She slipped on her trainers and picked up a hoody. She put it on quickly and checked her makeup as she stepped out of the door. By now, the night was cooler and the street outside was quiet. She checked both ways, her attention caught by a flash of headlights. She strained to see where it had come from; it was a car parked around six cars down and she walked towards it. She could see it was the same white car she had been in earlier. She hesitated, dipping her head to see the front-seat occupants and expecting it to be a squealing Sam and her obnoxious boyfriend. It was just Danny. He was smiling.
She pulled open the front passenger door and the interior suddenly lit up with a soft white. She slid into the leather seat and pulled the door shut. The light faded to off.
‘What are you doing here? And in this car?’
‘I wanted to come and see you.’
‘Does Rosh know you’ve got the car?’
‘No. And, like you pointed out earlier, it’s very obviously not down to him who uses it!’
‘Who is it down to then? He said it was a work’s car, right?’
‘It is.’
‘So how come you got it?’
‘Because I’m in the same line of work. I need to run an errand in it. It’s a drive out. I was wondering if you fancied coming along for the ride.’
‘What line of work?’
‘I guess I’m a courier. Not often. I just help out sometimes. Do you want to come along or not?’
Rhiannon turned to face the front door of the house. ‘I can’t. Rose has us in for ten. She’ll be checking on me any minute.’
‘She don’t own you, Rhiannon. No one does. Kids skip out of these places all the time. It don’t mean shit. This Rose, she’ll expect it from you. She probably won’t even mention it.’
‘I don’t want to upset her, you know. She’s been good to me.’
‘You got your phone?’
Rhiannon could feel it digging into her buttock through her back pocket. ‘Yeah.’
‘So she can call you, right? You can tell her you’re fine.’
‘I shouldn’t. Maybe tomorrow night? I’ll tell her what I’m doing so she knows not to worry—’
‘Maybe I can’t do tomorrow night. I thought it would be nice. I didn’t want to ride on my own. But don’t worry, you better get back in before she checks on you.’
Rhiannon took a moment. He was pissed off, it wasn’t difficult to tell. She really didn’t want to disappoint him. And what would it matter anyway? The first thing Rose would do was call and she would just say she was running late and she was fine. After what she’d been through, no one was going to be too hard on her for getting in late past a curfew. And she was certain Sam wasn’t back yet.
‘Okay.’
Danny perked up. ‘Okay you’re going in or okay you’re coming for the ride?’
‘I’ll take the ride out. But it’s one hour, that’s all.’
‘One hour! Cross my heart.’
Rhiannon reached for her seatbelt. It clicked shut. Danny’s gaze lingered on her.
‘What?’ she said.
‘Nothing! You’re just different.’
‘So you keep saying and I still don’t know what you mean.’
‘I’m not sure I do either,’ Danny said. ‘Do you want a go? We can head somewhere quieter.’
‘A go?’
‘A go. A drive.’
‘No, I don’t drive.’
‘It’s an automatic, it’s real easy.’
‘It’s real expensive is what it is.’
‘Nothing can go wrong, and I’d just say I was driving. Come on, your mate Sam’s had a go in it. You don’t want her to have that over you, right? She drives it loads.’
‘No. Thanks but I’m not bothered. It looks complicated too, I’d look silly.’
‘It’s easy!’ Danny started pointing at different components of the car. ‘This button starts it. This is the gear stick. You just need to have your foot on the brake and knock it back so the “D” lights up. Then it’s good to go — the right pedal makes it go faster and the left pedal is the brake. Oh and “R” for reverse. Easy as that! You can’t mess up, and if you do, the car even tells you.’ Danny pointed at the car’s internal display; it suddenly changed to a diagram of the gear stick and instructions on how to use it, the car also bonged impatiently. Danny had obviously done something wrong.
‘I’m sure it’s all very easy, but I’m good, thanks.’
‘You can’t even mess up the seating position. The boss is programmed in to the “Number One” button, you just push that when you’re done and he’ll never know you were in his seat! It goes right back to how he sits. Come on, give it a go!’
‘No!’ Rhiannon instantly felt bad. He was trying to be nice and she had snapped. ‘Sorry, I just really don’t want to give it a go. I have to be back soon anyway so we should probably get going. I can’t be out too long. Maybe I’ll give it a go another time.’
Danny didn’t seem bothered. ‘You’re right. Let’s get this done.’
It was twenty minutes later when the car came to a stop. They had talked for the first half of the journey, re-living their walk around the town. Danny had been too cool to make a face in the reflections of the shop windows at first. When Rhiannon finally convinced him to play along, he’d chosen the exact moment a window dresser had stepped out. For a few moments at least she’d been consumed with laughter, enough to forget everything else.
The car was warm and comfortable and they quickly left the town behind, so there was nothing to see outside but blackness. Rhiannon was fighting heavy eyelids, but she snapped to attention when the engine fell silent.
‘Are we here?’
‘Yeah. I won’t be a minute.’ She had to narrow her eyes; the interior was again a bright white that faded as the door closed behind him. She peered out. He was walking towards what looked like a small industrial unit. It was part of a row of maybe six or seven that pushed away into the distance. There were no other cars or people that she could see and just one orange light above one of the doors. The door that Danny entered.
Rhiannon pushed her door open to stretch her legs. The car lit up again. She pushed the door shut and the night returned. It was a beautiful clear sky. She could see a little more of the industrial estate. It appeared there was one road in, one road out and a low fence wrapped around as far as she could see. Beyond this fence were occasional silhouettes of trees. A couple of the other units had boats outside, which made her think that they might be near the sea, or a river at least. In truth she had no idea where she was.
The door that Danny had entered drew her attention, it opened again — with such force that it smacked off the wall. A figure came out of it, it was moving towards the car and it was moving fast. It was Danny, and he called out as he got to her.
‘Get back in the car! Get in the car!’ He sounded panicked. It made Rhiannon panic and she fumbled over the door handle. Suddenly two bright headlights came from nowhere, illuminating Danny as he sprinted to the driver’s side. He threw himself into the seat and the car started. Danny pulled away, swinging the car 180 degrees and accelerating away. The road was uneven and bumpy. Rhiannon said nothing until they made it back to the road and turned right. The BMW accelerated strongly and shifted Rhiannon around in her seat. Danny’s breathing was quick, still a little panicked. She waited until he seemed to relax a little and had stopped checking his rear-view mirrors every few seconds. He made a few more turns and got himself lost in a housing estate. He pulled the car over.
‘Sorry, Rhiannon.’
‘What just happened?’
‘It wasn’t supposed to be like that.’
‘What wasn’t?’
‘I pick stuff up, stuff gets left for me, I pick it up and I take it back. That’s it.’
‘That isn’t what just happened.’
‘No. There were people there. They said there was no stuff for me to take. I told them my boss wouldn’t be happy but they didn’t care.’
‘What stuff? What people?’
‘I don’t know what people! I don’t know anything! I turn up, pick up and I take it back.’
‘Pick up what?’
‘Jesus, Rhiannon, I don’t ask. You shouldn’t ask either — there are some things you just don’t ask about.’
Danny was suddenly upset. Rhiannon assumed he was upset at her. She bit back. ‘You said this was a drive out — you sold it like it was a drive in the country. I think I’ve got every right to ask what you were doing if you’re going to make me a part of it, don’t you?’
‘Sorry,’ Danny said.
Rhiannon sat back. This was the first time Danny had come across as anything other than supremely confident. He had backed right off — almost meek.
‘Are you taking me home?’ Rhiannon demanded.
Danny peered out. He had killed all the lights on the car. They were parked in a residential street that was washed in a dull orange light from fixed street lamps. Their position was elevated, enough that they could see some of the surrounding roads too. Nothing was moving.
‘Yeah. I’ll take you home. I am sorry though, yeah? I shouldn’t have involved you in this. I swear this has never happened before. This is some easy shit normally.’
‘Forget about it.’
The BMW fired and Danny pulled away.
Chapter 10
William woke on his living room floor, his buttocks still pushed against the back wall. He had slumped onto his side, his right hand still wrapped around the empty bottle of rum. It had been two-thirds full when he had started. He was aware of people walking past him, the rustling of black sacks — they had one in each hand. His eyes focused on two teenage white lads. He thought he recognised them from around the town. He watched them walk out of his front door in single file. They returned seconds later. They no longer had the black sacks.
‘What’s going on? What are you doing?’
‘We got, like, fifty quid,’ one of the lads said. ‘We’re nearly done, mate.’
‘Fifty quid for what?’
‘Aaron wants us to get rid of a load of shit. Everything in there.’ The two continued into the bedroom once occupied by William and Janey. William got unsteadily to his feet. His right leg was stiff but the pain was dulled by the alcohol. As he used the wall for support, the room seemed to move a little around him. He made it to the threshold of his bedroom. He had to step back as the two lads came back out with two more sacks each. He stepped in the room after them. The window was wide open, the curtains that had been pulled shut over it for as long as he could remember were gone. The curtain pole remained and now held wisps of material as if the curtains had just been ripped from the pole.
The bedroom looked out on the rear garden. His mum had kept it nice all the while she had the mobility but, when she got ill, nature had taken it aggressively back. Now it was six-foot tall grass, weeds and brambles and they pressed at the window like an invading army. William could see that an area had been flattened. A chest of drawers and his broken bed frame had been thrown out. His mum’s old wardrobe was still against the far wall. It was a large, flimsy unit, three doors wide but the middle one had been hanging off. That was now missing and the clothes that had been spilling from its belly were missing too. Most of those had been Janey’s. He remembered the floor had been covered in clothes and shoes and the top of the wardrobe had been layers and layers of books. Janey was a big reader: Stephen King, Dean Koontz, James Herbert — all the classic horrors. All were gone. Now the top of the wardrobe supported a digital aerial with two metal prongs sticking out. The aerial lead ran to a flat-screen television that clung to the wall and that William had never seen before.
William made it back into the lounge just as the front door was closing. He pulled it open almost immediately. The two lads had a shopping trolley with Sainsbury’s on the handle. It was laden with black bags, the wheels clunked as they kicked up against the uneven stone path.
‘Hey! That’s my stuff, you can’t just take that!’
The lads stopped. ‘We got paid to get it all out and to get rid of it. We ain’t robbing it, we’re dumping it.’
‘I don’t want it dumped!’
‘You need to speak to Aaron, man. We got told, we need to do what he said to get paid.’
‘Janey’s stuff. You can’t just take Janey’s stuff!’ William took hold of the trolley handle and pulled it back towards the house. He immediately felt a shove in his chest. He stepped back, the handle slipped from his grasp and the lad who had pushed him stepped in between him and the trolley.
‘You got a problem, you speak to Aaron. He said to take it away and he said not to take no shit about it. He said he’d told you about it too. We’re going.’
William stepped back so he was squared up to the lad; he was suddenly filled with rage. ‘You don’t just come here and take my stuff. I don’t care who told you what. This is my house.’ William couldn’t see the blow coming, the first he knew of it was when he felt the force to his stomach and the air suddenly left his lungs. He was forced to stumble back, the pain in his leg suddenly so bad that it took him right to the floor. His breath still wouldn’t come. He lay gulping on the floor and could do nothing more than watch as the two lads pushed the trolley away. The second lad stepped back towards him.
‘You got a new TV at least. It works. I tested it. There’s no remote though. We didn’t have time to get that too.’
William watched them leave for good.
It took a couple more minutes for a complete recovery. He made it to a tentative sit first, then back to his feet. It was the first time he had been alone for a few days and he slammed the door shut as he limped back into his home. No sooner had it shut than he heard it push back open again. He turned to see Aaron strutting through. The black guy who had hit him in the thigh earlier was with him. Neither of them acknowledged William.
‘So what happened?’ Aaron sounded upset. He moved to the sofa and sat down. He looked back up at his colleague with his arms crossed.
‘I can only tell you what I got told. He went there and he says he got chased off. They said we owe them money and there was nothing coming our way until they had it. They said, like, ten grand.’
‘Ten grand. That’s about right for what he was picking up. It’s always been the same though. We never pay upfront.’
‘I know that, Aaron.’
‘So why did they want it upfront this time?’
‘I don’t know, man. He asked the question and got told to fuck off. It got heated and they made some promises if he didn’t leave, you know what I’m saying?’
‘Yeah, I think I do. My boy should be able to handle that, though, right? Was he carrying?’
‘I guess so. We always do on pickups, right? But he had to be away clean — he had his bitch in the car outside. I think he was worried it might spill over.’
Aaron had been shaking his head, sucking his bottom lip, looking thoughtful. Now his attention snapped up as if he had been stung. ‘Say what?’
‘He was worried, like. He had a bitch out in the car. I don’t think he wanted to start pulling in that situation, you know?’
‘No, I don’t fucking know! What bitch? And why the fuck would he be taking some girl out to a meet?’
The lad offered a shrug. William saw real fear in him.
‘Where is he? I want him here. I want him to come and tell me what the fuck happened and I want to know why I need to be running back up to the city for a reload. This hits business and I don’t accept that, you understand?’
‘I understand, Aaron. I’ll give him a call.’
‘You do that. And you tell him to get over here. And you tell him to bring that bitch with him too. Seems he likes bringing her along to his shit anyway. I don’t work with no fucking amateurs.’ Aaron stood up. He kicked the table so it shifted across the floor.
‘Oi!’ William stepped forward. ‘Why don’t you fuck off home and kick your own table!’
Aaron turned wide eyes and flaring nostrils towards William. ‘Well, if it ain’t the rummy. Your bedroom should be sorted by now. I told you to stay in it and I meant it. I see you out here again and I’m going to start taking out some of my frustration on your good leg. And you should know that I got a lot of frustration inside me right now.’
‘Why don’t you just fuck off?’ William reacted.
Aaron was on him in an instant and William was on the floor before his senses caught up. The right side of his face stung, his vision flashed black. He was on his hands and knees. He could sense that Aaron was stood over him.
‘Why beat on the leg when I can beat on your worthless fucking face instead? Let’s pretend that room in there is your fucking rock rummy. Now go crawl back under it.’
William felt a kick to the ribs on his left side and a shot of pain in his right thigh as he crawled towards the door. He struggled to speak. ‘You can have that room, too. I’m out of here. I’ll find somewhere else to stay. You can have the whole fucking place.’
‘No can do, rummy. While you’re here I know you ain’t talking to no one about nothing. I reckon I need to get some control over you, make sure I keep it fresh in your mind what happens if you go talking about my setup here.’
‘You making me a prisoner in my own home?’
Aaron smiled. He dropped to a squat so he was closer to William. ‘I don’t need to make you no prisoner, rummy, do I? You understand your situation. You need to get out to the shops an’ that, you fill your boots, but you come back here when you’re done. I’m making a real dent in this town. Soon it will be mine. People are talking to me already out there, rummy. If you think you can go shooting your mouth off I’ll know about it before you get home. My advice is to crawl back under your rock and to stay there for as long as possible.’
The pain in William’s leg remained. He made it to the door, he used the handle to get to his feet. He scanned the living room, he settled on a framed picture on top of the wooden shelf over the fireplace. ‘I want my picture. Give me the picture and I’ll get out of your way.’
Ruthless a Gripping and Gritty Crime Thriller Page 6
