Animal

by Paul Jones

  Inside the flat, Will tossed his keys on the kitchen work-top, and began filling up the kettle. ‘Fancy a brew?’

  ‘Yeah, why not,’ she replied, looking around as if she was trying to figure out why he would want to stay in a hovel like this.

  ‘Have a seat,’ he told her.

  ‘Bit of a come down, isn’t it, Will?’

  Will threw her a quick look. ‘You probably won’t understand, but I don’t want to get too comfortable too quick.’

  Stacey sighed impatiently as if she wanted to get down to the nitty-gritty. ‘Listen, Will, I came over because I thought it was best to explain things face to face. I felt I owed you that.’

  Will listened while he waited for the kettle to boil.

  ‘My mind still hasn’t changed from what I said three years ago. That’s why I completely cut all communications with you. I wanted a clean break.’

  ‘You certainly made that clear, that’s for sure.’ Will finished off making the teas and walked over. He handed Stacey hers.

  Stacey cupped her mug while Will sat in the window seat facing her.

  ‘The problem with you Will is that you’re a ticking time bomb, and I really don’t want to be around you when you go off.’

  ‘Christ Stacey, I’m not that bloody bad.’

  ‘Yes, you are, Will. I always knew you had a temper, but what I saw on that day was a complete stranger, a maniac, someone completely out of control. I saw the devil in you.’

  Will listened as he supped up his tea. He wanted to defend himself and call her melodramatic but at the same time he also wanted her to have her say, and get it off her chest.

  ‘I know you also had a bit of a past as well. Those once or sometimes twice a month meetings you used to go to, I’m not saying you were seeing someone else on the sly, but I know those secret meetings were more than just a lad’s night out. And lets be honest, I never badgered you about it, did I? OK, you explained that these outings were a regular occurrence long before I came along, fair enough! But when you’re planning to share your life with someone and start a family things have to change, you have to change and make sacrifices. And call it women’s intuition or whatever I just knew that whatever secrets, dark sides or dubious meetings you were involved in, it had something to do with the way you acted that day. I could feel it, and that was the final straw for me. Yet still to this day you still can’t come clean about everything. You’re still hiding something.’

  Will gave her a worn look. ‘Stacey, all that is in the past now. What happened on that day was nothing to do with the way I am or what I used to get up with. That day with the dog and the thugs was just a bad day for everyone, and that’s it.’

  Stacey snorted bitterly. ‘You call spending three years in prison away from your fiancée just the result of a bad day?’

  ‘Of course not! But those meetings you keep going on about were just a group of very close friends simply looking out for each other. I already told you that.’

  ‘Come on, Will, all those marks that would suddenly appear on your face and body?’

  ‘You make it sound like I was involved in some sort of a mass orgy or something,’ Will huffed.

  ‘Well, go on then, Will, tell me everything? Tell me all about your so called mates? Tell me all about why all of a sudden you would have to go out in the middle of the night, and not come back until the early morning.’

  Will dropped his head guiltily. ‘I can’t!’

  Stacey shrugged with frustration. ‘Well, there it is. And you expect me to just accept that and keep quiet?’

  Will said nothing.

  ‘Just how on earth can you expect to build a relationship with an attitude like that?’

  ‘Stacey all that is in the past now. I’m not a part of it anymore. And back then I would have proved that to you if you’d have given me more time.’

  ‘And what about what you went to prison for, would that have still happened?’

  ‘Maybe, maybe not, I just don’t know. That day I reacted like any other man. It’s just a natural alpha-male instinct to want to maim or kill to protect the things that mean the most to you. You can’t domesticate it by dressing it up in fancy civilised rules. But that aside, I’ve also had some counselling for some of that excess anger, I’m trying so hard to start afresh. All I ask is a chance to prove it?’

  Stacey swung her head ponderously. ‘It’s too late, Will. You’ve left it too late, and I’ve moved on.’ She stood up, ready to leave. ‘I suggest you do the same.’

  Once again Will could feel her slipping through his fingers.

  ‘Stacey, I came back for you. I came back because I can now give you the kind of life we had planned before I went inside. Are you really ready to throw all that away again? We’re both not getting any younger you know.’

  That last statement seemed to burn her somewhat. ‘No, we maybe not, but at least I’m getting wiser.’

  ‘I didn’t mean it like that.’ Will backtracked, but the damage was already done.

  Stacey silenced him with the palm of her hand. ‘Will I don’t think you could truly commit yourself to anyone. All you want is someone to come home to, someone to look after the house and the kids while you go out and do your thing . And that’s not the kind of life for me.’

  Will shook his head. ‘You’re so wrong about that, Stacey, and I can prove it to you.’

  Stacey looked at him like she was listening to an alcoholic with a beer in his hand saying he had quit.

  Will stood up in frustration. ‘How can I prove it to you?’

  ‘I don’t think you can Will. Let’s just leave it at that shall we?’ She gave him a flat, sad smile and turned to leave.

  Will watched her, powerless to do anything, powerless to say anything that would make any difference. The door clunked behind her, and Will slumped back in his chair, anger welling up inside him. His fists clenched into balls of molten rage, knuckles and fingers turning ivory white. The bones in his hands popped under the strain, and all the scars and scratches glowed like beacons as a reminder of a past filled with terrible violence. The watch on his wrist, the one that Stacey had bought him suddenly became the trigger of all that broiling frustration. He whipped it off and drew his hand back ready to smash it against the wall. But then he froze, the blazing fires in his eyes beginning to die. He could not let go of that cursed watch.

  *

  That afternoon an emergency meeting had been called at Phil’s home in the junction. The celebration of last night’s revenge ambush was about to be cold showered by what Tom and Charlie had found out.

  ‘What do you mean we’re now marked men?’ Geoff frowned concerned.

  Tom explained. ‘The three lads we went after are all members of the Colwyn Bay gang called the Wilkinsons, and they’re notorious for carrying blades.’

  ‘Wilkinson swords.’ Geoff joked.

  ‘Are you sure?’ Phil asked, his face now showing the bruising from the recent attack.

  ‘One of our bouncer mates at Wetherspoons phoned us up this morning to warn us. Apparently the news has spread like wild fire.’

  ‘But did they recognise you lot though?’ Phil asked.

  Geoff made a face. ‘Would have been hard with the beanie hats, and we were more or less straight in and out.’

  Tom turned to Geoff. ‘Well, even if they did get a good look at us they wouldn’t know you from Adam. But there’s always a chance they might know Charlie and me from the doors.’

  Phil chewed his lip with concern. ‘Those Wilkinsons, we know all about them, they’re a bit of a handful, and they have a lot of drug connections as well.’

  ‘How many are there in the gang?’ Geoff asked.

  ‘As far as I know, they’re about fifteen to twenty strong.’ Phil replied.

  ‘Yeah, bunch of cowards.’ Tom snarled. ‘Can’t fight for shit by themselves, they always need their mates as back up.’

  ‘Too right.’ Charlie ag
reed.

  ‘Be careful, lads. I mean it!’ Phil warned them.

  Geoff began to feel the effects of post adrenal dump, the fear of consequence, and he recalled what Will had said about revenge, and how in the end you may have to defeat the whole army.

  ‘So what’s the plan?’ Charlie asked.

  Geoff swallowed defiantly. ‘We made the choice to do what we did, so we have to accept the consequences.’

  ‘I think we should all carry our own weapons at all times.’ Tom added.

  Phil ignored that last remark.

  Geoff continued. ‘We should all stay in close contact on our mobiles day and night, and be on hand for back up.’

  Phil cut in. ‘Ring me anytime, and I’ll make sure the police get there as soon as possible. OK? Don’t go anywhere alone at night either.’

  Tom grimaced sheepishly ‘We may have to get some more back up ourselves, you know?’

  That thought had already crossed Geoff’s mind and he had a short list of possibilities. But the one at the top of his list he wanted to keep secret for the time being.

  ‘We may be able to get Mike on board.’ Tom turned to Charlie for confirmation.

  ‘Yeah, he’ll definitely come in an emergency.’

  ‘I’ve got a few possibilities,’ Geoff confessed. ‘One especially that I can look into, and there’s Guy in Colwyn Bay who runs a judo club, known him for years. Back when his brother was beaten into a coma some ten years ago, he wanted to start a kind of vigilante group, so he won’t need a lot of convincing. We’re going to have to have our own team, not just anyone. They have to be people we can trust, people who are willing to act at short notice, and people who are up to the mark. This is going to have to be a special team.’

  Tom and Charlie nodded, impressed. This was right up their street.

  ‘Once every fortnight, or whatever we can manage, we all train together at a certain location away from where we normally train. Nobody discusses these sessions with anyone, everybody should attend, no shirking. OK? All this may seem a bit of an over reaction, but I don’t want to wait for one of us to get maimed or worse before we do anything about it. Forewarned is forearmed.’

  Tom smirked amused. ‘Ever done a stint in the army, Geoff?’

  Geoff loosened up a tad. ‘Hopefully, nothing will happen, and all this will blow over, after all they’ve been paid back for what they did.’

  ‘Except for that other one we didn’t get,’ Tom grumbled.

  Geoff ignored him. ‘But even if this does blow over without any comebacks. It’s gotten to the stage out there now were we have to have some sort of back-up protection should we need it. Maybe the time to do something about all this crime out there has come to a head. And, no disrespect to Phil, the law isn’t much help anymore is it?’

  Reluctantly, Phil had to agree.

  ‘And I don’t know about any of you, but I think I’ll be able to sleep much better at night knowing that if any of us, or our families, face any serious hassle or danger from those animals out there, then retribution is only a phone call away.’

  ‘What about me?’ Phil asked feeling a bit left out.

  Geoff turned to him. ‘You’ll be our eyes and ears, you’re in a position where you can supply us with the necessary info we might need, like addresses etc, if it comes to that.’

  Tom gave Charlie a sly nudge.

  Phil shifted about in his seat uncomfortably. ‘That could be a bit iffy for me, you know?’

  Geoff realised this and didn’t want to put Phil on the spot. ‘Phil, I would never ask you to risk your job or anything, but any inside info you could get for us could give us the edge we might need. But if it’s too risky, then fair enough, we’ll understand, OK?’

  In response, Phil told Geoff that he couldn’t make any promises.

  ‘So is everybody alright with this? Does anyone have a problem committing to a pact like this?’

  Tom spoke up. ’So is this going to be our own sort of vigilante group?’

  ‘No, I don’t want to think of it like that. It’s not our job to clean up the whole town. We’re not the A Team. All we’re trying to do is provide a kind of minding service for ourselves, family and friends that’s all. Something like a ready tube of Bisodol in our pockets should we ever get an attack of heartburn.’

  Phil rolled his eyes at Geoff’s wit, while Tom’s and Charlie’s imaginations were already beginning to run wild.

  CHAPTER 6

  Later that day, Geoff pressed the doorbell to Will’s flat. While he waited, he gazed around at the street’s mid-afternoon, hustle and bustle. When Will finally answered the door, he looked pleased to see that Geoff was safe and sound.

  ‘Geoff, come on through,’ he said and Geoff followed him in.

  As they entered his flat, Will turned impatiently.

  ‘So how did it go the other night? Sorry, I was going to phone you but something came up.’

  Geoff noticed a packed rucksack on the couch and paused before replying. ‘It went OK, we got our revenge, but we missed getting the third lad, he wasn’t there.’

  Will walked through to the kitchen, which appeared spotlessly clean, as if he’d had a bit of a tidy-up. ‘Glad to see you got through it without any complications,’ he remarked, then became somewhat preoccupied with trying to find something. Again, Geoff glanced at the bulging rucksack.

  ‘You planning to go somewhere?’

  Will stopped his searching. ‘Yeah, f’raid so, things didn’t work out with Stacey. I thought after all this time she would perhaps be ready to wipe the slate clean, but no such chance. Thought it was worth trying one last time.’ Will tried to look busy again as if he was trying to hide his obvious disappointment.

  Geoff scowled to himself. All this didn’t quite fit in with what he came to ask him and now certainly wasn’t the best time to mention it. Instead he did what a true mate was supposed to do, he lent him his ear.

  ‘Wanna talk about it?’

  Will sighed heavily. ‘What’s to say really. I gave it a go, it didn’t work out, so I might as well head off back to Warrington.’

  ‘Will, make us a cuppa,’ Geoff said settling himself down on the couch next to the rucksack ready to hear the whole story.

  A mug of tea later, Will had more or less told Geoff the entire history of his relationship with Stacey, minus the bits about the reasons behind his late night get-aways, and why he ended up in prison.

  Geoff tried to be as diplomatic as possible. ‘Listen, Will, women are very funny creatures, especially about things like trust and responsibility, and shit like that. If they suspect you are up to no good, believe me they will move heaven and earth to suss you out.’

  Sitting at the window table, Will’s eyes flicked up and then back down again.

  Geoff winked slyly at him. ‘So what were you up to then? Was it a bit of skirt on the side or what?’

  Will sat up in defence. ‘No! Nothing like that at all!’

  ‘Well, what then? Can’t you even tell me? Is it that bad?’

  Will thought about it, then stood up and turned uncomfortably towards the window. ‘Swear to me that what I’m going to tell you now, will never leave this room?’

  Geoff nodded his head, ‘Of course I swear!’

  Will settled as if he was relieved at actually having the chance to get it off his chest. ‘I used to be a member of an organisation whose sole purpose was to tackle serious organised crime and the supply and distribution of drugs.’

  Geoff looked bewildered. ‘No shit! So how did you get involved in all that?’

  ‘I first started out as a mixed martial arts fighter, I had about seven or eight bouts and was doing very well, I’d gotten a bit of a name for myself, a bit of a reputation. Then through an associate of mine, I got the chance to join this kind of anti-crime outfit committed to tackling serious crime. Remember how you used to joke that I should have joined the police force? Well that’s about the close
st that I got to it. But this outfit was sort of like The Serious and Organised Crime Agency. We used to help track down and apprehend career criminals, notorious gang leaders, and the easy-graft criminals…

  ‘Easy-graft criminals?’ Geoff asked.

  ‘Yeah, that’s how a lot of them start out. The gang leaders send someone by Easy Jet to Amsterdam and Spain to deliver messages. Not bad work, they just get paid to sit on a plane. Did you know that Amsterdam is the world’s drugs supermarket where most drugs in the UK come from?

  In the late eighties a group of scousers set up there, and ever since then they have a stronger presence there than any other UK gangs. Drugs come back into Liverpool then get divided up. It costs a criminal £24,000 for a kilo of pure cocaine in Amsterdam. Slip it back into Britain and they can double their money.’

  ‘So what happens then once the drugs have got back into Britain?’

  ‘Someone cuts it down mixes it with various stuff, then it goes to the next guy who cuts it, then the next guy and so on. By the time a punter buys a gram on the street for £40 or £50 they’re lucky if it’s 40 percent cocaine.

  An area like Liverpool might be run by about twenty lads, they have punters who come to their patch to buy drugs, and they’ll do anything to defend that.’

  Geoff was having trouble absorbing it all. ‘So how did you get trained up for all that then?’

  ‘Well we didn’t handle the operations and setting up side of the raids, we were the just hired muscle to look after the agents who went in. We were the back-up. Some of these drug gang members are as hard as nails, especially when they’re on the weed themselves. They’re like non-stop machines, and they’ll come at you with anything.’

  ‘So did you have any training in that sort of thing?’

  ‘Yeah, we had a basic training in the weapons you’re allowed to use, and you’re given protective wear, but at the end of the day, it was our own fighting skills that were needed.’

  ‘So how many of you were there?’

  ‘In all there was about twelve of us used for various operations. But after a couple of my mates got killed in separate raids, I starting looking for the back door – it was getting too risky. And then I met Stacey and that confirmed it for me that I had to get out. Thing is in a job like that you make a lot of enemies, and I couldn’t risk my life as well as Stacey’s, I mean if any of those Merseyside gangs found out who I was, they would go after her first.’