The New Friend

by Alex Kane

  Arabella noticed the softness in her friend’s eyes then. A silent apology to go with the explanation.

  ‘It was a one-off, yeah?’

  ‘Absolutely. I’ll make sure that my shoplifting business doesn’t cross over the threshold of Hair Envy again.’

  Nodding, Arabella smiled. ‘Good. Look, I don’t mean this to sound harsh, but things have been pretty shitty for me the last week what with… well, you know what with. I just don’t think I’m cut out for all this illegal shit. Ed bought me this place so I could start over. I don’t want him thinking I’m falling back into something that’s going to send me back to prison. I am so grateful for what you did, I really am, Rox. You’ll never know how much. But I can’t get involved in your shoplifting game.’

  Roxanne opened up her arms and stepped forward. ‘Then you don’t have to. I promise. And I know how grateful you are for what I did for you, Arabella. You’re not a bad person, you don’t deserve to go to prison for what happened. The guy was a sleaze, you dealt with him the best way you knew how. You did it to keep us safe. I won’t hold that against you, if anything I thank you for it.’

  Arabella accepted Roxanne’s open arms and hugged her best friend. Not just her best friend but her only friend. She didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Eddie sat in one of his vans outside the block of flats and stared up at the window. His hangover was kicking in now, and he needed something to take the edge off. Glancing out of the window to make sure there was no one around, he took the little bag of coke out from inside his pocket and poured some onto the back of his hand before snorting it. He didn’t bother to use a rolled-up note. Seeing some residue left over on his skin, he licked the back of his hand. Almost immediately he felt less foggy.

  He’d rung the number stored in his phone three times and there had been no answer. He had no choice but to go to the door and sort it out in person.

  Getting out of the van, Eddie pointed the fob at the door and hit the lock button before heading into the building. He climbed two flights of stairs before reaching the door. Standing outside, he balled his fist and rattled the wooden surface.

  ‘Fuck off,’ he heard a voice from inside.

  ‘We need to talk. Let me in for a minute, please?’ he said, trying to make his tone sound calmer than he felt.

  A few seconds passed and as he raised his fist to pound on the door again, he heard a click and it opened. Eddie stepped inside and closed the door behind him before making his way through to the lounge.

  ‘Boys not in?’ Eddie asked.

  ‘They’re at their grandparents’ today,’ Scarlett said. ‘Not that it’s any of your business.’

  ‘Why aren’t you at the salon today?’ he asked, looking at Scarlett as she sat back on the sofa, sipping on a glass of wine. He looked down at his watch. It wasn’t even midday yet. What the hell was she playing at?

  ‘What’s it to you?’ she slurred, not meeting his eyes.

  ‘Erm, I’m you’re employer and you didn’t show up to work. You didn’t even let Arabella know you were taking the day off.’

  Scarlett pulled a face that told Eddie this wasn’t going to get resolved the way he’d hoped. Her eyes focused on the television but when Eddie looked over, he saw it was switched off.

  ‘Look, Scarlett, I’m just going to be blunt with you here. You knew I was in a relationship when we first met. I told you straight up I had a girlfriend who was in prison. You said that didn’t bother you, and that you wanted the same as I did. It was only ever sex with us, you knew that. So, I don’t get why you’re being so fucking unreasonable about this?’

  Scarlett snapped up at him, getting to her feet in an instant, albeit swaying a little. ‘You don’t seriously think I’d want to work for you and that girlfriend of yours, knowing the company you keep? I mean, gangsters, Eddie. You think you’re one, don’t you? Wee Eddie the gangster.’ She sniggered. Eddie bit his tongue. He didn’t want to say anything about Jake or Roxanne and fuel her fire. When he didn’t respond, she continued.

  ‘You think I’m being unreasonable? Eddie, you bought my place of work. You could have at least given me advanced warning. How do you think it made me feel when I found out? All of a sudden you rock up to the salon with your bit of fucking skirt and tell me she’s my new boss! And you think I’m the unreasonable one? You just came into my life and fucked everything up. I told you about my brother, you gave me a fucking shoulder to cry on and then you shat on me from the greatest of fucking heights. You should have pulled out of the sale when you realised I worked there.’

  ‘It was too late by then, Scarlett. We went over everything and you said you were fine about it.’

  Scarlett swayed again, her wine sloshing out of her glass and dripping onto Eddie’s shoes. Glancing down at them, she sniggered and then before Eddie could stop her, she threw the remaining wine in the glass over his face.

  ‘Well, I’m not. You’re a selfish, self-centred fucker, Eddie Corrigan. You deserve everything that’s coming to you.’ She jabbed her finger into his chest and Eddie caught her wrist, squeezing it tight and shoving her down onto the couch.

  ‘Shut your mouth, Scarlett.’

  ‘Ha,’ she laughed. ‘What you going to do about it? Tell Arabella? Sorry, I should really be calling her Miss MacQueen. That’s what you want me to call her, isn’t it? She is my boss. Well, I wonder what my boss would think if I told her I was fucking her man when she was in prison?’

  ‘I said, shut your mouth, Scarlett.’

  ‘What, you think she wouldn’t believe me? Come on then,’ Scarlett grabbed her phone from the arm of the sofa. ‘Let’s give her a call and see what she has to say about it?’

  Eddie lurched forward and grabbed the phone from her hand before launching it across the room. It slammed against the back wall and fell to the floor, the screen shattered to the point where it was unreadable.

  Leaning down, he saw that the action had given Scarlett a fright. Her eyes glistened behind pooling tears.

  ‘Now you listen to me, Scarlett. If you think I’m going to let you ruin what I have with Arabella then you’re sadly mistaken. I’m not putting up with this shit.’

  Tears spilled over her face. Eddie had never noticed how pathetic she looked until now. What had he been thinking, getting involved with her? At the time he’d thought it would be a laugh. Buying the salon hadn’t been intended to upset Scarlett, he’d just seen an opportunity. It just so happened that he’d been involved with Scarlett beforehand.

  ‘You’re a bad bastard, Eddie. You know that? She needs to know what kind of man you really are. And I’m going to make sure she knows about what you got up to when she was behind bars. You don’t get to do this to me, not anymore.’ The words were hissed through the gaps in her teeth as she threw the wine glass at him.

  At that point his anger began to cripple him. He couldn’t let her do this. If she contacted Arabella, if she told her that he’d been having it off with Scarlett then bought the salon she was in charge of, he’d lose her.

  ‘Shut up, Scarlett,’ he said. ‘You’re drunk and I’m late. Get a grip of yourself, eh?’

  ‘What? You think I won’t do it? Go on then, try me,’ Scarlett said, getting to her feet and heading towards the door.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Eddie followed her out to the hallway.

  ‘I’m going to work, I’m going to tell her everything.’

  Eddie rushed ahead of her, blocking the door so she couldn’t get out. She stopped in front of him, her eyes bloodshot with tears. She hesitated and for a moment he thought she was going to relent. Go back to the lounge and finish her sad little bottle of wine. Then out of nowhere, she slapped him so hard his ears began to ring. It did little to knock him off balance, but the anger he felt was like a volcanic eruption.

  He lifted his own hand in retaliation. Knocking her to the ground with a dull thud, he kneeled down over the top of her and grabbed a fistful
of hair. Her mouth was bleeding but he chose to block it out.

  ‘You’ll be sorry you done that. You’ll be sorry you ever fucking met me.’

  Chapter Forty-Five

  The terror inside had kept her cowering in the corner. She hadn’t expected him to lose it the way he did. She’d never seen that side of him before, didn’t think he had it in him to do something so violent. Yet here she was, balled up in the corner of her own living room.

  Opening her eyes, she looked around and saw that he’d turned the place upside down. It could have been worse; he could have broken every bone in her body rather than the furniture. She’d thought he might, by the way he’d looked at her. The threat had been enough to make her back off. The words he’d said before shoving her out the way and beginning to trash her home. She was glad that was all he’d done. Although the way she’d crashed into the console table in the hall when he’d thrown her to the side exacerbated the pain she still felt in her ribs from Roxanne’s attack. She’d got up and followed him into the living room, tried to stop him. But he’d gone into some kind of frenzy and there was no stopping him. Upturned furniture, broken mirrors and glass everywhere. It was over quickly, but she’d genuinely believed he would turn on her next so she’d cowered in a corner, trying to stay out of the way.

  ‘Jesus,’ Scarlett said as she attempted to get to her feet, surveying the mess. If she’d known this was the kind of man he was, she’d never have got involved with him in the first place.

  Standing up, she ran a hand over her ribcage and winced. She’d need to get that seen to. But first she’d have to call the police. There was no way she was going to let him get away with this. Arabella needed to know what Eddie had been up to. Come to think of it, she needed to know what her new friend, Roxanne was capable of, too.

  Looking around for her phone, she headed out to the hall. She couldn’t remember what she’d done with it before Eddie had turned up. Everything was such a blur. She glanced up at the door and noticed that it was slightly ajar. He hadn’t closed it properly when he’d left.

  Reaching for the handle she went to close it but before she could, it swung open. She looked at the person standing in the doorway and frowned.

  ‘What are you doing here?’

  They didn’t reply, just stepped inside and closed the door behind them. Scarlett’s eyes moved down, noted the black gloved hands and returned to meet her unwelcome visitor’s gaze.

  White noise filled her head before the pain hit her. She fell to the floor, clutching her head. Her sight blurred before she could get a look at the weapon in the hand of her attacker. Then the white noise stopped. Everything stilled.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Eddie watched as Cole and Jake sat down at the desk opposite him at Eddie’s van hire centre. They were suited and booted, looking like real businessmen. Cole was normally in his designer clothes, DKNY jeans and Jack & Jones T-shirts. Even wearing casual clothes, he looked smart. Jake looked smarter than normal too, his attire much the same as Cole’s on any other day.

  Seeing them like this felt odd but Eddie didn’t question it.

  ‘Right Ed, let’s talk business. I laid all my cards on the table, now show me yours,’ Cole said, sitting back on the seat and raising his left leg over his right, resting the ankle on the knee.

  Eddie was shaken after his encounter with Scarlett. It had only been an hour since it had happened. He wasn’t going to let a little bitch like her ruin his chances of earning more money. This part of life was what he’d been craving for a long time. The affairs, the one-night stands, the occasional blow out on recreational drugs, the booze… it was all a pathway in search of something more.

  ‘So I’ve got three vans that can be used; it just depends on what you want to do with them. Your stock, your call,’ Eddie said, matching Cole’s body language. ‘They’re often hired out to companies for delivery purposes. Small businesses like florists, bakers, that sort of thing. But big companies sometimes use us. Like Amazon, online retailers. They’re all road legal.’

  ‘You have drivers for me?’ Cole asked, his eyebrow raised as if he wasn’t interested in anything Eddie had just said.

  ‘That wasn’t part of the deal. I don’t hire out drivers with the vans.’

  Cole turned and glared at Jake. ‘This guy having a laugh?’

  ‘Cole, he’s right. That wasn’t part of the deal. Look, I know plenty of guys who would be looking to earn a bit of cash. I’ll get in touch with some of the shoplifting mob and see who’s up for it.’

  Cole swung his chair side to side and Eddie noticed how the suit crumpled with the movement. This guy didn’t just look good in a suit. He looked like a rough and ready bank manager.

  ‘Fine, but make it quick. I don’t want my drugs sitting in that flat any longer than necessary. I’ve got a list of orders waiting.’

  Jake started saying something about the job, but Eddie had stopped listening when he caught sight of a bloodstain on the cuff of his shirt. He glanced up and saw that neither Jake nor Cole had seemed to notice.

  ‘Let me know who and when your guys are free, Jakey boy. But make sure it’s in the next forty-eight hours. I don’t want my clients going elsewhere because there’s a hold-up with dispatch.’

  Jake nodded and he and Cole got to their feet. Eddie rose with them. ‘Just let me know what the plan of action is, who will be picking up the vans and when.’

  ‘Sound, mate,’ Cole said. He reached over and held out his hand. Eddie raised his own to shake but Cole’s eyes fell immediately to the bloodstained cuff.

  ‘Nose bleed,’ Eddie said almost too quickly.

  ‘They’re a bastard, eh?’ Cole smiled. He held Eddie’s gaze for a second longer than Eddie felt comfortable with. Did he suspect something? Maybe he wouldn’t have if Eddie hadn’t jumped in so quickly to defend himself against suspicion.

  ‘Aye, get them all the time.’

  Jake stood by the door and Cole moved out of the office. Before Jake followed him out, he turned and nodded at Eddie. ‘You alright? You seem off.’

  Eddie stared at him for a moment, not quite sure how to respond.

  ‘That really a nose bleed?’ Jake eyed Eddie’s cuff. ‘I mean, if you’ve done someone in then you might want to use one of your vans for disposal.’

  Eddie glared at Jake who was smiling widely. ‘Joke, Eddie. Fucking hell, man, you should smoke a joint or something. Don’t worry about all this, it’ll go smoothly. So long as you stay on the right side of Cole, you’ll be fine and minted.’

  Eddie’s legs almost buckled beneath him at Jake’s shit joke but he forced out a laugh. ‘Very funny, Jake.’

  Jake left the office and Eddie watched him and Cole through the window as they got into Jake’s car. It drove along South Street towards the bus terminus and out of sight before he allowed himself to glance down at his cuff again. The sight of Scarlett’s blood reminded him of the damage he’d caused. He should feel guiltier than he did, but she’d left him no choice. She was going to try to take him down, and in doing so she’d take Arabella down too. He couldn’t let that happen. Who did Scarlett think she was? How dare she? He had to get home and burn that shirt immediately.

  Grabbing his phone from the desk, Eddie slid his arms into his jacket, ensuring the bloodstain was out of sight before heading outside. Unlocking his car, Eddie reached for the handle when he heard a voice calling over to him.

  ‘Eddie?’

  Eddie turned and squinted in the sunshine. A man was walking towards him, a tall man. His hair was greying at the temples and his eyes crinkled at the edges. A punter looking to hire a van no doubt. Then he saw his face and the anger began to build.

  ‘Not here, in the middle of broad fucking daylight,’ Eddie said, just as he was about to climb into his car.

  ‘I need a word. Need an update,’ the man said.

  ‘Aye, well, you’ll have to wait.’

  ‘Since when did you start calling the shots, Eddie?’

&n
bsp; Eddie stepped back a little from the car and closed the door. ‘I don’t. But I do value my fucking safety, so if you want to talk to me it’ll need to be somewhere discreet. Got it?’

  The man reached into his breast pocket and produced an ID card. Eddie narrowed his eyes but could barely read the words.

  ‘Do I have to remind you who you’re talking to?’ DS Billy Drysdale said.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Jez had decided to stay behind at the pub after Billy had left. It had been such a long time since he’d drunk in the dreary local, but there was something nostalgic about it. A feeling that took him back to his teens. He’d ended his time in Scotland on a bad note. He’d owed money to a local drug dealer and he’d been careful not to tell any of his mates before they’d jetted off to Majorca on their boys’ holiday. It was one of the reasons he’d decided not to return home. Out of sight, out of mind. It was Billy who’d told Jez about the body that had been found up at the Dunmuir reservoir a few months later. An unsettled feeling had set in Jez’s stomach. What if the police knew who did it? What if there were witnesses? Of course, Jez knew there weren’t. He’d arranged to meet his dealer at the bottom of the road which led up to the reservoir. The guy was scum, a bit of a druggie himself. Now when Jez thought about it, he actually felt sorry for him. He was only out to make a bit of money. But that didn’t excuse the fact that the guy had pulled a knife on him. It had been midnight, a time they’d both agreed on. Less people around, less chance of the police catching them. The road gates had been left open and the guy’s old Vauxhall Nova, which looked like it was ready for the scrappy, was sitting in the small car park at the edge of the track road. He probably didn’t even have a licence, or own the car. That was what it was like around the scheme where Jez and Billy had grown up.