Jail Bird

she would never forget.

‘Don’t be sorry,’ she said gently, and she pulled Saz’s head down onto her shoulder and stroked her silky hair. She was crying herself now, but they were tears of joy; at last, at last, she had her daughter back. ‘Don’t be sorry, baby. It’s all gone now; it’s all over. We’ll start from here, okay? We’ll start all over again.’

72

‘Purbright Securities,’ said Jack Rackland.

‘Oh for God’s sake, don’t worry about all that now,’ said Lily, wishing she could have brought Jack flowers, but they didn’t like flowers on this hospital ward because of MRSA. ‘Look at the state of you. Jack, you look like shit.’

‘Oh, thank you,’ croaked Jack, and lay back on the pillows.

He’d come out of intensive care three days ago, spent a day in high care and then been transferred onto a normal ward. He’d had a lot of transfusions. He was a mess of bruises, bandages and bloody stapled cuts, and he was just about as white as the pillowcase his mussed-up dirty-blond head rested on. But he was alive, and Lily had been sure she’d been looking at a corpse the day Winston had gone for him with that machete.

‘I’m not worried about it, I’m just telling you, that’s all,’ said Jack.

‘Can I get you anything. A glucose drink? A bottle to pee in?’ She smiled. She was just so damned pleased to see him there in one piece.

‘Look, this is undignified enough, without you taking the…Let’s get back to the case. Purbright Securities.’

‘Yeah, okay, who runs that? Who was paying for Alice’s care?’ Lily thought she already knew the answer, but she didn’t want to steal Jack’s thunder.

‘Can you hear something?’ asked Jack.

Lily could. There were raised voices in the corridor, coming closer.

‘What do you mean I can’t take flowers in?’ yelled a female voice.

‘Uh-oh,’ said Jack.

Lily poked her head out the door. A very short, angry-looking woman carrying a huge bouquet of flowers was tip-tapping imperiously down the corridor, heading for Jack’s room, while a couple of nurses tried to detain her.

‘What does Monica look like?’ Lily asked him.

‘Don’t bother to ask. That’s what she sounds like. They notified her when I was brought in – she’s still my wife after all, my next of kin. She’s been in and out ever since, and every time she gives the nurses all that about the sodding flowers. They’ve told her, and still she keeps bringing the bloody things in. That woman is a nightmare. Look, as I was saying – Purbright Securities.’

‘Yeah, go on.’ Lily was bright-eyed with interest.

‘Purbright Securities is a division of Sunstyle Security Systems.’

Lily remembered the security guy in the kitchen altering the codes, and Oli telling her he was from Sunstyle Securities.

‘Directors?’ she asked.

‘Now that’s the interesting part…’ He hesitated, aiming for impact.

‘Oh, cut to the chase, Jack.’

So he did. Lily looked gobsmacked, then she laughed out loud. ‘That other thing I asked you to look into…’

‘Jesus, have a heart! I’m in hospital, for Christ’s sake.’

‘But did you get a chance…?’

‘Yeah, I got a chance. Checked the birth certificate. You were right, his old man’s name’s not on there.’

‘Terrific’

Monica arrived at the door. She took one look at Jack.

‘Oh Jack – baby!’ she crooned, and ran forward and flung herself upon him, flowers and all. ‘How are you today? Are you feeling any better?’ Monica was dropping kisses and pollen and petals all over Jack’s bruised and bloodied face.

‘Ow! Fuck me, girl, have a heart,’ he complained, but he was nearly smiling.

‘Um…I’d better go,’ said Lily, edging towards the door.

At that, Monica extricated herself from Jack’s bed of pain and fastened a gorgon-like glare upon Lily. ‘And who the fuck are you?’ she demanded.

‘Just a friend,’ said Lily. She gave Jack one last smile. ‘Thanks, Jack. For everything.’ She had already decided that she was going to slip a little bonus in for Jack sometime soon – by God, he’d earned it.

‘Pleasure,’ said Jack, and managed a wink.

Lily went on home, and left Jack to Monica.

73

Some days later they visited the grave together, all three of them; Lily and her two daughters, arm in arm. And although Lily hadn’t been able to take flowers to the living, now she took flowers to the dead. They stood there solemnly in the graveyard and looked down at the beautifully carved and embellished black marble headstone.

Here Rests Leo King

Died 1996

Beloved Brother and Father

Sadly missed

There were a few red roses wilting in the urn. Lily took them out, replaced them with fresh ones – white this time.

‘Who put these here?’ she asked the girls, curious.

‘Nick comes every week,’ said Saz. ‘He leaves the roses. I’ve seen him here a couple of times. He must have loved Dad a lot; they were such good friends.’

Lily stood up and they were silent again, staring at the headstone.

‘Do you think Aunt Maeve really went abroad?’ asked Saz.

Lily nodded, sure I do. A few days after Maeve had pointed the Magnum at Lily’s head, Becks had told her that Maeve had phoned and said she was flying out to her and Si’s villa in Marbella for a long break.

Lily had said nothing, only expressed mild interest. But secretly, she thought that this was the deal: if you took a plane out to Malaga, and if you then booked a taxi ride to Marbella and pitched up at the villa door, Maeve would not be there to open it. Wherever she was, whatever had happened to her, was between her and Si. Lily knew she had to let that go now.

‘I still miss him,’ said Saz. Lily looked at her. Saz was shaping up now; she was even being nicer to that poor tolerant sap Richard.

‘Yeah, me too,’ said Oli sadly.

Lily wondered if Oli missed Jase, too. That night, that horrible night when she had thought Maeve was going to shoot her dead, came back to her full-force then. She remembered that she and Saz had staggered out into the hall, supporting each other, to find Oli sitting alone in a state of shock on the bottom stair.

There had been no Si, no Maeve. No Freddy. And no Jase. Only Oli, and when she’d seen them coming out of the swimming pool room she had cried out and run to them and they had stood there, the three of them, for a long time, clutching at each other, hugging each other tight, knowing that they had by some miracle come through something fearful, something that could have ended very differently indeed.

Now Lily put an arm around each of her daughters, relishing the warm feel of them, unable to quite believe her luck. She was out of prison. Si had taken care of Maeve, Lily was free, and the King boys were off her back. It