North of the Rock

by Ian Jones

  ‘Morning,’ he said with a slight smile.

  ‘Good morning,’ John replied.

  Gilbey picked up and looked at the menu, which was obviously pointless as he had to go there all the time. The waitress brought over a black coffee and didn’t bother asking what he wanted to eat.

  ‘So how do you like the town?’ Gilbey asked.

  ‘I’ve been here before. About eleven years ago or so, it’s changed a lot.’

  ‘Yeah, that’s for sure.’

  John could feel Gilbey studying him, which made him uneasy after the events of the previous night, he could be part of all this. It could have been him that tipped them off. The waitress arrived with a plate of bacon and eggs and set it down in front of Gilbey, who looked up at her and smiled.

  ‘Thanks Carrie,’ he told her.

  ‘Got to look after you Gilbey,’ she replied and bustled off to another table.

  ‘So, you a journalist, right?’ Gilbey asked John.

  ‘Er, yeah,’ John replied, wondering where this was going.

  ‘Bullshit. I know who you are. I recognised you last night.’

  Gilbey said it mildly, and started eating. He didn’t look up.

  John had been worried about this, and had said so to Patrick who had believed it was very unlikely that anyone would know who he was. But Gilbey hadn’t said it as a challenge or an accusation, more like a casual comment. He took a mouthful himself and didn’t answer straight away.

  ‘Oh yeah? You got a good memory. It was a long time ago.’

  He looked steadily at Gilbey who returned it, calm blue eyes. Gilbey smiled.

  ‘Not really. It’s become a habit of mine.’

  ‘What has?’

  ‘Just trying to work out what the fuck is wrong with this town, and what is going on.’

  It dawned on John that he had only just arrived, others had been living here and been watching all the changes first hand from the inside.

  ‘Well, ok. So, what is going on?’

  Gilbey drank some coffee and looked around the diner.

  ‘I was born here. Right here in Gray Rock. Now that was a long time ago. But I’ve been away, almost as long and I came back here with my wife maybe a bit more than ten years ago. When all the changes started, so I have seen everything.’

  ‘Well, like I said, a lot has changed since I was last here. It’s only eleven years. In fact I can’t believe it if I‘m honest,’ John replied.

  Gilbey finished eating and sat back, eyeing John critically.

  ‘So why are you here?’ he asked directly.

  John considered a lie, but couldn’t see the point. Gilbey obviously knew the history.

  ‘I’ve got to have a conversation with Anthony Collis. In Howarth prison.’

  ‘Long way to come to say hello to that dumbass.’

  ‘Yeah, well, things seem to be changing. Suddenly there’s all sorts of things getting said in the press. I got asked to get over here and find out what’s kicked it all off, if I can. I was supposed to go there this afternoon but it’s been cancelled.’

  Gilbey looked surprised.

  ‘That fucking ape ain’t gonna speak you anyways.’

  ‘No, well actually, I think the same. But the feeling is that he might be gloating, may be feeling victorious somehow, he might want to tell me that he’s won. Be full of himself now it looks like he’s getting out. So that’s why I’m here.’

  ‘Ten years in jail isn’t winning to me.’

  ‘It isn’t to me either.’

  Gilbey waved a hand at the waitress who came over and refilled his cup and looked enquiringly at John, who decided he could learn a lot by just sitting there so he asked for another milky coffee.

  ‘I came back here for my wife, I always promised her I would,’ Gilbey told him.

  ‘How long were you away for?’

  ‘More than forty years. Seriously.’

  ‘Forty years? Jesus. In the service, I’m guessing.’

  ‘Yep. Marine. And you too I’d say. Special Forces, you got the look.’

  John smiled and stuck out his hand, and Gilbey shook it. Strong grip.

  ‘You said there was a cancer in the town, and mentioned the three wise men, who are they?’

  ‘They’re the guys that did all this. The town, the plant, the airport, the hospital, schools, business park, everything.’

  ‘There’s a hospital?’

  ‘Oh yeah, had to, it was a condition of the plant setting up.’

  ‘But who are they?’

  ‘Nobody really knows, I’ve been trying to find out but apart from a few basics there isn’t much to know. Names are Barlow, Abel and Cane. Three very rich men. Barlow is something to do with BRP and the plant, and I know Abel is in construction. So they’ve been a happy combination coming here I guess.’

  ‘They didn’t live here?’

  ‘No. Abel and Barlow showed up about what, probably the same time you took Collis down. I came back here and they were just suddenly around. The town had already started changing by then. They built those real big houses first, you seen the ones up on the hill?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Barlow lives in the biggest, and Abel’s got one too. Then the construction started, I mean it was just like that. The plant got built, it was non-stop for ten years. Crazy. It’s slowed down a piece in the last few months but it’s still happening.’

  ‘But what about building permits, planning, stuff like that? You have all that over here right?’

  ‘Oh yeah, but money talks. That’ll get you whatever you want.’

  John made a decision. Something was definitely wrong in this town, and he was here now. It could all be connected back to Collis anyway, as it seemed to have all started when he had been taken in, although it could just as easily already have been happening, but behind the scenes. He could tell that Gilbey was being honest, and opted to trust him. He reached into his back pocket and withdrew the invitation he had received that morning and laid it on the table. Gilbey picked it up and read it, then nodded.

  ‘Yeah, this is them. But I never heard of this before. I wonder what’s on their minds.’

  John told him all about what had happened last night with the men at the motel.

  Gilbey whistled.

  ‘You just met the Regulators,’ he announced.

  ‘Regulators?’

  ‘Oh yeah. They are the guys that put pressure on people who don’t toe the line, they turn up and someone gets hurt. People are pretty scared of them around here, nobody knows who they are or when they will be knocking on the door.’

  ‘They are something to do with the three wise men?’

  ‘For sure, but unofficially. Nothing ever gets said, nobody talks. See, I’ve been putting together a file on all this shit, I started a couple of years ago. They lean on people. It’s what happens. All the white folks up in the north and the brown down in the south. That’s why they built the plant. Cheap labour. Gray Rock was bust, there were no jobs here. Now they run busses out to the plant every morning, and all the managers and the office staff live on the other side of the rock. Everybody’s happy.’

  ‘Apart from they aren’t at a guess,’ John said flatly.

  ‘Too fucking right they ain’t. That’s why I started making all the notes. This place is fucked up. People just disappear. Nobody does anything. The mayor, the sheriff, all in the three wise men’s pockets.’

  ‘I’d like to see that file. But listen, you can look after yourself, it’s obvious, how come you haven’t done anything?’

  Gilbey sighed deeply and ran his finger along the edge of the table.

  ‘Oh I did. They used to have these town meetings. Nobody ever went apart from the people from the north. I turned up this one time. The three wise men were there along with the mayor. They knew who I was, and I told them straight I was going to find out what was going on.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘Two days later I got this put through my door.’
<
br />   Gilbey reached into his jacket and pulled out an old well stuffed wallet, and withdrew a folded photograph. There was a blonde woman with a pretty young girl, smiling and happy in a sunlit park somewhere.

  ‘That’s my daughter, and my granddaughter,’ Gilbey told him.

  John understood.

  ‘I get it.’

  ‘John I was a Marine a long time. I served all over the world, always moving on, and my family would pack up and come with me. Often with no notice at all. I did it for far too long. My daughter got married to a good man, and lives in California. They found her. I tried but I wasn’t around as much as I would have liked when she was growing up, and I can’t risk anything now.’

  John looked at him.

  ‘You know, this is the second time I heard this story. Or one very like it, at least. The first was eleven years ago, right here in Gray Rock.’

  John told him what had happened all those years ago at the gun club.

  ‘That’s something else I didn’t know, something for the file. But I do know Clancy, he’s army, but I don’t hold it against him,’ mused Gilbey. ‘So maybe the three wise men knew Collis?’

  ‘I think so. I think they own him, along with everything else round here by the sounds of it,’ John replied.

  Gilbey nodded slowly without saying anything. He was watching the waitress, and then smiled.

  ‘That’s my wife. My Carrie,’ he said.

  John smiled back.

  ‘I thought there was a connection.’

  ‘I got to look after her too you know. But I was on my own, and now I ain’t. You took out three of the Regulators last night like it was nothing. We could do some real damage here, if we work together.’

  ‘I don’t know Gilbey, I was just defending myself. I’m not here to get involved in any wars.’

  ‘It ain’t a war John. It’s right versus wrong. Look, you are here, and now we’re talking. Hell I haven’t spoken this much in like, well I never spoke this much.’

  John considered. He liked Gilbey, and understood the man completely. He thought of his own daughter, and the lengths he would go to just so he could protect her. And he wasn’t at all scared of the Regulators, although he understood why the townsfolk would be.

  ‘Ok,’ he replied simply.

  ‘Thank God for that. Jeez, I’ve been waiting for this for too long, I can’t point the finger but nobody wants to stand up. Look, why don’t you go meet the three wise men, you can make your own mind up but you will see that I’m right.’

  John nodded.

  ‘Yeah, I may as well I suppose. You told me about Abel and Barlow but what about Cane?’

  ‘I don’t really know him at all. He never says anything, he just turned up. I can’t find out anything about him anyplace, and you can believe I have tried. I have no idea who he is. Or what he is.’

  ‘Right. You’ve convinced me, I can try and help but I ain’t making any promises. This could all be in your head, and I’m not saying that to be an arsehole. Ok, I’ll go and meet them. Shall we hook up later?’

  ‘Yeah, let’s have a beer at the roadhouse. Lil’s. There is someone there we should talk to, she has been on the inside and will probably know something. I’ve spoken to her about all this shit before.’

  ‘Good. I want to have a proper look around this town. Let’s say about seven, is that ok?’

  ‘Perfect.’

  John checked his watch, it was nearly half past ten. The day was passing quickly. He dug out some cash but Gilbey insisted on paying, and told him where the three wise men’s office was.

  Chapter Ten

  John left the diner, crossed over the road and turned back the way he had just walked then looked around. To his left up the hill was the motel and further up the plant and the road to the airfield. To his right over the east–west road was the town hall and next door the sheriff’s office. In front of that was the new plaza that led to the rock. He turned around again. There was another street which ran parallel to the east–west road just along from where he was standing, which was where Gilbey had said he would find the office so he set off that way.

  Once he had moved a short way down he realised it was just a normal high street. As he walked along there was a small shopping mall on his right which he worked out must have the loading bay area that backed onto the motel. He wandered around in it, there were a few shoppers milling about and the usual shops, none of them busy, the place was small. He went back on the high street, more shops, a couple of restaurants, two banks, a bar and a coffee shop, with a couple of roads than ran off to the right in between, heading away up the slope. Then there was another bank that covered about half a block, which had a single street door to the right. He checked the number, this was the office. He was early so he carried on walking along the street right to the end, where it opened out into a square seating area at a T-junction with the Radisson hotel opposite. If he turned left he would end up back on the east–west road, if he turned right it sloped up and all he could see were houses. He sat down on a seat and called Patrick, who answered immediately, as usual.

  He asked for all the information available on Barlow, Abel and Cane, residents of Gray Rock, and then as an afterthought for whatever he could find on an ex-Marine called Gilbey. He explained that he had just met Gilbey who had some interesting stories and he would be meeting the so-called three wise men in twenty minutes so any information that could be found beforehand would be very useful.

  He watched the few shoppers then got a call back in ten minutes.

  Patrick was his usual no-nonsense self.

  ‘Right, so let’s start with William Harold Barlow. He is sixty-seven, and this guy is beyond rich. His daddy was an oil man down in Dallas and did very well. Barlow was born in Fort Worth into a pile of money. You wanted to know about the BRP plant? Well, he is the B., Barlow Rainer Pharmaceuticals. Founded in 1975, it went public in 1983 but he still retains the controlling interest. I mean there is wealthy, and there is Barlow. I looked into the company and the plant over in Gray Rock, it opened six years ago. Took nearly three to build and is the biggest of its kind in the world. BRP are insanely rich, they’re making millions every day.’

  ‘Wow! So who is Rainer?’

  ‘Ah, now that’s a good question. But easy answered. His first wife. He’s actually been married four times according to this. Anne Rebecca Rainer, and she was also very rich, from a ranch family close to Austin.’

  ‘You said “was”’.

  ‘Yeah, she died in a car wreck in 1984.’

  ‘Hmmm ok, what about the others.’

  ‘Well, Abel is also straightforward, again rich but not in Barlow’s league. Dennis Arthur Abel. He is sixty-four. Born in Houston. Took over his father’s construction business in 1975 and got into commercial buildings. Now he is one of the biggest in the whole of Texas, actually more like THE biggest. He moved to Gray Rock just over ten years ago, as did Barlow. In fact, his company built the plant, and pretty much all of the town as far as I can see.

  ‘And Cane?’

  ‘This is a lot more interesting. Cane is not his real name. He changed it ten years ago, right when he moved to Gray Rock. He was born William Franklin Cage in Philadelphia. He’s a bit younger, only just sixty. No rich family, he’s a banker by trade.’

  John pondered the information.

  ‘So he’s not a Texan then? What’s the connection? And what’s with the name change?’

  ‘Well there’s no law against it, so long as you go through the proper channels, which he did in this case. Connection is he started working for BRP in the nineties, some chief of finance or something like that. Reading this I think he must have been Barlow’s banker for some time, then he must have been given the job. He moved to Dallas, which is where BRP’s corporate headquarters are.’

  ‘So what’s he doing here in Gray Rock?’

  ‘Well, here’s the big news. He was released from prison ten years ago. He changed his name and moved to the town str
aight after. But it’s not like he is a wealthy man by any means, so it isn’t clear at all why he’s around.’

  ‘That is interesting. What was he jailed for?’

  ‘I’ve got to do some digging here, it looks like several offences, first look underage sex and child abuse among them, but it’s a separate file. I can find out, but it will take longer.’

  ‘Thanks, please get what you can. So they all live here, any families?’

  ‘Barlow is listed as married, but his wife is in a medical facility in Austin, again I can get more information on that. Abel was married, but divorced fifteen years ago. Cage, sorry Cane, never married. No children showing for any of them.’

  ‘Ok.’

  ‘And I will need more time on Mr Gilbey, military are a different procedure.’

  John stood up.

  ‘Right, thanks Patrick. I’ll go and say hello then.’

  ‘You should take care John, from what you are telling me they seem to be the centre, of what I don’t know. But the town would never have happened without Barlow and Abel it seems. And to me it sounds like they are running things.’

  ‘Yeah, they are, and I will be bringing that up with them. Got to be a connection with Collis, I will be asking him too.’

  ‘Yeah, about that. Should be all clear for tomorrow.’

  ‘Fine, get digging and I’ll talk to you later.’

  ‘Right.’

  John walked the short distance back down past the bank, the street door he had seen was now standing open. A man with a shaved head walked out wearing a green bomber jacket and stalked off up the street in the opposite direction. Inside there was a corridor which ran to the back of the building with stairs on the left. He walked up to a short hallway with an open door on his right. Sitting just inside the door was a man. John had never seen anyone like it before. He had a big round head on massive shoulders, and was probably around fifty or so. But it was his face; it was completely covered in battle scars. It was all lumps and bumps, the nose was swollen and twisted and pointing in the wrong direction, and the ears were tattered and misshapen. The face and the head were crisscrossed with scars and old lacerations. The man looked out at John through tiny eyes that were set back far in the ruined face as he walked in.