She was shaking with fear now. She sat on the top stair and, pulling her nightdress over her knees, she watched her mother as if she had never seen her before. And she hadn’t – not this mother, anyway. This was a woman Jessie had never met before. This was a woman Jessie was actually frightened of.
She heard glass shattering – the men had smashed through the back door. She saw her mother turn towards the locked and bolted kitchen door, the gun poised, and ready to discharge. This was a nightmare. None of this was happening.
‘I’m armed, and I will blow you away, you bastards. I’m warning you now. Go while you still have a chance.’
The sound of cars screeching to a halt on the gravel drive was loud, and she saw the relief on her mother’s face. Then she heard her dad’s voice.
Her mother opened the front door quickly, and her father was inside the house. She could hear the sounds of his men’s feet as they scrambled around. He was holding her mother to him tightly, kissing her hair and talking to her in a low voice, calming her down, making her feel safe.
Jessie watched silently, aware that none of them had even noticed her. She moved quickly and quietly, so she was out of view, tucked behind the banisters at the top of the stairs, and hidden by the darkness. She heard her father ask where she was, and her mother tell him she was locked in her bedroom. She saw him sigh with relief.
‘Who are these people, Michael? What are they after?’
She saw her dad take the shotgun from her mother’s arms carefully.
‘I’m so sorry, Josephine. This was an accident. It should never have happened, darling. You didn’t call the police, did you?’
Jessie saw her mother shake her head quickly. ‘’Course not. But I tell you now, another ten minutes and I would have. They were nearly inside our home! Our home, Michael! Jessie was terrified. I was fucking terrified.’
Michael was holding his wife tightly once more. Jessie could see the love they had between them, and she felt the tears come. It was so powerful to see them like that, holding each other so tightly, so attuned to each other’s needs, and looking so perfect together. Then she heard her father chuckle, and she knew that the danger was over, that everything was going to be OK.
‘You’re a fucking diamond, Josephine, and no mistake. Fucking shotgun primed and ready to use just like I taught you. I am so proud of you, darling. Defending your home, your baby. I always knew I had picked a good one, and this proves it!’
Jessie was astounded to hear her mum laugh shakily at her father’s words. ‘I was scared to death, Michael, I can tell you that much.’
‘I know that, darling. Now you go up and sort out our little Jessie. Tell her it was a robbery gone wrong, and it is all fine now. Bless her, she must have been terrified. I need to shoot out for a while, but I will leave some blokes here, so don’t worry. This is a one-off, darling. A fucking complete outrage, caused by two fucking imbeciles known as the Cornel brothers who, for some reason, got the breaks they needed by complete accident. It should never have got this far! After I have dealt with them – and, believe me, they will rue the day they travelled down south to front me up – I will then deal with the men in my employ who let this fucking abomination happen.’
Jessie ran back to her room quickly and, locking the door behind her, she went to her bedroom window, watching as the men her father employed forced the two culprits into the back of a Range Rover. She could hear the two men protesting, and see the way they were being punched and kicked violently. She was still shaking with fear as she watched her dad walk over to the Range Rover, and take a piece of lead piping from one of his men, before dragging one of the robbers out of the Range Rover, and on to the driveway. She watched the man’s head burst open as her father struck him over and over again with such force she could see the man’s skull and his blood spraying everywhere.
She could hear her father screaming in anger, ‘You dared, you dared to come to my home! My fucking home! I will kill you. I will fucking kill you stone dead!’
The other men just stood there, watching her father as if it was the most natural thing in the world. The violence was so matter of fact, and she didn’t know how she was supposed to deal with it. The whole driveway was lit up like Battersea Power Station, so she watched it all in glorious technicolour.
She was still vomiting into the expensive porcelain sink in her beautiful en-suite bathroom when her mother banged on her door, demanding entry.
Everything she had heard about her dad was true. She had finally seen it for herself. But it was her mother’s actions that had really shocked her. That had made her realise just how little she knew about the people she lived with. Suddenly, she felt she didn’t know anything any more.
Chapter Eighty