Maura's Game

  She noticed the boot was slightly open and approached it with trepidation. As she pulled it up she saw Tony.

  He was definitely dead.

  She closed the boot gently and tried to gather her thoughts together. The rock star neighbour smiled and waved as he jogged past with his minder and she absentmindedly waved back. Then she phoned Garry and hastily explained the situation before going back into her mother’s house. No way was she driving through London with a dead body in her boot.

  All thoughts of getting out were gone. Maura was hell-bent on revenge and that was all she cared about now.

  Jack Stern was tired but he was happy tired as it had been a very lucrative day. As he lay down on the bed with his girlfriend of the moment, Leonie, he was a very happy man indeed. A happy and extraordinarily rich man.

  In fact, he was so happy he was going to relax and let his little Leonie do her famed Hoover act. It was the only reason he was with her. A friend had mentioned her speciality and he had deliberately sought her out. She didn’t know that, of course, she thought it was her glittering personality. He didn’t like to tell her that she didn’t actually have one.

  Leonie was only twenty-two but stacked like a porn queen. Every inch was real and every inch was his. As he lay on his seven-foot bed and waited to be transported to Wonderland his mobile rang.

  He pushed her head away and picked up the phone. He answered it with a curt ‘What?’ and then he was jumping off the bed and getting dressed. On his way out of the bedroom he heard Leonie say in her best little girl voice, ‘What about me?’

  He glanced at her as if he had never seen her before in his life and carried on out of the room.

  Leonie, all dark brown curls and almond eyes, shouted: ‘Fuck you, Jack,’ at his retreating back.

  Then it occurred to her that she could watch EastEnders and Bad Girls in peace. Smiling, she settled back in the bed, remote in hand and tits pointing at the ceiling. She stretched like a tawny cat and decided she was going to send out for pizza and drink herself into oblivion.

  Wherever Jack had gone she just hoped it was for the night. She could do with a rest. And at the end of the day he might have the quids but Leonardo DiCaprio he wasn’t. He was old, old and wrinkly, and she wanted youth. Most women did. She guessed it was probably something to do with natural selection.

  Jack drove three miles down the road and parked outside a derelict barn. Inside he saw his partner in crime and his sidekick. He looked at their miserable faces and said quickly, ‘Tell me it’s not true, for Jesus’ sake.’

  ‘It’s true all right, Jack. True as I’m standing here anyway. Maura’s minder was topped right under her nose. Has to be Vic, don’t it?’

  ‘Has he gone fucking mad? Doesn’t he realise he can jeopardise everything we have worked for?’

  ‘You’ve got to talk to him, Jack. Make him see sense. This isn’t the right time to go steaming in. We’ve got to build up to it gradually, do a lot more recruiting. I’d tell him myself but he hasn’t been in touch. It’s you he seems to listen to.’

  Jack felt faint at the thought.

  ‘I should never have got back into all this. I knew it would be shit, I fucking knew it. Tony Dooley Senior will be back in action now, you realise that, don’t you? Half the macaroons in Brixton will be behind him and all.’

  Tommy Rifkind laughed nastily.

  ‘Well, no one ever said it would be easy, did they?’

  Jack shook his ugly head and said in a voice that sounded most unlike his own, ‘You are one treacherous bastard, do you know that? Going back to your girlfriend, Maura, are you then?’

  Tommy grinned that devilish grin of his.

  ‘Might be. Might not.’

  Tommy walked nonchalantly out of the barn, Jack’s barn to make matters even worse. Nothing like putting him on the spot, was there? Suppose Tommy was seen? The thought made Jack feel ill with fright. He was in over his head this time, there was no doubt about that. What had possessed him to get involved the second time around? It was greed, pure unadulterated greed. Suddenly the money did not seem that important any more.

  Joss looked at Jack and shook his head.

  ‘I don’t like all this, Mr Stern, I really don’t like it. Maura’s all right and don’t deserve all this, whatever Tommy might think. That boy of his was asking for trouble. Let’s face it, someone was going to give it to him.’

  Jack was past anger, he was just numb with fear and terror.

  ‘That is one two-faced cunt. What have I got meself involved in here?’

  ‘You tell me, Mr Stern. You wanted it bad enough, and by Christ you got it.’

  Jack looked at Joss and said in a high-pitched voice, ‘Oh, fuck off, the lot of you.’

  Joss grinned, one of his rare facial movements.

  ‘You should have thought of that. It’ll all end in tears, you mark my words.’

  Jack had regained his composure and said now, ‘I don’t doubt that for a second. But the question is, whose?’

  He sounded far calmer than he felt.

  Joss laughed again as he replied, ‘I don’t think it would take fucking Einstein long to work that one out, do you? Hope you have all your affairs in order, Mr Stern, because if the Ryans don’t get us the filth will. We ain’t got a snowflake in hell’s chance of getting away scot-free and you and I both know it.’

  Still Jack didn’t answer him.

  As Joss walked from the barn he kicked at the black plastic-covered tablets piled against the wall. There were well over three hundred of them, each a kilo of pure cocaine.

  ‘Enough coke here to send us down for the rest of our natural. Best get it moved before the Ryans burgle us. I’d lay you evens they know about it by now.’

  Tommy was waiting in the car.

  ‘Where to, boss?’

  Joss’s voice was neutral. The closeness between them was growing more strained by the day.

  ‘You know where.’

  ‘What if you get seen there, what then?’

  Tommy laughed.

  ‘What if the fucking bomb drops? What if the Second Coming arrives? What if you just shut your fucking trap and drive?’

  So Joss drove.

  Tony Dooley Senior was at Maura’s house when she got home. She went straight into his arms.

  ‘I am so sorry, Tone, so very sorry.’

  ‘I know, Maws. It was part of the job. He was a good boy.’

  He was fighting back the tears. Tony Senior was so like his son it was uncanny and Maura had loved this man like a brother for years. He had minded her first and then groomed his eldest to take over from him. He prided himself on the good job he had done.

  ‘Was it quick, do you think?’

  She nodded.

  ‘I reckon so. He was a shrewdie. It had to have been someone he knew. Tony had a nose for trouble. Had the same instinct for it as you do.’

  He nodded.

  ‘I’ll take over until you appoint someone else, OK?’ She nodded.

  ‘Are you sure?’

  He hugged her once more.

  ‘’Course, girl. I told his mother and his girlfriend he was run over. No need to upset them more than they already are.’

  She shook her head.

  ‘Let me get us a couple of brandies, we could do with them.’

  ‘It’s Joliff, innit? Him as left me grandchildren without a father?’

  She nodded.

  ‘Well, he’s got a bigger fight than ever on his hands now, Maws. Me other sons and me relatives are angered.’

  She sighed. His ‘relatives’ actually meant anyone with a black skin in Brixton, Tulse Hill and Norwood. Which was a lot of people.

  ‘Tell them to come to me and I’ll stick them on the payroll. Whoever gets Joliff alive gets a cool million in cash.’

  Tony nodded, satisfied. His son was worth more than that to him, but it was a good price all the same. A big incentive.

  She gave him the brandy.

  ‘He was a good k
id, Tony, a fucking good kid.’

  Tony Dooley Senior held her while she cried and in his eyes she was more woman for those tears than any other he had ever met. She was crying for his son, and that meant more to him than anything.

  Carla smiled as Tommy slipped into bed beside her. She was thrilled that he was with her once more. Since the first time he had kissed her, or more precisely she had kissed him, he had been like a drug to her. His body was all she craved. His touch. She didn’t care about her uncles and certainly didn’t care about her aunt. In fact, that was part of the excitement as far as she was concerned. It was so long since she had felt anything even remotely this exciting and Carla was hooked. Well and truly hooked.

  It never occurred to her that Tommy might be just using her.

  Well, it wouldn’t, would it?

  Chapter Thirteen

  ‘Who could have done it? That’s what I would like to know. It was a fucking professional job, no doubt about that. Busy street and yet no one saw a thing. In fairness I am more than a little impressed.’

  Lee’s voice held a note of admiration for whoever had killed Tony Junior that was annoying the rest of them. Maura watched them all carefully. Someone close had to be involved and she was devastated that she was actually suspecting any of the people in this room, her own family. A nagging voice told her to remember Geoffrey. She still felt it couldn’t be true, though. She trusted these men with her life. But it had to have been someone he knew, someone he trusted. Tony Dooley Junior was the best, which was why he’d worked for her. He had been headhunted widely over the years, that was how good he was. Which left her back at square one.

  Tony knew his killer, and he knew them well. How else could anyone have got close enough to him to do him harm?

  ‘Yeah, I take me hat off to them . . .’

  Lee was still openly in awe of whoever had done the dirty deed and even Maura could feel herself getting cross now.

  ‘Oh, why don’t you fucking wrap up? When we find them you can be the first to suck their cock, all right, Lee? Before I rip it off and shove it up their arses. Cheeky cunt, whoever it was. It couldn’t have been Joliff himself, Tony would have put up a row. So who was it, eh? It had to be someone Tony knew. He was strangled. Who do we know who favours that then?’

  Garry had voiced her own thoughts and she knew she should have expected it from him. He was always the analytical thinker if at times madder than a fucking March hare.

  She saw the looks of shock as it finally sank in with the others what he was saying. Benny was livid.

  ‘You are joking?’

  Garry shook his head.

  ‘No. Think about it: Tony was one of the best. There’s no fucking way he was going to let Vic Joliff harm him, and no way in this world he would have let him within ten feet of Maura. So it’s only logical it had to be someone he knew, ain’t it?’

  ‘More to the point, it had to be someone he trusted.’

  Maura’s voice was quiet as she said the words and that gave them added force.

  ‘Oh, great, now on top of it all we have a fucking traitor in our midst! Just like before, ain’t it?’

  Benny, battered and sore, was still wholly Ryan and so his little contretemps with Garry had been put on the back burner for a while.

  ‘Who, though? Who the fuck could it be?’

  He sounded like a fifteen-year-old boy, so great was his confusion.

  ‘Well, that is what we have to find out, isn’t it? From now on meetings are close family only, right?’

  They all nodded.

  Abul knew he was to be excluded but he could handle that. No one looked directly at him, though. No one spoke either for a while as they all digested what had been said.

  Eventually Roy, who had sat in on the meeting, closed his eyes as he said, ‘I am feeling a lot better, you know. I can take on some responsibilities for you now. Some of the smaller stuff obviously . . .’

  Maura’s heart went out to him. He had always been one of her favourite brothers and she managed a smile as she said, ‘Thanks, Roy. If you could take over the clubs again it would be a big help.’

  ‘Anything for you, Maws, you know that.’

  Lee and Garry smiled at him, and their combined love for him made him want to cry again. He always wanted to cry lately; it was as if all his years of unshed tears had finally caught up with him and now he could not stop them.

  ‘What’s this I hear? You are the Chris Tarrant of villainy then, eh?’

  Maura screwed up her eyes in consternation.

  ‘What do you mean, Benny?’

  ‘Giving away a million, ain’t ya? When we catch the cunt, can they phone a friend?’

  ‘Well, they certainly won’t be asking the audience, will they?’

  Roy’s quip made them all roar with laughter, it was so unexpected. They needed some light relief and they got it. It was business as usual in the Ryan firm.

  Sarah faced Carla. They were in her kitchen. As Maura had remarked yesterday, she had probably spent more time in that place than anywhere else in her whole lifetime.

  It had made them laugh again, though Maura still looked sad about losing her minder. It was lovely to see her again so soon, though. It showed they were getting back on their old footing.

  ‘You look like a whore, Carla. Do you know that?’ Sarah told her.

  Carla rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

  ‘So what? I like the way I look.’

  ‘Are you having an early change or something? The way you’re behaving lately . . .’

  Her words set Carla off once more.

  ‘I’m only forty-four, Nana, for fuck’s sake. That’s nothing these days. Look at Madonna, Sharon Stone . . .’

  Her words were falling on deaf ears and she knew it.

  ‘Oh, leave me alone, will you? All of you make me sick. It’s as if I can’t have a life of me own.’

  ‘Don’t talk nonsense, child . . .’

  ‘I am not a child, I am no one’s child, I’m a grown fucking woman!’

  ‘Will you stop shagging swearing! Listen to yourself. Like a bloody tart, the way you dress, the way you talk. I’m ashamed of you. Even Maura said yesterday . . .’

  ‘Oh, I get it.’

  Carla’s voice was low now, sarcastic.

  ‘You and Maura are best buddies again, are you? Discussing the family like the pair of old crones you are. Well, fuck her, and fuck you too, Nana. I do what I want and you and her had better get used to that fact, OK?’

  ‘Maura said she thought you were unhappy, that was all. She loves you like a daughter.’

  Carla rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

  ‘How can I be a daughter to that dried up old witch? She’s only five years older than I am. But you all seem to forget that. I just get a pat on the head and treated like a fucking favourite dog. That is my life, Nana. I know I deserve better than that. Even me own mother, who we all know didn’t want me, treated me with more respect than that.’

  Sarah sat down with a bump on the nearest chair. She could not believe what she was hearing. Her lovely Carla effing and blinding. It was unbelievable.

  ‘Are you on drugs, is that it?’

  ‘If I was, Nana, then this family would be the main supplier, wouldn’t they?’

  ‘Listen to yourself. What on earth has come over you, Carla? Where has my gorgeous girl gone?’

  ‘She finally grew up, Nana, and smelt the fucking coffee, that is what happened to her.’

  Sarah looked at her grand-daughter. She had on a skirt that would pass for a belt and a sheer top that left nothing to the imagination. Her long legs were encased in black leather boots. She was dressed for men or for one in particular, that much was obvious. She looked like one of the girls you saw in the Sunday papers who had slept with a pop star or a famous politician. Not like Sarah’s lovely little girl.

  And her attitude . . . the willing smile was gone, and what was this in its place? This thing, this mad thing that had cultivated a m
outh like a sewer and a clothes sense to match.

  The world had gone mad.

  Carla felt a moment’s sorrow as she looked at her grandmother’s sagging shoulders. Hugging her Nana, she said softly, ‘Just leave me be, eh? Let me be the person I want to be instead of the person everybody else wants me to be. Good old Carla, the family mascot.’ Her voice was earnest now. ‘Is that really too much to ask?’

  ‘But look at you, child . . .’

  Carla closed her eyes in distress.

  ‘Please, Nana. Let’s drop it. I happen to like me like this. Let’s face it, Nan, all my life I have done what everyone else wanted, expected. I have no identity of my own. Let me find one, please. Leave me be.’

  ‘But I worry about you . . .’

  Carla had one of her lightning changes of mood and temperament. She stood up straight and yelled, ‘Well, don’t! I don’t want you worrying. Can’t you understand the fucking Queen’s English, Nana? Stop trying to live everyone else’s life and get one of your own, woman. I can seriously recommend it.’

  With that she left the room and the front door slammed a few seconds later. Sarah sat in her huge house and cried the bitter tears of age and loneliness. Get a life, Carla had said, when her life was nearly over. And she was glad about that. The sooner she joined her dead family the better; her work down here was done and a nice long rest would suit her fine. Oh, yes. It would be lovely to sleep the rest of eternity away. She realised then she had lived too long for her own good.

  Jack Stern was still trying to track down Vic Joliff when he saw a sight on his drive he’d never thought to see. He rushed from the house, a big welcoming smile on his face as he saw Maura, Garry, Benny and Lee Ryan getting out of a black Mercedes. It was driven by Tony Dooley Senior who, he noticed, did not answer his welcoming smile.

  He watched as they all alighted and then Tony drove the car round to the garages. Another ominous sign. Did that mean they didn’t want anyone to know they were here? Vic, for instance – were they expecting him to turn up? Jack felt faint once more. What was he involved in? He must have been stark staring mad.