you, Dominic, and he needs you. I know what my dad did to you was awful, but you haven’t got to worry about him now, he’ll be locked up for years to come.’
Dominic didn’t know what to do for the best. He still loved Joey, but was petrified of his father, even though he was inside. Eddie Mitchell had given him many a nightmare. Suppose he had spies on the outside and they tried to finish off what Eddie had begun? ‘I’m not sure, Frankie. Say your dad gets someone to finish off the job he started the last time?’
‘He won’t,’ Frankie replied confidently. ‘My dad’s life is in tatters, Dom. You and Joey’s relationship are the least of his problems right now.’
Aware that Joey was being served at the bar, Frankie knew she had to hurry things up. ‘Listen Dom, Joey and I are having lunch in the Albion as we speak. Can you meet up with us?’
Dominic’s feelings for Joey were far too strong for him to decline. ‘OK, I’ll order a cab and be there within the hour.’
Raymond and Stanley sat in a relatives’ room at Warley Hospital. The name of the place made it sound normal, but both Ray and Stan knew it was anything but. The wails and screams coming from different directions were enough to let anybody know that the place was actually a nuthouse.
Joyce had been admitted only yesterday. She’d originally been taken to Oldchurch Hospital in Romford, but the nurses hadn’t been able to control her mood swings. In the middle of the night, Joyce started shouting and bawling and, after numerous complaints from the other patients and their families, she had been moved over to Warley.
As Ray and Stan sat opposite one another, neither of them spoke. Both were deep in thought and neither had much to say to the other.
‘Mr Smith, the doctors have examined your wife now, so you can go and sit with her if you want. If she’s woozy, don’t worry, it will just be the medication she’s been prescribed.’
Stanley walked into the room where Joyce lay, and was immediately consumed with both anger and guilt. His Joycie was usually glammed up to the nines, and would never be seen dead without her lippy on. Today she looked old, pale and thin, a shadow of the woman he knew so well. Leaning towards her, Stanley clocked her vacant expression.
‘Hello Joycie. Raymond and I have brought you some fruit and some chocolates,’ he said.
Joyce stared at the ceiling. Her body was OK, but her mind had drifted off to another planet. Turning her head, she looked blankly at Stanley, then turned away again. With one tear running down her cheek, Joyce shut her eyes and went back to sleep.
Eddie walked into the visiting room and spotted Gary and Ricky at once. ‘All right? How’s tricks?’ he asked them.
Both Gary and Ricky immediately noticed an improvement in their father’s manner and appearance.
‘We’re fine, Dad. Business is booming. What about you?’ Ricky asked.
Eddie shrugged. ‘I’m OK. Just gotta get on with it, ain’t I? How did the funeral go?’
Ricky nudged Gary. ‘Yeah, OK. Ray sent some lovely flowers from you and a lot of your old pals showed up to pay their respects. All in all, Jessica had a lovely send-off,’ Gary lied. He could hardly tell his old man that Jed and Jimmy O’Hara had turned up, causing Ronny to kick off and the service to be cut short. That would do his father’s improvement no good at all.
‘How’s Joey and Frankie?’ Eddie asked.
Ricky glanced at Gary. They’d already decided to come clean about Frankie moving in with Jed. Gary looked at the floor as he spoke. ‘Frankie’s gone, Dad. She’s living down on O’Hara’s land with Jed. Do you want us to have a chat with her? See if we can make her see sense?’
Eddie shook his head. Everything that had happened was down to his daughter’s stupidity. Frankie had made her own bed, so let her fucking lie in it. ‘Leave her be. She’ll realise her mistake one day and come crawling up here to visit me with her tail between her legs.’
‘Joycie ain’t well. Ray rang up last night. She’s gone off her rocker, by all accounts,’ Ricky said.
‘Whaddya mean?’ Ed asked, surprised. He’d always liked poor old Joycie. She’d stuck up for him over the years, especially to Stanley, who had always despised him.
‘Apparently, she just went loopy all of a sudden. It all started on the day of the funeral, I think. Ray said Stanley left her the following day and that was when she lost it completely,’ Gary chipped in.
Eddie felt terrible. There was nothing he could do to bring Jessica back, but he had to try and make amends to Joycie somehow.
‘Listen boys, I want you to do me a favour. I want you to go and see Joycie and tell her how sorry I am for what has happened. I know she’s been stopping at the house and I’m gonna sign it over to her as a way of apology. Tell her I’ll sort a solicitor out, I’ll have a word with Larry. He’ll deal with the legal stuff and I’ll sign the deeds over to her.’
‘Are you sure, Dad? The house is worth a fortune,’ Ricky asked him, perplexed.
‘What about the twins?’ Gary said agitated.
Ed couldn’t even bring himself to think about the twins. Frankie was now shacked up with O’Hara’s scumbag son, and Joey liked sucking men’s cocks.
‘Fuck the pair of ’em,’ Eddie said bluntly. ‘And so what if the house is worth an arm and a leg? I’ve got all your grandfather’s money for when I get out, ain’t I? I ain’t mucking about, lads. I’ve made my mind up and I want Joycie to have that house.’
Back in Rainham, Frankie had just eaten dessert and her eyes were firmly fixed on the door.
‘Whaddya keep looking at? Jed ain’t coming back yet, is he?’ Joey asked, annoyed. He hadn’t seen his sister for Christ knows how long and she wasn’t even listening to him properly.
‘No, Jed’s not coming back. I promised you that he wouldn’t be here with us and I meant it,’ Frankie said honestly.
Joey smiled. ‘So, how are you getting on, living together? Have you met all of his family yet?’ Joey pried.
‘I’m happy living with Jed, he treats me really well. As for his family, his dad’s OK, but I’m not sure about the rest of them. His mum’s very overpowering – she does my head in. I met one of his brothers the other night and I didn’t like him at all. His name’s Billy, and he’s married to this girl called Shannon, who was just awful. I put me foot right in it, Joey. She had this massive fat gut, and I only asked her when the baby was due.’
‘So?’ Joey said, urging her to carry on.
‘Well, it turns out that she was just fat and wasn’t even pregnant. She hated me from that moment onwards.’
‘So, why don’t you like his mum? What’s overpowering about her?’
Frankie was about to answer, when she clocked Dominic and waved.
‘Who you bloody waving to? Frankie, I’m talking to you,’ Joey said, annoyed.
As soon as Dominic arrived at the table, Frankie
