Gangsters Wives by Lee Martin Page A

kidding,’ said Poppy. ‘You do martial arts?’
    â€˜My daddy and grandpapa taught me well. They were soldiers. Russian soldiers. The best in the world. Cossacks. Wild men. Grandpapa was at Stalingrad. You know about Stalingrad?’
    Poppy shook her head.
    â€˜It was a famous battle in the Second World War.’
    â€˜I didn’t go to school much,’ said Poppy. ‘I’m ashamed about the things I don’t know. Tell me.’
    Niki explained about the long, cold battle for the city, that defeated Hitler’s mighty army, and helped win the Second World War for the Allies.
    â€˜They were starving,’ said Niki. ‘Inside the city. They ate the dead when the rations ran out. Can you imagine that?’
    Poppy shook her head in disgust.
    â€˜But my grandpapa killed a hundred Germans. He was a shooter. A sniper. He taught me to use weapons. But he also taught me to kill silently using just my hands and feet.’
    â€˜Christ,’ said Poppy. ‘Have you ever killed anyone?’
    Niki smiled. ‘None of your business.’
    â€˜You have. Jesus.’
    â€˜Jesus had nothing to do with it.’
    â€˜So tell me.’
    â€˜Two men tried to rape me,’ said Niki. ‘Back home. I was sixteen. They drove the roads where I lived, and found women alone. Any woman, any age. It was a famous case, but the police were useless.’
    â€˜Most police are,’ said Poppy.
    Niki nodded agreement. ‘One afternoon I was walking home from school, when they found me. They were strong. They hit me from behind and I woke up in the back of their car. I heard them talking, and knew they were the men who had been doing those terrible things.’
    â€˜Weren’t you scared?’ asked Poppy.
    â€˜Terrified. But I knew terror was… How do you say it. Not productive.’
    Poppy nodded, engrossed in the story.
    â€˜They drove into the woods near my home. It is a terrible place. Dark and cold. No one goes there. It’s like a forest in a fairy story where the bad fairies live.’
    Poppy was mesmerised.
    â€˜They dragged me out of the car, and one held me down whilst the other dropped his pants. He pushed up my skirt, and was going to pull down my underwear when I kicked him in his balls. He screamed like a girl, and the other one let me go and pulled out a knife. I didn’t tell you, but the other women were all stabbed and killed. Stabbed in their privates. A terrible thing.’
    Poppy remained silent as the business of the Wharf went on around them.
    â€˜I like knives,’ said Niki. ‘Grandad had a collection. I took the knife off the man easily. You see he couldn’t believe a young girl in school uniform could hurt him. He must have thought the kick I gave his friend was just luck. Anyway, I took the knife out of his hand like taking a lollipop from a child. Then I stabbed him. In the heart. He was dead as he fell.’
    â€˜What about his friend?’ Poppy could hardly catch her breath.
    â€˜I cut off his cock and put it in his mouth. I left them both there and walked home. It wasn’t far. Months later some woodcutters found them. It was in the papers.’
    â€˜What about the knife?’ asked Poppy.
    â€˜It’s at home,’ said Niki. ‘I brought it with me from Russia. I smuggled it here, and one day I will cut Connie’s cock off too and stuff it in his mouth, just like that bastard who tried to rape me. Do you want me to go?’
    â€˜Why?’ asked Poppy.
    â€˜Because.’
    â€˜No love,’ interrupted Poppy. ‘I feel safer with you around.’

22

    The plan that Eddie had prepared was a blueprint for the perfect crime. That night, as Sadie sat in her lonely house, the only light came from an angle-poise lamp next to her, illuminating the dull sheen of the loaded pistol on the table below. She read the book twice. Once, quickly, to get the gist of the robbery, and then again