The difference between them, Freddie finally acknowledged to himself, was that Jimmy had a controlled strength, a strength that went deeper than the physical. He was strong in his mind as well as his body. Jimmy used his nous, and he used it wisely, whereas Freddie used just his strength all day every day, to get what he wanted. No matter how trivial it might be.

Jimmy slammed his cousin's head into the brick wall over and over again. He knew he had drawn blood but he was past caring. This was the one thing he had always dreaded, this was a long time in stir if it all came on top, and it was a pointless nicking, devoid of any kind of principle or reasoning. A completely unnecessary death that could destroy the rest of their lives.

He chinned Freddie then with all the force he could muster. He hit him so hard that he had to hold him up to stop him toppling into the blood that had spread over the floor.

'You fucking cunt, Freddie, you stupid fucking cunt!'

Then June walked into the carnage and all hell broke loose.

Chapter Sixteen

Jackie could hear the girls talking, and she listened as she always did to their gossip about the salons and her sister Maggie. They were in the kitchen, chatting and eating a late supper.

Jackie was in her lounge as usual, with a large drink, her cigarettes, a bag full of sweets and her prescription medication on the small glass table by her chair. Her other medication, her real medication was in her purse, but she liked people to see her antidepressants because she felt it spoke volumes about her life and the way she lived it.

Maggie had once pointed out that her world was so small, it was peopled by her and her alone. Well, by the sounds of it Maggie was finally learning the facts of life.

'She was crying her eyes out, and I didn't know what to do!'

Roxanna, who was looking more like Maggie every day, was listening to her sister with wide-open eyes, and pulling on her cigarette in short nervous little puffs as she heard this terrible news about her lovely auntie.

Little Freddie was watching a video as usual. The sound of the gunfire was loud, and, seeing his mother listening to the girls, he turned the sound up even more. When Jackie snatched the remote from him and turned the volume down, he kicked her hard in the chest. The pain was excruciating and she also lost the majority of the drink in her glass.

Jackie hit him with the flat of her hand and put all her considerable strength into it. Any other child would have screamed, but he laughed at her and let rip with a string of expletives even she was shocked to hear.

'You little fucker!'

He was still laughing at her, and his eyes told her exactly what he thought of her.

She stood up unsteadily and caught sight of herself in the mirror above the fireplace. Her nightdress was grubby, her hair was like rats' tails and she was bloated, her face and her body suddenly looking huge.

She walked to the mirror and stared at herself. She saw the thinness of her hair, which had once been luxuriant, and the sallow tint to her skin. Her back ached constantly, and she had trouble even eating her sweets, which for years had been her staple diet.

On the mantelpiece was an old photo of her and Freddie from when they were courting and she picked it up and looked at it properly, for the first time in years. She had been a beauty, and she had never really known that. But now, seeing herself in her little dress, with her happy smiling face, it was as if she was looking at a stranger.

She could hear Little Freddie cussing with the men on the video, word for word. As she walked out into the hallway, the girls were still in the kitchen and she went in and smiled at them. 'Had a good day, babes?'

It was forced and they knew it. She could not give a toss what they had done, but as always they humoured her.

'Great, Mum, and you?'

This from Kimberley who had sarcasm down to a fine art.

She overlooked the insult and said in a friendly way, 'What's all this about Maggie crying in the salon, then?' She sounded worried and interested and Dianna shook her head in disbelief. They knew what was going on with her mum and Maggie, they could hear everything that went on in this house and it amazed them that their mother didn't realise that.

Kimberley shrugged. 'Dunno, Mum, she wouldn't say.'

It was said with loyalty and also in such a way as to make her mother aware that they would not discuss it any further with her.

Jackie felt the anger that was always boiling away beneath the surface start to rise, but she kept it down and said in a quiet voice, 'She ain't right, and she is my little sister. Maybe I should go round and see her, what do you think? Woman to woman, like.'

The three girls just stared at her with expressionless faces, and she saw how good looking they were, how nice and tidy they were, and how they had no interest whatsoever in what she was saying.

She felt like an outsider in her own home, and it hurt. 'You fucking lairy little mares. I fucking do everything for you lot and you treat me like a fucking ear hole, like a no neck.'

Kimberley picked up her handbag and the others followed suit. Leaving their sandwiches and their teas, they tried to troop past her to go to bed.

She pushed them all back into the kitchen and stood in the doorway. 'You will answer me, or I will fucking deck you one by one.'

Kimberley sighed and said quietly, 'You're drunk, Mum. Go to bed and let us be, eh?'

It was said in such a reasonable way that for a few seconds Jackie actually considered doing just that. But then her temper and her paranoia kicked in as usual.

'Bollocks, I want to know what the fucking drama was in that salon. Was your father there? Does he ever go in there?' She could hear herself and she knew she sounded like a fool, but she couldn't stop.

'Why would he go in there, Mum?'

This from Roxanna, who was sick and tired of this woman and her histrionics.

Jackie laughed then. 'You don't want to know, babe, but listen to me and listen good. She is getting what she fucking deserves. You think she is so fucking great-'

'Oh, Mum, will you stop it!' Dianna's voice was so loud and so determined that Jackie was speechless. 'Maggie loves you, she never says a bad thing about you, and all you can do is fucking try and slag her off.'

Jackie looked at the three faces that were turned to her and saw the confusion, the hurt and the disgust in them. Then, with her voice full of self-pity and tears, she said, 'She has turned you against me, ain't she?'

Kimberley shook her head in utter despair. 'Oh, Mum, you've done that all on your own. Now go to bed, please. Will you stop this and leave us alone?'

'You think Maggie is so great, and that I am such a bad person. Oh, I know what's going on with you lot.'

Once more they looked at her with pity and irritation, and it was this that made her scream at them, 'She is a cunt, and she is trying to fucking ruin me and my life.'

She knew she should shut up but her hurt was so bad that she wanted to make them hurt too, make them feel how she was feeling.

'Stop it, Mum! Listen to yourself, you're drunk. Go to bed and sleep it off, will you.' Roxanna, her little girl, her baby daughter, was looking at her and she could see the contempt in her face, had just heard it in her words.

'What about me, girls? Can't you see what I am going through? Can't you try and spare a bit of your sympathy for your own mother?'

Jackie was nearly crying now with fury, shame and alcohol. She had been drinking all day and all night.

Kimberley pushed her sisters behind her protectively, she knew her mother was capable of violence when she was like this, but she couldn't stop herself from saying loudly, and with utter disregard for Jackie's feelings, real and imagined, 'Not everything is about you, Mum. If you could only see that then your life would be so much easier. Maggie is lovely, she has never said anything about you that we couldn't repeat to your face. She sticks up for you, she won't let us say a fucking dicky bird about you or your drinking or your bloody hatefulness. She is the only person who really cares about you and as usual, you can't see it. You eat her food and you drink her drink and you use her like you do everyone. But she is the only person who has ever been there for us, and you had better start to understand that and accept it. So, for the last time, Mum, go to bed.'