East End Angel

Kathy had been treated to such solemn vows in the past. ‘Ask Bill to get you some shopping when he turns up.’ It twisted her guts to be hard-hearted but she’d lost count of the times her sister had pleaded for money because she was hungry, then spent it on one of her addictions.

‘He won’t give me nuthin’,’ Jenny spat. ‘He’s probably expecting me to give him something. But I’ve not had no work. Who’s gonna want me looking like this?’ She scratched at the crusts clumping together her eyelashes.

‘Leave it alone! You’ll make it worse.’ Kathy yanked at her sister’s elbow, dragging away her hand.

Kathy’s bubbling exasperation was threatening to explode. Her sister had been on the game for years, yet Kathy could never quite relinquish the hope that Jennifer would make a fresh start. ‘Why don’t you clean the place up, and yourself too while you’re at it?’ Kathy thundered. ‘Look for a proper job and stop wallowing in self-pity!’

‘Oh, fuck off!’ Jennifer flung herself down on the sofa. ‘Bleedin’ sick of you and your holier-than-thou crap. Go on, piss off. I know you want to. You only ever come here to crow and look down yer nose at me. If you really wanted to help, you’d give me a few bob so I don’t starve. You can see I can’t work looking like this.’

‘If you didn’t associate with scum, you wouldn’t look like that, would you?’ Kathy bellowed. ‘Where d’you think you get the germs from?’

‘Oi, oi. What’s going on? You gels having a bit of a barney then?’

Kathy spun on her heel to see a flashily dressed stocky man letting himself in with the key that hung through Jenny’s letter box on a bit of string. She picked up her coat and immediately shrugged into it.

‘Don’t go on my account, darlin’,’ Bill Black said with a foxy smile. His eyes lowered to look her over beneath the brim of a fedora shading his swarthy features.

Bill was well aware Kathy Finch despised him. Whereas he thought she was very comely, especially in her nurse’s uniform. He’d fantasised many times about ripping that off her. But he realised it must be her afternoon off as she was dressed in civvies. Jennifer had told him that her sister often came round, nagging at her to reform her ways. Bill didn’t want Jennifer doing that; she might be a pain in the arse with her constant whining, but she had her uses. That was why he’d stopped by …

‘I’ll see you in a week or two,’ Kathy told Jennifer. She stared coldly at Bill, until he shifted away from the doorway. She’d been at Jennifer’s before when he’d turned up and brushed against her to cop a feel. He wasn’t doing that again!

‘You come to see me or her?’ Jennifer barked, surging up out of the armchair in a fit of pique on noticing Bill giving her sister the eye.

Bill removed his hat and sauntered over to smooth Jenny’s dark blond hair. It felt greasy beneath his palm. ‘Don’t be a stranger now …’ he called out, riling Kathy, who banged the door shut.

Bill glanced at Jennifer with distaste. At the best of times she looked a mess but next to her pretty sister it was even more obvious. ‘Fuck’s sake, Jen, what you done to yerself?’ He stared at her mucky lashes, nose wrinkled.

‘Got fassy eye, ain’t I,’ Jennifer snapped. ‘Probably caught it off that last punter you brought me in. He stank to high heaven.’

‘Get the bath in, shall I?’ Bill suggested. He had a hole in his finances and could do with some money. A deal on some stolen goods he’d fenced had gone sour on him and he’d lost twenty quid.

‘Got a few bob to lend me?’ Jennifer asked sullenly.

‘You must be joking, gel.’ Bill snorted in disbelief. ‘I was going to ask you for a sub.’ He gave her rump a playful slap. ‘Once you’re done up to the nines, we’ll go out and see if we can find you a punter who’s two parts pissed and won’t notice you look a bleedin’ sight under the war paint. Then we’ll roll him.’

Jennifer huffed dispiritedly, but she’d sooner risk fleecing a customer than have to service him, the way she felt. She’d taken laudanum on top of the whisky she’d drunk earlier and reckoned she might throw up.

CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_94469ec7-8e6a-579a-b593-e3198556de63)

‘What’s happened to you?’

‘Had a trip, that’s all …’

Nick came further into the shop and looked about. It was obvious that the display shelves had been broken and he was pretty sure his mother hadn’t done it falling over. Neither had she put a dent in the counter where the till drawer was, or chucked flowers about the place and overturned buckets of water. ‘All this damage happened when you had that accident, did it?’

He strode back to his mother and tipped up her chin to get a better look at her bruised face. She was an attractive woman in her mid-forties, who kept herself trim and well groomed. ‘Who’s been in here?’ he demanded.

‘Not as many customers as I’d like, son, I can tell you that.’ Lottie Raven’s forced humour faded away. ‘Oh, all right, might as well tell you. A bloke came in causing trouble. I told him to take a running jump and he didn’t like it and had a paddy.’

‘What’s he taken? Did you recognise him?’ Nick barked out, feeling murderous. His mother’s complexion had reddened in embarrassment.

Lottie shook her head, averting her eyes. Her son might be a cool character but, since he’d been a little lad, she’d known when his temper was up. The brute who’d turned nasty on her was one of Wes Silver’s sidekicks. She didn’t want Nick getting into a fight with the likes of him.

Nick had never outwardly blamed Wes for stealing his wife but Lottie had always thought it best the two men kept a distance from each other. She’d never forgive herself if her only child got hurt after she complained about something as silly as a drunk trying to touch her up. So Lottie was keeping quiet about Charlie Potter being a bloody nuisance.

The creep had been in before and asked her to go for a drink with him. Lottie knew she’d sooner dive under the nearest bus than have anything to do with the swine romantically. She’d never liked him thirty years ago when they’d been kids at school together, and she certainly couldn’t stand him now they were middle-aged.

He’d come in the shop a short while ago, reeking of booze and rambling on about old times, then tried to slobber on her. Charlie thought because she was a war widow, and wore a bit of powder and lipstick, that she was hungry for a man in her life. Lottie could have laughed in his face at his arrogance. He thought she kept turning him down because she was jealous of his wife. Lottie just couldn’t make the conceited fool believe that poor Ruby Potter had her heartfelt condolences, not her envy.

‘Who was it, Mum?’ Nick demanded, picking up an overturned bucket. ‘You know I’m gonna find out eventually. You might just as well tell me.’ He tried to wedge back in place a shelf hanging off its bracket.

‘Just a randy gorilla, son,’ Lottie said. ‘No need for you to worry. I can look after meself. You know that.’

‘He tried it on with you?’ Nick sounded astonished. ‘I thought he was after stealing from the till.’

‘Well, don’t sound so bleedin’ surprised,’ Lottie retorted. ‘I admit I’m no spring chicken, but I ain’t that long in the tooth either.’

‘Have you reported him to the police?’

Lottie looked at her son as though he were mad.

‘Didn’t think so.’ Nick grunted a mirthless laugh.

‘He’s long gone now,’ Lottie said brightly. ‘No need to fret. I gave him what for and a slap in the chops and he took off.’

Nick looked thoughtful. ‘Has he been in before?’

Lottie mumbled something, disappearing to find a mop to soak up the water pooling on the lino.

‘He wouldn’t have come in just to lunge at you. I’ve heard that Wes has started sending thugs round local shops, fundraising for the Fascists. Or so he calls it. Sounds like a protection racket to me. I’ll pay Wes a visit and find out …’

‘He didn’t ask for nuthin’! Well, he did, but he weren’t getting that.’ Lottie flung aside the mop and shot after her son as he headed for the door. ‘I can tell you straight, Wes won’t know about it …’ She bit her lip, seeing her son’s expression change.

‘Something you haven’t said, Mum?’ Nick recognised his mother’s evasiveness.

‘Oh, all right, I did know him. It was Charlie Potter.’

In a way, Lottie felt relieved to get it off her chest. The lecherous brute might return to do more damage, or wait for her outside when she shut up shop in the evening. She’d far sooner that her son sorted things out with Charlie than pay a call on Wes and create an almighty ruckus. Lottie didn’t want a feud now Nick was doing all right for himself. He’d bought the lease on this shop just six months ago and set her up in business. Although trade was slow, she was enjoying her little bit of wages, and being her own boss.

‘Potter?’ Nick scoffed. ‘He’s married and even if he weren’t, you’re way out of his league.’

‘I’ve tried telling him that,’ Lottie said drily. ‘He never has listened …’

Nick gave his mother a quizzical look as she let slip that there was more to it than a solitary incident.

‘It goes back a bit, to when we was at school together.’ Lottie turned away, hoping Nick wouldn’t press her for any more information.

‘And?’ Nick sounded obstinately interested.