The Annie Carter Series Books 1–4. Jessie Keane

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СКАЧАТЬ party,’ said Dolly in Annie’s defence. ‘It’s Miss Bailey’s birthday.’

      ‘We’ll see,’ said the sergeant, and the constables elbowed past the two women to get a better look at what was going on.

      ‘Who are you, sir?’ one asked an elderly gentleman sitting quietly in a club chair talking to Ellie.

      ‘Mickey Mouse,’ said the old gent staunchly.

      The constable got out his notebook and licked his pencil with a sigh. Rain was dripping off the poor soul. Annie almost felt inclined to offer the lad a drink.

      ‘Mickey Mouse is it, sir?’ the constable looked pained. ‘And your address, sir?’

      ‘Disneyland, Constable,’ said the old gent. ‘Where else?’

      Another of the constables went off into one of the bedrooms and came back out with screams ringing in his ears. He looked shaken.

      ‘Think you ought to see this, Sarge,’ he said.

      Leaving a constable guarding the main door into the apartment, in case anyone thought they might make good their escape that way, Sergeant McKellan went into one of the bedrooms and found on the bed, a middle-aged, naked man, all hairy legs and huge belly, hastily covering up his private parts. A glamorous blonde was zipping herself back into her dress. On the bedside table Sergeant McKellan found packets of the new contraceptive pills, boxes of tissues, bottles of baby oil and tins of Crowe’s Cremine.

      ‘What’s this?’ he asked, picking up a tin and sniffing it, suspecting illegal substances.

      Mira tossed her blonde hair back out of her eyes. ‘It’s make-up remover,’ she said.

      Annie stood shattered in the doorway but she gave Mira an approving glance. They all knew that the cream was the best sexual lubricant going.

      The police proceeded to the next bedroom and found Jen in her red, cutaway undies, scrabbling off a bed where a man, naked except for his socks, reclined. He had an erection you could have balanced a plate on. It wilted when its owner saw the police looming in the doorway.

      ‘What the fuck’s the meaning of this?’ he said with all the authority of old money.

      ‘May I ask you, sir, to stop whatever it is you are doing and get dressed,’ said Sergeant McKellan formally.

      ‘This is a bloody poor show,’ huffed the man, but he got off the bed and started to dress.

      The sergeant had seen enough. He went back into the drawing room and confronted Annie.

      ‘May I ask if I might see your handbag, miss?’ he asked, indicating the Hermès bag that Annie had dropped on to one of the club chairs.

      Annie numbly picked up the bag and handed it to him. She knew she was in deep shit now, and there was nothing to do but go along with it. Sergeant McKellan opened it and found it bulging with money.

      He refastened the clasp and said, ‘Annie Bailey, I am arresting you for running a disorderly house and for selling liquor without a licence …’

      And that was it. I’m sunk, thought Annie through a fog of terrified gloom. Sunk without a fucking trace. Who the hell did this? Who would hate me enough to do it to me, on my bloody birthday too?

      Billy stood in the rain and watched as they started to empty Annie’s party guests out of her flat and into the Black Maria. Lots of them. Then the girls. And finally, Annie herself. Looking beautiful, as always. His lovely Annie. Oh, how he adored her. He was sad he’d had to do this, but she had to learn. It was for her own good. He turned away, feeling sad but justified in his actions. She would be better for it, he thought. In time.

       56

      At the police station they allowed her just one phone call. Annie thought long and hard about it, and called her cousin Kath. She didn’t even think of calling Redmond Delaney, her business partner. You didn’t involve the gangland boys in police business. As far as the Upper Brook Street business was concerned, she was sole owner and would take sole responsibility when the shit hit the fan. Which it had.

      ‘Oh, it’s you,’ said Kath, sounding put out. ‘What do you want?’

      ‘I’m in the shit, Kath,’ said Annie as an impassive female officer looked on in the interview room.

      ‘What’s that to me?’ asked Kath coldly.

      Annie gripped the receiver more tightly. She hadn’t expected a warm greeting from Kath, but this was an even cooler reception than she had anticipated. Kath had chosen sides, and she had chosen Ruthie. Being married to Jimmy Bond, one of Max’s boys, who else would she choose? Mrs Max Carter, or that cheating whore Annie Bailey?

      No contest.

      Still, Annie had instinctively turned to family. Big mistake. She ought to have known better, really. But she was in a panic. She’d never been nicked before. It was bloody frightening. You’d think, at a time like this, that you could turn to those who should be closest to you.

      ‘Look, Kath, I know you haven’t got much time for me,’ said Annie.

      ‘Ha! You can say that again.’

      ‘But I’m in a jam. I’ve been arrested, and I need a brief. Can you get me one?’

      ‘Why me?’

      Annie lost it. ‘For fuck’s sake, Kath! How long will it take you to call a solicitor and get him to come down here?’

      ‘There’s no need to take that tone with me,’ said Kath.

      ‘Sorry.’ Annie clutched at her head. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the female officer smirking. ‘Sorry, Kath. But do this one thing for me, will you?’

      Kath reluctantly agreed that she would. As Annie put the phone down she felt that she had never been more alone. She put her head in her hands. They had taken all her belongings from her. Even Mira’s Rolex, her rings, a gold heart-shaped locket on a chain that Max had bought her and which she never took off. All taken. They’d even told her to take off her bra and her stilettos.

      ‘You’d be amazed the number of girls we get hanging themselves by their bra straps in the cells,’ the female officer had told her cheerfully, standing by while Annie self-consciously removed her bra and shoes and jewellery. ‘And we had one in last week tried to dig through the cell wall with the heel of her shoe. Nutty as a fucking fruit cake, she was.’

      Much longer in this place and Annie felt that she would be nutty too. Everyone else who’d been at the party seemed to have gone long before they let her out, but one of the kind souls had at least stumped up for her bail. Thank God, she thought. She didn’t like the idea of being in this hell-hole an instant longer than necessary.

      She gave her statement and Kath – God bless her – sent the brief down. He looked about ten years old, but he seemed to know his stuff. He left, and then she was locked up.

      ‘Don’t worry,’ her СКАЧАТЬ