years she’d had as she’d discovered the power of sex.
And what a dizzying power it was.
Her face was pretty in an unremarkable way. Make-up made you notice. Long afternoons with fashion mags taught her how to shape and hone her body to the level of desirability. Clothes added the rest. Going before the review board, she’d learnt enough to feed them the responses they wanted.
At the age of 28, she’d only made one serious error in the intervening years. One night in a pub, she’d opened a guys face — from the left eyebrow to the chin — with an open razor. Not because she was angry but from a vague interest in seeing his reaction. She did a year in Holloway where she seriously maimed a bull dyke.
For her time there, she was celling with a woman in her fifties named Beth, doing ten to fifteen for a string of post office heists. In a prison dispute Angie had waded in and saved her from a serious beating, purely out of boredom. Beth was grateful, lent her books, cosmetics, cigarettes. One stiflingly hot July day, she’d said:
‘Angie, you should be set up for life, you know that?’
Angie didn’t answer, busy with a Cosmo quiz.
‘I’m serious, hon, get yourself a stash, head for Florida, marry one of the rich fucks there, hump him to a heart attack.’
‘How do I get the stash?’
Beth was a bit drunk, on prison hooch. It tasted like rotgut but got you there and fast. She wanted Angie to have the dream she’d never achieved, said:
‘There’s only one sure crime, pays big with little risk and you do it right, you’re set.’
Angie had moved on to an article telling how to give better oral sex, asked:
‘What’s the crime?’
Beth took another swig of the booze, tried to focus, said:
‘Extortion.’
‘Yeah, and that works how?’
Beth had to lie down, the brew was packing a wallop like a baton. She completely lost her train of thought, was even finding it difficult to remember who the hell Angie was. But Angie was finally interested, pushed:
‘Come on, girl, what’s the deal?’
Gradually and painfully, she learnt the master plan. Bomb a building then demand a payment not to bomb any more. Angie sneered:
‘That’s it, that’s the answer? It’s fucked is what it is.’
Beth had passed out.
Six months after Angie’s release, Beth was blinded by a dodgy batch of brew. Even if Angie had written, as she’d promised she’d do but didn’t, Beth couldn’t have read the letters.
Angie was seeing two brothers, Ray and Jimmy Cross. Ray was the brains and Jimmy the muscle. Small-time operators, they were crazy about her. That she serviced both didn’t bother either of them. Their main attraction was a Mews they rented off the Clapham Road. It was crammed with hot DVDs, laptops, bogus designer label fashion. They’d been eating curry, chugging Special Brew and vaguely watching Dumb and Dumber.
Jimmy said:
‘I found some dynamite today.’
Ray threw a can at him, said:
‘You stupid fuck, how are we going to flog that?’
Angie sat up, asked:
‘Where did you find it?’
Delighted to have her attention, Jimmy rushed:
‘We was doing a spliff in that old house on Meadow Road, I pulled a tarpaulin aside and there it was, a crate of the stuff.’
Ray opened a fresh Special, shouted:
‘Get rid, you hear.’
Angie was up
‘No, no, I’ve an idea.’
3
Brant went:
‘Ahh…’
The hooker finished up, wiped her mouth and got to her feet. Brant stretched, said:
‘There’s brewskis in the fridge, grab us two.’
She glared at him, wanted to shout:
‘Get them yourself, yer fucking pig!’
But she’d known him longer than she wanted to remember, went to the kitchen, rinsed her mouth, spat, said:
‘Good riddance.’
There was a small mirror over the sink and she checked her face. The reflection told the harsh truth: a tired hooker with way too much mileage, the lines of twenty years and all of them hard. Brant from the other room:
‘What, you brewing them? Get your tush in here.’
She grabbed the beers and headed back. He’d put on his trousers, which was a relief, and he tapped the coffee table, said:
‘Plant them here, babe.’
She stared at the table, apparently lost. He asked:
‘You deaf? Plonk them on here.’
‘You don’t have coasters?’
He leant over, grabbed a can, popped the tab, gulped half, belched, said:
‘If you’re not having that, slide it on over.’
She pulled the top, took a ladylike sip. This amused him and he asked:
‘Teach you that at finishing school?’
She looked at him, said:
‘Yeah, the Mile End Road. They’re real big on etiquette.’
He finished the beer, crushed the can and lobbed it over his shoulder, asked:
‘Got any smokes?’
She tried not to sigh, got her handbag, threw over a pack. He caught it, cursed.
‘Silk Cut? The fuck are those?’
‘’Cos of my chest.’
He tore off the filter, said:
‘You standing there? Light me up.’
The phone rang. Brant reached over, grabbed it, said:
‘Yo?’
‘Brant, it’s Roberts, we’ve got a situation.’
Brant winked at the hooker, said:
‘Just had me a situation, too.’
‘I don’t doubt it. Can you get down here?’
‘On my way.’
He stood up, stretched, and the hooker asked:
‘How long have we known each other?’
‘Whoa… who’s counting?’
‘So, did I ever ask you for anything? Not once, not even a few quid?’
He mimed horror, said:
‘You mean you were faking, it wasn’t love?’
