Scarlet Women

Chapter 38

They left Rizzo at the flat and then Tony dropped Annie off at Dolly’s. She was scarcely through the door when Ross looked up with a scowl from his chair beside it and said: ‘Mr Delaney wants a word with you.’

‘Does he?’

Ross nodded towards the closed front room door. ‘Yeah. He’s in there, with Dolly.’

Shit, thought Annie. But what else had she expected? Had she really thought that Redmond Delaney would take the Mira incident lying down, even if Constantine was involved? She braced herself and went in, closing the door behind her.

Dolly looked up quickly as Annie came in. She was sitting on one of the couches, her hands clenched white in her lap. Redmond Delaney, tall and imposing, with his red hair slicked back and his green eyes cool as ice, was standing a small distance away from Dolly.

‘Mrs Carter,’ he said when she came in.

‘Mr Delaney,’ said Annie.

‘Certain things have come to my attention,’ he said. ‘Things I’m not happy with.’

‘Oh?’ Annie could be cool too. Even if her heart was threatening to burst right out of her chest, it was thumping so hard. ‘Things like what?’

‘Annie…’ Dolly started, her eyes desperate.

‘This is between Mrs Carter and myself, Miss Farrell,’ said Redmond, his voice as cutting as a whip.

Dolly flinched and fell silent.

‘Things like what?’ asked Annie again.

‘The girl,’ said Redmond unblinkingly.

‘You mean Mira? My friend, Mira?’ prompted Annie.

‘The girl,’ he repeated coldly. ‘She’s mine. And you refused to hand her over.’

‘She’s a friend,’ said Annie, her mouth as dry as dust. ‘She was in a bad way. I didn’t want her moved.’

Constantine was supposed to have sorted all this with Redmond. She couldn’t believe that Redmond would go against Constantine’s wishes. This whole thing must mean a huge amount to him, if he was prepared to risk confrontation with the Mafia.

Redmond let out a mirthless laugh.

‘Mrs Carter,’ he said smoothly, ‘the decision was not yours to make. The girl is mine. She was to be collected from here. And you had the audacity to try to prevent it.’

Annie gulped. ‘I think you’ll find I didn’t just try. I did prevent it.’

Dolly made a small suppressing movement with her hand, and her eyes said to Annie, For fuck’s sake button it. Can’t you see how mad he is?

But Annie couldn’t stop herself now. She had to get it out, or choke on it.

‘And while we’re on the subject of what’s “yours” and what’s “mine”,’ she went on, ‘what about your girl Aretha Brown? She worked out of this place, out of your manor. How come you’re not doing something to hunt her killer down?’

Redmond gave Annie a baleful look. ‘They have the killer, or has that escaped your attention?’

‘That ain’t true,’ flung back Annie. ‘You and I both know that Chris Brown is no woman killer. He’d spit on any man that was. He’s a friend of mine, but for God’s sake he’s one of your boys, so how is it that I had to get him a proper brief sorted; why is it that you ain’t been moving heaven and earth to get him out of the shit, like I have?’

Redmond’s jaw was flexing with tension. His eyes were flat, murderous, but Annie wasn’t about to show any fear. Not this time.

‘I said they’ve got the killer,’ he repeated with deathly slowness. ‘It’s beside the point whether Chris Brown is one of mine or not. Now, Mrs Carter. Take heed of what I’m telling you or you’re going to be extremely sorry. I’m telling you for the last time—back off.’

Redmond walked forward and stood directly in front of Annie, very close. Dolly got up quickly and touched Redmond’s arm. Redmond turned suddenly, like a cobra striking, and grabbed Dolly’s wrist.

‘Get your dirty hands off me,’ he hissed furiously.

Dolly winced. He was hurting her. ‘I only meant to say, Mr Delaney, please—can’t we talk about this?’ she said in a rush.

Redmond released Dolly with a disdainful flick of the hand. Dolly tottered sideways and fell back down on to the couch. She crouched there, her face screwed up in pain, rubbing her wrist.

‘I think the time for talking’s past,’ said Redmond, his eyes glinting with icy fury as he turned his attention back to Annie. ‘Mrs Carter, we have new terms now. Our previous arrangement is revoked. You’re not welcome here. I don’t want to see you in this house or on my streets again.’

Annie could feel sweat trickling down her back. She had never seen Redmond in a fury before, never seen him lose control by one single iota, but she was seeing it now, and it was a frightening thing. But you couldn’t afford to show fear in a situation like this; she knew that. She put her hands on her hips and faced him full on. ‘And what if Constantine Barolli says I can go anywhere I damn well please?’

‘Annie!’ said Dolly in anguish.

‘You know,’ said Redmond, coming even closer to Annie as she shrank back against the door, ‘you ought to listen to Miss Farrell, Mrs Carter. You have a tendency to push onward when you really ought to draw back.’

His hand lifted.

Fuck, he’s going to hit me, thought Annie. Or wring my neck, one of the two.

His hand was quivering, and in his eyes was something that Annie had never seen before. Real, undiluted rage. His hand was inches from her neck. And he really, really looked as though he would like to choke the life out of her.

All right, you bastard, just do it, she thought. Do it, and Constantine will wipe you off the face of the earth once and for all.

Then suddenly he was back in control again. His hand dropped to his side. His eyes cleared. He gave a tight smile.

‘Our deal is revoked,’ he said again. ‘No more hiding behind the big boys. If I see you around here again, Mrs Carter, with or without Constantine Barolli’s backing, I’ll snap you in half. Depend upon it.’

And he pushed past her and left the room, slamming the door behind him. An instant later, the front door closed. She looked at Dolly, sitting there white-faced on the couch.

‘You okay?’ Annie asked her shakily.

Dolly gave her a look that should have dropped her on the spot. ‘Oh, I’m fucking marvellous,’ she said.

Annie collapsed on to the couch beside Dolly before her legs collapsed from under her.

‘You know what, Doll?’ she said. ‘That day when Mira ran out of here, she heard me telling you that Redmond Delaney was on the phone. And you know Rosie told us Mira wrote something in blood on the sheets? I looked at it. She’d written DEL. For a minute I thought, yeah, that’s it, she’s writing DELACOURT…’

Dolly shook her head, her eyes wide with disbelief as she gazed at her friend.

‘Annie, for the love of God let it go. Whatever the fuck she was writing, forget it. That’s my advice. Jesus! I don’t know what the fuck’s got into you, facing down Redmond Delaney like that. Are you mad? He’ll fucking lynch you, you daft mare.’

But Annie knew she couldn’t let this go. Not when she’d come this far. Not when she could almost smell the answer to all this.

‘I’m not scared of him, Doll. Not any more. Mira wasn’t writing Delacourt, was she?’ Annie said, almost to herself. ‘She was writing DELANEY. This is all about Redmond Delaney. And I’m not going to let it go. Not as long as I’ve got breath in my body.’

Dolly looked at her. ‘Yeah? And how long’s that going to be?’