‘Are you coming?’
‘No Will I’m not. It’s over. I’m spent. I told my parents everything last night. They have got me into rehab, starting tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it actually.’
Will looked over Carl’s shoulder and could see both parents giving him death stares. He was about to make his excuses and leave but instead put his hand on Carl’s shoulder.
‘I’m sorry Carl, you know, getting you involved in all this. I should have looked out for you more.’
Carl gave him a strange, almost contented look.
‘Jesus, Will, are you my mother? Don’t be sorry for anything. I’ve had a blast, an amazing time. Experiences, and women.’ He looked sheepishly over his shoulder at his parents. ‘So many women.’ Grinning at Will he continued.
‘Don’t you remember what I was? I was the geeky one, Carlbunkle. My life was a road map of boredom and drudgery. If I die tomorrow at least I could say I have lived. But it’s over Will. Or I will die soon. I’ll be in touch, when I’m in a better place. Say goodbye to the guys for me.’ He gave Will a surprisingly strong hug and nodding, closed the door on him.
‘Carl not coming?’
‘No. Rehab’
‘Good for him.’
‘Lucky him.’
* * *
When they arrived Darren jumped into the back of the car all full of joir de vivre as though they were off on a trip to the seaside and threw a heavy-looking holdall onto the other seat.
‘No Carlos?’
‘Nope, he wished us luck, but he had to go somewhere with his parents.’
Will felt he was better letting Darren finding out about Carl later, he was going to get enough bad news for one day.
‘Where to?’
‘Out to Maxey.’
‘What the hell are we going to the old quarries for? So they don’t have far to dispose of our bodies?’ As the words left his mouth, he began to consider that they might be true and he felt a shiver go down his spine.
‘Chill out Will, it will be fine.’
He heard the bleep of his phone receiving a message but as he was driving he left it in his pocket. When they arrived in the general vicinity Darren directed them along a succession of ever deteriorating roads until the concrete completely disappeared and they were bumping along a muddy path. Will frowned as he felt his axle scrape the surface.
‘Why aren’t we in your fucking 4x4?’
‘What, that car cost a bomb, I’m not ruining it out here.’
Will scowled but felt a flood of strength come over him. The git was at least making it easy for them to tell him it was all over.
They pulled up behind a huge slag pile, next to a dark, threatening gravel pit and Will turned off the engine. They sat in silence for a few seconds. Will had his window down but it was as though they were on the moon. Total silence. It was a pleasant day, but a pleasant day for what Will thought.
Aiden clearly couldn’t stand the tension any longer. He blurted the news out.
‘I’m leaving Darren. Quitting and going to Cambridge. Sorry mate.’
‘Cheers friend, leave me in the lurch why don’t you.’
Will looked at Aiden’s crestfallen face.
‘We are both quitting Darren. We have families now, responsibilities.’ He looked into the back seat at Darren whose face was black as thunder.
‘I take it we are meeting Radic?’
‘Correct.’
‘What for exactly?’
‘I owe him and some of his friends some money.’
‘How much money?’
‘Half a million, more or less.’
‘What the fuck? You lose a marijuana farm or something.?
Darren’s face took on a smug look.
‘You fucking idiot. You didn’t really think it was that all this time. It was cocaine my friend, yeyo, Columbian marching powder. Well, mostly Afghan marching powder in our case.’
The realisation hit Will like a blow from a baseball bat. How could he have not known? All the fucking money, there had been tonnes of it. He remembered overhearing Carl once saying ‘I can’t hide this amount Darren, there’s too much’. He had known that everyone in the pub was off their faces on it but why hadn’t he done the math. Maybe he hadn’t wanted to and had been happy just to take the cash. Suddenly he thought of the seriousness of getting caught.
‘Fucks sake Darren. You should have told us. If we get caught we are looking at nine to eighteen years, maybe even life. You utter wanker.’
‘Oh shut up will you. Don’t come the high and mighty with me. Don’t think I don’t know you used to go round my dad’s house. We all have our little secrets don’t we? You were quite happy to take the dosh.’ He gave Will a condescending look. ‘It’s always been coke. Remember when you took the dive for me after the police chase and I went back for my bag.’
Will was too shocked to reply, so just bobbed his head in response.
‘One kilogram of it was in that bag. All those trips back weren’t about security work, they were arranging deals, transport routes. I’ve been doing it for years.’
‘Darren, why didn’t you let us know?’ Aiden said with tears in his eyes. ‘The police were at the pub this week.’
‘You are too stupid to know,’ he snapped. ‘I owe some of them money too actually.’
‘Why don’t you just pay them?’ Aiden said.
‘I don’t have that sort of money. We lost a shipment to the coastguard. To be honest quite a lot of it went up me and Carl’s nostrillos. Pretty mad really, how much you can get through if you really want to. Kostas was carrying a hundred grand when he got turned over yesterday. I was going to use that to buy some time.’
Darren’s eyes suddenly narrowed. He pointed with his head out the front window. Will followed his look and could see a transit van and a huge pick-up truck driving towards them across the bumpy flat waste.
‘It looks like time’s up Darren,’ Will stated.
Darren avoided Will’s icy stare and rummaged in the holdall he had brought with him. ‘You might need this Will.’ He handed Will a pistol. A really old pistol.
‘What the hell is this for?’
‘What do you think? If things get nasty, use it.’
‘Jesus Christ.’ Will turned it over in his hand. It looked ancient. ‘Are you sure Davy Crockett isn’t going to want this back?’
‘I know,’ Darren laughed, more of a bark than a chuckle. ‘Don’t worry, it will work and it’s loaded. Just make some noise with it if necessary. You were a good shot at Cadets. Sorry Aiden, I could only get my hands on two. It’s surprisingly tough to get your hands on firearms in this country. You should put these on too, just in case.’
He handed Will a pair of dark leather gloves and put a pair on himself. He then took out a black, shiny, new-looking pistol. Will could see the oil glistening on it as Darren expertly checked the magazine and flicked the safety catch off. He looked at them and smiled.
‘Glock.’
Will gave Aiden a shocked look. His heart was going like a trip hammer. This couldn’t be happening. The approaching vehicles were crawling towards them now, as though expecting an ambush. Will thought about his options. He remembered the text message he had received as he was driving and got his phone out, clumsy with the buttons due to his gloved hands. One text, from Radic. ‘Decision time’.
‘No signal here Will, you might as well be on Mars,’ Darren laughed.
The massive pick-up truck stopped directly to the side of them about fifty metres away so they had to look to the left to face them. The transit parked directly behind the massive pick up so they couldn’t clearly see who was in the cab. Then nothing happened.
After a minute Darren interrupted the still.
‘I don’t get it.?’
‘Get what?’
‘Remember when we were out on full moon night, I said I was going to shag everyone, disco dancer, pole dancer?’
‘Yes.’
‘You said
more like Northern Dancer.’
‘Yes,’ Will was exasperated. ‘Surely you have other things to worry about?’
‘I don’t get it, why Northern Dancer?’
‘It’s a famous horse you numbskull.’ Will looked at Darren in the rear view mirror and saw him quietly smile to himself.
‘Ahh, I get it now.’
With that he opened the door and got out. He leaned back in.
‘If any shooting starts, get out and shoot back. Distract them. I’ll handle the rest.’
He then proceeded to walk towards the other vehicles and stopped half way. He held his hands out to both sides in a conciliatory gesture but as he did so his jacket rode up at the back and they could both see the gun tucked in the belt of his jeans.
Will could hear Aiden’s heavy, fast breathing next to him and knew he was doing the same.
‘Aiden, we could just drive off?’
Aiden didn’t look at him but shook his head.
‘Look, nothing will probably happen, we can’t leave him here on his own.’
Will thought that’s exactly what they should do. He felt his hand move to the keys and was just about to turn the engine back on when he saw some movement past Aiden. Three men had got out of the back of the transit and were walking slowly toward Darren. Will recognised two of Radic’s more silent types who had a strong air of ex-military about them. They stopped a metre away from Darren.
Even though they had the windows down neither Will nor Aiden could hear anything due to the wind blowing all the sound away from them but it was clear they were having an argument of some kind. Apart from their breathing they did appear to be on Mars. There were no birds here, and seemingly no plant life. Just gravel and mud.
‘Come on Aiden, let’s go. He is going to get us all killed here. There are three in the front of that pick up and three more in the front of the van, who knows how many more in the back. If this gets nasty we will be MIA. They’ll drop us in one of these deep pits and we will never be seen again. They won’t even know what happened to us. We’ve got families Aiden, I’ve got a child. This is insane. We have been sucked into Darren’s world without our permission, we don’t owe him anything.’
Will looked at Aiden’s face, he could see a tear rolling down his cheek and he could see his friends resolve begin to waiver. He felt a surge of emotion for this big man, so loyal and kind. He didn’t deserve this. He turned the ignition on and fired up the car, looking at the four men in the middle as he did so. He would wonder later if that sound was the catalyst, or if things would have worked out the same anyway, as suddenly it was far from quiet.
Darren whipped out the Glock in a move so quick and practiced it was all a blur. He shot the first man in the throat, the second in the face. The third man began to move into a crouch, but he was slow and clumsy in comparison and Will saw the bullet, some brains and a spray of blood fly out of the back of his head. Darren was then running back towards them, zigzagging as he did so. Will and Aiden were still sat in stunned silence as two men got out of the pick-up brandishing machine guns and began spraying bullets in their direction. AK47 by the looks of it, Will thought having shot one in Thailand, surprisingly light.
Multiple bullets slammed into the car and bonnet and Will’s brain fired into life.
‘Fuck,’ he roared. He slammed the car into gear but another spray of bullets hit the bonnet causing it to shoot up and release a huge cloud of smoke and then the shooting stopped. Will felt the car die underneath him and then it was quiet except for a sound similar to a mangled helicopter blade slowing down. Darren picked himself up off the floor and ran round to Will’s side of the car and pulled the door open.
‘Out,’ he ordered. Will was out of the car before he got to the ‘t’. Aiden tried to follow but he wasn’t built for speed in an enclosed space. Will popped his head over the roof and saw the men had re-loaded.
Will put his head back in the car and desperately pulled at one of Aiden’s arms, but it was like trying to pull a sleepy elephant along by his trunk. Soon the air was alive with the sound of gunshots. He could hear Darren returning fire next to him crouched over the bonnet and then he heard the inevitable ‘Argh’ as a bullet went into his big friend. Aiden bellowed ‘Argh’ again, louder this time and then screamed it, frantically hauling himself out of the car in absolute panic. He finally got himself out and dropped out on top of Will like a dead weight and crushed the breath out of him.
‘Get up you fucking idiot and start shooting,’ Darren hissed at him.
He managed to slide out from under Aiden and found his gun on the seat. All of a sudden it weighed a ton and felt poorly balanced. They were all going to die. The shooting stopped and again it was quiet, except for the sounds of Aiden snivelling and groaning next to him. Will looked at Aiden’s prone form and could clearly see three entry holes in the back of his chinos. One was in his bottom and he had one in the back of each thigh. The bum cheek one was bleeding profusely. Aiden looked up at him, ashen faced.
‘Help me Will,’ he gasped.
Will knew he had to stop the blood flow but all he could come up with was, ‘Sit on your arse, it will seal the wound.’ Aiden shifted up and leant his head back against the rear car door.
‘Put your guns down. You can’t win.’ Radic’s voice boomed through the air to them.
‘Shit Darren, let’s just fucking surrender. If we don’t get some help for Aiden soon he will bleed out.’
‘Fuck that, the Russians will just shoot us.’
‘What do you suggest? A tactical retreat carrying Aiden on your shoulders? And he’s from the Ukraine actually.’
‘Still joking Will, even at the bitter end? I’m going to kill them all, or die trying.’
‘Times up, goodbye my friends.’ Radic’s voiced echoed out again.
Darren was looking over the bonnet and whispered, ‘Oh fuck.’
Will looked over the top of the car to see the pick-up was moving sideways on. He noticed there were now five dead bodies on the ground between them. He looked at the rear of the vehicle as it moved and saw there was a man on the back pulling off the last of a tarpaulin from an evil looking mounted heavy duty machine gun.
‘Belt fed, fifty cal, five hundred rounds a minute, incredible stopping power,’ Darren whispered. ‘Checkmate to you Radic. Boys, we are dead meat.’
The first round screeched past Will’s head like a missile. The second one hit the car and physically shifted it a few inches, knocking Aiden’s head forward. The third went straight through the passenger side door, clipped Aiden’s shoulder and whistled off into the distance. Aiden didn’t make any noise this time, he just slumped to the side.
All of a sudden Will thought of a way out. His brain screamed but he knew it was the right decision, the only decision he could make. He lifted the gun up and pointed it at Darren.
‘He’s jammed it,’ Darren laughed as he turned to Will and saw what was levelled at his stomach. His eyes narrowed. ‘I told you I’m not going to surr…’
Will wasn’t sure if he pulled the trigger or if the gun just went off, but the effect was the same. There was an almighty bang and the force of the blast in such close proximity blew Darren backwards. He staggered away, his shocked eyes never leaving Will’s face and then he stood still. He seemed to give a small nod of his head, fell face forward and hit the ground with a thump.
Will didn’t ponder his decision, he threw the gun away over Darren’s prone form and ripped his T-shirt off. He tucked it around Aiden’s shoulder and applied pressure, turning his face away from Aiden’s horrified look.
He heard the sounds of many boots running towards him, and Radic appeared around the side of the car. He picked up Darren’s gun and waved it in Will’s general direction.
‘Decision time eh? Not quite what I expected, but it will do.’ He shook his head, but with a smile.
‘What a mess eh? Although I did always like you Will.’ He put the gun in his pocket and walked toward Will.
Time froze as Will returned the look. His daughter’s face appeared in his mind. He would never know her, or she him. Radic cocked the weapon and squeezed the trigger. The bullet roared above his head and Will opened his eyes.
‘Say nothing to anyone, about anything. I’ll see what I can do. I will ring for an ambulance when we get back to a signal.’ He stepped away from Aiden’s ever expanding pool of blood. ‘He’ll be fine. Big man, lot of blood.’
He then walked toward Darren and using his foot pushed him onto his back. From Will’s side view he could see the small judders of Darren’s chest as he breathed. A trickle of blood ran out of his mouth and down his cheek. Radic picked Darren’s feet up and grinned at him.
‘Look at you. Shot by a friend. Just like Jesse James.’
Chuckling, Radic dragged Darren’s body away. Just before they went out of view Darren’s head lolled to Will’s direction and his eyes opened and held Will’s gaze for a split second, before they glazed and closed.
Will focused on the task in hand and re-applied the compression on the shoulder wound of his friend. As he did so Aiden’s hand found Will’s. His eyes were closed but he spoke clearly.
‘Will, you did the right thing. You did the right thing.’
He heard engines start up and move off and then it was silent once more. Any thought that came in to Will’s head he pushed away. He did not want to think about anything until he had the time and space to deal with it properly. About five minutes later Aiden’s body slipped away from the car and hit the ground with a gasp. It was then though, that he heard the sounds of distant sirens. Relief flooded through him. Please let there be time. Suddenly an image of Darren filled his mind. Eleven years old, laughing as he cycled no handed down that underpass all those years ago and he began to sob. He had shot and killed his friend.
47
27th August 2014
The sounds of the prison waking up roused Will from his fretful sleep. He had been in bed for about twelve hours but he still felt shattered. As he had the previous morning, he woke up and thought of the horror of what he had done. He sent another small prayer up in the hope that Aiden would pull through and what he had done had not been totally selfish. He could hear them shouting ‘kitchen workers’ and unlocking the odd cell door so he suspected it must be around six thirty in the morning. His cell at least was on the right side of the prison so the morning sun gently shone through the gap between his curtains.
Lazy Blood: a powerful page-turning thriller Page 29
