A Deadly Deception Read online

  *****

  Sandra was reading the Daily Record.

  ‘Gosh, there’s been a terrible fire in Springburn. Och, it’s really horrible. The downstairs flats have been completely gutted.’

  ‘Sandra, dear.’ Chrissie pressed shovel palms over Mary’s ears. ‘You’ll upset poor wee Mary.’

  ‘Get yer fat paws aff ma ears,’ Mary bawled. ‘The only thing that upsets me is you. I’ll give ye another black eye to match the wan ye’ve got if ye dinnae chuck it.’

  Chrissie’s enormous fat melted towards Mary, blotting her from view.

  ‘Just try to relax and keep calm, darling. It’s not good for you to get so excited.’

  ‘Ah’m no’ your darlin’.’ Mary peered round at Sandra and Janet. ‘See her, no wonder her man battered her. Ah’m itchin’ tae batter her masel’.’

  According to Chrissie, her husband had given her a black eye and forcibly flung her out of the house. ‘But I’ve forgiven him,’ she said kindly. The other women all thought he must have been a giant with enormous strength to have been able to accomplish such a feat. Chrissie had a long black tangle of hair that made her look like a mad witch, wee Mary said. Her face was overflowing with fat from her baggy eyes, balloon cheeks and thick lips. Tree trunks of legs bulged over boats of shoes.

  Chrissie gave Mary one of what Mary called ‘her smarmy smiles’.

  ‘I know you don’t mean that, darling. I’ll go and make us all a nice cup of tea.’ As she passed Sandra, Chrissie plucked the newspaper from her. ‘There’s nothing but bad news in the papers nowadays. We’re better without them.’

  ‘See her,’ Mary said. ‘If you two don’t keep her out o’ ma way, there’s gonnae be a murder. Ah’m warnin’ ye.’

  Janet sighed. ‘I hope Betty gets her a house soon.’

  ‘Fancy her taking my paper like that.’ Sandra glared furiously up through her fringe. ‘Cool as a cucumber. And I was dying to know all about the fire in Springburn. I’m going to get that paper back even if I’ve to fight her for it.’

  Mary and Janet couldn’t help laughing at the ridiculous vision Sandra’s words conjured up.

  Janet dabbed the unaccustomed tears of hilarity from her eyes with a lace-edged hanky.

  ‘Maybe we should speak to Betty. It might be best to wait until after tomorrow, though. She’s so busy with one thing and another, including all the preparations for the get-together. There’s going to be a buffet and the girls are seeing to it all by themselves.’

  ‘Aye, well, just see that she keeps away from me. She gives me the bloody creeps.’

  ‘We’ll do our best, Mary, but she’s so persistent, isn’t she? And it’s not as if she has a nasty manner. If she was nasty or even impolite, it might be easier for us to do something. As it is, what can we say to Betty? That she’s being too nice and helpful?’

  As if on cue, Chrissie filled the doorway. ‘There we are with a nice cup of tea. No, don’t get up, Janet. I can manage splendidly and I’m so happy to be here with such lovely people. It’s a pleasure to be able to do whatever I can for all of you. Especially poor wee Mary. Can I hold the cup for you, darling?’

  ‘God!’ Mary gave a loud, heartfelt groan, making Sandra hastily pipe up, ‘Mary doesn’t like being fussed over, Chrissie. She likes to be independent. Don’t you, Mary?’

  ‘Aye, definitely! If you dare hold that cup up to my mouth, Chrissie Cumberland, I’ll fling the bloody tea all over you. I’ve only one hand but believe me, it’s well able to fling that tea in your face.’

  ‘What have you done with my newspaper?’ Sandra demanded dramatically. ‘I was in the middle of reading it.’

  ‘I know, dear. I heard you. What lovely red hair you have. Such a pretty little face, too.’

  Sandra was absolutely infuriated. ‘My hair is not red!’

  ‘Whatever you say, dear.’

  ‘There’s been a terrible fire in Kay Street and I was in the middle of reading about it. What have you done with my paper?’

  Janet said, ‘That’s near that lovely new building, isn’t it? Remember, Mary, we went to the library there and got some books for everybody.’ She turned to Chrissie. ‘Alice next door was too nervous about going down on her own. It’s an awful job to get her to put a foot outside.’

  Chrissie’s face melted in sympathy. ‘Oh, poor Alice. I must see what I can do for her.’

  ‘Aye,’ Mary said. ‘Just you forget about yours truly here and concentrate on Alice next door. She has two hands to strangle you wi’.’

  ‘Mary doesn’t mean it,’ Janet said.

  ‘It’s all right, Janet,’ Chrissie said. ‘I forgive her and I’m sorry about your newspaper, Sandra. I only destroyed it because I didn’t want you to be upset.’

  Mary picked up her cup of tea and took a slurp. ‘As if we hadnae enough to bother us without Saint Bloody Chrissie.’

  Sandra couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened. ‘There must have been people killed. What a dreadful way to die – burned like that …’

  Janet cried out in protest. ‘Sandra, for pity’s sake! You’re upsetting me, never mind Mary. Give that imagination of yours a rest for a change.’

  ‘Sorry. I’m terrible, aren’t I?’

  ‘Just drink yer tea,’ Mary told her. ‘Honest tae God, if it’s no’ one thing, it’s another.’

  Later on, after Chrissie had insisted on washing up and then making them all a cheese omelette for their supper and then washing up again, she said to Mary, ‘I’ll help you to undress and see you comfortably settled in bed, darling.’

  Janet hastily came to Mary’s rescue.

  ‘Mary has learned to dress and undress herself and if she has any difficulty, she trusts me to help her. We’re good friends now, Mary and I.’

  Chrissie patted Mary’s head. ‘But I’m your good friend too, dear.’

  ‘No,’ Janet insisted. ‘You haven’t been here long enough for any of us to get to know you properly, Chrissie. These things take time. Just try to be more patient.’

  ‘Janet, I’m the most patient of women, I can assure you, dear. I just believe, and believe most sincerely, that it’s my Christian duty to do whatever I can to help, wherever I see a need. And nothing and nobody in the world will ever dissuade me from my Christian duty.’

  ‘Oh God!’ Mary groaned again.

  21

  Cheryl had never lived through such a nightmare. First of all, Tommy had been late in calling for her at the shop. She waited and waited. The iron frames were fixed on to the windows. The shop was locked. Still she waited. She couldn’t understand it. She began to walk slowly along towards the precinct entrance. It was then she caught the frisson of excitement in the air, then the panic. People were running about outside. The wail of fire engines echoed through the precinct. She began to run. Only something terrible would have kept Tommy from meeting her tonight. Then she saw the sky was alight with an orange glare. The close in Kay Street that Tommy had described to her was burning fiercely.

  ‘Oh no!’ Cheryl screamed. ‘Tommy, Tommy!’ A fireman was holding her back. ‘My Tommy’s in there.’

  ‘A young guy with red hair?’

  ‘Yes, Tommy,’ she screamed again. ‘Tommy!’

  ‘Calm down, hen. I don’t think he’s that bad. One thing’s certain, though. He’s quite a hero. He got the man next door out. They’ve both been taken to the Royal.’

  She raced around the streets looking for a taxi, arms flaying and shouting like a mad thing. Usually there was a long line of black cabs at the rank just up from the sports centre but not tonight. Eventually she saw one and stepped out on to the road to flag it down.

  ‘Have you got a death wish or something? Running out in front of me like that!’

  ‘The Royal Infirmary, please.’ She scrambled into the cab and banged the door shut. ‘As quick as you can.’

  ‘An emergency, is it?’

  ‘There’s been a fire in a house in Kay Street. My boyfriend was in it.’

>   ‘I heard the fire engines. But there’s always something going on. If it’s not fire engine sirens, it’s the police. I’ve got so I don’t pay any attention.’

  ‘For God’s sake, hurry up.’

  ‘Hang on. If I go any faster, you’ll end up in the hospital as a patient, not a visitor.’

  Every traffic light went against them. Cheryl was perched on the edge of her seat, ready to spring out. In comparison, the driver was lounging back, apparently in complete relaxation. She even thought she heard him whistling to himself. She could have throttled him.

  ‘There you are,’ he announced cheerfully but prevented her from racing off without paying him by locking the doors until she did.

  In the emergency department, she plied a nurse with desperate questions and when she eventually located Tommy, she had to control the urge to run to him and hug him, in case she caused him more pain than he must be suffering.

  Despite his bandaged hands and chest and the dressing on his face, he greeted her with his usual cheeky grin.

  ‘I’m OK, don’t worry. My good jacket’s ruined, though. I had to fling it over my head. I was wearing my new suit to impress you. Ah well, serves me right. Pride goes before a fall, they say.’

  She kissed him carefully on the cheek.

  ‘I hear you’ve been a real hero.’

  ‘Don’t be daft.’

  ‘What on earth happened?’

  It was then Cheryl saw the tragic expression in Tommy’s eyes, despite his continued efforts to keep his voice light.

  ‘Fancy, our nice wee house gone before we even had a chance to move in. Before you even set foot in it.’

  ‘But what happened?’

  ‘God knows. Victor, the chap next door, is still raging. He’s sure somebody had it in for him. I had a devil of a job trying to haul him out the window. He kept trying to grab piles of videotapes, can you beat it? Videotapes! He nearly got us both killed.’

  ‘I hope he wasn’t raging at you.’

  ‘Don’t be daft,’ Tommy repeated. ‘We were both in there when the place blew up. We’d been getting on fine. He’d asked me to step in for a minute until he found the key. We were chatting away like best mates and suddenly … No, he’s thanked me since. Even apologised that I should have been caught up in it. He said it was his problem. He has enemies and rivals, he said, and he’d find out which one of them torched the place. They’ll be helluva sorry. You should have seen his face when he said that. I’m telling you, Cheryl, I wouldn’t like to be in the shoes of whoever did that.’

  ‘So it was definitely arson?’

  ‘So it seems. The firemen and the police will be investigating the cause, I suppose, but Victor is already convinced it was somebody purposely intent on ruining him. That’s what he said. He even said thousands of pounds had gone up in flames. But I think he must have been raving. He was pretty badly burned and shocked. I hardly knew what I was doing or saying myself for a while there. I mean, when I think of our wee house, Cheryl …’

  ‘Och, never mind the house. There’ll be other houses. It wasn’t even as if we’d signed anything or paid any rent. The important thing is you’re all right, Tommy.’

  ‘Could I ask you a favour?’

  ‘Of course. Anything.’

  ‘Would you go and tell my mother? Tell her not to worry. I’m fine but they want to keep me in for a few days, just to make sure.’

  It was not a job Cheryl would have chosen. Nor was it something she looked forward to but she did not hesitate to agree and within half an hour, she was in another taxi and returning to Springburn.

  Immediately Mrs McKechnie set eyes on Cheryl, she panicked.

  ‘Where’s my Tommy? What happened? I knew you’d bring him no luck. What have you done …?’

  ‘I haven’t done anything,’ Cheryl interrupted. ‘And he’s fine. He’s in the Royal but …’

  ‘He’s in the Royal?’ Mrs McKechnie screeched. ‘He can’t be fine if he’s in the Royal.’

  Mr McKechnie appeared then. ‘What’s up? Come in, hen.’

  ‘Thanks but I’d better not.’

  ‘She’s got our Tommy into the Royal next.’

  Cheryl struggled to keep calm as Mrs McKechnie grabbed a coat from a hook in the lobby.

  ‘There was a fire at the flat.’

  ‘I knew it! I knew no good would come of him listening to her. She’s the one that talked him into that flat. Come on, you.’ Mrs McKechnie punched her husband’s arm. ‘Fling your coat on and we’ll run and get a taxi. Wait a minute till I get my purse.’

  ‘How is he?’ Mr McKechnie asked anxiously.

  ‘Fine, fine. He said you’ve not to worry. They’re just keeping him in for a few days so that they can change his bandages, he says. It’s his chest and his …’

  ‘Oh my God!’ Mrs McKechnie came rushing back. ‘His chest!’

  Cheryl was pushed aside with a parting shot from Mrs McKechnie, ‘I’ll never forgive you for this. He was fine till he got mixed up with you.’

  Cheryl was left standing on the landing as the couple hurried away but Mr McKechnie managed to call back, ‘Sorry, hen. We’ll be in touch as soon as we can.’

  Not if that old harridan can help it, Cheryl thought.

  Her feelings seesawed between anger and understanding. Tommy was Mrs McKechnie’s only son. It was understandable that she was panicking and saying rash things she probably didn’t mean. Although Cheryl couldn’t quite convince herself of that. Mrs McKechnie had been polite enough in the past and had made her a nice tea when Tommy took her home. Cheryl always suspected, however, that she didn’t meet with the older woman’s approval.

  Rain was making a fast-flowing river of the gutter when Cheryl emerged from the close. It smacked wetly over her face and made her shiver and turn up the collar of her jacket before making a run for the bus stop.

  At least she hadn’t to wait long for a bus. It was still bucketing down when the bus reached The Heights and she sprinted as fast as she could into the building.

  ‘What a night,’ the concierge greeted her, a cup of steaming tea clutched in one hand and his pipe in the other. ‘I was speaking to your mammy earlier and she said you and your boyfriend were going to be looking at a flat. Tommy, isn’t it? Nice fella.’

  Cheryl shivered.

  ‘You wouldn’t believe the night I’ve had, Monty.’

  ‘How? What happened, hen?’

  ‘The flat was on fire before I even got there. Both the downstairs flats were alight and it looked as if upstairs was too.’

  ‘Good God! Is Tommy all right?’

  ‘He’s not too bad. Bad enough, though. His chest and hands are all bandaged and he’s got a dressing on his face. But he hopes to be out of hospital in a few days. A fireman told me he saved a man’s life.’

  ‘Nice fella.’

  ‘I’d better go up and get these wet clothes off. I’m chittering.’

  ‘Aye, on you go, hen. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  There was another woman in the lift. A grossly overweight woman topped with a tangled mess of dark hair. The woman smiled at Cheryl.

  ‘Are you all right, dear? Can I help at all?’

  Cheryl stared at her as if she was mad. She’d never seen the woman before in her life.

  ‘No, thanks.’

  She turned away to press the button for floor number thirty.

  ‘Gosh, the very top,’ the woman said. ‘How does it feel to be so near heaven?’

  The woman was mad.

  Cheryl tried to concentrate on Tommy.

  ‘That’s a very thin jacket for such wet weather, dear.’ The woman was peering closely at Cheryl’s jacket. ‘It’s clinging to your bosom and showing your nipples. And very nice nipples they are, dear.’

  ‘Mind your own bloody business!’ Cheryl cried out. This was all she needed to finish off a hellish night. A bloody creep of a woman.

  ‘I was only giving you a compliment, dear. I’m only trying to be friendly. We are nei
ghbours, after all.’

  ‘Get lost. I’ve never clapped eyes on you before in my life.’

  ‘Oh, but I’ve seen you. I’m very observant. Oh, here’s my floor. I’ll see you again, dear.’

  Not if I see you first, Cheryl thought. Fancy, the creep must be in one of the safe houses. She’d got off at the twenty-third floor. She didn’t envy the other women in there now.

  She braced herself, as she stepped out of the lift, to face her mother’s questions. At least her father wouldn’t be back from the pub yet.

  She turned her key in the lock.

  ‘Before you say anything,’ Cheryl addressed her mother in the living room, ‘I’m dying for a cup of tea.’

  ‘I’ve just finished mine.’ Her mother’s face paled with anxiety. ‘But there’s plenty left in the pot. Sit down and I’ll fetch a clean cup.’

  The tea and the chance of relaxing back in the chair beside the fire soothed her a little and she was able to tell her mother what had happened.

  ‘Arson?’ Her mother was wide-eyed with horror.

  ‘Well, the man next door is convinced it was somebody out to get him.’

  Her mother wrung her hands in agitation.

  ‘I’m so glad it didn’t come to anything.’

  ‘What on earth do you mean?’ Cheryl asked.

  ‘Well, not getting the flat. Obviously it hasn’t been a nice place with decent neighbours. That man sounds like a criminal, a gangster or something. I’ve heard about awful gang fights and rivalries between gangs. The papers are full of stories. Only the other day …’

  ‘For pity’s sake, Mammy. Tommy could have been killed.’

  ‘Well, there you are. So could you. It doesn’t bear thinking about. You’re well out of there.’

  ‘Out of where? Sharing a flat with Tommy, you mean? Well, Mammy, the first chance I get, I’ll find another place and Tommy and me will move in together as we planned. And thanks for asking how he is,’ she added sarcastically. ‘Now, I’ve had one hell of a night so I’m off to bed.’