let the worst of it pass. The police will get a grip on things later on today or tomorrow, mark my words. Then, shit, I’ll come with you. I want to get home too.’
Jenny decided that he might have a point. On her own, today or tomorrow, out there on the road, anything could happen.
Oh bugger, Andy, what do I do? Our kids . . . are they really okay? Are they really safe at home?
Jenny would have happily sold her soul for five minutes on a mobile phone that worked right now. Just to know the kids were still okay, just to know that Andy was okay, and perhaps tell him that - you know what? - maybe she’d been a little hasty. Maybe she did still love him after all.
‘You go wandering out there today, and well . . . your kids’ll fare a lot better with a mum than without.’
Jenny looked uncertainly through the scuffed plastic.
‘Hang on for today, okay? I promise you, we’ll see police cars out there tomorrow.’
Jenny nodded. ‘Okay, just today then.’
They heard the door to the manager’s office open. Ruth and Stewart emerged and walked over towards Jenny and Paul.
‘They broke her nose and dislocated her shoulder, and her jaw’s swollen. I’m going to pop her shoulder back, but it’s going to really hurt her. I’ve given her a load of painkillers,’ she looked at her watch, ‘which should kick-in in about ten minutes.’
Mr Stewart muttered angrily. ‘Those vicious little bastards. What I wouldn’t give to catch one of them and give him a damn good hiding.’
‘Is there anything I can do to help?’ asked Jenny.
Ruth nodded. ‘Yeah, thanks. You may need to hold her for me. It won’t be nice.’
Jenny grimaced, ‘I can handle it.’
Ruth looked at Mr Stewart. ‘Is there any booze in this place?’
‘Uh . . . yes,’ he answered awkwardly, ‘there’s ahh . . . a bottle of brandy in my office.’
‘Good, I need a nip, you might want to have one too,’ she said to Jenny, ‘and I’m sure poor old Julia might want a slurp too.’
Mr Stewart nodded, a tad reluctantly. ‘Help yourselves.’
‘Ta. Come on.’
Jenny looked at Paul, ‘You going to give us a hand?’
But Paul was studying the glass front to the pavilion; his mind was elsewhere. ‘So, you think those lads will be coming back?’
The shift manager nodded and smiled grimly. ‘Oh yes. They said they’d be back sometime soon. And promised me that once they got in they would . . . what was the phrase? Oh yes, “happy slap me till I were a shit-stain on the floor”.’
‘Nice.’
‘Oh, I’m not worried. In fact I think I’d like it if they did come back. It’ll be fun to watch those violent little shits getting hungry outside our nice big window. They can watch me serve up burgers and fries to my staff.’
‘Yeah, that’ll be great fun, better than TV,’ he smiled uncertainly back at Mr Stewart.
CHAPTER 46
2 p.m. GMT Shepherd’s Bush, London
‘Come on, let’s see how things are,’ said Dan. ‘Maybe we’ll find some policemen out there. There’s gotta be someone cleaning things up, sorting things out.’
Leona said nothing.
‘Come on, just to get some fresh air.’
‘Not too far, okay? Just a quick look around.’
‘Sure,’ Dan nodded.
‘All right.’ She turned to Jacob. ‘You stay inside Jake, okay?’
‘Can’t I come?’
‘No. You stay inside and . . . I don’t know, play with your toys. We won’t be long.’
Leona decided Dan was right. They needed to find out, after yesterday’s sudden and violent release of chaos, if the worst was now over. And finding a policeman, or a fireman, in fact anybody in uniform, out on the street making a start on clearing things up, was the sort of reassurance she needed right now.
She headed down the hallway to the front door, Dan beside her, unbolted and opened it. She turned back round to Jacob.
‘You stay inside. Do you understand me?’
Jake nodded.
They stepped out on to the short path that led up Jill’s scruffy, rarely tended front garden to the gate, and the avenue beyond. It was sunny, pleasant, T-shirt ’n’ shorts warm.
‘It’s quiet,’ said Dan. They could hear some birds in a nearby tree, but there was no hum of traffic coming from Uxbridge Road; no car woofers pounding out a thudding bass line, or the distant warble of a police siren wafting over the rooftops.
Leona looked up and down. The kids last night had left something of a mess. Many of the parked cars, SUVs,