Gangsters Wives by Lee Martin

the safety deposit box, had it returned to its home and left.
    Inside the next bank she found the ammunition. Hundreds of brass jacketed rounds, slotted into the kind of thick white foam that previously she’d only seen protecting domestic items in their packaging. Each box contained fifty bullets. The boxes were all marked 9 MILLIMETRE, with the name of the manufacturer from some Middle American state. At the bottom of the box were four ammunition magazines. Three were short and looked like they fitted the Glock hidden in her bag. The fourth was longer, and she guessed that one belonged to the Uzi. She took a box of fifty rounds and put them in her bag too. She realised with all that she’d found she could start a small war, and maybe that’s what she would have to do to get out of trouble.
    Bring it on, she thought.
    Inside the third bank she discovered the plan Eddie had told her about. It was printed out on A4 paper and neatly bound in clear plastic. Trust him, she thought. If he hadn’t turned to a life of crime he might have been a good pen-pusher.
    When she left the bank the folder was under her arm, and the deposit drawer was empty.
    She went back home, made herself a drink and sat down to read the book. But before she did, with the help of the instruction manual she worked out how to load the Glock’s magazine, although it cost her a slice out of one of her fingers, and how to work the trigger mounted safety catch. She loaded a shell in the chamber and put the gun, which was a lot heavier when loaded, on the table next to the sofa where she sat, feeling pleased with herself.

21

    Whilst Sadie and Kate were otherwise engaged, Poppy and Niki had become firm friends. Previously, they’d never really chatted without Sadie and Kate being there, but a mutual addiction to nicotine had thrown them together often outside the Bailey whilst Eddie’s brief trial had been going on inside.
    They had agreed to meet afterwards, even though Niki assumed Connie would object, and told Poppy so. But Eddie’s incarceration seemed to be weighing on his mind, and he just dismissed her with a grunted ‘whatever’ when she told him, which she took for a yes.
    The two women’s homes were equal distance from Canary Wharf, so they started to get together there and spend their days window-shopping. Poppy spent Joseph’s money prolifically, and couldn’t understand why Niki was on such a tight budget. ‘Connie doesn’t like me having my own money,’ Niki explained on their second meeting over coffee in one of the many little restaurants inside the wharf.
    â€˜Why not?’ asked Poppy.
    Niki shrugged, a uniquely Russian shrug that said a lot without words. ‘He’s worried I might run away I suppose. He bought and paid for me.’
    â€˜That’s disgusting. It would serve him right if you did, tight arse.’
    Niki laughed. ‘Tight arse,’ she said. ‘I like that.’
    â€˜Joe doesn’t care what I spend,’ said Poppy. ‘Doesn’t care much about what I do these days.’
    â€˜Why not?’
    Poppy told Niki about her impossibility of conceiving and about Joseph’s baby mother and child.
    â€˜And you put up with it?’ asked Niki.
    â€˜You put up with Connie.’
    â€˜I suppose so.’
    â€˜I’d like to kill that bitch, and her bastard, and Joseph for that matter,’ said Poppy, the bitterness inside her spilling out like bile.
    â€˜And I dream of Connie being dead,’ said Niki. ‘A life of my own…’
    â€˜But it’ll never happen,’ said Poppy.
    â€˜I could kill Joseph,’ said Niki.
    â€˜You,’ said Poppy, laughing. ‘You’re just a little slip of a girl. I’ve seen Joe take three or four men on. And win.’
    It was Niki’s turn to laugh as she shared her story of the three thugs she’d taken on in Millwall Park.
    â€˜You’re