Jail Bird

watch. ‘I’m late already. Bye.’

She was gone, out the back door, revving up her little car and shooting off down the drive.

‘She don’t seem broken-hearted,’ said Nick.

‘She ain’t, and I’m pleased about that. I think…’ Lily caught herself.

‘You think what?’ Nick was looking at her curiously.

Lily stared at his face. Finally she decided to say it. ‘I think she got over him the moment he hit her.’

‘He what?’

Lily nodded. ‘When he did that, she switched off. It was finished.’

‘The jumped-up little tick,’ said Nick.

‘I never liked him.’

‘Well, thank God she saw the light.’

Silence fell between them. They were inches apart. Around them, the house was silent, waiting. The phone started ringing. Lily stiffened, let it ring.

‘You want to get that?’ he asked.

‘No,’ she said, because it could be the breather again, saying nothing, trying to frighten her. Fucking well succeeding, too. He’d called several times now. It could be Freddy. Could be anyone. No, she didn’t want to get it.

‘Nick…did you know about Julia? About what happened to her face?’ asked Lily.

He stared at her for long moments. Then he let out a breath. Nodded.

‘Is that why you didn’t want me seeing her?’

‘I thought…’ He paused, his nearly black eyes holding hers. ‘…I thought it would distress you. And maybe make you doubt me. Make you think I had something to do with it.’

‘I didn’t think that,’ said Lily. ‘I don’t think you’d do something so fucking cowardly.’

‘Don’t they say poison and acid are a woman’s tools?’

‘God, do they?’ Lily shuddered.

‘Tell me you’ve stopped looking into all this troublesome shit,’ he said, and took her hand.

‘All right. I’ve stopped looking into all this troublesome shit.’

Nick sighed. ‘Now tell me the truth.’

‘I can’t stop. Not until I know the answer.’

‘The answer to who killed Leo.’

‘Right.’

‘Look, if you’re going on with this, at least take me with you on your next escapade.’

‘Tell me again that it wasn’t you who did it.’

‘What?’

‘Killed Leo.’

‘It wasn’t me who killed Leo, Lily. Are you mad? And let you stew inside all those years? Are you crazy? No, Lily – it wasn’t me.’ He was smiling slightly. He leaned forward and kissed her again, parting her lips with his tongue, invading her, taking her over. Lily actually felt her head start to spin. He pulled back a little, looked deep into her eyes. ‘Kill Leo and inflict all that on you? Never. Let’s go to bed.’

‘It’s ten o’clock in the morning.’

‘Perfect,’ he said, and kissed her again.

Lily was asleep when the phone started ringing. She sprang up in the bed, alarmed, bewildered, wondering what was going on, where she was…then it came back to her. Nick had been here, and after a couple of blissful hours he’d left, and she had fallen asleep and now it was one o’clock, her stomach was growling with hunger and the damned phone was ringing again.

The breather, she thought, looking at it as if it might be about to bite her. It rang and rang, and then she thought, Fuck this.

Lily picked up. ‘Hello?’ she asked, feeling her chest constrict, dreading the sound she just knew she was going to hear.

‘Lily?’ asked a masculine voice on the other end of the line.

‘Jack?’ She thought it was him, but he sounded odd. Not his usual chirpy self.

‘Lily, turn on the BBC news. Turn it on right now.’

Lily scrabbled under the pillow for the remote. She aimed it at the little TV over on the dresser, and the set hummed into life. She pressed one. The reporter telling the nation about what had happened. Saw the picture, the little arcade of shops cordoned off with police tapes, the blackened front door, the upstairs windows all blown out from the heat of the blaze…

Jesus!

‘Where are you?’ she managed to say to Jack at last.

‘At the office. Lily, I’m getting a bad feeling about all this. Julia. Alice. Now this.’

Lily felt sick to her stomach. She thought of Saz, saying over and over, I’m sorry, Daddy. Thought of her and Leo out in the grounds, shooting clays. Thought of Adrienne and her list of rivals for Leo’s affection.

‘Look, I’ll come over,’ she said, although she didn’t want to, she didn’t want to set foot outside the house now. She was safe in here. Out there…who knew? She thought of Leo’s Magnum, tucked safely away. This is what it’s like for Julia, she thought, and her whole being rebelled at that. She would not become like Julia, caged by her fears. No way.

‘Jack…?’ she said.

But there was a brief noise in the background and then Jack was gone.

Jack dropped the phone. A very large black man with dreadlocks and a machete had just kicked open his office door. He thought, Winston, the plantain man at Suki and Bev’s place, and then Winston launched himself at Jack, screaming, yelling about how they’d brought death to his home, him and the King woman, and death was all they deserved in return, and he thought, Oh shit, this is it, gonna die, and Winston waded in and there was only pain, pain, pain.

Lily quickly switched off the TV. She tried Jack’s number, but only got the engaged signal. She swore and dialled a different number.

‘Come on, come on, pick up,’ she muttered.

‘Hello?’

‘Adrienne?’

‘Yeah.’ Caution in her voice now. ‘Who’s that?’

‘It’s Lily. Adrienne, did you ever discuss that list of yours with Saz or Oli?’

‘What, the list of tarts Leo was bedding?’

You were one of them, thought Lily, but bit it back. No good riling Adrienne up. ‘Is there any other fucking list?’ she snapped.

‘No. Of course I didn’t. Why would I want to upset them? It had nothing to do with them, they never hurt a soul.’

Oh God, please let her be right about that, prayed Lily.

‘Adrienne,’ said Lily, and then paused, unsure of what she wanted to say.

‘Yeah?’

‘Take care.’ She didn’t know what was kicking off here, and she didn’t want to run around spooking anyone, but Jack was right, this was all starting to look very odd indeed.

That blackened front door was burned into her brain. Oh God. Suki and her death card…

‘What?’

‘Look, just take care. People on that list are coming to grief. So…just be careful, will you?’

Before Adrienne could reply, Lily put the phone down. She was going to have to go out again. But she was frightened. She thought of Julia, locked inside by fear, and her own fear ate at her. She went upstairs and fetched the Magnum, loaded it and slipped it into her bag. She wouldn’t use it. She daren’t. But just carrying it would make her feel safer. She came back downstairs and dialled out again. Nick picked up straight away.