Raven, page 18
At the bottom of the hill, Clara leaned against a wall and looked up and down the street. Everywhere was eerily quiet. No one was carrying home their shopping or chalking their doorsteps. No windows were being cleaned and no boys in short trousers were kicking a football around. Was the town always this sleepy? Or had Clara never noticed before?
She had no idea where Greta would have taken them. If only I knew the girl better, she thought with regret. But Clara would rectify that. Once she had her children safe in her arms, she promised herself that she would be a better mother to them. Please, Lord. Let my children be all right. I’ll be a good mum. I won’t ever let them down again, she silently prayed.
A woman pushing a pram came around the corner and gasped when she set eyes on Clara. Clara lowered her head. The woman dashed to the other side of the road. That’s when Clara realised that she was swinging the gun by her side. She quickly shoved it into the back of the waistband of her skirt and pulled her blouse over it.
Her head throbbed, but worse was the agonising, fiery pain from her inner thighs. Every step she took caused the open wounds to rub together and she could feel blood trickling down her legs. Her face and lips pulsated with pain too. But Clara couldn’t rest until she found her children. Then what? How could they go home? Larry was sprawled dead across her passageway. And why hadn’t the police turned up? Someone must have heard the gunshot. The noise had been deafening and had reverberated around her small house. She knew that Kelly had a lot of power in the town but was shocked to think that he could get away with daylight murder. Well, once she’d found her kids, she wouldn’t be going to the police in case they were Kelly’s puppets.
Foggy and dazed, barely able to put one foot in front of the other, Clara staggered on until she found herself close to a pub that Kelly frequented. With her head swimming, she wasn’t even sure of how she’d got there. She could remember struggling down the hill. The lady with the pram. But then blank. She stopped for a moment and tried to focus, but agony racked her body. She wondered if Kelly was in the pub and her hand moved to feel the cold metal of the gun she had tucked into her waistband. She could walk into the pub, catch Kelly unawares, and shoot the bastard down. Yet even as this thought crossed her mind, Clara knew she wouldn’t be able to do it. She wasn’t a cold-blooded killer like him, but if he hurt her children it would be a different story – then she wouldn’t think twice about gunning him down. Her children. Yes, her children. She had to find them, so Clara pushed herself on. All she wanted was to find them safe and unhurt.
18
Georgina’s heart was as cold as stone. She’d managed to bury her sorrow and now had only one thing on her mind – Thomas Kelly. She knew they were heading into danger, and her thoughts turned to Alfie and Selina. If anything happened to her, she knew that they’d be fine and happy with their grandparents, while loved and watched over by the whole gypsy community. Georgina forced her thoughts back to the present and as Johnny drove, she surveyed every street they passed through. Larry had said that Kelly used a local pub and they were on their way there, hoping to find the man.
Georgina had only seen one copper so far. A bobby on his bicycle. The man looked close to retirement age, and she wondered if Kelly had him on his payroll. She knew the game and was clued up about how these things worked. Years of running her own business and then helping David with his had taught her every trick in the book. And one of the things that she’d been quick to learn was the importance of keeping the Old Bill close and on side. A backhander went a long way to persuade a low-paid copper to turn a blind eye. Kelly would know that too.
Johnny’s astonished voice snapped her from her thoughts. ‘What the bleedin’ hell has happened to her?’ he said.
Georgina followed Johnny’s gaze and saw a young woman staggering unsteadily along, her face battered and bleeding, her clothes drenched in blood. ‘Stop the car!’ she demanded.
Johnny hit the brakes and the car screeched to a halt. He wound down his window and called to the woman. ‘Are you all right, sweetheart?’
‘Of course she fucking ain’t!’ Georgina snapped, tense and wound-up like a coiled spring. She jumped out from the car and ran across to the woman, finding her close to collapse. ‘It’s all right, love, you’re all right,’ Georgina soothed as she placed her arm over the pitiful sight. ‘My name’s Georgina. Come and sit in my car, eh? We’ll take you to a hospital.’
The woman lifted her head and Georgina had to hold back a gasp when she saw the full extent of her horrific injuries.
‘No, my kids… got to find my kids,’ the woman mumbled.
‘All right, but come and sit down before you fall down,’ Georgina urged, gently guiding the woman to the car.
With each, obviously agonising step, the woman repeatedly muttered, ‘My kids.’
‘Don’t worry, we’ll help you to find them,’ Georgina assured her. She managed to ease the woman onto the back seat and slid in beside her.
Johnny turned around, his eyes full of sympathy as he asked, ‘What happened to you, sweetheart?’
The woman looked confused and said again, ‘My kids… where are they?’
‘Were they with you when you were attacked?’ Georgina gently asked.
‘No… they ran off. I have to find them.’
‘What’s your name?’
‘My kids…’
‘We’ll find them. What’s your name, darling?’
‘Clara… where are my kids?’
Georgina shot a look at Johnny and her pulse quickened. ‘Do you know a man called Larry?’ she asked.
Clara’s puffy and swollen eyes widened with fear, and she tried to get out of the car. Georgina put a staying hand on her arm and said gently, ‘It’s all right. We’re not going to hurt you. We’re Larry’s friends. We just need to know where he is.’
After a painfully long pause, Clara sobbed, ‘He’s at home.’
Georgina took in the state of Clara and asked, ‘Is Larry all right?’
The woman shook her head, and then with a groan, she passed out.
Johnny rummaged in his jacket pocket and pulled out a piece of paper that Larry had given him. He studied the crudely drawn map of directions to Clara’s house. ‘I know where she lives.’
‘Quick as you can, Johnny,’ Georgina instructed firmly.
Johnny turned the car around and put his foot down hard on the accelerator. After two wrong turns, they found themselves on a steep hill lined with small, terraced houses on one side and uneven, green fields on the other. The car revved in groaning strains as they climbed the hill to Clara’s house.
Clara came round and Georgina asked, ‘Who did this to you?’ But she was met with Clara’s continuing cry for her children before she drifted into unconsciousness again.
As they got closer to the top of the hill, Georgina’s heart raced faster and faster. She felt sure that something terrible must have happened to Larry. There was no way he would have left Clara alone to wander the streets in this state.
Again, Clara came round, and seeing where they were she cried, ‘No, no, not going in there.’
Georgina’s jaws tightened. Something terrible must have happened in the dilapidated, narrow house.
‘Look, the door’s been kicked in,’ Johnny said before he climbed out of the car.
‘You stay here,’ Georgina told Clara and then followed him. She glanced down the hill, but there wasn’t anyone to be seen, the place disturbingly quiet.
Johnny walked into the house, and then his voice rang out, ‘Fucking hell!’
Georgina ran inside to see him bending over Larry’s body. He looked up at her and said flatly, ‘He’s dead. He’s been beaten and shot.’
‘It had to be Kelly.’
‘Fucking bastard! Larry knew, you know. He knew his luck was running out and that the next bullet he took would kill him.’
Georgina was sickened by Larry’s death, but knowing that they had to act quickly, said, ‘We need to move him.’
‘Where to?’
‘We need to get him back to London. We can’t leave any trace of us being here. When we kill Kelly, I don’t want any clues leading back to us.’
Johnny looked mortified. ‘But – but – we can’t drive all the way back to London with a dead body in the car!’
‘Why not? You’ve done it before, Johnny. Remember Augustus Rice, the bloke who’s house you robbed the paintings from that Lord Hamilton had put us on to? You drove his corpse back to my house.’
‘Yeah, I know, but that was different. Larry is me mate!’
‘I realise that, Johnny, but we’ve got to cover our tracks. There’s no way I’m going back to prison or hanging for killing Thomas Kelly.’
‘Yeah, I see what you mean. But couldn’t we bury him somewhere here?’
‘It’s too risky. We don’t know the area and what if he’s found? There’d be a manhunt – one that would lead to us. It’s best that Larry comes home and then the cleaners can take care of him. In the meantime, let him rest in peace here for a while. Close the door and we’ll come back for him once we’ve dealt with Kelly.’
‘What about Clara? What are we gonna do with her?’
‘Let’s see if I can get her to talk to me.’
Back in the car, Georgina was pleased to see that Clara was awake, though the woman looked terrified. Georgina offered a gentle smile. ‘We will look after Larry. You don’t have to worry about him. And we will find your children. Did Thomas Kelly do this?’
Clara nodded.
‘Do you know why?’
‘He – he thought that Larry was stealing his girls from the docks. He thought that Larry was my pimp.’
‘Did Kelly mention me?’
Clara shook her head. She then buried her face in her hands, her voice muffled as once again she cried that she had to find her children.
‘Yes, love, I know. Have you got any idea where they might be?’
‘No.’
‘Listen to me. You’re not well. You’ve been seriously injured and you need to see a doctor. Let me take you to the hospital and I promise you, I will find your children.’
‘No, I have to see them with my own eyes. I’m so worried that Mr Kelly will hurt them.’
‘He won’t. I’ll find them before he does. And I’m not being funny, but you look a right mess. You’d likely frighten the life out of your kids. You don’t want them seeing you like that. Get cleaned up first, eh?’
Clara thought for a moment and then replied, ‘You’re right, they shouldn’t see me like this. But how do I know that you’ll really look for them?’
Georgina opened her handbag and pulled out six five-pound notes which she pushed into Clara’s hand. ‘Take this. And when I bring your children to the hospital, I’ll give you ten times that amount of money. You helped Larry, which helped me. I’m a woman of my word. You can trust me to help you now.’
‘Thank you.’
Clara winced in pain with every word that she spoke. Blood seeped from her wounds and her exposed flesh looked raw. Georgina knew that the woman required urgent medical attention – attention that was now offered free with the new National Health Service. ‘Take us to the nearest hospital, Johnny,’ she instructed.
‘I dunno where it is.’
‘I do,’ Clara murmured.
On the way to the hospital, Georgina could see that Clara was trying to stay awake and was peering through the window in search of her children. Georgina managed to get a description of them, but Clara now seemed to be worsening and drifting in and out of consciousness again. Georgina looked through the windows too, saddened to see that like the London streets, there were scars from German air raids. Damaged buildings and ruins were a familiar sight but they always reminded Georgina of the many lives lost. They drove past a large church where only the bell tower remained standing, the rest of the building just rubble.
She recalled an article that she’d read about Bristol being heavily bombed and how the government had set up decoy sites in an attempt to lure the Luftwaffe away from the city and its docks. But just like London and the Thames, the River Avon had been a guide to the German bombers, its water twinkling in the moonlight and leading them directly to their targets. The damage had been heavy and was evident to see even in this small town just outside of Bristol.
‘Clara, we’re here,’ she said, wondering if the woman could hear her.
Her eyes fluttered open. ‘You will keep your promise?’
‘Yes. I’ll bring your children here. Now, go in and tell them that you was attacked by one of your customers. Don’t mention Larry or me or Johnny. Is that clear?’
‘Yes.’
‘Can you walk in there?’
‘I think so.’
Johnny rushed around to the door and helped Clara from the car. As she staggered towards the hospital, Georgina was amazed that the woman could walk. She dreaded to think what wounds had been inflicted to her under her skirt. But from the blood that was left behind on the back seat of the car, she could tell that the injury was serious.
Johnny got back into the car, slamming the door closed as he said, ‘Kelly did a right job on her, the sick bastard!’
‘I think it’s only the need to find her children that has kept her alive. I know that feeling.’
‘Are we really gonna look for them now?’
‘Yes, Johnny, of course we are! Let’s go. The sooner we find them, the sooner I can get back to destroying Thomas Kelly.’
*
As they drove through the small town, it was Johnny who spied Clara’s five children wandering up a side street. He saw an older girl carrying a baby in her arms with three younger lads dragging their feet behind her.
‘There they are,’ he announced, pleased with himself as he turned into the street.
As Johnny pulled up behind them, Miss Garrett got out of the car first and approached the kids.
‘Am I glad to find you,’ she said, smiling widely.
The oldest girl, Clara had said her name was Greta, eyed them suspiciously.
‘I’m Georgina and this is Johnny. Your mum sent me to find you.’
‘Piss off. You don’t know my mum!’
‘Yes, we do, darling. Your mum had had a bit of an accident but she’s all right. I’ll take you to the hospital to see her.’
‘Did a man hurt her?’
‘I think so but now your mum is desperate to see you, so come on, get into my car and I’ll take you to her.’
‘We’re not going anywhere with you. If you come near me, I’ll scream and I can scream really loud.’
Johnny leaned forward and grinned at the girl. ‘Yeah, I bet you can. Larry told me that you’re a right little madam. You’re Greta, ain’t you?’
Greta didn’t answer and swiftly handed the baby to the biggest of the lads. She then turned back to glare at Johnny, hands on her hips. ‘I’m warning you. You’re picking on the wrong kid.’
‘No one is picking on you, sweetheart. We just want to take you to the hospital to see your mum.’
‘How do I know you aren’t the man who was kicking down our door?’
‘I promise I wasn’t. You don’t have to be scared of us,’ he cajoled as he put his hands in his pocket to pull out some coins. ‘Here, take this and you can by some sweets, or some flowers to take to your mum.’
Greta looked down at the two boys, one who was holding her skirt and the other the baby. She took Ginger from his arms and then yelled, ‘RUN!’ She turned and legged it up the narrow, cobbled street, calling over her shoulder, ‘You dirty old git.’
‘Nice one, Johnny,’ Georgina said with a roll of her eyes. ‘Kids are always warned about taking sweets from strangers. Don’t just stand there. Go and catch them!’
Johnny had no idea how he was supposed to round up five small children, though found that his large steps soon caught up with their little legs. ‘Hold on, Greta. I’m not gonna hurt you.’
She ignored him and kept running. The two smaller boys were struggling to keep up with her, and he was able to grab the pair of them, holding them both by the backs of their jumpers. They wriggled and squirmed and kicked at his shins.
‘Are you gonna run off and leave your brothers?’ Johnny called.
Greta looked over her shoulder and when she saw the twins struggling to get away from him, she skidded to a halt. ‘Let them go or I’ll scream.’
‘I ain’t messing about no more. Get in the car, the lot of you. You’re going to see your mother. Any more lip from you and I’ll give these two a right good hiding.’
Greta’s eyes widened and then narrowed. ‘You said that you wouldn’t hurt us.’
‘I won’t so long as you do as you’re told. Stop mucking me about and get in the car.’
Greta scowled, but at last stamped to the car, giving Johnny a dirty look as she passed him. ‘If you hurt my brothers, you’ll be sorry,’ she warned.
‘Blimey, you’re a stroppy little cow,’ he said, and could see now why Larry hadn’t looked forward to spending time at Clara’s house.
‘Come on then,’ Greta snapped before climbing into the back seat. ‘You’re supposed to be taking me to see my mum.’
Johnny had to smile. Greta might be stroppy, but he couldn’t help finding her amusing.
‘Well done,’ Georgina mouthed as Johnny bundled the two boys into the back seat.
‘There’s blood on this seat,’ Greta cried out.
‘No, love, it’s just some blackcurrant juice I spilled this morning,’ Georgina told her.
Greta didn’t look convinced and in a small voice asked, ‘Is my mummy going to be all right?’
‘I won’t lie to you,’ Johnny said. ‘Her face is a bit of a mess, but the doctors will sort her out.’
‘Is Larry there with her?’
Johnny looked at Miss Garrett, unsure of how to answer the girl. Thankfully, she replied for him. ‘No, Larry isn’t with your mum. He’s had to go back to London to work.’
