Free Black Widow by Jessie Keane

never, ever the call Annie was waiting for. She watched Dolly pick up the phone, watched her face go bleached white. Dolly’s head turned and she held the phone out to Annie.
    ‘For you,’ she said, and Annie’s heart froze.
    ‘Hello?’ said Annie when she took the phone from Dolly.
    Dolly shooed her doorman into the front room and closed the door on him. Then she stood beside Annie in the hall, her face anxious.
    ‘Ah, so you are there,’ said the voice.
    The same voice again. Irish. Annie hated that voice.
    ‘I’m here.’ I’ve been here for days , she thought, but didn’t say it. Best not to antagonize him.
    ‘And now you are, what shall we do with you?’ he asked, and she could hear it again in his voice, that smile, that loathsome smile.
    Annie was gripping the receiver so tightly that her knuckles were white as bone. She relaxed her grip, took a breath. Calm , she thought. Keep calm, think clearly. For Layla.
    ‘You tell me,’ said Annie.
    ‘And what if I don’t feel like telling you quite yet?’ he said, playing with her, the bastard. A ding in the background…teacups? Something…
    ‘That’s your decision,’ said Annie, refusing to rise to the bait, refusing to scream and yell and pull her hair like he wanted her to. ‘Is Layla all right? Can I speak to her?’
    ‘Yes, and no. In that order.’
    ‘Then how do I know she’s still alive?’ asked Annie.
    ‘You don’t. You have to take my word for it.’
    Bastard.
    ‘I want to do a deal with you,’ said Annie.
    ‘You’re in no position to be offering deals,’ he said.
    ‘Yes I am. And the deal is, me for Layla. Hand Layla over, and take me instead.’
    Dolly made a ‘for Christ’s sake no’ gesture. Annie waved her away.
    ‘It’s a good deal,’ said Annie when there was only silence at the other end. ‘It’s me you want to torment, isn’t it? Or else why am I still alive? You could have killed me in Majorca.’
    ‘There’s another reason we could have kept you alive, though,’ he said.
    We. But of course there was more than one person involved in all this, as Jeanette had told her. To blow up the pool house, kill Max and Jonjo, kill her two friends, snatch Layla, drug her…too much, far too much, for one alone to manage.
    How many then? wondered Annie. Hadn’t Jeanette said four? But then Jeanette was an idiot.
    ‘And what’s that?’ asked Annie.
    ‘For the dough, dear heart. For the brass, the wonga, the money.’
    At last.
    ‘How much?’ asked Annie. ‘Tell me and I’ll get it.’
    ‘Ah, now that’s something we’ve yet to decide upon.’
    Toying with her again. Playing her. Tormenting her. Annie clutched at her head, which felt as if it was about to burst open. A pulse of pain bloomed behind one eye. Calm , she thought. Calm.
    ‘So you’re going to let me know about that,’ she said numbly.
    ‘I dare say. We’ll call again in a few days, discuss things further, how’s that?’
    Annie swallowed her hatred. She wanted to kill him. She would kill him, if she ever got the chance.
    ‘Whatever you say,’ she said.
    ‘That’s right,’ said the man. ‘Whatever I say goes, right?’
    Annie’s jaw clenched. ‘Right,’ she agreed.
    ‘We’ll talk again…’
    ‘Wait.’ She needed to hear Layla’s voice. Needed it desperately. ‘Let me talk to my daughter.’
    ‘Later,’ he said. ‘I’ll call again on Friday.’ And he put the phone down.
    ‘Wait!’ shouted Annie, but she was talking to nothing but empty air. With a cry of rage she smashed the receiver back on to its cradle, picked up the phone and flung it hard against the wall.
    ‘You fucker!’ she yelled.
    Dolly stared at her friend, aghast. She had never seen Annie lose it before. Annie stalked off along the hall, turned at the foot of the stairs and walked back, breathing hard. She picked up the phone from the floor, picked up the receiver, listened. Still working. She exhaled sharply.
    ‘Sorry, Doll,’ she said.
    Annie knew she