Trudie woke and all she could see was a dark figure searching through the dressing table. Harry moved in an instant to the bedside and put his hand over her mouth. ‘It’s me, Harry,’ he whispered, and she relaxed. She grabbed his arm and pulled it from her face. She could feel something wet round her mouth. As she switched the bedside light on, she saw the blood from Harry’s hand.
‘Quiet, keep it shut, don’t wake the kid,’ he said, wiping his blood from her face.
Trudie looked at Harry’s hands and saw the numerous cuts and blood. ‘Where have you been? I’ve been awake for hours waiting for you! What have you done?’
Harry stood up. ‘Where’s the fifty quid she gave you?’ Trudie opened her mouth to ask why, but Harry made a ‘cut it’ gesture.
‘You didn’t find the money, did you?’ she said, realization dawning. ‘And where’re Eddie and Bill?’
Harry ignored her, picked up her purse and took out the fifty quid, plus what was left of her child benefit. He stuffed it into his pocket and then pulled out his bedside drawer. Taped to the underside was the false passport Bill had got for him. He stuffed it into his holdall and walked out of the bedroom.
Trudie got out of bed and followed him. ‘Where are you going? Harry? Where are you going? You’re not leaving me, are you?’
Harry shook his head, but Trudie ran to the door and positioned herself in front of it. ‘Are you going back to Dolly? Do you still love her, or is it for the money?’
Harry stood face to face with Trudie and spat the words out. ‘Don’t even say her name. She’s gone... gone forever!’
Trudie grabbed hold of him. ‘The money — what about the money?’
Harry pushed her to one side and wrenched the door open. Trudie clung onto him tight.
‘I love you so much, Harry. Please stay. I need you here with me... I love you.’
Harry held her tightly and pulled her head into his shoulder as she began to cry. He lifted her chin up and stared down into her eyes as he whispered. ‘I know, but I can’t stay. We went to the house. Neither Dolly nor the money was there. Then the police turned up and all hell let loose. Eddie and Bill got nicked and we both know there’s no way Eddie will keep his mouth shut once he’s been roughed up a bit in a cell. I have no choice. I have to go.’
Trudie let out a howl and Harry covered her mouth with his hand.
‘I’ll be back for you, I promise, but I just got to make it on me own for a while.’
He moved out onto the landing. Sobbing, Trudie held onto his coat, pulling him backward. Harry stopped, and jerked his hand backward to get her off him.
‘I won’t let you go; I won’t let you!’ she said, weeping so hard she was shaking.
Harry held her cheeks and squeezed them hard. ‘The kid — he’s mine isn’t he? Isn’t he?’
Trudie winced as his grip tightened. ‘Of course he’s yours,’ she said, looking into his hard and cruel eyes.
‘He’d better be; he’d better be mine! I’ll be back for you both.’ He turned. Trudie’s grip on him was so tight that he had to jerk his hand sharply away and, as he did, he knocked her backward.
He was off, running down the stairs as Trudie fell and cracked her head against the wall, but he didn’t look back. Trudie felt sick as she crawled to the banister.
‘Harry, you bastard!’ she screamed as she hauled herself up and looked down the staircase. ‘You run to her — go on, RUN TO HER! She was the brains behind you all along and you never even knew it!’ Slumping onto the stairs, she wept even harder.
Mrs. Obebega came out of her flat below and looked up. ‘You all right, Mrs. Nunn? Mrs. Nunn, you OK?’ she asked, coming up the stairs toward Trudie.
Below them, they heard wood cracking and splintering as the front door was smashed in against the inside wall, and the sound of heavy boots running up the stairs.
Detective Sergeant Fuller was leading the raid. Jimmy Nunn’s address had been barely legible on the blood-soaked scrap of paper Resnick had given him. Seeing Trudie on the floor, Fuller waved his warrant card at her and then ran past her. ‘Where is he? Tell me right now, where is he?’ Fuller shouted over his shoulder.
‘He’s gone... he’s gone... now GET OUT!’ Trudie screamed over and over again, becoming ever more hysterical.
Tenants were coming out their flats as uniformed police entered and swarmed the building. Back on the top landing, Fuller hauled Trudie up from the floor by her dressing gown as the uniformed officers stomped into the flat. One of them kicked open the bedroom door and woke the baby, who began to howl.
Fuller held Trudie by the arm and pulled her toward her front door. ‘Where’s Jimmy? You’d better tell me where he is, Mrs. Nunn, or I swear I’ll nick you as well.’
Trudie could hear herself laughing, a crazy sound. Like a needle stuck on a record, she just kept repeating: ‘I don’t know anything, I don’t know anything, I don’t know anything.’
Chapter 41
The queues at passport control in Rio airport were long. Dolly and Shirley stood in different lines and at no time so much as glanced at each other. The waiting had made some passengers irritable and tetchy, but when they complained, the Brazilian immigration officers delayed even further.
Dolly and Shirley made their separate ways to luggage collection, where some passengers were already wheeling and heaving their cases toward the customs control. The air conditioning made the vast room cold, the muzak was a repetitive heavy drumbeat Samba and, combined with the excited chatter of Brazilian passengers and a long flight, the whole experience was exhausting.
Shirley could just see Dolly’s blonde head above the group of passengers who pushed and shoved their way toward the luggage carousel. At the only exit was a row of trestle tables with a customs officer standing at either end and a further two officers standing by the exit doors. They were all armed and were watching the passengers like hawks. Shirley could feel the sweat begin to trickle down her forehead as she fought her way toward the carousel.
As she waited for her suitcases, Shirley glanced over to the trestle table, where a line of passengers was waiting to go through. Her heart lurched: every passenger’s case was being searched. Articles of clothing were strewn out across the whole length of the tables as passengers and customs officers argued loudly. Shirley pushed closer to Dolly and eventually squeezed in behind her. She whispered in Dolly’s ear, her voice hardly audible above the din.
‘They’re searching everyone. Don’t do it.’
Dolly didn’t turn round. ‘You know what to do — now get away from me.’
Up came one of their red suitcases, but they couldn’t see if it was the one with the red tag or blue tag. As they watched and waited for the case to get closer a hand came forward and dragged it off the carousel. Dolly was about to have a go, when Shirley kicked her foot.
Charles, rucksack on back, smiled at Shirley. ‘Your case I believe? Do you want me to carry it for you?’
‘No, I’m fine, thanks. I’ve got to wait for me other one anyway.’
He pressed closer toward her, his BO smelling much worse after the long flight. ‘I don’t mind waiting with you... I wondered if maybe we could have dinner, do some sightseeing or just stay in together?’