It took her less than an hour to pack her stuff in the car and it was still only late afternoon when we arrived at the cottage, she was enchanted with it and Mickey took her all around the huge, rolling gardens.
“You’ve got a river Dave” she said excitedly when, after about half an hour they reappeared hand in hand,
“Yes I’d noticed” I laughed dryly, “It’s called the Thames”
“She caught the note of sarcasm and laughed, “It’s a really beautiful house and the setting’s perfect, it must be worth a fortune”
“It probably is” chipped in Mickey, “But the one thing Dave and I agree on is that we’ll never sell it”
“That’s not all you agree on though is it?”
“Eh?”
She giggled and looked me straight in the eye as she said, “I though you agreed that the road to Ashbourne can be very interesting sometimes?”
Mickey was grinning mischievously at me,
“All I said was that it’s a nice ride out there, a bit sore on the bum though!”
And they went off laughing into the cottage leaving me with a very red face!
“We’re going in the river Dave” Mickey shouted over her shoulder, “You coming?”
“Nearly” I thought as I watched two very sexy bottoms wiggling provocatively on their way up the steps.
I practically threw Angie’s stuff into the house and passed the girls coming downstairs, hand in hand again and dressed, (well nearly dressed) in identical tiny, white bikinis,
“Come on, hurry up” laughed Angie, “Or we’ll start without you!”
I laughed and then glanced back and nearly had a heart attack when I saw Angie’s hand inside the back of my sister’s tiny bikini bottoms.
The telephone rang just as I was about to go upstairs and a voice said, “Put Angela on now”
“Sorry?” I knew who it was, but I didn’t know how he knew our number and his attitude was pissing me off more than just a bit!
“Look” he said, “I’m in a hurry so get the slag on the phone now!”
“I think you’re in dire need of an attitude adjustment my friend” I said it quietly and put the receiver back down, it rang again almost immediately but I ignored it and went out to fetch Angie.
They were swimming lazily by the bank and both knew something was wrong by the expression on my face,
“That slime ball is on the phone for you Angie, when you’ve done with him, I’d like a word please”
“Ok” she looked very, very worried.
“Dave, I gave him this number a long time ago, I’m sorry darling but we were ok then, I had no reason to think that things would turn out like this”
“Oh shit, well never mind, if he keeps ringing, we’ll change it or just block his number”
Angie came back then and told us she was leaving,
“I’m sorry to mess you about”
She was crying so, without thinking I grabbed her by the arm and practically threw her onto the garden seat,
“What’s wrong Angela?”
Mickey was beside us both, her good eye filled with tears,
“I’ll tell him Angie,”
“Tell me what?”
Mickey looked at me, her face was a picture of abject misery and a tear trickled down her cheek, Angie was crying too on the seat and suddenly I felt like a bully, a specimen of sub-humanity that I’ve detested all my life and still do!
Reaching out to Angie, I took her in my arms and held her close,
“Don’t cry Angie” I soothed her, “It’s not allowed in this house, there are very severe punishments for those who break that rule”
“We owe him a lot of money Dave”
Angie broke in and grabbed Mickey’s hand, “I owe him money Mickey, you don’t owe him anything”
“Whoa” I shouted, “Come into the cottage, I think a drink’s in order, you can tell me there who owes what to who”
Angie started it after her second brandy,
“A friend of his has a half share in an illegal gaming club in Leeds, he hired me and Mickey to entertain the punters one night, paid us well too, didn’t he Mickey?”
My sister nodded, “Very well” and she took up the story,
“After we’d done our little act, we went back down and played the wheel, we lost of course in fact we lost all we’d earned that night, we thought nothing of it when he offered to loan us two hundred pounds each”
“An act of kindness” said Angie bitterly, “Try to realise Dave, we were both on a high from each other and we were snorting coke too”
“Go on”
“We signed a scrap of paper just as a kind of IOU, you know?”
“An act of kindness and you signed an IOU?”
“Dave I know it was silly, stupid even, but at the time he was my boyfriend, he said it was so he wouldn’t wake up in the morning and wonder where his money had gone!
“And you believed him?”
“Yes, I believed him”
“Ok sweetheart carry on”
“I didn’t see him again until three days later, Angie and I had both been to the bank and drawn out our two hundred pounds, when I gave it to him, he laughed and said that it was a little bit more than that!”
“How much more?”
“It was a hundred per cent interest per week”
“WHAT?”
That set them both off crying again and I cursed my temper,
“Look I’m sorry, but just cut to the quick, how much do you owe this piece of shit?”
“Four thousand ponds” said Angie and Mickey weighed in with, “Six thousand eight hundred, I was in hospital”
The last bit was by way of an explanation, I looked evilly at her and she shrank back.
“Pour us all another drink Mickey while I sort this fucking creature out”
“You can’t Dave” she blurted out, “He’s evil”
“Just fucking watch me” I said and turning to Angie, I said softly, “Forget about moving out, that’s not the answer, you’re here and this is your home, right?”
“Right” she said and I could have wept for the look of sheer relief on her face.
“Hya Jeff good to see you mate”
“Same here, but it sounded serious, tell me all about it”
Jeff was my best mate at school and had joined the Metropolitan police as a cadet on leaving school, he was now one of the youngest detective sergeants on the force and destined for even better things.
He listened patiently and interrupted only twice to ask a question, we told him everything except the relationship I had with my sister, I thought that may have been pushing things a little bit!
“Just give me a minute please Dave” he said after I’d finished and he walked out into the garden talking on his mobile phone.
“What will he do Dave?” asked Mickey, but I shook my head,
“I don’t know darling” I replied honestly, “But as you know, Jeff and I are old friends, if there’s anything at all that can be done, he’ll find it”
“It ain’t good Dave” he said when he returned and Angie’s face fell, “The interest rate is legal, but the harassment isn’t, so we’re going to try and have a look at our friend Peter, apparently my colleagues up in Leeds are quite interested in him and a few of his associates”
“So what do we do now?”
“Nothing mate, just wait until you hear from me, oh and change your phone number immediately”
Handing me a card with his mobile number, he told me to call him if there were any developments and left with a “See you later mate”
“What did you mean Angie, when you said that Mickey didn’t owe him anything?”
Angie looked at Mickey and my sister nodded,
“He said that if we were nice to two friends of his, he’d wipe the debt out, I turned him down”
“But I didn’t” Mickey said defiantly, “I went to a hotel with both of them”
“Oh Mickey”
She jumped to her feet, her eye blazing with anger at me,
“Look Dave, I was in debt and I was worried, scared even, I thought I loved him but I’d just found out that he was a fucking animal, I thought if I did it, he’d wipe out both our debts, I was wrong, but I did it for Angie, so don’t fucking moralise with me please”
The tears came suddenly and she stood there, hands covering her face, sobbing with misery, “Please don’t moralise David”
We both jumped up and held her tightly,
“Mickey” I said soothingly, “Mickey, Mickey, Mickey, I’m not moralising honestly darling, how the hell could I do that for God’s sake, when I’m sleeping with my sister?”
She smiled and returned our hugs, squeezing us both tightly, then her face lit up when I told her I could get them out of trouble immediately,
“Don’t forget Mickey, I’ve got control over Mum and Dad’s bank account now, it was all made over to me while you were in hospital, there’s far more in there than you need, but I’ll only pay him if there’s no other way”
I poured us all another brandy whilst I showed her the account books, there were two, a current account with fourteen thousand in it and a savings account with twenty eight thousand in it!
“So you can both stop worrying and wait to see what Jeff comes up with”
“I can’t allow you to do that for me Dave, it’s my debt and somehow I’ll pay it”
“Angie for Christ’s sake stop bloody arguing will you? You can pay me back if you like, but just for the time being, let’s forget all about that piece of rubbish up there and I fancy getting pissed, anyone with me?”
“Oh God yes, let’s get plastered” Angie said and wrapped her arms round my neck, “Mickey told me how nice you are, but I’m finding out for myself, thanks”
And her tongue sneaked between my teeth in what she called a “Thank you kiss!”
Once again the pub was quite empty and old Fred was overjoyed to see “his little girl” again, he fussed over her and Angie like a bloody old hen,
“Get the drinks Dave while I sit your sister down in the garden”
“On the house are they Fred?”
“No they’re bloody not, put the money in the till you cheeky little bugger”
I did but he never checked to see, Fred trusted everyone, me and Mickey more than most I think.
When I joined them with our drinks in the garden, he was regaling them with stories of his war service in Korea,
“Millions of the little yellow buggers there was” he expounded, “You killed one and six more popped up to take their pla- – – – ”
“Somebody at the bar Fred” I told him,
“Well can’t you bloody serve them then?”
“I don’t know them Fred, tourists”
“Bloody townies coming down here disturbing a man’s memories” he muttered and ambled off to the bar!
“That was Fred” I said to Angie who was giggling behind her hands,
“Aw he’s lovely Dave”
“Yeah but give him half a chance and he’d still try to get into your knickers”
She crossed her legs unhurriedly, a la Sharon Stone,
“He wouldn’t have to try very hard Dave, would he?”
My eyes popped at the sight of a clean shaven haven at the juncture of her thighs!
-To be continued…-