amazement as Will spoke about his slide to the edge of the corrupt and perverted life that his employer and those around him enjoyed.
His ravaged eyes, racked with guilt, looked into hers and he said, ‘Normal rules don’t apply to these people, nor does the law. And if someone gets in the way, they get rid of them.’
‘Get rid of them?’ Betty repeated. ‘You mean … ?’
Will drew one finger across his neck and Betty, hardly able to believe it, said, ‘Kill them? They kill people?’ She removed her hand from Will’s and looked him full in the face as she said earnestly, ‘Tell me that you have had no hand in that?’
‘Of course not,’ Will said emphatically. ‘What in Christ’s name do you take me for?’
‘A fool, Will Baker, that’s what I take you for,’ Betty spat out. ‘A weak-willed and gullible fool who allowed himself to be sucked into such evilness and debauchery in the first place.’
Will accepted the censure, knowing he deserved that and worse. If he was honest, he had shocked himself. It was one thing going along each day and doing things alien to him, or just plain wrong, especially when he was mixing with people to whom those things were commonplace. It was quite another to sit before his wife and confess those things. It was the very first time he had put into words the things he had had to do, and if he was so disturbed, he could just imagine what it was doing to Betty, whose life up until then had been serene and unsullied. He was bitterly ashamed that he had brought disgrace into it and he told her this.
Betty looked at the man she loved with all her heart and soul – or at least she loved the man she thought he had been, the one she had considered honest and trustworthy – and felt a shudder run all through her.
Will saw it and his heart sank, but he knew he had to go on and tell all, and so he said, ‘I haven’t finished yet and this will explain why I needed the ladders.’ He went on to tell her what he had overheard and his meeting Ray after it.
Betty was astounded. ‘Why are you sitting here with such information?’ she demanded. ‘Go to the police.’
Will shook his head. ‘I can’t do that, Betty.’
‘Why not?’
‘Haven’t you listened to a word I have said?’ Will said. ‘If I did that your life wouldn’t be worth tuppence, and it isn’t as if I would be here to give you any sort of protection.’
‘Why not?’
‘Look, Betty, if I just trot into any police station and say I know of a girl that is about to be murdered and I have the address and all the details, what d’you think would happen then? Do you think that they thank me for the information, rescue the girl and that would be the end of it? Don’t you think it far more likely that they will haul me in and find out how I knew all this? Then everything would come out. By not speaking sooner about some of the other nefarious things I have been involved in, I am as guilty as the perpetrators, or that is probably how the police would see it. Face it, Betty, if the police ever got wind of any of this I would be looking at a hefty prison sentence. Far more important than that, though, what concerns me is what the boss would do to you as soon as the police began ferreting out their information. These people don’t mess around, you know.’
‘No, I don’t know,’ Betty snapped, but she realised with sudden clarity that Will spoke the truth. If he admitted to any of this then he would be locked up, and that thought sent cold shivers down her spine. Why the hell had he got involved in something like this?
She was suddenly blisteringly angry with him. ‘How would I be expected to know people like that or how they would behave?’ she burst out. ‘A short while ago, I would have said I knew you inside out. Now it is as if I am married to a stranger.’
‘Look,’ Will said, ‘Ray told me where the girl still is and I want to have a go at getting her out. That’s what the ladder is for.’
‘And won’t anyone watching think it strange to see a ladder up to a window?’
‘No one will see,’ Will said. ‘That’s part of the beauty of it. The side of the house is down a sort of alleyway and the bedroom window overlooks the yard of a factory. That’s how I can pinpoint the bedroom. I stepped into that alleyway for a bit of shelter and to light my fag out the wind, like, and I heard the first struggles and shouts. The factory is deserted now, though, because it was caught in a raid in the autumn and is not rebuilt yet. But there is a fairly high wall still standing and I will be able to hide the ladder behind there once I get the girl out of the building.’
‘Thought it all out then?’
‘Well, I only thought of it when I was given the day off,’ Will said. ‘I mean, I wanted to do something when I heard it first, but I didn’t then know how I could achieve it. I’ve been hatching the plan all the way home. What d’you think?’
Betty nodded slowly. ‘It could just work,’ she said. ‘And then what?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘According to you, they are out to kill this girl.’
‘They are. D’you think I would make up something like this?’
‘How would I know?’ Betty snapped. ‘But if you are right there are two major problems I can see. How will you release her and not have them come gunning for you? And if you should succeed in letting her go free, what will you do with her?’
‘The first point is easier to answer,’ Will said. ‘I am sure that I can cover my tracks so that it looks as if she got out of that place on her own, but after that I don’t know. I mean, I can’t bring her here. It would be far too risky for you.’
Betty nodded slowly. ‘Maybe not here, and not just for the risk to me either. I mean, they could search here,’ she said, ‘But what about my mother’s? Those thugs don’t know where she lives.’
‘Will she mind?’
‘Not when I explain it all,’ Betty said. ‘And as I will move in as well, she’ll probably be pleased. And it will satisfy the neighbours because what could be more natural than me staying with my mother now that I am seven months gone? Mom will likely be glad of the company anyway, because she has been lonely since Dad went two years ago. Always said she’d sell the house because she didn’t need all the space, but the war put paid to that and I’m glad of it now, for it is the safest place to hide that girl if you do manage to release her. And you could come up for your dinner at night and keep us abreast of things.’
‘Yeah, I can just see this working,’ Will said. ‘And it won’t be for ever. I mean, she must have plans and some reason why she came to Birmingham in the first place.’
‘How d’you know she did?’
‘Ray said,’ Will told her. ‘Him and Charlie picked her up at the station. It’s their usual haunting ground. He also said she came from Ireland.’
‘Ah, poor girl!’ Betty said. ‘You know I will have nightmares about those girls sent to the whorehouses.’
‘There is little we can do about those now.’
‘I know that,’ Betty replied. But here is one that we might be able to save.
