by Joe McNally
I arrived just before eleven and parked on the main street at the border of Deadwood. When the time came to bring Alice and Prim out, I didn’t want to find my car full of broken glass, or sitting on knifed tyres. I reckoned we could reach the main street in under five minutes walking, or, once I’d talked Alice into it, I could jog back for the car and wait at the gate for them.
I locked the car and hurried across to the road that led into Deadwood. After three hundred yards, I had taken the two turns I remembered from my first visit. Without headlights, I was much more aware of the number of broken streetlamps. About one in every six cast light. Below the others lay smashed orange shards from the plastic casings.
Approaching the house in which I’d seen the dancers last time, I could hear the music once more, and as I passed the window, the dancers were still dancing, the cigarettes still glowing, and I wondered if everyone inside was doomed to some eternal party in this grim place.
I turned into the street where Alice lived, a long crescent, where most of the buildings were four storey flats showing a patchwork of window lights.
Ahead, to my left, a window was open on the third floor and a man and woman were arguing. He was shouting, she was screaming. I was alone on the street and I stopped beneath the window, the viciousness and volume of the fight making me wonder if it was physical too…maybe the woman needed help… but I could hear no blows.
I could pick out only the odd word. The impatience of each to get their argument across, and the strong Liverpool accent, plus the screaming and bawling made almost everything incomprehensible.
Such was the venom in each voice, I guessed it had to be about some sexual betrayal, but the longer I listened the more attuned I became to the accent and the overall rhythms and I finally learned they were fighting over the remote control for the TV.
Now that’s what you call passion. Smiling, I walked on.
Alice’s house was in a terraced section, between two higher blocks of flats. There were four front doors. Alice’s was the end one on the left as I looked across at the building. All the lights in the house were on, all the curtains closed.
I crossed the road and went through the gate. On the doorstep, I phoned Prim and told her I was outside.
Prim welcomed me hurriedly, then closed and locked the door.
Alice was in the kitchen with her coat on. She didn’t seem surprised to see me.
‘Going out or just come in?’ I asked.
‘Just came in,’ Alice said, not looking at me, tapping her fingers on the worktop.
Prim looked almost haggard, and that told me as much as I needed to know about how she felt. She said, ‘Alice has just been to see one of DJ’s friends.’
‘Girls,’ Alice said, ‘they’re not friends, they’re just stupid girls who think he’s some kind of man instead of a piece of shit.’
Prim looked at me and said, ‘Well, it seems DJ knows nothing about Ben or where he is.’
‘He’d say that anyway, wouldn’t he?’ I asked.
‘No, he wouldn’t,’ Alice said, ‘he’d try to torture me with it if he knew anything.’
‘Hasn’t he just come back, though?’ I said, ‘there’s time enough for him to be taunting you, and it seems to me he’d do that anyway, even if he didn’t know anything.’
Alice looked hard at me, ‘He doesn’t know anything,’ she said.
I raised my hands in surrender, ‘Fair enough. Let’s see what he’s got for us in the next few days.’
Alice’s look hardened. ‘Us?’
‘Me and you and Prim,’ I said.
‘You’re staying?’ Alice asked.
‘That’s right.’
She got up, ‘Why?’
‘Because your enemy number one is back, and I need to make sure you’re safe.’
‘I thought you were looking for my Dad?’
‘I was. Been working on it pretty much nonstop. I’ve left Mave writing a programme which will track and filter phone numbers, and maybe bring some leads. But I can’t follow any leads while DJ is here threatening you.’
‘He’s not threatening me!’
‘He followed you home from the Blue Anchor.’
‘That’s just his creepy style.’
‘Alice, do you trust your Dad?’ I said.
‘What does that mean?’
‘Do you trust your Dad’s judgement?’
‘Well, yes, I trust his judgement, when he’s here and I can see him and figure things out around what he’s saying.’
‘But he’s not here. I trust his judgement. I always have. I’ve known him for a long time, long before you were born. He’s a smart man. It looks like he figured out in forty-eight hours what a team of us couldn’t do in weeks. He’s a very clever man.’
‘I know he is! I know!’
‘Well, he says DJ is very bad news. He told me DJ has been easy on you because you’re young, and that DJ had warned him more than once that he wasn’t going to cut you much more slack.’
She watched me now. Her mouth had opened, but she’d stopped the words in her throat. I said, ’So, I’m here for the duration, because you are more important to your father than anything else, even his own safety.’
‘But there’s nothing you can do! Can’t you get Bruno to come and speak to him?’
I gazed at her. Prim cleared her throat and shifted her weight to lean against the edge of the worktop. I said, ‘No more Bruno. No more Monty Bearak. I’m taking over, and I’m staying here until DJ goes away again.’
’But if you find my Dad, he’ll be here to look after me!’
‘My first responsibility is you, Alice. No point me finding your Dad if you’re gone.’ I slid my jacket off, ‘So, I’ll sleep on the couch if you don’t mind. Mave is bringing some stuff for me tomorrow.’
‘Don’t you have to go to the races?’ she said, looking increasingly worried.
‘Well, I work for Dil, mostly, and your Dad was working for him too on trying to find out about these horses. Anyway, Dil’s happy for me to take all the time off I need to make sure you’re safe. Now, can I use your bathroom?’
Prim said, ‘I’ll show you where it is,’ and she led me upstairs. Outside the bathroom door, Prim smiled and said, ‘I hope this works. You’ll only get to call her bluff once.’
‘Well, it’s over to you for the next five minutes. See what you can do.’
Prim went back down. I went into the bathroom and closed the door against any verbal fireworks.
When I entered the kitchen, they were talking quietly. Prim looked up, smiling, and said, ‘If it’s okay with you, Alice is going to come back with me, to Dil’s.’
I stayed silent until Alice looked up at me, ‘I said, that’s a big help, but I’d feel better if she came with me to the farm.’
Alice got up from the table, ‘But if I come with you, you won’t have the time to go looking for Dad!’
I nodded and put a hand to my chin, ’True. Would you stay with Prim until I find your Dad?’
‘Yes.’
I resisted asking her to promise, ‘Okay. It’s a deal,’ I reached to shake her hand and she offered hers slowly, still unsure, and maybe wondering if she had been conned into this.
I said, ‘I’ve parked the car five minutes away. I’ll go and get it, if you want to pack your things?’
Prim smiled wide. Alice nodded slowly. I let a silent sigh of relief trickle through my nostrils, ’I’ll go and get the car,’ I said.
47
Prim opened the door to let me out. I was halfway to the gate when she said, ‘Eddie!’
I stopped and turned. Prim nodded toward the road sloping down toward us. I looked behind me. A big silver BMW was parked, lights on, fifty yards from the gate. Prim said, ‘I think that’s DJ’s car.’
‘Go inside. Lock up. I’ll be back soon.’
I hadn’t reached the first broken lamp post when I became aware of the car trailing me, engine at a whisper, headlights casting twin beams ahead of me.
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sp; I glanced back without stopping, and ducked to look inside: four heads, faces in darkness.
I kept going at the same steady pace. They moved closer, almost on my heels now. I looked to the junction at the head of the crescent, about three hundred yards away. A left turn there and a quick jog across a patch of wasteland would get me off this road, into the warren of high-rise blocks. The car drew alongside.
I walked on.
It stayed with me.
The front passenger window came down. ‘Hey, man!’ I stopped and turned. The Mister Muscles in the front passenger seat had to be DJ. He smiled up at me and drew on a long reefer. Big strong-looking guy, but with a covering of fat. Maybe nineteen or twenty. ‘Hey, yourself,’ I said.
‘What were you doing with Alice?’
‘None of your business.’
‘Everything that happens in Deadwood is my business.’
‘Well, this’ll make a refreshing change for you, give you a little mystery in your life.’
His smile widened and he drew on the reefer, ‘You’re not a copper.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Cops only come in here in teams.’
‘That’s the locals for you.’
He kept smiling and turned to look at his friends, then back to me, ‘So, where are you stationed?’
‘That’s none of your business either. There you go, two mysteries for the price of one. In the same night too.’
‘You’re not a cop, man. What do you want with Alice?’
‘I’m in the ensurance business.’
‘You mean insurance.’
‘I mean ensurance. I’m a friend of her father’s ensuring she’s going to be okay, and nobody’s going to give her any trouble.’
‘Well, you’re robbing jobs from hard working people like me, doing that.’
‘So, be happy. I’m giving you some time off.’
‘You’re taking money out of my pocket, man. If there’s protection needed, I’m the guy, and I’m the guy they pay.’
‘Well, I work for free, so, no contest.’
He drew again on the reefer and blew the smoke up at my face. He said, ‘So, you pay me. You never hear of the Deadwood tax?’
‘I never did. Send me an invoice.’ I glanced sideways and saw Alice and Prim coming toward us. I began walking to draw the trouble away from them. The car moved alongside.
‘Hey, man!’ I heard a click as I turned to look down, and a flashlight came on, the beam dazzling me. I covered my eyes, but walked on.
‘Hey! I’m talking to you! You want little Alice looked after, you pay the tax.’ I stopped. Alice and Prim were a hundred yards away and still coming. I said, ‘Okay, okay, How much?’
‘Two hundred. For now.’ I reached into my back pocket for my wallet, and counted out some notes. DJ smiled. I switched the cash to my left hand and offered it to him, keeping it just far enough away so he had to put the big metal Maglite on the seat between his legs and reach with his left hand, resting his arm, palm open, on the sill.
I swung hard and fast, bringing my fist down in a chopping motion, and hit DJ’s wrist and heard his forearm crack. He squealed. His friends were caught between surprise and uncertainty and if I didn’t go through with this now, and make their minds up for them, I might die in this dark street. I grabbed DJ’s head and pulled it toward me and down until his left ear was hard against the sill of the car. He was squealing still from the fracture, and I reached and grabbed the foot-long black metal Maglite, its beam flashing the open-mouthed face of the driver as I raised it then smashed it down on DJ’s right ear, then on his jaw, his temple, his nose, bang, bang, bang, swinging from the side, the front, spraying blood, drawing howls, then, grabbing his hair, raising his head, I spun the two pounds of black metal and smashed the butt up into the point of his jaw.
Instant result.
His neck relaxed, his head flopped over the sill, and the howling stopped. I held my breath, wanting to drive home the effect of the sudden silence, to keep the others hypnotized by the unexpected. Then I bent and aimed the beam at them, holding it for five seconds on each wide-eyed face. ‘I’ll remember you,’ I said quietly, ‘now remember me.’ And I put the bright broad lens below my chin to shine on my face, like a kid at Halloween.
I said, ‘And remember this…your only job until I see you again is to make sure nothing bad happens to any girl in Deadwood.’ They stared at me, as I crouched over their bleeding, unconscious friend, and I could feel some splattered blood spots wet on my face now, highlighted by the ghostly beam from below. No wonder they looked scared. ‘Understand?’ I said. They nodded. I smiled, and straightened, and flipped the Maglite in the air. It twirled and I caught it by the head and offered the handle to the driver, who hesitated. ‘Take it. It’s a quality piece of merchandise. Maybe you guys could have filmed that and sold the footage to Maglite.’
Still they stared, unmoving. I pushed the flashlight closer to the driver, ‘Take it. I won’t bite. Not this time, anyway.’ I smiled again as the driver reached slowly. I said, ‘Now you’d better get your fat friend to hospital and see if they can save his eye.’ I glanced down, ‘And then to the car wash before all this blood dries on your nice motor.’
All three looked at me. I grabbed DJ’s hair and shoved his head inside, then pointed along the road, ‘Move!’
They moved.
I watched them take a right at the junction, then I turned. Alice was within touching distance, staring at me, just staring.
Prim was ten yards back, her hands at her mouth. She too looked at me as though she had never seen me before.
I said, ‘Go back and get your things. I’ll pick you up in five minutes.’
By the time I reached the car, I was empty of adrenaline and rising instead was a mild disgust with myself. Never before had I deliberately broken a man’s bone, nor beaten anyone so savagely. But I had known within a minute what was needed back there. I had learned long ago from men in prison that it wasn’t the strongest who won a fight, nor the smartest, nor even the one with the bigger army. It was the man willing to resort most quickly to brutality.
I sat for ten seconds, reliving it, then reached in the back for a bottle of water. My mouth was so dry my tongue was stuck as my mind carped keenly at me about what might have been. How it could have ended with death in a dark gutter surrounded by houses where people fought like animals over a TV remote. I started the engine, and headed back into Deadwood for what I hoped would be the final time.
48
We got safely out of Deadwood and on the road to Dil’s yard. Alice hadn’t spoken. Prim stayed silent until we reached the motorway. She said to me, ‘Are you all right?’
‘I’m fine, thanks.’
‘That was a big chance you took.’
I kept my eyes on the road, ‘There isn’t an option with people like that. You can’t show weakness.’
‘What happened?’
I told her. Alice leant forward, ’He said he was being paid to protect me?’
I glanced back at her, ‘It was just an excuse to have a go.’
‘Did he mention my Dad?’
‘No. Not a word. It wasn’t about your Dad or you, it was about DJ showing his mates he was the big chief.’
Prim said, ‘He picked the wrong man.’
‘This time he did. Unfortunately, he’ll go for a nice soft target next time to try and get his mates back onside. Anyway, it’s time to stop worrying about him. And, Alice, I warned the others in the car that if anything happened to any of the girls in Deadwood I’d be back.’
‘Do you think that will work?’ Alice said.
‘For a while. Depends how long it takes DJ to get back on his feet.’
‘Did you hurt him bad?’ Alice asked.
‘His arm’s broken. So is his nose. There’ll be at least one fracture in his jaw, probably more. The rest will depend on the blow that put him out. With a bit of luck, it’ll have knocked some sense into him.’
‘I doubt it,’ Alice said, ‘But he’ll remember you now. I don’t know what Bruno Guta said to him, but he’ll remember you. He might even think you work for Bruno.’
‘Well,’ I said, ‘that would be no bad thing if he did.’
‘Boys against men,’ Prim said.
‘Literally, I’m afraid. Nobody in that car looked more than nineteen. There’ll be others. Those kids are just cannon fodder.’
Alice’s phone rang and she scrambled to find it, ‘Hello?’
I could hear a male voice but couldn’t make out what he was saying.
‘When?’ Alice said. Prim was watching for her and reached to reassure her.
‘Did you see them?’ Alice said, ‘Do you know them? What’s your name? Can you give me your name?’ She was getting panicky.
‘Fuck!’ she said.
I slowed the car. Alice said ‘That was somebody we gave a leaflet to in the pub. He said he saw Dad leaving there with two gypsies on Friday night.’
‘Did his phone number come up?’
‘Withheld.’
‘Did he know the men your Dad was with?’ I asked.
‘No, he just knew they were gypsies. “Pikey bastards” he called them.’
Prim flinched. I glanced at her and there was a look of distaste there, then I remembered she’d always claimed to be a gypsy princess. I said, ‘Did he say if it looked like they were forcing your Dad to go with them?’
‘He didn’t say. I should have asked.’
‘Don’t worry.’ I turned to Prim, ‘Did you notice if there was CCTV outside the Blue Anchor?’
‘I didn’t.’
I was about to ask her if she had access to any connections in the gypsy world that might be able to help, but she still looked upset at the Pikey jibe. I passed Prim my phone, ‘Get Mave for me, would you, then hit hands free.’
‘All well?’ Mave answered, her usual greeting.
I told her what had happened and she called out a cheery hello to Prim and Alice. I said, ‘Can you find out what CCTV cameras are in place between the Blue Anchor pub and Crosby beach?’
‘Will do.’
‘And Alice will give you her mobile number. Is there any way you could get the number of the guy who just called?’
