okay,’ said Annie. ‘Where’s Aretha?’
Aretha had been a star turn in Dolly’s whorehouse. A tall black girl with a damaged past, she had specialized in S & M, punishment chairs, whippings, tying naughty boys up and giving them the whacking they desired.
‘She left about a year back, maybe two—didn’t I say?’ said Dolly. She glanced at Ellie, who turned her full concentration on her breakfast. ‘Married Chris.’
‘Chris the bouncer?’ Annie’s jaw dropped. It was a match that stretched the imagination to its limits, big bald Chris and tall man-eater Aretha.
But then Annie remembered Chris’s gentle ways with the ladies, and thought that maybe, after all her trials and tribulations, Aretha had finally found a man who deserved more than to be punished.
She glanced across the table at Ellie. Ellie had had a crush on Chris, she knew. And even now it looked as if the mention of him hooking up with Aretha was causing her pain.
‘He’s got a job in security now, he’s a night guard at Heathrow,’ Dolly went on. ‘They got a place together, and Aretha still turns a few tricks from home to bring in the dosh.’
Annie nodded. Of course, things moved on. It was a weird feeling to come back here, with everything feeling somehow the same but forever different. Sitting here felt unreal, like a dream. Or maybe a fucking nightmare. People had met, fallen in love, married…moved on. Changed. Her life had changed, too. For the worse. Her husband. Her daughter. Her life. All changed. All gone. The pain gripped her again and she put the toast down, afraid that she was going to throw up right here, right now.
‘Hey—that’s my chair,’ said a voice behind her.
Annie looked up. And up. The woman standing there glaring down at her was over six feet tall and looked like every punter’s idea of a dream dominatrix. She had white-blonde hair cut close to her head and weirdly pale, penetrating blue eyes. She had huge tits. She was dressed in a white PVC minidress with cutouts on either side of the waist and a buckle in the centre, teamed with white, thigh-high boots.
She didn’t look friendly.
Dolly said quickly: ‘Una, this is Annie. Annie—Una.’
‘Hi, Una,’ said Annie.
‘I said that’s my chair,’ said Una.
Annie looked at her. Then she looked curiously at Dolly, who was suddenly faffing around the kitchen fetching another mug, clucking around the place like the Queen of Sheba had put in an appearance. Annie looked at Darren, who looked away. She looked at Ellie, who was watching as if something interesting was about to kick off.
She looked again at Una.
‘There’s another chair right here,’ said Annie, indicating an empty one to her left.
Dolly dropped the tea caddy; it hit the table with a clatter.
‘Tea, Una? Or coffee?’ she prattled.
‘Then you fucking well sit in it,’ said Una to Annie, ignoring Dolly.
Annie looked at her. It was a long, appraising look. ‘Sure,’ she said, and moved along to the next seat.
Darren and Ellie exchanged a glance.
Una sat smugly down in the seat Annie had just vacated, sneering sideways at her as Dolly took her breakfast order.
Annie sipped her tea while Dolly fussed around Una.
Fuck it, thought Darren, that’s not the Annie Carter I know. He caught Ellie’s eye. She’s lost it, said Ellie’s look. Bloody hell. Who’d have thought?
When breakfast was over, Dolly went off upstairs and Annie caught up with her in the bedroom.
‘Doll, can you phone my cousin Kath, tell her I need to see Jimmy Bond?’
‘Sure I can.’
‘But don’t phone from here. Go to the phone box, okay?’
Dolly looked at her. ‘Our phone was making a funny noise this morning.’
‘What sort of noise?’ Annie froze. ‘A sort of jingling noise, do you mean?’
‘Yeah. That’s it.’
‘Doll, I think there could be a tap on your phone line. I think these people who’ve taken Layla tapped the line at the villa, and they might have done the same here.’
Dolly’s mouth dropped open, then she closed it.
‘Fuck me,’ she said. ‘I’ll use the phone box.’
The next day, Billy Black arrived on the doorstep. Annie ushered him into the kitchen and closed the door behind them so that Ross, the hard-eyed young Delaney man on the door, couldn’t hear what was said. Ellie and Darren were upstairs with clients; Dolly was sorting the takings in the front room. When they had come face to face in the hall, Ross had given Annie a look that should have turned her to stone, but she ignored it. Una was out—no one knew where and no one dared ask, either, if Annie was any judge.
‘Your cousin Kath don’t like you,’ Dolly had said when she got back from making her calls yesterday.
‘So what else is new?’ sniffed Annie. Who gave a fuck? The kidnappers hadn’t called yet. That was Annie’s only concern.
‘I told her you wanted to speak with Jimmy, but she put the phone down on me. Twice. Said Annie Carter was nothing to her.’
Good old Kath, thought Annie. Stupid and obstinate, as always. All right, Annie held her hands up. She’d done wrong, taking Max off her sister Ruthie. But all that was long gone and forgotten. Ruthie had forgiven her. So why not Kath?
Because Kath likes family aggro, thought Annie. Always did, always will.
She thought of Kath’s face—Kath had never been pretty, but she had these bright eyes that were endlessly curious, gleefully absorbing gossip, gathering grudges like a squirrel hoarding nuts. Kath loved a family ruck—or any ruck at all, come to that.
‘Did you tell her it was urgent?’
‘She didn’t give me the chance.’
‘Okay, Doll’
But at least Billy was here.
Billy hadn’t changed a bit. Same old raincoat hanging off his thin frame, same old hat on his head, same briefcase clutched against him like it was the bloody Crown Jewels. Same pale face with that vacant look. Same stammer.
