Ask for Mercy by James Benmore

Author:James Benmore [Benmore, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781399956000
Publisher: Top Sawyer
Published: 2023-10-19T00:00:00+00:00

‘Sarah Fields-Fox was your classic double-barrelled, upper class It girl,’ her mother began once they’d moved to a discreet waxing room in the back of the salon. ‘Tatler famous. I’d seen her in magazines socialising with minor royals and the children of rock stars. The magazines had described her as an aristocratic wild child and that was before she’d started dating a gangster several classes below her.’

Mercy was leaning back on another chair, her eyes firmly closed as her mother softened her follicles with damp cotton wool. There was no radio playing in this private room, just her mother’s voice and a faint scent from the reed diffusers.

‘Basically, she was the sort of woman who people enjoy making up stories about,’ Julie continued, ‘regardless of whether there was substance to them. She and I got on well,’ she claimed with a hint of a boast, ‘we used to swap clothes because we had similar figures. To this day, I have this beautiful blue dress she wore to his fortieth birthday hanging in my closet. Obviously I haven’t worn it since but it feels wrong to give it away. Victor was besotted with her at that party. But, well, Vic was still Vic. He could be controlling.’

Mercy thought controlling was a bit of an understatement considering he’d paid M&T to run constant surveillance on her while out of the country.

‘The real problem though,’ Julie explained, ‘the bigger problem, was his brother Lawrence.’

Something got sucked out of the air as Julie uttered that name. Her eyes still closed, Mercy could sense her mother bracing herself, reluctant to cross this line in the narrative.

‘Lol was difficult. He had a bad reputation around women.’

Another pause.

‘So yeah, back in the day, that was a thing we talked about, we wives. Don’t get left alone with Lawrence Neale, we’d say. It didn’t matter that we were married to his mates, in fact that probably turned the dirty fucker on. He was always touching us up and there were stories of him... well, forcing himself on girls in his clubs. When we were all teenagers, Jill Lamoreaux’s sister Debbie claimed he pulled her into a gentlemen’s toilet and raped her. I’m sorry to say that nobody, including Jill, believed her at the time, which on hindsight is a bit shaming. Keep your face still, Mercy, or I’ll mess the shape up.

‘He cornered me once,’ Julie continued, ‘during a party at their house. Maggie was heavy with her Nick at the time and I was less obviously pregnant with you. We were having a nice barbecue and Lol was turning the meat while Ray, Victor, and the boys were all kicking a ball at the end of their garden. I asked Maggie which loo I could use and Lol answered for her.

‘“Use the upstairs bog, girl,” he called over. “The flush is fucked down here.”

‘So up I went, relishing the chance to explore their big house and found the lavatory. Afterwards, when I unlocked it, there he was, occupying the doorway like a leering gorilla, blocking my exit.

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