Aaron walked over to it. He picked it up. ‘This one?’
‘Yeah. Give it here and I’m out of your way.’
Aaron dropped it to the floor. He stepped forward and William could hear the crunch of the glass under his foot. He picked it back up. ‘You can have your worthless picture, rummy. You cause me any more problems and it won’t be the only thing broken up into little pieces. You understand?’
The picture landed at his feet. Most of the glass shook itself out. The beaming couple and the six-year-old girl looked up at him from the floor. He picked it up and brought it hurriedly to his chest.
Chapter 11
A scraping noise made Rhiannon jump. She’d been lost in her thoughts at the big table in Rose’s kitchen. She looked up to see Sam perched on the offending stool.
‘You scared me!’ Rhiannon said. She’d been thinking about Aunty Mel, about the happy times, about karaoke in Benidorm last September when Mel had managed to get a last minute cheap deal. They had shared an apartment. It was so bad they had stayed out late every night to put off going back there. Despite this, it had been the best week of Rhiannon’s life. For just a few days she was able to understand what it was like to be truly carefree, to put life and all its troubles on hold.
‘Sorry, Rhiannon. I didn’t, like, sneak up or anything.’
‘Nah, I know. I was just thinking about stuff.’
‘About your aunt?’
‘A little.’
‘It’s shit. It’s proper shit. It’ll take some time, but it will be cool. I know what you said, but you will be happy again. We’re young, right, babe? There’s loads of good times to come.’
Rhiannon forced a smile. ‘I’m sure you’re right.’
‘There’s Danny for one thing. You like him right?’
‘He seems nice.’
‘And fit too!’
‘He’s nice. I don’t know what I’m doing at the moment. I wasn’t really planning on getting involved with a fella.’
‘Don’t stress. You don’t need to be doing boyfriend-girlfriend. Doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun, get him to spend some money on you, right?’
‘I like the sound of that at least! How do the boys make their money, Sam? They’re in the same business right?’
Sam suddenly looked more serious. ‘Yeah, I think they work together.’
‘Doing what?’
‘You know what, Rhiannon? I don’t ask much. You see how Rosh gets. He doesn’t like questions. They do some courier work, I think. Deliveries. Shit like that.’
‘Do you know what they deliver?’
‘Nope. Nothing illegal though. These boys are good boys. Rosh ain’t ever even been nicked.’
‘He told you that?’
‘He didn’t have to. What’s this about? You worried about getting involved with a bad boy? You shouldn’t worry about that. It’s the good boys you want to worry about anyway. Them boys will bore you shitless.’
‘Like I said, I’m not sure I want to get involved with any boys — good or bad.’
‘Shame. ’Cause I got a message from Rosh. He wants to pick us both up and take us out this afternoon. I was thinking maybe the bowling alley or summin’. He said to make sure I asked you, too — for Danny.’
‘He didn’t say that, did he?’
‘He did! Look!’ Sam pulled her smartphone from her pocket. Rhiannon held her hands out.
‘Okay, fine. I believe you. Have you not got school this afternoon?’
‘College. And, no. I only do a half day on Thursdays. So what do you reckon? You fancy it?’
‘I dunno, Sam.’
‘You can stay here if you want. But Anais has Thursday afternoons off too, so she’ll be home soon. Rose is out, so it’ll just be you two getting real cosy.’
‘I was going to ask you about Anais. What is her problem?’
‘She’s a bitch, that’s her problem. She doesn’t like people. That suits me to be honest. I never wanted to hang with the bitch anyway. She’s literally got, like, no friends. So now you have to come out, otherwise you’ll be here taking her shit.’
‘Fine. I’ll come out for a bit.’
Sam looked Rhiannon up and down. ‘I think the boys will be about half an hour. Do you want to get changed?’
Rhiannon was wearing her usual: tight fitting jeans with rips at the knees, Converse trainers and a black fitted T-shirt with cut back sleeves. She chuckled. ‘Well, no. But you clearly think I should.’
‘I just never see any harm in showing a little flesh, you know? You dress like you want to cover it all up. You’ve got a great body. Show it off a bit.’
‘This is pretty much all I’ve got to wear.’
‘You could sooo get in my dresses! Let’s go try some shit on — see if we can’t bring out the slut you’ve been hiding.’
Rhiannon chuckled again. ‘Clearly I haven’t been hiding it well.’ Then a thought occurred to her and the laughter fell away.
‘You okay?’ Sam said.
‘Yeah, of course. For a second there you just really sounded like my Aunty Mel.’
‘The slut bit?’
‘Yeah.’
‘I think I would have liked your aunty.’
* * *
The rain had come on quick and it had caught William out. He had seen the clouds gathering through the bus window and the rain was already heavy by the time he was spat out through the hissing doors into the centre of Langthorne. Eazy Cutz barbers was just a couple of hundred metres’ walk, but he was limping heavily and pretty soaked through by the time he bustled through the door.
Nik Jenkins’s chair was occupied by a young lad with a tattoo that covered most of his neck at the front and Nik was stood over him. He acknowledged William in the mirror but didn’t break from his small talk with the client. William fell clumsily into one of the seats in the waiting area and listened as Nik went through his small-talk repertoire. First up were the football fixtures for the weekend, then came the muggy weather at nights and the rain today. It was just five minutes or so until Nik thanked the tattooed man and closed the door.
‘You look like shit, Will.’ Nik’s full and pointed beard shook as he spoke.
‘Well, thanks a lot, man. You look like you haven’t shaved in months yourself.’
‘I shave every morning, mate. So what can I do for you?’ Nik was already sweeping the floor. William stayed seated.
‘What can I do for you, Nik? That is the question.’
Nik stopped what he was doing and checked the shop door. It was still empty. ‘I’m not really doing much at the moment, Will, you know. I don’t like to have too much on the go.’
‘Very sensible. So what doesn’t stick around for long? Maybe we can help each other here.’
Nik looked thoughtful. He emptied a dustpan over the bin. ‘Look, perfume. It’s always the best. The Issey Miyake stuff. I can always get rid of that. I got a few people that will take that straight off my hands.’
‘Flowerbomb?’
‘Yeah, that’s the stuff. It’s one of the most expensive scents out there so it always goes if it’s offered at a price.’
‘Anything else? What about aftershaves, the last lot of Calvin Klein went well, right?’
‘Yeah it did, but that was just before Christmas, weren’t it? I never struggle round then. I’ll be honest, mate, I got more call for perfume. The women will buy it all year round, the only time the aftershave really goes is when the women are buying that for the blokes.’
‘So perfume. Issey Miyake, maybe Calvin Klein. Anything else?’
‘Any of the new stuff out. They always go well, but just don’t go too mad. I don’t want so much shit that it’s hanging around.’
‘Don’t worry, I understand. We’re a tenner a bottle right? Like before.’
Nik frowned. ‘I dunno, man, that was just before Christmas, like I said, so I could punt that out for a bit more. People still knew they were getting a deal but they wanted it. This time of year p
eople will take it or leave it if the price isn’t right. I will need to punt it out for a bit less and it needs to be worth my while.’
‘So what are you saying, Nik? ’Cause I’m the one taking all the risk here.’
‘I’m saying a fiver a bottle. That’s all I can do and you’re not the only one risking your arse. Most of it will only go for a tenner, tops. I won’t get more than that and I’ve got a business and a clean record to consider.’
‘Some of this shit is seventy quid a bottle. Surely you can punt it out for more than a tenner?’
‘Seventy quid to your well-heeled Debenhams’ customer with a nice display box and a receipt. The black market tends to value shit differently.’
‘You don’t need to be telling me, Nik. I can’t remember any other type of market.’
‘You okay, though, Will? You don’t look your normal self. Did you lose weight and gain a limp?’
‘Something like that.’
‘You been to the doctor? Looks nasty.’
‘Nah. I will go, I’m not a big fan of the doctor.’
‘Who is. Where’s the partner in crime today? You already got Janey out scoping the scene?’
William took a second. ‘No, mate. I lost her. Just a couple of days back. Seems the drugs finally got the better of her.’
‘Lost her? Oh shit, you mean lost her like she’s gone? Gone?’
‘Gone, gone. Overdose. All accidental. She knew the risks. We both did. I can’t say I didn’t see it coming but there was just no telling her.’
‘Shit, man. I’m really sorry.’
‘Me too.’
‘You gonna be able to pull this off now? I mean you were a team effort right and now you’ve got a shitty leg an’ all.’
‘I’m not totally useless just yet, Nik. I might struggle for a fiver a go though.’
‘Fine. Seven quid a bottle if I can move it straight away, but I get to be choosy.’
‘That’ll do.’
* * *
William stood back out in the rain. Langthorne was home to one of a chain of chemists that also sold a large selection of perfumes and aftershaves. It was a short walk but his aching thigh meant it took him twice as long to get there. This gave him plenty of time to consider his options. He and Janey had been good at this. She was becoming quite well known in the town, all the shop staff and security guards knew she had previously been done for shoplifting and she was banned from most of the shops. It had been rather ironic that this was the best thing that could have happened; it had provided them with an opportunity. Janey would walk into the chosen shop with real purpose and would fill a bag with the most expensive items she could find. She would then hurry towards the door, dropping the bag just before the exit and continuing through and out onto the street. Any security guard worth their salt would make her their complete focus but would hold off until the moment she left the shop. Prior to this point there was nothing that could be done; it took someone to leave a shop with stolen items to commit the act of theft. Only Janey would never be in possession of any stolen items when she left, the bag dropped on the threshold. Security would still fuss over her; she would be searched, reminded of her ban and sent on her way. William, in the meantime, would have filled a similar bag. Only this one would stay with him.
Today he would need to rethink his options.
The shop was busy. The weather is important to the shoplifter. Sunny days were the best as they brought out the more casual shopper. Crowds of people would wander in and out of shops, browsing at their leisure and it was easy to blend in. On rainy days there were very few browsers; people were in the shop to buy something, to steal something or to stand still and watch the rain for their opportunity to leave. It was very difficult to disguise which of them you were. The security guard spotted William the second he walked in. He was Nepalese — a lot of ex-Gurkha soldiers would turn to security when their military careers were spent. He was alert, his uniform immaculately pressed. William expected him to be quite the foe.
The shop was on two floors. The perfume was mostly on shelves behind the counters on the ground floor against the right-hand wall. The top floor was a mezzanine level. There were escalators to the left up to the photography and baby section. William could see two women gassing at the lift door, the call-button illuminated. They were stood over buggies, one with a toddler squirming in her grasp. They stopped their talking momentarily to move into the lift. William made for the escalators. He arrived at the top at the same sort of time and moved towards the back of the floor. He was aware that the security guard had watched him up the escalator. He knew how he looked, he knew his appearance would put the guard on high alert. But the guard was still on the ground floor and he would be out of his line of sight.
At the back of the top floor were rows of prams for sale as well as nappies, creams and toys. He picked out a baby doll and ripped it from its box. He tucked the doll in his rain jacket — the one advantage of grafting on a rainy day. He stood back up as the two mums ambled towards the front of the floor. He made it to the lift and called it. The lift arrived and he dropped the empty box between its doors. They immediately jolted back open and stayed that way. The woman with the toddler holding her hand was walking slowly, slow enough for William to get to her while she crossed along the top of the escalator. He glanced into the pram — empty — he shoved it sideways into the moving stairs. It bucked and twisted against the metal shelves as they rose up, but it soon tipped sideways down the stairs. Both women screamed, and William added to the confusion with a shout of his own. Then he turned and made his way as quickly as his leg would allow back to the lift. The adrenalin helped with the pain. He kicked the box out of the way and pressed for the ground floor. Within seconds he was walking past the commotion. The Nepalese guard was trying to retrieve the pram. It had made it halfway back up, the contents from underneath the pram strewn all down the metal stairs. Other members of staff were helping as best they could. William threw the baby doll under a rail of clothes. He shouted again, pointing as he did so. The rest of the staff came and he heard another scream from behind him. Everyone’s attention was elsewhere.
William made it to the counter. He scooped what he needed off the shelves in seconds, the bottles fell into a big ‘bag-for-life.’ He had sewn layers of foil around the inside. It wasn’t a sure-fire way to beat the sensors but it rarely failed him. It didn’t today. The alarm stayed silent. He walked away from the commotion and into the street where he could mingle back with the dismal day and the shoppers with their heads down.
William made it to Eazy Cutz and found it empty of customers. Nik must have reacted to the sound of the front door; he appeared from the back room swigging from a coffee cup. ‘You want one?’ he offered.
‘No, I need to get out of town, really.’
‘I see. Did you make a noise?’
‘Nothing that will come back to you. The classic diversion.’
‘Nothing naked, I hope?’
‘No, the old push-the-baby-down-the-stairs routine.’
Nik balked on his coffee. ‘You pushed a baby down the stairs?’
‘Of course I didn’t! Smoke and mirrors, Nik. You want these or not?’
‘What did you get?’
‘Thirteen bottles – Calvin Klein. Most of them boxed, they will need the tags removed. You can still snip the tags right?’
‘Yeah, until they change them.’
‘Well, okay, you’ll be fine with these. So thirteen times seven, I make that ninety-one quid. Call it ninety, yeah?’
Nik had a comb behind his ear. He used it to reach in to the bag to move the bottles around. ‘I’m not sure I want all of these, mate. There’s definitely a couple that aren’t worth anything much. Did you not get any Issey Miyake?’
‘I didn’t have the time to be choosy, I went for the Calvin Klein display. Most of it is CK.’
‘And some of it isn’t.’
‘Like three bottles aren’t. They’re still worth money th
ough.’
‘Not to me.’
‘Fine . . . listen . . . seventy quid, the lot. That’s your ten CK bottles and the three others for nothing — you can still get a fiver each for them I reckon. That’s fair, right?’
Nik bit on the comb. ‘Fine. Put them out the back – usual place.’
William limped through a door marked private. It had a small kitchenette and a further door with a toilet and basin. Under the sink, the pipes had been boxed in by sheets of wood. It eased apart and William stacked the perfume in the void behind. By the time he walked back into the shop with his bag empty, his cash was already counted out.
‘Cheers, Nik.’
‘Are you back on it now then? I haven’t seen you for a while is all.’
‘We all have to make our money, Nik. I need to eat. I need to come up with something different long term. Today’s idea won’t work again. I might get picked out when they review the CCTV footage as it is.’ William saw Nik react. ‘Don’t worry! I walked a route that is well off-camera, there’s no coverage up here.’
‘Well, pop back in for a haircut when you know what you’re doing. Just make sure you give it a rinse first.’
William couldn’t miss Nik staring at his hair. He didn’t miss his expression of disgust either.
‘Thanks mate. I’ll bear that in mind.’
* * *
Rosh hadn’t been obnoxious toward Rhiannon all afternoon, but then he hadn’t really been anything to anyone. He had hardly said a word. He bowled in silence and ignored the playful banter and the giggling around him. Rhiannon could see that Sam was becoming more and more frustrated. Rhiannon knew an argument was imminent. It came on the way back to the car.
‘What’s up with you?’ Sam demanded. Rosh didn’t reply immediately and Sam was back at him. ‘’Cause you been a dick today. I know you think you’re the big man, and that might be, but you don’t get to treat me like this. If you got issues with me then you need to be a man and come out and say it like it is.’
‘I ain’t got no issue with you,’ Rosh growled.
‘You got an issue with my friend?’
‘No. She’s nothing to me.’
‘Don’t speak about my friend like that. Why you been acting all sulky?’
Ruthless a Gripping and Gritty Crime Thriller Page 7
