Gold Digger Read Online Free PDF

Parties for children at his age, I ask you. As for young Thomas, well maybe he was, too.’
    ‘It was only his wife said so,’ Monica mumured.
    ‘That Christina? Thomas’s ex? Came in here, didn’t she? Snooty cow. Well, she would have known, wouldn’t she? Two daughters, she would have known. Come to think of it, she was the one who spread the rumours about old William too. Maybe she was wrong about that, but she must have been right about Thomas liking his daughters too much. I mean, look at it. He seems to like that Di Quigly and she’s no more than a kid. At his age … ’
    ‘She’s only the home help, Delia,’ Monica said.
    ‘My arse,’ Delia said.
    Monica smiled her sweetest smile and closed the lid on her,thanking the fates that Delia was halfway blind and would never notice when Jones came in. She would find something for Jones to mend in her house, Delia would, and he was too kind to refuse. He was due any minute for the monthly trim of his hair and he always came in when business was slack. Monica and he were old friends, with old histories. Delia dozed and Jones shuffled in, still shabbily manly after all these years, but never the same without his uniform. Monica smoothed her hair and checked in the mirror. All that stared back was a middle-aged face and a salon in desperate need of a makeover. It was all so tired but never mind because Jones had news, and news was gold.
    ‘So have you been up there, then? Have you? Have you seen her?’ she asked him, trying to sound as if she did not care either way.
    ‘Yup. Got a nice cup of tea in the best room, best china, too. Heart-to-heart talk with Mr P. No sign of her, at first, keeping out the way, but I tell you, the place was as clean as a pin, so I reckon someone’s been hard at work. Then Di came, and then she went out. She’s a bit wary of me.’
    ‘Why’s that, I wonder? You her mother’s cousin, and all. You’ve always looked out for her.’
    ‘Come off it, Monica. Her dead mother’s cousin and the one who arrested her? She don’t want to fucking know me now.’
    She combed his hair, looked at his pink face in the mirror. He was always halfway to boiling point, Jones; every second word a ‘fuck’ and he no longer noticed he did it.
    ‘Must have been one of the last jobs you did before you were sacked. Arrest little Di, you big man, you.’
    ‘Only sacked in a manner of speaking, Monica. Prema -turely retired.’
    ‘Bet you miss it still, don’t you? All that power.’
    ‘Like a hole in the fucking head, I do. What power? I got more time for fishing.’
    Delia turned under the dryer, fixed Jones with an empty glare and dozed on.
    ‘Fancy Thomas Porteous giving Di a job,’ Monica said. ‘After what she did.’
    She could feel his temper rising under her fingers. He was always so protective, and yet so critical at the same time.
    ‘I reckon he owes her something. Her mum used to clean up there. And what Di did was all she was forced to do. Her fucking dad may as well have sold her to a pimp. Fucking Quig.’
    She put down the comb and stuck her hands on her hips.
    ‘Di knifed him once, Jones. She knifed her own dad. I’m not having you talk about Quig like that.’
    ‘She was ten years old and he wouldn’t let them take her mother to hospital. Besides, it was him who taught her how to use the fucking knife.’
    ‘So
she
says,’ Monica scoffed. ‘There’s always another story.’
    ‘Like the one he told you?’ Jones shouted. ‘Di never told a tale against anybody, never did, won’t now. Couldn’t ever get herself off the hook. Fuckit, I’m out of here.’
    ‘Without your haircut? Come back!’
    The door clanged behind him and Monica cursed. Delia stirred. Then the door opened again. Jones was there with a scowl.
    ‘Fancy a drink later?’
    Monica nodded.
    She was a silly woman and a good one, even if she didn’t know it, Jones thought, and anyway not half as much a fool as himself. Shouldn’t have got riled so easy