The widows, p.2
The Widows, page 2
As she gazed out at the night sky, she could hear the waves crashing on the rocks below. Usually on nights like this the sound of the sea could lull her into a peaceful, contented sleep. But not tonight. Because tonight Ruby sensed something was changing in the world where Tommy was all-powerful among the movers and shakers who operated like captains of industry, but who in reality were wolves who would tear to pieces anyone who threatened them, or even each other if they smelled a whiff of betrayal in their ranks.
Tommy swung his legs out of the bed, and Ruby reached across and ran a hand across his back, moist from the exertion of their lovemaking.
‘You all right, darling?’ Ruby asked.
He didn’t turn around and was silent for a moment, then he stood up and Ruby watched as he pulled on a pair of white boxer shorts then turned to her, his bronzed, toned body giving him the look of a man fifteen years younger than the forty-four-year-old he was. He gave her a half-smile.
‘What, you want me to come back for another tussle?’ he said, mischief in his eyes.
Ruby smiled back at him, pulling the satin sheet over her naked body.
‘Nah, I think that’s quite enough excitement for one night,’ she said, lying on her back. ‘I was just wondering, because you’ve seemed a bit preoccupied since we left the restaurant earlier, after the meeting. Is something wrong?’
She knew all right that something was wrong, because she’d seen those twins being driven away in the Merc, and she had an idea that it might be their last trip. But stuff like that was the meat and drink of the life people like Tommy led, so it’s not as if he would be plagued by his conscience. There was more to this than anyone was letting on, not that he would ever confide heavy stuff like that to her.
Tommy’s mobile rang on the table next to the half-open door, and he crossed the room and picked it up, then went out onto the patio. She watched as he stood not speaking for a few moments, listening to whoever was calling. Eventually, he spoke.
‘Where in Tarifa?’ he asked. Then it was silent again as he listened to whoever was on the line. ‘Right, I get it. As long as it was well out to sea. We don’t want these fuckers bobbing up any time soon.’ Silence again for a few moments as he listened. ‘Okay. Good work, lads.’
He stood outside for a while, staring into the blackness, then he came back into the bedroom and pulled on a sweatshirt.
‘Everything all right, Tommy?’ Ruby said.
He turned to her, fixing her with his blue eyes, and shrugged.
‘So far,’ he said. ‘We’ll see.’
He turned and walked out of the room and she could hear his bare feet padding on the marble floor until the sound faded in the vast expanse of the luxury gaffe that Tommy had told her was their home. Although Ruby knew it was never going to be her home, only his.
Eventually, Ruby fell into an exhausted sleep, and when she woke with the streak of morning sunlight through the glass, she rolled over, expecting Tommy to be asleep. But he was gone. She opened one eye and saw her wristwatch said eight thirty. He was either out for a morning run on the beach, or he’d gone to see about the business of last night that he wouldn’t talk to her about. She would have to wait until he came back to find out if he wanted to confide in her, but she wouldn’t hold her breath. And in any case, whatever fate befell the twins last night wasn’t about to impact on her day. Her mobile shuddered on vibrate on the bedside table and she saw it was Cissy. She answered, but before she had the chance to say anything she knew from the sniffs and the hesitation on the other end of the phone that something was going on.
‘Cissy. What’s up?’
She could hear Cissy stifling a sob.
Ruby murmured, ‘Shit,’ under her breath and sat up. ‘What’s happened, Cissy?’ she asked. ‘Talk to me.’
‘He hurt me, Ruby. Bad this time.’
Ruby didn’t have to ask who. It had been clear from the way Terence was headed last night that things could end in a drug-fuelled beating for her best friend. She felt a surge of heat rising in her chest.
‘Where is he now?’ Ruby asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Cissy said, through sniffs. ‘He stormed out afterwards and drove away. Left me lying in agony on the floor. He was off his head on coke, Ruby. The state he was in, he could have driven off a cliff.’
‘Well, let’s hope so,’ Ruby said.
She let the silence hang for a moment, knowing that Cissy would have agreed with her even if she didn’t want to say it out loud. Then she asked, ‘What happened? How badly are you hurt?’
‘I think I might have a broken rib or something. It hurts to breathe.’ She paused, then groaned. ‘And he smashed my hand with a hammer at one point.’
‘What?’ Ruby said, shocked. ‘A hammer?’
‘I ran at him with the hammer after he punched my face and that’s when he grabbed it off me, put my hand on the worktop and smashed it down. I managed to shift my hand a bit before he smashed it, but one side I can barely move. I collapsed on the kitchen floor. Christ, Ruby! My hand is up like a balloon.’
‘Can you move your fingers?’
‘A bit, but it’s agony. It was after that that he went crazy, smashing up the house and kicking me.’
Ruby bit back her anger. She had to stay calm, because Cissy was going to pieces, and they had to deal with this.
‘We need to get you to the hospital, Cissy. I’ll be down shortly.’
‘But Terence will go nuts if I do that. What if the police get involved through the hospital?’
‘They won’t. We’ll say you got jumped outside a bar. Or that there was a break-in. Don’t worry. But you need to get an X-ray and stuff. I’ll have a quick shower and jump in the car.’
Ruby sank back into the pillow and blew out a breath. ‘Enough is enough,’ she murmured. Terence needed to be dealt with, once and for all. She knew that Tommy wouldn’t do it, because Terence, with his vast connections in drugs from grassroots to cops, was useful, and he’d been central to much of the business they’d built up over the years, growing up on the wrong side of the river in Dublin. Tommy knew what he was like, and routinely he would give him a bollocking for the way he treated Cissy, as he had with women before her. But that was as far as it would go. Terence might come back today and apologise to Cissy, book them on an outrageously expensive cruise, and give her another fancy diamond ring. But one of these days, in a fit of rage like last night, Cissy would be dead. And Ruby was damn sure she wasn’t ever going to let that happen.
CHAPTER THREE
Cissy wore a baseball cap with the skip pulled down and big dark glasses to hide the black eye and bruising to her cheekbone. Ruby had driven her and Bella a few miles along the coast from Marbella to a bar and restaurant she knew would be well out of the way, and where they wouldn’t run into anyone they knew. When she’d phoned Bella earlier to tell her she was on her way to take Cissy to hospital, Bella said to pick her up and they would all go together. It had been a tough journey, with Cissy sobbing all the way, partly from still being in shock from the beating, and also from the pain and the feeling that this time Terence had crossed a line. This time things had to change.
By the time they left the hospital, Cissy was feeling a little easier with the painkillers, and her hand had been strapped up with a tight bandage. The doctor said although a couple of small bones had been fractured, they hadn’t moved and he fitted her with a rigid splint and padding and told her she had to keep it on for three to five weeks to give it time to heal. The X-ray to her ribs showed no fracture but very bad deep-tissue bruising in her torso that could easily have torn her kidney, the doctor said. He had a look of disbelief when she told him she was jumped by thugs as she got into her car. He wanted to contact the police but she said not to, and he gave her a look that said, I don’t believe you, this has domestic violence stamped all over it. But he said nothing, gave her painkillers and sent her on her way.
In the midday sunshine, the three of them sat sipping coffee on the terrace of the restaurant yards from the deserted beach, far enough away from the tourist spots that were popular with Brits. Here, the customers were mostly Spanish or Scandinavian – locals who lived nearby or passing trade. The sea was a flat calm and sparkling in the sunlight, and on the face of it, this looked like the dream life for three women who had come a long way and were now enjoying their day in the sun. But the reality was far from that.
‘So,’ Ruby said, glancing from Cissy to Bella. ‘I know it’s hard to think straight with what has just happened, but this can’t go on. You know that, don’t you?’
Cissy tightened her lips and nodded, but didn’t reply.
Bella pushed her giant sunglasses onto her head, revealing striking blue eyes in the sunlight, and then folded her arms across her midriff.
‘You know what, Cissy?’ she said, turning to her friend. ‘Ruby’s right. You need to get out of this before it’s too late.’
Cissy spread her hands.
‘And do what, though? I mean, where would I go? I don’t have any of my own money. Terence controls everything. He just drops me a few hundred quid if I say I need it, but I haven’t got a big bank balance.’ She paused. ‘Okay, I’ve still got my flat back home, but if I just walk out of here and go back there, he will come after me. He’ll kill me. I know he will.’
Ruby wanted to tell her that if she stayed in the situation as it was, he would kill her anyway, but she knew it would upset her even more.
They sat for a moment in silence, and Ruby looked from Cissy to Bella, and she knew they were both thinking the same as her, but would not say it out loud. So, she decided to say it herself. She leaned across the table and lowered her voice to a whisper.
‘We can get rid of him.’
Cissy took her glasses off and touched the swelling on her cheek. One of her eyes was black and raw, and almost closed. She glanced at Bella, whose lips had parted a little as they both looked at Ruby, but didn’t speak.
‘So, is that a yes then?’ Ruby said, picking up her coffee cup and draining it.
Cissy swallowed hard.
‘Jesus, Ruby!’ She sighed. ‘I don’t know. The thought of that and what might happen terrifies me.’
Bella glanced from Cissy to Ruby, then spoke.
‘And me,’ she said. ‘Can you imagine what Tommy would do if something happened to Terence, and we were in on it? I dunno, Ruby.’ She reached across and touched Cissy’s arm. ‘I mean, enough is enough for Cissy. We all know that. But getting rid? I don’t know.’
The conversation ended there, but Ruby had a feeling that this time would be different. Terence had gone too far. She regretted ever introducing Cissy to him three years ago, because she’d seen the way he treated his last girlfriend, who’d left him because he was knocking her around. Cissy had come along a year or so later when she’d arrived on Ruby’s doorstep, needing help after losing her job. Poor Cissy. She had lost her teenage son in a car crash a year earlier and the grief had been so overwhelming that she more or less just stopped functioning. And even when she finally got back into work, she couldn’t cope and kept not turning up for the job. The boss at the car dealership where she worked told her he was letting her go, and for a while, she didn’t even tell Ruby, until finally she had to confess she was broke. Ruby had taken her to Spain with her for a holiday at Tommy’s villa on the Costa del Sol, and that’s when she met Terence, who was smitten with Cissy from the moment they met. Ruby warned her not to go near him, but she was already taken in by Terence. He showered her with gifts and took her on a week-long cruise. By the time they came back, much to Ruby’s shock, they were officially a couple, married on the ship by the captain.
Ruby’s mobile rang and she stood up and walked away from the table when she saw it was Tommy calling.
‘Where are you, love?’ he said. ‘I came back in from my run and you’d vanished.’
Ruby took a couple of seconds to answer, then spoke.
‘I had to take Cissy to the hospital. Terence beat the crap out of her.’
‘Fuck’s sake!’ Tommy sighed, and she could hear the frustration in his voice. ‘What happened? Did he do it last night after they left the restaurant?’
‘Yeah,’ Ruby said. ‘I had a feeling it was going that way, Tommy. He was off his face, and already being aggressive with her, and I had to speak to him on the terrace. He’s gone too far this time.’
Tommy pushed out a sigh.
‘How bad is it?’
She told him about the hammer attack and the kicking.
‘Fuck me! I’ll talk to him,’ he said.
For a moment, Ruby stood there in silence, knowing he was waiting for her to speak. Sure, Tommy would give his lifelong mate a good dressing-down, but what difference would that make? He’d do the same again, and worse. Eventually, she spoke.
‘He needs a lot more than a talking-to, Tommy. You know that.’
Tommy let it hang for a few seconds, then answered.
‘He’s my best mate, Ruby. We grew up together. You don’t understand.’
‘Yes, I do, Tommy. Cissy and I grew up together, and it was hard times. I’m not going to let this go on.’
‘You need to stay out of it,’ he said quickly. Then, after a pause, his voice became softer. ‘When will you be home? I need to talk to you about a job that’s come up.’
Ruby sighed.
‘Soon. We’re having a coffee and trying to make sure Cissy’s all right. She’s been in a state. I’ll be back when I’m back. But you need to get hold of Terence pronto, and tell him the game is up, Tommy.’
‘Yeah.’ He hung up.
Ruby put the phone face down on the table as Cissy and Bella looked at her, waiting to hear what Tommy had said.
Ruby shrugged and shook her head.
‘Tommy’s going to speak to Terence. Fat chance that will do any good,’ she said.
Cissy’s mobile rang and she picked it up and glanced at the screen.
‘Shit! It’s Terence.’
She was about to patch the call when Ruby leaned forward.
‘Answer it, Cissy. See what the prick’s got to say for himself.’
Cissy glanced from Bella to Ruby, then put the call on loudspeaker. They leaned in to hear. Cissy stayed silent and listened.
‘Cissy, darlin’, I’m sorry. So fucking sorry.’
She didn’t answer, then Terence tried again.
‘Cissy, I promise it will never happen again. Ever. I’m ashamed of myself. I don’t know why I did it. I was off my face with the coke. Where are you?’
After a few seconds, Cissy answered.
‘I’ve been to the hospital. Ruby took me. And Bella. My face is a mess. My hand is in a splint. And my ribs are broken. The doctor said I’m lucky my kidneys aren’t bruised.’ She paused. ‘I don’t feel lucky, though, Terence.’
‘I’m sorry. Where are you? I’ll come and get you.’
‘I’m not ready to come home,’ Cissy said.
It took a few moments of silence, and they could hear Terence breathing. Then he spoke.
‘Where the fuck are you going to go, Cissy? Eh? Tell me that. I give you everything.’
‘Yeah,’ Cissy said. ‘And I’ve got the bruises to show for it.’
‘Where are you? I’m coming to take you home. It won’t happen again, I swear.’
Ruby watched as Cissy began to crumble, her lip trembling, feeling suddenly overwhelmed by it all – partly in shock, partly knowing she had nothing without Terence.
Ruby put her hand out and mouthed for Cissy to hand the phone to her, which she did.
‘Listen, you lowlife piece of shit! You’ve crossed a fucking line, you have. If you can’t see that, you’re a bigger pig-thick bastard than I gave you credit for.’
‘Ruby, put Cissy back on the phone.’
‘Fuck off, Terence. You’ve gone too far this time. That’s all I’m saying.’
‘Are you fucking threatening me?’
‘You know I don’t make threats.’ Ruby hung up, and handed Cissy back the phone.
All three of them sat for a while saying nothing.
‘We need to think this through,’ Ruby eventually said. She turned to Cissy. ‘I’ll get you a place to stay for a bit. You’re not going back there, unless you really want to, Cissy. Do you want to? It’s up to you.’
Cissy shook her head, and sniffed.
‘Fine,’ Ruby said. ‘I’ll sort you out with one of the apartments.’ She looked at Bella. ‘Then we can deal with Terence.’
Bella piped up with her usual breeziness.
‘Tell you what, ladies, why don’t we take a trip back home – to the Lake District or something? We could get the hell out of here and go to that posh new hotel and spa. It would be good for all of us, especially you, Cissy.’
Cissy wiped away a tear that had spilled out of her good eye, and nodded.
Ruby turned to Bella.
‘Great idea, Bella. Set it up, and we’ll do it in the next couple of days.’
CHAPTER FOUR
Tommy Mallon didn’t like the idea of having to work with anyone outside of his own network. Almost all of his associates were Irish, and trusting no one was in their DNA, having come from generations who could carry a grudge that dated back to the last century. They worked together, fought together, killed together, did anything to defend the growing empire that had seen Ireland go from a bit player in the drugs trade to a major force and one to be feared if crossed. But the winds of change were blowing across Europe, and Tommy could see in recent years that it was getting more and more difficult to have an exclusive foothold across the market. The hardmen from Eastern Europe were on the march – Russians and Albanians growing in confidence and strutting around the Costa del Sol, often outsmarting the dealers and suppliers on the ground, or leaving a trail of bloodshed for any gangs who refused to do business with them.
