Jail Bird

I…?’

They both shook their heads.

Reba lit up and inhaled deeply, exhaling plumes of smoke through her nose. She coughed once, sharply. The wrinkles in her face deepened. Lily felt glad she had never cultivated the nicotine habit, not even to while away the hours in prison. But by God she could have used a drink right now. To think of Leo in bed with this…and then coming home to her. It made her feel sick to her stomach.

Maybe Becks was right. Maybe fidelity really was too much to expect from the type of man she’d married. She should have learned the rules and played the game. She’d taken it all too seriously, felt he was holding her up to ridicule among their circle of friends. But after all, he’d only hurt her pride—he hadn’t broken her heart.

Thoughts of Becks reminded Lily that she hadn’t heard from her in a little while. Maybe Becks still felt bad about having to turn Lily out in the cold. She decided she’d find the time to call her, patch things up. Maybe arrange to meet up with all the girls for lunch, just like they used to back in the good old days. She missed those times so much. But then…what girls? What friends did she really have left?

There was Becks. There would always be Becks. And Hairy Mary; yes, she could still be called a friend, Lily was sure of that. But Maeve was her enemy now—and, as for Adrienne, who she had once believed to be a pal, well, why on earth would she want to sit at a table with that back-stabbing cow grinning across at her?

‘First time I saw Leo King was…let me think…’ Another thoughtful puff of the ciggy. ‘Nineteen eighty-six. Late July. We were all sitting around watching Fergie get hitched to Prince Andrew at Westminster. Leo called right in the middle of it all, and some of the girls moaned on a bit. Like watching a fairy tale, that was. Then he calls and in they come, all the boys, and the romance of the day was sort of ruined, know what I mean?’ Reba winked. ‘They’d just come back straight from Amsterdam and they were loaded.’ Reba was staring at Lily, hard enough to make her feel uncomfortable. ‘I think we all know what Amsterdam and large amounts of money adds up to, don’t we?’

Drug money, thought Lily. Yeah, she knew. Turned a blind eye to all that, but she knew. She even thought she remembered him making the trip. And instead of coming straight home to her—yeah, and she’d been watching the wedding too, who hadn’t?—he’d concluded his business with the Dutch and come here instead to treat the boys, and, of course, himself.

Just boys letting off steam.

High-octane danger could do that with men. Do a moody deal, you half expect to get shipped back in a body bag. And if you didn’t, if some bastard didn’t off you or rob you or double-cross you before you made it home, there was a sense of release, a sense of needing to celebrate your success, to celebrate life. Because you still—against all expectations—had it.

So Leo had come to a knocking-shop instead of to her. They’d been engaged then, her and Leo—not even married. The first flush of lust should have been on them, but she had still been pining over Nick, still trying to come to terms with losing him, and Leo had preferred to bed a tart. That just about said it all.

‘’Course, they got it easy out there in clog land,’ said Reba. ‘Legalized prostitution. Must be heaven on earth. Not like here, with the Bill always sniffing around. Oh yeah, I remember Leo King. He was great in bed.’

Lily was glad she wasn’t smoking—she’d have choked at that point. Jack sent her a quick look, but twelve years inside had taught her to keep her face straight and her head down.

‘I didn’t run the gaff then, I was one of the workers,’ Reba elaborated. ‘We had a big selection of girls then, just like now. Asians, Swedes, blacks, all beautiful. The men could pick and choose, double up, whatever. Leo picked me, he liked blondes.’

Lily felt bile rise into her throat. She swallowed it. Willed her face to stay blank.

‘And Jesus could that man perform. He kept on coming back for more…’ Reba blew out smoke, her eyes suddenly dreamy…‘I remember the last time he came here. Another Amsterdam trip. Our last night. His last night. I saw it in the papers later that week. He was dead. The most alive man I ever met, and he was stone-dead. Only it wasn’t another gang killed him, as you might expect. It was his ever-loving wife.’

Reba was staring at Lily again. Now she started nodding. ‘I know who you are. You’re not his assistant. You’re Lily King,’ she said. ‘You’re the bitch who did poor Leo.’

Lily felt her blood run cold.

‘What?’ Lily sat there, open-mouthed, startled.

Reba was still nodding her bleached-blonde head. ‘Yeah. You’re Lily King. Saw you in the papers and on the telly when the trial started.’ She took a contemplative drag on her ciggie then said: ‘Girl, you ain’t aged a bit.’

Well, you’ve aged about a hundred years, thought Lily.

‘Was it just business then?’ Lily asked slowly. ‘You and Leo?’

‘What, you gonna blow my brains to fuck too?’ Reba gave a snort and angrily stubbed out her cigarette in a glass ashtray. ‘I can’t believe they let you out already. You should have died inside.’

Part of me did, thought Lily. Maybe the best part.

‘Well I didn’t,’ she said. ‘I’m alive, Leo’s dead and here’s the latest bulletin—I didn’t kill him.’

‘The fuck you didn’t.’

‘Ladies,’ said Jack, holding up his hands.

‘Did you?’ asked Lily.

‘You what?’

‘You heard the question. Did you kill Leo? Was it a bit more than business for you? Did he take you home, to my home, and did he give you a line or two of something, a nice little bonus from clog land. Did you have a downer and turn nasty?’

‘This ain’t getting us anywhere,’ said Jack.

‘Yeah, he took me back there, gave me the guided tour. That was some place you had, you and him. You were a lucky cow and I doubt you appreciated it one little bit. He had a good deal going on, a big carousel scam, he told me about it. Pillow talk.’ She gave Lily a sour smile. ‘Look at your fucking face. You don’t even know what a carousel scam is, do you?’

Lily didn’t. She’d never known a thing about Leo’s business: that was the way he wanted to play it and that was just fine with her. But this news burned her like a hot branding iron pressed against her flesh. He’d kept her in the dark and fed her bullshit, okay, she’d accepted that. But meanwhile, he’d been telling all his whores the juicy details? That hurt.

‘Why don’t you enlighten us?’ asked Jack, shooting looks between the two. He didn’t want a ruck; he knew that once the fur started flying there’d be nothing achieved here. But Lily and Reba were eyeing each other like gladiators in a Roman arena.

‘Look, it’s simple,’ said Reba. ‘It’s the sweetest swindle you can imagine. You bring your goods into Britain and you’re supposed to pay VAT to the taxman and then charge it to whoever bought the goods. If they were re- exported, the exporter claimed a rebate. With me so far?’

Jack and Lily nodded. Lily’s teeth were gritted; this smug cow.

‘The thing is, Leo never paid VAT in the first place, but he still claimed the rebate. He had a thing going where he imported and exported the same stuff—phones and computer stuff mostly—over and over again. Top dollar. I mean, really. We’re talking millions here. Course you can’t do it now, the taxman’s got clever. Brought in a new system, plugged the loophole. But while it was good, it was really good. Leo made a packet.’ Reba looked at Lily with contempt. ‘And you spent it I suppose. And then you went and topped the poor bastard. Talk about killing the golden fucking goose.’

‘Hey—smartarse,’ Lily leaned forward across the table, her lips pulled back in an expression that was more snarl than smile, her eyes fierce. ‘Didn’t you hear what I said? I didn’t do Leo. But by fuck I’m going to find out who did. And my best guess so far? One of you slags he knocked about with.’

‘Oh yeah, sure. You getting yourself banged up for it was all a big mistake, that right?’ Reba affected a bored