Jail Bird

fuck-up here, and he was moaning on about the fucking door? Freddy didn’t want a ruck with Nick O’Rourke; Nick didn’t take any prisoners. Leave it to this arsehole and they’d soon find themselves up to their necks in a gang war. No, it was better that he did Lily King himself. He could see that now. Up close and personal was best.

Jase was thinking that this had gone far better than he’d hoped. He had screwed up, taken a swing at the boss, but he was persuasive. He had talked Freddy round to his way of seeing things. Now he was going to get his door back, restart the charm offensive on Oli and everything would be right back on track, like he wanted.

‘Go down and get yourself a drink,’ said Freddy with a smile. ‘On the house. We’ll sort this out okay? No worries.’

Jase went off downstairs.

Freddy’s smile dropped from his face like a mask.

The little fucker had hit him. Rage flooded into Freddy like a hot, bitter tide. And the bastard seriously thought he was going to get another chance after that, screw things up even worse? That little shit had a lesson coming. Freddy sat there, his jaw aching and throbbing, and stared at the closed door. Jase Conway was all out of chances. He’d just used up his very last one.

48

One day, unannounced, the cellmates Lily had grown used to were moved. Mercy was one of them. She had become a mainstay of Lily’s life, and there had been no time to say goodbye. She sat down on her bunk, wondering who she was going to find to talk to now, when she heard a yell. Standing up, she went over to the cell window.

‘LILY! LILY KING!’

Mercy’s huge, bellowing voice was drifting up from the outside courtyard.

‘LILY KING!’ Mercy was yodelling out there somewhere.

‘MERCY?’ Lily yelled back from the gap in the window.

‘WAVE, GIRL. CAN’T SEE YOU!’

Lily waved and peered out. Across the yard she saw a robust brown arm, waving back.

‘GETTIN’ SHIPPED OUT OF THIS SHIT-HOLE!’ shouted Mercy.

‘HOME? HOME TO JAMAICA?’ bawled Lily.

‘YEAH. SOON.‘

‘GOOD LUCK!’

‘YOU TOO!’

That was the last she ever saw of Mercy.

49

Lily was surprised when Jack Rackland phoned her a day after their visit to Julia. She’d thought she wouldn’t hear from him again. Oh, she’d get an invoice, but that would be that. And if that was the case, she’d pay his damned invoice and be done with it. Fuck him.

But here he was, phoning her.

‘Oh. Hi,’ she said, still feeling furious with him.

‘I phoned Reba Stuart,’ he said.

Lily counted to ten. ‘Why?’ she said at last. ‘You think I poisoned her?’

‘Lily—’

‘And what about Adrienne, don’t tell me you ain’t checked up on her yet? I could have done the brakes on her car, anything. You’re taking a chance.’

‘Lily, will you shut the fuck up and listen?’ said Jack, and she could hear reluctant laughter in his voice now. ‘I’m sorry for what I said. I don’t think you’re a killer. It just…’ he paused, sorting out his words. ‘…It spooked me, that’s all. Seeing Julia all scarred like that. Started me thinking all sorts. D’you know, I could still smell those damned cats on me even after I got home and took a shower. I had to bin my clothes.’

He was apologizing, that was something. But Lily still felt angry. The damned unfairness. After all the shit she’d been through since Leo’s death, still people were ready to think, Oh yes, she’s the woman who did her husband. So yeah, of course she could do this too.

‘I’m apologizing here,’ said Jack when Lily said nothing.

‘I know you are. Okay. Apology accepted.’

‘Reba was fine.’

‘Why wouldn’t she be?’

‘Oh and I did check on Adrienne.’

‘Thanks for the vote of confidence.’

‘You sure you want to go on with this? Find the last two?’

‘You sure I can be trusted with the last two?’

‘I thought we’d just covered that.’

‘You did, Jack.’ Lily felt like putting the phone down on him but, apology or not, she wanted to speak to the last two. She took a breath. Calmed down a notch. ‘Oh, all right. Yeah, let’s press on. Why the hell not?’

‘I’ll be there in an hour,’ he said. ‘Pick you up and we’ll go see Bev and Suki Carmody. They’re a double act – or they were.’

‘What, entertainers?’

‘Strippers. And I ought to warn you, the double act didn’t end on stage, either.’

Oh my God, thought Lily, and put the phone down. It rang again almost immediately.

‘Hello?’

There was only breathing.

Someone was there.

‘Hello?’ she asked again.

Breathing.

Lily put the phone down, swallowing hard.

Someone trying to scare her. And succeeding, too.

She stood up. The phone started ringing again, but this time she ignored it and focused on Bev and Suki Carmody, and finally the damned thing stopped ringing.

Bev and Suki.

Bad enough Leo’d been boffing all these tarts one at a time. Now, if she’d understood Jack correctly, it turned out he’d been doing them mob-handed, too.

‘You still here?’ said a harsh female voice.

Lily looked up. Saz was standing just inside the kitchen door, wearing figure-hugging Versace jeans and a tight white t-shirt. She was looking at her mother with stark dislike.

Lily stood up. She really wasn’t in the mood for another run-in with Saz.

‘Yeah. Still here. And still waiting for a civil word to come out of your mouth, Saz,’ she said quietly.

‘You’ll wait a long time for that.’

‘Pity,’ said Lily, ‘because I didn’t kill your dad. And I tried to get in touch with you and Oli too many times to count. Both those things are true. And so is this, Saz – you’re my daughter and I love you very much.’

Saz’s face twitched.

That hit home, thought Lily.

‘Well, I don’t love you,’ said Saz, recovering quickly.

Lily smiled wryly. ‘That’s a shame. But you know what, Saz?’ Her eyes held her daughter’s with earnest appeal.

Saz was eyeing Lily suspiciously. ‘No. What?’