Chapter 31.
"Well I'll be fucked." Says Leonard Dodds as he pushes out his twenty-fifth push up.
"Me too." Says a gobsmacked Tommy.
"I don't know what you just did to me son." Len says to Amir.
"Me neither." Says Tommy.
"But I feel ten, no, twenty years younger."
Amir walks over to Tommy and places his hand on his head.
"Yeah that's it." Says an eager Tommy. "Let me have it boy."
Len stands up and shivers. The room has suddenly gone cold. Tommy Rae falls to the floor. Rajeev takes a sharp intake of breath realising what Amir is doing.
"I'm not being funny lads." Says a rather concerned Leonard. "But that old sods lips are going rather blue aren't they?"
"What are you doing?" Shouts Rajeev to Amir.
Amir looks coldly at Rajeev, and then takes his hand off Tommy Rae's head and stands up.
"It's done. He is dead. I will now kill the other one."
"Dead?" Shouts Len.
"Yes." Answers Amir. "Dead."
"Bring him back to life." Shouts Rajeev.
"No. We are doing things my way from now on; your way has brought us here. Call the other one back so I can kill him."
Amir turns to Leonard.
"You are feeling better? Feeling strong? I have helped you, yes?"
Len breathes in deep through his nose without it making him cough and wheeze, something he hasn't been able to do for more years than he can remember.
"Yes. I haven't a clue how, but yes."
"Your bones will now produce calcium. Your lungs will clear. Blood vessels that have been shut will open. Your sight will improve."
"It already has son, and I'm not sure I like what I'm seeing at the moment."
"You will help us?" Asks Amir.
"Help?" He looks at Tommy Rea dead on the floor. "That one's got less meat on him than a stick insect, but I doubt if the three of us together will be able to take the other one out, he's gonna be like a Rottweiler with stinging nettles wrapped round his bits when he sees what you've done."
"No. I will take care of him. We need your help to leave this country. To go home."
"Oh right, I thought you wanted us to take that Daz bloke out. Ok let me think for a minute."
Rajeev touches Amir's arm. Amir is ready for an argument, a fight, but Rajeev closes his eyes and nods his head slightly.
"Ok brother, we will do it your way." He says to Amir.
"Ronnie." Says Len. "Ronnie will know what to do."
Amir looks at Len, the word, Ronnie means nothing to him, he doesn't recognize it as a name.
"My son. Ronnie. He's got more fingers in pies than Sweeny Todd."
Amir stands tall with an air of confidence about him, something that Rajeev and the newly rejuvenated Len are both lacking. They both know that it is just a matter of time before the testy Rottweiler comes back into the room, and they haven't got a dock-leaf between them. They don't have to wait too long. Daz enters the room with a pathetic apologetic look on his face which instantly changes when he sees Tommy on the floor.
"What the fuck?"
He runs over to Tommy and lifts his head.
"He clutched his chest and fell over." Says a quick thinking Len. Amir jumps on Daz's back, wrapping both arms firmly around his neck, and his legs tightly around his hips. With no more effort than it would take to stand up without an adult male on your back; Daz stands up. He is trying to say something, but Amir's grip is hard and true, however, the grunts emanating from his throat leave little to the imagination. This is one pissed off man. Fearing for their own survival, Len kicks Daz hard between the legs, and Rajeev stabs a pencil into his chest. The pencil breaks, and he watches the rubber tipped end bounce as it hits the floor. Daz grabs Amir's hands, and slowly begins to part them. Daz's legs slightly buckle from another kick from Len, much harder this time, and Amir manages to regain his hold around Daz's throat. More ominous grunts and moans from a man in his death throes. Sheer willpower and brute strength from Daz enables him to move Amir's right hand towards his mouth, and he bites through the knuckle of Amir's forefinger and spits it on the floor. Len knows that if they don't knock this man out, now, if they lose control now, then without a shadow of a doubt the three off them are dead. Len picks up a chair and smashes it against the back of Daz's legs. Daz buckles and falls to the floor on all fours. Amir keeps one arm tightly around Daz's throat, and puts the hand with the missing finger on Daz's forehead. Blood from the finger runs into Daz's left eye, and he blinks trying to clear his vision. The blood flow keeps coming. Daz is about to attempt to get to his feet again when Len brings the chair crashing down on his upturned ankles. He lets out an internal scream of pain. Whatever the forces are, and wherever they're coming from, they begin to work once again. Amir is visualising Daz's heart pounding in his chest. He is visualising it slowing down, and suddenly it begins to slow down. Daz feels the effect straightaway. Light headedness. Blood no longer being pumped around his body fast enough to feed oxygen to his muscles. Amir slows it down even more. Daz has that pins and needles feeling all over his body. The last thing he will ever see on this earth, through blood blurred eyes is Tommy Rae, dead on the floor. The heart stops. Daz collapses from Amir's weight. He releases his grip and stands up. Len and Rajeev don't yet know that Daz is actually dead. Amir does. Len still has the chair high in the air waiting to strike if Daz comes near him. Rajeev holds a small metal wastepaper basket above his head waiting to do the same. Amir walks over to his bitten off finger. He falls to his knees and picks it up and reattaches it gripping it tightly. He begins to rock back and forth. Len lowers the chair and looks at Rajeev. Neither of them say anything. What can they say? They've just played out some horrific movie scene for real. Len sits on the chair, Rajeev sits on the floor. They both watch Amir rocking back and forth for nearly ten minutes. Len looks over to Rajeev.
"Is the big fella dead?"
Rajeev nods yes, and Len finally relaxes.
"I think we're going to have to set this place alight." Len says softly.
Amir stops rocking and turns his head to Len. He doesn't understand.
"Our prints are all over the place." He adds.
Amir stands up and walks over to Len which tenses him up a little.
"Call your son please." He says.
Len looks at Amir's blood stained hand. The finger is reattached. He gives a disbelieving little sigh.
"Call him please." Amir asks again. "Call Vonnie."
"Ronnie." Says Len.
"Call him."
"This thing you've done for me. Making me feel young again. Making me strong, curing me; is it permanent?"
Amir nods his head.
"Will I live forever?"
"No."
"No of course I won't. I had to ask though. Only I've seen some weird stuff in my life, but this takes the biscuit boys."
"Vonnie?" Amir asks again.
Amir looks at Rajeev and without any words being spoken, he knows he wants him to stand by Amir's side, which he does.
"Will you help us please?" Asks Rajeev.
"Can I ask one more question first?" Asks Len.
Rajeev nods his head yes.
"I've been on this earth for nearly eighty-four years now, and for the last twenty, I've felt every single one of them. In and out of this hospital and that hospital. In and out of clinics. Test after test after test. You name it." He gets up and goes to a mirror. "Look at me. I'm looking at myself getting younger." Using the mirror he looks at Rajeev and Amir standing behind him. "This calcium thing, this blood vessel opening thing, when will it stop? How old is my body going to be? Is it like turning the clock back? Is that it? I know I'm not going to live forever, but how long will I live for?"
And with his one question out of the way, he turns around to face Rajeev and Amir.
"Inside you will be twenty-six, twenty-seven years of age. Outwardly you will look twenty or thirty years younger than you are."
>
"Bloody hell." He says. "The pension's minister isn't going to like me very much is he." Rajeev and Amir don't really understand the last comment, but it doesn't matter, because Len shakes both their hands warmly and says… "Let's find some matches and a phone box."
"No. Use the telephone here." Insists Amir. "You can call Vonnie from here."
"Ronnie. And we can't. The police will trace all calls made from that phone tonight. I want us to turn up at Vonnie's… Ronnie's, alone, not with the police ten minutes behind us." Says Len.
Rajeev knows Len is right. He nods to Amir who also has to agree.
"Ok." Says Len. "The first thing we have to do, is open some of the windows, especially the upstairs ones. Fire needs oxygen to spread, and we want as much of this house burnt to the ground and in ashes before they can put it out."
He looks at Tommy Rae and Daz dead on the floor and swallows hard.
"And we need to get them upstairs."
It takes all three of them to lift Daz and carry him up the stairs. Len puts him down and opens various doors looking for a bedroom.
"Here's a bed." He shouts. "We'll stick him in here."
Rajeev and Amir struggle to carry Daz into the room. They put him on the bed and cover him over.
"No." Says Len. "Under the bed, he has to go under the bed."
Rajeev and Amir give him a confused look.
"The first thing the fire brigade do is look for bodies, and its beds that they usually find them on."
Rajeev and Amir still have no idea what Len is talking about. They both heard the matches and the fire needs oxygen comment, but it didn't really register. They don't yet realise, that very soon they'll be burning the house down with Tommy Rae and Daz inside it.
"Most beds are metal, and the frames more often than not survive a fire." He explains. "So we always look for beds first, and any charred remains on top of them. So they'll come in here and see there isn't a body on top, class it as an 'empty' and move on to the next room. The more time we give ourselves to get away from here, the better."
Probably because Len is talking twice as fast as he usually does; Rajeev and Amir are still not sure what Len means. But they do as he says anyway, and roll Daz off the bed, and push him under it. It's then that they notice the décor of the room. On the walls are dozens of assorted fine Pencil drawings, of young boys in various poses, with exaggeratedly large erect ejaculating penises. Even Len can't bring himself to make a sarcastic remark regarding that kind of subject matter. He opens the window, and they leave the room. Rajeev and Amir pick Tommy Rea up, and Len opens another door.
The décor of this room is black. That's it. Black. Black walls. Black furniture. Black bedding. Black carpet. Black ceiling. Black woodwork. Black glass in the windows. There are no light fittings, just a single thick black church candle, nailed to the wall.
"My god its Dracula's room." Len thinks to himself.
Rajeev and Amir carry Tommy into the room and put him under the bed. Amir leaves the room and opens windows along the hall. Rajeev leaves the room and opens all the closed doors he can find. They're beginning to understand what Len wants. Open windows and doors; they're just not sure why yet. Len goes over to the window and is about to open it when he stops; he's curious about something. He goes over to the door and closes it, shutting himself in. Total darkness. He holds his hand up to his face and waves it several times in front of his eyes. Nothing. It's as though he's blind. He opens the door to let some animation back into his life, and its then that he notices the back of the door has some colour on it. As his eyes adjust to the light, he sees a strange cartoon type figure that he thinks is standing on a boat engulfed by fire. What he's actually looking at is a painting of Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' which has been painted onto the back of the door by an exceptionally accomplished artist, who had clearly spent countless hours in Oslo's National Gallery studying the speed of Munch's brush strokes, the thickness of his oils, and his state of mind when he painted it.
"Oh my giddy aunt." Len says to himself. "Why the hell would anyone want that to be the first thing they saw in the morning?"
When the church candle is burning, the only surface that can absorb its light, is The Scream. Everything else in the room is black, which doesn't absorb light. Any movement in the air brushing against the naked flame brings it eerily to life. The person that sleeps in this room sees only one thing as he or she falls asleep. The tormented figure in the painting. It must feel like the figure is actually in the room with them suspended in mid-air.
Len joins Rajeev and Amir in the hallway.
"Right, we need some matches or a lighter." He says.
"When will you call your son?" Asks Rajeev.
"Soon." He replies. "Soon."
For the next twenty-nine minutes, Len pours whiskey, brandy, gin and vodka, over various flammable items. Carpets, bookcases, tables, chairs and curtains, while Rajeev and Amir look on. They then look at each other and with the overpowering smell of alcohol in the air, both realise Len is going to set the house on fire. Len puts the bottles neatly back in the cellar. He comes back holding two large bottles of whiskey, and nods to Rajeev and Amir to go up the stairs with him. They walk into the room where Daz is laying under the bed. He twists the top off one of the bottles and hands it to Amir.
"We all do this bit." Says Len.
"Fire?" Amir asks.
Len looks at him and wants to say 'Well what do you think we're going to do, have a party?" But doesn't. Amir isn't sure what to do, but Rajeev knows, he takes the bottle from him and pours a third of its contents over the bed. He hands it back to him. Amir pours some over the bed and hands the rest to Len, who empties it and replaces the lid. They walk into the room where Tommy is. Len opens the other bottle and stops. They all stop. They all know that they are almost ready to set the house on fire to try and cover-up a double murder. They all know that's what it is. That's what they're doing, and now it's dawning on them all. Len gulps down a mouthful of whiskey, and pours some over the bed. Amir grabs the bottle and also takes a mouthful; something he's never done before. This is his first taste of forbidden alcohol. The same alcohol which will burn the flesh from Tommy's bones. He pours some over the bedding and hands the bottle to Rajeev who pours some over the pillows. Amir grabs the bottle before Rajeev can empty it and holds it up to Rajeev's face. He wants Rajeev to drink some too. Rajeev puts it to his lips and empties it into his mouth, and hands the bottle back to Len. They walk out of the room and go downstairs. Rajeev and Amir wait as Len puts the bottles back in the cellar and re-joins them. They open windows on the ground floor. Len lights three screwed up newspapers and hands one each to Rajeev and Amir. Rajeev runs into the room housing the lady Diana shrine and drops his newspaper. The room begins to burn. Amir runs and throws his newspaper into another room and that room begins to burn. They join Len in the main hall and then walk towards the main door. Len drops his newspaper, little mauve and orange flame waves, ripple and glide across the carpet looking for something bigger to ignite. They find the Brandy sodden heavy cotton drapes.
Tommy Rae Webster (60) crime lord, racehorse trainer/owner. Collector of fine wines, paintings, and spirits. Staunch royalist. Chief patron to 'Canine Companions' 'English Attire' and 'The British Musicians Guild' will eventually be found burnt to a crisp in Daz's bedroom.
Dougal Arran Zachery (44) Thug. Bully. Henchman. Torturer. Father of eleven, and a victim of serious physical, and sexual child abuse, will be found unrecognisable under Tommy Rae's bed.
Tommy Rae's house is way out in the sticks, and the fire brigade were never called, because nobody saw it burning. The alarm was raised by the cab driver bringing Doreen and Mickey to the house the following morning. But by then the house had been burning for six solid hours leaving nothing for forensics to piece together.
Chapter 32.
The police were aware whose house had burnt to the ground and called Kenny. DCI Brian Bick, comes over to Ken's Bentley, and Jane opens the car windo
w. Ken just stares out of the windscreen at the smoking remains.
"We've recovered two bodies so far." Says the DCI Brian Bick.
"Only two?" Asks Larry.
Brian Bick hadn't seen Larry in the car. He bends down and looks in the rear seats and sees him.
"You sound surprised Mr. Lawrence. Should there be more?"
"Eh? No. Brian."
He holds Larry with his eyes, and hmms, then slowly turns to Ken.
"It's going to be a dental records job Mr. Webster. No other way of telling who they are I'm afraid."
Ken sits up a little and winces with pain from his wound.
"You ok Mr. Webster?"
"He fell over in the bath." Says Jane. "Cracked a rib."
"I'm sorry to hear that Mrs. Webster."
"I want to see the bodies." Says Ken.
"Can't do that Mr. Webster, not yet. Not until we know if we're looking at a crime scene or an unfortunate accident."
He bends down and looks at Larry again who looks away.
"I want to see them Brian. Make it happen." He insists.
"They're charcoal Mr. Webster; the worst I've ever seen. Don't even look like bodies."
"Make it fucking happen I said."
"They don't pay me enough to risk my job like that Kenny."
And with the use of the word 'Kenny' Ken knows he will be seeing the two bodies and makes DCI Brian Bick an offer.
"Five thousand?"
"Give me ten minutes." Says the DCI.
Fifteen minutes later Ken walks back to the car and gets in.
"It wasn't them." He says.
Jane and Larry sigh with relief.
"Thank God." Says Larry.
"It was Tommy and Daz."
"What?" Says a surprised Larry. "You just said it wasn't them."
Million Pound Appointments Page 22
