BooksBarbecue
Back The Jump
Chapters (52)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. BOOK ONE
  6. Chapter One
  7. Chapter Two
  8. Chapter Three
  9. Chapter Four
  10. Chapter Five
  11. Chapter Six
  12. Chapter Seven
  13. Chapter Eight
  14. Chapter Nine
  15. Chapter Ten
  16. Chapter Eleven
  17. Chapter Twelve
  18. Chapter Thirteen
  19. Chapter Fourteen
  20. Chapter Fifteen
  21. Chapter Sixteen
  22. Chapter Seventeen
  23. Chapter Eighteen
  24. Chapter Nineteen
  25. Chapter Twenty
  26. Chapter Twenty-One
  27. Chapter Twenty-Two
  28. Chapter Twenty-Three
  29. Chapter Twenty-Four
  30. Chapter Twenty-Five
  31. BOOK TWO
  32. Chapter Twenty-Six
  33. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  34. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  35. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  36. Chapter Thirty
  37. Chapter Thirty-One
  38. Chapter Thirty-Two
  39. Chapter Thirty-Three
  40. Chapter Thirty-Four
  41. Chapter Thirty-Five
  42. Chapter Thirty-Six
  43. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  44. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  45. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  46. BOOK THREE
  47. Chapter Forty
  48. Chapter Forty-One
  49. Chapter Forty-Two
  50. Chapter Forty-Three
  51. Chapter Forty-Four
  52. Epilogue

Carol sniggered hysterically. ‘You fools. We phoned the Old Bill - we thought this was a body. They’ll be here any second now!’

Donna started to laugh again, too. She was in stitches at the sight of the two men’s consternation.

Paddy and Davey were stunned.

‘You’re joking!’

Donna stopped laughing long enough to say, ‘Afraid not. I wish I was, Paddy. I wish to Christ I was.’

Paddy and Davey walked slowly away from the two women as if they were mad, then hearing the sounds of police sirens, ran from the lock-up leaving the two women there alone.

Donna and Carol heard the men’s car pull away. Looking at one another, they stepped closer together and, placing dirty hands around each other’s waists, hugged each other as if they were dancing.

Chapter Forty-Four

Chapter Forty-Four

Dessie Brooks was bored; he was bored with looking at the women, and he was bored with sitting still. Every few minutes he fingered the small mobile phone in his pocket.

A woman walked past him, and he smiled at her. She ignored him as Dessie had expected, but it didn’t deter him from trying it on with every woman who took his fancy. That covered over eighty percent of the female population. Dessie smiled at them, from fifteen to fifty-five. He was a great believer in safety in numbers and the old adage: You don’t look at the mantelpiece when you’re stoking the fire. Dessie liked them married if possible, then you always had an out. Married women were less likely to complain if he was a bit rough with them, because they shouldn’t have been out with him in the first place.

Dessie liked this job, but it was boring. Even watching women became boring after a while.

Five minutes later Dessie struck pure gold. A woman of indeterminate age, wearing a black leather coat and high heels, sat beside him and actually smiled at him.

Their conversation took the usual course.

‘Never seen you here before.’

Dessie hadn’t sat near the ferry terminal before, not out of choice anyway, and never in the open. He usually travelled in the back of a meat wagon to prisons.

‘I’m here visiting the prison actually. A friend is in Albany.’

Dessie smiled widely. The friend was in fact her old man and they both knew it.

‘Too bad, love. What’s he in for?’

The woman pursed her lips and looked into Dessie’s face before answering, ‘He’s doing seven years for malicious wounding. But it wasn’t his fault.’

Dessie nodded.

‘The ferry should be in soon.’

As she spoke Dessie saw the sweatbox come into the ferry terminal and, turning to the woman, he said heartily, ‘Fancy a drink in the pub? The ferry won’t go for a while yet.’

The woman nodded. ‘My name’s Cathy, what’s yours?’