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

by Steve Liszka

  When he got back to the boat, they were all there waiting for him; Jimmy, Lenny, Dylan, Wesley and, of course, Jo. He was soaking wet, freezing cold and covered in mud, but when they saw him, none of them thought twice about squeezing the life out of their friend. Except for Jo, that is. She slapped him across the face first, cursed him for being a stupid twat for doing what he’d done, then gave him the biggest kiss on the lips she could manage.

  ‘What happened?’ Bodhi asked. ‘Did it go bad?’

  ‘It did,’ Jimmy said, ‘then it didn’t. I’m guessing you took care of that guy?’

  Bodhi gave them a shamed nod. He wasn’t proud of what he done, even if it was necessary.

  ‘Then, that’s it. I think we’re off the hook.’

  Jo put her arms around him and squeezed Bodhi tightly; she already knew how guilty he was feeling.

  ‘Don’t feel bad,’ she said. ‘You saved my life and our baby’s too. That’s all that matters.’

  Bodhi placed his hand on her miniscule bump and gave her a tired smile. ‘Yeah, you’re right,’ he said. ‘It is.’

  When he came out of the bedroom, freshly showered with a new hoodie on that looked just like the one he’d been wearing earlier, Bodhi was met by the sight of his friends huddled around the television staring at the news. The female reporter, wrapped in a yellow mac to protect her from the driving rain, was standing in front of what had once been Jonathan Bogarde’s house. The shell of it was still standing, but it was clear that everything on the inside had been destroyed.

  ‘In what was believed to be a dispute over money,’ the reporter said, raising her voice to be heard over the wind, ‘an employee of Mr Bogarde’s broke in to the property, shot the owner, then set fire to the house which he had only recently moved into following nearly five years of construction. Despite his injuries and with the building ablaze, Mr Bogarde was able to rescue his wife and young son from an upstairs bedroom and lead them to safety. However, it was the firefighters who arrived to put out the fire that Mr Bogarde said were the real heroes, and has pledged to help them save their fire station from closure in any way he can.’

  Lenny threw a cushion at the TV, cutting off the reporter. ‘Fuck this guy. I can’t believe he’s managed to come out of this smelling of roses.’

  Jimmy shrugged. ‘Who cares, it’s over. Mac’s gone, the station stays open and we’re out of the shit.’

  Dylan didn’t look convinced. ‘So, what’s the moral of the story here? The way to fund a public service is by getting some ruthless businessman to bail us out? I know it’s good the station is going to be saved an’ all, but it just doesn’t sit right.’

  Lenny threw a second cushion and struck Dylan in the side of the face. ‘How about you shut the fuck up and enjoy the moment, for once.’

  He looked across to Bodhi. ‘You got any more beer in that fridge of yours?’

  Bodhi nodded. ‘Course, what do you think I am?’

  ‘Then, what are we waiting for? I think we need a toast.’

  ‘I’ll get them,’ Dylan said.

  As he went to get up, Lenny put his arm on his shoulder, pushing him back onto the sofa. ‘I’ll get them, you’re not the new boy anymore.’

  Lenny went to the fridge and filled his hands with beer bottles. After handing them out, the others stood around not knowing quite what to do.

  Wesley elbowed Jimmy in the arm. ‘Come on, Jim. I reckon you should say something.’

  ‘You say something,’ Jimmy said back. ‘You’re the governor.’

  ‘Yeah come on, Wes,’ Lenny said. ‘You’re one of us now, you massive bell end.’

  Wesley laughed. ‘Thanks, Len.’

  He took a second to clear his throat. ‘To be honest, I don’t really know what to say. A lot has happened over the last few months, much of it due to my inability to take charge and stop us from losing our heads like we did. But it happened. We made our mistake, and hopefully, now, we’ve managed to rectify the situation. I’ve learnt a lot about you guys lately, and if it means anything, I just want to say how proud of you all I am. But I’ve also learnt something about myself. I know you guys didn’t think much of me when I started on the Watch, and I don’t blame you either. Hopefully, your opinion has changed now, because I know I have. Whether it’s for the better or not, I’m not too sure.’

  He paused whilst the others laughed.

  ‘With any luck, Harrison will get off with this charge they’ve put against him, and very soon, we can get back to business as usual.’

  He held his beer bottle up in the air. ‘Cheers… you bunch of cunts.’

  The others cheered at his profanity, held up their bottles and threw the contents down their throats.

  ‘I was thinking,’ Bodhi said to Jo who had substituted her beer for an orange juice. He had lowered his voice for her alone to hear. ‘Maybe I should sell the boat and move into your place. I want our kid to have a normal life living with both his parents.’

  ‘I’ve got a better idea,’ Jo said. ‘How about I rent the flat out and come and live here with you.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘This boat is part of you. It’s part of what makes me love you, even if you and it drive me crazy sometimes. I don’t want you to change, and if you can get some of your ways to rub off on our little one, then all the better. Perhaps, then, they won’t end up like their neurotic, competitive mum.’

  ‘Don’t talk bollocks,’ Bodhi said. ‘I love that you’re determined and driven and don’t take shit off anyone. I want our kid to be like that too.’

  Lenny groaned. ‘Jesus, are you two going to start wanking each over off or what’

  Jo shot him a look, then returned her attention to Bodhi. ‘So, you up for it, then? Could your precious boat handle family life?’

  ‘Are you sure you can? You didn’t look too hot earlier when it got rough.’

  Jo laughed. ‘I’m Wonder Woman, I can handle anything.’

  ‘Except Bodhi’s penis,’ Lenny said.

  Jo clenched her fist and directed at him. ‘One more word, dickhead, and you’ll be getting this.’

  ‘Seriously, though,’ Lenny said, smiling, ‘isn’t anyone else thinking that maybe Mac had a point? Don’t you think we should have squeezed a few quid for ourselves out of Bogarde? Nothing silly, just twenty or thirty grand each to compensate us for our troubles.’

  Jimmy nodded to Jo who responded by punching Lenny straight in the stomach. As he doubled over and gasped for air, the others held their bottles up and sank the rest of their beers.

  Scores to Settle

  Three Months Later

  ‘Seriously,’ Dylan said, shaking his head, ‘that’s so gay.’

  ‘How can it be gay, knobhead?’ Lenny said. ‘If it was a bloke sticking his finger up my arsehole, that would be gay. But it wasn’t. It was a twenty-eight-year-old lap-dancer.’

  Jimmy picked his cup of tea off the canteen table and blew at the contents. ‘I thought you said you were staying away from dancers after last time.’

  ‘I was,’ Lenny said, ‘but you should see this one.’

  He held both hands a foot away from his chest and looked down at the imaginary cleavage.

  ‘You’re right,’ Jo said.

  She was now working light duties, and despite her bump having grown considerably, she was still in the gym every day, putting in times on the running machine that no one else could touch.

  ‘It’s not gay, it’s fucking repulsive. How can you make the poor girl go near that hairy A-hole of yours?’

  Lenny smiled. ‘That’s just it, she wanted to do it. It’s her thing. And just so you know, my arse ain’t so hairy anymore. She made me get a back, sack and crack wax.’

  Jo made a gagging face. ‘I didn’t think it was possible to make this any story worse, but well done, Len, you’ve just managed it.’

  ‘Don’t try and bring me down with your negative bullshit,’ Lenny said, but in a cheerful manner. ‘I got a woman who likes to do stuff
to the holiest of holes, and my brother and me are talking to each other for the first time in far too fucking long. Life is good right now.’

  Since the fire at Bogarde’s house, life had improved for everyone on the watch. Dylan had moved back in with Felicity, and the wedding plans were back on. His rescue of Kat and her baby had also removed his desire to transfer to Central, and he had withdrawn his application. He was more than happy working at East with his Red Watch comrades.

  Jimmy had cut back on his work with Bob and was seeing far more of Jen and the kids. Despite spending most of his time moaning about being skint since this new arrangement, he was far happier with his work-life balance, and so were the rest of his family. Something else that had cheered him up was that he had recently gone back to the training centre to retake his BA refresher. His pride had been seriously dented by his previous failure, but free of external worries, he had gone up there and passed it with ease. He could now call himself a firefighter again without the nagging doubt that had been lurking at the back of his mind. The nightmares hadn’t gone away, but since Mac’s disappearance, their frequency had dwindled, and he was seeing less of the dead men’s faces when he closed his eyes at night.

  Jo had kept to her word and put the flat up for rent. She’d moved onto the boat a month prior and was trying to adapt to its limited space before the baby came. Bodhi had been working hard converting the spare room from a kite storage area and workshop into a nursery. The colours were being kept neutral to cover all eventualities.

  Jo pursed her lips and blew out, rubbing her bump as she did so.

  ‘You okay?’ Bodhi said. ‘Baby giving you a good kicking?’

  Jo shook her head. ‘I’m starving. My breakfast didn’t stay down again.’

  She leaned back in her chair and looked to the canteen. ‘Harrison, how long are those sandwiches going to be, mate? My stomach thinks my throat’s been cut.’

  Harrison poked his head out the door and gave her a smile. ‘Not long now, but like they say, you can’t rush perfection.’

  ‘He better not watch me eat it, then,’ she said under her breath as he disappeared into the kitchen. ‘I’ll fucking demolish it in seconds.’

  Harrison’s disciplinary investigation had already gone down in station folklore. When Dylan turned up to the meeting with his arms full of A4 binders, Phil Collins and the Brigade’s human resources manager had looked at each other, as if not knowing quite what to expect. Over the next two hours, their concern would prove to be well founded. The meeting had been Dylan’s finest hour. He went at them from the off, referring them to the Bill of Rights, the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Rights; some of the most important acts in history that protected a person’s freedom of speech. He talked of the struggles of the suffragettes and the Tolpuddle Martyrs, quoting text at them from Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

  Yes, he said, Harrison had said a word that they could possibly construe as offensive, but their actions he argued, were far more offensive to Harrison and his colleagues. At one point, he launched into a theoretical discussion, about the English language itself, and if Harrison had used any other word than “scab,” would it still be considered offensive. He dropped Shakespeare in at this point, referencing Juliet’s “a rose by any other name” speech. Dylan, the arch-atheist, had even quoted the bible at them. ‘Whatever one sows,’ he had said, ‘that he will also reap,’ before launching into a final tirade at the officers that had undermined the union that had served them extremely well, and were refusing to take responsibility for their actions. Phil and the other guy eventually dismissed the charges against Harrison rather than hear any more of Dylan’s lecturing.

  By the end of the day, everyone who worked at the station had heard about what he had done and were ready to accept Dylan as their new union rep with open arms. Harrison, who had enjoyed the time off and the chance to rekindle his relationship with Janet, was nonetheless happy to get back to work and get some decent meals back into the Watch. He had spent over an hour of his first day on duty getting the canteen cupboards back to a way he found acceptable. It was criminal, he had complained, that people were stacking the tinned tomatoes amongst the baked beans, and the herb and spice rack was a total mess. When he looked inside the fridge and saw the state of the vegetable tray, he almost fainted. Welcome back, Harrison.

  Five minutes later, he returned to the room, handing Jo her sandwich.

  ‘The rest of you miserable bastards,’ he told them, ‘can get your own.’

  ‘Ketchup?’ Jo asked.

  Harrison tutted. ‘I’m hurt that you even had to ask.’

  Jo winked at him and patted his bum as he walked past.

  After pulling up his seat at the table, Harrison turned his attention to Jimmy. ‘Now that the station is staying, do you think you can order us some more knives for the kitchen? I might as well have been using the side of my hand to cut that onion.’

  ‘I’ll ask Wesley when he gets back,’ Jimmy said. ‘I’m sure Phil Collins won’t mind helping out his favourite Watch.’

  Bogarde’s offer to bankroll the station had been reluctantly accepted by the fire authority in an emergency meeting held earlier in the month. Some of the councillors on the panel were happy to endorse his offer, whilst others felt it reflected badly on them, with a U-turn suggesting they had made a mistake in the first place. Eventually, the yeses and their belief that it was the people of Brighton that were the priority won the day by the slimmest of margins. The station would stay open as long as Bogarde was happy to finance it.

  ‘How do you think Wes’ little family holiday is going?’ Lenny said. ‘You reckon they’re sharing the same bed yet?’

  ‘If a week in Butlin’s doesn’t bring them together,’ Dylan answered, ‘I can’t imagine what else could.’

  Wesley had been spending much more time with the girls, and as a consequence, his wife too. They hadn’t got back together, but their relationship was healthier than at any time since they’d separated, and there had even be tentative conversations about him moving back in again. The holiday was their first step in an attempt at reconciliation. Another development for Wesley was that he had decided to stay put as an operational firefighter and forego his job in fire safety. He had already proved to the crew that he was up to the task but on the night at Bogarde’s house, his own actions had convinced him that he was capable of the challenge.

  ‘Don’t be a snob, you knob,’ Lenny said. ‘When you’ve got little ones, you’ll think Butlin’s is the best thing since sliced bread. Especially when you can pack them off to kids club so you and the missus can get jiggy.’

  The bells went down, interrupting their conversation.

  ‘What we got, Jim?’ Dylan said from the back of the lorry as he did up his fire tunic.

  Jimmy stared at the computer screen in front of him. ‘Fire in the open, Bevendean Woods.’

  ‘Little bastards,’ Lenny said from the driver’s seat. ‘They’ve only been on holiday for a couple of days. Usually takes a week or two before they get bored and start burning stuff.’

  Pulling out of the bays, he cursed every child under sixteen that lived in the vicinity of the woods and continued to do so until they arrived at the incident a few minutes later.

  Lenny parked up at the bottom of a track that led into the offending area. It wasn’t that large a space, but the track was far too narrow for an appliance to get down. The only way the crew could get to the fire was on foot.

  At the pump bay, Lenny filled up two buckets and, with a smile on his face, handed one each to Bodhi and Harrison.

  ‘You sure you’re going to be all right with this?’ Lenny asked the senior member of the crew. ‘A man of your age shouldn’t be doing this sort of work. Let laughing boy do the heavy lifting.’

  He nodded at Dylan who was wearing the flex-pack; a back-pack full of water that made him look like he’d gone to a fancy-dress party as one of the Ghostbusters. The flex-pack was the least effective pi
ece of equipment on the fire engine, if not the planet. The nozzle required a vigorous pump-action in order for water to be ejected out of it, so much so, that after getting a few litres of wet stuff on the fire, the mug doing the job would be well and truly knackered. If he was on duty, Dylan always got dumped with the flex pack.

  ‘Take care in there,’ Lenny said as the crew traipsed off into the trees. ‘If you get scared, give me a call, and I’ll come and hold your hands.’

  After walking for less than a hundred yards, Jimmy stopped and sniffed the air. He turned to his left and looked to the tops of the trees. Grey wisps of smoke could be made out rising above them and drifting north. He turned and pointed in the direction of the fire.

  ‘This way, troops.’

  In the clearing, a small bonfire was burning at a lazy pace. All that was left of the mattress that laid on top was the springs. When the call came, it was probably chucking out heaps of black smoke, looking far worthier of a visit by the brigade.

  Jimmy turned to Dylan. ‘Hopefully, the buckets will do it, and you won’t have to waste your time with that thing.’

  ‘I knew it,’ Dylan said. ‘I told Lenny not to fill it up so much. My spine feels like it’s about to snap.’

  As Bodhi and Harrison made their way to the fire, a familiar figure stepped out from behind a tree and smiled at them. He had a pistol in his hand, and it was pointing in their direction.

  ‘Gents,’ Mac said, ‘I’ve been waiting for you.’

  The firefighters stopped dead, not knowing what to say or do.

  Mac nodded at the fire. ‘Go on then, put it out. We wouldn’t want it causing a mischief.’

  Bodhi and Harrison looked at each other then walked forward and poured the buckets over the fire. The steam produced made Mac take a half-step backwards.

  ‘What do you want?’ Jimmy asked the intruder.

  ‘What do you think I want? You and your team of do-gooders have ruined my life. I want revenge, Jim. I want retribution. I want you fuckers to pay for what you’ve done.’

  ‘Take it easy,’ Harrison said, ‘and think about what you’re doing for a minute.’