Read Online The Wayward Wife by Jessica Stirling - Free Book Online

mannish stride, issuing all sorts of last-minute instructions. ‘You must, absolutely must, lower the pitch of your voice to keep vibration to a minimum and do, please do, try to sound sympathetic.’
    â€˜Am I ever anything else?’ said Vivian, then, when the door of the listening booth came in sight, quickened her pace and opened her arms wide.
    â€˜Basil,’ she hooted. ‘Dear old Basil, after all these years. You haven’t changed a bit.’
    And Mr Willets, waiting by the open door, said, ‘No more have you, my dear. No more have you,’ and, to Susan’s utter astonishment, went up on tiptoe and kissed Vivian Proudfoot on the lips.
    The band had an amplifying mike on stage and Tannoy speakers relayed the music to every corner of the room. The bar which had once been the Statue of Liberty had been renamed the Britannia but nobody seemed to care what it was called provided the beer taps worked which, in the glimpse Breda had of them, they seemed to be doing most effectively.
    Steve steered her round the edge of the dance floor and shoved her into a room at the rear of the bandstand where, to her alarm, he left her to stew.
    She seated herself on one of the chairs and looked nervously around. There was nothing much to see except a row of filing cabinets and a desk; nothing much on the desk save a telephone, a glass ashtray and something that looked like a black snake but that closer inspection revealed to be a torn silk stocking. She started when the door swung open and the raucous sound of jazz music swept over her. Steve put a glass into her hand and kicked the door shut to keep out the noise.
    â€˜Brandy,’ he said. ‘You look like you could use it.’
    â€˜Too bloody true,’ said Breda.
    She drank the contents of the glass in a swallow and accepted the cigarette that Steve offered with a nod of thanks. Steve hoisted himself on to the desk and, balanced there, looked down at her.
    â€˜What the hell possessed you to come here, Breda?’
    â€˜I really thought the guy was a copper.’
    â€˜What guy?’
    â€˜The geezer what broke into our ’ouse when Ron was on night shift. Scared the daylights out of me. Said ’e was some sort of copper. I believed ’im. Didn’t you know Vince ’ad come to my place?’
    â€˜No,’ Steve said, ‘but it doesn’t surprise me.’
    â€˜Where is ’e? Where’s my daddy? What’s ’e done?’
    â€˜He’s scarpered,’ Steve Millar said.
    â€˜Where’s ’e gone?’
    â€˜My best guess, he’s on a boat to Nova Scotia or some other place in Canada. I reckon that’s why he wanted you an’ Billy over there. On the other hand,’ Steve went on, ‘he might be holed up waitin’ for new papers. If he is hid, he better be hid good. Harry’s got the word out.’
    â€˜Harry?’ Breda said.
    â€˜Harry King.’
    â€˜Oh, God!’ said Breda. ‘Is that who’s after ’im? No wonder ’e scarpered.’
    â€˜Unfortunately,’ Steve said, ‘a bag full of Mr King’s money scarpered with ’im.’
    â€˜He stole from Harry King?’ said Breda. ‘Geeze!’
    â€˜He’s probably been skimmin’ off the top for years.’
    â€˜Your wife did the books for my dad, right?’
    â€˜Yeah, but Rita finally shopped ’im to Harry.’
    â€˜I thought you was Dad’s friend.’
    â€˜I was,’ Steve said, ‘but I got a kid now. I can’t afford to get on the wrong side of Harry King. I don’t know who tipped Leo off but it wasn’t me. Harry told me an’ Vince to make sure Leo didn’t do a runner until Harry got here with the boys. We were too late. Leo went out the back window of the girls’ lavatory. Broke it down with a fire axe, blackout shutters an’ all. He cleaned out two grand’s worth of savings in cash from his bank