Free Maura's Game by Martina Cole Page B

both large Scotches. The whole place had an air of dilapidation and disuse about it; Denny looked like he lived on the streets. Lee wondered how it happened to people; he could remember Denny in sharp suits, and always with a girl on his arm. He had been in the life whole-heartedly. Now he looked like any drunk you could see waiting for their Giro outside the Job Centre.
    He passed Lee’s drink to him with a shaking hand.
    “Some young fellow was waiting for me outside the pub. He was in a brand-new Saab and he had a soot with him Paki, I reckon. They told me to tell you lot that Vic was on his way out.”
    Lee rolled his eyes to the ceiling.
    “You having a fucking tin bath, Denny?”
    Denny gulped at his drink. His face held some of its long-ago hardness as he snapped back: “Do you think I want to get involved in all this, Lee? Is that what you really think? Your brother Michael and me went back years, mate. I was part of this firm when you was still putting fucking Brylcreem on your hair. I was dragged into this shit by strangers and I’m passing on the message. That is all.”
    He was worried and he looked it. Once more Lee felt sorry for him. Denny wasn’t stirring, he didn’t have the nous. Which was why he’d never risen higher than common or garden breaker in his day. Lee would pass the message on and see what Maura had to say about it. For now he concentrated on getting descriptions but Denny’s eyesight was past it as he was.
    Vic Joliff was scary even by Ryan standards. Lee just hoped he was good and dead; it would make their lives so much easier.
    Janine watched her husband as he shaved. It was strange but she actually enjoyed looking at him even while she hated him. Roy still had the power to make her want him, which was almost unbelievable because each of them nursed a burning hatred of the other. Her continuing feelings of attraction to him always amazed her.
    “Where you off to then?”
    Her voice held the edge it always had when talking to her husband. Roy sighed heavily.
    “I’m off out.”
    “Will you be home?”
    He laughed gently.
    “Will the sun come up? Will the grass grow? Till Tony Blair finally become a Catholic… and who gives a fuck?”
    Janine walked away from him, through the bedroom, and as she walked took in the clothes he had laid out ready and satisfied herself he wasn’t going out with a girl. And Roy’s birds were girls. Young ones, with pert breasts and the brains of a gnat. According to him that was how he liked them.
    It still hurt even after all these years. As she walked downstairs her son shoved past her without even a passing glance or word.
    “How was Sarah?”
    She hated herself for the sound of her own whining voice but she would do anything to get him to talk to her civilly. Benny didn’t even bother to answer her, just carried on up the stairs as if she had not spoken one word. Janine felt a lump in her throat and swallowed it down; her histrionics, as he called them, only made him more irritated with her.
    Her own son ignored her shamefully, but she would wait and one day he would come to her on his knees and beg her to take him back into the fold. It was this thought that kept her going, that kept her alive. And the lifestyle her husband gave her helped, though like Sarah Ryan she would never admit that out loud.
    Five minutes later both men were gone and the house was once more empty and cold. As she poured herself a large vodka there was a ring at the doorbell. Tutting loudly she opened the door, expecting her husband or son, assuming they had forgotten something. Instead a shotgun was shoved in her face and she was walked backwards inside the house by a large man in a ski mask.
    After the shocking scene at the Kowolski house Maura told Kenny he could go home; they’d be in touch when they had something to go on. He’d seen for himself their shock and surprise, was reluctantly beginning to accept that they were being set up.
    After a stiff drink at the