by Mark Timlin
ALL THE EMPTY PLACES
Family trouble! Growing old quietly was never really an option for Nick Sharman. When he takes on a job for a prosperous Manchester businessman looking for his runaway teenage daughter, Meena, he should, perhaps, have known better. He finds himself in a race against time to save the girl from the kind of trouble that gives families a bad name. Trying to do the right thing, Nick swaps sides and ends up starring in his own version of a Straw Dogs shoot out with family and friends, where nobody comes out the winner.
About the author
Mark Timlin has written some thirty novels under many different names, including best-selling books as Lee Martin, innumerable short stories, an anthology and numerous articles for various newspapers and magazines. His serial hero, Nick Sharman, who appears in Take the A-Train, has featured in a Carlton TV series, starring Clive Owen, before he went on to become a Hollywood superstar.
Mark lives in Newport, Wales.
‘The king of the British hard-boiled thriller’
– Times
‘Grips like a pair of regulation handcuffs’
– Guardian
‘Reverberates like a gunshot’
– Irish Times
‘Definitely one of the best’
– Time Out
‘The mean streets of South London need their heroes tough. Private eye Nick Sharman fits the bill’
– Telegraph
‘Full of cars, girls, guns, strung out along the high sierras of Brixton and Battersea, the Elephant and the North Peckham Estate, all those jewels in the crown they call Sarf London’
– Arena
For Ion
Two people won’t be around to read this book, and I miss them. So, I’d just like to remember Pam Smith & Les Green.
Rest in Peace both of you.
May God stand between you and harm in all the empty places you must walk
Ancient blessing
PROLOGUE
Blood.
First thing to do was to wash the blood off my hands. Blood and the filth ingrained into my skin and under my fingernails. So much blood and dirt that I thought I’d never get clean again. And maybe I won’t.
But that’s my problem. And even after I’d showered for the third time and the water was running cold I still felt dirty.
At least I’m here and I’m alive when so many aren’t, mostly by my hands, so that when I look down at them I know that I’ll always be able to see the shadows of the blood there as long as I live.
Blood, yes, but guilt no. I cleaned a house that needed cleaning. I cleared out a nest of rats, and if I’m not exactly proud of what I did, I feel no regrets. The world’s a better place for what happened. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.
And the money. I’d never seen so much money in my life. And jewels. A king’s ransom. A cliché, but true. Diamonds, rubies, pearls, sapphires, emeralds, the light sparkling on their facets and gold settings until they almost blinded me. And coins too. Sovereigns and Krugerrands that had been almost too heavy to bring out, dragging the heavy bags along behind me through mud and shit and so close to being shot or drowned or caught except for the two explosions that shook the streets and blew all the cables that fed the CCTV cameras…
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
And the rain that night. I’ll never forget that rain. More rain than the sewers could cope with. Like a monsoon beating down on London, with lightning coming from the four corners of the compass making the streets as bright as the brightest day. Fork and sheet, with the thunder so loud it matched the explosions that demolished at least one building and saved me. Then loading up the Jaguar and driving away whilst the police and fire fighters and anyone else in a uniform with a car or truck with a rotating light on top ran about like chickens minus heads. And even then nearly being captured by a bunch of nosy cops, but getting away by the skin of my teeth.
Then back home to unload the car and take it up to a quiet spot and douse it in petrol and set it on fire leaving no clues. At least I hope no clues. But the best laid plans of mice and men…
Not that there’d ever been a plan. Not my plan anyway. Someone else’s. But the plan had been screwed from the start, and circumstances forced me to get involved, and the plan had fallen apart as so many plans do.
And after I torched the car, back to the silence of my flat and the one bag I’d carried inside with me, as much as anything to prove that it had all been real, not just some crazy dream. Back to empty it onto my bed and look at the money and the jewels and the coins, my only companion an old teddy bear who sits on the corner of the bed and squints myopically at me through beady eyes that look in two directions at once. My only companion apart from the inevitable bottle that was waiting patiently there for me, and a packet of Silk Cut bought on the walk home through a purple summer dawn with just the faintest tinge of autumn in the air, and once there, a salute to Teddy with a full glass, and light a cigarette with a fifty pound note, one of thousands, that won’t be missed, by me at least, although someone else will and curse me and the rest of them.
But the rest of them don’t exist any more.
There’s just me and Teddy and so much money and other stuff that I’ll never have to lift a finger again as long as I live, and there’ll still be plenty left over. That is if the police don’t come.
And even if they do I couldn’t give a shit. Because she’s not here with me. Just me and Teddy, and Teddy never says a word no matter how hard I listen.
And believe me I listen. All through that day and the interminable days that follow.
That was the end.
But it was different in the beginning.
Part One
Sheila
1
It’s funny how some days start off one way and end another, and something as insignificant as a pint of milk can change your life for ever.
That particular Sunday morning I woke up with nothing more on my mind than how to get through the most boring day of the week. I fancied a cup of tea but the milk in the fridge had gone off. Nothing new there then.
Sod it, I thought and looked at my watch. Ten to twelve and the streets were well aired, so I pulled on a cleanish sweatshirt that didn’t smell too bad, jeans and loafers and left the house. I hadn’t shaved and had just run a comb through my hair so I looked a bit of a state, but then it was Sunday and there was no one around to see me, or for that matter, care if they did see.
It was spring. A particularly mild one that year, and the almond and cherry trees were in full flower in the front gardens as I walked down towards the main street, their pink and white flowers haloing the trees and dropping gently to the pavement to make a carpet for me to walk on. It was beautiful that Sunday, but I hardly noticed. It’s that time of the year again now and as I gaze out of my window those same trees are in bloom once more. I notice their beauty now, but I’m alone and have no one to share that beauty with. You might say that’s the story of my life.
I went into the newsagent at the bottom of my road, bought a Sunday Times, twenty Silk Cut and the milk, paid up and left. I stopped outside long enough to glance at the headlines on the front page, which concerned some minister of the Crown caught red handed with his fingers in the till, when someone called my name. I looked up and saw her walking out of the little minimarket two doors down from the newsagent. She was carrying a carton of milk too. ‘Snap,’ I said and held up mine.
‘Bloody nuisance isn’t it?’ she said. ‘Running out.’
‘Yeah,’ I replied. ‘Can’t get started without my cup of tea.’
‘Jus
t getting started eh? Shame on you.’
For some unknown reason I felt guilty and started to explain. ‘It is Sunday,’ I said. ‘And I didn’t have much on.’
‘I can see that from your immaculate grooming,’ she said. ‘I assumed you weren’t just back from church.’
I felt guilty again and rubbed my hand across my hair. ‘It just didn’t seem worth it for a bit of shopping,’ I explained.
She grinned. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘You don’t have to apologise to me. I’m exactly the same, always scruffy on a Sunday.’
She looked pretty good for scruffy and I said so.
‘Yeah, sure,’ she replied. ‘So how have you been?’
‘Not bad. You?’
She wrinkled her nose. ‘Not too good. You know Johnny’s gone.’
‘I heard,’ I said. Johnny Tufnell was her long time boyfriend. A right little snake in the grass. Petty crook, small time drug dealer and general ruffian for hire for anyone with enough money and little regard for law and order. How she’d gone out with him in the first place I’d never known, let alone stay with him for what must have been half a dozen years, visiting him on his stays in various penal institutions up and down the country carrying treats to make him happy, keeping their home going when he was gone and watching him fuck up every time he got out. And I suspected he was a bit fisty with it when he’d had a few. I’d seen her some mornings on her way to work with a shiner disguised by dark glasses and heavy make-up, but it was her life and if she wanted to run it like she was a punch bag for Johnny to take out his frustrations on, it was her choice, and certainly I had never run my life well enough to be able to interfere. Her name was Sheila. Sheila Madden. And I often wonder what would have happened if one of us had decided to go out for milk ten minutes earlier or later on that particular spring Sunday morning.
The reasons I knew her were twofold. First, she worked for a geezer called Jerry Finbarr, a well bent brief for half of south London’s villains, who had a poky office in Brixton, a massive mansion in Bromley where he kept his wife and two kids, and a little pied-à-terre in Herne Hill where he entertained his mistresses of various hues and sexual persuasions. I’d had some need of Jerry’s professional services myself from time to time and had met Sheila at the office where she typed out briefs, answered the phone and made coffee for all and sundry. And then I discovered she lived just round the corner from me in a little flat on the edge of the council estate with Johnny when he was out of jail, and alone when he wasn’t. From time to time I’d bump into her in the local pub we shared and we’d have a drink and talk about mutual acquaintances of the dodgy kind, and have a laugh and say goodbye and that was that. There was nothing there, even though she had the kind of looks that make me shiver. Not exactly drop dead gorgeous, but interesting, with a vulnerability that made me want to wrap her up and make sure she was safe and warm. It was a simple case of chemistry. She was the kind of woman who made the minutes fly by when you were with her and drag after she’d gone. But she was Johnny Tufnell’s woman and I didn’t fancy getting involved. Not that Johnny himself worried me, but he had enough nutty mates who wouldn’t mind waiting outside my door with crowbars and baseball bats, and if I’m going to go in for cosmetic surgery I’d prefer it was by choice rather than necessity.
She looked at her watch. ‘What are you doing now?’ she asked.
‘Like I said, nothing,’ I replied. ‘Read the paper, watch some TV. It’s Sunday.’
‘You keep saying that.’
I nodded agreement. I did keep saying that, and I felt about sixteen and never been kissed.
‘Pub’s open,’ she said. ‘Just. Are you sure you need that tea, or would you prefer something stronger?’
I was surprised at the invitation. Surprised and to be honest a bit excited. It was just another bloody Sunday with no one to talk to and nothing to do and I couldn’t think of anyone I’d rather be with. ‘Alright,’ I said. ‘Come on then.’
‘Just a quick one,’ she said. ‘Then I’ll have to go.’
‘Whatever,’ I said, and we crossed the road and pushed open the door of the pub that the barman had just unlocked and joined the two or three hardened regulars waiting to be served.
I ordered a pint of lager for myself and a G&T, ice and slice for her, and we took them and our meagre shopping to a table in the corner. ‘Well, Sheila,’ I said when I’d lit cigarettes from my new packet for both of us, ‘what’s shaking with you?’
‘Not much. Work as usual, freezer food and TV at night.’
It sounded depressingly like my life except that I wasn’t working. I had a few quid and not much energy so that was that.
‘Still slaving for Finbarr?’ I said.
She nodded.
‘So what’s the skinny?’ I asked. ‘Anything juicy in the pipeline?’
‘You know I can’t talk about that,’ she replied. ‘It might be someone you know.’
‘Wouldn’t be much fun if it wasn’t,’ I said.
She grinned again. ‘What about you?’ she asked.
‘Nothing exciting,’ I said. ‘Semi-retirement you might call it.’
‘It’s alright for some.’ She stubbed out her half finished cigarette. ‘I need to pee,’ she said, got up and headed for the ladies.
I watched her as she went. She was smallish and blondish, although I reckoned the colour was out of a bottle and that made me wonder what her real hair colour was, and I’ve discovered there’s only one way to find out and that’s not always surefire. She was wearing a dark red fake furry jacket over a black sweater, cream coloured jeans and platform soled black boots with thin heels. Real ankle breakers I reckoned as I scoped the roll of her backside as she walked. She had a great arse, round but not too sloppy. I like a woman with curves and I scratched at my stubble and flattened my hair with my hand again. Just my luck, I thought. To look a mess when I run into an attractive woman. Then I smiled. Jesus, I thought. Who are you kidding? Fat chance. But it had been a long time since I’d been with a woman. Too long, and the memories weren’t the greatest. Another reason I hadn’t tried it on with Sheila was because, once, a long time ago, she’d told me that she was a one man woman. She didn’t fuck around when she was involved, and I remembered thinking that it was a shame she’d been involved with such a scumbag as Johnny Tufnell and left it at that.
When she came back and joined me I said, ‘So what happened to Johnny then?’
Her face hardened behind fresh make-up. ‘Fuck knows,’ she said. ‘And I couldn’t care less.’
I’d never heard her swear before and I figured that whatever had happened it had been rough. ‘Is he back inside?’ I asked.
She shook her head. ‘Not as far as I know. Leastwise he hasn’t been to see Finbarr lately.’
‘Maybe he’s going straight,’ I said.
‘Have you seen many pigs flying round here lately?’
‘Not a lot,’ I said, glancing out of the window which made her laugh. I liked that – making her laugh.
‘And you?’ she asked. ‘What happened to your girlfriend? Melanie wasn’t it?’
I was surprised she remembered. ‘That’s right,’ I said. ‘History.’ Mel had packed her bags and gone a long time previously. Last I’d heard she’d found someone to match her expectations. I knew it would never be me. The story of my life in a lot of ways again. I’d wished her good luck as I’d waved her goodbye. There was nothing else for me to do.
‘Sorry,’ said Sheila.
‘Don’t be. It wasn’t meant to happen. She wanted me to change, I wanted her not to. It’s a recipe for disaster.’
‘I wish I’d realised that about me and Johnny when I met him. It would’ve saved me years of grief.’
‘Sometimes you know these things, sometimes you don’t.’
‘And sometimes you’re just plain stupid like me.’
‘Don’t run yourself down. From what I heard you did your best.’
‘You’ve talked about me then.’
I was embarrassed again. ‘Just pub talk, you know what I mean.’
‘Yeah. It’s nice to know I’m the subject of public bar gossip. Makes me feel wanted.’
‘Saloon,’ I said.
‘What?’
‘Saloon bar gossip. You’re much too classy for the public.’
I could’ve lost her then, but instead she laughed again. It wasn’t such a happy laugh and I suddenly felt sorry for her being stuck with that bastard for so long and knowing people were talking about her. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Sometimes I take myself too seriously.’
‘Sometimes you have to, otherwise life has a habit of running away with you.’
‘Bit of a philosopher, Nick?’
‘Only in pubs.’
‘And only in the saloon bar.’
‘That’s right.’
‘You don’t seem to take things seriously,’ she said. ‘From what I’ve seen of you.’
‘You’d be surprised.’
‘Wouldn’t be the first time.’
‘So what are you doing later?’ I asked, changing the subject.
‘Washing my smalls.’
I wished she hadn’t said that as it set me thinking about all sorts of things again. Like what she was wearing underneath her sweater and jeans for instance. ‘Nothing urgent then?’
‘You haven’t seen the state of my knicker drawer.’
There she was, doing it again. ‘No,’ I said, ‘I haven’t.’
‘Why?’ she asked.
‘I just wondered if you fancied some lunch?’
‘Might do. You buying?’
‘Might do,’ I said.
‘Alright then. Where shall we go?’
2
