Almost a Hero

by Ken McCoy

Genres: Sagas

Synopsis

Billie Challinor's mother dies during an air raid, but the child grows up confident that in her jazz musician father Chas she has the best dad in the world. Seeking refuge from the London Blitz by moving to Leeds, kindly landlady Liz Morris befriends them: the scarred, wisecracking man, who isn't afraid to overstep the mark if the cause is a good one, and his clever and resilient little girl. Billie needs every ounce of courage she possesses when her father joins the Army just before the D-Day landings and fails to return.

Though Liz is happy to raise the child as her own, Billie is claimed by her Uncle Cedric, an outwardly respectable and prosperous solicitor. But he is also a ruthless criminal mastermind who will stop at nothing to secure the fortune to which Billie is sole heiress. Confident of his superior strength and cunning, he foolishly overlooks the fact that she is her father's daughter: resourceful, quick-witted, and ready to seize any chance she can to escape his deadly clutches and return to her beloved Aunt Liz.

Release date: May 1, 2014

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Print pages: 400

Sample

There were over a hundred patrons in the club that Friday night, including Annie Elliker who was celebrating her twentieth birthday with her fiancé, Ray Dunford. Annie would have much preferred to be celebrating it with the young man playing the clarinet, but he probably didn’t know she existed. Even so she knew she was engaged to the wrong person; she could not possibly spend the next fifty years with Ray. What she didn’t know was how to get out of it. Her friend Mabel had told her she was lucky to have such a man… but what did Mabel know?

Annie came from an impoverished family – not financially impoverished, just lacking in morality, honesty, compassion, love, generosity, decency, and all of the qualities necessary for us not to be a burden on society.

They were richer by far than any of the people who paid them protection money, or bought their contraband cigarettes and alcohol. They were richer than those who were addicted to the opiates and cocaine they sold in the belief that this was a business with a big future that the police hadn’t really got a grip on as yet. They were richer than the women they pimped to pay for the drugs the Ellikers had got them addicted to in the first place, before they sank into prostitution. The Elliker brothers ran a large gang of thieves, extortionists, money launderers, hitmen and men of extreme violence. There was only one streak of decency attached the family and her name was Annie.

She had endured a loveless upbringing, the youngest of four children, after her mother died while Annie was still an infant. When she asked her father if her mother had loved her, he told her that her mother had been a useless bitch and never to mention her again. So Annie didn’t ask him again. Her three brothers were all adults by the time she arrived, and treated her as an irritant rather than a sibling. Since she was one year old she’d been brought up by nannies. She was educated at an all-girls school, so her experience of boys was strictly limited until she started university at eighteen. By this time she was aware of the nefarious activities of her family and relieved not to have been asked to join them in some capacity. Her father thought that giving girls a university education was a waste of time, but in the case of his own daughter, who was more than happy to live in university digs, it got her away from home for three years, which suited him.

This paucity of male company in her life to date was why she’d at first welcomed the attentions of Ray Dunford, who came from a world a million miles away from her father and brothers. Ray had a proper job in the City; he made a lot of money and owned a Jaguar sports car, thus proving that you didn’t need to be a crook to be wealthy. He was a decent man, six years older than Annie, and he probably loved her as much as he could love any woman. The trouble was that he was the only boyfriend she had ever known, and she had more than a sneaking suspicion she could do better. She was pretty – the mirror told her that – and she was bright and could be funny given the right company. Sadly, Ray was not the right company. He could provide her with a fine home and fine-looking children no doubt, for he was a handsome man – rugged, some might say – but he was as boring as hell, had cigar breath, and no sense of humour. His only redeeming feature was that he’d introduced Annie to Dixieland jazz – the only true love they shared.

As a last resort she’d been prepared to relinquish her virginity to him, to see if had any talent in that direction. Had he been an exciting lover she might have overlooked his other deficiencies but, in the event, although she was inexperienced in such matters herself, she sincerely hoped that there’d be more exciting lovers for her in the future than Raymond Desmond Dunford. On the one and only occasion she’d shared his bed he climaxed within two minutes, and was snoring two minutes after that, leaving her virgo intacta and wondering what all the fuss was about.

Annie had arrived at a crucial point in her life where she was going to dictate its course. Her one and only shot at living wasn’t going to be ruined by a bunch of crooks who didn’t care a hoot for her, or a man who was incapable of providing the deep love she would never know if she stayed with him.

So she was waiting for the opportune moment to dump him.

The trouble was, unlike her father and brothers, Annie wasn’t a cruel person and didn’t want to hurt him. Ray wasn’t cruel or nasty to her. He was a generous man who treated her with respect and affection… but she didn’t love him. She knew there must be more to love than the feelings she had for Ray. Had he gone with another woman she might have been disappointed but not heartbroken; she might even have been relieved. Ray wasn’t capable of breaking her heart.

There was nothing else for it, he had to go, but tonight might not be the ideal time. For her birthday he’d given her a beautiful gold necklace with a diamond solitaire pendant. Annie absolutely loved it and wished he hadn’t given her it, she’d only have to give it back. Still, it’d do no harm to wear it until the right moment came along.

The room was smoky, the atmosphere relaxed and the audience in good humour because they all had one thing in common – Dixieland jazz – and outside of New Orleans there was no better place than this to hear it. In fact there were few bands inside New Orleans as good as the Tubby Blake Band. As in most Dixieland bands the lead instrument was the trumpet. In this band it was played by Blind Oscar McGee, born and bred in New Orleans and brought over to London by Tubby. But as good as Oscar was, his playing was often outshone by the clarinet of Chas Challinor who, besides Tubby, was the only other native Briton in the band.

The laughter and murmur of conversation fell silent and the audience looked expectantly at the stage as Chas got to his feet ready for his solo. The piano player Duke Wellington played him in.

Chas’s solo performance of ‘Body and Soul’ brought an extra thirty people a night into the Denmark Street club. This added around twenty pounds to the night’s takings and an extra two pounds a night to Chas’s wage packet, although the other band members didn’t know this. Tubby Blake had told them all not to discuss money with each other, and warned Chas, ‘You’re on the higher rate, son, and I don’t want the lower-rate guys making a fuss.’

Musicians are rarely short of self-belief. Every man who played in the band believed himself to be singled out by virtue of his superior talent. In fact, Chas, Blind Oscar, Duke Wellington and banjo player Monty Finniston were the star performers in the eight-piece band, but the ensemble playing of the others ably supported them and helped make them the best jazz band in London.

Annie’s eyes stayed glued to Chas throughout every note of his clarinet solo. Ray had sneaked a bunch of flowers to the management, to be handed to her by the band. As Chas finished the number the flowers were produced and given to him to present to her. Apart from being a talented young musician he was also the glamour boy of the band. At five feet seven he wasn’t a big man, but what he lacked in stature he made up for in good looks and personality. Ray was beginning to think he’d made a mistake in having the flowers presented by the charismatic clarinet player.

‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ began Chas, ‘tonight is the twentieth birthday of a beautiful young lady in our audience and these flowers are a gift from Ray, her lucky fiancé. So could Annie join me on-stage now while we all sing the birthday song?’

Blushing with embarrassment, she made her way to the stage as the audience sang a raucous ‘Happy Birthday To You’, accompanied by the band. Chas had seen Annie in the audience many times before and, had she not always been accompanied by her boyfriend, would have tried his luck with her. As she arrived on-stage beside him he presented her with the flowers and said, ‘Happy birthday, Annie! These are from Ray, who says to tell you he loves you very much. Is that him over there?’

‘Yes, it is.’

She said it without taking her eyes off Chas, who gave Ray a wave and asked him, ‘Is it all right if I have a kiss?’

‘Er… yes.’

‘Will you come up here, or do you want me to come down to you?’

The audience laughed, as did Annie. Ray sat looking puzzled, not sure what everyone was laughing about. Chas stepped away from the mic and gave Annie a peck on the cheek, murmuring, ‘You should come in some time on your own.’

‘Tomorrow?’ she said.

 

Annie broke off her engagement in the taxi on the way home. Ray had wanted to take her to the pictures the next night to see Robert Donat in The 39 Steps.

‘Don’t fancy it,’ she said.

‘But it’s an Alfred Hitchcock film.’

She was suddenly tired of having to make up excuses instead of telling him the truth. Why should she be afraid of speaking out? So she told him the truth – sort of.

‘I don’t want to go out tomorrow.’

‘Why not?’

‘Oh, Ray… because I don’t.’

‘That’s no excuse.’

Annie saw a window of opportunity to dump him and jumped in with both feet.

‘And that’s another thing,’ she protested.

‘What’s another thing?’

‘Why do I constantly have to make excuses? You want to go out, I don’t. If you want to go to the pictures, go with one of your friends or else go on your own. I don’t want to go with you.’

In the two years they’d been seeing each other this was their first full-blown confrontation. Up until then Ray had pretty much organised their courtship, which had been okay by Annie. He was older and more experienced. He knew all the good places and he had all the money. She was just a student.

The unexpected disagreement quickly flared up into the full-blown argument that Annie was hoping for. It was Chas’s off-the-cuff joke about the kiss that had made her see the gap that yawned between the sort of man she really wanted and the one to whom she was engaged.

Their marriage would have met with the approval of both families. Ray’s father would have welcomed a family link with the notorious Ellikers, if only to get them off his back. Over the years he’d paid them thousands just to smooth the passage of his many business deals. With Annie as a member of his family, he hoped they might back off.

Having got Ray sufficiently riled she screamed at him: ‘You can have your ring back if you think I’m going to do your every bloody bidding! I’m my own woman. You don’t tell me what to do!’

Ray yelled with equal vehemence: ‘Right. I’ll have it back then! And you can give me that necklace as well! What the hell am I doing anyway, marrying into a family of low-life bloody crooks?’

Annie’s anger overcame her reluctance to give the necklace back, although she did take care to unhook it properly before throwing it at him. She then yanked off the ring and threw that too, saying to the driver, ‘Pull over driver. My friend’s getting out!’

‘Friend? I’m no friend of yours!’

‘Just get out, Ray. It’s over between us. We’re a mistake. I won’t marry you.’

The taxi drove off, leaving a fuming Ray on the pavement and Annie in the back seat breathing out a sigh of relief tinged with worry about how she was going to pay for the taxi. She had three shillings in her purse; if it was more than that she’d simply tell the driver who she was and he’d probably let her off paying. She’d done it before in an emergency, though the Elliker family name wasn’t one she was proud of.

If Ray made any attempt to get back with her she’d give him the brush-off, no problem. The hard part was done. No guilt, no sympathy. It was over. Pity about the necklace, though.

That night Annie made two vows. One, she would disown her own family, who were indeed a bunch of heartless low-life crooks. And two, she would ensnare Chas Challinor, who had looked and sounded as if he wouldn’t need much ensnaring.

 

The following morning the housekeeper knocked on Annie’s bedroom door and told her that Raymond was on the phone. Her first inclination was to ask the woman to fob him off somehow, but Annie knew things needed finishing properly. Ray probably thought that last night’s argument was just a lovers’ tiff and was ringing to apologise. Annie must put him straight so that she could get on with the rest of her life and meet Chas in the Crazy Dazy without any guilty feelings. She slipped on her dressing gown and went downstairs to the telephone in the hall, ready to rebuff any pleas for them to get back together.

‘Hello, Ray.’

She kept her voice purposely toneless. Mustn’t get his hopes up.

‘I was a bit out of order last night,’ he said awkwardly.

‘Ray, we’re finished. I don’t want us to get back together.’

‘No, it’s not that. It’s… er… it’s what I said about your family. I shouldn’t have said that.’

‘My family?’

‘Er, yes.’

It appeared that Ray was more terrified of offending her family than heartbroken at losing her. Although she had no right, Annie found this insulting. She glanced around to check that no one was listening. No one was.

‘You mean about us being a bunch of low-life crooks?’

‘Y-yes.’

‘Well, I’m forced to agree with you about that.’

‘What?’

‘You’re right. They are a bunch of low-life crooks. I’m not, but they are.’

‘Jesus, Annie! Can they hear you?’ There was fear in Ray’s voice, which only amused Annie.

‘Not sure,’ she said. ‘Hang on, I’ll have a look, see who’s around.’

She left it a full minute before speaking to him again. ‘No, we’re okay. No one heard me call my family a bunch of low-life crooks.’

‘Good God, Annie! Will you stop it?’

‘I’m guessing you don’t want me to tell them you think they’re a bunch of low-life crooks?’

‘No,’ moaned Ray. ‘Please, Annie, if you don’t want us to get back together that’s fine, but don’t tell them what I said… please?’

‘Ray, if I told them that you’d be a dead man.’

‘I know.’

‘Which is why I won’t tell them.’

‘Thank you, Annie.’

‘Goodbye, Ray.’

The following night the band had finished playing and the club was closing. Chas and Annie were sitting at the bar.

‘What? Broken it off? Why?’

‘Best thing I’ve ever done. You made me laugh within ten seconds of talking to me. Ray didn’t make me laugh once in two years.’

‘Ah. Well, I can’t say I’m sorry. His loss is my gain. I don’t suppose you’re rich, are you?’

‘You suppose correctly.’

‘Curses! Beautiful but poor. Is Ray rich?’

‘Rich enough. He’s got a Jaguar and pots of dosh.’

‘Please tell me you’re not trying to do a straight swap, him for me? I’m a bit lacking in the finances department, and my usual mode of transport is the number twenty-four bus.’

‘Swap him for you? You’re a bit forward, aren’t you? I hardly know you. I’m here because I like jazz and you’re a great clarinet player. I also suspect there are plenty of women in your life already.’

‘Your suspicions are unfounded, madam. I’m a poor judge of character as far as women are concerned – to the extent that I’ve never had a girlfriend who’s lasted more than a month, and that includes a couple with whom I was madly in love. Mostly they dumped me because I didn’t pay them the attention they seemed to require.’

‘What? Even the ones you loved madly?’

‘They wanted to tie me down. I’m twenty-one. Who wants to be tied down at twenty-one?’

‘Not me, but there again I’m only twenty.’

‘So, you might dump me when my month is up?’

‘I can’t see you lasting a month.’

He looked at her. She was blonde, blue-eyed and beautiful. ‘What if I fall in love with you?’

For the first time in her life Annie felt unconstrained in conversation. With this young man there was no need to watch what she said in case he took offence. He had a warmth and self-confidence that were infectious.

‘Oh, you’ll fall in love with me, no question, but all I want is a boyfriend to amuse me for a few weeks until I get over the trauma of my broken engagement.’

‘You don’t look to be suffering any trauma.’

‘He bought me a beautiful necklace for my birthday – gold chain and a fabulous diamond pendant. I gave it back to him, plus the engagement ring.’

‘Ah, she was poor but she was honest. Foolish girl. Now I understand your trauma. There’s one thing you ought to know.’

‘What’s that?’

‘You should know that we musicians are traditionally poor. The only notes I have in abundance are in my clarinet. Any money I earn, I waste on la dolce vita. It’s all part of my creative spirit.’

‘Perhaps I can be part of your dolce vita for a month – or part thereof.’

‘Perhaps you can.’

‘There is one thing you ought to know,’ said Annie.

‘What’s that?’

‘My surname.’

‘Why would I want to know your surname? I’m sure it’s a fine surname, but unless you’re related to royalty, surnames tend to be a bit humdrum. You’re not Lady Anne Windsor are you… or maybe Countess Anne Saxe-Coburg and Gotha? That’s it! You’re a German spy sent here by Adolf Hitler to check on our sinful music.’

‘See,’ she said, ‘you’re doing it again, making me laugh.’

‘Do you have an embarrassing name? I once went out with a girl called Cecelia Clackerbottom.’

‘Can’t you be serious for one minute?’

‘I’m always serious. Right, you were about to tell me your surname.’

‘Okay, my name is Annie Elliker.’

‘Ah, I see the problem.’

‘You do?’

‘You’re obviously Barry Elliker’s sister, the monster Barry Elliker who gave me nits at school, and you’re here to continue his fiendish work. What is it you want with me, woman?’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘You know very well what I’m talking about. The nit nurse made me have all my hair shaved off, which I thought was a bit much. Your evil brother didn’t lose a single strand and he was the one going round giving nits to everyone.’

‘I’m not Barry Elliker’s sister.’

‘I’ve only got your word for that. You have a look of him. Blonde hair, blue eyes with more than a hint of devilment lurking there. Did he give you nits as well?

‘I’m not his sister.’

‘You’d have thought boarding schools would be nit-free.’

‘Boarding school?’ said Annie. ‘Why, were you rich?’

‘My dad has a few bob. He sent me away to boarding school just after my mum died.’

‘My dad sent me to a boarding school when I was seven, and I loved every minute of it,’ said Annie. ‘The worst parts were the holidays when I had to go home to my awful family. Did you enjoy your school?’

‘No, it was about the worst thing he could have done to me. I was eight years old. I learned to hate him as much as I loved my mum.’

Annie wanted to tell him then about her own mother whom she didn’t even remember, but didn’t want to kill the conversation completely. Chas was someone she’d like to confide in. Maybe some other time.

‘So, he’s rich and you’re poor,’ she observed instead.

‘That pretty much sums things up. As I said, we never had a great relationship after that. I could have gone to work for him after leaving school, but I chose to be a musician instead. Didn’t fancy working for him in his boring business.’

‘What sort of business is it?’

Chas frowned as he thought about this. ‘To be honest I’m not sure – never actually asked him. He seems to dabble in a bit of everything. Buys and sells – that sort of thing. He’s got pots of dosh, but life’s too short to waste it on buying and selling stuff. The one good thing about my boarding school was that it had a music department, which is where I learned to play the clarinet. It appeared that I had a bit of a gift for it, which was beautiful.’

‘Beautiful?’

‘No other word for it. To have a gift for something you enjoy enough to make it your life’s work is just plain beautiful. I enjoyed football, cricket and shoplifting, but I was never much good at any of them. I tell a lie. I was quite good at shoplifting, but my gang got caught when I wasn’t with them. They were expelled and I gave up my life of crime.’

‘That was a good move,’ said Annie. ‘Did you really have a girlfriend called Cecelia Clackerbottom?’

‘No, I made that up. Her name was Audrey.’

‘Try and tell me something that’s true.’

‘Three years ago I left the sixth form and auditioned for Tubby’s band. Got the job and got my own flat.’

‘And is playing in Tubby’s band to be your life’s work?’

Chas took a sip of his drink as he pondered his answer. ‘You know, this is a good life, but I’ll need to move on at some stage.’

‘What’s your ultimate ambition?’ she asked.

‘When the time’s right I’m going over to the States to play with one of the American big bands. Have you heard of the Dorsey Brothers?’

‘I think so, but they’re not a jazz band, are they?’

‘They have a Dixieland group that plays in the intervals while the main band goes off for a break. I’d play in that for starters.’

‘You sound very sure of yourself. What if they won’t have you?’

‘Last year they came over here and needed some British musicians to play with them – all to do with work permits or some such nonsense. Anyway, Tommy Dorsey had heard of me, would you believe, and he came here to see me. Next thing I knew Tubby brought him over and asked me if I wanted to do a short tour with them. Good man, Tubby, most band leaders would have sent Dorsey packing.

‘I did nine venues with them up and down the country, playing with the big band as well as the jazz group. The day I left them Tommy came up to me and said if ever I was in the States looking for work, to go and see him. Tommy and Jimmy weren’t getting on and Tommy’d just formed his own band. He’s got some great instrumentalists and a couple of singers you might have heard of – Jack Leonard and Frank Sinatra?’

He paused, waiting for her to show a hint of recognition. Annie shook her head. ‘I’ve heard of Bing Crosby and Al Bowlly, but that’s about all.’

‘You’re sure you’re not Barry Elliker’s sister?’

‘Positive.’

‘Good job, otherwise I’d have had to examine your barnet for nits before I got to know you better.’

She was laughing again. Then her expression turned serious as she said, ‘I am related to some more notorious Ellikers.’

He looked at her for a moment and then his face took on an expression of amazement. He put his hand over his mouth and spoke from behind it.

‘Whoah! What? You mean the Ellikers… the baddies?’

She nodded. Chas raised his eyebrows and let her continue. ‘I’m an Elliker,’ Annie said, ‘but like you and your dad, I don’t have anything to do with the family line of business.’

Chas put on an American accent. ‘So, yer not packin’ heat?’

‘Sure am. I got me a Derringer pistol stuck down ma knickers, so don’t give me any trouble, mister!’

He held up his hands. ‘Well, I sure ain’t lookin’ fer no trouble, ma’am.’

She giggled. ‘I’m actually a student at UCL – that’s University College London.’

‘I do know what UCL is. What are you studying?’

‘History.’

‘There’s no future in that, young lady.’

‘I specialise in History of Art.’

‘Are you an artist?’

‘Not really. It’s just that I like art, and I thought if I was to become a Bachelor of Arts my degree might as well be in art.’

‘Your logic is impeccable.’

‘It’s also an easy course – or maybe I find it easy because I’m really interested in what I’m studying. When I do get a job it’ll have to have a strong connection with my degree.’

‘You should always like what you do for a job,’ said Chas. ‘My old man wanted me to go to the LSE. In fact he pulled a few strings to get me a place. That’s when I left home to join Tubby’s band. Studying economics wasn’t for me. I was supposed to get all genned up and join him in his business. So, what does the Elliker mob think about you going to UCL?’

‘Not much, but with me being female I was never going to be any use to them – thank God.’

‘Wow! Do you still live with them?’

‘I stay in uni digs during term time. I suppose I spend maybe three months a year living at home with my dad and my brothers. I hate them all with a passion and they know it but they don’t do me any harm.’

‘Oh, dear, sounds like a difficult three months. From what I hear there’s scarcely a crime they haven’t committed.’

‘And so far none of them has been caught – not my dad nor any of my brothers at any rate. My elder brother Cedric’s some sort of legal genius, plus they’ve got all sorts of people on their payroll – coppers, judges, MPs, you name it.’

‘Sounds like Al C. . .