“Bye,” they called in unison before rushing outside to their cars parked at the kerb.
“We’ll take mine,” said Jason.
“No, we’ll take mine,” said Kevin.
“I don’t want to go in yours.”
“We don’t have time for this,” said Kevin, unlocking his car and getting in.
“My car’s better than yours,” pouted Jason before getting into Kevin’s passenger seat.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” sighed Faith when there was a frantic knocking at her door. This time she and Vance had been interrupted before things could really hot up between them.
“At least we can let them in this time,” said Vance as they both got to their feet. “What reason should I give for being here?”
“Say you wanted to borrow a cup of sugar,” she replied when there was another bang at the door.
“That sounds a bit suspicious.”
“Well I don’t know, come up with something,” she said, adjusting her clothes as she stalked to the door. “Yes boys?” she said when she pulled it open to reveal Jason, Kevin and Caleb, who they’d picked up on the way.
“We need to talk,” said Caleb. “You haven’t got anyone tied up in there this time, have you?”
“No, it’s safe.”
“We knocked on Vance’s door but there was no answer.”
“That’s because he’s here,” she replied as they stepped inside. “I take it something’s happened?” she added as she led them back into the front room.
“What’s this about?” Vance asked his brothers when they walked in. The excuse he’d prepared for his reason for being there wasn’t required as they didn’t bother to ask. He and Faith had always been as thick as thieves, so they didn’t think it strange them spending so much time together.
“Patrick Prentiss,” said Kevin. “Mum went to bingo and spoke to his mum. Sally-Ann said he’s been bragging about being chosen to guard the vault and yes, he used the word vault.”
“Could we have found our traitor?” said Faith, cutting straight to the heart of the matter.
“He was never told about the vault but he did handle the product,” said Vance. “He could have put a tracking device in it.”
“Sally-Ann told Mum he’s been really flush lately and splashing the cash about,” said Jason. “Someone could have paid him to do it.”
“Whoever robbed us killed Dillon,” said Faith. “Meaning Patrick could be in danger.”
“Yeah he is,” said Kevin. “From us. When I get hold of the bastard I’ll…”
“Just hold your horses Kev,” Faith told him. “We don’t know that Patrick’s done anything wrong yet.”
“Course we know. He used the word vault. That means he’s in on it.”
“No it doesn’t. He could have overheard someone else using it. Let’s not condemn him before we know the truth and you’re not to lay a finger on him until we’ve got our facts straight, all right Kev?”
“Yeah,” he muttered. “I get it.”
“Good. But we do need to talk to him. Does anyone know where we can find him?”
Caleb glanced at his watch. “He’ll be at Pulse now, he’s due to work the bar tonight.”
“Then let’s get over there and you two,” said Faith, pointing at Jason and Kevin. “Behave yourselves. Let’s give him a chance to explain himself first.”
“And if he is the traitor?” said Jason.
“Then you can do whatever’s necessary to get the information we need from him.”
“Awesome,” said Kevin with a macabre smile.
“I’ll go into the club alone through the front while you lot go through the back and wait in the office. I’ll bring Patrick with me.”
“I don’t think you should tackle him alone,” said Caleb.
Her gaze hardened. “If you’re about to suggest that I can’t handle Patrick Prentiss then you’re going to get a slap.”
“Course I don’t mean that. I mean that you never know who’s hanging about.”
“I’ll be fine at the club.”
“Maybe I should come with you?” suggested Vance.
“If he sees you he’ll get scared.”
“Why?”
“Because everyone’s scared of you,” Jason told him.
“Are they?” he smiled, rather pleased about that.
“Let’s move,” said Faith. “If Patrick is in danger then the quicker we get there the better.”
Faith stalked through the club, her staff preparing for opening in two hours. Patrick was refilling the optics behind the bar.
“Patrick,” she called without breaking stride. “I need to see you in my office.”
“Err, why?” he called after her.
Faith noted the nerves in his voice. “Some heavy lifting,” she replied, which was code for moving the product.
He looked around for her brothers and relaxed when he didn’t see them. “Coming.”
Patrick followed her down the corridor, relaxing even more when Faith paused to bob her head into the male changing room to yell at the two barmen in there who were smoking.
“Do it again and you’re both sacked,” she told them. “You’ve had enough warnings.”
This was followed by muffled and very sheepish apologies.
“Idiots,” she said, continuing on her way, making Patrick grin. He was glad he didn’t smoke.
He stood by her side, waiting for her to unlock the door.
“Is there a lot to shift?” he asked her.
“Yes. We’ve just had a fresh delivery.”
“Great,” he replied. Another payday had arrived. The Chambers family were new at this game and green around the gills. He’d nicked more from them than they’d realised and they still didn’t have a clue what was going on.
When she unlocked the door and pushed it open, his stomach dropped when he saw Caleb, Jason and Kevin waiting, their eyes bright blue with anger.
“Oh shit,” he breathed, turning to run and smacking straight into Vance.
Vance didn’t even move while Patrick rebounded off him and fell to the floor.
“Get him inside,” Faith told her brothers.
“No, wait,” cried Patrick as Vance and Caleb took one of his arms each and hauled him in.
Faith closed the door behind them and locked it, waiting while Patrick was manoeuvred into the waiting chair and tied to it with gaffer tape.
“I suppose you think you’ve been pretty clever, don’t you Patrick?” said Faith, standing over him, flanked by Caleb and Vance. Kevin and Jason stood either side of Patrick, eagerly awaiting orders.
“I…I don’t know what you mean,” replied Patrick, so scared he thought his heart might jump out of his throat.
“Yes you do. You’ve been nicking from us for a while, haven’t you?”
“I haven’t nicked anything Faith, promise. I wouldn’t do that.”
“Course you would. We know all about the extra cash you’ve had lately but what we want to know most of all is how you found out about the vault?”
“Vault?” he said innocently.
“You know exactly what I’m referring to - that big lock-up out in the countryside housing lots of product. How did you know about it?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Faith nodded at Kevin, who punched him in the side of the face. Patrick, who had never been in a fight in his life and who had certainly never been hit before, cried out with surprise before groaning with pain, eyes sliding shut.
“The big jessie,” exclaimed Jason. “He’s fainted.”
“Wake him up,” said Faith.
Kevin gently tapped Patrick’s face and he jumped awake with a start.
His eyes slowly rolled open and he groaned. “Oh God, I’m still here.”
“The vault was broken into and most of our product was stolen,” continued Faith. “But this really isn’t news to you. Don’t bother to deny it, you’ll only piss us off even more,” she added when he
opened his mouth to speak. “All I want to know is who actually raided the vault. We know it wasn’t you. These people were pros.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Just tell us Patrick,” she said gently. “We’ve known you all our lives, you’re the son of our mum’s friend. We don’t want to hurt you.” Her gaze sharpened. “But we will if we have to.”
He chewed his lip uncertainly before resolve filled his eyes. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Fine, play it the hard way but don’t say we didn’t warn you. No,” she added when Kevin stepped forward holding a small hammer. “Vance.”
Kevin and Jason were a little put out to be denied their fun but they didn’t object, standing aside when Vance stepped up, glaring down at Patrick, who started to tremble beneath the force of that gaze.
“Give us their names or I’ll start snapping your fingers,” Vance told him.
“Snapping my fingers?” Patrick chuckled nervously. “You wouldn’t.”
“I don’t think you understand just who we are,” he replied. “This isn’t a joke, it’s a serious business and when people take the piss out of us we get serious with them. So tell us - what are their names?”
“Look,” he said, starting to sweat. “I didn’t get their names. They approached me in the street on my way here one day. They said I just needed to give them an address and they’d pay me a lot of cash. I didn’t even know there was a vault. I mean, of course I knew the product was stored somewhere but I didn’t know it was called the vault. They told me that.”
“What did they look like?”
“One was tall, a real big, strong bastard and another was smaller and bald.”
“Did they give their names?”
“No. I’ve really no idea who they were but they had local accents.”
“How did they know about the vault?”
“They didn’t say. I slipped a small tracking device into one of the packages before it was taken to the vault.”
“Where did you get a tracking device from?” said Kevin scathingly.
“I didn’t. They gave me one.”
“How much did they pay you?” said Vance.
“Ten grand in cash. It was stuffed through my letterbox in two separate jiffy bags.”
“How did you contact them?”
“They gave me a phone number. All communication was done by text. I never spoke to them again.”
“Do you still have this number?”
“No. I deleted it off my phone.”
Vance patted down his pockets, pulled the phone out of his left trouser pocket and tossed it to Caleb.
“Hey, I need that,” said Patrick.
“You can buy a new one out of your ten grand,” said Faith. “I hope you enjoyed that money because it’s the last decent payday you’re going to get. Why did you betray us?” she exclaimed. “We were paying you a good wage. We would have taken care of you, given you a future but you chose to screw us over. I don’t get it.”
“Because you stuck me behind a bar,” he replied petulantly. “That’s not a future.”
“That was a starting point you idiot,” she retorted. “If you’d shown us loyalty we would have moved you onto bigger and better things but you’ve fucked that up now.”
“No, wait. Please give me another chance.”
“You must be joking,” said Jason.
“You’re done Patrick,” Faith told him. “And here’s your severance pay.” She nodded at Vance, who grabbed the little finger of his right hand and twisted, a snap filling the air.
Patrick threw back his head and howled with pain.
“You don’t work for us anymore,” she said when his screams eventually turned into whimpers. “And in case you ever think of telling anyone about the work you did for us, here’s something for you to think on.”
Vance snapped his ring and middle fingers in rapid succession. Patrick threw up over himself before passing out.
“He is such a girl,” said a disgusted Kevin. “No balls at all.”
“Run him to A&E, will you?” Faith told him and Jason.
“No worries,” said Kevin. He tapped Patrick’s face. “Wakey wakey Sleeping Beauty. Let’s take you to a nice doctor who will sort out your delicate lady’s hand.”
Patrick jolted awake and groaned, shivering with pain.
“You’ll have to teach us that Vance,” said Jason. “You snapped his fingers like they were twigs. Where did you learn that?”
“Prison,” he replied. “It made everyone back off.”
“I’m not surprised. Will you teach me then?”
“Yeah. Want me to use your own fingers as examples?”
“No thanks,” he said, easily taking a limp Patrick’s weight, slinging one of his arms around his shoulders while Kevin struggled on Patrick’s other side, his skinny legs shaking beneath his weight.
“That gave me no pleasure,” sighed Faith when they’d gone.
“He brought it on himself,” said Caleb.
“We need to get that phone to someone who can pull the data off it.”
“I’ve got a friend who can do that but, if these people are professionals, the number will be untraceable.”
“Probably but you never know.”
“They identified Patrick as a weak link,” said Vance. “They’ve been watching us for a while. I bet they’ve even been in the club as customers, checking out the place. We need to completely change all our routines - personal and business.”
“What I want to know is,” said Faith. “Will they be satisfied with that one theft or will they want to take more from us?”
“We need to figure out where Dillon fits in,” said Caleb. “I’ve got the feeling that’s the key to it all.”
Faith recalled what Matthew had told her. “We’re going to The Red Lion.”
“Great,” smiled Caleb.
“Not so you can shag the landlady,” said Faith. “We’re going to speak to those who knew Dillon.”
CHAPTER 9
It was one of the busiest times of day for The Red Lion, music playing from a jukebox in the corner, a group of men playing pool, some of the tables occupied by people having whispered conversations while other tables were taken up by drunk, rowdy people just out for a good time. The effect when the three Chambers siblings walked in was the same on them all, drunk and sober alike. All conversation abruptly ended and everyone looked their way. Lil was at her usual spot behind the bar and Caleb winked at her as they walked by.
Everyone watched warily as their eyes skipped across the assembled faces, breathing a collective sigh of relief when they walked up to the four men playing pool, the same men Matthew had interrogated. They ceased playing when they realised they were being watched.
“Problem?” said Warren, keeping a tight grip on his cue. The nervous way his gaze kept bouncing around the three siblings belied the confidence in his voice.
“We want to ask you a few questions,” said Faith. “That’s all.”
“About what?”
Before replying, she looked around the room, which had gone silent. Everyone hastily returned to their conversations when her cold glare settled on them.
Only once the noise level in the pub had returned to normal did Faith reply. “About Dillon.”
“Why do you want to know about him?” he retorted, moustache twitching.
“Because he worked for us and we want to find who killed him.”
“You working for the police now?”
“Say that again,” snarled Caleb, stepping up to him, hands balled into fists.
“Take it easy,” Faith told him. “We’re not here for trouble.” She looked back at Warren. “We just want some information.”
“I’ve told the police everything I know. Why don’t you ask them?”
“Because we’re asking you and we’re not leaving until we get what we came for.”
“Yes you are,” he replied, brandishing his pool cue,
as did his friends.
“It doesn’t need to come to this,” she sighed. “We only want to talk.”
“You Chambers have got right up your own arses lately. You think you’re the fucking kings around here but you’re still the same losers you always were. Soon you’ll be back to scrabbling around for bits of cash and drugs, struggling to survive. You’ll…”
Faith rolled her eyes. “Vance.”
He grabbed Warren by the throat with one hand while snatching the cue from him with the other and slammed him down onto the pool table, pinning him there by the neck. When his friends rushed to his aid, Caleb knocked one out with a single punch and Faith drew an extendable baton from inside her jacket, snapped it out to its full length and smacked it into the face of the third man, who dropped like a sack of potatoes. The fourth man hesitated, staring down at his fallen friends before deciding he didn’t want to end up the same way.
The customers all stopped talking to regard the scene before returning to their conversations. It was just another day in this pub.
“Don’t worry Lil,” Faith called to her. “This won’t go any further if Warren just tells us what we want to know.”
“All right,” she replied. “But you’re paying for any breakages Faith.”
“Of course.”
“You can use my back room.”
“Thank you,” she replied.
Vance dragged Warren up off the table, twisted his arms up his back and hauled him into the back room. Caleb and Faith followed, closing the door behind them and locking it.
“Now Warren,” said Faith as Vance shoved him into a chair. “Maybe we can talk like grown-ups now?”
“What do you want to know?” he sighed, massaging his aching neck.
Faith nodded at Vance to take over. He’d trained in interrogative techniques, so he was the most likely to get the information they needed.
“What was your relationship with Dillon?” said Vance, looming over him.
“Relationship?” he retorted. “I’m not a fucking poof.”
Vance rolled his eyes. “I mean how did you know him?”
“Oh, right. We met in here one night about five years ago and got on really well. We became really good mates.”
“Did you see a lot of each other? And I don’t mean that in a sexual way before you start getting uptight.”
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