Read Online Mercy of St Jude by Wilhelmina Fitzpatrick - Free Book Online Page B

Christmas Eve but that was already three days past. The pot of turkey soup was finally empty. Gifts had been put away; decorations would soon follow. The time had come to prepare for the New Year, to make resolutions. Sadie Griffin, as always, resolved to keep her family safe, her secrets safer. Sadie had been making the same resolution since her oldest son was born.
    Them stupid little bastards. Hah!
    Sadie snuggled her ear to the phone. She’d been waiting for the call and didn’t want to miss a word. “Uh-huh…yes…go on, they didn’t…ain’t that something…well, not like they didn’t have it coming to them…uh-huh…yes, thanks Bessie, be talking to you.” She popped the phone back on the hook and went to stand to the side of the living room window, slightly behind the curtain. “You hear about them Hann boys?”
    Debra looked up from where she sat on the sofa, the sewing kit open on her lap. “What Hann boys?” she asked, threading a needle.
    â€œRight. Like you don’t know.”
    â€œLots of Hanns.” Debra pulled the needle through a small white shirt.
    â€œYeah, sure there are. Too many. Anyway, they got their-selves arrested.”
    Debra’s fingers stopped over a tray of buttons. “What for?”
    â€œDriving into a cop and then beating on him.” Sadie pulled the curtain a bit more to the left to better see down the road.
    â€œReally, now?” Debra smiled and picked a button. “The both of them?”
    â€œUh-huh. Bessie says it was more Aiden that did it, though.”
    â€œThey in jail?”
    â€œThey were till their father bailed them out.”
    Arsehole Frank Hann. Wonder where he got the money for that.
    Debra examined the button, put it back and picked a bigger one.
    â€œVwoom.”
    Sadie smiled at four-year-old Mark who was kneeling on the floor with a pile of cars in front of him - police, ambulance, fire trucks - all lined up perfectly straight and from biggest to smallest.
    â€œVwoom.”
    Smart boy, our Mark, smarter than poor Debra. Reminds me of Gerard, except when he tries to talk, of course.
    â€œVwoom, vwoom.” Mark’s short, stocky body bounced from knee to foot to knee, over and over as he raced a small blue truck across the room.
    â€œCareful there, Mark, don’t bang into the coffee table,” Debra cautioned.
    Sadie folded her arms. “Or that cop car there. No father here to bail you out.”
    Debra had just inserted the needle into the button and was about to attach it to the shirt. “Give it a frigging rest, would you, Ma.”
    â€œHard to rest with an extra mouth to feed,” Sadie said, keeping an eye out the window.
    â€œI told you, I’ll get a goddamn job.”
    â€œYou wouldn’t need to still be looking if it weren’t for that Beth Ennis.”
    Debra wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Despises her, I do.”
    â€œHer fault you never got that job. Get on at the post office, you got it made, sure.”
    â€œThis is the second time that bitch is after screwing me out of a job.”
    â€œWhen it comes to a Griffin or a Hann, the Hann wins every time.”
    Every frigging time. Fed up, I am.
    Debra jabbed the needle through the buttonhole. “Every Jesus time.”
    Sadie’s mouth tightened as a black cat made its way across the yard, leaving little paw holes deep in the pure white ground cover. Sadie didn’t like cats.
    â€œIt’s not fair.” Debra’s voice was whiny, shrill. “She’s no better than me. Just because she got that stupid diploma, thinks she’s the smartest thing on two legs.”
    â€œJust like her mother. Lucinda always thought she was better than anyone else.”
    â€œDon’t need no diploma to sort mail. Say your ABC’s, you can do that.”
    â€œLuck of the Irish. Still, no shamrocks up her arse when she got knocked