Read Online Winnie of the Waterfront by Rosie Harris - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Rosie Harris
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we know she’d been drinking all evening and she’d been in about six other pubs before coming here.’
‘Yeah, she was in. Plastered, she was. Picked a fight so I ordered her out.’
‘Do you know where she went after that?’
The landlord stared down at Winnie. ‘You telling me that you can’t walk at all? You have to have someone push you around in that contraption if you want to go anywhere?’
‘I’ve already told you so,’ Winnie frowned. ‘What’s that got to do with it anyway? I want to know what happened to my mam after she left here.’
He rubbed his hand over his chin and looked uncomfortable. ‘Like I told you, she was plastered. She started making a nuisance of herself so I ordered her out. I can’t risk a disturbance in case it brings the scuffers nosing around. If that happens I could lose my licence and that’d be my livelihood down the drain.’
‘We know all that,’ Sandy said impatiently, ‘but what happened to Mrs Malloy when she left here last night?’
‘Well, as I told you, I had to tell her to leave because she was making a scene. When she got outside she seemed to stagger a bit and then she fell over and bashed her head on the side of the pavement.’
Winnie looked at him wide-eyed, her face pinched with fear. ‘So what happened after that? What did you do about it?’
He shook his head. ‘One or two of my customers tried to pick her up and sort her out, but her head was bleeding rather badly and she was moaning, so someone went off to get a scuffer. I didn’t argue about it because I thought it was better to report it to them than leave it for them to find out there’d been an accident.’
‘So what did the policeman do when he got here?’ Sandy asked.
‘He took one look at her and felt her neck and wrist for her pulse, like they do, and then called an ambulance. That came in next to no time. Well, it would, seeing it was a policeman asking for it. Then they took her away.’
‘Where did they take her? Which hospital?’
The landlord shrugged. ‘The General, I suppose. I never asked. As far as I was concerned we’d done all we could. She wasn’t one of my regulars.’
‘So you haven’t enquired how she is?’ Sandy asked.
The man shook his head. ‘Why should I?’ He ran his hand over his head again. ‘Hope I never see her again. I’ve got enough to do without having the place full of troublemakers.’
Sandy swung Winnie’s chair round and without even stopping to thank the landlord he set off at a run, heading in the direction of Liverpool General Hospital.
It took Sandy and Winnie almost an hour to obtain any information about Grace Malloy at the hospital because no one had ever heard of her. When they finally established that she’d fallen over outside the Brewers Arms public house at about half past ten the previous evening and had hurt her head, and that she had been brought to the hospital in an ambulance, they finally managed to trace that she had been admitted.
Even then, no one seemed to be prepared to tell them how she was or which ward she was in. Time and again, Winnie assured people that Grace Malloy was her mother and watched as they took down details about where she lived.
Eventually, she and Sandy were asked to wait in a small side room and were told that a doctor would be along to see them shortly.
For Winnie, the waiting was intolerable. Sandy kept trying to reassure her by saying that any moment now a nurse would come and take her along to see her mother. Winnie kept shaking her head and pointing out that if that was the case then why couldn’t someone tell her how her mother was.
‘Because they’re busy. You’ll be able to find out for yourself how she is when they take you along to the ward to see her,’ he told her stubbornly. He didn’t like being in the hospital any more than she did. The smell of disinfectant and the general feel of his surroundings made him uncomfortable.
Eventually, a tall thin man, wearing a
‘Yeah, she was in. Plastered, she was. Picked a fight so I ordered her out.’
‘Do you know where she went after that?’
The landlord stared down at Winnie. ‘You telling me that you can’t walk at all? You have to have someone push you around in that contraption if you want to go anywhere?’
‘I’ve already told you so,’ Winnie frowned. ‘What’s that got to do with it anyway? I want to know what happened to my mam after she left here.’
He rubbed his hand over his chin and looked uncomfortable. ‘Like I told you, she was plastered. She started making a nuisance of herself so I ordered her out. I can’t risk a disturbance in case it brings the scuffers nosing around. If that happens I could lose my licence and that’d be my livelihood down the drain.’
‘We know all that,’ Sandy said impatiently, ‘but what happened to Mrs Malloy when she left here last night?’
‘Well, as I told you, I had to tell her to leave because she was making a scene. When she got outside she seemed to stagger a bit and then she fell over and bashed her head on the side of the pavement.’
Winnie looked at him wide-eyed, her face pinched with fear. ‘So what happened after that? What did you do about it?’
He shook his head. ‘One or two of my customers tried to pick her up and sort her out, but her head was bleeding rather badly and she was moaning, so someone went off to get a scuffer. I didn’t argue about it because I thought it was better to report it to them than leave it for them to find out there’d been an accident.’
‘So what did the policeman do when he got here?’ Sandy asked.
‘He took one look at her and felt her neck and wrist for her pulse, like they do, and then called an ambulance. That came in next to no time. Well, it would, seeing it was a policeman asking for it. Then they took her away.’
‘Where did they take her? Which hospital?’
The landlord shrugged. ‘The General, I suppose. I never asked. As far as I was concerned we’d done all we could. She wasn’t one of my regulars.’
‘So you haven’t enquired how she is?’ Sandy asked.
The man shook his head. ‘Why should I?’ He ran his hand over his head again. ‘Hope I never see her again. I’ve got enough to do without having the place full of troublemakers.’
Sandy swung Winnie’s chair round and without even stopping to thank the landlord he set off at a run, heading in the direction of Liverpool General Hospital.
It took Sandy and Winnie almost an hour to obtain any information about Grace Malloy at the hospital because no one had ever heard of her. When they finally established that she’d fallen over outside the Brewers Arms public house at about half past ten the previous evening and had hurt her head, and that she had been brought to the hospital in an ambulance, they finally managed to trace that she had been admitted.
Even then, no one seemed to be prepared to tell them how she was or which ward she was in. Time and again, Winnie assured people that Grace Malloy was her mother and watched as they took down details about where she lived.
Eventually, she and Sandy were asked to wait in a small side room and were told that a doctor would be along to see them shortly.
For Winnie, the waiting was intolerable. Sandy kept trying to reassure her by saying that any moment now a nurse would come and take her along to see her mother. Winnie kept shaking her head and pointing out that if that was the case then why couldn’t someone tell her how her mother was.
‘Because they’re busy. You’ll be able to find out for yourself how she is when they take you along to the ward to see her,’ he told her stubbornly. He didn’t like being in the hospital any more than she did. The smell of disinfectant and the general feel of his surroundings made him uncomfortable.
Eventually, a tall thin man, wearing a
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