Jessie Keane - Black Widow

Jeanette said nothing. Her silence was more telling than all her previous protestations of innocence.

‘But it’s all gone wrong, hasn’t it?’ Annie shook her head sadly. ‘Such a good plan and such a bad result. Deary deary me. No money. No manor. No fuck-all, in fact. Jimmy’s legged it while he’s still got legs to do it with. Really smart move, but it won’t do him any good because I’ll find him. I swear to God I’ll find him. And as for your brother and your sisters…well, it don’t look good. It looks sort of fatal, Jeanette, if you want the truth. And that just leaves little you. Which is pretty fitting, don’t you think, since it just started with little you. What, did you just happen to get the stripping job at the club and meet Jonjo there? Or did you get the stripping job there because you knew you could wheedle your way into his bed? Poor old Jonjo and his weakness for blondes. Looks like it’s a weakness that finally killed him.’

Jeanette was hugging herself and shaking now.

‘Look, I didn’t set him up. He came on to me, I just went out with him, that’s all.’

‘Until you met Jimmy and he started whispering in your ear about how he could take over the manor, get the Carters out of the way and make a good bit of money out of them in the process?’

‘I didn’t do nothing wrong,’ insisted Jeanette.

‘No, sure you didn’t. You know, it puzzled me why your brother Danny-the kidnapper-knew no one would pay to get me back. That’s what he said when I offered to exchange me for Layla. How could he have known that? Let me guess. Jimmy told you. And you told Vita and Vita told Danny. You told them when we were at our most vulnerable. All you did was give them the key to the door, Jeanette. You went into Palma the day before the hit, you met up with your family and you said, tomorrow’s the day, go for it. You know, you should get a fucking Oscar for the performance you gave in the villa after the hit. Straight up, you should. You even made as if to phone the Guardia Civil-and congratulations on that, it made your act look really good-because you knew I’d stop you going through with it.’

‘I didn’t do nothing,’ said Jeanette, more weakly this time.

‘No? You wrecked my life, Jeanette. You wrecked it, stamped on it, ground it into the dust. My husband died. My brother-in-law died. My friends died too. And your hoodlum fucking family took my baby girl and hurt her while I was left tearing my hair out, trying any way I knew how to get the money to pay them for her safe return. All the while not knowing whether I would ever get her back. No, you didn’t do a damned thing wrong, Jeanette. You’re a sodding saint, that’s what you are.’

‘What…what are you going to do to me?’ whispered Jeanette, white-faced.

‘Me? You know, I’ve thought about that. Dreamed about it, even. About what I would do to the people who caused all this when I caught up with them. And now I have. I’ve caught up with you , Jeanette. I’ve got you in my sights, right now.’

Jeanette gulped. ‘But I-’

Annie lifted a finger, silencing her. ‘I’ve got just one last question, Jeanette,’ she said.

‘Wh-what?’ Jeanette was pale and sweating.

‘Did you try to run me over?’

‘What?’

‘You heard. A car came at me and if Tony hadn’t seen it coming, I’d be dead. What I’m thinking is, a friend of mine, a really good friend who’s rarely wrong about things like this, she thought Jimmy fancied his chance with me. So what happened, Jeanette? Did the jealousy outweigh the greed? Did you think to yourself, stuff the money, what if I can’t trust Jimmy? What if he’s planning to change horses in midstream, set himself up with Annie Carter instead of me? Is that what happened? Did you suddenly see red, lose it, want to take me out?’

‘No…’ Jeanette’s eyes slid away from Annie’s. ‘I didn’t do it. It wasn’t me. I don’t know nothing about that.’

Annie stared at her. ‘You’re lying,’ she said.

‘You’ve got to believe me,’ pleaded Jeanette with a desperate movement towards her. She started to cry. ‘You’ve got to…’

But Annie didn’t. Jeanette was guilty as sin. The crazy bitch had tried to kill her. And if she’d succeeded, what would Jimmy and her family have done to Layla then, with no prospect of payment, no devoted mother to target?

They’d have killed her too.

Annie straightened. ‘Goodbye, Jeanette,’ she said, and walked out of the kitchen and to the front door.

Constantine’s man was there.

The kids were in the car, with Constantine.

Annie looked at the man, looked back along the hall.

‘Do it,’ she said.

Annie knew she would never forget the expression on Kath’s face when she knocked on her door with little Mo in her arms and Jimmy Junior at her side. Kath burst into tears at the sight of her children, taking the baby tenderly into her arms after hugging little Jim until he protested and ran off inside.

Seeing the three of them reunited, Annie knew she couldn’t doubt the depth of Kath’s love for her kids. Now that Jimmy Bond was off the scene, Annie hoped that Kath would find the strength to get a grip. She was going to help Kath any way she could, she promised herself that. For a start she was going to get Ellie back to help out.

‘I don’t know what to say. After everything that’s gone on between us, and you do this for me?’ Kath said, tears spilling down over her chubby cheeks, her eyes sparkling with happiness as she looked at Annie over the baby’s head.

Then her eyes clouded. ‘He’ll take them away again. He’ll come back and take them off me again…’ she wailed.

‘Jimmy’s gone, Kath. He won’t be back.’

Unless it’s in a box , she thought grimly.

‘What about Layla? What happened about Layla?’ asked Kath a little more calmly.

Annie looked into Kath’s eyes and wondered-just for a second-if Kath could have known anything about the hit. But no. Kath might carp at her, might call her a tart and a treacherous bitch, but what Kath would never do was betray her family.

‘I’ve got her back,’ said Annie.

‘She okay?’ Kath’s eyes were anxious.

‘She’s fine.’

‘I’m glad,’ said Kath. ‘Come on, got something to show you.’

Still hugging the baby close, and with Jimmy Junior trotting at her heels, Kath showed Annie upstairs to where Jimmy had kept his stash under the loose floorboard beside the bed. When they lifted the board out, the space underneath was empty. Jimmy had obviously cleared out any cash before he left.

‘He used to keep loads of money in there. Hundreds. Thousands.’

Yeah , thought Annie. The firm’s money. My money.

This explained a lot. No wonder Jimmy hit the roof when Ellie arrived on the scene. No wonder Kath had panicked and kicked Ellie out when she had said she was going to start on the upstairs rooms. If Ellie had found the hiding place, and reported back to Annie, the shit would have hit the fan in a big way.

Just keep running, Jimmy Bond , thought Annie as she left Kath there with her kids and went back outside into the refreshing spring rain. Keep running you bastard-but I’m going to find you.

But Kath came running after her and stopped her at the door. She was holding out a piece of paper.

Annie paused, and took it. Kath was still beaming, incandescent with joy, flushed with it. Annie saw in her face a glimmer of the girl she had once been-funny, friendly, confident. She wanted to see that girl again, but this time as a woman, the woman Kath should have become.