Anne Bennett 3-Book Collection: A Sister’s Promise, A Daughter’s Secret, A Mother’s Spirit

‘I’ll make us all a drop of tea,’ Ruby said, knowing that it was the panacea for every ailment known to man.

‘Not for me, Ma,’ Will said. ‘I had better head back.’

‘Take a drop of tea at least.’

‘I daren’t,’ Will said. ‘When the balloon goes up it will be better for me if I am in my own home, with my coat and boots dry, so I can convince any that are the slightest bit interested that I have not left my own fireside since I was given the day off.’

The three women knew what sense Will spoke, for the safety of them all hinged on Will acting Mr Innocent and covering every angle.

There was consternation when Ray and Charlie turned up at the flat that afternoon to find the bedroom empty and the sheets dangling from the open window.

‘Christ, she’s done a runner,’ Ray said as he strode into the room and pulled in the knotted sheets.

‘Thought you said you had slapped her about a bit.’

‘Yeah, I did.’ Ray slammed the window shut. ‘Wouldn’t have thought she was in any fit shape to run off.’

‘Obviously you didn’t hit her hard enough,’ Charlie sneered at him, and added, ‘When I teach women a lesson, they really are ready to go nowhere for some time.’

‘Yeah, I know.’ Ray was opening and shutting drawers as he spoke. ‘I have seen the results of your handiwork. You really are one vicious sod.’

‘You be glad I am,’ Charlie said. ‘I was the one you came running to when you wanted help to do the girl in and what do we do now when she ain’t even here?’

‘We find her, what else?’ Ray said, flinging open the wardrobe door.

‘Better let Collingsworth know she’s gone walkabout.’

‘Are you mad?’ Ray cried. ‘Jesus, my life would be worth nothing if he got to know I had lost her. He’d turn me over to his bullyboys to beat me to pulp without a second thought and then probably feed me through the mincer.’

‘It will be worse if we don’t tell him.’

‘It couldn’t be worse,’ Ray said with a shudder. ‘Not for me it couldn’t.’

‘But what if we don’t find her?’

‘Course we will,’ Ray said confidently. ‘She has no money, and though she has taken most of the clothes from here they will hardly keep her warm. She has no coat or proper shoes and the day is raw. I expect that we will find her wandering the streets aimlessly and, by God, when I do find her, I will make her pay for this.’

‘And what if her aimless wandering leads her to a police station?’

‘What can she tell them if it does?’ Ray said. ‘She can hardly remember the days of the week. She wouldn’t be able to tell them where she came from, nor what she is doing in Birmingham. And she won’t have a clue where this house is because it was dark when she came and she hasn’t left it at all since she came into it, so it will be highly unlikely to be able to pinpoint where it is, and she has no idea of the address.’

‘Even so …’

‘She’ll be wandering the streets, I tell you,’ Ray said. ‘Come on, we’re wasting time and we have only got an hour or so of daylight left.’

They hadn’t been back out long when icy sleet began to fall again, and they were soon wet to the skin and freezing cold as they toiled through street after street. They checked out alleyways and entries, and any other places where a person might hide, and their anger and annoyance increased at every step.

When the short winter day ended and the murky dusk turned into black night, the temperature plummeted further, and they were no nearer finding the girl. ‘We haven’t a snowball’s chance in hell of finding her now anyroad,’ Charlie said. ‘Not in the bleeding blackout.’

‘No,’ Ray agreed. ‘Mind you, if she is out in this, dressed in the type of clothes she had, she will be a stiff by morning.’

‘Yeah, and while that will save you a job, don’t you think it will raise questions if they find the frozen corpse of a girl dressed like a prostitute and with a bashed-up face?’ Charlie said. ‘Dead or alive, that girl has to be found.’

‘Not in this.’

‘Hardly,’ Charlie said. ‘When you can’t see a hand in front of you. But at first light – and I know how you feel about Collingsworth, and with reason I’d say – he has to know. We’ll need him anyway, because there is a limit to what the two of us can do.’

Ray knew what Charlie said made good sense, but he was dreadfully afraid of facing Collingsworth after the last time and admitting that he had let escape the girl he had been charged to kill. And he was right to be afraid, for his rage that day was frightening.

Ray thought that he had witnessed Collingsworth in a temper before but what he had seen then had been nothing to how the man reacted to the latest news. His face turned puce with anger, his eyes bulged, and spittle formed at the corners of his mouth as he listened to Ray’s bumbling tale.

When he had finished he looked at him with wild eyes that shone with a strange, almost demonic light and spat out through his thin lips, ‘You stupid, useless bastard!’

Ray had begun to shake. He couldn’t ever remember being so scared.

Charlie could sense his fear and, watching Collingsworth, knew he was aware of it too. Even Ray’s voice shook as he said placatingly, ‘Yes, but—’

‘You’re nothing but a sodding arsehole who can be trusted to do nothing.’

‘Give me another chance?’ Ray pleaded. ‘We’ll find her easily in the morning because she has no money and no contacts, and little more than the clothes she stood up in. Christ, she might be dead already and if she isn’t I’ll finish her off, promise.’

‘Like you did before?’

‘Yeah, I know, but—’

Suddenly, Collingsworth lost patience with him and clicked his fingers. Immediately, two heavies, who had been flanking the walls, stepped forward. Ray took one look at them and tried to make a bolt for the door, but he knew it was useless. One caught hold of him, easily lifting him and then set him down on the floor and held him with his hands behind his back.

‘Edwin, please?’ Ray implored frantically. ‘Give me another chance? I’m begging you …’

His voice ended in a scream of terror as the other heavy powered a punch that snapped his head back and caused Charlie to wince. He continued to thump his fist into Ray and Collingsworth watched it all impassively. Charlie was sure they intended to kill Ray as his cries gave way to whimpers and then moans until in the end he lost consciousness. Only then did Collingsworth snap his fingers, and the sickening thuds into the bloodied man stopped.

The man holding Ray let him slump to the floor, as Collingsworth growled out, ‘Dump him in one of the bedrooms for now and lock the door. We don’t want any more escaping.’

Charlie looked at Collingsworth nervously as he wondered if some of the same treatment was to be meted out to him, but Collingsworth had no problem with Charlie. ‘We will lead a search for the girl as soon as it’s any way light at all,’ he said, ‘so you be back here at seven or so and we will go over what everyone is to do.’

‘What about Ray?’ Charlie said, feeling bound to ask.

‘What about him?’ Collingsworth replied. ‘He won’t be going anywhere for some time, and really that is just a foretaste of what will happen to him if he screws up again. If we find the girl alive then he will deal with her, and if he fails this time …’

He didn’t need to say any more. At his words and the expression on his face, Charlie felt as if an icy finger had trailed down his spine and he knew he wouldn’t change places with Ray for anything he could name.

TWENTY (#ulink_edbec456-2429-5e8a-9b03-72b49dbfd4d8)

‘We have them completely flummoxed,’ Will told Betty the next day. ‘As Collingsworth said to me today, it’s like the girl has disappeared off the face of the earth. They are convinced too that she had to have help, but they don’t know who, or what or anything.’

‘They don’t suspect you?’

‘My dear girl, this lot would suspect their own mothers,’ Will said. ‘Oh, they have been round to the house. I know their tactics: one keeps you talking while the other has a good poke around, but of course he found nothing.’