Scarlet Women

‘Thank God,’ said Ellie, and waved to someone in the crowd and was off again.

Annie stood there and sipped champagne, her eyes scanning the crowds. They met up with another pair of eyes, calm dark ones, also scanning the crowds. She went over.

‘You came!’ she said in surprise, then shot him a teasing glance. ‘Looking for villains, DI Hunter?’

‘Yes, Mrs Carter,’ he said, still looking like the Grim Reaper with his long, handsome, sober face and immaculate suit, totally out of step with the party atmosphere in here. He was holding a glass of champagne as though it might explode on him. His eyes still skimmed over the throng, passing over Steve Taylor and Gary Tooley, over Tony, over several heads of neighbouring ‘firms’, and finally resting on Constantine. ‘Finding a few, too.’

‘Don’t you ever go off duty?’ asked Annie.

‘Don’t you?’ His lips twitched.

‘Hey, was that a smile? Or just wind?’

‘The manager of the Alley Cat gave me a full confession to the murder of your friend Aretha Brown.’

Annie kept her face carefully blank. ‘Yeah? That’s good news,’ she said.

‘Isn’t it? Although when he came into the station he appeared to be in a bad way. He said he fell down a flight of stairs.’

‘That can hurt,’ said Annie.

‘Yes it can. It looked more as if he’d been beaten, but he insisted he hadn’t.’ He looked at her. ‘Nothing to say, Mrs Carter?’

‘Should I have?’

He sighed and gave up. ‘I’ve spoken to your friend’s aunt.’

‘Louella? How’d she take it?’

‘With shock. She was convinced Chris Brown was guilty.’

‘I nearly thought that myself, at times.’

‘We’ve released him.’

‘Now that’s good news,’ said Annie, happily clinking her champagne flute against his. ‘Let’s drink to it.’

He sipped the fine champagne as if it was arsenic. Annie smiled. Never thought she’d like a cop, but she’d taken to this one. She couldn’t forget the way he’d held on to her hand when she’d been stuck in that bloody car crusher, either. Here was a handsome man with staying power, a man who might look like he was sucking on lemons, but who had endurance. She appreciated that. In another time, another place, she could have gone for him.

‘Help yourself to food, drink, anything,’ she said, then she hesitated, looked down at his left hand. Still wearing that wedding ring. ‘You talked to her? Your ex-wife? Since the divorce?’

He shook his head.

‘Maybe you should. Maybe things would be different now.’

‘Maybe. Maybe not.’

Annie nodded slowly and smiled. ‘Well…I gotta mingle.’

And Annie was off again, shaking hands, smiling, schmoozing the celebs. Suddenly she found herself face to face with Dolly Farrell.

‘Oh!’ said Dolly.

Dolly was in flowing pink lace to complement her blonde bubble-perm. She looked terrific. But when she saw Annie standing in front of her, her eyes grew wary. ‘Hi,’ she said cautiously.

‘Hiya, Doll,’ said Annie.

‘I had the invite but I wasn’t sure I’d still be welcome. Well, after…after all that business with the Delaneys, and Mira…I wasn’t sure.’

‘Look, Doll,’ said Annie seriously, ‘you were in a corner. You couldn’t go against the Delaneys, and I understand that. Forget it. Water under the bridge. Okay?’

Dolly looked more relaxed. ‘I’ve been hearing word on the streets that the Carter boys are moving into Limehouse and Battersea. There’s been violence, but not much.’

Annie nodded. The Delaney boys were leaderless and rootless without Redmond and Orla. And she had wasted no time in grabbing the moment. She had told Steve and Gary to start the push, take over. There had been small pockets of resistance, but nothing significant. There was no way the Delaneys were ever going to run that manor again. Now it would be part of the Carter empire, a lucrative extension of their security business.

The Delaneys—finally—were yesterday’s news. But still, they’d walked away. Police block or no police block, they’d legged it. It gnawed at her that they were still alive and well, when they had caused such mayhem.

‘You’ll be paying your wedge to the Carter boys soon,’ she said.

‘Well, I for one won’t be sorry,’ said Dolly with a sigh. ‘They scared us all shitless, that family. Weird lot. But what could you do? Talk about money with menaces.’

‘Let’s go upstairs, Doll. I need to talk to you, and we can’t do it down here.’

Up in the office it was quieter. Annie sat down behind the desk and indicated that Dolly should sit too. Dolly sat down and looked at her, puzzled. ‘Well, what’s this about?’ she asked.

Annie got straight to the point. ‘It’s about you running this place, Doll. I want to put you in here, as manager.’

Dolly’s jaw dropped.

‘And in a year or so’s time, if it runs at a good profit, you’ll be opening the other two Carter clubs for me in the same style.’

Now Dolly’s lower jaw really hit the floor. ‘You’re kidding? ’

‘Do I look like I’m kidding? I’m serious, Doll.’

‘But…for f…You run this place.’

‘I won’t be running it, Doll,’ said Annie, smiling at Dolly’s shock. ‘I’ll be owning it, that’s all. It was something I wanted to do, something I wanted to achieve. Now it’s done and my situation’s changed. Now I need a manager, a bloody good one, and the first—and the best—person that comes to mind is you.’

‘But I’ve never done anything like this!’ protested Dolly.

‘It’s a business, Doll. You’ve been running a bloody business for years. Just scale up a bit.’

‘A bit?’

‘Of course if you’re not interested, I can soon find someone who is,’ sighed Annie.

‘Who the fuck said I’m not interested?’ Dolly burst out. Then her face closed down. ‘What about wages?’

Annie named the figure she’d been turning over in her mind for days.

‘Jesus,’ said Dolly.

‘You’re supposed to say that’s not enough,’ suggested Annie.

‘All right. It’s not enough.’

‘Tough shit. That’s the deal. Accommodation’s included, the flat’s furnished.’

‘But where will you…?’

‘Car too. And driver.’

Annie had a brief, enjoyable vision of Tony driving Dolly around, Dolly being a big noise in the club scene, Dolly shouting happily at the staff, running the show, throwing her weight about, greeting the punters.

Scale up, that was all she had to do.

Dolly was staring at her, dumbstruck. ‘I can’t believe this. What about the parlour?’

‘Put in a manager, Doll. Easy-peasy.’

‘Yeah, but who? Who could I trust to run the place right?’

‘Ellie.’

‘Holy shit!’ said Dolly, and started to laugh.

Later she had one of the boys send Tony up to the office. Annie told him all about her plans, and Tony sat there looking like he’d lost a pound and found a penny.

‘So I’m out of a job,’ he said.

‘Have you been listening to me? You got a job. You drive Dolly instead of me, that’s all.’