‘Yeah, I’m happy,’ she said. ‘I’m real happy.’ She fumbled a cigarette from the pack sitting on the counter, struggling to turn the long match into flame. Her hand shook as she puffed without drawing the smoke into her lungs. ‘So how have you been?’
‘You need to lose the gun if you’re wanting a conversation with me. Frankly, I think you should just let me leave, eh?’
‘But we’ve got so much to catch up on. What’ve you been up to?’
‘Oh, how your parents must be so proud.’
‘They are. Devastated they were to hear about Marvin’s death. They thought Marvin was a good catch for me. Are your parents proud of you? They had to move, didn’t they? Ashamed…Embarrassed...They were hounded by the toffee-nosed community of Upper Ostere to justify your actions, weren’t they?’
‘Bless you, Ben. A draft dodger, but a coward in most people’s eyes. And your dad was in the army, wasn’t he? Decorated war hero, you told me. I remember you showing me his trunk full of memorabilia from some forgotten war. Oh yes, my parents are very proud of me.’
The knock on her front door broke up our conversation. She smiled at me. ‘Don’t move,’ and hurried out of the room.
I followed, keeping a quiet distance, curious who stood beyond her front door, as ‘Chicklet’ can’t have returned so quickly. As the door swung inward Tommy fell into the hallway and grabbed at Linda to break his fall. She lifted both arms to catch him and his momentum forced her off balance. They fell backwards to the floor and the gun bounced free, coming to rest not two feet from my tatty boots. While Linda pushed and slapped and abused Tommy, I retrieved the weapon and waited for her and Tommy to disentangle.
‘Well done, Tommy,’ I said. ‘Did you get bored with the park?’
I offered him a hand to stand. He held his injured limb across his chest as he looked at Linda. She sat on the floor, her top gaping and her childhood pout souring her face.
‘Have you met Linda?’
‘No, I haven’t.’ He put out his hand, watching her fingers redoing buttons. ‘Ever so sorry about that,’ he said pointing at the exposed flesh.
She retied the shirt tails and slapped at Tommy’s offer.
‘Linda doesn’t have good manners. She gave me a slap earlier.’ I reached into my pocket and pulled out the phone I’d taken from the gunman at the police station. ‘Shall we make it interesting, Linda?’
I scrolled through the phone menu until I found Cooper’s number. I pushed the green button, smiling at Linda with each ring, but sighed as it transferred to a recorded message. An anti-climax, but it added to the tension in Linda’s hallway.
‘Mr. Cooper,’ I said. Her head dropped, but she scowled through her fringe at me. ‘I have information regarding your bag. Call me back soon if you want to participate in its auction.’
With the phone secured I leant against Linda’s hallway wall. ‘I’ve assumed your man is bringing the bag back here?’ She didn’t answer. ‘Tommy, give her a slap.’
Tommy picked up his Stetson and leant against the door. ‘I don’t think so.’ He shook his head and waved a finger at me. ‘I don’t think that’s right. I can’t be hitting a lady.’
‘She’s no lady. She just whacked me with this gun. Me arm’s still half numb.’
‘Yeah, but it’s just a whack, you know. I can’t see any injuries. She can’t have hit you hard.’
‘Linda, is your man bringing the bag back here?’
The phone vibrated in my hand and I smiled at Linda, choosing the speaker option on the handset. ‘Mr. Cooper?’
‘Who is this?’ he said.
‘You know who it is. Mr. Cooper and you’ll never keep a client base if you can’t remember their names. I’m the man you’ve kept telling everyone has your precious bag. Well, you were wrong, but I know who has it now.’
‘I’m listening.’
‘Of course you are. And I’m going to tell you.’
I let a length of silence develop before continuing. ‘Now, I mentioned Linda, didn’t I? I mean when you and I last spoke, I suggested she might be worth a look, but you told me I was wrong.’
‘She hasn’t got the bag.’
‘No, you’re right, but her man with the limp has.’
‘He hasn’t got the bag.’
I looked at Linda, at the slumped shoulders and the arms crossed against her chest. ‘I’ve just told him where to find the bag and he’s on his way back here with said bag in his possession. Here, being Linda’s place. The black widow to a man called Marvin Cooper. Do you know where our Linda lives?’
‘I do.’
‘So you should get your arse over here, eh?’
I hung up the phone. ‘So now we wait. Grab yourself a seat in the kitchen, girl and keep your back to the window. Don’t be doing silly stuff. I’m not so good with guns. I mean I know how to pull the trigger and all, but pointing them isn’t my strong point.’
Chapter Thirty-Three
Less talk, more Gun
Linda sat with her back to the window and Tommy took the opposite chair, next to the door. I’d stopped off in her dining room and helped myself to a large tumbler of cognac and refilled my flask. Once back in the kitchen I ransacked her fridge, threw Tommy a beer and helped myself to a piece of cold roast chicken.
Tommy lit a cigarette for Linda and stuck a fresh cheroot in his mouth. Two cars braked with a squeal outside the house. Motors revved and shouted orders caused Linda to straighten and I turned to the kitchen door holding my hand up for silence. Tommy paused in his tale of woe concerning his dead brother and followed my gaze to the kitchen door.
‘Go and let them in,’ I said.
Tommy returned with two men in black suits and wide brimmed black hats. They crowded into Linda’s kitchen, lighting up cigarettes and leaning either side of me, warming their arses on Linda’s cooker. I’d met our two men, not so long ago. The squat man had chased me through the streets of Ostere a night back. The second man, taller by an inch, left in the first car after Nab’s execution.
Tommy knew the squat Black Hat as the killer of his brother. Both men offered me a nod at the sight of my gun and accepted the need to wait and be patient. I kept my manner curt, in-charge and the gun prominent. I needed to stay focused. Peg Leg, sorry Chicklet, roamed the streets with the bag and my best guess predicted more grief before the bag found its rightful owner.
‘You all right Tommy?’ The look he offered suggested he struggled with his grief. ‘Stay cool. Justice is on the way, eh? Collect their guns so we’re not getting any hassle from these two.
‘Here’s the deal,’ I said, shoving two new guns into my coat pockets. ‘I don’t own this bag. My instructions were to give it to Marvin’s mum if something happened to Marvin. That came from the horse’s mouth.’ I nodded for emphasis. ‘But I buggered that task big time. Not that Mrs. Cooper was ever an option because she’s well dead.’ I shook my head offering a moment of respect to the late Mrs. Cooper.
Black Hat number one, the taller of the two, eased off the cooker and pulled out a chair next to Linda. She edged away and took two quick puffs on her cigarette. He placed his hat on the table, his fingers tapping on the rough wooden surface and shook his head. He didn’t look well. Pale, sickly even and he needed to take the red handkerchief from his breast pocket to mop the perspiration building on his brow.
‘Problem?’ I asked. Brown eyes stared and he smirked before shaking his head. ‘Good.’
‘I got a problem,’ his squat colleague said. Tommy couldn’t stop staring at the man who’d set his brother on fire. His suit didn’t have a handkerchief and looked tight and short. Dark patches of hair struggled for a foothold around his ears and a load of fluff covered his crown. ‘Who made you boss? Cooper won’t be happy about this.’
‘But he’s not here, is he?’
I backed away to allow Tommy to retake his seat at the table, keeping all the players in view and my back to the door. With my gun I patted the two weapons I’d taken fro
m the Black Hats. ‘For the moment, let’s assume I made me boss. And how is your mate? Is he still wearing a knife in his chest?’
I motioned with the gun for my squat balding Black Hat to move closer to sink, so I could cover the three and watch Tommy. I feared he might attack and that wasn’t going to help our cause.
‘Now, I reckon the bag’s provenance is with you guys with the stupid hats. That’s what I reckon. What about you, Tommy?’
He shook his head. ‘I’m not sure. It could depend on what’s in it, you know.’
‘That’s a good point, Tommy. It depends what’s in the bag, eh?’ One by one I gazed on my audience, but no one wanted to talk. ‘But I’m beyond caring anymore. I don’t care what’s in it or who gets it. So I’ve set up this meeting so you guys can fight over it. Good luck.’
I placed the gun in my pocket and reached into my trousers for my flick knife. Releasing the blade I set about cleaning my finger nails. ‘Me and Tommy are leaving. We will walk out the back door, out Linda’s side gate and we’re gone.’ I offered Linda, squat Black Hat and tall Black Hat a measured look and shook my head. ‘We’re out of your craziness and may the best man…’ I looked at Linda and smiled. ‘Or lady, win.’
I pulled Tommy out of his seat and pushed him toward the back door. Tommy fought against my momentum.
‘No, they killed my brother. You said justice would be ours.’
‘It will, but we need to leave because it will get messy and we don’t do messy.’
As I closed the back screen door behind us, a hand grabbed me and something cold and familiar touched the sore part of my jaw. ‘Nice speech, Dick Brain. Isn’t that what the Toff called you? Dick Brain? Sort of catchy, isn’t it?’
‘So I won’t walk away and live my happy ever after.’
‘Stand to attention, Private. No one gets happy.’
He reached into my coat pocket and retrieved the Black Hats’ guns, pushing me back inside the hallway and into the kitchen. The tall man, his hand clutching his chest had a gun trained on Linda. The shorter man had left the room. He looked up as I fell into the room and Linda, stomped hard on his foot. His gun wavered as he hopped and Peg Leg stepped through the door and shot him, once in the chest knocking him backward against the sink and again in the face. I dropped to the floor as Linda reached for his gun.
‘Easy,’ Peg Leg said.
A cloud of smoke wafted below the ceiling, the tang of explosive causing me to cough. While I waited for my ears to recover I removed Linda’s gun from my coat. Shots exploded through the kitchen window. Linda screamed as a piece of her shoulder flew across the room and spattered against the red fridge. Peg Leg turned and fired blind through the broken window. Glass smashed and my hearing dulled further as Peg Leg continued shooting through the window.
Linda groaned from her crumpled position on the floor. Her hand clutched at her shoulder, but blood oozed through her fingers. The back door banged against the wall and a shot fired from the hallway. The front door opened, again slamming against the wall as more bodies entered the house. Peg Leg crouched on his haunches, looking to the window while he waddled across to the doorway. He stuck his gun out into the hall and fired toward the front door.
Tommy crashed into the kitchen, a shot sounding as he fell to the floor.
‘Jesus, Tommy,’ I said. ‘You trying to get shot?’
‘Give me your gun,’ he said. ‘That mongrel who killed my brother is out there.’ I hesitated, Linda’s gun firm in my hand. ‘You promised.’
I threw Linda’s weapon over the table to him. He juggled the gun before getting his fingers around the butt. Peg Leg glared at my actions, a manic glint to his eyes as he pointed his gun at Tommy.
‘No, sir,’ I said to him. I don’t know where ‘sir’ came from, but he didn’t shoot. ‘Tommy got no grief with you. Nor you with him.’
He nodded. ‘Good thinking, Private. We can work together.’ He turned to Tommy and pointed him to the back door. ‘You take the back. I’m going for the front door.’ Tommy nodded. ‘I can’t hear you, Private.’
Tommy shrugged and left the room. ‘Yes, sir,’ I shouted.
Peg Leg stepped into the hallway. Linda sat back against the sink cupboard her face contorted with pain. I grabbed towels from the rack by the cooker and pressed them against her shoulder. Linda’s face lacked any color and had a light sheen to her cheeks and forehead. Her bloodied hands clutched at the cloths I pressed to her shoulder.
Gunshots exploded. The sound reverberated the length of the hallway, followed by an anguished cry and another couple of shots.
‘Tommy, you all right?’ I called.
A body collapsed outside the kitchen and a gun clattered to the wooden floor. Footsteps ran for the front door and fired into the night. The footsteps returned, the door crashing open as more shots fired. I grabbed the Beretta and pointed the gun at the door waiting for someone to enter the kitchen.
Linda wailed with pain and a stray bullet thudded into the plaster from the broken window. More shots fired. I aimed the gun at the light and fired. The gun jumped high, but I scored a hit and the shattered glass provided the safety of darkness.
‘Tommy,’ I called again. ‘You still breathing?’
‘Yeah, I’m cool. I think I got those boys who did Billy.’
‘What about Peg Leg?’
‘Oh, I shot him first. He’s the bastard Billy said killed Marvin.’
‘So what’s the state of play? How many bodies we talking?’
‘Don’t know. Peg Leg shot two blokes out front and I got the two out back, plus the dude in the hallway. I heard a car take off, so I think we’re okay.’
‘Go and check it out, eh? We don’t want any more surprises. We need to get out of here.’
‘Ben, is that you?’ Linda said. Shallow breaths rasped as she screwed her eyes tight to the pain. ‘Help me, Ben.’
A pale light shone from outside her kitchen window. Her hand reached out but fell to the floor. She clutched at the handles of the cupboard trying to stand and cried out. ‘Please help me. For old times’ sake.’ Her fragile voice broke and choked in her throat.
I eased Linda into a chair by the back wall of the kitchen, unsure whether I wanted to offer my help. The girl had betrayed me and stitched up Marvin big time after sharing his bed for two years. In the cemetery she’d instructed Peg Leg to shoot to kill and she stood with the police as they arrested me because I hadn’t given her the bag.
Yet I’d given her first aid. I ran to save her, to be her bloody hero. I struggled to accept her as the bad person. Too much supposition, I reasoned. She may not have been in-charge of Peg Leg and his actions at the cemetery or when he took Marvin’s life. I shook my head watching her moaning, her hands not able to hold the cloths in place. I knew one thing about Linda, a dead certainty for sure; she wanted that bloody bag, bad.
‘Linda, you got me struggling to remember the old times with fondness.’ I applied pressure on the cloths to stem the bleeding. Blood soaked them to saturation. I fetched a clean cloth and added it to the pile on her shoulder. ‘I remember you and I promising ourselves to each other, but as soon as I turned my back you were married and living the high life with Marvin.’
‘Ben…I need…a doctor.’
Her face winced with each word and she gulped at every breath. She rolled her head and opened her eyes to look at me.
‘You set me up. Why?’ I said.
‘Call me an ambulance,’ she pleaded in a whiny, weary voice. ‘Please.’
Ambulance.
I smiled at the joke, but refrained in deference to her wounds. ‘Why did you set me up? I wanted to talk to you, share your grief and find out how you’d coped with Marvin’s murder. I just don’t get why you wanted to piss on me.’
She coughed and grimaced. ‘Call me a doctor, an ambulance and we can talk while we wait.’
Doctor.
Ambulance.
No end to the humor in some jokes.
Siren
s sounded in the distance as a phone rung. I ran into the hallway and found Tommy retrieving the phone from a body. I grabbed the phone and smiled as Cooper’s name showed on the screen.
‘Mr. Cooper, I presume.’
He grunted.
‘It’s Ben, your client from the police station. I have your bag.’ The sirens sounded close. ‘Can’t talk, but I’ll be in touch to discuss the bag.’
I hung up and pocketed the phone. ‘Tommy, can you look for the bag?’
‘It’s cool. It’s out back, by the side gate.’
‘Good work. Right, do a round-up of the bodies. Guns and money.’ I grabbed a canvas shopping bag hanging on the kitchen door and threw it at him. ‘Do ‘em all, Tommy. Trust me, they’ve got stashes of cash this lot. I’ll do the twat in here.’
Linda leant back in her seat, her head against the kitchen wall, her eyes screwed shut and her bloodied hands fallen at her sides. I relieved the tall Black Hat of his money clip and found a large hunting knife secured to his right hairy leg. The new knife added weight to my right trouser leg, but a man could never have too many knives.
‘I’m out of here, girl. The cops aren’t far away.’ I grabbed another towel and added it to the wound and placed her hand on top. ‘Hold it there, eh? You’ll be okay.’
I placed the gun on the table while she squirmed in her seat. ‘You should’ve waited for me, eh?’
‘Ben,’ her plea whispered. ‘Please.’
Her hand fell from the bloodied towels on her shoulder. I pushed another towel hard against her shoulder and tied a length of plastic bags to form a sling and apply pressure to the bandaged wound.
‘Marvin worshipped you,’ she said.
‘Yeah, right. He knew how I felt about you.’
No More Heroes-#1 Dystopian Thriller Heroes Series Page 22
