Old Crackers

by Peter Bates

  Bob’s eyes flickered down the page to the item that Harrison had previously underlined, immediately spotting an opportunity to redeem himself after his earlier slip up.

  “That’s it,” he announced, pointing a finger at the underlined option. “Boss, that is brilliant. It’s the only option that absolutely guarantees to leave no evidence behind.”

  “I think we could all agree on that,” nodded Alan.

  Harrison maintained an expressionless face. “OK. What we have to do now then is to sort out how, where and when. Those three questions are going to be the hardest bits and whilst we’re doing that, we’ll keep all other options open, just in the unlikely case that one of you dumb buggers, comes up with a completely different idea that could work just as well.”

  Kenny glanced briefly into Harrison’s face, then leaned forward and pulled the piece of A4 paper and a pencil towards himself.

  After turning the paper over, across its top he quickly wrote three bold headings. HOW — WHERE — WHEN.

  Harrison smiled for the first time. “Good idea to start again, Kenny.”

  Kenny wrote ‘FIRE’ in the ‘how’ column. “I think we’re agreed on that one, unless we can drown them all out at sea.”

  Harrison grinned. “Actually, drowning them at sea is a brilliant idea, Kenny. Achieving it could be difficult though, to say the least. Put it on the list, Kenny. You never know — maybe we’ll think of something.”

  Kenny scribbled ‘DROWNING’ on the paper, and drew a smiley face next to the word.

  “Road accident?” asked Gary.

  “Not so likely,” responded Harrison. “There would be no guaranteed certainty of their deaths, and probably a few witnesses as well.”

  “Poison?” Gary went on.

  “Not likely either. The poison would be in their bodies, and certainly very detectable. Don’t give me any more options; just go back to the fire one, lads. Any new ideas about how?”

  “First,” said Alan, “the whole gang would all have to be in the same place at the same time. Secondly, we’d have to be sure that they would not be able to escape.”

  “OK, that’s true, and neither would we really want any innocents killed, so they would have to be somehow isolated. The perfect place would be a log cabin in the middle of nowhere, but how that could ever be contrived, I really have no idea at all.”

  “What about Jed Thomas’ own property? It’s odds on that his home will be a detached one, and we could maybe burn that down without it affecting anyone else.”

  “Well, Bob. It makes sense in one way, but again, the gang would all have to be there at the same time. You can bet your life that his home will be riddled with all sorts of alarms as well. We don’t even know whether Thomas ever invites the gang members into his own property. It’s more than likely they never even go near the place.”

  “If they all travelled together in one car, it might be useful,” suggested Alan.

  “Why?” asked Mel.

  “I’m just thinking out of the box, Mel. If, say, they were all in a Range Rover for example, we could organise an accident that involved their vehicle going over a cliff top.”

  “That’s a bit farfetched, Alan, and would be bloody difficult to fix. We’d have to somehow capture them all, take both our own and their vehicle to the coast, find the best spot, and push them over the edge. I’m not sure what all the cameras that must be scattered along the route would record whilst all that was going on.”

  Alan nodded. “Yes, you’re right, boss. It’s just that if we want them all together under one roof, a vehicle might be the only option.”

  “What if we just took out Jed Thomas?” asked Gary. “Would that not finish off the gang?”

  “Interesting,” murmured Harrison. “You might have a good point there, Gary. It would certainly be a damn sight easier to do than anything else we’ve come up with so far.”

  “If we did take him out, what do you think would happen to the others?” asked Alan.

  “Not sure, mate. Thinking about it for the first time, I’ve a feeling that they would probably fold up and call it a day. On the other hand, you never really know for certain. It’s really unlikely though that there are any other real leaders in the gang apart from Thomas.”

  Kenny picked up the pencil, and then wrote the word ‘THOMAS’ in bold letters on his sheet of paper. After a moment, he grinned and drew a dangling rope and a large noose around the man’s name.

  Harrison laughed aloud. “Nice one, Kenny. Do you know what, lads? I think we might have hit on the right answer at last.”

  Bob leaned forward, lifting and turning Kenny’s paper around to face him as he shifted in his seat. He gazed at it for a moment, and added to Harrison’s laugh, before speaking up loudly.

  “It’s the best thing we’ve come up with so far, lads, and I for one think that it will work. Take Thomas out, and the others will fall apart. All we need now is a plan to finish off just one man, and that should be a damn sight easier than wiping out the whole gang.”

  “Any ideas on how?” asked Alan, nodding his head firmly in agreement as he asked the question.

  “Well, one man’s more of a doddle,” agreed Harrison, “but we still need to do it carefully, and leave nothing behind. A car fire in the middle of nowhere would be brilliant, but difficult to organise for obvious reasons. We won’t be using a gun, out of choice, but there are plenty of other weapons around that would do the job quietly and without leaving any evidence behind. We want no spectators, no cameras around, and no DNA traces. If it’s possible, disposal of his body — preferably far below ground — would be a real bonus and with a bit of luck, he would never be discovered. If we did go for the fire option though, it would solve a lot of difficult problems at the same time.”

  CHAPTER 49

  “Have they gone?” Roy asked quietly.

  “They have,” smiled Frank. “The door’s been closed for at least two minutes now, so I guess they’ll be already on their way home.”

  Reg stared at the door for several seconds before adding, “I know that we couldn’t hear everything that was said lads, but what we could hear was absolutely mind blowing. Frank’s idea to pick up those tiny hearing aids from the chemist’s shop worked brilliantly. I’m sure that they must have made a big difference for us.”

  “And we picked the right spot to sit, that’s for sure. In addition to that, they were angry and not exactly quiet, which helped quite a bit too,” Terry added. “Anyone else but us overhearing them wouldn’t have had a clue what they were all on about.”

  “No, and that’s fortunate for us really. They wouldn’t have expected anyone to be able to pick up the bones of what they said, but we know what we are listening for, so even if we missed the odd few words, we certainly got the jist of it. Another thing, it was a really good idea that Frank ordered a little bit of food as soon as we arrived. We looked even more innocent tucking into some grub, as well as reading the newspapers.”

  Terry continued, his eyes constantly flicking towards the doorway as he spoke. “I wonder, really, whether we should just ignore it all, somehow. After all, they would be doing everyone a big favour if they did do what they seemed to be planning.”

  “You’re not kidding.” grinned Reg. “But if they did do it, and then got caught, it would be even better. We’d have both sets of bad buggers out of the picture in one stroke.”

  “Did you have the sound recorder on, Frank?”

  “Come on, Reg. Would I not do that? Of course, it was on. As it happens, we’ve physically just about heard everything that we needed to hear, but the little magic machine must have picked up on most of it, just in case we ever need to check back on anything.”

  “That’s good, Frank. One day that recording might just come in useful. It could even turn out to be evidence. Make sure that you keep it somewhere very safe. We wouldn’t want it falling into the wrong hands if those idiots got wind of it, and if they did, that could possibly put us all at risk as
well.”

  Terry nodded. “The session was a good result for sure, even if we hadn’t been able to record it.”

  “Yes, but I never thought that the day would come when I would hear and record evidence like that, and not really want to do anything about it. Quite honestly, I’d be quite pleased if they got on with it and took Jed Thomas out of the picture. It would be some natural justice, and the streets would be a lot safer around here.”

  “Do you think we should tell Norman Pendleton what we have unearthed about their intentions?” asked Reg.

  “No, I don’t,” responded Terry quickly. “Their words alone would never result in a conviction and Harrison would also inevitably then discover that we were involved. That would be hugely dangerous for us lads, and at the very least we would never again be able to do what we can do now. There is no actual crime involved in what they said, and if we’re honest, we’d much rather they went ahead with their plan and then we’d see a much better result. There may be a time when we do decide to tell Norman something, but it’s certainly not right now.”

  “Terry’s absolutely right,” agreed Roy. “Norman couldn’t do a thing with what we have so far, and Harrison’s lawyers would have a field day if it ever went to court. It’s best if we just sit on what we know at the moment and then see how it all evolves. At some point in the future, it’s virtually certain that we will be giving Norman Pendleton a call, but it’s definitely not right now. Put your little magic sound recorder in the safe for now, Frank. I’m pretty sure that one day in the future, we may well be using it.”

  Reg nodded his head in agreement. “What’s next then, lads?”

  “This is just an idea,” said Terry thoughtfully, “so don’t take it too seriously if you think it’s a daft one. What if we got a message through to Jed Thomas that Mel Harrison was plotting to wipe out him and his gang? It worked with that other group of lads, so maybe it would work again with these.”

  “How could we get that sort of message to Thomas?” asked Frank.

  “Just like we did it before, Frank. Remember, we just delivered an anonymous note to a pub that they used, and then left it up to them.”

  “Well, it’s slightly different now, Terry, and in any case, we’ve already got that scenario without even trying. I’m not really bothered that Harrison wants to wipe Thomas off the map, he’s very welcome to go ahead and do it. If he does do it and leaves any sort of evidence, he and his gang will all go down for a very long spell anyway. Then we’ve rid the town of both of them.”

  Terry thought for a moment before responding. “Well, you’re probably right, Frank, and I agree that this really is different anyway to the other one that we set up. Both gangs would already be pleased to eliminate the other, and already know each other well. I suppose that we can really just sit back and let nature take its course. We already know that Harrison is after Thomas, and if he did succeed and seemed to be getting away with it, our bit of evidence could then be very useful and more likely to stand up in court.”

  “Let’s just keep a very close eye on it,” suggested Roy. “Frank is most likely correct when he says that it will take its own course. I really don’t know how we would ever do it, but it would be absolutely great if we could somehow find out Harrison’s final plan and then if possible, to somehow witness it. I certainly don’t think that’s very likely to happen though. Maybe just for the short term, we might need to go into the Pilgrim’s Arms almost every day for an hour or two. It might be boring, but our own company along with the beer and whisky is good, so it won’t be the worst thing that we’ve ever done. We’ll need to make sure that whilst we go there, we continue to stay totally anonymous, very quiet, and appear to be totally unconcerned about any other visitors. What we do know now almost for certain, is that Harrison will attempt to do it at some point regardless of what else we find out beforehand. At the very worst, we know that we can always telephone Norman Pendleton and point him in the right direction if he doesn’t already know it.”

  Frank nodded his agreement. “If we see them in here again within the next couple of days, let’s wait until they leave. When they do, we’ll follow them at a safe distance, and try to find out what vehicles they are using, and clock their number plates. I’m not sure whether that would help us, but we may need to know them at some time in the future. Whatever they end up doing, it’s odds on that they will need to travel some distance, unless they do something local, which I doubt very much. I expect their plan will be to choose somewhere that’s fairly isolated. Somehow, we could do with knowing when and exactly how, but that’s a tough one to say the least, unless we pick up something more in the pub.”

  “Good points,” agreed Terry. “Being in a position to track them without any prior knowledge of their route will be extremely difficult unless we get really lucky. At one time we could have put numerous spotters out on the streets, but that’s something that we definitely can’t do now.”

  “Norman Pendleton could,” said Reg.

  “He could,” agreed Terry, “but we don’t have any hard evidence to put in front of him, and he couldn’t shift half of his force around just because we believe that Harrison is planning to do a job on Jed Thomas.”

  “He’d probably laugh,’ added Roy. “Like us, he’d probably be pleased if it happened anyway.”

  “What do you suggest we do, then?” asked Frank.

  “Just keep watching and listening. We can’t do much else really. If it all kicks off and we’re not around to see it, at least we’ll know for certain who did it. It may even be that Harrison achieves it without us even knowing anything, in which case, Thomas and his crew will simply disappear off the local map. If he disposes of them in some remote place, and either burns or buries them, we will probably never find out what happened to them anyway.”

  “That would be OK but we’d still be lumbered with Harrison and everything that he brings to the town.”

  “You’re right, Terry,” admitted Reg. “Far better if both gangs were out of the picture.”

  “Let’s just see how it goes,” smiled Frank. “We haven’t done too badly so far, and if we get a bit more luck to go with our judgement, we might just end up with a good result.”

  CHAPTER 50

  Jed Thomas swaggered into the Cock and Hen and after a brief glance around its interior, quickly pointed an outstretched finger at one of the larger side tables.

  “We’ll sit at that one today,” he announced, with a quick look over his shoulder at his five companions, before taking an empty seat on one side with his back to the wall.

  “Get ’em in, Tony, and make it quick. I’m dying of thirst — I’ve not had a beer since last night.” he grinned. “And I’m well overdue.”

  Tony smiled back into his boss’s face. It was a face that didn’t grin that often, but today seemed to be an exception. Make the most of it, Tony told himself as he drifted towards the bar, and put in the order.

  The barman was not the usual one. He was in his mid-thirties, well over six feet tall, and by his stature and build, Tony reckoned that the man worked out at the gym on a regular basis. It turned out in their brief conversation that the man was from Yorkshire, temporarily standing in for the regular manager, and that he expected his predecessor to return from a short illness within the next few days. Tony needed to make a quick decision, and decided on balance that this was one time that he would pay for the drinks. He knew nothing of the barman’s background, and if the man kicked off about his demands, it could easily attract unwanted attention. Thomas might not like it, but if push came to shove, he was big enough and strong enough to stand up to him if he needed to. What he was doing at the moment for Thomas was temporary. Once he had enough money in his pocket, he knew that he would leave, go back to his home town, and set up a legitimate business. Maybe he could even set up his very own gymnasium.

  Tony carefully balanced the tray of drinks, carried them to the table, and set them up in a circle before returning the empty tray t
o the bar.

  “Any problem?” asked Jed Thomas, once Tony was back in his seat.

  “None,” replied Tony, looking Thomas straight in the eyes. “No problem at all.”

  “Did I see you pay for the drinks?” asked Thomas.

  “I did, Jed. The guy’s a temporary manager whilst the regular guy’s off sick. I made a quick decision that it would be wiser to pay than to create an unwanted situation.”

  Thomas looked into Tony’s face, saw the clear intensity in his eyes, and then smiled. “Good decision, Tony. You were quite right. We really don’t need any unwanted attention right now, and it won’t kill us off to buy the odd drink now and then.”

  Tony nodded his head and sat down, immediately picking up his pint glass to cover his facial expression. It had been a delicate moment, but he’d come through it well.

  “Right, lads,” said Thomas. “The first question is the usual one. Has anyone heard anything or seen anything of Harrison’s crew?”

  Jed Thomas’ dark eyes briefly scanned each of the four blank faces around the table, but he was met with total silence.

  “Still nothing, eh?”

  “Nowt, boss,” answered Patrick. “They’ve been spotted in the Pilgrim’s Arms a few times having a few beers. Apart from that, they don’t seem to be on the map at all.”

  Thomas scratched his head. “I can’t weigh it up one bit. I’m beginning to think that maybe they’ve got no bottle. It wouldn’t surprise me now if they just folded up or buggered off somewhere else. I can’t believe that they’ve not made an attempt to come after us after what we did to their families. Anyway, it’s very good news from our point of view, and it’ll be even better if they do clear out of town. It would mean that the original plan has worked after all. In the meantime, I’ve been thinking hard about our next move and how to get some money in.”