by Clive Barry
‘Well let’s get all this shit out of the way first and then we can start to concentrate on our mam and dads business. We owe it to them to give em both a good send off as well bro. No expense spared eh?’
‘Damn fuckin’ right our lad. The biggest fuckin’ party this towns ever fuckin’ seen.’
The two brothers lifted their cans and in unison toasted, ‘Mam and Dad.’
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
‘Come on up Simon, I’ve been waiting for you.’
Donika Demaci pressed the buzzer for the downstairs doors to open, allowing young Simon to enter and come up to the eleventh floor.
Simon had been engaged in the entertainment of an out of town businessman when he’d received the call from the agency telling him to literally drop whatever he was holding on to and get around to the boss’s apartment. So here he was.
His last client was not a very happy camper, having to complete the job in hand all by himself.
Simon entered the flat by the front door that had been left open purposely. Demaci waved him in whilst still on the phone, making last minute preparations for the dropping off of the heroin.
‘Yes, I know the drops at the fucking new Hidden Valley housing estate but you tell that fucking site foreman he had better be there to receive the shipment. He’s being paid enough fucking money. The least he can fucking do is turn up. I do not give a flying fuck that his scrawny kid has been taken into fucking hospital. I do not want a single fucking thing to go wrong Bashkim, do you understand me, not a single fucking thing.’
Demaci stormed around the apartment in his silk kimono, going from room to room ranting and raving until he gradually started to calm down. Simon poured him a large glass of the expensive 1966 Dalmore Constellation single malt and he swallowed it in one gulp, holding his empty glass out for a refill.
With his glass replenished, Demaci sat down on the big leather sofa and put his head back while Simon walked behind and massaged his shoulders and temples.
‘There, there, Donika darling, relax. None of this is worth the heart attack you’re going to end up having if you don’t calm yourself down. Come into the bedroom and let me make you more comfortable and remove some of those nasty, ugly, anxieties you’re feeling, come on.’
As Simon spoke, he’d been stripping out of his clothes and had just thrown off the silk trunks, the last item before being totally naked. Wiggling his tight butt in Demaci’s face he then turned and tempted him with his semi hard erection into the bedroom, Demaci followed like a lost puppy.
As was Demaci’s way, Simon was asked to leave after he’d been used. Demaci lay naked on the bed totally exhausted watching him dress.
‘Simon a question for you. If I were to ask you to move in with me, would you? You would be well provided for and have a very comfortable life style.’
‘Yes, Mr Demaci darling, I’m sure I would. For a while that is, or at least until you became bored with me, or I put on too much weight, or a wrinkle or two appeared, or maybe even my hair began to thin and then you would be looking for someone much younger and I would be out on the street. No thank you my lovely man, this suits me fine, but a very kind offer nonetheless.’
Simon let himself out of the flat and as he went down in the lift he sent a text message to Paul’s phone.
‘Delivery to be at the new Hidden Valley housing estate. Site foreman trying to back out. Lotsa love bigboy. Simon xXx.’
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
Dave woke before Sally this morning and jumped in the shower without disturbing her. He’d showered and dressed and she was still breathing heavily, a slight smile across her beautiful porcelain face. ‘Why would anyone want to harm that?’ He thought.
Leaving her tucked up in bed, he went downstairs to the kitchen flicking the kettle switch on while he made toast in the electric toaster. He even managed to find the margarine and some strawberry jam and took that together with her coffee and his tea back upstairs.
‘Away Lady Muck, let’s be ‘avin yeh, wakie, wakie, time.’
Dave stood at the end of the bed and watched the smile on Sally’s face broaden as she stretched, then her bleary eyes eventually opened and she looked back at him.
‘What you doin’ up so early man? And dressed as well.’
‘Ya, and made you coffee and toast in bed. How’s that for service then?’
‘Well officer Riley, I really don’t know what to say. I’ve never had breckie’s in bed before.’
‘Well young lady, there’s a first time for everything.’
Sally sat up with a pillow behind her and Dave laid on top of the bed next to her in his t-shirt and boxers, with his own mug of tea, helping himself to a couple of pieces of toast and jam.
‘Hey mister, yeh can’t just nick a lasses breckie’s yeh know. I don’t know, your takin’ advantage of me officer Riley, nookie of a night, toast and jam of a mornin’. I’ll never get rid of yeh.’
‘Good cos I had no intention of leavin’ anyway. Hey listen Sal, I never told yeh this last night, but that DCI Turner may be able to offer us a promotion to his crew if this job goes as planned.’
‘Is that what yer wantin’ then Dave, a promotion?’
‘It’ll be good for us Sal, more money, better prospects and all.’
‘Ya, but that’s your business Dave, it’s nowt to do wi’ us, is it?’
‘Well I’m hopin’ it has everything to do with us Sal, isn’t it what yeh want like?’
‘I’m not altogether sure what the offer is Dave.’
‘Well I’m hopin’ we’re gonna be a team, a family, yeh know, what’s mine is yours and vice versa. A relationship, or am I steppin’ out o’ line here?’
‘No, my love, you’re not steppin’ out o’ line. I was just thinkin’ how well I was doin’ getting coffee and toast in bed, now you’re offerin’ me a relationship too.’
‘Well I know, we haven’t been together very long and in that short time we’ve been together there’s been so much goin’ on. But during all of it and maybe it’s just my imagination, but we’ve really been good together, or at least I thought we had.’
‘I can’t argue with any of that Dave my love. But miss thicky nickers here, still isn’t sure of what yeh sayin’.’
‘I’m sayin I love yeh Sally and I want us to be together as a couple, as a family, properly, forever.’
‘What, like married and everything?’
‘Yes! Eventually anyway. But don’t yeh hafta get a divorce first?’
‘What kind of girl do yeh take me for David Riley? nookie, coffee, jam on toast and a sort of proposal. Yeh must think I’m dead easy. If your proposin’, which I’m assumin’ that yeh might just be, then I’m gonna wanna nice ring with a real, not a fake, but a real shiny stone in the middle of it.’
‘Then will it be official Sal?’
‘Signed, sealed and delivered and I’ll be yours. I was anyhow David Riley, I knew that not long after meetin’ yeh. I was just waitin’ for you to catch up. Do we ‘ave time for some more of that there nookie stuff, before the kids wake up do yeh think?’
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
Paul was the first down and made himself a fried egg on toast before any of the other lads had surfaced. It was the Timber who came down next, obviously having smelt the food.
‘How many eggs mate?’ said Paul
‘Just make it an even half dozen Vicker. Here, I’ll do it if you like. I’m fairly good in the kitchen. Besides you go and enjoy your own breakfast, no need to wait on me.’
Paul sat and watched in amazement as the Timber made himself a six egg omelette with four slices of toast and a spiffing mug of tea.
The light on his mobile was flashing to show that he’d had a message and when he checked, he saw what Simon had left during the early hours. Paul would have been fast asleep at the time it arrived anyway and he didn’t even think of taking his phone to bed with him. Not after four cans of lager.
The other three had stayed downstairs drinkin
g beer, with the two ex servicemen reminiscing their war time stories with his kid brother until halfway through the night.
He looked at his watch and it was just coming up to eight fifteen. May just catch DCI Turner on his way into the office. Paul dialled the inspectors number and waited.
‘Turner here.’
‘Mornin Chief, not gotcha out of bed, have I? Paul Vickers here.’
‘No Paul not at all. A quiet night I trust?’
‘Aye, very quiet thanks. I haven’t actually been up too long meself, but I got a message on me phone through the night giving the drop address and thought yeh might be a wee bit interested.’
‘Absolutely Paul, what is it please?’
‘Well according to this, its goin’ to be the new Hidden Valley housing estate and by all accounts the site foreman is tryin’ to back out of his end of the deal.’
‘Well that’s good to know, a bit of bargaining power. Thanks very much for the update Paul, keep in touch and we’ll let you know what time in the morning. Okay, cheers now.’
With that Inspector Turner hung up and Paul went to make himself another cup of tea.
Not long after that the others started to surface and when Paul had everyone’s attention he shared Simon’s message from the night before, letting them all know it was probably going to be a quiet day and night, so they should all chill out and relax. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day.
Mike and Paul also decided they would call around to Sally’s place later in the day and have a bit of a chin wag with her and Dave. Letting them both know what was going on.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
‘Okay ladies and gentlemen, if I can have your undivided attention please.’
It was thirteen hundred hours on the dot and Detective Chief Inspector John Turner was addressing the undercover officers of the National Crime Agency, together with officers from the Border Force, who had also been invited to the brief.
‘We’ve all read the reports and you understand the people we are dealing with. Firstly I want no bloody heroics, there should be no need. We will be going in with team leaders in charge of small groups. You are all aware of who your team leaders are and they in turn have already been briefed with their own specific stratagems. Obviously, we know which wagon will contain the goods as per the manifest and consignment numbers and we know the site the goods will be delivered to, so that will be easy enough to follow. We are not after the drugs at this stage. We already have those so to speak, at least we know where they are. What we do want is as many as possible of those nasty little bastard villain’s responsible for contaminating our Seaborough city limits with their filth. We mainly want the two at the top Mr Demaci and Mr Hamiti, they are our main targets. But unfortunately, we may only see one of them and that will have to suffice. Team alpha will be responsible for allowing the white van to load the bags and they will follow it out to wherever they may be storing or breaking it down. The weather is supposed to be clear and dry so we will be using the eyes in the skies to watch over us all and help pick up any stragglers who may have drifted or should we say legged it away from the scene. I’m anticipating that Hamiti will be there somewhere and probably not too far from the heroin’s final destination. I cannot stress enough, be very fucking careful dealing with this man, he is extremely dangerous.
The good news is that we have the site foreman now on our side after persuading him that a long prison sentence was not in his best interests. He has no real details of Demaci’s operation, his role was simply to turn a blind eye when the van came to collect the goods, after that he was surplus to any requirements and it wouldn’t have surprised me to have found him at a later date face down in a corner of his own building site with a broken neck. The same as the illegal immigrant Mr Oghuz Galata who we found alongside the rail tracks last week. They won’t want to keep any witnesses to their operations or their identities. That’s it ladies and gentlemen, we will all re-convene here at zero seven hundred in the morning. The cargo will be released from the customs lockup at sixteen hundred today and will be loaded onto the trucks at zero eight hundred tomorrow ready to roll. Any questions? None? Good then let’s all work together on this one and have a good afternoon.’
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
‘Pour yourself some coffee Bashkim, you know where it is. What’s the latest with these outsiders from the other night? Do we have any news yet?’
‘No sir, as I said to you yesterday, there’s not a word being spoken by anyone. There’s nobody selling anything let alone at discount prices. It’s as if it never happened.’
‘You don’t suppose our own people may have been responsible for this and pocketed the money, do you?’
‘I thought of that sir, but it’s highly unlikely they would have shot themselves in the foot to make it look good. No, whoever did this also took the automatic weapons and they knew how to use them.’
‘They say there was four of them and one was Scottish is that correct? And have you doubled the security as I requested?’
‘Yes sir. But the Scot wasn’t the ring leader. They also said that there was a very big man with a sledge hammer. They think he may have been black, although they were all apparently wearing ski masks and gloves, except the Scottish one.’
‘Okay Bashkim, we need to get this sorted out. I feel as though we’re missing the obvious somewhere, but I don’t know where.’
While they were talking, Demaci’s phone rang and he walked over to his desk to answer it.
‘Hello Demaci here. Ah yes. Fine thank you and your good self? Excellent, yes, yes, very good, yes that will be fine. Okay thank you for calling, and to you, goodbye.’
Demaci put the phone back on his desk and sat in the big executive chair, slowly spinning around.
‘That Bashkim, was the shipping agent. Customs have released the containers and we will have them loaded onto the truck in the morning for delivery. They should arrive on site by around zero nine hundred hours.’
‘Do you want me to follow the truck to the site?’
‘No, I don’t think that will be necessary. Let the others follow the truck, you can go directly to the site and wait for its arrival. You’ve had a word with the site foreman haven’t you? He’s back in line again is he?’
‘Yes sir, he understands the alternatives. He won’t give us any further problems and when this is over, he may just have to have a fall and break his neck at the bottom of a ladder somehow.’
‘Yes, that would probably be the better solution. Right Bashkim if you will excuse me, I have some calls to make, then I’m going to take a long shower and maybe go for a nice meal out. You go home and relax and after tomorrow, we should be considerably wealthier people. Make sure you phone me when everything is completed, alright?’
‘Yes sir Mr Demaci, have a good evening, enjoy your dinner.’
‘Thank you, goodnight Bashkim.’
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
Paul knocked on Sally’s door and walked in, closely followed by Mike, the downstairs was empty but muffled voices could be heard upstairs.
‘Yeh don’t suppose they’re upstairs at it again do yeh Mike? It’s getting fuckin’ embarrassing to come ‘round here nowadays man.’
Mike laughed then shouted upstairs,
‘If you two are shaggin’ can yeh please stop it for a minute and come fuckin’ down for some fresh air?’
It was little Georgia who walked down on the brothers.
‘Hi uncle Paulie, hya uncle Mikey, they’re not shaggin’ whatever that is. Me mam’s tryin on her new dress what Dave’s just bought for her and her new shoes and a bonny posh ring too. Me mams turnin’ into a real bonny posh princess, you’ll see.’
Sally walked down the stairs in a black off the shoulder mini dress, with four inch heels on her black ankle strapped platform shoes. She looked stunning.
‘So what yeh think then lads?’ As Sally made a twirl.
Both her male siblings were gob smacked, bongy eyed and slack jawed,
<
br /> ‘Fuck Sal yeh look absolutely gorgeous,’ said Mike.
‘Yeh can double that lass,’ Paul replied proudly.
‘Dave bought them for us and he’s takin’ us out for dinner somewhere really nice tonight. Oh and whatcha think of this then?’
Sally held out her left hand and the sparkle that shone off her ring finger blinded the pair of them.
‘What’s goin’ on man?’ Paul’s face was a picture of pure confusion.
‘I asked your sister if she would marry me,’ said Dave coming down the stairs with little Charlie on his shoulders, ‘and she’s said yes.’
‘Whoa! Hang about man, she’s not even divorced yet. Yeh move fast Dave lad, I gotta give yeh credit for that, you’ve only bin together five fuckin’ minutes man.’
‘Well, we talked about it and decided we know that we can’t get married yet. But there’s nowt stoppin’ us from gettin’ engaged while we wait for Sal’s divorce to come through is there? We’re gonna see a solicitor next week to start proceedings.’
‘Well fuck me. Congratulations then the pair of yeh, I really hope yeh both gonna be very happy. Honestly, fuck I’m fillin’ up man.’
Paul walked over and hugged his baby sister kissing her on the cheek then went and gave Dave a big guy hug as well.
‘Fuck man, Mam and Dad woulda been so chuffed with the two of yeh.’
‘Mike gave them both a double hug and took a step back to look at them.
‘I said from the beginning you two would make a great looking couple and I wasn’t too far wrong was I?’
‘So what yeh doin’ with the bairns tonight then?’ Asked Paul.
‘We’re droppin’ them off at Jenny’s for the night and I’ll walk ‘round in the mornin’ to take them to school, while Dave here goes to work. Not before time I might add.’
‘Well we only came ‘round to give yeh both the heads up on what’s been goin’ on, but obviously yeh don’t really give a fuck now, do yeh?’
