Fourteen

Raymond was delighted. “It’s taken a long time – a good four months – and a lot of work and worry, but look at you now, he told Alice as they strolled round the Cambridgeshire village where Raymond had rented a house for her to recuperate in. With their savings, and the wages he got from pulling pints in the Wagon and Horses pub four nights a week, things were going pretty well. He observed how confident she was, and how sprightly, as she walked alongside him. “You’ve mended well, my darling. It’s so good to see you back to your old self again.”

He took hold of her hand and squeezed it fondly. “Maybe now, you can start thinking about… well, you know?”

Alice knew exactly what he meant, because hadn’t he inundated her with his idea for weeks now “About getting wed, you mean?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye.

“That’s it.” Relieved, he pursued it, “So, what do you reckon?”

Alice took a moment to answer. “Well, I don’t think we need to rush. I’ve agreed to be your wife and we will get wed. But not just yet.”

“When, then?” He had to know. “A month, a year… give me an idea, that’s all I’m asking.”

“Don’t push me, Ray,” she entreated. “I’ve got too many other things on my mind to be planning a wedding.”

Realizing what she was referring to, he said, “Aw, Alice, I’m sorry. I know how upset you’ve been, about deceiving Maddy. But, you know what I think? Even with Drayton under lock and key, the danger is still there.”

Alice readily acknowledged it. “I also know it would be a terrible hurtful thing for Maddy to find out how she was lied to, in such a terrible way,” she sighed. “Day and night, she’s never far from my mind. I desperately needed to be with her when the baby came!”

“Alice, listen to me. What good will come of tormenting yourself? What you did, you did for Maddy’s sake, not your own. And if there ever comes a day when she finds out, Maddy will know that, and she’ll understand.”

Alice wasn’t so sure. “Think of the pain I must have caused her,” she sorrowed. “Think of how my poor girl was sent on her way, pregnant and frightened, with the belief that I… her only close friend… was dead and gone. How could she ever forgive me for that?”

Raymond would have spoken again, but she stopped him. “No, Ray. Whatever you say, you can’t ever ease my conscience.”

“But we have to move on,” he argued. “Punishing yourself won’t help anybody – not you, and certainly not Maddy.”

When they arrived at the garage, Alice stood aside while Raymond handed over a small sum of money. “Another three months payment for storage,” he told the clerk.

“I could have sold that Mini a dozen times over.” The clerk rang the amount up on a greasy cash register and handed over a receipt with a large black thumbprint on it.

“Well, I don’t want it sold,” Raymond replied, pocketing the receipt. “I’ve already told you my daughter has gone abroad for a year or two, and she doesn’t want to part with her car. She asked me to look after it until she gets back, and that’s what I’m doing.”

Afterward, Alice said, “We daren’t sell it, and we can’t use it. Cars and their details are traceable to the owner, and Steve Drayton is nobody’s fool. He’s bound to put two and two together and surmise that where Ellen is, you’ll find Maddy. I reckon the best place for that blessed car is at the bottom of a deep lake, miles from anywhere.”

Raymond said nothing, but he thought that Alice was right. Moreover, paying storage was becoming a burden on his modest finances. So, at some time in the future, running it into some deep dark lake, might be just the thing.

It was visiting time in Brixton Prison, and Steve Drayton had been brought down to meet his visitor. “Hands flat on the table, Drayton. You know the rules!”

The hard-faced prison officer had already experienced numerous confrontations with this “cock of the roost.” And knowing how Drayton manipulated everyone around him, it was his avowed aim in life to watch him like a hawk.

“What’s his problem?” The visitor was a little man who had been a friend to Drayton in their younger days. Now older and wiser, wizened and sharp as a shrew, he had bright eyes that darted left and right, seemingly to cover every corner and exit, as though looking to escape.

“Take no notice of him,” Drayton snarled. “He’ll get his comeuppance soon enough. What I need to know is, why are you here, Danny Boy?”

“Hmh! Charming way to greet an old friend,”

“Old friend, be damned! It’s been nigh on fifteen years since we’ve set eyes on each other, and as I recall we did not part on good terms. You and I might have started out on the same side, but you managed to change all that, with your ideas of taking over my patch.” He grinned wickedly. “You should have known you’d be the one to come off worse.”

“Okay! You did me good and proper, I’ll give you that. But you went too far. You not only humiliated me in front of my men, you broke me into the bargain, and I’ve never been able to get back up. Dammit, Drayton, you owe me.”

“I owe you nothing!”

When he leaned forward, looking as though he might go for the other man, the warden was quick to step in. “You’ve got a few more minutes yet, Drayton, and the choice is this: you can keep the temper in check, or we can take you back to your cell right now.”

“Sorry, guv.” Drayton was wily enough to know that giving out trouble brought trouble in return, and if he was set to be the number one here, he had no choice but to toe the line with the screws, however much it rankled.

Returning his attention to the little man, he showed his impatience. “Well? I’m waiting for an answer.”

“What was it you wanted to know?” Unnerved by the screw coming too close, the little fellow had forgotten what it was that Drayton had said.

“I’ll say it again – what’s brought you here? What is it you’re after?” The prisoner lowered his voice until it was almost inaudible. “And don’t fob me off with your lies, because I know you from old.”

“It’s simple.” The little man’s confidence was growing. “I’m here to do you a favor.”

Drayton gave a low, strangled laugh. “You… do me a favor? Huh! You will never see the day.”

“It’s a small favor, but I’ll want paying.”

“Haven’t I just said, I want no favors from you.” Although in truth, he was intrigued.

“It’ll cost you nothing to listen.” The little man went on quickly, “I hear you’re keen to find a certain little bird… I’m told she used to sing for you, until you replaced her with another little chirper. That put the first one’s nose out of joint – quite rightly, as I see it – but then she dropped you in it good and proper, and you want her taught a lesson. At least, that’s what I was told.”

“Then you were told wrong!”

When Drayton began to move away, the little man persisted. “Listen to me, Steve. You’ve said yourself that I had a nose for ‘sniffin’ the buggers out.’ Well, I still have the nose, and I can find her for you – at half the price you’re paying the other geezer. He hasn’t found her yet, has he, eh? Give me a chance, that’s all I want.”

“Why should I?” Drayton had a long memory. “You tried to stitch me up once. What’s to say you won’t try it again?”

“Because while you’ve gone on the up and up, my fortunes have changed for the worse.”

Drayton laughed in his face. “Still the hapless gambler, eh? You’ll never learn, will you?”

“Look, I need the money. I’ll do you a deal, Drayton. I’ll find her, or you don’t pay me, apart from expenses. Now I can’t say fairer than that. So, what do you say?”

Leaning back in his chair, Drayton regarded the other man closely. He saw Danny Boy’s worn jacket and the clutch of gray hair that was once black and thick; he noticed how the little man’s hands were nervously fidgeting, showing that he could well be using drugs, and he realized that his old enemy, Danny Boy Maguire, really had fallen on hard times.