The comeback, p.21
The Comeback,
p.21
‘Yes, but they didn’t know the real Rosemary. There must be lots of people who knew her from way back.’
‘Well,’ she said, ‘maybe you can tell me who these people are. I haven’t heard of one person tonight who claims to have known her from her early days.’
‘No, maybe not – but they’ll be out there. What about all the musicians she worked with? There’s bound to be someone who—’
‘They’re dead,’ she broke in. ‘The band-leaders, the pianists, the drummers – most of them are dead now. And she had no family. As for the rest, her fans – they didn’t know her. And how long has it been since any of them actually saw her? I mean, what do they have? A few photographs of her from when she was young, maybe. Some grainy old pictures taken of her on the bandstand, all of forty-odd years ago, when she was pretty and glamorous in her little party dress. That’ll be the image they have. They know that people change a lot as they grow older. And after all those years away from the public eye, and people hearing about all the facial reconstruction in the hospital – how could anybody know for sure what she’d look like? Well, look at me. If you’d had done to your face what I’ve had done to mine you wouldn’t look quite like you either.’
He nodded. ‘It must have been terrible – what you went through.’
‘You’d better believe it.’ She gave a little smile. ‘And shall I tell you something? It was worth it. To be on that stage tonight, and hear that audience clapping and cheering – it made it all worthwhile. Every bit.’ Adjusting the stole about her throat and shoulders, she gave a nod. ‘And I’ll tell you something else – I earned it. It was mine, mine by rights.’
He shook his head, looking at her in bewilderment.
‘She took my life away from me,’ she said. ‘Rosemary. She stole everything. My career, everything that was important to me. And all this – this success tonight – it was no more than what she owed me.’
‘Carrie—’
‘I mean it,’ she said. ‘And you know what? This is only the beginning. I’m only just starting. I’ve got years to make up.’
‘Carrie,’ he said, ‘you’ll never get away with it. You must give it up. You’ve got to.’
‘After tonight?’ She shook her head. ‘No way. This is all I ever wanted.’
‘Carrie—’
‘Stop calling me that!’ she hissed. ‘I’m Rosemary. Carrie died in the hospital this afternoon.’ Leaning in a little towards him, she added: ‘And just get something clear. I didn’t do anything to Rosemary. I haven’t taken anything away from her. I’ve given to her. Given. Without me, she’d be remembered as some pathetic has-been.’ She gave a nod. ‘Well, you saw for yourself, didn’t you? And that must have been some shock, huh? Seeing me up there on stage tonight?’
‘I already knew,’ he said. ‘I knew it wasn’t Rosemary I was going to see.’
‘You knew? Before you came to the theatre?’
‘Yes. I went to the hospital this afternoon.’
‘You went to the hospital? In Ashton Green?’
‘Yes. I thought I was going to see you. And I saw Rosemary lying there. That was some shock, let me tell you.’ He paused. ‘And I was there when she died.’
She stared at him. ‘You were?’
‘Yes. I thought she was regaining consciousness. She opened her eyes and looked right at me, and began to speak.’
‘What did she say?’
‘Nothing that made any sense. Just words. Nothing I could understand. And then – then she died. Right in front of me.’ He sighed. ‘Poor Rosemary.’
‘Yes, poor Rosemary.’ Carrie’s tone was cold. ‘Anyway,’ she said, ‘that’s all over with.’ She frowned. ‘How did you get in here, anyway?’
‘Ray Kesterson brought me along. I know him from way back.’
‘Okay.’ She nodded. ‘And did you come to congratulate me?’
‘I told you – you were amazing. It wasn’t only that, though. It’s Kurt.’
‘Kurt?’
‘I can’t find him,’ he said. ‘He seems to have just vanished. He told me he was flying out to London, and was—’
‘I don’t know anything about him,’ she broke in. Then, her eyes narrowing: ‘What have you come here for? You didn’t come here to talk about Kurt.’ Her nostrils flared. ‘Have you come here to destroy me?’
‘What?’ Douglas’s eyes widened in amazement. ‘Carrie, what are you saying?’ With his words he took a step towards her. At once she stepped back, putting up a shielding hand.
‘Keep away from me, you bastard.’
Shocked, he came to a halt, and they stood facing one another while the noise of the traffic drifted up from the square below. He stared at her, now seeing only naked hatred in her eyes. He should never have come, he knew that now. He should never have faced her with his knowledge of the truth. He must go. He would go. Go and leave her to her life.
Lowering his eyes from her piercing glare, he turned and started towards the terrace door.
‘Where are you going?’ she said sharply.
When he made no answer, her voice came again: ‘I said, where are you going?’
Following her words there came the sound of her heels on the terrace floor. He got to the door and reached out for the handle, but she was too quick. In the space of a breath she was there before him, her back against the door, barring the way.
‘Have you told anybody else about this – about me?’ she said.
‘What? No. No, of course I haven’t.’
‘Yet.’
She took a step towards him, and he drew back, retreating from the fury in her eyes. ‘Carrie,’ he said, ‘take it easy. Calm down.’ He raised a hand before him, but she lashed out, striking it aside. ‘Calm down?’ she said. ‘After all these years I’ve found myself a life – a real life, and you tell me to calm down while you wreck it all! Fuck you, you son of a bitch. That is not gonna happen.’
‘Carrie,’ he said, ‘listen to me. Listen—’
‘No, you listen,’ she hissed. ‘You’re not going to spoil this. You’re not going to humiliate me in front of the whole world.’ Raising her fist, she struck him a violent blow on the chest, sending him staggering. In the next second she was upon him, her hands thrusting him backwards, and all at once he could feel the parapet rail pressing into his back. ‘No!’ he cried out in sudden fear. ‘No! Carrie, no!’
But nothing can stop her now. With both hands she pushes, heaving with all her strength. In her passion she is strong, and in a moment he is half over, the yawning acres of the city below him. ‘Christ, no!’ he screams. Desperately, he snatches at the rail. Her face is right there, close, ugly in her rage and determination. He can feel her breath, burning hot on his cheek. ‘Go down, you bastard!’ she spits. ‘I won’t let you destroy me.’ He grips the rail tighter with one hand, while his other hand reaches out. Flailing, it touches the fabric of her stole, her lucky wrap. He snatches at it. As the silk yanks at her neck she goes to scream, but the sound is cut off by the tightening noose. Her hands go clawing at her throat, but there is no release, the silk is round her neck like a band of steel. For a few moments she and Douglas form a grotesque tableau as they struggle there above the city’s noise and lights. It cannot endure. Another moment and Douglas loses his grip on the rail. Carrie, held fast by the rope of silk about her neck, follows him over the parapet, plunging into the empty cold. In the final throes of their desperation they reach out. Finding only one another, they embrace, clinging fast as they fall, screaming, down into the night.
THE END
About the Author
Bernard Taylor is an award-winning author of several suspense and horror novels, among them The Godsend and Mother’s Boys, both of which were adapted for the big screen. He is also the author of non-fiction true crime accounts, including There Must Be Evil, about the notorious murderer Elizabeth Berry, and Perfect Murder, for which he won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award (with Stephen Knight). He has also written for stage, television and radio.
Also by Bernard Taylor
NOVELS
The Godsend
Sweetheart, Sweetheart
The Reaping
The Moorstone Sickness
The Kindness of Strangers
Madeleine
Evil Intent
Mother’s Boys
Charmed Life
Since Ruby
NON-FICTION
There Must be Evil: The Life and Murderous Career of Elizabeth Berry
Perfect Murder: A Century of Unsolved Homicides
(with Stephen Knight) – Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger Award
Cruelly Murdered: Constance Kent and the Killing at Road Hill House
Murder At the Priory: the Mysterious Poisoning of Charles Bravo
(with Kate Clarke)
Also published by Duckworth
There Must Be Evil
BERNARD TAYLOR
In 1887, Elizabeth Berry, an attractive young nurse from the grim Oldham workhouse, found notoriety throughout the nation after the death of her daughter, perceived by many to be the cruellest of murders – performed with an ice-cold callousness that was almost beyond belief. There were many who protested her innocence in the affair, but there were also suspicions surrounding another death related to the nurse: that of her mother. Suddenly Elizabeth Berry’s tragic story began to appear darker still. Was she in fact a cold-blooded serial killer?
In his new book, the celebrated and award-winning crime author Bernard Taylor investigates the disturbing life of Elizabeth Berry endured during an era of grinding poverty, when Victorian England was obsessed with the exploits of murderers and forensic science was in its infancy. He takes a fresh look at the demise of Berry’s husband and two other young children, deaths that for a long time were thought to be of natural causes.
For the first time we discover the true story behind this infamous case of the first woman to be hanged at Liverpool’s Walton Prison, and one of the Victorian period’s most harrowing set of homicides.
Paperback, ISBN 9780715650516
£9.99
Perfect Murder
BERNARD TAYLOR AND STEPHEN KNIGHT
Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction
From the mysterious death of William Saunders, whose beaten body was discovered in a pond near Penge cricket club, south-east London in 1877, to the spooky demise of Charles Walton whose death is believed to have been linked to witchcraft, unsolved murders litter British history. Authors Bernard Taylor and Stephen Knight, experts in the unravelling of unsolved crimes, re-investigate seven classic cases from the last hundred years.
Creating in lively detail the background to each crime and the course of the police investigation, they reveal clues, interpret evidence and study the characters and motives of the alleged killers. In many instances the authors have unearthed previously undiscovered facts – none more startling than in the case of the lurid Brighton trunk murder of 1934, to which Tony Mancini, initially cleared of the time, confesses his guilt to Stephen Knight.
Perfect Murder is an eye-opening and gripping read, serving as a stark reminder that justice does not always prevail…
Paperback, ISBN 9780715650738
£9.99
Black Fridays
MICHAEL SEARS
Jason Stafford is a former Wall Street hotshot who made some bad moves, paid the price with two years in prison, and is now trying to put his life back together. He’s unemployable, until an investment firm asks him to look into possible problems left by a junior trader who died recently in an accident. What he discovers is big – there are problems, all right, the kind that get you killed.
But it’s not his only concern. Stafford has another quest as well: to reclaim his five-year-old son from his unstable ex-wife, and then learn just what it means to make a life with him. The things Stafford discovers about himself in the process are every bit as gripping as his investigation, and when the two threads of his life come together the results are unforgettable.
Black Fridays marks the arrival of a remarkable new writer.
‘An absorbing first novel, a financial thriller with an unusually emotional heart … an exciting yet often moving tale’
The Times
‘Black Fridays has it all: superb writing, a riveting plot, and a hero I’m still thinking about days afterward. A must-read!’
Tess Gerritsen
‘An exciting and fascinating tale of big money and even bigger crime. More than a gripping procedural, it’s a moving, deeply human story’
Joseph Finder
Paperback, ISBN 9780715651155
£7.99
Layer Cake
J. J. CONNOLLY
The basis for the 2004 film starring Daniel Craig, Michael Gambon and Sienna Miller
Layer Cake (the phrase is a metaphor for the many murky levels of the criminal underworld) is set in modern-day London and features a smooth-talking, sophisticated but anonymous drug dealer: ‘If you knew my name,’ he says, ‘you’d be as clever as me.’
His plan is to very, very quietly bankroll enough discreetly laundered cash to retire young and extremely comfortably. Operating under the polished veneer of a legitimate businessman, his mantra is to keep a low profile and run a tight ship until it’s time to bail. And when the old-school crime boss, Jimmy Price, asks him to find his pal’s wayward daughter, our narrator spots his opportunity to make a final very lucrative score and ease his path out when.
He agrees to the seemingly innocuous gig – but a dark, twisted, thriller of a story ensues, which takes us from the glitz of the London club scene to the grubbiest reaches of the capital’s criminal underworld.
‘A storming piece of work … has a grasp of street argot unparalleled since Kinky Friedman first sashayed out of his from door and nailed a checker straight out of the bat’
D. J. Taylor
‘Connolly’s style is fast and funny and just frightening enough to make you sit up all night finishing the book’
Independent on Sunday
‘One novel in and Connolly has hit the jackpot, jump-started British crime fiction into the present … Like good drug fiction you’re given glamour and squalor, a voyeuristic thrill, and the bill’
Uncut
Paperback, ISBN 9780715641118
£7.99
Viva La Madness
J. J. CONNOLLY
The authentic voice of British gangster fiction, J.J. Connolly, is back with his trademark razor-sharp dialogue and quick-fire violence. From the London underworld he portrayed so brilliantly in Layer Cake, the plot of Viva la Madness goes international, with transatlantic drug deals, money laundering and high-tech electronic fraud, described with uncanny believability.
The anonymous hero of Layer Cake is pulled back into the drug game before he can enjoy a sunny retirement. From living the high life in the Caribbean to a dangerous existence in London, with Venezuelan drug cartels toting machine-guns in Mayfair, the story moves from violence and farce to criminal insanity.
‘Masterful plotting – double-crosses abound – a cracking pace and some truly excellent set pieces including a chase through the London underground all lead up to a wham-bam ending. Fast, furious, funny and highly recommended for fans of Layer Cake and new readers alike’
Guardian
‘The novel has its predecessor’s driving energy … and the protagonist’s disparate colleagues are terrific characters’
Sunday Times
‘Connolly’s style is fast and funny and just frightening enough to make you sit up all night’
Independent on Sunday
Paperback, ISBN 9780715643655
£7.99
Copyright
First published in the UK in 2016 by
Duckworth Overlook
This eBook published 2016
LONDON
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© 2016 by Bernard Taylor
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
© song lyrics: “It Never Entered My Mind” by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers
Warner/Chappell Music Ltd (PRS) and Warner/Chappell Music Publishing Ltd (PRS)
© song lyrics: “Tess’s Torch Song” by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler
© 1943 Warner Bros. Inc. and Redwood Music Ltd All Rights Reserved
© song lyrics: “Mad About the Boy” by Noël Coward
Copyright © NC Aventales AG 1932
By permission Alan Brodie Representation Ltd
www.alanbrodie.com
All other song lyrics are author’s own.
The right of Bernard Taylor to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
9780715651186
Bernard Taylor, The Comeback
