Free Deadly Obsession by Nigel May Page B

out of Manchester’s Piccadilly Station to the nearest taxi rank, she let herself smile. Riley had given her the biggest kitty cat of all, The Kitty Kat Club. He’d kept his promise. But now it was gone, taken from her, as was he. And she needed to see whether that was about to change.

10
    Now, 2015
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    â€˜ W ell , there’s a face I thought I’d never fucking see round here again. What the frig do you want?’
    The blunt, joyless churlish welcome wasn’t entirely unexpected by Amy. Considering the last time she’d seen Tommy Hearn had been at the reading of Riley’s will, she had not exactly envisaged being greeted with open arms and the offer of a cosy catch-up. Not that she had ever really planned to see Tommy again to be honest ... not until that letter and her need to track down the truth behind it. Being with Riley again was all she could think about and if that meant having to share airspace with Tommy then so be it.
    â€˜I need to talk, can I come in?’ said Amy matter-of-factly.
    â€˜Be my guest.’ His intonation was not exactly inviting.
    Tommy ushered Amy into his office at the Dirty Cash Casino, as the Kitty Kat club was now known. Amy had made a calculated guess that she'd find him there now that his work with Riley at the plastics factory no longer existed. On lonely nights at the flat in London she’d often found herself idly looking at the internet and out of curiosity she’d once googled Tommy Hearn. The ‘success story’ of Manchester’s latest casino had popped up on a website about northern businesses. Unable to stop herself from reading it she’d immediately felt the hair on the back of her neck standing to irate attention at the man who had so easily filled her dancing shoes and stolen her life.
    As she walked into the space that had once been hers, had once pulsated with music and been the scene of so much happiness and jubilance, at least before that night, she again had the same feeling of contempt wash over her. Every corner held a memory. Instead of the raging buoyant beat of the music, the space now resonated with the soundtrack of endless kerchings from the rows of slot machines spaced sentinel-like from wall to wall. Amy had nothing against gambling, far from it, but somehow the scene disgusted her. A hatred of it that stemmed from the loss of what had gone before.
    â€˜Welcome to The Dirty Cash Casino, it’s your first visit I guess. Looking good, eh?’ There was ridicule in Tommy’s words, a bragging that pricked at Amy’s skin. Added to the almost cataclysmic pounding of her heart within her rib cage, the atmosphere in the room made Amy feel deeply uncomfortable. But she needed to be strong. To conquer her fear.
    She sat herself at his desk as Tommy eased into his chair opposite her and lit a fat, stubby cigar. No cigarette ban would ever stop him. He was king of this empire and he made the rules. He ran his hand through his thick mane of black, slicked-back, wavy hair as he reclined back into his chair, blowing smoke into the air. His demeanour was one of pure arrogance. The fat cat who had not just tasted the cream, but made his enemies choke on it.
    â€˜I guessed you’d be here ... where else would you be?’ she sniped. ‘Dirty Cash? It’s dirty all right … the cash that funded this place was my cash and you know it, Tommy. This was my club. You left me with nothing. How can you live with yourself?’ A tear started to form at the corner of Amy’s eye as she spoke. It annoyed her. This was not how she was supposed to be. She planned to be forceful, take no shit … tears were not an option. After everything she had gone through she was not going to give this man the satisfaction of seeing her blub like she was watching some emotion-drenched Jennifer Aniston rom-com.
    â€˜Come for a handout, have you? Times are hard? I’d heard on the grapevine that you’re not