SIX - SWEET DECEMBER
“Matt? Yeah, me Jim – can you and Terry get round here tonight? Good, see you then.”
Terry and Matt came at nine.
After the small talk, “We’re in,” Jim told the other two men.
“That’s great Jim.”
“And what about you Deirdre?”
“Yes, he has talked me into it.”
“Are you still cleaning?”
“Yes.”
“Right, come out for a drink, my missus hasn’t told me, but she has had a thought about your job.”
The Flying Horse was a local, quiet but pokey pub. Tonight, it was a little boisterous with local louts going in for somebody’s 18th.
“Deirdre, my missus, Shelly.”
“Hello.”
“Hello Deirdre. The lads have spoken to you about their plan, have they? What do you think?”
“Well, not wild about it, but we have to.”
“Well, tonight, I got thinking, and Matt tells me that you work for Mrs Warburton?”
“Yes. But what has that got to do with anything?”
“Have you noticed how well she does for herself?”
“My goodness, yes. She is rich.”
“Actually, no. She married wealth. She married my brother just as he opened a string of shops. Ever heard of PoundBits?”
“Yes, I go there plenty of times.”
“Those are his, or were his. He built them up from nothing, made a nice fortune, employed loads of people. Then she married him. She started to have affairs, but our Jed put up with it. The more he did, the more affairs she had, and finally he started to divorce her. But someway, she got a really good lawyer, who got her half of his assets and money. She now has half ownership of the shops, and their profits. And then she started to cash in on the gold for cash adverts, offering money for gold.”
“Oh I didn’t realise. Oh I am so sorry.”
“Did you notice all the gold and silver in her home?”
“Well, yes.”
“Ever wondered where it came from?”
“Cashed in and bought them?”
“Oh no, she had the gold melted down and made into some of those things. 9 carat candlesticks.”
“I thought that they were just gold plated. That’s what she told me.”
“No. Those on her dining table? The real thing.”
“What’s happened to Jed?”
“He’s still working for his shops, he is trying to get another chain of similar shops open, so he just has command over them, but it will take ages.”
“What a nasty woman. And she had the audacity to bring my hours down, because of cost cutting.”
“You know what she told my sister-in-law? She thought you were noticing too many things, and is cutting you out. She thinks if she drops your hours, you will drop off, go off and find another job that takes up your time.”
“That’d be the day, in this day and age.”
“But what she wants to do is squeeze you out. She’s done it to a lot of other cleaners.”