'Bless you, for what you've done.'
'Millie, I've done nothing.'
Still the eyes tracked him. 'You lie there in the bed, in the hospital. People come, you don't want them.
They fuss over you. All you do is hope they will go and leave you. When they've left you, then you can hate. I'm not good with words, Malachy . . . You hate because of what was done to you, but you are helpless
. . . You see them. They have contempt for you because you are old. You cannot fight them. You hold on to the bag, all that is left for you. You cannot stand. You are down. There is nothing in your purse but they have your bag. You hate them, and those who sent them. A priest came to me, a simpering fool. What did I feel? I told him I felt hate. I had his lecture: "We are all God's children, my dear. Hate belittles us. We must learn to forgive." Couldn't wait to see the back of him. I hated them. What I wanted, in that bed, seeing their faces, was that they be hurt...'
'You shouldn't talk because it will tire you.'
'Rubbish. Dawn told me what's happened on the Amersham. It made me laugh. I did not say it to Dawn, but I knew it. After the laughter, in the quiet, I realized it . . . I am attacked and then these things happen. I had not given myself such importance.
Thank you.'
'I don't think, Millie, I'll be here much longer,'
Malachy said, and his voice was a whisper.
'Thank you for what you did.' The eyes, misting, struck at his. 'Please, kiss me.'
He came off his chair, knelt by her and kissed Millie Johnson's forehead. He owed her so much, more than she could have known. Then, he stood, poured her a second cup of tea and left her.
'Tony, got a moment?'
Tony Johnson, detective sergeant, had a moment, had an hour, had all day.
'Yes, Guv, how can I help?'
His chief inspector was eleven years younger than Tony, was on a fast-track career path and was part of the new world: 'Guv' was old, where Tony came from.
He saw the man wince.
'Yes, w e l l . . . Do you do Enver Rahman? Is he one of yours?'
'One of mine, like having shit on your heel.'
'Tell me.'
'He's twenty-seven, runs tarts, has a fair part of vice in north London and the West End tied down. He's scum, but clever with it. Lives in the King's Cross area, nothing permanent. Pride and joy is a Ferrari Spider. I suppose that would be worth dousing in paint-stripper.' He saw the detective inspector's mouth pucker with annoyance; no bloody sense of humour, never was for any of them that had been on the command course. 'He brings in girls from eastern Europe, and he gets muscle from Lunar House.
His goons would hang about the queues at the immigration centre and look for the likely ones. Has he been arrested? No - and frankly, we've never been close to it. The girls are taught that we're all corrupt, that if they come to us the first thing we'll do is shop them to their pimps, and to Enver Rahman. They're more frightened of us than of their own . . . And let's say that one was prepared to shop him on a vice charge - what's to happen to her? Are we coming up with a witness-protection package for life? Because that's what she'll need. We are not. If she goes home to Ukraine, she's vulnerable to a knife slash or worse, and her father and mother. If she stays here and we're not doing twenty-four/seven guard - which we won't be - she wouldn't know where to hide. That's why we're not close to locking him away . . . And he has connections. What we've heard, his uncle is the godfather of Hamburg. A sparrow doesn't fart in Hamburg without his uncle's permission. Am I of help to you, Guv?'
'An airline ticket, Heathrow-Hamburg return but open dated, was bought this morning for Ricky Capel.'
Choice lying was an art form for Tony Johnson.
'Don't think I know that name. Ricky Capel? No.'
'Capel's on the computer trigger stuff for organized crime. His name came up from the airline booking.
Runs drugs in south-east London. Interesting thing is that two tickets were bought, same destination, one for Capel and the other in the name of Enver Rahman.'
'Is Capel low-life, Guv?'
'Would think himself bigger than he is, vain little swine . . . But it's interesting that he should travel to the city where Enver Rahman has an uncle. Big-time, the uncle, you say?'
'About as big as they get, Guv. It's what I heard. Are we going to send?'
'Be wonderful, wouldn't it? With our resources the way they are? No chance. Thanks for your time, Tony.'
'No problem, Guv.'
He went on pushing paper, moving pages on his screen. It would be hours before he could slip away into the dusk and find a callbox.
'I hear what you say, Mr Kitchen, and will do my best to oblige. First things first, you've given me no proof of identity. I regret that a rent book from a London borough's housing department is not sufficient. Not that I'm suggesting anything, but I assume they can be bought for the price of a moderate lunch. No, Mr Kitchen, I'm afraid I'll require something more reliable.'
As senior partner in the company, as a solicitor of thirty years' experience, he took few short-cuts. None on that morning. The man had been on the doorstep of their offices when he had arrived. Eight thirty, and the man had actually been sitting on the bottom step with his feet trailing on to the pavement. Everything about him - except his shoes - was shabby. He'd sensed trouble, had decided to handle the man's business himself . . . Had also sensed a matter of intriguing interest, which seldom came into his office in Bedford.
'My problem, Mr Kitchen, is that the solicitor who handled your affairs is now in South Africa, and his secretary who met you is now married and has moved away. So, please, further proof of identity is needed.'
On his screen were copies of terse communications.
He had telephoned down to the basement archive and there was indeed a box there, in the name of Captain Malachy Kitchen, Army Intelligence Corps, of Alamein Drive at Chicksands. He had suggested a call be made to the base but there had been a violent shake of the head opposite him. His firm did wills and con-veyancing for many of the officers there: this man hardly seemed one of them. Old clothes on his back, new scars and bruises on his face. Only the shoes showed a military man's care.
'When is it you were last a visitor here?'
He was told, a month more than two years back, but not an exact date to match against the screen's correspondence.
'I'm sorry, Mr Kitchen, but that is too vague.
Anything else?'
The man sat straighter, pulled down the zip of his anorak, pushed away the neck of his pullover, opened the upper buttons of his shirt and reached down. The twin tags came out in his hand, held by an aged leather bootlace. They were held up for him to examine. He craned forward, read, wrote down the religion, blood group and number, and when the tag with the number was turned, he could see the name.
They were returned to their resting-place against the man's chest. The smell was stifled once the anorak was zipped again.
'That'll do nicely, Mr Kitchen. I'll have the box sent up.'
Ten minutes later the senior partner escorted his client to the main door, wished him well and watched him walk away. For a man so obviously facing acute difficulties in his life, there was a quite cheerful roll in his gait. Back at his desk he cast a quick glance at the box. A will, still there. A building-society savings book, still there. A marriage certificate, still there.
Only the passport had been taken. He wondered what the client had run from, and where he was going now with his passport. He had not liked to ask - but if he had, he doubted that he would have been answered.
They turned into the drive, past the broken gates, and Davey braked. Charlie thought that the gates, electronically controlled, would have been flattened by the first fire appliance to reach the house. All of them in the car, Charlie realized - and it was as true of himself as the others - were strung up tight, like a bow string pulled back. Davey had reckoned they shouldn't be there, not so soon: Ricky had rubbished him. In the car, Benji had tried to
raise the journey to Hamburg, where it would lead and why he was called for: Ricky had shut him down. Himself, Charlie was concerned about the cash-flow implications of the fire: Ricky had said he should wait and watch. Ricky wore the big gold chain at his throat, that Joanne had given him, and Charlie knew it had been lost and that Joanne had been belted for asking about it. Ricky fingered it obsessively. Not a bundle of laughs between them as they had driven down from London and into the countryside, not even enough laughs to wrap in a handkerchief. They went past a fence and a horse that had been grazing saw the car and seemed to scream and run. Then they turned a corner in the drive and the house was in front of them.
'Bloody hell,' Charlie murmured, a little gasp.
Ricky and Davey lived in the semi-detached houses of Bevin Close. Benji was in a brick terrace by Loampit Vale. Charlie's place was detached, joined to his neighbour by their garages, nearer to Ladywell Road.
They had four houses that were typical of Lewisham in south-east London. This had been a big pile, had been. A wooden stable block, but the wind must have been coming from behind it, and it hadn't caught. A double garage, with the doors up, was untouched. In front of the building was a mountain of debris, some of which Charlie could make out as furniture, some of which was too charred for recognition. He could make out easy chairs where the material had burned off to leave the wood and springs, a tabletop without legs, wardrobe doors, frames without pictures, the shell of a TV and the front door, but most of the heap had no shape. And parked beside the burned mess, like it was the only place to park, was a scarlet vintage Jaguar.
Beside him in the back, he heard Ricky hiss through his teeth.
The roof in the central part of the house was off.
Some of the beams were in place, others had gone, a few sagged. All the windows were out, like black tooth gaps in a mouth. It was desolation, and quiet.
All of them peered forward through the windscreen.
Sort of made Charlie shudder, everything at bloody peace except for the wrecked house - like it had been a target, picked out and chosen. His father had been a builder, odd jobs, a bit of roofing, a bit of plumbing, a bit of whatever - when he wasn't doing scams with old folks' benefit books - and Charlie had helped him out before he'd joined up with Ricky. He didn't know much about building, but he could see that this pile was beyond repair. It would be a bulldozer job. A site to be cleared, not just scaffolding and work for a year.
George Wright had been done over, done proper. He saw the other car, by the side of what had been the house, and there was a man in a suit, and George. He nudged Ricky and pointed. They stayed put, sat in their car.
The man had a clipboard and a pencil. At that distance the sound of the voices did not travel, didn't need to. The man from the insurance was with George and he had a dour look. He finished scribbling on his clipboard and shrugged, like he was only explaining the reality of the situation confronting him. George was shaking and animated. He gripped the man's sleeve, dropped it, and had his hands at his head, like that was despair. All bastards, weren't they, insurance men? Then George had his head up, gazed at the trees, and the bloody crows - black sods - sat there and honked at the show, and the man hadn't shaken George's hand or had anything good to say and was going for his car. George was left, in a pair of suit trousers and a shirt that had been white before it was stained by the fire's smoke, alone with the crows. The car came towards them but Davey didn't shift off the drive, and it had to go on to the lawn where the first cut had just been done and the lines were good and straight and it left the tyre treads - didn't matter
. . . Bigger problems for George than his grass.
They went forward.
Ricky said, 'We sort this out, and now. Then there's no misunderstandings.'
He seemed not to see them as they came out of the car, and not to hear them as they stamped on the tarmacadam past the mountain and the open doorway, the kitchen windows that had been smashed, and came to the corner of the house. Behind him were apple trees but the gale from the fire had singed the blossom off them. Ricky was ahead, with Davey trailing him by a couple of paces, and Benji and Charlie hung back because this was not about to be their style of business.
'Sorry to see this, George,' Ricky said briskly.
'What'd you do, leave the chipper on?'
Christ, Charlie thought, his man could play cold.
George Wright had spun on his heel. On his face: end of tether, edge of control.
'What the fuck do you want?'
'That's not nice, George. I come down all polite like a friend, all sympathy. Didn't come down for abuse.
Came to find out what the situation was. You got a difficulty with that?'
'The situation, right. The situation is that the insurance wasn't jacked up in the last five years and it's way under. Got that? My Melanie, she's gone to her mother, she's broke down, and Hannah's with her and worse. I had a load of stuff in the house, and the safe went like an oven. The stuff's cooked - got that?
So, thank you for your bloody consideration, but I am fucked. So, please, drive back where you came from.
Have you got that?'
'That is not helpful, George.'
'What is bloody helpful? I'd like to hear it.'
Charlie could hear the softness of Ricky's voice, and could hear the rising crescendo of George Wright's anger. Davey, behind Ricky, had his hands together behind his back - where they always were when he minded Ricky - but his fists were white-knuckled, clenched.
'I tell you what's helpful, George. You had, from me, stuff on trust. I give to you and you supply, and then you pay me. Now you tell me that the stuff is burned, and I ask myself, "How is George going to pay me what he owes me?" About a hundred grand, yes? Charlie's the one with the head for figures.
Maybe a bit over a hundred thousand that's owed me.
What would be helpful is knowing when you're going to pay me - today, tomorrow, or by the end of the week.'
'Whistle for it, Ricky.'
'Not helpful.'
'I got nothing left. Whistle down your arse for it.'
Ricky's voice was ever softer, his chuckle ever more shrill. 'You're a joker, George. You do a good turn, George. "I got nothing left" - that's funny, George. No building-society book? No deposit account? A little place down on the Algarve that you can raise a mortgage on? Very funny, George. By the end of the week, and that's really generous. What you say, George?'
'Fuck off's what I say.'
Ricky moved sideways. Charlie recognized the manoeuvre. Davey now had a clear sight of George Wright. Charlie knew what would happen, had seen it before.
Ricky said, 'You know how it is, George, if I'm too generous then word of it gets round. People who owe me money hear I'm a soft touch. I get promises for payment, next month or next year, because it's said that Ricky Capel's easy to blow over. "Can't pay this month because the missus has a headache." Might be
"Can't pay next month because the family's going on holiday." Could be "Can't pay this year because the price on the street's down." Or, if the word gets round,
"Can't pay ever because the chipper caught fire."
George, I won't have that word get round, but that's your problem.'
'What I said, get lost, get off my property. I got nothing.'
Charlie knew where it was going and could not argue with the reason for it. Maybe there was a little gesture against his thigh from Ricky, or maybe Davey just read him. If ever the authority of Ricky Capel was challenged successfully then he was dead in the water. And not only Ricky, all of them. All gone, if the word went out that Ricky was the soft touch. Charlie didn't do violence, or Benji, but Davey did. Davey closed on George Wright. He lost sight of the fat little man with the bald head and the sweat on it, lost the sight of him behind Davey's shoulders.
George Wright was felled. Davey stood over him, and the heavy steel-toecapped shoe pressed down on a sprawled-out shin.
Ricky said, 'Problem with a place like
this, George, the problem with all the muck around - planks, furniture, beams, everything - is that you could fall over. You could fall over and break your leg. Be easy.
Of course, if you said - after you'd broken your leg -
that you hadn't tripped up on the muck, if you said different, then you'd have to wonder where you'd hide, and where your Melanie and your Hannah would hide, come to think of i t . . . I'm very generous, by the end of the week.'
'Fuck off.'
A blur of movement, almost too fast for Charlie to follow. The shoe went up. He saw the flash of the steel on the toecap. It stamped down on the suit trousers halfway up the shin.
The scream ripped at Charlie, but Ricky didn't flinch.
The foot and ankle below the shin were bent at an idiot angle from the knee.
Ricky was walking away and Davey followed him.
It was two months since Charlie had eaten a meal with George Wright in a little bistro in Blackheath and the guy had been good company. It was a week since Benji had done the last drop-off to George Wright. He hadn't spoken up for him, and Benji beside him had not.
'Not yet, you will be . . . bastard, Ricky Capel . . .
you will be . . . Your turn, see if it isn't coming . . . You know fuck all of nothing, but you will, when it's your turn . . . What do you think's happening? You got any idea? Big man, you know everything - wait till it's your turn and see what you know . . . I want to be there, watch it, when it's your turn . . . '
'Come on, guys,' Ricky said.
He was walking past Charlie, standing and rooted.
Charlie caught Ricky's arm, held him.
George Wright, from the ground, yelled, 'Want to hear it, then, want to? Bloody funny, Ricky Capel, about a chip fire. I was a target! It was petrol - petrol through the window. The target was me. Three kids on the Amersham estate were found hung upside down off a roof - did you hear that? Fucking didn't, did you? You know nothing. They pushed. Next it's the dealer. The dealer sold to the kids on the Amersham. He was tied up to a lamp post, and now he's gone. You don't know where the Amersham is?
(2005) Rat Run Page 24
