Mersey Murder Mysteries Collection

Chapter 22

“So, here we are, all back together again. It"s been a while, eh, lads?”

Brendan Kane looked at the gathering of his old friends as they sat around the living room in his flat. He and Marie were seated side by side on the sofa, with Phil Oxley on the other side of Marie. Mickey and Ronnie had claimed an armchair each and after an uncomfortable couple of minutes following their arrival, Marie being already with him to greet them, it seemed as though a peaceful camaraderie had fallen over the room. They"d all spent a long time together as Brendan Kane and The Planets, and though their eventual split may have borne a deal of acrimony, all that seemed to be in the past and for the most part, everyone seemed pleased to be back in each other"s company, much to Brendan"s relief.

“Too long if you ask me,” Ronnie replied.

“I thought you"d all hate my guts,” said Brendan.

“We probably did, for a while,” Mickey added, “but friends are friends, and we couldn"t stay mad at you forever. Hell"s bells, Brendan you were probably right. We"d never have made it anyway and at least we quit before the bookings dried up and we got booed off stage in some poky little working men"s club somewhere.”

“Hey, we weren"t that bad,” Brendan protested.

“Maybe not, but that"s not why we"re here tonight is it?”

“No, and I"m surprised you two don"t want to knock my block off.”

“Why?” Ronnie asked. “Just because you and Marie fell for each other? Hell, we all knew about you two ages ago, maybe not as much as we could have known, but enough to know there was something going on between you.”

“So, you don"t mind if we get married and if Marie comes to America with me?”

“We couldn"t stop her if we tried, could we Marie?”

“No chance, Ronnie,” Marie replied.

“Okay, but it"s not that simple, is it, girl?” said big brother Mickey.

“I know. It"s Mam and Dad isn"t it? What can I do, Mickey?”

“Phil told me and Ronnie his idea, and I think that"s the only way to do it.”

“What, you mean me and Brendan elope to Gretna Green and then go to America as man and wife?”

“Yes, but, you"ve got to be really careful about how you do things. If Dad finds out what you"re up to, he"ll be mad as hell.” Mickey fell silent and Ronnie, normally so quiet, took over again, his intellectual side clearly coming to the fore as he worked the problem out in his mind.

“Right, you arrange a short holiday in Scotland with a couple of your girlfriends, first. You can do that, yeah?” Marie nodded. “Good, you can use them as witnesses anyway. Once you"ve stayed there as long as you have to, you get married, and then you"ll need to come back here and carry on with normal life until you can leave for the States.”

“We couldn"t do that, Ronnie,” Marie exclaimed. “Once we"re married, we want to be together, forever.”

“It won"t be for long, Marie. That"s up to Brendan to make all the arrangements in advance.”

“It all sounds a bit complicated to me,” said Brendan. “I"d rather we just go one day and not come back,”

“Look, Brendan. It"s up to you. We"re just agreeing with Phil"s plan, which sounds a good one if we want to keep it all nice and quiet so you two lovebirds can slip away without Dad finding out.” Ronnie insisted.

“It"s a good plan, Brendan, honest it is,” said Phil.

“But it"s just as easy for me and Marie to meet one day, and just board a plane or a ship or whatever and disappear from Liverpool, without going through all your cloak and dagger stuff, Phil. We can get married in America when we get there.”

“And what do you think, Marie?” Phil asked the young woman.

“I just wanna be with Brendan,” she answered.

The argument raged on for over an hour without any real decision being made. It was clear to the brothers that Marie would end up doing whatever Brendan wanted her to do. She was totally besotted with him and would truly follow him to the ends of the earth. They had to hope that good sense would eventually prevail. They knew that if Marie and Brendan were legally married in Scotland, their father could scream and bellow all he liked, but the marriage would be valid and they would both do their best to support their sister against their father"s wrath.

The remainder of their time at Brendan"s flat felt rather surreal to the Doyle brothers and to Phil Oxley. Brendan insisted on showing off his brand new Dansette record player, with it"s facility to hold up to ten singles on its spindle, automatically dropping the next record in turn onto the turntable after the playing arm lifted from the record.

As the Searchers" When You Walk In The Room played in the background, Marie left the boys for a minute, returning soon afterwards with chilled bottles of Double Diamond from Brendan"s fridge. The cold pale ale was refreshing and helped them all to relax, and the record ended, the needle rose magically and another disc dropped on to the turntable, this time The Rolling Stones, one of Mickey"s favourite groups, with their smash hit, It"s All Over Now, with the brilliant Brian Jones on lead guitar. Little did any of them imagine at the time that the superb guitarist would tragically be lost to the pop scene in July 1969, drowned in his swimming pool just a month after leaving the Rolling Stones. For now, though, Mickey Doyle idolized the young man who had formed the Stones in the first place and whose musical talents helped them become one of the biggest names in the British pop industry.

When You Walk In The RoomIt"s All Over Now,Soon, however, with the future as yet unresolved, the time came for the group to go their separate ways and the Doyle brothers patiently waited outside with Phil Oxley as Marie said goodnight to Brendan, obviously, according to the time taken, Ronnie commented, accompanied by much "snogging and groping". Mickey playfully slapped his younger brother across the back of his head, “That"s our bloody sister you"re talking about, you pillock.”

“So! She"s got the same equipment as other girls, hasn"t she? Brendan"s a red blooded guy and…”

Before he could say more the street door opened and Marie stepped out to join them, waving to the figure of Brendan Kane, hidden from the brother"s view. After blowing him a kiss, she skipped across to where the others waited in a huddle on the footpath and quickly linked arms with her two brothers, smiling up at each in turn, then said, cheerfully,

“We going home then, or what?”