Maura's Game (44 page)

The words were loaded with menace.

“What’s that supposed to mean, Garry?”

Kenny sounded as annoyed as he felt.

“Whatever you want it to fucking mean.”

The atmosphere between them was nasty, and filled with imminent violence. Kenny had had enough.

“Listen here, Garry Ryan, you don’t fucking scare me and you never have. You need me far more than I need you at the moment, remember that.”

Garry was instantly on his dignity.

“Who d’you fucking think you’re talking to? You think you can barge in here and stick your fucking beak into my family’s business, is that it? You think you’re something nicking special. Well, let me tell you, you ain’t, mate…”

Maura crashed her fists down on the table in front of her, shouting, “Oh, for crying out loud! Have I got to take this shit every time we have some kind of tear up? Well, listen to me hard, boys. You don’t fucking frighten me, you never have and you never will. I have dealt with the best, and none of them frightened me either.”

The two men looked at her before Kenny said seriously, looking into Garry’s face, “None of them frightened me either, as it happens.”

Garry licked his lips and said with a laugh, “What, not even your old mate Vic Joliffi’ “Especially not Vic.”

He walked from the room and Maura, watching him go, felt an acute sense of loss. Kenny was the only normal person around her and his departure left her feeling desolate.

“Why do you do it, Gal? Why do you always make everything so fucking difficult?”

She could read the confusion in his eyes, knew that he could not see what he’d done wrong in any way, shape or form. Thought that it was she who was in the wrong, who was rambling.

“He was trying to help us. Kenny is one of the good guys and you just waltz in here and fuck it all up as usual, with your arrogance and your fucking bad attitude. I have never met anyone like you for pissing on their own fireworks.”

“I was trying to help too, Maura. I want this sorted out as much as you do!” He was bellowing now, shouting at her with wild eyes and spittle flying everywhere.

“You call that helping?”

She was screaming back at him. Her own temper was boiling over and she was past trying to reason with him. It just wasn’t worth it. Garry listened to no one, never had, never would. But he would listen to her now, she was determined on that much.

“You couldn’t help yourself in a fucking grab-a-tit competition if you was the only entrant! You cause more trouble than you fucking prevent. You and Benny are both fucking head bangers Garry. It’s me who keeps everything going. Me! I am the one people want to deal with because I am cautious and I am sensible and I don’t want to rip everyone’s fucking heads off! Except yours, of course, and Benny’s. I could do that on a daily basis, you drive me so fucking mad with your carrying on. I am sick of it, you hear me? Sick to fucking death of the lot of it.

“So, I’ll tell you what, you sort it, Gal. You go and kill everyone and just fucking leave me out of it. I have had enough. Finally, I have had enough.”

He looked at her standing there. She was red-faced with temper and he knew on some deep level that what she was saying was fully justified.

“I don’t know why I fucking bother, Maura,” he mumbled, unable to look her in the eye.

“You don’t know why you bother? Well, join the fucking club.”

Shamilla was crying, and Benny was getting fed up with listening to her.

“Shut the fuck up, Sham. Anyone would think it was you getting tortured the way you’re carrying on.”

She could hear the irritation in his voice and tried to stem her tears.

“Go and get the tea towel out of the freezer.”

She ran to do his bidding. When she brought it back he had put another couple of staples into Dezzy’s face. He looked grotesque, but she was happy to see he was still unconscious. Benny used the tea towel to bring down the swelling and tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for his victim to wake up so they could spin the game out a little longer.

“Do you think Dezzy is in a Korma?”

He laughed heartily at his own joke.

Shamilla pulled her little T-shirt down again. It was a crop top and she was very aware of the way it looked over her large breasts.

Benny saw her and grinned.

“I wouldn’t touch you with his cock, darling. Fussy what I touch, me. Never had a taste for pig. Funny that, ain’t it? Shagged a few old dogs, though. But you’re safe enough so stop worrying, I ain’t that fucking hard up.”

Even in her distressed state she was dimly aware of the insult to herself. Benny was more aware of it than she was and her hurt expression just made his smile that bit wider.

“You’ll be used all your life, Sham, people like you always are. You’re a born victim, darling, and you will go to your grave well fucked, well used, and probably with a trail of kids and broken promises behind you, the only things to show you ever existed.”

He watched her cry. He had destroyed her with his words and enjoyed every second of it. He looked around the room at the carnage he had caused, felt his own power once more, loved the feeling of being the instigator of so much fear and desolation.

It was what he was good at, what made him the person he was. Benny Ryan, lunatic, head case Loony Tune. He loved the different epithets he had garnered for himself over the years. He wondered briefly where Carol might be and then dismissed her from his mind. Plenty of time to sort her out when this little lot was over.

He stared down at the stapler in his hand and grinned once more. He would staple her up once and for all. When he was finished with her no one would touch her with a barge pole. She was the cause of all his problems, he could see that now. Until he’d met her and fallen in love his life had been on course. But she had made him change that course and that was when it had gone wrong. It was what had made everything go so drastically wrong.

When he had sorted things out he would be back on track once more. Then Maura and Garry would see him as he really was, an asset to the business. They would understand that he had fucked up but that he could sort it. Inside he was OK. Inside he was a very astute man who could surmount any problems that came his way. He was as sure of that as he was sure of his own name. He would make Maura and Garry see him in the right light. See him as he saw himself and as others saw him. He would be a fit successor when the time came, take care of them all. His father, the family, even that ponce of a sister of his. He would kick the queerness out of that boy of hers as well, the fucking weirdo. Joey should have been taken in hand years ago. Once Benny was in charge he would sort it all out.

He was humming as he untied Radon and dragged him up to the bathroom. His day’s work was just beginning and he was a man with a mission. He was going to get to the truth and when he did he was going to go to Maura and Garry like a conquering hero. The thought cheered him up no end.

When Radon realised what the next step in Benny’s mad plan was going to be he tried to fight once more.

Benny sighed.

It occurred to him that being in charge was sometimes a very irritating business and his admiration for his aunt went up tenfold.

There was a lot more to being top dog than he had first realised.

Garry and his mother sat in the kitchen while Maura made them all some tea. As she poured the water into the pot it occurred to her that Sarah must have gone through tens of thousands of tea bags over the years. Now Maura was following in her footsteps as the Tea-drinking Queen of the South East. She was getting old, she knew that, and strangely she accepted it.

“Roy will be here in a minute, put out another cup, Maws.”

She gritted her teeth and put out another cup and all the time she willed the phone to ring so Vic could give them a time and place for the meet. Once they met it would be all over, they could get on with their lives. Providing they were still alive, of course. Vic was not a man to be trusted. On that much at least she and Garry were in agreement.

She heard Roy’s voice as she poured out the tea.

“He’s killed Casha and gone on the missing list with Dezzy. Kidnapped him in broad daylight, mind. In front of his mother and half of fucking Green Street. I will swing for that cunt, I take oath on it.”

Maura could hear her mother tut ting She had forgotten how irritating that sound could be.

“Sure, Jasus, that fella is off his shagging rocker.”

“Tell us something we don’t know, Mum.”

Garry took the laden tray from her and placed it none too gently on the table.

“We can’t help him any more, you all realise that, don’t you? He will have to go on the missing list now. Spain, wherever.”

“Wherever sounds good to me. Six foot under sounds better I’m sick of him.”

Roy’s voice was low and no one answered him.

“I am getting to the stage where I hate him. Absolutely hate my own son. And the more I hear about him, the more the feeling grows.” He lit a cigarette from Maura’s packet and said in a guttural voice, “I bet he’s already killed Dezzy. I fucking bet you a pound to a penny he has already obliterated that poor little fucker.”

As Sarah listened she felt her heart racing. The family was falling apart before her. She could feel the fear in the room, knew that Roy was out of his mind with worry over his son, and that Maura and Garry were worried about Vic Joliff. Vic, who she had always liked and who had come to her home expressly to frighten them. She had been so pleased to see him, so very pleased to be remembered by him. And all the time he was using her.

It still hurt.

She only hoped they got this all out of the way soon so they could get back to normal. She had a bad feeling on her, that dragging feeling in her side she had had when her son Benny was murdered. She had woken up with it today and now felt that it was a warning of something terrible coming to the family she loved and hated equally.

Maura placed an arm round her mother’s shoulder and said gently, “All right there, Mum?”

She nodded and forced a smile.

“Course, child. Would you stop driving me mad with your questions?”

Her words came out sounding more annoyed than she had intended and she saw Roy and Garry staring at her quizzically.

“You ain’t grassed us all up again, have you, Mum?”

Garry’s voice was jokey but the underlying question was there. Sarah was devastated at his words and it showed in her tired old face.

“Leave it out, Garry. Haven’t you caused enough upset today?”

Maura hugged her mother.

“Don’t listen to him, Mum, you know what a stroppy ponce he can be.”

Sarah stood up and left the room.

“I hope you’re pleased with yourself, Gal.”

He shrugged and sipped his tea.

“She’ll get over it, Maura.”

Roy looked on as his brother and sister faced up to one another.

“Do you realise how old she is? Do you ever think about anyone or anything else other than yourself and your fucking appetite?” Maura railed.

Garry was laughing and she knew it was to antagonise her.

“Hark at you, Mrs. Do As You Would Be Done By. Piss off! You don’t rule me, you never did. Neither did Michael, but he was too fucking dense to see it and all.”

Maura stared at him steadily.

“Is that right? He was always decent to his mother, though. Pity you ain’t more like him really. At least he could see danger before it hit him in the face.”

Garry was still laughing.

“Saw the IRA coming then, did he? How are they, Maws? Heard anything from your mates lately? Still good friends with them, are you, the people who murdered Saint Michael?”

She was shaking her head in disbelief at his words.

“You bastard.”

Roy stood up then and said to Garry, “My Benny is you all over again. He looks like Michael but he is you. Have a fight with his own fingernails, him. And he gets it from you. I said it before and I say it again, Mother should never have had any more kids. I mean, what are we? Look at us.”

He glanced around with an expression of utter disgust.

“What are we, eh? Fucking animals, that’s what we are. Sitting here at our time of life, waiting to find out about more fucking mayhem.”

He sighed.

“Well, I’m going. I’ve had enough. You can all do what the fuck you want.” He picked up his cigarettes, and as he walked out of the door looked back at Garry and said: “I’ll tell you something, I never liked you. Even when we were kids I could never stomach you. Poor Geoffrey had more going for him than you did as far as I was concerned. Look at us, take a good look at us. We’re half the family we were after all the deaths. We’re all stuck up each other’s arses because we have to be, not because we want to be. We can’t trust anyone, even each other any more. Welcome to the Ryan family. One last word of advice, though. Let Maura sort this lot out she’s the only one of us with even a modicum of brains.”

Garry shook his head and shouted at his brother’s retreating back,

“Keep taking the tablets, nutter, keep taking the tablets.”

He looked at Maura, saw the hurt on her face and instantly his expression changed. She knew he was having another of his lightning swings of mood, like Benny did, like Michael used to. Roy was right, they were all a bit touched, the whole family was tainted.

“It’s tension, Maws, it’s nothing but the tension of all this hag. Now sit down and finish your tea. I’ll go up and get back in Muwer’s good books.”

Maura sat at the table and lit yet another cigarette. Roy was right, that was the worst of it. He was right and they all knew it, but until the impasse with Vic Joliff was over there was not a thing they could do to sort out their personal lives.

Joe the Jew was as usual in his scrap yard staring absently at a porn film on the portable flat screen TV in his office. It was allegedly one of his favourite pastimes, and he knew it enhanced his reputation as an octogenarian cocks man In fact, the flickering images and cries of fake ecstasy barely registered with him any more, but he’d never acknowledge that before another man.

He was bored with his films, bored with it all if he was honest. He also felt very strongly that time was running out for him. His heart was still strong as an ox’s, he knew that from his regular medical check ups. But how much longer could he realistically hope to get away with it?