Jessie Keane: Lawless

Ruby started pacing up and down, her hand over her mouth. She felt like she was going to throw up, or punch Vi in the face. She came back to where Vi sat and looked down at her.

‘Anthony’s very protective of you,’ she said.

Vi nodded, sheet-white.

‘It was him, wasn’t it? It was him who killed Michael, because he’d rejected you, upset you. Anthony was used to your little affairs, all the young men, but this one was different. You cared about this one. It hurt you when Michael pushed you away. What happened, Vi? Did you cry to Anthony about it? Was that how it happened?’

‘Oh Jesus…’ sobbed Vi. ‘I’m so sorry…’

‘Was it Anthony?’ pressed Ruby. She leaned down, grabbed Vi’s arm and shook her, hard. ‘Was it?’

‘No, it-’ Wincing, Vi wrenched her arm free. Her eyes when they met Ruby’s were imploring. ‘Ruby, I’m sorry – you have to believe that. Anthony… yes, it’s true. I told Anthony about what happened. I know this must be hard for you to understand, but I often told him about the boys I went with. It amused him. He couldn’t… he hasn’t been able to do a damned thing in the bedroom for a long time. And thank God for that, I couldn’t stand him pawing over me. But he liked to hear about my “little adventures” as he called them.’

‘So you told him about Michael,’ said Ruby.

Vi nodded, swallowed. Wiped her eyes again.

‘I was distraught. Hurt. Furious. I told Anthony how Michael had pushed me away. And he so hates to see me upset.’ She looked up at Ruby. ‘He didn’t do it himself.’

‘So who did it?’ Ruby’s heart was pounding so hard it frightened her.

‘Oh, Rubes…’ groaned Vi.

Ruby grabbed a hank of that shiny red hair and pulled Vi’s head back. She brought her face down very close to this woman who had been her friend.

‘ Who did it? ’ she spat.

‘I don’t know. Anthony doesn’t, either.’

‘ What? ’

‘It’s true,’ said Vi, grimacing with pain. ‘One of the casual workers who used to be on the estate was told to meet someone in a pub in London, pay them to do it. Someone unknown. And that’s how it happened. So I don’t know who did it. There’s no way of knowing. But Anthony told me it had been “taken care of”. I knew what that meant. I was half pleased about it – isn’t that awful? Michael had hurt me so much. And I was horrified too. Horrified at what I’d done to you. And so, so sad. When I knew he was dead, I… well, all I could do was support you. Or try to.’

Ruby let go of Vi’s hair as the words sank in. They would never know who did it. But an over-indulgent semi-senile old man had as good as pulled the trigger. And Vi had been with her at Michael’s funeral, playing the good, caring friend. When all along she had been totally responsible for this disaster.

‘You complete and utter cow,’ said Ruby, and hit Vi very hard across the face.

Vi didn’t even cry out. Her head snapped sideways. Ruby, starting to sob, hit her again. And again. Then she stumbled back and sat down hard, unable to stand any longer. At last, at long last, she knew what had happened to the man she’d loved. But this was no tidy solution. A stranger had been paid to carry out Lord Albermarle’s wishes. That was all she knew. All she would ever know.

Ruby stared at Vi; her cheeks were reddened from the blows Ruby had inflicted on her. Her eyes were puffy with tears. She looked what she was: a sad middle-aged woman trying to cling to her youth. And in doing so, she’d wreaked devastation.

Ruby staggered to her feet, picked up the record sleeve, put it back in her bag.

‘I’d like to phone for a taxi,’ she said as steadily as she could.

‘Yes,’ said Vi, sniffing, trying to compose herself. ‘Rubes, I’m so-’

‘ Save it ,’ snapped Ruby. She went over to the phone and made the call to the taxi company who had brought her out here. Then she sat down and in silence she waited for the cab to arrive.

‘Rubes…’ said Vi pleadingly after a minute or two.

‘Shut up,’ said Ruby, and Vi did.

Within five minutes, the taxi drew up outside, and Ruby left.

She knew she would never see Vi again.

‘Maybe there’s a way we can trace the son of a bitch who did it,’ said Kit when Ruby got back and explained what Vi had told her.

They were all – Kit, Rob, Daisy and Ruby – at Ruby’s house in Marlow. It was the day after she’d taken off for Oxford, leaving a note for Daisy.

‘You shouldn’t have done that,’ Daisy complained.

‘I had to. I couldn’t wait for you all to come back. I needed to see her, face to face, to know what was going on.’

‘It must have been horrible for you. And it could have been dangerous,’ said Daisy.

Ruby thought that Daisy was probably right; it could have been a risk, going there. Thinking of it now, of Vi sitting there trying to justify the chain of events she had set in motion, made Ruby feel nauseous. But she was glad she had confronted her. Now she felt a weight had been lifted. At last she knew what had happened to Michael.

‘Daise is right. You shouldn’t have done that, you should have left it to me,’ Kit told her. ‘Anything could have happened to you.’

‘But it didn’t,’ said Ruby.

‘It’s all been such a nightmare,’ said Daisy. She’d told her mother what happened at the Chigwell house, the horror they’d stumbled across.

Ruby was still trying to take it all in. Her brother Joe was dead, and Betsy too. And Vi? Well, she might as well be dead – she was dead, to Ruby. Overwhelmed by sadness, her eyes drifted back to Kit. She could see that he was suffering, and her heart went out to him. Bianca had gone, without a word. He’d searched so hard for her, but he couldn’t find her.

Then she looked at Daisy, and Rob – and she saw how his eyes followed Daisy when she left the room and came back in with Jody, each of the women carrying a baby. Daisy was like the cat with the cream, having her twins home, and every time she looked at Rob she lit up like a Christmas tree.

‘What happened,’ she asked Kit, ‘about Reg?’

Kit was taking his nephew Matthew from Daisy, bouncing him in his arms. Matthew was laughing.

‘Dunno. We haven’t caught up with him yet.’ Kit shot a look at Rob.

No need to let Ruby know they’d found Reg in the flat over the garage at Ruby’s place, dead from an overdose. And no way of knowing what tricks Vittore had pulled – blackmail, money, who knew? – to turn a faithful old soul like Reg against the people who’d been like family to him for so many years. At least he’d had the decency to top himself before either Kit or Rob had to do the job for him.

‘Jeez, what you feeding this kid, Daise?’ Kit asked her. ‘He weighs a ton.’

Kit came over to Ruby and put baby Matthew down into her arms. Ruby rocked the baby soothingly and smiled up at her son. Kit smiled back at her. In this room, right now, were the people she loved best in all the world. The riddle of Michael’s death was solved. Despite her sorrow for all that was lost, she felt at peace. Almost.

There was still one thing left to sort out.

‘You know what shocks me?’ said Thomas Knox to Ruby when he opened the door of his Hampstead house to her next day.

‘Hello to you too,’ said Ruby. She was wearing a coat and carrying a bottle of Cristal champagne. It was freezing out here on the doorstep. Summer in England. It was pissing down.

‘You know what absolutely floors me?’ he asked, leaning against the door and staring at her.

‘No,’ said Ruby. ‘Go on then. What?’