When Sorry Is Not Enough, page 9
Luke’s car had just drawn up in front of Sally’s guest house when Nancy jumped out and raced up the stairs. After ringing the bell, she hopped from one foot to the other waiting for Sally to open the door to her. To her disgust when her summons was answered it was Maggie and not Sally who ushered her in.
‘Where’s Sally?’ Nancy demanded rudely, pushing past Maggie.
‘As she is just about to leave for the Four Marys she’s getting her coat on,’ retorted Maggie.
Advancing into the hall, Nancy called out, ‘Sally, it’s me. I just have to speak to you.’
When Sally emerged from her downstairs bedroom she already had her coat on and her handbag was slung over her left wrist. ‘Oh, Nancy,’ she gasped. ‘How bad this has been of me. I knew you wanted to talk and I just kept putting it off. Tell you what, let’s you and I jump in the back of Luke’s car and we can natter all the way along to the Shore.’
Nancy looked a bit reticent and eyed Luke suspiciously.
‘Oh, you don’t need to worry about my brother here, he’s the soul of discretion. Believe me, he is so involved in his own worries just now he won’t hear a word of what we discuss.’
Nancy was still looking somewhat nervous but Sally grabbed her by the right elbow and steered her out of the door.
The car had just left Seaview Terrace when Sally turned to face Nancy. ‘Now what is it that’s worrying you?’
Nancy bowed her head and sniffed. ‘Sally, I’ve met someone,’ she blurted.
‘Good. Nobody should spend all their time on their own if there’s an alternative.’
Hesitating and blowing out through her mouth, Nancy began to resemble a fish out of water.
Sally started to laugh. ‘Nancy,’ she chuckled, ‘with the life you’ve led surely you can tell me what’s bugging you.’
‘It’s. It’s. It’s … Oh, Sally, it’s just that he wants to marry me.’
‘Well that’s not a problem,’ Sally chortled.
‘But it is. You see,’ Nancy continued in a whisper, ‘I don’t know where he got the idea but he thinks I don’t want to say yes because I’m afraid.’
‘Of what exactly?’
‘Sleeping with a man,’ was Nancy’s quick retort.
Luke who had not wished to eavesdrop was so astounded by Nancy’s revelation that he lost control of the car. Quickly it swerved and crossed over the road and just managed to miss colliding with the Seafield Sewage Works wall.
‘For goodness sake,’ Sally roared. ‘Have a care, Luke! I mean if you want to kill us would it not be better to steer on to the other side of the road and land us in the crematorium?’
Without uttering a word, Luke straightened the car up, crossed back over the road and brought it to an abrupt halt just outside the cemetery gates.
Sally let out a long sigh and waited until everybody had recovered from the fright before she spoke. ‘Now, Luke, just get out and have a wee walk. See on the corner,’ she said, pointing back to the road leading up to the Eastern General Hospital, ‘there’s a wee café. So away and get yourself a tea or coffee … or anything you like but get lost for fifteen minutes.’
Luke had just left the car when Sally turned again to face Nancy. ‘Now what exactly are you trying to tell me? What did you tell this man?’
‘I didn’t say anything about my past to him. That pig of a Detective Inspector, Drew Washington, egged Benny on when he knew that he fancied me. Told him I was a virgin and at one time I’d taken holy orders.’
‘He what?’
‘Aye, laughed he did and spluttered, “Oh aye, she likes none of this and none of that.” ’
Sally was angry. She looked at Nancy and she could see she was distressed. Taking Nancy’s hand in hers she quietly whispered, ‘Nancy, how do you feel about this man?’
Tears were now cascading down Nancy’s cheeks. ‘Sure, since he came into the pub a year ago,’ she sobbed through her tears, ‘life has just been so wonderful. Sally, he’s such a nice guy – a real gent. Even brings me roses and pats my cheeks.’
Sally allowed time to pass while Nancy composed herself. ‘He really wants to marry me, Sally. Set me up in a wee house. Just him and I together but …’
Glancing through the back window of the car Sally could see Luke was returning. ‘That blasted café just had to be shut, didn’t it?’ she mumbled as she indicated to Luke to take another stroll. Facing Nancy again she softly said, ‘You have to tell him, Nancy. If you don’t, all your life you will be wondering who is going to tell him that you … made your living … to hell … tell him the truth of how your bastard of a father put you and your sister out to sell … yourselves to keep him …’ Sally gulped and gasped before uttering, ‘in booze and fags.’
Nancy shook her head, mopped her brow and continued to weep. Luke returning to the car broke the unbearable silence between the two women. ‘Look,’ he began gently, ‘it’s time we were on our way to open up the Four Marys. You two can continue your conversation there while I serve the drouthie punters.’
It was as if Sally and Nancy were unaware that Luke had got back in the car. ‘Sally,’ Nancy began, ‘how could any decent man like Benny want to set up home with an old bun like me?’
‘You’re belittling yourself. You are not an old bun,’ Sally protested vehemently. ‘Putting your past behind you is what you have to do. The only way of doing that is to tell this Benny what you were but add what you are now.’
The car had drawn up in front of the pub. All alighted and Nancy’s cynical laughter echoed down the Shore.
‘You can cackle all you like Nancy but I haven’t put in all the work I have into making you respectable to let you throw it away. There has to be a way for it to work out for you and I promise you I will find that way.’
‘Good, Sally,’ remarked Luke, ‘but in the meantime do you think you could get back to making a living?’
It was nearly midnight when Sally got home and she was surprised that Luke’s car was parked on the front street. Earlier in the evening he had elected to drive Nancy from the Four Marys back up to the Royal Stuart. From there, he said, he was going up town to attend to some of his own business.
He did go up town but he decided to park the car in Seaview Terrace first then jump on a Princes-Street-bound bus.
Striding over the east end of Princes Street towards Wellington Statue, Luke was surprised when he heard someone call his name. Glancing towards the Register Clock House he was pleased to acknowledge his half-brother, John Thomson.
Both men slapped each other’s backs. ‘Good to see you, mate,’ Luke exclaimed. ‘Meant to get down to visit you but it has been like a merry-go-round since I set foot in Sally’s door.’
‘Aye, and since the powers that be decided that I was too friendly with the pub staff in Leith …’
Luke laughed before butting in with, ‘Did you no tell them Sally was your sister?’
John shrugged. ‘Think they knew that and that was another reason for putting me up to Box Seventeen in Rose Street to finish my thirty.’
‘Rose Street. So what are you doing here?’
‘Just strolled along because the young guys here at Box Twelve just need a wee bit of support when they have a capture.’ John shook his head. ‘You see, Luke, the recruits the day are mair academic than we were. Believe me, they nearly shit themselves when they have to lock up an angry man.’
Luke laughed. ‘So they wouldn’t make the grade in Leith?’
‘Nae chance. But come on, I have to get back to my beat so why don’t you walk with me?’
They were just passing Marks & Spencer’s when Luke blurted, ‘Sorry about your old man.’
‘Your old man too if we believe his story that your mother and him had an affair that lasted a lifetime.’
Luke squinted over to John. He would never be able to explain the fact that from his first day as a raw recruit in Leith, he had taken to John – the two of them had bonded. It was uncanny the way they always looked out for each other. It was as if they had known before Sally, Josie and himself that they were related by blood. That day in the Four Marys when old Jock had confessed he had fathered them all, Luke, although stunned, felt a warm glow grow inside him – he was delighted that John who was eighteen years his senior and whom he had always looked on as a much older brother really was related to him by blood. Right then Luke took a vow to get more involved in John’s life. Give him what he longed for: a younger brother.
Both men had now stopped and were facing each other. ‘Makes no difference now,’ Luke said with a sigh. ‘We’re all his bairns. He was a good cop. Bloody rotten father but then you cannae win them all. And at least the girls, Sally and Josie, were able to say they at last knew who their father was.’
‘Talking of the girls,’ John blurted. ‘What’s the story with Josie?’
‘Have you come across her up this way?’
‘Aye. Somebody told me she wasn’t in the Four Marys now and know what, I was surprised when I saw her dishing out ice cream in …’ Before John could go on, his radio sounded and he answered it. ‘Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Going back there right now but would it not make mair sense to put someone with experience with thae young lads?’ He signalled with a hunch of his shoulders to Luke before saying into his mouthpiece, ‘Aye, well we aw ken our inspector couldnae organise a piss up in a brewery.’ John switched off his radio, grimaced, then immediately began to run back along Princes Street while he hollered back to Luke, ‘Sorry, mate. Seems Box Twelve is under siege and the only cavalry man in the area is me.’ Luckily Luke was not quite out of earshot when John shouted, ‘Catch up with you tomorrow. Have something to tell you about Josie that I think you should do something about.’
* * *
Luke watched John’s retreating figure until it was lost in the crowds meandering in Princes Street. It had been his intention to do a pub crawl in the hope he would bump into one or two of the mates he had socialised with before he had left for Hong Kong.
He had just entered Robertsons Bar, a popular pub on Rose Street that he had enjoyed frequenting, when John’s parting words rang in his ears again.
The barmaid, Lorna, who remembered Luke, smiled. ‘Well are you not a sight for sore eyes?’ she enthused. ‘And what’s your pleasure tonight?’
Luke didn’t respond. He had not heard a word Lorna had uttered. The only sound he was aware of was the echo of John saying, ‘Have to tell you something about Josie that I think you should do something about.’ What on earth was John going on about, he wondered, before about-turning and exiting from the bar.
Once outside he knew he had to revisit Alfredo’s restaurant. He just had to confront Josie again. Okay, she had said she had made her decision and now she wanted to be left in peace to enjoy her new life and bond with her new family. Again Luke’s mind was racing ahead.
Before he had left for Hong Kong he had been a good, very good, cop – a community man who had seen the best in everybody and tried to help out wherever he could. Three years experience in the CID in Hong Kong had changed his outlook. No longer could he just accept anything at face value. He was always looking for other reasons, other solutions, wondering if people’s relationships were really as secure and as wonderful as was being presented to the outside world. Yes, he still loved his fellow man and wanted to see the best in him but he was now aware, especially since what had happened to Irish, those things and relationships were not always what they appeared to be.
Accepting that he had now become a detective, he knew there would be no rest for him tonight if he did not confront Josie again.
The lights in Alfredo’s restaurant were lit, and it was evident from the condensation on the windows that the restaurant was busy and this might not be the best time to confront Josie. Nonetheless, Luke, who was used to having the right to barge in anywhere, decided to enter quietly.
Glancing around the salon Luke could only see three male waiters. The older man that he assumed was Victor the owner, the man Josie had told him she was about to marry, and two young student types who were possibly working to finance themselves through university.
After handing one of the young lads an order chitty to take to the kitchen, the older man turned his attention to Luke. ‘Table for one, sir?’ he asked with a half bow. Luke nodded. The waiter sniffed and looked about the room. ‘As you see, we are very busy so there is just that little table in the corner. Bit of a squeeze but I will shift you if a better table becomes available.’
Luke nodded his acceptance. ‘Yes, you are busy tonight. Just you and the boys on duty?’
Victor nodded. ‘Yes, the women do lunches.’ He sniggered, ‘Well they usually do but Anna has taken herself over to Italy so I’ve had to get in a temp.’
‘A temp?’ Luke queried.
‘Aye, an older woman,’ Victor replied, his pencil poised to take Luke’s order. ‘Bit past it the old dear is but … she was needing a job …’ Victor gestured towards the tables that were all occupied, ‘and the lunchtime trade is a quick turn about … business lunches so nobody is expecting any refinement.’ He sniffed before adding, ‘Just as well ’cause they sure wouldn’t be getting any.’
An hour had gone by before Luke left the restaurant. He was even more confused than ever about Josie. Hailing a passing taxi he asked the driver to take him to Josie’s house at Ryehill.
The evening trade in the Royal Stuart had been brisk at the start of the evening but as the night wore on it got slower and slower. The result was that when ten o’clock came, Nancy had most of the tidying up done.
She had just safely installed the day’s takings into her handbag and was donning her coat when a timid knock sounded on the front door.
Lifting her faithful rammy deterrent, an old hockey stick, she went over and cautiously opened the door and her spirits rose when she was confronted with Benny.
‘Oh,’ she sighed, ‘I’m pleased to see you. Come away in. But what’s bringing you here at this time of night?’
Benny removed his flat tweed cap from his head and began twisting it in his hand before stuttering, ‘Cannae bear the waiting. Sure by now you must,’ he stopped briefly before adding tersely, ‘well you must know whether or not … that is … or at least considered if you want to … marry me.’
Nancy thought back to what Sally’s advice had been. Indicating to Benny to take a seat she then sat down opposite him. He was a simple man, not in intelligence, just in his outlook in life. She knew he just wanted to have a home with a wife in it and for the two of them just to be content and happy. She admitted that she too longed for someone to care for her. For someone to want to share his life with her and she could think of no one better than Benny. Drumming her fingers on the table she felt like screaming, Benny, Benny why could you not have come into my life when I was a teenager? From posing that question, albeit to herself, she went on to imagine what life could have been like for her. Pictures of Benny and herself getting married, having a nice wee house and a couple of children shouting, ‘Mammy, mammy, daddy, daddy look at me.’ Imagining the children brought a lump to her throat, causing her to swallow hard. In her past she had always vowed children were not for her. After the childhood she had had she would never bring children into this world. Sniffing, she tried to compose herself but memories of children she could have had but had decided to … was it because of what she had done to those unborn children that she had been plagued with bad luck? Hunching her shoulders she then had to admit that this was probably not the case because how then would Sally have come into her life? Sally had been the catalyst in her life. Nancy happily conceded that from the day they met life had just got better and better for herself.
All the foregoing was true but what was she going to do about Benny? Sally’s advice, when she had followed it to the letter, had always proved to be sound. So should she try sticking her courage to the sticking place and tell Benny the truth about herself? She wanted to. She needed to but she was afraid that he would, in disgust and loathing, run out of her life.
Benny took her hand in his and brought an end to her speculations. ‘Nancy,’ he wheedled, ‘how about we go up to Michael’s Fish Shop and I’ll treat us to a fish supper, just the one between the two of us. And we could then go on to your house and have a midnight feast?’
Nancy felt warm tears spring to her eyes. This was what she meant when she said he saw life as being just so simple. To him a fish supper being shared between the two of them was his idea of heaven. Okay, they would have the fish and chips and after they’d washed them down with his must-have beverage at room temperature, some Vimto, she would tell him the truth.
The cab driver who dropped Luke off at Josie’s door had enquired if he should wait but Luke had waved him away. He was convinced that his meeting with Josie would last a while and he could always phone for a taxi when they were finished.
Pulling the bell, he stood further back in the driveway so that she could see through her security peephole that it was him. Seeing the light in the hall go on brought a smile to his face. The door was then opened up not by Josie but by a scantily clad young lassie, a teenager Luke guessed, who was asking what he wanted.
‘I’m Josie’s brother,’ he managed to stammer. ‘Is she at home?’
The lassie shook her head. ‘I’m just her lodger … well me and Susie are.’
‘What?’ exclaimed Luke.
The young lassie looked perplexed and quickly added, ‘All I know is she works up the town in a restaurant and she doesn’t get in until … I don’t know … wait ’til I ask Susie. Here Susie,’ the young woman hollered back into the house, ‘what time does Josie usually get in?’
