Josephine Cox - Songbird

“Why haven’t you found her, then? What’s the delay?”

“Look, all I can say is, I’ve got the very best of men out there looking. Somehow or another, she must have discovered you’d put the word out on her, and gave us the slip. There’s no other explanation for it. She’s obviously gone into hiding and, for the time being, she’s managing to stay one step ahead of us.”

He quickly explained the situation. “We scoured every square inch of the Blackpool area, in a radius of forty miles. We’ve tried the rental companies and B &Bs; we’ve kept a twenty-four-hour watch on the clubs and gaming houses up there, and still there’s no sign of her.” Putting up his hands in a gesture of defeat, he fell back in his chair. “I don’t mind telling you, guv, I thought it would be a hard and fast case; to be accomplished well within the time and me away to my next assignment. But I swear… it’s like she’s vanished off the face of the earth.”

Drayton wasn’t listening. Instead he was deep in thought, casting his mind back to that last big fight between himself and Maddy.

“Danny Boy?”

“Yes, guv?”

“Did you try the local hospitals?”

“Can’t say I thought o’ that. Why? Are you thinking she might have tried to top herself?”

Drayton’s face creased into a wicked grin. “Nah. I’m thinking she might have had a kid. According to her, she was up the duff. She claimed it was mine , silly tart. You can get rid o’ the brat, an’ all. Two for the price of one, like.”

The little man was horrified. “I’ve done some things in my time, but I’ve never done for a kid, no sir. And I’m not gonna start now,” he said.

“Is that so?” Drayton said softly. “In that case, you might as well hang up your gloves here and now. And I’ll make sure to let everyone know how you’ll only do a job if it suits your conscience. You’ve every right to make a stand if that’s how you see it. But you have no right being in this business if you let yourself become squeamish.”

“I’m not squeamish, and you know it!”

“If I let the word out, Danny, it could finish you off altogether. Is that what you want?”

“’Course not. It’s taken me years to get back in.” The hired killer looked indignant.

“Then do the job, and do it well. Afterward, I’ll make sure everybody knows how they can always rely on you. That you haven’t lost your touch… that you’re still as good as you ever were.”

Danny felt physically sick. “How do you know she didn’t get rid of the kid when you two split up? She might’ve had an abortion – gone to one o’ them Harley Street clinics.”

Drayton gave a snigger. “No way. I know her better than that. She would no more get rid of that kid, than I could walk out that door without being tackled to the ground and handcuffed.”

Leaning forward, Danny whispered, “About the kid – are you really saying you want me to…” Disturbed by the very thought of murdering a child, he glanced nervously at the patrolling officer.

“Look,” Drayton snapped, “the kid isn’t mine, all right? She was carrying on with some other man and when she got caught out, tried to use it to snare me into marrying her.”

Danny would have said something in return, but Drayton gave him that look, so he remained silent and listened.

“Sharpen your ears, Danny Boy. I need you to hear what I’m saying.” His voice inaudible to others, he instructed, “I want the bitch found, and soon. I want her hurt bad before you finish her off. And if the kid happens to be with her, then you know what to do… don’t you?”

When the little man fell silent, he glowered. “Cat got your tongue?”

“I know what to do, yes.”

“And is that a problem for you?”

“No, not a problem at all.” Though his stomach turned over at the very idea.

“Then you’d best get on with it, hadn’t you?”

Danny nodded. In his haste to put space between him and Drayton, he felt a pang of sympathy for Maddy. “Jeeze! You can’t blame the woman for keeping her head down,” he muttered. “Not with that crazy bastard on her tail.”

All the same, because he knew no other trade, and because he desperately needed to earn the trust of others, he would do the job he was being paid for.

Above all else, his reputation – and his livelihood – depended on it.

Behind him, Drayton seemed to have met his match, in the bulky form of prisoner Armstrong.

While Drayton was searched, Armstrong was kept waiting a short distance away, under the eagle eye of the second officer.

It was when Drayton and Armstrong were ushered to the outer door and Armstrong turned to look at him, that Drayton felt the full weight of the other man’s loathing.

The feeling was mutual, and of this Drayton left the other man in no doubt.

So far, they had each managed to stay on the right side of common sense.

But the brooding atmosphere intensifying between them kept all the other inmates at bay.

“Ellen!” poking hishead in through the open kitchen window, Bob shouted for his granddaughter. Abba’s new hit, “Chiquitita,” was blaring out on Radio I, and Ellen was warbling along to it. “ Ellen! The phone’s ringing! I can’t go in, because I’m up to my neck in it.” With new spring flowers scattered all over the bench, he had part-emptied the flower barrel and was now in the middle of refilling it with fresh soil. “ELLEN!” he bawled. The phone was insistent, and still no sign of her.

“All right! I’m on my way, don’t panic.” With the child in her arms, she ran to the radio, turned it off and snatched up the phone in the hall. “Hello?” A pause, then, “Oh Maddy – how are you? Is everything all right?”

There was a time, not so long ago, when if she heard Maddy’s voice, a smile would light up her face. But not today. In fact, not for these past few weeks. Since she had grown ever closer to baby Michael, the idea of Maddy claiming him back was devastating.

“I’m fine. And how are you and Grandad Bob?”

“We’re both well. In fact, Grandad’s outside in the back garden at the moment, pulling out the winter plants and replacing them with summer ones, and making one hell of a mess in the process!”

“Well, give him my love,” Maddy said, and then, her voice full of yearning, she asked, “So, how’s my baby?” Maddy wanted to know everything. “Is that bothersome tooth through yet? Has his hair thickened up? Oh, and what about-”

“Hey! Hang on – give me a chance and I’ll tell you,” Ellen laughed. “Michael is absolutely thriving. His tooth is just about through, with the one next to it beginning to show. So as you can imagine, it’s sleepless nights for everyone. His cheeks are red, and he’s dribbling so much I have to keep changing his bibs. And he’s chewing on everything in sight. He’s doing so well with his feeding, Maddy. We’ve got him on mashed-up vegetables and gravy and bananas and stewed apple. He eats every scrap.”

“I miss him so much.” Maddy tried hard not to let it show, but the tremor in her voice told it all. “I want to come back. I want to see him, to hold him in my arms.” The tears broke through. “Oh Ellen, I don’t know if I can stay away any more. I’m missing everything: his first tooth, cuddling him and feeding him, hearing his little baby noises. Even the sleepless nights. How long will it be before he starts crawling, then taking his first step?” She burst out sobbing. “Have I made a big mistake in thinking it was better for me to leave and keep you all safe? Every day seems like a lifetime away from him… from all of you.”