woman with thinning grey hair, wearing a nylon blue-checked tabard, shuffled towards the till. Speaking with a lisp owing to missing her top teeth, she sniffed, asking, ‘Price for what?’
‘These.’
She nodded, taking the packets of oats, and shuffled away as slowly as Steve had picked up the phone.
Bree, seeing that this could take some time, spoke warmly. ‘Hi, I’m in a rush and I’m just wondering if there was someone else here who could go on the other till.’
Blowing another bubble, Steve, with cutting derision, stared at Bree. ‘I don’t know, let’s see, shall we?’ His voice dripped with sarcasm.
Steve then proceeded to get up from his swivel chair and search under the counter, before reappearing to lift up the leaflets and plastic bags on the side. He turned back to Bree, coldly. ‘Doesn’t look like they’re there.’
‘Please, I’m in a real hurry.’
‘Look, darlin’. Everyone’s in a rush, but it ain’t everyone who’s chewing me off about it. Only you.’
‘Don’t speak to her like that.’
Steve stared aggressively. ‘What’s it to do with you, mate?’
Alfie Jennings grinned as he stepped forward from behind Bree. ‘Nothing, not a damn fucking thing, but unfortunately for you mate, I’ve made it my business. Problem with that … Steve?’
And as Steve gulped hard, unwittingly swallowing his chewing gum, he turned red before only managing a quiet voice to simply say, ‘No.’
Alfie stood in the supermarket’s tree-lined carpark in Saffron Walden – a medieval market town located in northwest Essex – listening but not really concentrating on the gratitude the woman was offering him. For a start, she was a sort. A proper sort. Soft pale skin, long tumbling waves, slim yet a curvaceous body … Oh shit. He had to stop. He was getting a boner. Not a good look in the first five minutes of speaking to her. But Christ, it’d been a while since he’d made love to a woman.
Before he’d left Spain, he hadn’t seen Franny properly for at least three weeks whilst he and Vaughn got the last lot of the money together, and then when he had seen her it’d been for less than five minutes when he’d just handed the money over to her. Shit! He suddenly felt the anger rise up in him. Franny was the absolute last person he wanted to think about now. It hurt like hell. Not that he’d let on to the others how angry, how gutted he was with her, because if he did, he knew he’d end up winding himself up and no doubt arguing with Vaughn and Janine about it even more, and that was the last thing he needed.
The other reason he found himself not being able to concentrate on what this woman was saying, was the fact it’d just dawned on him that this was the woman he’d seen in the woods, looking terrified, looking like she was trying to get away – though it still hadn’t come back to him how else he knew her.
‘… so anyway, thank you so much.’
‘Sorry?’ Alfie shook himself out of his thoughts.
‘Just thank you, I’m really grateful. Anyway, I’ve really got to go.’
Carrying her shopping, Bree began to jog towards her car.
A sudden thought hit Alfie. Pounding his being. ‘Stop! Hold up.’
Looking at her watch, Bree, trying not to be rude, gave a tight smile as she waited.
‘I know you, don’t I?’
‘No, I don’t think so. Sorry, but I really have to go.’
Bree turned but was held back by Alfie as he gently grabbed her arm. ‘Don’t give me that.’
Confused, Bree looked worried, agitated. ‘What … what are you talking about?’
A large grin crossed and stayed on Alfie’s handsome face. ‘Bree O’Neill. You were mates with my little sister. God, I remember picking you both up from school. Drove me mad. There’s me, a spotty teenager wanting to give it large, but instead I’ve got two little kids in tow. Wasn’t great for me image …’ He stopped to laugh before saying, ‘You don’t remember me, do you?’
Bree stared then a small flicker of recognition turned into a shy smile. ‘Alfie … Alfie Jennings.’
‘That’s right girl. It’s Alfie.’
The warmth with which Alfie said this hit and ripped at Bree. Unexpectedly, she burst into tears.
Alfie, taken aback and slightly embarrassed, joked, ‘Fuck me, girl, I knew I had an effect on women, but I was hoping it was more about the magnetic than the misery. Come here, you soft cow, give us a hug.’
A hug which was watched by Ma Dwyer as she sat in her car opposite.
‘And did you let him touch you … here? Did he touch you here, Bree?’ Johnny grabbed Bree between her legs as he whispered into her ear. Pressing his body hard against hers. She gave out a small, painful yelp.
‘Did you like it, Bree? Did you ask him for more?’
‘Johnny, you got to believe me. I only spoke to him for a moment.’
‘Liar!’ Johnny punched the wall, centimetres from Bree’s head. ‘Ma told me she saw you in the car park.’
Bree nodded, speaking breathlessly. ‘Exactly! I only talked.’
Johnny whispered back. ‘Don’t lie to me. Don’t make it worse.’
‘I’m not.’
‘What was it like, Bree?’
Terrified, Bree turned her head to the side. Her words were almost inaudible. ‘Nothing happened.’
Staring at her, Johnny suddenly dropped to his knees. Sobbing as he buried and pushed his head into Bree’s stomach. Wild-eyed, he gazed up at her. A ghost-like look on his face.
‘How many times, Bree? Why, why, why did you do it to me? How many times did you let him fuck you?’
Bree closed her eyes, praying, trying anything she could to let her imagination protect her from what was about to follow. As Johnny began to undo his belt, she imagined the crystal-blue waters of a faraway ocean, the sparkle of the sea as she dived in. And as Johnny roughly pulled at her clothes she saw the racing dolphins. And as his hands touched her body she saw herself leaping out of the cooling ocean into the mirrored blue sky to soar over the mountains and high above the trees over the planes and fields to a place far away.
‘I’ll leave you to it, Johnny.’ Ma Dwyer smiled at her son as she opened the door and left the room.
‘Diamonds, all those bleedin’ diamonds. Whoever those belong to ain’t going to be happy.’
Putting Bree to the back of his mind, Alfie snapped. ‘Fuck me, Janine, could you be anymore insightful?’
Janine sniffed. ‘Don’t start getting sarcastic with me, just cos you’re hungry.’
‘Well, I wouldn’t be hungry, would I, if you’d brought me a bleedin’ burger? Everyone else gets one.’
‘You weren’t about, were you?’
‘No, because I was in the bleedin’ carzey having a piss!’
Wanting to stop a row, Lola chipped in. ‘These must be worth a couple of mill. Problem is, whoever they do belong to will come looking, and once that happens, there won’t be any hiding place. It’s not like the coke, with these, there’s no way to knock them out without anyone getting wind. And then there’s Lloyd, if he finds out, he’ll think you mugged