Jail Bird

‘You didn’t think to tell me about Adrienne,’ said Lily to Becks.

Becks looked pained. ‘I didn’t want to hurt you, Lils. I nearly told you a dozen times, but then I thought, would I want to know? And I backed off from it.’

‘You mean you wouldn’t want to know? If Joe was shagging about the place? Really?’

Becks shook her head, her jaw moving rhythmically as she chewed the gum. ‘Nope. Ignorance is bliss, Lils, that’s what I say. Not that Joe would do that. Not his style. And anyway, I’d have his balls for earrings if he did. But come on. My Joe? No way.’

Lily thought back to when ignorance had nearly driven her half mad, with Leo saying she was imagining it all and her own mind playing tricks on her; she’d got more paranoid and more miserable by the day. It hurt her that Becks had kept this huge, awful secret from her. But that was Becks. She’d been a great friend. She’d visited Lily inside – while she was in Holloway, anyway; always cheering, always cheerful, when no one else had bothered. Lily would never forget that. But sometimes, you only ever got half the story from her. And sometimes, you didn’t get the story at all.

‘So what are you saying? What, is there more than one?’ Becks asked, curiosity eating her up.

‘Keep going,’ said Lily, sipping the hot, strong coffee.

‘Two then?’

Lily shook her head.

‘Get out. More than two?’

‘More than three,’ said Lily.

‘Four?’ Becks’s eyes were huge with amazement, her jaw moving like a piston. ‘You’re having a laugh.’

‘Try six,’ said Lily.

‘What the…?’ Becks was gazing at Lily as if she’d gone mad. ‘No. You can’t be serious.’

‘Got it straight from the horse’s mouth. Adrienne’s, to be precise.’

Lily gave a grim smile even though inside she felt sick with the betrayal of it. To learn that Leo had been unfaithful to her with one woman was bad enough; to be told straight out that he was a serial adulterer was painful. All right, they hadn’t exactly been love’s young dream: Adrienne was right about that. Leo had been second-best for Lily, and maybe he had sensed that, who knew? But six women? That was really taking the piss.

Although, thinking about it, she supposed there was a pattern here. The three brothers, Leo, Simon and Freddy, had been sired by a philanderer, after all. Old man Bobby – or ‘Bubba’ as he was more commonly known – King had put it about all over the place, everyone knew that, right up until he fell off the twig. Leo was just following the parental example. Freddy was still single and fancy-free, he could do what he liked. But if Leo had followed his old man’s example and cheated, then it was entirely possible that Si was doing the same, married or not.

If I was Maeve, Lily thought, I’d have my eye on Si right now.

She thought again of Leo, screwing around and then coming home to her. For God’s sake! Their love life hadn’t been all that, but she could have got a dose of anything, the selfish bastard. Anything at all. The thought of that repulsed her, gave her the dry heaves. And it filled her with rage, too. That he’d treated her with such total disrespect; treated her like an idiot.

Lily sipped at the coffee. Tried to get a grip even though she felt she was losing it. Six women. Not one. Six, including Adrienne.

And even if Adrienne’s in the clear, any one of those others could have had a reason to blow Leo’s brains to kingdom come, she thought.

‘Adrienne had him followed,’ said Lily as Becks sat there transfixed. Lily let out a harsh laugh. ‘Can you believe that? She had a private detective on the job. His mistress didn’t trust him. Didn’t mind him shagging the wife, but anyone else? Forget it. Apparently she suspected there was another woman tucked away somewhere, and she wanted to know who. So she hired this guy and he turned up a whole stable of whores, of which she was just one.’

‘Holy shit,’ said Becks faintly. ‘So who are these others?’

‘I don’t know yet. But it certainly puts a different complexion on things, don’t it?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean,’ said Lily patiently, ‘I didn’t kill Leo, but someone did. And they were happy to let me do time for it.’

‘You think one of these women…?’

Lily shrugged and stood up. ‘Dunno.’

‘Yeah, but Lily…look, if whoever did it was crazy enough to blow Leo’s brains out, then…well…for God’s sake, they could do it to you, too.’ Becks raised troubled eyes to her friend’s face. ‘You know what? If I was you, I’d just let it lie. Let it go. It’s all past now, anyway. Try and forget it. Move on.’

‘I can’t move on, Becks.’ Lily’s fist hit the table in frustration. Becks jumped. ‘Not until I find out who stitched me up. Lost me my freedom. My home. My kids. Everything I had, they stripped it off me. And I’ve got to know who. And why.’

Becks was shaking her head, her face solemn. ‘Don’t do it. Don’t start in on this, Lils. Bad things could happen to you if you carry on with this, I’m warning you.’

Lils reached over and patted Becks’s shoulder. ‘You’re a good friend, Becks, but come on, get real. Bad things have already happened to me. And I think it’s about time they started happening to someone else. Now, I need to use your phone, is that okay?’

‘Sure,’ said Becks doubtfully, and Lily went off into the hall, closing the door firmly behind her.

When Becks checked the landline later – Lily was in the bath again; Jesus, how many baths could one woman take? – she found that Lily had keyed in 1-4-1 before making her call, so that neither Becks nor her husband Joe could easily find out who she’d been in contact with.

When Lily came downstairs wearing Becks’s spare bathrobe, her smile was hard and cold. Becks looked at her nervously.

‘So!’ said Lily brightly. ‘What am I going to wear to this big wedding then? Hope you’ve got something suitable I can borrow.’

Oh Gawd help us, thought Becks.

9

‘What do you think, Aunt Maeve?’ asked Saz King, turning back and forth before the big cheval mirror in her bedroom, holding out her ruffled skirts, inviting favourable comments.

Saz was feeling pretty damned pleased with herself. She loved being with Richie and couldn’t wait to be married to him. Richie made her feel special, adored. He was a little older than her – eight years – and sometimes she did think: What’s all that about? Was she looking for a father figure because Dad was gone?

Well, maybe she was. Whatever, she felt happy today. She relished being the centre of attention and was eager to marry stoic, stable Richie because yes, all right, with him she felt safe.

Maeve King, Si’s wife, looked at her niece and thought, She’s the most beautiful girl in the whole world but my God! – she’s the spitting bloody image of her mother.

Incredible to think that Saz was twenty-one years old, astonishing to think how fast the years had flown by; how one minute she’d been a bewildered and grief-ridden nine-year-old child, and then the next, pow! All grown up. And so eerily like Lily, too.

‘Oh Saz! I think you look lovely,’ said Maeve, choking back a tear.

She was determined to make this a happy day for Saz, the best of her entire life. She thought of what Si had told her last night, about his brother Freddy kicking off because Lily was out. Maeve thought that Freddy was mental, a bit of a mouth-breather. Si and Leo had always been the brains of the outfit. No one had told Saz that Lily was out. Si would have thrown a fit if they had. He had discussed it with Maeve, of course he had; but they’d agreed it was best that she didn’t know.

‘Do you think the veil’s too much?’ asked Saz.