Taken (9 page)

Casey cautiously walked down the corridor. She wasn’t sure what she’d just seen but whatever it was she certainly didn’t want to get involved; she was here in London for one reason only and all she wanted to do was get the hell out of there.

Coming down the stairs Vaughn was standing at the bottom.

‘Where’ve you been? I was worried sick. You alright? You look a bit pale.’

‘I’m fine; thought it was best to wait on the stairs.’

Vaughn looked to the top of the stairs.

‘That’s where you’ve been all this time?’

Casey nodded her head and couldn’t help but think Vaughn was looking at her suspiciously. She was feeling very unsafe and it dawned on her how stupid she’d been to agree to have a drink with Vaughn in the club alone. She didn’t know the first thing about him, but after what she’d just seen happen, if he was a friend of Alfie’s he was part of something very dangerous.

She wanted to go home but she didn’t want to raise Vaughn’s suspicions any more than they seemed to be raised already. She needed to be careful; she didn’t want him guessing she’d seen the girls. Mustering up some courage which she didn’t feel, Casey spoke, hoping her voice would sound light and be relieved of any tension.

‘Anyway, Alfie was right; gong night is certainly something not to be missed.’

Casey grinned up at Vaughn who grinned back, with neither of their smiles reaching their eyes.

‘For fuck’s sake, woman, can’t you be a little gentler? You’ve got hands like a fucking gorilla.’ Alfie pushed his wife’s hands away as she tried to clean the hardened dried blood off his face with a ball of cotton wool.

He knew he should’ve washed it off last night but by the time he’d got home to Essex, his face had been hurting so much, he hadn’t wanted to look at it in the mirror, let alone touch it.

He’d taken some sleeping pills, but he’d been rudely awoken a few hours later by Janine’s piercing scream directly in his ear, after she’d turned over in bed and seen him asleep next to her with his face covered in blood.

‘What the fuck are you screaming about, woman?’

‘I thought you were bleeding dead.’

‘And if I was, how the hell does screaming make it better? You nearly fucking gave me a heart attack.’

‘Well what was I supposed to think?’

‘Nothing, like you usually do. Christ almighty, Janine, if I was going to cop it, I hope my dying hours wouldn’t be lying next to you snoring your head off.’

Janine had laughed and waddled off to find some cotton wool and TCP to bathe Alfie’s face.

Alfie had been driven home by one of his men, which had given him time to think about the situation with Jake. He hadn’t actually known he’d been connected to the Bellinghams in East Ham, not that it would’ve made a difference; in fact, he might have enjoyed dishing out the punishment all the more.

He still hadn’t spoken to Emmie any more about the matter; the last thing he wanted to listen to were wails of hysteria from his lovestruck daughter. He’d leave her to stew for a few days and then he’d pick her up something special from Selfridges to cheer her up.

It still pissed him off when he thought about it; he couldn’t get the image of his daughter with that scumbag out of his head and as he put on his shoes, the image of Emmie in just her bra got larger and he felt the rage start to enter his body. He stood up abruptly, throwing the bowl of hot water Janine had brought onto the floor.

He stormed along the marbled landing, kicking Emmie’s cat out of the way, and marched down the elegant curved staircase to the front door, slamming it behind him as he banged out of the house.

‘Fucking hell, Alfie, has Janine been knocking you about again? There’s helplines you can ring for that sort of thing you know.’

As they sat in the large back office, with crates and boxes piled at the far end of the room, Oscar grinned at Alfie. He’d heard about the showdown at the club from one of his informants and he’d been annoyed he hadn’t been around to see it; he’d had one of his headaches and had needed to sit quietly in the dark of his flat for over an hour to let it calm down. When it had, he’d taken a phone call and rushed down to Shoreditch.

‘You’ll understand why I’m not in the best of moods, Oscar; I still have to go to the dentist to get me veneer fixed, so if you wouldn’t mind I’d like to get on with our meeting.’

Oscar grinned and was rewarded by a scowl from Alfie, which made him laugh out loud as he spoke.

‘You weren’t the only one who had a bit of a problem last night, Alf. I got a call from Nesha, the Albanian guy looking after our girls down in Redchurch Street. One of them managed to open the window when she went for a piss and …’

Alfie sprang up from the chair, sending waves of pain through his face, and the suppressed anger he’d tried to contain earlier broke through.

‘What the fuck? Oscar, I thought you said you had them all under control?’

‘I did; I do. Nobody, not even me could’ve guessed the little whore would’ve jumped out of a sixth-floor window.’

‘What?’

‘Yeah, silly bitch decided to jump.’

‘What, do they have rubber bones in Albania? How did she think she’d survive?’

‘She probably thought it was a better option to jump.’

‘Jesus.’

Oscar grinned, his eyes dancing with amusement.

‘I know, fucking waste of money.’

Alfie shot a stare at Oscar. ‘You haven’t got a heart have you?’

Oscar put his hand on the front of his chest, pretending to try and feel the heartbeat. ‘No, not even a pulse. You need to stop getting fucking soft on me, Alf; I didn’t think you’re the type.’

‘I’m not, and I don’t like you thinking I am, because I might have to show you what sort of heart I’ve got if you carry on taking the piss.’

Oscar looked at Alfie; pleased with the reaction. He didn’t need to do business with a pussy.

‘Of course, Nesha moved the body quickly; put her in the boot and then threw it in the canal at the Hackney end; it’ll be a while before she’s found. Obviously the car wasn’t registered, but he left it on a nearby estate so it can be burnt out by some little fucker who gets his kicks that way.’

‘What about the girls?’

‘Moved them to Bow, but it’s only temporary, it’s too small there. I thought maybe you could keep some more above the club for a while. I’m going to speak to Lola and get her to break them in.’

‘I thought you hated your ex-missus?’

‘I do, she’s a hard bitch who’d sell her own grandkids for money – so she’s exactly what we need.’

It’d been a week since Casey had walked in on Lola, and every day since, she’d regretted the fact she’d walked out on her. Yes, it’d been shocking for Casey to see Lola like that, but the most shocking part of it all was how much Casey had seen of herself in Lola – and it was for that reason that Casey had run away from the situation. It wasn’t Lola she’d seen on the bathroom floor vomiting on the cracked tiles, it was herself. The similarities between herself and Lola frightened her.

Taking a deep breath Casey opened the door of the cafe, which was jam-packed with mud-clad builders, all looking for a fry-up after their morning’s work on the building site in Manette Street. Over the steam of the cafe, Lola and Casey locked eyes. Lola broke out into a big grin.

‘Bleeding hell, what kept you? Your shift started a week ago.’

Lola threw Casey an overall and with a wink, turned back to continue taking the overly large woman’s breakfast order in the far corner.

Casey had been working the morning shift and was expecting to finish at noon, but the rush of people made it necessary for her to stay on for the afternoon shift.

‘You don’t mind do you, Casey?’

Even though Casey was exhausted she was happy she could help out; anything to try to make up for walking out like she had.

‘No problem. And Lola, I’m …’

Lola put up her hand to stop Casey saying any more.

‘There’s no need to say anything girl. It should be me saying sorry. Now we’ll hear no more about it. But Casey?’

‘Yes?’

‘I’m happy you came back.’

By four o’clock, the lunchtime rush was over and Casey sat down for a cup of tea; the first she’d had all day.

‘Want me to put some whiskey in that, love?’ Lola cackled as she sat down with
The Daily Star.
Casey wasn’t sure if she was joking or not; there was a strong possibility she had
smelt like a brewer’s daughter the day she’d discovered Lola’s cafe but since the sobriety meeting she hadn’t touched a drop, though it was killing her. She’d found a miniature bottle of whisky tucked away in one of her boots this morning and she’d sat staring at it for over twenty minutes before she’d finally poured it down the kitchen sink. Her addiction was still holding her as tightly as ever.

Sipping her tea she thought about the club. She still felt shaken by what had happened, and the women she’d seen had troubled her; they’d more than troubled her, they had frightened her; but she was doing her best to put it to the back of her mind. She didn’t want to get distracted by anything – she needed all her energy on getting well and finding her son.

She hadn’t bothered asking Vaughn about it. To a certain extent it was through fear, but mainly she wanted a simple life, without any complications; she’d had enough of those to last her a lifetime.

Vaughn had insisted on walking her home, but he hadn’t spoken much and had seemed rather distracted. When they’d been out on the street, the fear she’d had of him in the club had slightly diminished; he’d seemed so much less threatening, and even though he’d been in his own thoughts, she’d picked up something else from him: something warm, caring even; but then what would she know? She wasn’t the best judge of character by any means, and besides, it didn’t really matter what he was or wasn’t; she didn’t want to get involved.

He’d asked to meet up with her the following Saturday for a drink and she’d accepted his invitation, just to be polite, just to humour him, but now she regretted it. She was a fool; her own worst enemy.

Casey took a sip of her tea as the cafe door opened and both she and Lola looked round; two tall men walked in, bringing with them an air of confidence. Casey recognised one of them; it was Alfie. His face was swollen and shockingly bruised.

Lola stood up and hurried over nervously to the men, who sat down at the far table.

‘Bring us some teas, Casey love.’

Casey got up and went across to the large silver tea urn, sensing she was being watched. Putting the teas on the Princess Diana tray to take over, Casey glanced up and immediately locked eyes with Alfie, who was staring at her intently.

She placed the tea in front of them without saying a word and without wanting to listen to anything being said; it was obvious to her something was going on, and she was determined to know nothing about it.

Alfie couldn’t help staring at Casey; he’d no idea she was working with Lola. Casey looked so out of place: no matter how stained her clothes were and unbrushed her hair looked, there was no hiding her beauty. Lola on the other hand blended into the greasy walls of the cafe like she’d crawled out of the walls with the cockroaches.

Alfie decided he was going to ask Vaughn if he’d finished with Casey. He could do with a treat after the week from hell he was having, and she was just the treat he needed. He imagined her sitting on his cock, riding away with her tits bouncing up and down. He was about to continue his fantasy, when Oscar’s voice threw cold water onto his thoughts.

‘Alfie?’

‘What?’

‘I think that blow you took to your fucking face must have hit your brain as well.’

Alfie glared at Oscar. He didn’t like the fact he was disrespecting him, least of all in front of a rat’s arse like Lola Harding. He’d have a word with Oscar later, but for now, he’d keep quiet and listen to what he was saying.

‘We want you to show them how it’s done, Lola. I thought they’d be like lambs but they’re still wanting to think for themselves. Your job is to get them smacked up; get them
so
used to the taste of brown they can’t do without it. That shouldn’t be too hard for you.’

Lola cackled, taking a sip of the hot, milky tea in front of her, and continued to listen to Oscar.

‘The other thing is the pill; I don’t want them knocked up when the punters ride bare back, so you need to get hold of some. Plus, show them how to use the sponge when they’re on their periods; a lot of the punters will be put off by the blood and I don’t want to lose money because of bleedin’ bitches.’ Oscar laughed loudly at his own joke. ‘It’s easy money for you, Lola. It’ll be like home from home, as long as you keep your mouth shut of course.’

‘Haven’t I always, Oscar?’

Lola paused for a moment, looking first at Oscar and then at Alfie; choosing her words carefully.

‘Listen, I appreciate the offer and all but you know I don’t do stuff like that any more. A bit of handling and selling I don’t mind, but not this, Oscar; left it all behind a long time ago, you know that. Besides, I’m trying to get off the stuff. I’m slowly weaning myself off it.’

Oscar looked at his ex-wife. It never ceased to amaze him how old she looked; they were the same age, 44, but anyone guessing, would’ve thought she was at least twenty years older.

He stretched over to Lola and squeezed her hand very hard thinking how much her toothless grin was akin to his fat whore of a mother’s. Oscar watched as Lola’s mouth trembled. He was sorry he hadn’t actually killed her that night; she gave him nothing but grief. He leaned in to Lola and spoke quietly across the table.

‘The smack’s fucking up your brain, Lo. I’m more likely to turn into a fucking black man than you give up that shit. So do me a little favour sweetheart; stop fucking mugging me off. I’ve never been the sort of person to give you a choice and I’m not about to start now.’

Oscar squeezed even harder on Lola’s hand, making her let out a tiny squeal.

‘So we have a deal?’

Lola nodded quickly, her eyes full of fear. Oscar let go of her hand and leant back in the chair, very much aware of the waitress with the auburn hair staring at him with a mix of hatred and fear in her eyes.