Kerry Barnes - Deceit

Julie was taken aback; she thought perhaps she’d got the woman all wrong. ‘Yeah, well, I dunno about that. I remember the way you were looking at me on the bus, like I was dog turd.’

Kara waved her hands. ‘No, no, you’re mistaken. I wasn’t looking at you like that. It’s hard to explain … You are worlds apart from me. I was being nosy. Yes, I admit it, but I was thinking how hard you had it, jumping on the bus with no money. I wasn’t being a snob, I felt for you, that’s all. Oh, and I was looking at your beautiful baby, thinking how sweet she was.’

‘Um, well, we ain’t all got a good job and a posh house, ya know.’

‘I know, and by the way, neither have I now. I fucking burned it down. My boyfriend has gone off with another woman, I got fired from my job, and now I’m in prison for how long, I don’t even know.’ She laughed. ‘So, Julie Meadows, I’m in your shoes now, and I’m still bloody scared.’

Julie sat back, raised her eyebrows, and smiled. ‘Guess you are, then. So, what’s ya name? Karen or something, ain’t it?’

‘No, it’s Kara, but I seem to have been given the nickname Posh.’

Julie’s face turned from a harsh, tight-lipped expression to a young fresher-looking appearance. ‘Stands to reason. Posh, eh?’

‘May I ask what you’re in for?’

‘I stabbed me sister, the lying, cheating cunt. I knew she was ’aving it away with me ol’ man, the lazy fat bastard, he is.’ Kara gathered this was the fourth sister she hadn’t met, rather than Angie.

Kara noticed Julie’s eyes fill up, but she instantly sniffed back the tears.

‘But he was my lazy fat bastard, not hers. Me own frigging sister, what a fucking skank. I should have stabbed her in the face instead of her leg. Then, she might think twice about going after my ol’ man again. S’pose it don’t matter now. I’m in ’ere and they are out there, probably fucking as we speak.’

‘I doubt that, if you stabbed her in the leg.’ Kara smiled, trying to lighten the mood.

With an unexpected childish giggle, Julie went on, ‘Yeah, I should have knifed her in the fanny. That would have well and truly fucked her up, eh?’

After an hour or so, Kara found her tongue and they spoke for England. Julie’s foul language had muted, and in some ways, Kara’s words had rubbed off on her. She had nothing to prove – no axes to grind, just relaxed conversation. And Kara found she was using some of Julie’s terminology and had ventured into throwing in the odd swear word. Their discussion around cheating husbands was halted when Vic arrived. ‘Fucking cosy, this, eh?’ she commented.

‘All right, Sis?’ responded Julie.

Kara had half expected them to hug, but they just eyed each other over and gave approving nods.

‘So, ya silly bitch, what ya gone an’ done now?’

Lowering her gaze, Julie said, ‘I stabbed our Sharon in the leg.’

‘You what?’ Vic’s voice was bold and gruff. Kara then knew why people feared her; just her tone alone was frightening enough.

‘All right, all right, keep ya fucking hair on. I ain’t killed her, the no-good muggy cunt!’

‘What the fuck did you do that for? She’s ya sister. We stick together, remember, or ’ave ya gone mental in ya old age?’

‘She’s ’aving it away with Billy, my Billy.’

Vic shifted Kara over and sat down on the bed. She was a good foot taller than Julie, but there was an obvious family resemblance; their almost olive skin, high cheekbones, and black hair, were similar, but it was their eyes that narrowed and cast doom; that was their striking trait.

‘Aw, don’t tell me you are still with that fat fucker? Ain’t you learned ya lesson by now? He’s shagging half the estate … Gawd knows what they see in him, ’cos it ain’t his good looks and sophisticated ways. Jue, he is a nasty no-good pain in the arse, and you need to woman up and kick his lard-arse to the kerb. As for rucking with our Sharon, I’m ashamed of ya.’

Julie took a deep breath. ‘You wouldn’t understand, but it’s not that she was shagging Billy. It’s not like a jealous thing. I’m just sick of her taking the piss outta me.’

A chuckle left Vic’s lips. ‘You sure about that? Only, didn’t you punch that kid at the end of your road, all ’cos Billy whistled at her?’

‘Oh, whatever, anyway, it ain’t the point. Sharon pushed me too far, laughing in me face like that, telling me she was better in the sack and said she would do it again. She laughed at me baby an’ all, saying she looked like a French bulldog.’

Kara watched and listened; somewhere in there was a moral code.

‘She called the baby names, did she? Well, then, she deserved it. Poor little Harper. She’s a dear sweet thing. Fancy her own aunt calling her a French bulldog. What a cunt.’

Kara’s hunch was spot-on and she was learning fast. There was the moral code. Calling the baby names was a no-no in their way of life, and although Julie’s actions seemed over the top, almost laughable in a gruesome way, in fact, Kara could see why Julie and Vic were on the same page. The Meadows were a big family and probably tighter than a fat guy in spandex. Fighting among themselves might be tolerated under exceptional circumstances but calling the baby a bulldog had crossed a line.

Sensing she was in the way, Kara got to her feet and was quickly pulled back down. ‘It’s all right, mate, you can stay. It’s your cell, so don’t mind me.’

Very pointedly, Julie studied Kara and then her sister. ‘Mates then, eh?’

‘Yep, Jue, so you treat her nice. She knows how ta fix ya up, so she will know how to bring ya down. Lotions, potions, and poisons.’

With a curled lip and a raised eyebrow, Julie looked the epitome of confused.

‘Gawd, Jue, Posh is a doctor, right? She knows how to make ya better, so she will know how ta kill ya.’

Kara’s eyes widened at Vic’s conclusion.

‘Anyway, she sorted me out, so she is fine in my book. And ol’ Deni, the poor cow, I’ve just left her in the hospital wing. Mind you, I gave the nurse a fucking warning. I said she has shingles and not a bleedin’ headache. You should have seen the look on her face, as if I had just told her she had the plague.’ She pulled a roll-up from her scruffy bun and lit the end, puffing furiously. ‘So, where’s the baby? Muvver surely ain’t fit enough, the bleedin’ piss ’ead.’

‘Our Angie’s got Harper. Mind you,’ she said, with a penetrating stare at Kara, ‘she ain’t got her job no more.’

‘Oh yeah? She didn’t tea leaf anything, did she? She was on a right good earner. She reckons the woman gave her a monthly bonus to spoil herself an’ all,’ Vic said, with a quizzical frown.

Julie was still looking at Kara, a grin forming across her face. ‘No, her employer burned the flaming house down. Didn’t ya, Posh?’

Vic spun around with her hands to her mouth. ‘Oh, fuck me, it was you ! Jesus, ya really did go to town. My Angie said ya didn’t leave a brick standing, not a blade of grass in the front garden. She reckons you used a bomb … I need to change your name to Bomber Bannon.’ She laughed at her own joke and pushed Kara almost off the bed. ‘Cor, small world, eh? So, Bomber, you’re a sly horse. I thought it was an accident. I didn’t know you were serious. Fucking bombed the house! Well, you have respect from me … But why, though?’

For a moment, Kara felt comfort. Two women, a world apart from hers, were treating her now as one of their own. ‘My boyfriend went off with someone else and then asked me to get out of the house, our home that we had shared for years, so I thought, if he wants to move the bitch in, then he can sleep with her on a pile of ashes.’ Just as she spoke her innermost thoughts, she realised she was just like them. The only difference was that she portrayed more finesse, but it all boiled down to the same thing at the end of the day.