In Cold Blood: A Brother’s Sworn Vengeance. Julie Shaw

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СКАЧАТЬ point in saying goodbye to his sister and the idiot. They’d be comatose for hours yet, knowing he was there to see to the kids. Which would have to change, he thought, feeling a sudden pang of nerves. And fear – fear of being so far away from everyone and everything he knew. He had to stop that in its tracks. Snuff it out.

      He vaulted the fence into the next door back garden, heading back the same way as he’d come the night before. It was the route he always used to get from Lyndsey’s house to home and back. Same as everyone. Everyone fit enough to jump fences and crawl through holes, anyway. It was their private route around the place and he didn’t know any different way to travel. Much less why. He thought seriously about this as he lifted the kids over Mrs Elliot’s fence. Probably to make it easier running from the pigs, he decided. But he wasn’t alone in Mrs Elliot’s garden. As he lifted over little Robbie, he was immediately attacked by a huge, angry black-and-white cat. Which clearly had no truck with what he’d been up to either. It wasted no time in scratching him, badly.

      ‘Fuck!’ he yelled, bringing a hand up to his stinging cheek. He was bleeding. Proper bleeding. The little shit. With the kids laughing hysterically, he leapt around the garden then, trying to catch the mangy moggy who’d taken him on.

      At last he managed to grab it and held it in a headlock with one arm, clamping its body under his arm, safely out of scratching distance. It squirmed and spat, but he held on tight. It was going nowhere. It had to pay for what it did.

      ‘Robbie, quick,’ he said to his nephew, ‘find me some rope or string or summat!’

      The kids stared at Vinnie, puzzled. ‘Why?’ Sammy and Lou wanted to know.

      ‘Hurry up,’ he said. ‘If I let it go it will attack us all, won’t it!’

      Robbie, Lou and Sammy dutifully scoured the back garden, ignoring the syringes and old car tyres and crap. Eventually, four-year-old Lou held up a length of aerial cable. ‘Uncle Vinnie, look!’ she said proudly.

      ‘Ssssh!’ he said, conscious that Mrs Elliot might hear them. ‘C’mon,’ he gestured, ‘Good girl, Lou … fetch it over!’

      They all watched mesmerised as Vinnie fought the now writhing cat, to get the cable around its front legs. It was hissing and putting up a valiant fight, but was no match for its human tormentor. Grabbing Mrs Elliot’s washing line, he flipped the end of the cable over it a couple of times, letting the cat fall – the cable straining now – strung up by its front legs.

      He turned to the little ones, who were looking up at him, wide-eyed with shock. ‘See, this cat’s not really a cat, kids,’ he explained, tying the cable off. ‘It’s a piece of wet washing.’ He pointed to the terrified animal. ‘And it can stay the fuck there all day now, till it dries.’

      ‘It’s just a big old kitty, Uncle Vinnie,’ said Sammy nervously, not at all convinced.

      Vinnie smiled softly and bent down to tickle beneath his niece’s chin. He felt better now he could see the shock and awe in the children’s eyes. ‘No, Sam. It just looks like a kitty, but it’s not really. Now, we off to Nan’s for brekkie or are we not?’

      ‘Are you just going to leave it there?’ Lou wanted to know. ‘Like, till it dies?’

      ‘What do you think?’ Vinnie asked her. ‘C’mon – quick. We gotta go!’ He hauled the kids over the next fence and told them to head straight beneath the hedge opposite. ‘Go on,’ he said. ‘Quick. I think I can hear her!’

      Then once he’d seen them all go through and knew he was safely out of sight, he quicky unlooped the cable and let the cat go, booting it up the backside as it skittered away. ‘Last time you’ll go for me, you big fat fucker,’ he hissed at it. ‘Next time you won’t be so fucking lucky!’

      The job done, he vaulted the fence and plunged after the younger children, pleased with having seized upon an excellent opportunity for self-promotion, proud of a good job well executed. Some things needed seeing and some things definitely didn’t. Children talked. Children blabbed. Children told tales that made reputations. And he knew what it was that he wanted them blabbing. What they said about Vinnie mattered. Especially now.

Chapter 3

      Little Josie was sitting on her dad’s knee, eating her cereal, watching her mother move restlessly around the kitchen. She knew her mum was upset because she was trying so hard not to look it – turning up the radio till it was much too loud for comfort, and singing raggedly along to the song on it. ‘Sweets for my sweet,’ she sang. ‘Sugar for my honey …’

      She always sang along to that one if it came on, but her voice wasn’t quite right today. ‘Are you alright, Mam?’ she ventured.

      ‘Course she’s alright, Titch,’ said Jock. ‘Eat your cornflakes.’ His eyes followed June as she walked to the hallway at the bottom of the stairs. ‘Where you going now?’ he asked her. ‘Just leave him alone, he’ll be down when he’s ready.’

      June spun around. ‘He’s been ready all fucking morning!’ she spat back at him. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, I’m bringing our fucking son down here, instead of leaving him up there to stew on his own!’

      Josie started to cry – she couldn’t stop herself – and climbed down from her dad’s knee, placing her now unwanted cereal onto the floor. Why did they have to argue today? She sat on the hearth of the fireplace, pulled her nightie over her knees and sobbed. What was she supposed to do without her brother? Left here with these two – what a bleedin’ nightmare!

      No one understood how much she loved Vinnie – if they did, they wouldn’t carry on like this all the time. Her dad started shouting and swearing about Vinnie and she clapped a hand over each ear to drown it out. Shut her eyes too, to block the whole day out. She loved her dad but he shouldn’t talk about her brother like that. He was always saying that her mam didn’t love anyone except Vinnie. Josie knew that. She knew her mam didn’t love her very much, but she didn’t care. Lyndsey didn’t like her neither, but none of that mattered. All that mattered was that she had her Vinnie, and now they were taking him away from her. She started to sob harder as the fact began to hit home.

      She felt a touch on her head. A light one. She opened her eyes. It was Vinnie, come downstairs, dressed in his flared jeans and favourite Rolling Stones T-shirt, and looking like none of it even mattered. ‘What’s up with your face, Titch?’ he asked her, sitting down beside her. ‘It looks like a smacked arse. Cheer up!’

      Josie smiled as Vinnie joined her by the fire.

      She rubbed her eyes. ‘I don’t want you to go away, Vin – when are they coming?’

      Vinnie looked at the big guitar clock hanging from the wall. It was one of a batch he and his mates had stolen a while back. Half the houses on the estate now had one the same.

      He gave her an odd look. Was he scared? She couldn’t tell. ‘About 10 minutes, our kid,’ he said. ‘But look, Titch, I’m not gonna be away for ages. I’ll probably be back after Christmas.’

      ‘After Christmas?’ Josie wailed. This news was too terrible to even think about. ‘But what about your presents and your Christmas dinner?’

      Vinnie pulled her close and hugged her tight to him. He smelled of Hai Karate and Vosene, just СКАЧАТЬ