by Mick Moran
“It was in the paper: the next evening.”
“He didn’t see it. I didn’t see it.”
“It was only a small piece; in a middle page. You say he was worried about Alan reporting him Well he should be more worried about what that man does, if he hasn’t already done it.” That should make him sweat thought Joe, gleefully expecting the information to reach Dave.
Joe put his coat on. “I’ll have to go,” he said, winking at Alan behind Tommy’s back. “I’ll see you again Alan: and you Tommy. Be wary of that Dave Campbell.”
Joe walked down the street. He would return for Alan when Tommy left. It started to rain. He remembered from previous visits, when he’d seen it open, the little shop on the corner of the street he was on and a side street. The wide shop doorway would provide shelter from the rain. Also, it was a good place from which to watch for Tommy leaving. He quickened his pace. There was nobody else about; or so he thought. Then, suddenly, a shadowy figure emerged from the shop doorway.
In the dimly lit street Joe was too far away to see little more than the outline of the man (he was fairly sure it was a man) walking quickly away. Had he been watching Alan’s flat? Joe considered chasing after the man and challenging him. Instead, he watched him disappear into the distance.
The shop doorway was the ideal place from which to observe Alan’s flat. Joe wondered if he’d disturbed someone else with the same idea. If so, what was the man’s purpose? And how much had he seen?” Had he followed Tommy there, or had he been there longer? Did he see Alan and Joe arrive?
All Joe could be sure of was that it was not Dave Campbell. The man was much smaller. But he could have been there on Dave’s behalf. Joe looked down the street again. He was fairly sure that the man had not stopped anywhere. I’m getting paranoid too, he thought. Probably the man was just sheltering from the rain. Best forget him. Joe would certainly not tell Alan.
***
“Have you got another Job?” asked Tommy
“Yes. I start tomorrow.” Alan paused. Fearing the information would get back to Dave, to Tommy’s disappointment, he didn’t elaborate. Although he knew Tommy was trustworthy in that respect, he also knew how persuasive Dave could be. Instead, Alan asked, “Are you going to tell Dave that you’ve seen me?”
“Should I?”
“It’s up to you. I don’t care. I just know that I never want to see him again.”
“It’s all right for you. You don’t have to.”
“Do you think that I’ve abandoned you?”
Tommy made no reply. Then, in an attempt to explain, Alan said, “After what I saw him do I couldn’t stand being around him any more.”
“He said he did it for us: to stop the man reporting us to the police.”
“I know. That’s what he told us. But, I don’t think he cares about anyone but himself. He did it for himself. If we go down he knows he will go down too.”
“Only if we tell on him.”
“How could we not tell? We only did what we did because he talked us into it. He made it sound like it was almost our duty to do it: a patriotic thing. Something we should be proud of and we fell for it stupid us. Also, of course there was the money. I wonder how much he got. Probably a lot more than he offered us,”
“But, what we did, we did to a bad man: a man who did murder and things.”
“You’re forgetting that we got the wrong man.” Alan thought Tommy had no concept of the gravity of the situation they were in. “The man that you, we, attacked had done nothing. And the man we were meant to confront was not as guilty as we were led to believe.”
“How do you know?”
“Joe told me. His sister has done some research into it.”
“She knows about us?”
“No. Don’t worry. The research she did started a long time before we got involved. It’s a family thing. Remember, it was Joe’s uncle that that man was supposed to have murdered. Well, she has discovered that although he was there he had nothing to do with the murder.”
“It gets worse and worse.”
“Yes. It’s a mess all right.”
“ What do you think will happen now?”
“I don’t know. Lets just keep our fingers crossed.”
“If that man talks….. He said he knew what we did. How could he know that?”
He must have heard us talking. He was sat not very far away. I told you to keep tour voice down.”
Tommy went silent, looking at the floor. Alan continued. “I’m not blaming you,” he said. “I’m as much to blame as you are, maybe more so. It was me that choose the wrong man.”
“Dave said you threatened to tell the police?”
“Yes. I threatened.”
“But, you didn’t do it.”
No, I didn’t. You know I didn’t.” Alan was loosing patience with Tommy.
“What made you change your mind?”
“Oh, I don’t know. It was just a threat that I didn’t carry out. Although at the time I didn’t much care whether the police knew about us or not.”
“But, you feel different now?”
“A little bit.”
“Do you think that man could identify us?”
“Yes. He probably could. Although, I think, the only name he knew was Dave’s; he actually said Dave Campbell. Maybe, that’s what got to Dave so much. Yes. I’m sure of it. It wouldn’t have bothered him if one of our names that was said.”
“So what would you advise me to do?” Tommy stood up.
“I don’t know. It must be hard, but probably it would be best to carry on until you get your papers. Then, like Joe said, you should leave. In the meantime just keep your head down.”
Chapter 13 Pastures new.
On Tuesday morning the men were again assembled at Burton’s corner. It was another cold overcast morning, but at least the rain, which had been heavy overnight, had stopped.
The men were getting concerned. The wagon was due any minute but John had still not arrived. It was so unlike John to be late. Then Michael O’Donnell made the announcement. He had been waiting until all the men were there.
“He’s not coming,” he said. “His wife had to go into hospital last night. His son came round to my house with the news. That’s all I know,” Michael concluded as the wagon arrived.
On stopping the wagon, the driver got out. “Before you sit down give the seats a wipe with this,” he said, handing Andy who was nearest him a towel.
“I knew that bloody canopy would leak,” muttered Jimmy climbing on to the wagon.
“You’ll be all right. The rain’s stopped now.” The driver returned to the cab.
Andy wiped the seats, which were not too wet and they sat down.
The wagon set off in jerks causing water to run off the roof and pour down over the open entrance of the canopy. Joe Frain, who was sat nea
rest the entrance, swore when, to Jimmy’s amusement, icy-cold water ran down the back of his neck. They all shuffled up on the seat to get Joe further away from the entrance.
“Are you very wet?” asked Andy sympathetically.
Shivering, Joe replied, “not too bad.” However his stern look caused the grin to dry on Jimmy’s face.
“So. We’re leaderless,” mused Jimmy, thinking it better to change the subject.
“Maybe Michael will be in charge,” said Andy “He’s done it before I believe. Michael was again travelling in the front with the driver.
“I hope so but I don’t think he’ll want to do it. We might have that bastard Eddie telling us what to do: shouting at us. He’ll love that. He was gloating yesterday about his gang travelling in a nice warm bus while we had to come on the back of this bloody wagon.”
“I, he can shout all right,” said Paddo, who had just started on the job the previous day. “That poor driver who came with the load of bricks didn’t know what hit him.”
“One of these days,” said Jimmy. “Eddie will know what hit him. Maybe today will be the day.”
“Now Jimmy,” cautioned Paddo. “Don’t do anything hasty. Jobs are hard to come by. John might be back tomorrow.” Others joined Paddo in warning Jimmy.
“Ye’re all too soft,” retorted Jimmy.
Only Joe didn’t get involved. He was too busy dodging the downpour of water every time the wagon moved away after stopping. Looking up he noticed the large sag in the canvas over his head and realized that that was the source of the water.
I’ll fix that, he thought.
He stood up, and with both hands he pushed the canvas upwards. However, instead of the water running off the roof, most of it flowed into another very leaky depression in the middle of the roof.
This time it was the rest of the men, caught unawares, that the water rained down on.
Joe saw it coming and quickly got outside the canopy. The others didn’t notice what was happening until it was too late. Jimmy got the brunt of it. He was right under it, but none of them missed it. There was much cussing and swearing. Paddo slipped on the wet floor; not helped by the movement of the wagon. In their panic to get away others fell over him. Before they knew what was happening they were all in a heap on the floor with the ice-cold water raining down on them.
On his knees on the wet floor, Jimmy realized what happened.
“Joe Frain,” he screamed. “You bloody edjit.” Jimmy scrambled to his feet only to fall on his face again as the wagon stopped suddenly. On hearing Jimmy’s scream the driver had stopped to investigate. In any case they were within yards of their destination.
That was good enough for Joe, who quickly got himself out of the wagon.
As he got down from the wagon Michael emerged from the cab. “What’s wrong with Jimmy?” asked Michael.
Ignoring the question, however, Joe turned away and hurried towards the cabin where they left their coats and bags before starting work.
The others were no more helpful.
“Don’t bloody ask,” he was told before he could ask anything. However, following the rest of the men, as they made their way to the cabin, he couldn’t but notice how wet some of them were and he gathered that for some reason Joe was being blamed for it.
“I think he did it on purpose,” declared Jimmy angrily. “He saw us laughing at him earlier.”
“No,” replied Paddo, sensing that the situation could get nasty, “He didn’t do it on purpose. I saw it all but it didn’t register at the time. Joe was just trying to get the water off the roof, but it went the wrong way on him.”
That wasn’t good enough for Jimmy. “He’s still a bloody edjit. He should have left it alone.”
“Maybe, but it’s not his fault that the canvas had holes in it.”
“That’s another thing,” said Jimmy. “Butler must have known that canopy was no good.”
“Talking of Butler,” interrupted Michael, who had caught up with the others, “That’s him waiting for us.” Jim Butler, the company owner, was stood outside the cabin along with Eddie apparently awaiting the men’s arrival.
“Great,” said Jimmy. “This is our chance. “Lets give it to him.”
“No. No. Not you,” said Paddo. “You’re too hot headed. You’d get us all sacked.” Then turning to Michael he pleaded, “Would you have a word with him Michael. You know him the best.”
“I will if that’s what you want.” Michael was pleased to be asked. “But you’ll have to put me in the picture. No one’s told me anything.”
“Right O. Lets stop for a minute while we tell you.” Jimmy however carried on walking, worrying Paddo. “Jimmy,” he shouted. “Wait for us.”
“Reluctantly, Jimmy stopped. “I don’t know what they’re bothered about,” he said to Andy who was nearest him. “Let’s just give to Butler straight.”
Andy was uneasy for a different reason. “Butler is watching us,” he said. “We’re keeping him waiting.”
“Good,” said Jimmy. “Let the bugger wait.”
Jimmy removed his donkey jacked and shook it. “Come on,” he shouted. “It’s too cold to hang about.”
But, Michael wasn’t moving until he was fully briefed.
He needn’t have bothered. Jim Butler had already got hold of Joe Frain, who was there ahead of them.
“What’s the delay?” he asked impatiently, “I haven’t got all day.”
Before Joe could answer, seeing Jimmy’s antics with his donkey jacket Jim Butler exclaimed, “What’s he playing at?”
“His coat’s wet. That canopy is very leaky.”
“What are you talking about? It’s not even raining.”
“There was a load of water on the roof. When the wagon set off it poured down on our heads,” replied Joe, omitting to mention his part in the event.
“Well, you seem dry enough.”
“I was at the outside. Some of the men are soaking wet.”
Jim Butler turned to Eddie. “That’s it,” he said “I’ll get the mini bus. Tell the men that they’ll have a bus to take them home. I’ll have to go I can’t wait any longer. Clearly, he didn’t feel it was the right time to meet the men.
“You’re too soft,” stated Eddie as Jim Butler hurried away. Then turning to Joe, with a wink “don’t tell the men about the bus, not yet.” Eddie was in a mischievous mood. Joe looked puzzled.
“What were you doing yesterday?” asked Eddie
“I was digging out that main drain.”
“Never mind that today. That would be a bad job. There will be a load of water in the cutting. Instead help Michael with the fencing. The fencing is priority today.” Jim had informed him that a lot of material was to be delivered to the site that day. Therefore, it was important that the fencing around the site be completed before they left that evening. Again winking at Joe Eddie added “Just don’t tell the men about the bus.”
Joe nodded, still a bit puzzled, although he was pleased to be relieved
of going down in the main drain.
***
“That’s it, scurry off,” said Jimmy, seeing Jim Butler get in his car and drive off.
“Aw, well, another time,” sighed Michael. Then, addressing Eddie, he asked, “is Jim coming back? I need a word with him.”
“I don’t know,” replied Eddie dismissively. “But, now you’re all here, at last. (He stressed at last) let me tell you John is not coming so you’ve got me instead. But, you’ll be pleased to know that I won’t be with you very much. I have my own gang.”
“Most of you can carry on with what you were doing yesterday. Michael, how are you doing with the fencing? We need that finishing today.”
“I’ll need more men then. John was helping me yesterday.”
“I’ve already told this man to go with you.” He nodded towards Joe.
“You can have those two as well.” He pointed out Jimmy and Andy.
Michael was satisfied with that. “Have you any spare donkey jackets?” he asked. “It’s a cold job; not like navvying.”
“The company don’t supply donkey jackets.”
“It’s the company’s fault that the coats are wet.”
“Is it now?” Eddie was not having it, but Michael stood firm.
“You know it is he said.”
Eddie relented probably realizing how much he needed the fencing doing. “We have some waterproofs. Will they do?”
“They’re better than nothing. They’ll keep the cold wind off I suppose.” Michael looked at Andy who nodded.
“Wait in the cabin. I’ll bring them over to you.” When stood up to Eddie was not so bad.
Michael was well in charge of the work. “With four of us, we’ll easily finish this job today. All the posts are already in place. It’s just a matter of fixing the wire netting to the posts. But, it’s heavy we’ll have to work in pairs. You and me Joe.” Aware of the tension between Jimmy and Joe, Michael planned to keep them apart as much as possible.
It was unnecessary. Although Jimmy is quick tempered he soon cools down. That morning was no different. To Michael’s relief within an hour friendly words were exchanged between Jimmy and Joe.
Consequently. the work went smoothly and progress was fast. As dinnertime approached more than half the fencing was complete.
Eddie never bothered them except initially to ensure that they had all the materials they needed.
“Eddie’s not as bad as I thought he was,” remarked Joe.”
“His bark is worse than his bite,” said Michael. “Hi up. Talk of the devil. Here he comes now.”
Eddie was impressed. “You’re doing well,” he complimented.
