by Karen Clow
Rocking the chair frantically, he started swearing and shouting.
“Whoever the fuck you are, you’d fucking better let me go now or you’ll be fucking sorry! Do you bastards know who I work for?”
They all stood just listening to him, before Mickey spoke.
“Shut the fuck up, we need to ask you some questions about your boss.”
“Fuck you, I’m not telling you a fucking thing,” said Nathan angrily.
Mickey punched him in the gut, winding him.
“Wrong fucking answer, it’s up to you Nathan, you can either tell us what we want to know, or we’ll just shoot you. Quite frankly I don’t give a fucking shit one way or the other, so what’s it to be?”
“You’re a fucking dead man; you fucking know that don’t you?”
“Funny, but from where I’m standing, you’re the fucking dead man Nathan. If we have to shoot you, well that’s just too bad, but I’ll be getting laid tonight while you’re meeting up with your brother! So stop wasting my fucking time and tell me what I want to know!”
“How do I know you’ll let me go?”
“Do you really think we would have gone to all this trouble if we were going to kill you? You haven’t seen our faces, so tell me and then we can all go home. We know you’re just Davy’s whipping boy, is he worth dying for?”
Nathan had obviously taken in what had been said, because after a few moments he replied.
“What do you want to know?”
“Who Davy owes money to, who are they and how much does he owe?”
It was obvious from the way Nathan moved his head and paused before answering that he was aware there were at least three people there.
Tony had suggested all of them interrogate him so that he wouldn’t have a clear memory of the voices, should they decide to let him go.
Initially Mickey had wanted him dead, but after a lot of debating they decided it would be best to keep him alive, reason being they may need to speak with him again regarding Davy.
Everyone except Reggie would talk, simply because every now and again he would slur his words, due to his many years as a boxer making his voice easily recognised. Tony had also told him to leave his dogs behind that night, just in case they made a noise, because everyone knew about Reggie and his dogs.
Den kicked Nathan and repeated the question. By now the drug had worn off and he was talking clearer.
“Ok, I’ll tell you.”
He rolled off a list of names, plus the amounts of money he thought Davy owed. Then Terry asked if there was anyone who had pressured him to pay.
“There was one bloke, someone called Rodney who made some threats, but Davy got his money.”
“You fucking liar,” said Billy as he kicked him “he tells you everything that much we do know! So where did he get the money; we know he was in for seven hundred grand so where did he get it?”
“I don’t know!”
“We know everything,” said Mickey “nobody wants to take a fall for Davy and everyone knows he’s an arsehole, so people talk. So what’s it to be then, are you going to tell us what we want to know, or am I going to kill you, the choice is yours?” When Nathan didn’t reply, Mickey decided to call his bluff purely based on things he’d heard when Dave senior had bought it.
“Tell me Nathan, does Davy know you had a hand in the old mans death?”
“He had a heart attack!”
“Well that’s what the death certificate said,” said Tony cutting in “but we all know he took your brother out and you wanted pay back. It’s fucking understandable; I’d have done the same if it was my brother. Anyway, you did everyone a favour.”
“Dave senior was a bastard, but Davy treats me alright, why should I tell you anything?”
“Ah fuck him,” said Den “he’s not going to tell us anything, just fucking shoot him then we can fuck off home!”
Terry pulled back the firing pin on his gun and then moved towards Nathan, although he had no intention of shooting him, in fact it wasn’t even loaded, but sure enough it had the desired effect.
“Ok, ok, I’ll tell you!” screamed Nathan.
For the first time since grabbing him, they heard panic in his voice.
“Davy set up a kidnapping because the bloke he owed money to threatened to kill him. I fucking told him not to get involved with them, but he wouldn’t listen! I fucking warned him that kidnapping was bad news, but he was scared, he needed the money.”
Mickey could feel the anger racing through his veins. Trying to remain calm he asked if the kidnapping was Davy’s idea or someone else’s.
Nathan was reluctant to talk about it, until Billy kicked him.
They could hear the fear in Nathan’s voice.
“It was Davy’s idea; I told him I didn’t want any part of it!”
“So why those particular kids?” said Tony.
“Because he knew the bloke would pay. There had been trouble with that crew before; his granddad had one of them taken out a few years back. Davy thought there would be some retaliation at the time, but there wasn’t. Although I did try to tell him it was because the old man had the heart attack, but as always Davy does what Davy wants. I’ve told him he takes too many risks. I take it you’re working for the bloke whose kids they were? I warned him this would come back to him, I tried to fucking tell him!”
“Did you and the black guy take out Spider and Beth because the money was light?”
“Yeah they tried to fuck Davy over; they were fucking druggies good for nothing. I warned him they would bring trouble. They should have known better though than to screw him. I took them out, but I never did the kidnapping.”
There was a long silence.
Tony looked at the others and then flicking his head, indicated to them to walk out of earshot from Nathan. They made their way to the far side of the room.
“What do you think?” said Tony quietly “I don’t think he knows anything else.”
The others agreed.
“So we let him go then?” said Mickey “I’ll have a chat with him about keeping his mouth shut.”
Looking at Terry he nodded. Terry took out a small needle from his jacket pocket.
They made their way back to Nathan; they could sense that he was nervous when Mickey said.
“If we find out you’ve lied to us, we’ll be back. Our boss will have you taken out; also you had better keep your fucking mouth shut. I’m sure Davy would be only too happy to find out who talked, especially when we tell him it was you who had a hand in the old man’s death.”
Nathan was just about to answer when he felt something sting the back of his hand. Within seconds he was out cold, they untied him and carried him to the back of the van, the time was half six in the morning.
The traffic was sparse, but already building up. Tony suggested taking him back to Davy’s club and dumping him outside. It would probably be quiet in that area and if anyone walked past they would think he was just another drunk.
Terry told the others to go home as they could manage. It was also agreed that should anything come of what had happened, they would all cover for each other by saying that they had been at Dixie’s all night.
They watched as Terry and Reggie pulled out of the docks. Then the others made their way back to Dixie’s to drop Tony back to his car. They waved out to him as he pulled away.
On the drive back to Kent, Mickey’s mobile rang. It was Terry.
“Sorry Mick just rung to tell you, before we got back to Davy’s club Nathan started to come round, I had to give him another shot.”
“Oh well, he’ll just have a fucking bad headache when he does wakeup.”
“That’s just it Mick, I’m not sure he’s gonna to wake up. When we got him out the van and took the fucking hood off, he was foaming at the mouth. I think we may have overdosed him.”
“Oh well shit happens, there’s not much we can do about it now, did anyone see you dump him?”
“No, there was no on
e about; the street was like a fucking graveyard.”
“Let’s just wait and see what happens once Davy finds out.”
It was almost eight in the morning by the time they reached Kent, as soon as they pulled up, Maria opened the door. Mickey could see she was concerned over the time. Walking towards her he apologised for being so late and he would explain it all to her later.
The twins ran to him and in perfect sync said, “Daddy where have you been?”
“Daddy was working; did you look after mummy and nanny?”
They both nodded their heads.
Mickey noticed that Maria kept looking at him as they ate breakfast. With a smile, he asked how the evening went with Father Benico.
“Yes it was nice, he was sorry that you couldn’t be here, but I told him you would try and come to midnight mass with me tonight.”
“If I get my head down for a couple of hours today I’m sure I could manage that.”
By nine o’clock the three men were heading for their beds. The ladies took the twins to feed the ponies. Maria went into the chapel on the way back to the house. Mary sat and watched as she knelt in front of the holy statue. She heard her thank God for bringing Mickey and the others home safely.
When they got back to the house she asked Mary if she would mind occupying the twins, because she wanted to prepare the meat ready for Christmas day. She had intended to spend the entire day cooking in the hope that the men would have been able to take the girls out. She knew that something had happened to have kept them out all night, part of her wanted to know, but part of her didn’t because she didn’t want whatever it was spoiling Christmas, especially as Monica and her family were expected early Christmas morning. She couldn’t wait to see the look on the boys faces when they saw the new ponies.
Mary had kept the twins in the playroom until lunch. Walking into the kitchen with them, she complimented Maria on the wonderful aroma that filled the house. It was from the stuffing that she had made.
“Thanks Mum. I know you’ve had the girls all morning, but how do you fancy supervising biscuit making this afternoon?”
“Of course, they’ve been on about it.”
After lunch they all put their aprons on and the twins were told to wash their hands thoroughly. Their mum then produced some Christmas shape cutters that she had bought for them. Madeline opted to make Christmas tree shapes for Billy, while her sister opted for bells.
By half four, Billy and Den had made their way downstairs. Maria joked that it was the smell of the cooking that got Billy out of bed. Around five she went to wake Mickey up.
After pouring him a cup of tea, she headed up the stairs to their bedroom. He was just coming out of the en-suite as she opened the door. He looked pleased to see her. They sat together on the bed; she just looked at him as he drank his tea. When he finished drinking and placed the cup on the dresser, he put his arm round her and asked for a proper kiss. Pulling her close to him, they kissed passionately before he gently pushed her back onto the bed.
“Just tell me the truth Mickey, were you with another woman last night or did you kill someone?”
“Fuck me babe, the answer to both those questions is no! The reason we were so late was because Tony set up a meeting with some people.”
“What people?”
“People who know about Davy Sheridan babe and we were right; he was behind what happened. He did it to pay off a big debt.”
“So what happens now Mickey?”
“This,” he kissed her and ran his hand up her back. Quickly pulling away from him she snapped and said it was serious and she was worried about it!
“Nothing’s going to happen at the moment babe, probably not for quite a while, we’ll have to look into doing things properly. Don’t do this babe; I don’t want you worrying about anything. I thought you were going to let me deal with it?”
“Stop it Mickey and just tell me!”
“Ok, calm down babe, I’ll tell you, but you already know. I told you, it’s between me and Davy and he’s going to pay for what he did!”
She felt sick with what he’d just said.
“Babe I’ve got to do this, I can’t just let it go. You must know that?”
She held him tight and began to cry.
“I can’t lose you Mickey, there must be another way.”
He would have said anything to calm her down.
“Maybe there is babe I’ll talk to Tony.”
“Thank you.”
Seconds later he kissed her and changed the topic.
“As I’m taking you to midnight mass, I think you should show me your appreciation,” he said with a huge grin on his face.
He could tell that she didn’t really want to have sex, especially when she said they should go downstairs and see the family. He walked over and locked the door. When he returned to the bed, she told him she was sorry, but didn’t feel up to sex.
“Well you’d better just lay there then and enjoy what I’m about to do, because I want to kiss you all over and then make love to you.”
He knew that once she relaxed, he could win her over and as always he was right, it wasn’t long before she was enjoying it.
By the time they showered and went downstairs it was almost half six. Mary had finished cooking the evening meal when they appeared.
“That was good timing, I was just about to call you both for dinner, did you have a good kip love?”
“Yes thanks Mum.”
Keeping his word, he accompanied her to midnight Mass, although his parents and Billy opted to stay and watch the twins.
CHAPTER 28
Christmas morning came early. The twins were both up before six and by seven the whole house was up. The twins had opened most of their presents although Maria had kept some back for when Monica arrived. All the adults said they would wait until later to open theirs.
No one was surprised when their guests turned up earlier than planned.
The twins were keen for everyone to open their presents. Maria decided to sort out all the presents and then take the kids to the stables. By the time they had unwrapped everything, the lounge floor was covered in paper. Madeline took Billy’s presents from under the tree and passed one of them to her sister so they could both hand them to him. Maria noticed that he looked a bit overwhelmed as he took them and kissed them. Billy opened a man’s gift set first.
“That’s smashing,” he said “just what I needed, this will impress the ladies.” Then he opened the gift from their mum and dad, it was obvious from his face that he was well chuffed.
“This is great, but far too generous, I didn’t expect anything.”
“You’re welcome Billy,” said Maria.
“Pass me that bag girl’s” said Billy to the twins, “the one down by the fire.”
Maria had seen him put it there when he came down earlier that morning. Everyone watched as he took out four small gift wrapped boxes. Then he handed all four kids one each.
“Oh Billy you didn’t have to buy them anything,” said Maria.
“I know, but then I would have looked like a right bar humbug, wouldn’t I?”
The kids opened the gifts, both of the boys had a gold St Christopher, the girls had a solid gold angel. When the kids showed their parents, Monica was the first one to say they were lovely.
“I know Georgie is a bit young, but I thought you could put his away.”
After the kids had shown everyone their gifts, Billy called Melanie over, and handed her an envelope.
“Give that to your mum and dad for me princess.”
Mickey looked on curiously as Maria opened it. Pulling out the contents she looked at the gift and then passed it to Mickey. Standing up she walked over to Billy and kissed him tenderly on the cheek and said it was a wonderful gift. Mary asked what it was.
“It’s a paid luxury weekend for two in London complete with five star hotel and a top show.”
Mickey shook Billy’s hand and thanked him.
&nbs
p; “It’s the least I could do with the way Maria looks after me and don’t worry about time, it’s valid for a year. I thought maybe when you’ve had the babies; I could stay over one weekend with your mum and dad and look after all the kids. I’m sure between the three of us we could manage, but it’s up to you two.”
Maria had tears in her eyes as she told him that sounded wonderful.
When everyone had finished opening their presents, they dressed the kids warmly and made their way to the stables. George had sneaked out earlier and taken the riding equipment over to the stables.
As they stood looking at the new ponies Mickey ruffled Harry’s hair and asked which one he liked the best?
Immediately he pointed to Polly, possibly because when they had entered she had gone straight to him.
“In that case” said Mickey “I suppose the other one will belong to Georgie?” The little boy looked curiously at George; he obviously wasn’t sure what Mickey meant.
“Looks like you’ve got your own pony now son. I suppose you’ll need a saddle and stuff? If you look over there I think Father Christmas may have left you something.”
Within seconds the boys were tearing the paper from their equipment.
“Can we ride them Dad?” said Harry excitedly.
“Well I think that was the whole idea of getting them!”
Despite the cold weather, they stayed out riding the ponies ‘til lunch time. The adults only managed to get them to leave then because the two dads promised to take them back later.
The ladies had stayed back at the house to prepare the Christmas dinner. When they returned from their second visit to the ponies, it was almost four o’clock. Dinner would be ready at six.
Mickey had hoped Charlie and Scot would have joined them for Christmas, but typically of Charlie she had picked up a cheap holiday on the internet and was skiing in the Alps. He was looking forward to speaking to her, so when the phone rang just after five, he eagerly picked it up. Charlie told him what a great time they were having, also that they would visit as soon as they returned. They talked until Maria called out that dinner was ready.
The meal was fit for a king so no one was surprised when Billy made a complete pig of himself and said it was the best Christmas dinner he’d ever eaten. Mickey looked proud as he told him everything was homemade, including the stuffing.
