The Reckoning (Carter Brothers), page 23
Sitting behind his desk in the office that he and Danny shared, Moray sipped at a glass of brandy, pondering over how his life could have taken such a drastic turn for the worse. Just a few weeks earlier, he’d been on top of the world. Now he had a son who despised him enough to want to see him dead and a one-time best mate who was hellbent on killing the very same said son. He and Danny were all but at war, and to top it off, Gerry Mann wanted to kill him.
The ringing of his mobile phone made him groan out loud; all he wanted was some peace and quiet, and some time alone to think through the shit that he had going on, and there was enough of it; if he was being truly honest with himself, he didn’t know if he was coming or going.
He glanced down at the device; Jimmy’s name flashed up on the screen. He had half a mind to ignore it, just as he had in the days previous, yet something made him reach out and press answer.
‘Hello?’ As he listened to Jimmy explain the situation, the tiny hairs on the back of Moray’s neck stood up on end, and before he knew what he was doing, he was out of his chair, shrugging on his jacket, and making his way out of the office. ‘I’m on my way,’ he said before switching off the call.
By the time Moray arrived at the scrapyard, Danny was practically foaming at the mouth, he was that angry.
‘What have they had to say for themselves?’ Throwing his jacket on to the desk, Moray rolled up his sleeves, more than ready to get stuck in.
‘Not a lot,’ Danny reluctantly admitted.
Moray looked at each of the four men in turn, resting at last on Gerry. ‘I know you.’
From across the office, Danny looked up.
‘I know him.’ Locking eyes with Danny, Moray raised his eyebrows. For as long as he lived, he would never forget his and Gerry’s one and only meeting. It had taken place on the very same day that Adam Christos had touched him for the first time, and in Moray’s mind, the two were burned into his memory, they went together hand in hand.
Narrowing his eyes into mere slits, Danny looked from Moray to Gerry. What exactly was Moray trying to tell him? Had Gerry been a part of the paedophile ring?
Gerry’s expression hardened. ‘And I know you, you bastard.’ He flicked his gaze in Danny’s direction. ‘It was you, you and him, who killed Adam.’
‘Christos was a nonce,’ Danny shouted. ‘He deserved everything he had coming to him.’
‘And the Christoses have already taken their revenge,’ Moray was quick to add, as he shot Danny a sidelong glance, silently reminding him not to give too much away. That together they had set up Freddie Smith and his sidekick Lee Hart to take the flak for the crime they had committed as teenagers.
Turning his attention to Gibbs, Danny kicked out, feeling nothing but satisfaction as Gibbs cried out in fear and cowered away from him.
‘You should kill him and be done with it.’ From behind Danny, Sonny placed a baseball bat on the desk. ‘Smash his fucking nut in.’
Danny gave a laugh. Nothing would give him greater pleasure; in fact, he planned to kill them all. Cocking his head to one side, Danny turned to look over his shoulder at Jimmy, and as he spoke, he gave a surreptitious wink. ‘Have you got a blowtorch?’
The fear that radiated out of Gibbs was so strong that Danny could almost taste it. Even to this day, he could still recall the stench of Gibbs’s burning flesh when he and Moray had tortured the nonce.
‘Wait,’ Gibbs cried.
Snatching up the baseball bat, Moray took a step forward. ‘Well, come on,’ he yelled, ‘spit it fucking out.’
Gibbs swallowed deeply, his beady little eyes darting towards Gerry. ‘I admit what I am,’ he said. ‘It’s an illness.’
Sickened to the core, Moray raised the bat above his head, his expression one of pure disgust.
‘But what about him?’ Gibbs continued, his gaze homing in on Gerry, a smirk twisting the corners of his lips.
The office fell so silent that a pin could be heard dropping and, as all eyes turned to look at Gerry Mann, Joey screwed up his face. ‘Do fucking what?’ he screamed. ‘Is this true, Dad?’
The colour drained from Gerry’s face. ‘Lies,’ he croaked out, lowering his head so that his son couldn’t see his guilt, ‘all lies.’
Bile rose in Joey’s throat. He knew his father and he knew when he was lying. His fist when it shot out caught Gerry’s temple and, as his father fell to the floor in a heap, he proceeded to punch and kick out at him, using as much force as he could physically muster, until Gerry was a bloody, broken mess on the floor. Drained from the exertion, Joey finally sank to his knees, his knuckles bleeding, his eyes glassy, too traumatised to even speak.
Joey looked so crestfallen that Danny felt a moment of pity for him, but only a moment. He wasn’t about to forget Joey’s part in trying to end his and Moray’s lives, or the murder of Robbie Groves, nor the bullet his daughter had taken, the same bullet that could have killed her. Just like his father, Joey had a lot to answer for. Taking the baseball from Moray’s hands, Danny stalked forward. ‘Which one of you cunts came up with the bright idea of trying to top Moray in my club?’
The four men fell silent. They resigned themselves to the fact they wouldn’t be walking out of the office, and they couldn’t have been more correct if they’d tried.
The baseball bat sliced through the air. Joey was the first to take the impact, quickly followed by Carlos and then finally Gibbs. The attack which followed was not only brutal but frenzied, and as he, Moray and the Carters dished out their own form of retribution, Danny consoled himself with the fact that he’d taken two nonces off the streets. As for Joey and Carlos, they had a taste for blood, they killed for fun, it was how they got their kicks, unlike himself and Moray, who had only ever taken a life to save themselves.
An hour later, as they made their way towards their cars, Moray jogged across the forecourt to catch up with Danny.
‘Mate.’ Rubbing a hand over his face, Moray looked Danny in the eyes. ‘Can we have a chat?’
Danny screwed up his face; he might have swallowed the fact that Moray had been present in acting out their revenge, but that didn’t make everything okay between them; there was still Aaron to deal with, and whether Moray liked it not, his son was going down. ‘Do we actually have anything to talk about?’ he asked.
Blowing out his cheeks, Moray sighed. ‘Come on,’ he urged Danny, ‘this ain’t us, this isn’t who we are. Me and you, we might have had our disagreements in the past, but we’ve never let it get to this stage, and I get that you’re angry, but—’
‘Where is he?’ Danny interrupted.
His heart sinking, Moray sucked in his bottom lip and shook his head. ‘You know I can’t.’
‘Then me and you are done here.’ Unlocking his car door, Danny climbed inside, and without giving Moray so much as a backward glance, he drove off the forecourt, leaving Moray with no other choice than to stare after him.
For the past forty minutes, Maria had alternated between kicking the utility door and shouting at the top of her lungs, and sobbing.
Even when she’d been upstairs in the bath, Stacey had been able to hear her; she was only thankful that she had no neighbours in the near vicinity.
By the time Stacey had come downstairs, Maria was back to screaming blue murder. Picking up her mobile phone, Stacey raised her eyebrows towards her grandson, then wandered into the lounge. She’d just about had enough of Maria and was more than ready to give Danny a call so that he could come and deal with his ex-fiancée.
Twenty minutes later, the sound of tyres across the gravel alerted Stacey to the fact that Danny had arrived and, getting up from the sofa, she slowly hobbled across the lounge and out into the hallway.
Danny took one look at Stacey as she limped towards him and was ready to commit yet another murder. ‘Where is she?’ he growled.
Stacey sighed. ‘The utility room.’
Storming through the house and into the kitchen, Danny barely even paused for breath before sliding across the bolt and flinging open the utility door.
‘Danny!’ Maria all but collapsed into his arms. ‘That mad bitch,’ she sobbed, ‘she attacked me then locked me in a cupboard.’
Danny let out a laugh, although it was more from disbelief than because he found the situation amusing. Even now, when he knew exactly who and what she was, Maria was still trying to lie him. Grasping her by the upper arm, he frog-marched her through the house. At the front door, he looked down at her face, a face that he had once loved, or so he’d thought; now he felt nothing, not love, not anger, not even hate. She meant nothing to him, she might as well not exist. ‘Get out.’ He pulled open the front door and threw her onto the driveway, and as Maria fell to her knees on the gravel, she sobbed even harder.
‘Please, Danny,’ she cried, ‘I love you.’
When he spoke, Danny’s voice was cold and devoid of any emotion. ‘If you ever come near Stacey again, I will hunt you down and kill you with my bare hands and, believe me, that is no idle threat, it’s a fucking promise.’ With those parting words, he slammed the front door closed, and let out a huge sigh. Under the circumstances, Maria had got off lightly, but what else was he supposed to do? He’d never laid a finger on a woman, and Maria wasn’t about to become the exception, as much as he might want her to. ‘Stace,’ he began.
Waving his apology away, Stacey slowly made her way towards him. ‘It’s over, and I’m okay, that’s the main thing.’
‘Yeah, but…’ Swallowing deeply, Danny jerked his head towards the door, he couldn’t even say the words out loud without wanting to break down and sob. Maria, the deranged bitch that she was, could have killed Stacey. He could have lost her…
‘Danny.’ Placing her hand on his arm, Stacey smiled up at him. ‘I’m okay, look at me. I’m still alive, and I actually found out that I’ve got a blinding right hook on me.’
As they both laughed, Danny pulled her into his arms, all the while squeezing his eyes shut tight. What could have happened didn’t even bear thinking about.
22
Two days later, Danny was up bright and early. He was on a mission and knew that he wouldn’t fully rest until he’d found Aaron. The fact that Gibbs, the Manns and Christos had been dealt with went some way to easing his anger, but that still left the man who’d fired the bullet, the man who’d been responsible for the actual shooting.
Tapping the steering wheel with his thumb, Danny shifted his position slightly to make himself more comfortable; he was willing to sit here all day if necessary. Sooner or later, Colm would lead him to Aaron, he could feel it in his gut, and was fully prepared to sit outside Colm’s flat every day, all day, until that time came.
Irritation swept through Colm. His brother was relentless and a part of him wanted to just block Aaron’s telephone number, cease all contact with him, and erase him from his life. Yet he couldn’t; no matter what Aaron had done, they were still brothers, but he knew that he would never forgive him. The fact that Aaron had played an active role in the attempt on their father’s life was unforgivable; it went against the grain, and was something that Colm was unable to get his head around. It would never have even entered his mind to take his father’s life, let alone actually see it through and pull the trigger.
As his mobile phone rang for the eighth time that morning alone, Colm gave in. The quicker he got it over and done with, he decided, the sooner Aaron would leave him alone. Pressing answer, he brought the phone up to his ear.
After a few moments, he rolled his eyes in annoyance. He should have known; even now Aaron showed no remorse. All he cared for was himself, and the drugs he shoved down his throat. He’d always been the same and, even when they were kids, Aaron had only looked out for number one, and as much as Colm hated to admit it, he had a feeling that his brother would never change.
‘Please,’ Aaron said, ‘I just need a bit of cash.’
Colm sighed. As much as he wanted to refuse, he couldn’t. ‘Twenty quid,’ he growled, ‘and that’s it. I mean it, Aaron, no more than that.’
Aaron all but sighed with relief and, as he answered, his voice was significantly brighter than it had been at the beginning of the call. ‘Cheers, bro.’ He paused for a moment. ‘And can you do me a favour and drop it round to me?’
Colm closed his eyes. It was on the tip of his tongue to say no; he wasn’t a taxi service, and even more than that, he wasn’t prepared to be at his brother’s beck and call.
‘Please.’ The pleading tone was back in Aaron’s voice.
Colm gritted his teeth. ‘I’ll be there within the hour.’ Switching off the call, he didn’t wait around for his brother’s answer, he wasn’t even so sure that he cared any more.
Reluctantly, he grabbed his wallet and car keys, and as he left his flat, climbed into the car, and pulled away from the kerb, he failed to see Danny pull out behind him.
Even by her own admission, Tamsin Garner could be a sneaky little cow when the mood took her. The night before, she’d heard her parents talking or, she suspected, arguing, although it had been hard to tell, considering they had closed the door to the lounge and their voices were hushed. What she had heard, though, had more than made her ears prick up and her heart race that little bit faster.
Her dad had placed her brother Aaron in one of his properties and she took a wild guess that it could only be the one-bedroom flat Moray owned in Southend.
On the pretence that she was visiting her friend, Tamsin had swiped the spare key for the flat out of her dad’s office and then jumped onto a bus. She’d been to the property once before and, from what she could remember, it wasn’t too far from the seafront.
Stepping off the bus, she pulled her jacket around her, then made her way down the street. Within minutes, she was standing outside the block of flats. Although the property had been refurbished in recent years, the building still looked old. The outside was painted cream and the window frames and communal door were bottle green. It looked hideous, in Tamsin’s opinion; still, she thought to herself, who was she to complain? It wasn’t as though she had to live there.
The inside of the building wasn’t much better and, after trudging up a set of concrete steps, she wrinkled her nose as the scent of dampness engulfed her, making her shudder.
At the front door, she paused, took a deep breath, then inched the key into the lock and ever so slowly turned it. The flat itself was in much better condition and her dad had decorated to a high standard; he’d even had a new bathroom and kitchen installed.
Ever so quietly, she crept down the hallway, her eyes wide as she looked around her for any tell-tale signs that her brother could be hiding out in the flat. At the door to the lounge, her heart was in her mouth, and she gingerly wrapped her fingers around the door handle. All she wanted was to meet her big brother; it wasn’t too much to ask for, was it?
Flinging back her shoulders, she straightened up, then pushed down on the handle. As the door opened, she let out a shuddering breath. Much to her dismay, the room was empty. Tears sprang to Tamsin’s eyes, and spinning around, she crashed into something hard.
Her gaze travelled up the length of the object, only it wasn’t an object, it was a man, a tall, solid man. She was about to open her mouth and scream when recognition tore through her. He was the image of her father; same dark hair, same light brown skin, same dark eyes, same full lips.
As they locked eyes, it took all of Tamsin’s strength not to throw herself into his arms. Instead, she looked up at him shyly then gave a timid smile. Not that the same could be said for Aaron. Instead of returning her smile, he screwed up his face, took a step away from her, then bellowed, ‘Who the fuck are you?’
The last thing Aaron wanted was a kid in the flat, especially some kid who he didn’t even know and, let’s be honest here, before today, he’d never even clapped eyes on Tamsin. For the past hour, she’d boasted about how alike they were; anyone would think that she was some kind of gangster girl, the way she was carrying on, and all because she’d smoked the odd Benson and Hedges and had taken ecstasy at a party once.
He didn’t have the heart to tell her that she was boring him, nor that he’d been taking drugs since he was thirteen, and a bit more than just the odd pill at a party. He also had a feeling that their father wouldn’t like her being here, especially not with him, the son who he considered to be a fuck-up.
‘And so I said to her, my friend Amy, I mean…’ Tamsin studied her brother’s face to make sure that he was still listening. ‘If you can’t get any pills for the party then I’ll just have to buy them myself, won’t I?’
This got Aaron’s attention; in fact, it was the most interesting thing she’d said since she’d arrived. Sitting upright, he studied his sister, although he used that term loosely; they might have shared the same father, but that didn’t make them family. ‘You know where to buy gear?’ he asked.
‘Of course I do.’ Tamsin grinned, although what she’d said wasn’t particularly true. She had a friend of a friend who knew someone who sold cannabis, and maybe the odd pill every now and again, and that was about it.
Aaron narrowed his eyes. ‘What can you get hold of?’
Taking a deep breath, Tamsin faltered. It was more than enough to tell Aaron that she was full of bullshit.
‘How old are you?’ he asked.
‘Seventeen, but I’ll be eighteen in a couple of months.’
Aaron groaned – she was just a kid. He glanced at his watch, then scrambled to his feet. ‘It’s about time you went home.’ The last thing either of them needed was for Colm to turn up and catch her here; he’d only go running straight to their father and no doubt Moray would blame him, just like he blamed him for everything else.
As she got to her feet, Tamsin’s face fell; she didn’t want to leave yet, she wanted to get to know her brother more. So far, he hadn’t told her anything that she didn’t already know. In fact, it was hard work to get any kind of conversation out of him, but she quite liked that, it made him all the more mysterious. ‘I could try and buy some drugs for you, just tell me what you want, and I’ll ring my dealer.’
