, don’t keep us in suspense, what’s it say?’ demanded Dolly, craning over to get a look.

Annie’s jaw had slowly dropped as she deciphered Constantine’s latest pizzino.

‘Annie?’ Ellie was staring at her. ‘What is it, what’s wrong?’

‘Come on, girl,’ urged Aretha, eyes wide with worry. ‘Tell us, for fuck’s sake. What is it? Is it…is it bad…?’

Annie looked up and her eyes were full of shock.

The kitchen was silent.

‘He’s found them,’ she said numbly. ‘He’s only gone and fucking found them. The address is right here.’

And the kitchen erupted in yells and screams, such a frenzy of delight that Ross came charging in and asked what the fuck had happened now? But they only laughed. All except Annie, whose shock had deepened to nothing less than abject fear.