Faith - Lesley Pearse [224]
Jackie didn’t even get up. ‘If this is a plea for more dosh, save your breath,’ she said, hardly bothering to take her head out of the cupboard. ‘In a matter of months I’ll be moving on myself, and I need what little cash I’ve got.’
‘If you’re moving on then you’ll be selling this place, that’s surely more than enough for anyone,’ Belle said. She didn’t want to admit she knew about the document giving it to Laura.
‘I won’t be selling it, I’m going to give it away to Laura.’ Jackie stood up, then and smirked. ‘I was going to do it at Christmas, but for various reasons I thought I’d wait a while longer. Now is the right time. I always did say I was either going to spend what I’d got or give it away. This is the start of it.’
‘You can’t give a property like this to that slag,’ Belle said indignantly.
‘Don’t you dare call her a slag.’ Jackie took a threatening step towards her. ‘She is my best friend and she’s never asked a thing of me, unlike you who’s always whining for more. Charles killed her son, or have you forgotten that? It nearly destroyed her, and me. I can’t give her Barney back, but I sure as hell can give her this place if I want to.’
‘You’d help her, but not me? How can you do that to your own sister?’ Belle grabbed Jackie’s arm pleadingly. ‘I know you hate Charles, I’ll leave him if that’s what you want, he’s the one that caused all the problems, the one that spends the money, not me.’
‘You’d sell your own mother for a few quid,’ Jackie snarled at her. ‘That day when I was in hospital and I said I knew it was Charles driving, you pleaded with me to keep quiet about it. You insisted you loved him, that you’d fall apart without him. Later you both promised that you would turn over a new leaf, work hard, stop drinking and acting like you were millionaires. And I stupidly believed you would. What a fool I was to believe either of you could feel remorse!’
‘It was all him, not me,’ Belle said wildly.
‘I betrayed my best friend by not seeing her son’s killer brought to justice,’ Jackie roared at her. ‘And you, Belle, are so bloody wrapped up in yourself that you can’t see what that does to me. Get out now, out of my life for good. I shall instruct my solicitor today to draw up papers to get you evicted from my property. And I’m withdrawing the offer of two thousand. You’ll get nothing.’
She caught hold of Belle and pushed her to the front door. ‘And furthermore, if you try to hang on here I’ll contact the police and tell them Charles was the hit-and-run driver,’ she yelled after her.
Belle got back in the car and drove out of the yard and down the drive, but before she got to the road, she stopped, got out of the car and walked back. She and Jackie had had rows just as bitter as this one, and Jackie was always sorry a few minutes later.
She fully expected to look through the kitchen window and see her sobbing with her head on the table.
But she wasn’t in the kitchen, though Belle could hear her voice. Realizing her sister was sitting on the stairs to use the phone, Belle tiptoed up to the partly open front door and listened.
‘Just come over, Laura,’ Jackie was pleading, her voice breaking as she cried. ‘I can’t explain on the phone, it’s too difficult. I need you.’
Belle left then. She ran back to the car and drove back home.
The moment she got indoors she poured herself a drink to steady her nerves. But they wouldn’t steady. She knew what Laura would do when Jackie blurted out about who had been driving the car that killed Barney. She wouldn’t wait for the police, she’d be round here in minutes to tear the place apart, and Belle with it. Logic wouldn’t come into it, that it was Charles who did the killing, not his wife. All Laura would see was that she twisted Jackie’s arm to keep quiet.
She had another drink, then another, and all the time she was watching the clock and imagining Laura driving out towards Fife. But as the drink