Dead Watch

by Steve Liszka

  Wesley cleared his throat before speaking again. ‘You know, I’ve never heard anyone talk about themselves in the third person like you just did. I mean, I’ve seen boxers doing it in interviews after a fight, but I didn’t think real human beings actually spoke that way.’

  Jimmy thought he saw a smirk pass across Mac’s face for the briefest of moments.

  It was a long time before Bogarde spoke again. ‘Let me tell you something. I haven’t been spoken to like that since 1989, and you want to know what happened to that idiot? I personally cut his tongue out whilst our friend here held him down. After we tortured him for three hours, I got my boys to cut his body into little pieces then shovel all the bits into a suitcase and throw it off Brighton Pier. They never did find him, did they, Neil?’

  ‘No, Jon,’ Mac said as he stared at Wesley. ‘They didn’t.’

  ‘It’s a pity he didn’t have your diary,’ Jimmy said, ‘’cos if he did, he could have made copies of it. Then, if anything did happen to him, those copies would have automatically been sent to the police. If he’d had that sort of insurance, I think he would have been just fine, don’t you, Wes?’

  ‘I do,’ Wesley said, ‘if he’d had that insurance, I think that, despite all the threats, he would have been pretty much untouchable. If you get what I’m saying.’

  Bogarde made the grunting noise in his throat again. ‘What exactly do you morons want from me?’

  Wesley and Jimmy looked to each other before Wesley spoke. ‘We want you to give a million pounds a year for the rest of your life to Sussex Fire and Rescue Service on the proviso that they use it to keep East Brighton fire station open. As it’s now your local station, they shouldn’t find your request too strange, and knowing what a persuasive man you can be, I’m sure you won’t have any problem convincing them.’

  Bogarde laughed, a long, pronounced chuckle that came from deep within the icy crevasse where his heart should have been.

  After a few seconds, he turned to Mac, still laughing. ‘Seriously, can you believe this?

  Mac shook his head. ‘No, boss, I can’t. They’re pretty fucking unbelievable.’

  Bogarde turned his attention back to the firefighters. ‘All the things that you could have asked of me, and this is what you decide to risk your lives for; a selfless act. You’re even crazier than I thought.’

  ‘We tried doing greedy,’ Jimmy said, ‘and it didn’t work out too well.’

  ‘Besides,’ Wes said, ‘it’s not completely altruistic. You keep the station open, and we keep our jobs.’

  Bogarde smiled at him. ‘If you’d played this situation a bit smarter, you’d never have to work again.’ He leaned back in his chair and took stock of the offer. ‘Jonathan Bogarde, philanthropist. I never thought I’d hear those words together in my lifetime, but you know something, I kind of like the sound of it.’

  ‘So, is it a deal, then?’ Jimmy asked.

  Bogarde shrugged. ‘I’m not sure yet. Let me ask you something first.’

  ‘Go for it.’

  ‘What makes you do what you do?’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Let me rephrase the question. Why do you feel the need to help other people? To put their lives before your own. Personally, I think it’s one of three things. One: you’re religious men who think your good deeds are going to get you into heaven. Two: you’re doing it because it makes you feel good, like real life superheroes, or three – and this is the one I think is more likely: it’s because you think it’s the right thing to do. Tell me, am I getting close?’

  When neither of his guests answered, he carried on. ‘That’s what I thought, and that’s what intrigues me about people like you. You live by this myth that governs everything you do in your lives. Let me tell you something, gentlemen; there is no right and wrong, there just is. You’re like those people who waste their time trying to save the pandas. What they don’t realise is those animals they’re trying to protect will die off no matter what they do, it’s inevitable. Ninety-nine percent of things that have ever walked this planet are extinct. One day, we will be too. You may think that history will judge me for what I’ve done, but it won’t, not in the long term anyway. Our time on the shitty little planet is finite, and by that I don’t mean you and I. I’m speaking about the entire human race. One day soon, we’ll all be gone, snuffed out, just like that, and nothing that any of us does right now will mean a single thing in the very near future. None of it matters, so stop hiding behind these rules and morals you’ve bound yourselves to, and do what needs doing. The day you realise that is the day you’ll be truly free.’

  Wesley looked surprised at the revelation. ‘I never knew there was a philosophy to being such an evil bastard. I just thought it came natural to you.’

  Bogarde laughed. ‘That’s the point; it is natural. The way I live is exactly how nature intended. Darwin would have been in complete agreement with me. It’s your way of life that’s at odds with the natural order of things. I’m just letting millions of years of evolution guide me. It’s survival of the fittest, and no man is fitter than me.’

  ‘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 impo
rtant 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 h
ug 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.