Dead Watch: a fast-paced thriller you don't want to miss

by Steve Liszka

  ‘Have we got a deal or not?’ Jimmy asked, doing his best to look bored.

  Bogarde thought about it before answering. ‘Meet me tomorrow night. Bring the book, and you’ll get your money.’

  ‘Two things,’ Wesley said. ‘First, we’re keeping the book. That’s our insurance.’

  ‘Not going to happen,’ Bogarde cut in. ‘You can keep as many copies as you like. They’ll be just as good evidence as the real thing should you ever decide to take them to the police, but like I said, the book is of great sentimental value to me. You give it back, or it’s no deal. Now, what was the other thing?’

  ‘We can’t meet tomorrow; we’re working nights.’

  Bogarde smiled. ‘Understood. Meet me here on Thursday night, eight pm.’

  ‘Tell you what,’ Jimmy said. ‘Why don’t we meet at your new gaff? Dylan would love to see what it looks like on the inside.’

  ‘Fine,’ Bogarde said. ‘But this time, I do expect you all to be there.’

  Wes

  ‘Daddy!’

  Olivia and Emily almost bowled Wesley over as they charged into him. He wasn’t sure if it was the joy of seeing him or the break in routine his visit heralded, that excited them most.

  ‘Why are you here today?’ Olivia, the elder girl asked after kissing his chin. ‘We’re supposed to be in school.’

  Wesley pinched at the girl’s nose. ‘You want to go to school, do you?’ Come on, then. I’ll drive you both there now.’

  ‘No, Daddy,’ the girls screamed as they hugged him.

  ‘Where are you taking us?’ Emily asked.

  ‘Anywhere you like, darling. Now, get in the car, please. I need a quick word with Mummy before we go.’

  The girls did as they were told and disappeared into the back of the vehicle. Wesley turned his attention to Nina, who had stood quietly back, saying nothing.

  ‘Thanks for this,’ he said. ‘I know I’ve asked a lot, but you don’t know what it means to me to see them.’

  He wasn’t supposed to be seeing the girls until the weekend, but the meeting at Bogarde’s had unnerved him, and that was the polite version of events. In actual fact, it had frightened the living fuck out of him. Even though he had somehow managed to keep it together, he didn’t think he had ever been as scared as he was with that evil old man staring him down. The real reason he wanted to see the girls was because, quite honestly, he wasn’t sure if, come the weekend, he would still be alive.

  The friendly smile on Nina’s face had taken him back. He wasn’t expecting her to agree to the visit, especially as it involved pulling the girls out of school. The last time he had changed his visiting plans at short notice, there had been riots.

  ‘Has something happened at work?’ Nina said, her voice laced with understanding.

  ‘Something like that. Sometimes, it takes something bad to happen to make us realise what’s important to us.’

  Nina laughed. ‘Tell me about it.’

  ‘I’ll have them back by six and don’t worry. I won’t go filling them up with sweets and chocolate.’

  ‘If you want,’ Nina said, ‘you can stay for tea. The girls would like that.’

  ‘I’m sure they would. I can’t imagine Gregg being too pleased about it though.’

  Nina looked to the floor, ‘Gregg’s left me; he’s gone back to Paula.’

  She waited for Wesley to answer, but when nothing came back, she spoke again. ‘Go on, say it. You knew it wouldn’t last.’

  Wesley shook his head. ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’

  ‘Are you?’ she said. ‘Sorry that he’s not living here anymore?’

  ‘No, but I’m sorry if you’ve been hurt again.’

  ‘Don’t be, he was an arsehole anyway. I realise now that I never really wanted Gregg. He was just a way of dealing with my loneliness.’

  ‘I’m sure Paula will be glad to hear that.’

  Nina reached out and grabbed Wesley’s hand. ‘It’s you I want. Come home, Wes.’

  When she touched him, it felt like he’d received an electric shock. He looked down at their embraced hands, then gently retracted his own.

  ‘What?’ Nina said. ‘I thought you wanted this.’

  ‘I did. I do, I think… I don’t know what I want, if I’m honest.’

  ‘Come home,’ she repeated. ‘The girls would love it. I would love it. We miss you.’

  Whether he was aware of it or not, Wesley took a step backward. ‘I miss you guys too. I’m just not sure I’m ready for it yet. This is all a bit much to take in right now.’

  The smile on Nina’s face fell away and was replaced with the accusing stare he had grown accustomed too over the past few months.

  ‘Sorry, Wes, maybe I didn’t make myself clear. If you want to keep seeing the girls, you’ll come home now.’

  ‘If you want me home, issuing threats is a funny way of going about it.’

  ‘I’m serious. Do what I say and move back in, or you can treat today as a goodbye visit. It’ll be the last time you see the girls for a long time.’

  Wesley laughed. ‘Tell you what. Let’s speak about this again when you’re in a less psychotic mood.’

  ‘Don’t laugh it off, Wes. I’m not messing around here. Come back or all you’ll be seeing of those girls is the pictures I send you on Instagram.’

  ‘Fine,’ Wesley said, ‘you do it. You stop me seeing the girls, and let’s see how well you cope without me paying for this place. Perhaps your old boss will give you your job back, although I’m pretty sure you’ll need a substantive pay rise to cover the mortgage and all the bills.’

  Nina reacted like he’d just punched her in the face. ‘You can’t do that! I’ll get the CSA on you.’

  Wesley shrugged. ‘Big deal. Like you said before, it’ll take months, if not years, for them to stick their oar in. By then, the bank will have seized the house off you.’

  Nina swallowed hard before speaking. ‘And you’d do that, would you? Watch your little girls get brought up in some stinking council flat just to prove your point.’

  ‘Those girls have had everything they could ever need and a bit more on top. They don’t realise how lucky they are. I think a bit of adversity in their lives would do them the world of good; give them a better appreciation of the simple things. And besides, most of the council flats I see when I’m in work aren’t that bad. Nothing that a lick of paint wouldn’t solve. I’ll even come round and do it for you, just to show there’s no hard feelings.’

  Nina opened her mouth to form words, but nothing came out.

  ‘I don’t blame you for leaving me,’ Wesley said. ‘I don’t pretend that I was the best husband, and I am sorry for that. But one thing I am is a good father. Don’t try and turn me into a bad one by denying me my kids. Maybe one day, I will come home. Maybe we will get back together, but it’s got to be right for both of us, not just you. Let’s take these things slowly and see what happens.’

  He looked at his watch. ‘We better be going, or it’ll be too late to get in anywhere.’

  He smiled at his wife. ‘I’ll have them back by tea-time, scout’s promise.’

  Still silent, Nina watched as Wesley joined his daughters in the car.

  Confessions

  ‘What do you mean she’s not coming?’ Jimmy said.

  Bodhi shrugged apologetically. ‘She’s not coming, Jim. That’s it.’

  ‘We’ve already pushed him far enough. If we want this deal to work, then she needs to be there.’

  ‘She won’t be,’ Bodhi said. ‘So just drop it.’

  Jimmy gave Bodhi a look. ‘And Jo’s all right with this, is she? Playing the damsel in distress, I mean. Doesn’t sound like her to me.’

  ‘For once, we didn’t even have to argue about it. She feels the same way too.’

  ‘Fuck me, I’ve heard it all now.’

  It was an hour into their second nightshift. The evening before, Jimmy and Wesley had laid out their meeting with Bogarde to the rest of the Watch
over a cup of tea. They’d spelt it out in no uncertain terms that Bogarde wanted the whole of Red Watch there, and everyone had not only agreed, but said it was the fairest thing if they all accepted a share of the risk. This was why Jimmy was so shocked when Bodhi had pulled him aside and presented this new development.

  ‘I understand where you’re coming from,’ Jimmy said. ‘I know you’ve not been together long, and right now, you must be about as loved up as it’s possible for two people to be. She’s your woman, and you want to protect her, I get that, mate, I do. But let’s just do this one last thing together, and then, it will be over for good.’

  Bodhi smiled at his friend. ‘I hear what you’re saying, Jim, and I know it pisses you off, but she’s not going, end of story.’

  Jimmy went to speak, then stopped and sighed. ‘You want to know something? Ever since that hoax call at my house when I thought something had happened to Jen and the kids, things have been good at home, and when I say good, I mean really fucking good. When you think you’ve lost the people you love, then find out you haven’t, it changes you. Makes you realise how much you take for granted. I love my kids more than anything, and even though me and Jen spend half our time arguing, there’s no woman in the world I’d rather be with. But despite that, I’m going to go to that prick’s house tomorrow and put an end to this shit once and for all. It’s got to be done, and we all need to be there.’

  ‘She’s pregnant, Jim.’

  ‘Fffuck,’ Jimmy said, the shock almost preventing him from overcoming the first syllable. ‘Now I really have heard it all.’

  ‘How do you think I’m feeling?’

  Jimmy clapped his hands together. ‘You’re right, she ain’t coming. Bollocks to that shit. Fuck Bogarde. He’ll have to do without her, and you for that matter.’

  ‘Don’t be silly, Jim. I’ll be there.’

  Jimmy shook his head. ‘No, you won’t. You need to be home with her, just in case anything does go wrong. That baby’s going to need the both of you.’

  ‘What about your kids, or Wesley’s or Lenny’s little girl? Don’t they need their parents too?’

  ‘Yeah, and they will have them, ’cos nothing’s going to happen. But Jo’s going to need you more than anything in the next few months, even though she’d never admit it.’ Jimmy put his hand on Bodhi’s shoulder. ‘Let us deal with this, you’ve got bigger problems coming your way.’

  The door of the locker room burst open and Jo walked in.

  ‘What the fuck are you two arseholes talking about?’ she shouted, then looked to Bodhi. ‘You better not have said anything.’

  ‘Congratulations,’ Jimmy said.

  Jo rolled her eyes. ‘For fuck’s sake, Bodhi, we talked about this.’

  Jimmy walked up to her, kissed her and gave her a bear hug, hunching his shoulders forward so he wouldn’t crush the bump that wasn’t even there yet. The hug that Bodhi received was far less gentle.

  ‘Congratulations, the pair of you. You’ll make great parents.’

  ‘No, we won’t,’ Jo said. ‘We’ll be fuck-ups, just like the rest of you.’

  ‘In that case,’ Jimmy said, ‘welcome to the club.’

  Reconciliation

  Dylan went to open the car door then retracted his arm as if the handle was electrified. ‘I can’t do it.’

  Lenny shook his head in disgust. ‘Seriously, you need to stop being such a pussy. Man the fuck up and deal with this shit.’

  They were double-parked outside Felicity’s office building, and had been for the last twenty minutes; a situation that was testing what little patience Lenny had to its very limits. When he was tired, he became even more irritable than usual. They had spent the previous night at a ten-pump fire in Newhaven. The science block of the comprehensive school had been set alight at two o’clock in the morning, and their appliance had been there almost from the start until they were relieved by a retained pump at seven.

  That was only three hours before Lenny had found himself acting as Dylan’s chauffeur and moral back up, and he wasn’t happy. He should have been tucked up in bed.

  People often asked firefighters what was the biggest fire they had been to, associating biggest with best. Most of those firefighters would be quick to respond that more often than not, the bigger fires quickly turned out to be a massive ball-ache. Yeah, they looked pretty spectacular at first when the flames were thirty feet high, but the truth was, big fires attracted lots of fire engines, and worse, even more officers. Usually firefighting, when a blaze was that big and developed, was limited to keeping surrounding buildings safe. In other words, damage limitation. This was known as being in defensive mode, and that had been the case with the school.

  The crew had spent most of the early morning directing a jet at any flames that licked up through the burnt-out roof, stopping the heat travelling to the art wing. When the fire had finally died down and crews had been able to get in there and put it out, another two hours had been spent turning over and dampening down. The crews that replaced them would be continuing with the job for the rest of the morning.

  No, most firefighters would tell you the best jobs were the ones they could get stuck into and put out before management had even turned up. A good bedroom fire, where the crews had to work like lunatics for twenty minutes and kept contained to the room of origin, was often far more satisfying than the bigger jobs that made the headlines.

  ‘I can’t, Len. What if she says no? It would ruin me.’

  ‘I’ll fuckin’ ruin you if you don’t get the fuck out of my car. How do you think you’re going to face that bastard tonight if you can’t even confront your own woman?’

  ‘That’s different.’

  ‘Too fucking right it’s different. If this goes tits up, at worst you’ll get a slap around the face. If it goes wrong tonight, we could end up under the pier wearing concrete boots.’

  ‘Thanks, Len, that makes me feel so much better.’

  Lenny looked out of the car window to the street outside. ‘You going to do it, then? If not, we’re gonna do one, there’s a parking Nazi coming.’

  Dylan took a deep breath and nodded at his driver. ‘I’m going. Wish me luck.’

  ‘Good man. I’ll stay here, just in case I need to move.’

  ‘Really?’ Dylan said. ‘I was hoping you’d come up and serenade her for me. Where’s that poem you wrote?’

  ‘Shut up, knobhead,’ Lenny laughed. ‘Go and get your missus back.’

  As he walked down the corridor, Dylan noticed a few sideways glances and whispered conversations from Felicity’s workmates. Most of them had been at Nick’s house on the night they broke up and clearly hadn’t forgotten it. As he approached her office, he could feel his heart rate increasing. Despite what Lenny had said, he was far more worried about this meeting than the one that would follow in a few hours’ time.

  When he was ten yards from her door, Nick came out of the room with a broad smile on his face. When he saw Dylan, he went white, and the smile fell away.

  ‘Hi, Nick,’ Dylan said, preventing the man from completing a 180 degree turn. ‘Is Flic in?’

  Nick tried to smile, but it came out as grimace, like he was swallowing razor blades, ‘Nice to see you, Dylan.’

  ‘And you, Nick, as always.’

  ‘You know, I’m glad you’re here. I wanted to tell you how sorry I am for what happened before, and I just wanted to let you know nothing like that will ever happen again.’

  Dylan smiled. ‘Thanks for that. Now run along and give us ten minutes alone. I need to speak to my fiancée.’

  When he knocked on the door, Felicity’s head was hidden from view behind her computer monitor.

  ‘What now?’ she said. Even though he couldn’t see her face, Dylan was certain she was smiling. ‘Haven’t you got work to do?’

  ‘Sorry to disappoint you,’ he said. ‘It’s just me.’

  When she leant out from behind the screen, the smile had already gone. ‘Dylan, what are you
doing here?’

  He responded by walking closer to her desk. ‘I need to speak to you. We can’t go on like this.’

  ‘No, you’re right. You should come and get the rest of your stuff. I think it’s best that you leave the flat for good.’

  Dylan felt like he had been punched in the stomach. ‘It’s Nick, isn’t it. Are you seeing him?’

  ‘No, Dylan, I most definitely am not seeing Nick. He’s my colleague and we have fun at work. That’s it, end of story.’

  ‘Then why do I have to move out? I love you.’

  ‘Do you, though? How can you love someone you’ve got no respect for; whose job undermines the values you hold so dear?’

  Dylan let out a nervous laugh. ‘Don’t be silly, I love you, and that’s all that matters. Even if you were a serial killer, I would still love you.’

  ‘Oh, right, so now, you’re comparing me to a serial killer. I thought you were trying to put things right.’

  Dylan held his hands up in surrender. ‘I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant. What I was trying to say is, I love you, no matter what. I know you’re a good person, and I know that you love your job, and you’re in it for all the right reasons, even if some other people aren’t.’

  The look on Felicity’s face stopped him. ‘Sorry. But I mean it. I love you, Flic. I love you more than anything, and I would do or say anything to keep you with me. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, and I know I don’t deserve you, but I want you in my life until the day I die. I want to have children with you, and I want us to get old together, and we can share a room in the care home when the kids don’t want to look after us anymore.’

  ‘I thought you weren’t planning on living past forty-five?’

  Dylan shrugged. ‘You know me, I talk a lot of shit. Take me back, Flic, please.’

  ‘I don’t know… I do love you, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life feeling guilty for doing my job, which, like you said, I do love and I am proud of. I can’t have you making me feel like I’m committing a human rights violation every time I leave for work in the morning.’