‘Oliver admitted that he borrowed from some guy named Big Jimbo Connor. Yeah,’ said Toni bitterly, ‘sounds like a pillar of the banking establishment to me, too. This guy hangs around a private gambling club in town, so add possibly illegal gambling to the mix, as well as someone who is probably in organised crime.’
Lou held on more tightly to her sister.
‘We might have nothing left and there will be no way of getting it back. The investments were shared. Illegal gambling, money lenders, organised crime... and then I finish it all off by getting taped telling some horrible businessman that he’s an ass. Which he is, by the way, but nobody will be championing me for standing up to him. No, when all this comes out, Oliver and I will have the police round our house to find out what happened, and nobody will believe that I didn’t know.The wife must know, I always think when scandals break.I’d know, I tell myself. And I didn’t.’
Lou leaned against the bonnet of Toni’s car.
‘Did you have any idea how easy it is to gamble with a smartphone? No, me neither. But smartphones have been around for nearly twenty years and the legislation on gambling is much older. So anyone can put every penny they – or their wife – own onto a poker game or slots or bet on a football match, and there are no rules. How did I not see this?’ she asked. ‘I feel like a complete idiot.’
‘You’re not an idiot,’ Lou said softly.
‘I am,’ said Toni. ‘Let’s go before I throw myself into the water.’
‘You wouldn’t,’ said Lou. ‘You’re not the type.’
‘I know,’ agreed Toni.
‘I’m more the type,’ Lou said softly.
The very idea was so scary that Toni had to change the subject.
‘Come on. Back in the car.’
‘Where to?’ asked Lou.
‘To look at the house, of course,’ said Toni.
‘Why?’ asked Lou. ‘They’re gone. You heard what Margo’s mother said.’
‘But it’s ...’ Toni searched in her head for the right phrase. ‘The house is a piece of family.’
Too late, she realised that this was not, in fact, the right thing to say.
Her sister stopped and looked at her in horror.
‘I can’t believe you said something so callous,’ Lou said. ‘You’re calling this place a part of my family?’
Toni had long wanted her sister to be less passive but as she watched her become enraged, she wished Lou wasn’t losing her temper right now.
‘Family?’ repeated Lou. ‘How is some house in the middle of Sligo a sign of my family? Angelo Mul-blinking-raney was not my family. He was a sperm donor!’
‘I’m glad there’s no one around to hear us,’ Toni said evenly, glancing towards the nearest cottage, about six hundred metres away.
‘Why? Because I said sperm donor? I’ll say it again: he was just a sperm donor. Bob was my father! You don’t get to have him all to yourself now.’
‘Don’t be angry,’ said Toni wearily and drove off the Lacken road and onto the main one again. She was worn out with talking about Oliver and how her life was in shreds.
Where was the Lou she knew and loved? This new version was very mercurial. A few moments before, she’d been soft and vulnerable. ‘I simply meant that we could look at the place where—’
‘Wheremyfather came from, so that you could have Bob all to yourself?’
‘You’re being ridiculous – and stop shouting!’ shouted Toni.
Honestly, it was like being four again, all this shouting.
There was silence in the car.
‘Drive for one point five kilometres, then turn left,’ intoned the satnav lady.
