A Lesser Evil - Lesley Pearse [68]
‘He’s not too bad now, thank you,’ Fifi replied politely, hoping that would be the end of it.
‘’E’s still up the’ ospital then?’
Fifi groaned inwardly. ‘Yes, but he’ll be out soon.’ She could see a glint in the woman’s eyes that looked all too much like malice and she wanted to get away from her as quickly as possible. Molly was wearing a sleeveless pink cotton dress which had food stains down the front and her fat bare arms were mottled like sausagemeat. As usual her hair was in curlers and she had rings of the previous night’s mascara around her eyes.
‘I’ ear you’re up the spout an’ all,’ Molly said. ‘When’s it due?’
Fifi couldn’t imagine how Molly had found out about her pregnancy. She had only told Frank and Yvette, and neither of them would gossip about it.
‘How did you come to hear that?’ she asked.
‘I gets to’ ear everything.’ Molly grinned, showing yellow teeth. ‘Me old man calls me the ears of the world. You ain’t showing yet though, you feeling all right?’
‘I’m fine, thank you,’ Fifi said starchily, hating the way the woman was looking her up and down. ‘The baby’s due in March. But I must go now, I’ve got to meet someone.’
‘You look after yerself,’ Molly said. ‘I ’ope yer ’ubby ain’t in the ’ospital long. You need’im around to watch out fer you.’
It was only after getting the paper and then going on to the greengrocer’s to buy some fruit that it suddenly occurred to Fifi that she’d seen no bruises on Molly. Surely anyone taking a beating like the one she’d heard would have some visible injuries?
The more she thought about it, the stranger it seemed, and Molly’s parting shot, ‘You need him around to watch out for you’, seemed to hold a warning too.
When Fifi got home she could see that the back door through to the garden in Frank’s kitchen was open, so she called out to him.
‘So it was you I heard earlier!’ he exclaimed when he saw her. He was in his gardening clothes, old khaki shorts, a vest and a battered panama hat. ‘I thought you’d gone home for the whole weekend.’
Fifi explained that she’d thought better of staying in Bristol. Frank invited her to come outside as he was doing some weeding.
‘I just saw Molly Muckle,’ Fifi said once she was sitting down. Frank’s garden was very pretty, with masses of flowers. He had said it had been his saviour since June died as he could forget himself while working on it.
She went on to tell him about her conversation with Molly, and how she had been surprised to see that the woman looked uninjured.
‘How could she be unhurt?’ she asked him. ‘We heard all the screaming and thumping, it was terrible. Either Alfie was hitting someone else, or it was all fake. And how does she know I’m having a baby? I haven’t told anyone but you and Yvette.’
‘Well, I did tell Stan on Friday night,’ he admitted. ‘But only because of what happened to Dan, and I know he wouldn’t have passed it on, he isn’t that sort. I couldn’t see Yvette speaking to Molly either, she steers well clear of her like I do. I suppose the police could have said something. They were over there just after you left for Bristol.’
‘About Dan?’ Fifi asked, immediately thinking that it was even odder Molly should have spoken to her if she had cause to blame her for something.
Frank nodded. ‘They came over here afterwards to talk to you and I said you’d gone home for the weekend.’
‘Did they tell you anything?’
‘Only that they had found a length of lead pipe in the alley where Dan was attacked. They think it was used to hit him.’
‘Any fingerprints?’
‘They didn’t say. But they did ask me if I could confirm Alfie was at home on Friday night. I had to say I thought he was. Maybe they told Alfie and Molly not to upset or harass you in any way as you were having a baby.’
Fifi raised her eyebrows. ‘As if that would deter them!’
They discussed it for a little while and Fifi said she wondered if the fight had been staged to give Alfie an alibi. After all, she hadn’t actually seen Alfie, only the outline of someone in the window who looked like