EPISODE ONE-HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN
The line crackled
when Mary answered the telephone and her own voice sounded peculiar, as if in
an echo chamber.
‘Hi, babe, I hope you bought yourself some sexy lingerie with that dosh.’
Mary shuddered. ‘Ronnie, I...’
‘You don’t have to thank me, sweetheart.
It’s thanks enough to know you’re grateful. Course, I admit I wouldn’t mind you showing
me a little gratitude, if you catch my drift.’
‘Let’s get one thing straight, Ronnie,’ Mary yelled, ‘you and I are no longer
husband and wife. You have no rights to
intrude into my life.’
‘I’m still the father of your children.’
‘You’re not interested in the children, Ronnie, and we both know it. It’s me you want, isn’t it?’
Ronnie laughed. ‘You said it. And I think I’ve just paid well over the
going rate for a night with you, sweetheart.’
‘I thought it was payment for the pictures you took without my permission. And also for all those past maintenance
payments you’d have had to pay if you hadn’t skipped the country.’
She heard a sound from the other end of the line, as if Ronnie was struggling
with something, or having difficulty breathing.
‘I look at those sexy pictures of you every night, sweetheart. You’ve still got great legs.’
Mary’s voice became hard and brittle.
‘You violated and abused my by taking those pictures. And
breaking and entering into this house.’
She heard his breath quickening. Then he
said: ‘Know what I’d like to do to you?’
Mary screamed down the telephone: ‘I’m
not interested, Ronnie. Can’t you get
that through your thick skull.’
Ronnie laughed again. ‘I’ll bet that
red-nosed clown don’t know how to service you, girl. It used to be great sex with us. The best.
You had to hand it to me, sweetheart.
I had staying power. Does the clown
have staying power? Does he satisfy my
baby like Ronnie used to?’
Mary could hardly speak through the great heaving sobs which almost bent her
double. ‘Ronnie...I’ve had enough.’ She felt herself gag. ‘That’s it.
I’m calling the police. Right now. I’m definitely calling the police this time.’
As she slammed down the telephone, the last thing she heard was Ronnie’s
laugh. She ran upstairs to the bathroom
and was violently sick in the basin.
*
Mandy arrived at the wine bar for her first evening twenty minutes early. Craig rushed forward and greeted her with a
kiss on the cheek.
‘None of that,’ joked Maggie, though there was an underlying seriousness in her tone. ‘This is a respectable joint.’
Mandy gave her a shy smile.
‘It’s fairly quiet at this time...’ began Craig.
‘So it’s a good time to get to know the ropes,’ Maggie added.
Mandy, noticing how Maggie ended Craig’s sentence, smile inwardly, wondering if
this was from sibling familiarity or because Maggie liked to boss her brother
around. Mandy decided she would have to
watch her step and not get involved in any family squabbles.
‘An hour ago we were busy,’ said Craig.
‘But now we usually get a bit of a breather till around eight.’
Maggie glanced at her watch. ‘Which
doesn’t give us much time to train Mandy.
I really think tomorrow morning would have been a better time for her to
start.’
Craig gave an embarrassed laugh. ‘My
sister’s forgotten you’ve had bar experience before.’
Maggie tutted impatiently. ‘No I
haven’t. But this is a wine bar, not a
pub. So Mandy needs to know something
about wine.’
‘Why?’ Craig smirked. ‘We never did.’
‘Craig,’ warned Maggie, her voice developing a hard edge, ‘she needs to know
the basic differences between the types of wine, for instance.’
She banged a bottle of rosé onto the bar.
‘Now you may think this looks like red wine Mandy, but...’
Mandy, her lips drawn tight, interrupted her.
‘I’m not that thick I can’t tell the difference between red wine and
rosé.’
Maggie reddened slightly. ‘I’m sorry,’
she began, becoming flustered and fidgeting with the wine bottle. ‘I didn’t mean to...’
‘Yeah,’ said Craig. ‘Don’t be so bloody
patronising.’
‘I said I was sorry. Why don’t you
introduce Mandy to the kitchen staff? And she can hand up her coat at the same
time.’
*
An hour after Mary had telephoned the police to complain about being stalked by
Ronnie, a female detective arrived.
‘Who is it?’ asked Simon, popping his head out of the living room door.
‘Nothing to worry about,’ Mary told him, stroking his hair and ushering him
back into the living room. ‘Go and watch
the rest of the film.’
She took the detective through to the kitchen.
‘I’ve just mad a cup of tea,’ she said.
‘Would you like a cup?’
The detective shook her head. ‘No thanks. It’s coming out of my ears.’
She sat at the kitchen table and opened her notebook. ‘Now then.
Why did your ex husband give you five hundred pounds?’
Mary was stunned. She took a while to
answer, while the detective watched her carefully. A sense of unreality intruded as she listened
to the whine and crash of a car chase coming from the front room.
The detective coughed. ‘Your ex husband
has been in touch with us. He told us
that you and he have an arrangement, and that you accepted the payment for
certain favours.’
‘That’s not true. He only sent me the
money after he...’ Mary stopped and
thought about this. How was the best way
to explain about the pictures?
‘Yes?’ prompted the detective.
Mary hesitated. ‘Doesn’t it strike you
as odd that Ronnie would contact you?
Like it’s all planned.’
The detective shook her head. ‘The
reason he gave us was that your current boyfriend is away from home – long term
– and you want your ex husband to provide for your family and get back together
again.’
Mary laughed bitterly. ‘Ronnie, you
bastard,’ she said. ‘You cunning, clever
bastard. I’ve got to hand it to you.’
IN EPISODE 114
Dave returns home and Ronnie exerts more pressure.