Rotten to the Core (11 page)

Sonia had spoke
n
to
her son
about it once,
after she
asked him to move in with her
when
Den had died
.
S
aid she didn’t want her home to be used for his sordid one
-
night stands with random girls
.
H
e had laughed in her
face
. A
fter that, when he did bring girls home
,
he was even louder with his goings-on, for her benefit.

Sonia felt that she
couldn’t ask him to leave
;
she had only just got him back. She
also
knew that Jay sensed this
and played it to his advantage.

Kate stared at Jay lying in the
hospital
bed, silent tears sliding down her cheeks
.
S
he felt sick. She knew her brother was after Jay, but he couldn’t have done this, not with her being pregnant
:
s
urely
not
?
             
“
S
top your tears
,
honey
,
” Sonia said
,
in a voice
that sounded
more confident than she really felt
.
“
W
e need to be strong for
Jay
now
.
”
             
Kate nodded and took a couple of slow breaths
;
she couldn’t get herself into a state
;
she had to think of the baby, something she had to keep reminding herself of lately
.
Poor Jay
,
s
he’d had enough,
knowing that she
couldn’t go back home and carry on as normal with her brother now, not after he
had done this
to Jay.

“The police are looking into it
,
” Sonia informed her
,
as she pushed
the
curtain slightly so that Kate could see the two
male
detectives at the front desk talking to
a female
doctor. The younger of the two was writing information
in a notebook,
as the doctor spoke. The doctor pointed over to the curtain, seeing them look over at her. The older of the two men pulled the curtain
across
as the two policemen entered the now crowded cubical.
     
             
“Mrs Shaw
?
”
H
e addressed Sonia
.
“I’m
D
etective Carlson
,
and this is my colleague
,
PC Fowler
.
I appreciate that you are with your son now, but we need to start our investigation as quickly as possible,
so
I hope
you don’t mind if I ask you a few questions
?
”
             
The two woman exchanged glances, both knowing that Jay wouldn’t want the police
involved.
Sonia knew
that
a number of people
could have done
this to him
.
L
ike his father before him, he had pissed enough people off
.
Kate
,
however
,
was sure that it was her brother, but as much as she could kill
Billy
right now, she knew if she so much as hinted
at
his
involvement,
then there would be a whole world of trouble in store for her.
As angry as she was
with Billy for what he had done to
Jay, she would deal with
him herself. The p
olice didn’t get much information
from the two women:
they hadn’t expected to. This sort stick
together
,
D
etective Carlson thought
,
after he had asked several questions and got nothing much from them
.

Kate decided that she
would
go to Emma’s place for a couple of nights
.
She couldn’t face going home to her brother, not now. Seeing Jay in such a bad way had knocked her for six,
and
what if it was all down to her
?
S
he watched as the two policemen walked off and then looking back at Sonia’s pale
,
worried face
,
she knew she had to tell her
the truth.
             
“Sonia, I don’t know how to say this but I think I know what this is all about
,
” she said
,
looking over at Jay again.
             
Sonia looked at the girl with doubt, she was sure that
Kate
didn’t know half of Jay’s business; if she did
,
she wouldn’t be sitting at his side. “I doubt very much that you do honey, Jay is a very private man
;
this could be down to any number of things
.
”
             
Kate looked puzzled by Sonia’s matter
-
of
-
fact tone, there was an
under-current to
the
reply, like she was hinting at something, but Kate continued regardless
.
“I think Jay needed some time to get his head around the idea before he told you, but I should tell you now. I’m
p
regnant Mrs Shaw
:
Jay
and I
are having a baby
.
”
             
It was the last thing
that Sonia
had expected
Kate
to say. Jay was not the type to want to settle down and knowing how unfaithful
he
was to Kate
, Sonia couldn’t believe
he wanted to stay with her
.
S
he let the
enormity
of
what she had just been told sink in.
A
baby
:
she was going to be a
n
an
, bloody hell. This girl was going to need her.
T
hrilled at the idea of having a baby around,
she couldn’t help but wonder whether
Jay was
going to do right by this girl
.
S
he
very much doubted it.

“
The t
hing is, my brother had a real problem with it, said he was go
ing to
kill Jay
.
W
hat if it was him that did this?”
Kate
looked at Sonia with such fear and sadness in her eyes that Sonia couldn’t help but think
that
maybe Kate was right, maybe it was him
. S
he had heard people talking after Den’s death about Billy being involved, but it had never come to anything
;
even when the police had looked into it, rumours were often just that, rumours.

             
“Hey, don’t you be upsetting yourself honey
,
” she said
,
resting a comforting hand on Kate’s arm
.

             
“Until Jay comes around and can tell us what happened
,
we should keep our assumptions to ourselves.
”

Knowing
that people
a
round here often had nothing better to do than talk about
other people’s business,
whether it was true or not, Sonia
had dismissed it as
spiteful gossip
and
lies
.
Could there be an element of truth? No doubt she would find out.

K
ate wanted to stay at Jay’s side, but Sonia insisted that she go and get some rest
;
if not for her sake, then at least for the baby’s. She fancied a bit of time on her own, to get her head round the fact that she was going to be a grandma,
and
she also wanted to be there on her own when Jay came
round,
she knew it was a bit selfish, but she was his mum after all.

Kate reluctantly agreed to go, she was totally exhausted and could do with some rest, and her pregnancy was making her feel sick and
drained all the time, she felt as if
she had no energy at all. After making Sonia promise to call her the minute that Jay was awake
,
she made her way to Emma’s
;
she would stay there for a few days, and sor
t out what to do about Billy.
 

11

Billy was sitting alone in his office at the warehouse. He yawned loudly
;
it was only two o
’
clock but he was knackered, what a day it had been. There had been a few shipments in today and it had been a busy one. He wasn’t complaining though
; he
smil
ed
as he reminded himself
about
the wedge they were earning. This warehouse was just one small part of their empire, and it was a nice little earner.
 
He took a sip of his tea, which was now as he discovered with distaste
, cold. Then he checked his emails on
ce again, he hoped that all was going well for Lee and Jonny. They were both
 
in France sorting a very lucrative business deal out, the guy they were dealing with was working for custom
s
and excise, he was the ideal answer to a shipping problem they had concerning getting packages that were a bit dodgy to say the least
. K
eeping this greedy
F
rog happy was paramount for their business.

Jonny and Lee had very professional business heads and could basically sell ice-cubes to the Eskimos, so if anyone could strike a deal, these two were the ones to do it.
Billy
was sure it would go well; after all
,
they were offering this guy a nice little earner. All he had to do was keep his eyes open and his mouth shut
;
not hard really.
 
 
             
Hearing his mobile beep
with the sound of a new text message
, he grinned as he read
it.
O
ne of the lads, Gerard, who work
ed
the door at
Goldie
’
s, had
told
him that Jay had got done over last night
.
N
o guesses
about
who was behind that
:
a very unhappy nightclub owner.
N
ow he was officially away from the club, Billy’s plan was to fuck up every aspect of Jay’s life, he was going to teach that sorry fucker
a lesson for
daring
he think that he could muscle in on his sister. He had already looked into Jay
’
s other side
-
lines and was feeling very smug with himself for gathering so much information
.
H
e knew about the debt collecting, which was common knowledge
, but had also
found out from a few sources that Jay often went round to the local parade of shops at lunchtime and gave kids as young as twelve drugs
.
A
pparentl
y he was handing them out like Sweets. He
was like the fucking
Pied P
iper, befriending kids just to get them hooked
; the
kids always came back for more, once they were well and truly addicted he was no longer Mr
N
ice
G
uy. He was no longer so friendly to them, he’d make them pay up front, or do little “jobs” for him, like mugging people, or breaking into people’s homes or cars, whatever it took until they had paid off their debt. Jay
 
even had a couple of girls making money for him, in a couple of grubby little flats nearby, flats that belonged to the birds he was making earn for him. He was scum, making money of
f
those with fuck all, bullying young girls
and
innocent kids, ripping off anyone he
came
across.