CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

      The following morning, Queenie and Vivian arrived at the hospital at eight a.m. and soon realized that even though she had promised to go home and get some sleep, Colleen had stayed at Roy’s beside again all night.

      Queenie sat down next to her future daughter-in-law and squeezed her hand. ‘Look, sweetheart, I know how much you love Roy, we all do, but sitting here nigh-on twenty-four hours a day isn’t the answer. You need to eat, kip, and start looking after yourself. You heard what the doctor said yesterday: they have no idea when Roy will wake up, so you must get a grip, darling. Every human being needs food and sleep. We can’t survive without it.’

      ‘Queenie’s right, Colleen. You look ill, and your Roy ain’t gonna want to wake up to a skeleton, is he?’ Vivian added.

      ‘You OK, love?’ Queenie asked, as Colleen stood up and stared blankly at her and Vivian.

      ‘No, I feel a bit …’ Colleen mumbled, and then collapsed before finishing her sentence.

      Unaware that the police were currently at the hospital talking to his mother, Michael was on his way there. Since Roy had been shot, apart from the first night, Michael had barely seen or spoken to his eldest brother. Unlike the rest of the family who had visited Roy on a daily basis, Vinny had stayed well away, his excuse being that it broke his heart to see his brother in a coma, and it was pointless being there until he actually woke up.

      ‘Michael, why do they call this area the Waste?’ Lenny asked.

      Michael couldn’t help but smile. Ever since the lad had started work at the club, he seemed to ask questions all day long. Last week, Michael had spent the whole day trying to explain why elephants had trunks to his young cousin.

      ‘Michael, why are you living at Auntie Queenie’s now? Why ain’t you living with Vinny no more? Have yous two fallen out?’ Lenny asked, without even waiting for the first answer.

      Putting a protective arm around Lenny, Michael led him safely across the road. ‘No, ’course me and Vin haven’t fallen out. He’s been staying with his Turkish mate in Camden, and I’ve been stopping at your Auntie Queenie’s house because Nancy has now moved in with me.’

      ‘Do you love Nancy? Are you going to marry her?’ Lenny asked bluntly.

      ‘Yes, I love Nancy, Champ, and one day if she is lucky, I might just marry her,’ Michael said, with a wink.

      Lenny chuckled, but Michael missed his inquisitive cousin’s next question, as he had just spotted his father standing by a wall, waving frantically at him.

      Over in Dagenham, Karen had spent the past hour deciding what she was going to take to her lovely new home. Vinny had sworn her to secrecy about her new gaff. He had insisted he wanted her to surprise her mum and friends by organizing a little flat-warming for them.

      Desperate to tell somebody about her stroke of good luck all the same, Karen debated whether to inform her next-door neighbour, Debbie. Guilt stopped her from doing so, as she knew her mother would never forgive her if it came out that she wasn’t the first to hear the good news. Karen couldn’t afford an indoor phone, so she picked up her purse and headed off towards the nearest phonebox.

      Not wanting Lenny to spot his father, Michael had taken him inside the hospital, then pretended he had left his wallet at home. ‘Go and sit with your mum and Auntie Queenie. I won’t be long, Champ,’ he said.

      Dashing back down the corridors, Michael ran out of the entrance and around the side of the building, where by a flick of the head he had gestured to his father to wait.

      ‘Hello, son. I’m so glad you came back. I didn’t know whether you were telling me to sod off, or meaning for me to wait here,’ Albie said.

      ‘You’ve got some brass neck coming here, Dad, after what you did. How could you pretend you were dying?’

      ‘I did it because I knew it was the only way I would get to see or talk to yous. I’m really sorry. It was a stupid thing to do.’

      ‘You can fucking say that again! Now, what do you want?’ Michael asked.

      ‘Well, obviously I want to know how Roy is? I’ve been ringing the hospital, but they won’t tell me anything. Worried sick, I’ve been.’

      ‘Roy’s in a coma. He’s very lucky to even be alive, so the doc reckoned.’

      ‘Do the doctors think he will make a full recovery?’

      Michael shrugged. ‘Nobody knows until he actually wakes up. There was bleeding to the brain which might result in permanent damage. We just have to keep our fingers crossed. The quack we saw yesterday said that most patients in comas wake up within a month.’

      Albie’s eyes welled up. ‘Why couldn’t it be Vinny lying in a coma instead of poor Roy? There’s something I need to tell you, Michael, and I want you to listen carefully to me.’

      ‘What?’

      When Albie began to explain about Vinny’s evil plan to split up Roy and Colleen, Michael’s face went white and he leant his back against the brick wall for support. Part of him wanted to believe that his father was spinning another of his yarns, but in his heart Michael knew that Albie wasn’t lying. The pieces of the jigsaw seemed to fit too well. ‘So, what did you actually say to Colleen’s parents?’

      ‘Well, I started to tell them what Vinny had asked me to, but then I backtracked. Roy and Colleen look so happy, I just couldn’t go through with it, boy. Then Vinny came and threatened me, said if I didn’t do what he’d asked, he was going to jump up on stage and tell everyone I had lied about my cancer. Vinny ain’t right in the head, Michael. He has real problems and I’m worried he will start on you next. He won’t like you being with that Nancy. He doesn’t want to lose you and Roy, therefore will stop at nothing to get his own way. He wants to be in total control.’

      Michael put his head in his hands and sank to his haunches.

      Albie crouched down next to Michael, took a small bottle of brandy out of his raincoat pocket and swallowed a large gulp. He then handed the bottle to his son, who did the same. ‘You ain’t got to tell your mum, boy. I’ve written everything down in a letter for her to save you the task.’

      ‘Where is it?’

      Albie handed him two envelopes. ‘The bigger envelope is the letter I wrote for you. Now I’ve told you all this, I think Vinny will try and finish me off. If I disappear or die, hand your one over to the police.