‘Get that down your neck. I’ll leave her soon, I promise,’ he lied.
Jed stood up, zipped up his trousers and went in search of his cousin. ‘Oi, oi, saveloy,’ he shouted, as he saw Sammy’s bare arse bouncing up and down on Sally’s best friend, Julie.
Sammy laughed as Jed walked over and handed them both an E. Jed took a swig of water and swallowed another himself. He’d had two earlier, so already felt out of his nut.
When his phone burst into life once again, Jed suddenly thought it would be funny to answer the bloody thing. Frankie had been ringing for the past couple of hours and he, Sammy, Julie and Sally had had a right old laugh over the story he’d told his girlfriend earlier.
‘Sssh, shut up a sec,’ he said, as he put the phone to his ear.
‘Jed, is everything OK? I’ve been so worried. How’s your cousin?’ Frankie asked in a panicky voice.
Drugged up to the eyeballs, Jed wanted to laugh, but somehow managed to stop himself. Turning away from the others, who were all giggling, he spoke seriously. ‘Billy ain’t too good, Frankie. He’s in intensive care now. The doctors reckon they might have to take his leg off.’
With her hormones all over the place, Frankie burst into tears. ‘Oh Jed, that’s terrible. Whereabouts are you? Joey and Dominic are still here and they said they’ll bring me up in a cab if you need me there.’
‘No, Frankie. You stay there with your brother and his boyfriend. I’m fine, honest, all my family are here. I might not get home tonight, but I’ll see you tomorrow, babe.’
Usually Jed would make a reference to the baby, but on this occasion he couldn’t, as he hadn’t told Sally that Frankie was pregnant.
‘Take care, Jed. I love you,’ Frankie said solemnly.
‘I can’t hear you. The battery’s going now,’ Jed said, switching the phone off.
Turning back to the others, Jed burst out laughing. He picked up his mobile, opened the door and threw the phone outside.
‘Come on then, let’s party,’ he screamed.
Eddie sat down opposite Larry Peters, his brief. Larry had represented Ed’s father many times over the years and was an expert at swinging a jury.
‘So, have you thought about what I said?’ Larry asked.
Ed nodded. ‘I had a chat with Raymondo. I needed his approval, Lal. Jess was his sister, after all. Anyway, he told me to go for it.’
Larry smiled. He had been great friends with Eddie’s dad, Harry, and had been devastated when poor old H had been murdered. The police had never found the bastards who’d killed him and Larry was forever trying to uncover new information on the case. The Old Bill might have put Harry’s death on the back burner by now, but he most certainly hadn’t.
Larry leaned forward and lowered his tone. ‘I went over all the paperwork again yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, Ed, this isn’t going to be easy, but I know that with the right judge and jury you can get acquitted of murder and instead be charged with manslaughter.’
‘What about my original statement, though? I admitted what I’d done when I woke up in hospital. I told the filth that I’d gone there to shoot Jed and I admitted I’d shot Jess by mistake.’
Larry waved his hands in the air. He had a habit of doing this when he got overexcited about something. ‘Forget about that original statement. You were ill, in shock, drugged up on medication. You didn’t know what you were saying, that will be my argument. The positive thing, Ed, is that apart from that one admission, in every other interview you said, “No comment.” Now, we can’t get out of the fact that you went to Tilbury with a gun. But what we can say is that all you wanted to do was put the frighteners on Jed. You said in your statement that you didn’t know Jessica was there. My argument will be that Jed did a runner as soon as you got there. You wanted to scare the lad, so you sprayed bullets round the trailer. You had no idea that your wife was there, which is true, and you were heartbroken when Raymond turned up and you found out what you’d done, which is also true.’
Even though none of it was funny, Ed gave a slight chuckle. ‘It sounds a bit far-fetched, Lal. I wouldn’t believe that bollocks if I was on the jury. Would you?’
Larry waved his hands in the air once more. ‘Look, there isn’t going to be many people as cute as you and me on that jury. At least fifty per cent of the general public are a sixpence short of a shilling. What you need is a few middle-aged women that take a shine to you. Give them the eye and that killer smile of yours. Once they hear what a good husband and father you were, you’ll have them eating out the palm of your hand. We need to pray that we get some blokes on the jury who have daughters themselves. Many a man has gone apeshit because some awful chap has knocked up his teenage daughter and that would earn you the valuable sympathy vote.’
Larry’s enthusiasm was contagious and Eddie found himself believing, for the first time, that he could get away with murder. ‘If I only get a guilty for manslaughter, how long do you think I’ll get?’
Larry shrugged. ‘Six, eight, ten. It all depends on the judge. You’re bound to cop a separate lump for being in possession of a firearm. I’m no mind-reader, Ed, but at a guess, I reckon put the two charges together and you’re looking at a twelve to fourteen stretch. You’ll then do two thirds of that, providing you behave yourself, of course, and your time spent on remand will also be taken off.’
Ed worked the figures out. ‘So, if I’m lucky, I could be looking at as little as a seven?’
‘If you’re lucky,’ Larry said bluntly.
It was two o’clock the following afternoon when Jed finally arrived back home. He’d had a great night over in Tilbury. Sex, drugs and acid house – what more could a man want?
Sammy, Julie, Sally and himself had been up all night shagging and dancing, but he’d managed to get his nut down for a couple of hours this morning.
‘All right, Jed? How’s your cousin?’ Frankie asked, rushing out of the trailer towards him.
‘Not too bad. He’s better than he was. They managed to save his leg,’ Jed lied, remembering his fable.
Noticing how tired and deathly white her boyfriend looked, Frankie decided he needed some pampering. ‘Why don’t you jump in the shower and freshen up? I went to Tesco with your mum and dad earlier and I bought sausages, bacon, eggs, mushrooms and a crusty loaf. I’ll cook you a nice breakfast, if you like.’
Jed grabbed her arse and pulled her towards him. ‘Don’t burn it like the last one you cooked, will ya?’ he said, laughing.
As Frankie hugged him, she could smell perfume on his shirt. She said nothing. It would be awful to make a scene when his cousin was so ill.
Jed stripped off, left his clothes in a heap on the bedroom floor, then jumped into the shower.
Frankie waited until she heard the water running, then crept into the bedroom. His shirt was staring her in the face. Unable to stop herself, she picked it up to inspect it. She held it to her nose and breathed
