The Faithless - Martina Cole [28]
‘Look, Mum, if you don’t want them, I’ll take them back home with me . . .’
Mary was already holding her grandson in her arms, and her granddaughter was clasping her around her legs. She knew she was never going to let them leave now.
‘I never said that, Cynth, did I? But you seem like you don’t want to leave them.’
Cynthia sighed heavily, rolling her large blue eyes, and Mary Callahan saw just how lovely her elder daughter really was. And it hurt her, knowing that this beautiful girl had no real care for anyone in the world, least of all her two children. And they needed her. James Junior had developed a bit of a temper lately. Every time Cynthia left the kids behind he threw a tantrum.
‘Oh, Mum, I’m worried that’s all, I know they are safe with you.’
Mary didn’t react to her daughter’s words, but she could hear the drama in them. Instead she said to her granddaughter, ‘Come on, you, let’s go and see Granddad.’
Cynthia looked at her mother and said seriously, ‘Is that it, Mum? Are you not going to listen to what I’ve got to say?’
Mary looked into her daughter’s eyes and said quietly, but seriously, and everything she really thought about her elder daughter was there for anyone to hear, ‘No, Cynth, I’m not, and neither is your father or anyone else. The Old Bill has told Jonny about your little chat, and they have decided to overlook it. But I’m warning you now, girl, you’ve crossed the line. You want to be a grass you do it on your own because none of us are even remotely interested. In fact, if you were anyone else you’d be dead. So you listen carefully, and you listen good. You’ve gone too far this time. I wouldn’t start celebrating just yet, if you get my drift.’
Cynthia walked from the house without another word. For the first time ever, she didn’t know how to react. She knew she had been rumbled and she was frightened – she knew she had gone too far. Her hate had caused this situation. She had hoped Jonny and his cronies would all be taken away, so she never had to look at them again. She had tried to bring them all down, had tried to make them all see how vulnerable they really were. But instead she had found out how deeply entrenched they were with the police, and now she finally understood how dangerous a position she was in. She had wanted to take them out, her husband included – especially her husband if truth be told – but now she knew she had no chance of making that happen. They were involved in some deep shit, and she knew exactly how deep that shit was. So she’d told the Filth all she knew – for a price, of course. Instead they had served her up, the Filth had served her up like a fucking sacrifice. She would never get over the fact that the people who should have been hanging on her every word, who had been given the information they’d need to bring down some serious crooks, had turned it all around and had left her hanging in the wind, at the mercy of the very people she had tried to bring down.
She was now an acknowledged grass, a woman who would never be trusted again. Someone who would be a dead body if her sister had not been Jonny Parker’s other half. She knew that she was tainted, knew that she would have to really prove herself at some point and, worst of all, she knew that she had brought this on herself. She was a jealous, vindictive bitch. She knew that better than anyone. But everyone around her knew that too. And that really irked her.
She felt sick with apprehension and she realised that feeling would never leave her.
Chapter Twenty-One
‘You’ve asked for it, Cynth, all of it. You would have taken us all out – even me. Or should that be especially me?’
Jimmy Tailor had long ceased to be in awe of his lovely wife’s tongue. Since she had brought the Filth breathing down all their necks, he had been decidedly rude where she was concerned, and with what he thought was good cause.
Cynthia put on her best, please-why-don’t-you-believe-me