Ruthless a Gripping and Gritty Crime Thriller

by Charlie Gallagher

  ‘Same, old man. Two brown, one white.’

  ‘You don’t wanna stock up?’

  ‘I would, but I’ve got what I’ve got.’

  Damon had an elevated view down to the coastal park. It was well lit by ornate lamps and deck lights sunk into wooden walkways. He had seen a jogger move across it from left to right when he had first walked down. He could see nothing moving down there now.

  ‘This won’t do you, will it, mate? I’ll have to see you again tomorrow.’

  ‘I know. Let me know where you are.’

  Damon tutted. His hand moved down into his underpants and he pulled out a plastic egg that had once housed a child’s Kinder toy. The egg came apart. He counted out three tiny parcels wrapped and twisted shut in bits of old carrier bag. Two of them were blue; the third was white. Tone already had his palm out, waiting. He folded them up in his fist. Damon knew his methods; they hadn’t changed for as long as he had known him. Tone always held his gear in a clenched fist in his pocket. If he saw a potential threat — a copper or another druggie who might be looking to take them away, he would move them to his mouth. If he was challenged he would swallow. Tone didn’t want to go to prison and he would still get what he wanted — he would just have to wait it out. It was how most users who had been on the gear for a while seemed to get their purchases home. Tried and tested.

  Tone held out a twenty.

  Damon eyed it but didn’t take it straight away.

  ‘It’s still three for twenty, right?’ Tone said.

  ‘No, it ain’t. It’s back to thirty. Like it says in the text.’

  Tone snatched his phone out of his pocket like he wanted to make a point. He squinted as the screen lit up, then he read slowly, like a primary school pupil: ‘Back on for best of both. Two coffee one cream for twenty.’

  ‘Jesus fuck, Tone! Give me that!’ Damon snatched the phone. ‘That was two days ago. Look, you’ve had two messages since then and — oh, what a surprise! You’ve already opened them both! Today’s message . . . On now, best of both, good size ten bags. Now you’ve got three, mate. So you okay with three times ten or is that a bit of a struggle?’

  ‘Come on, Damo! You know me from old, right? I ain’t got another ten. I thought it was twenty. I came here in good faith.’

  ‘Don’t go giving me shit, Tone! Not tonight. I got more important things to do. I got some fucking gang-banger wants me out looking for some pisshead. Reckons it’s all my fault he can’t be fucking trusted to keep his mouth shut. You and I both know how this plays out, Tone. We’ve both been doing it for years. Give me a tenner or you choose one of them wraps to come back to me. I promise you, you don’t want to be wasting any more of my time.’

  ‘What pisshead?’

  ‘What does that matter? You ain’t changing the subject on me. Now what is it to be?’

  ‘Will? I heard you was in with Will. I saw him earlier. He looked all beat up. In a right bad way. Do you know what happened?’

  ‘You saw Will?’

  ‘Yeah, earlier.’

  ‘You know where he is?’

  ‘Might do.’

  ‘Don’t mess with me, Tone. Do you know where he is or not?’

  ‘I know where he was.’

  ‘Fine. So where was he?’

  ‘How much are these three wraps, Damo? Only I’d rather not give this one back.’

  Damon bared his teeth in an attempt at a smile. ‘Okay then, Tone, let me make you a deal. You need to be seeing me tomorrow no matter what, right? You can have them three wraps for your twenty. You tell me where you saw our friend, Will, and I find him there still, we forget you owe me a tenner when we meet tomorrow. Needless to say, if I don’t find him and you’ve been playing me along then you’ll find the prices will be a little adjusted when we speak tomorrow. You in?’

  ‘Yeah, I’m in. I saw him, I’m telling ya. We even had a chat. He seemed proper down.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘Top of the Leas. Down the end near McDonald’s. He was on one of the benches.’

  ‘Which one?’

  ‘The very last one down that end. But he weren’t staying there. He was sort of leaning on it — I think his leg was giving him stick or something. Seemed to be in a lot of pain.’

  ‘Fucking hell, Tone! That ain’t gonna help me a lot, now, is it? So he moved off shortly after. Jesus—’

  ‘No. I mean, yeah, he did. But when we spoke, I asked if he was alright, like, and he said he was but he was well pissed. He had a fresh one in his hand — cider, it was. He had just come out from where he was staying to get it. He was talking about his bird that died.’

  ‘Janey, yeah.’

  ‘Yeah, well they had a place they used to drink. It’s just off the Leas, down one of the paths that ain’t in use no more. You remember they shut a few off ’cause they were dangerous all of a sudden?’

  ‘Yeah, I remember. Yeah. I used a couple of them in the past. No one can see you down there.’

  ‘No, right. Well, I reckon that’s where Will is. That’s what he said earlier and it was only, like, a couple of hours ago. He looked like he had been staying out on the street. He looked rough, like, rougher than usual.’

  ‘Alright. I’ll go have a look.’

  Damon turned to walk back up the slope. He heard Tone calling out from behind him.

  ‘If you find him, you remember me tomorrow! Maybe that information is worth a little bit more, you know what I mean? I scratched your back there, Damo.’

  ‘Yeah, you did. Like I’d forget about you!’ Damon called back, then he lowered his voice to speak to himself, ‘you wily old cunt.’

  * * *

  William pulled at his woollen hat, dragging it so it sat just over his eyes. The night had set in. The air temperature was still high but the ground was cooling swiftly, and he knew from experience that this could spread quickly through the bones. He had found a cardboard box that provided a layer between him and the ground and an old friend had given him a sleeping bag. It was a kid’s one, he reckoned, not long enough to cover him completely, but it was clean and offered some protection. As long as it stayed dry he would be okay. He swigged at a bottle of cider and faced out towards the sea, which shimmered in the bright lights given off by the harbour arm. It had been redeveloped recently — a new lease of life for the locals. It had once been a train station — the end of the line — but it had been allowed to fall silent, and then derelict. Before the workmen had come, it had been his favourite place to sit and drink. It just had an incredible atmosphere, the sort you only got from areas that were once a melee of noise and movement and were now completely empty and forgotten. Like you could still sense it happening all around, but silent and hidden in the long shadows. Since then it had been redeveloped with train-carriage-themed wine bars and restaurants. Run down and industrial had become massively trendy all of a sudden and once again it was attracting the crowds. Will had seen one of the signs go up: The Doddery Duck. William remembered when a pub was a pub.

  ‘Alright, Will!’

  He turned to the voice and recognised it immediately as belonging to Damon Allcott. But the man himself remained a silhouette, complete with hands thrust in his pockets.

  ‘Damon.’

  ‘You living here now?’

  ‘If I said I was, would you take this over too?’

  ‘Now come on, Will. I never kicked you out of your house. I don’t reckon them boys did either, I hear you upped and left.’

  ‘You knew what they were doing, Damon. You knew who they were. That isn’t for me, never has been. I can’t have the housing people sniffing around. I’m already pushing my luck still being there.’

  ‘You leaving doesn’t help that though, does it? I mean you’ve just left them to get on with it.’

  ‘I didn’t want to die either.’

  ‘Bit dramatic. Can’t be that bad. You just got to keep your head down with this lot.’

  ‘I shouldn’t have to do anything in my own house.
Why did you have to bring them to me?’

  ‘As I remember, I asked you a question and it suited everyone involved.’

  ‘You have a way of asking questions, Damon.’

  ‘What do you mean by that?’

  ‘A way about you. Your words form a question but there’s no choice at the end of it. It takes some talent does that, I suppose. Probably comes from years of peddling out your filthy wraps to people that don’t really want them.’

  ‘Them people out there are begging me for them. I get calls all times of the day, I don’t force nothing down no one’s neck, Will, and you seem to have a very short memory. I never stuck nothing in your arm, or Janey’s either.’

  ‘You can leave Janey out of this, Damon.’

  ‘I never gave her the hit. That was some new setup. They had a couple of near misses before Janey went. They’ve moved on. But I reckon if you wanted to find them I could—’

  ‘I don’t! Damon, I don’t. What would I do if I found them? I’m an old man with a dodgy leg and a drink problem. The last time I reared up with a sense of injustice I lost my house and dislocated my jaw. I know my place and I know that Janey made her own choices in this world. She’s the only person I could be angry at.’

  ‘You miss her.’

  ‘What brings you down here?’ William asked. He swigged at his bottle, using it as an excuse to move it to where Damon couldn’t reach it if he wanted to. Drinker’s instincts.

  ‘I ran into Tony Jones. He said he saw you. He said you were in a bad way. I came to make sure you were alright, like. I feel bad about all this. I thought this would work out well for us all.’

  ‘These things never do, do they, Damon? These people, they don’t mix well.’

  ‘They really caught you, didn’t they?’ Damon had stepped closer. William was aware that he was inspecting his face. He sat down, a little too close for William. He was taking up the edge of his box.

  ‘It was my own fault. I stuck my nose into their business. I should know better.’

  ‘You live and learn, old man.’

  ‘I thought I’d done all that.’ William took another swig of his cider. ‘Would you do me a favour?’

  ‘I might do.’ Damon’s tone was guarded.

  ‘Well, seeing as you feel bad for getting me into this shit and seeing me turfed out on the street I think you owe me this small thing.’

  ‘A small thing I might be able to do.’

  ‘These people, these drug lines, they don’t last long. When they mess up and have to move on, for whatever reason, could you just let me know? Just let me know when I can go home. That’s not too much to ask, is it?’

  Damon chuckled again. He slapped William hard on his right knee and used it as a springboard to get back to his feet. William watched him walk away and saw he had a phone in his right hand that was all lit up.

  ‘That sounds fair enough to me, Will. I’ll keep my ear to the ground, yeah? When I hear these London boys have fucked off I’ll come find you.’

  ‘Nice one. You do that.’

  ‘I take it you’ll still be here, right?’

  ‘I won’t be going far, Damon. Reckon I’ll be here for a while. With Janey.’ Damon walked away. William held out his bottle of cider and lifted it to the stars. ‘Here’s to ya, Janey — I miss you.’

  Chapter 24

  Danny noticed the BMW slow for no reason. Aaron moved around in the driver’s seat then he pulled his phone out from his pocket. He must have received a message — a long one; he kept flicking from his phone to the road to read it in its entirety.

  ‘We found the rummy.’ He grinned at Danny.

  ‘The rummy? Where?’

  ‘I dunno. Damon’s sent some instructions — proper longwinded. I can’t work it out from that, not while I’m driving. See if it makes sense to you.’ Aaron threw his phone and it landed in Danny’s lap. Danny lifted his arms instinctively, but stared at the phone like it was a lump of burning coal.

  ‘Oh, great,’ Danny managed. He took hold of the phone; the message was still on the screen. Damon wrote in pigeon English but he could translate enough of it to know that William was somewhere near the McDonald’s in the centre of Langthorne.

  ‘You ready for this, Danny?’

  ‘Yeah, of course.’

  ‘Can you see where we have to go?’

  ‘Yeah, McDonald’s in the town centre. You know it, right?’

  ‘Yeah, of course.’

  It didn’t take them long. The night had set in and the shops were all shut. McDonald’s wasn’t yet, but there was just one occupied table and the only movement was from a couple of cleaners as they shimmied across the floor holding mops. Aaron had pulled over directly outside the restaurant. The BMW’s hazard lights ticked.

  ‘So where do you reckon this place is?’ Aaron said. He leaned forward and squinted over the steering wheel.

  Danny pointed towards the grassy area of the Leas. This was its start point. From here it ran along the top of the cliff towards Sandgate. ‘He’s just off the main path apparently. You see the big metal arch? If we walk under that there’s a path off to the left. Damon says it’s gated — signs and shit saying you can’t go down the path. Our rummy is down there.’

  Aaron seemed satisfied. He looked all around, suddenly agitated. ‘Where do I stick this? It’s all double yellows.’

  ‘What does that matter? Just stick it anywhere. We’re only gonna be a few minutes, right?’

  ‘It does matter, Danny. Think about it. We get ourselves a ticket and it’s a paper trail that the car was here. You gotta start thinking about these things.’

  ‘Yeah, fair point.’ Danny considered pointing out the CCTV cameras on a tall pole directly opposite them and on the other side of a small roundabout but thought better of it. ‘There’s some street parking after hours. You have to go left at the roundabout, behind the shops. It leads down to the graveyard where I was meeting Mo. It’s tucked out of the way, too.’

  ‘I wanted to be parked right here. I didn’t want to be too far.’

  ‘You worried about walking the rummy back? He ain’t going to give us no trouble, Aaron.’

  Aaron pulled away without replying. The BMW took the first left off the roundabout; an office block car park was immediately on the right with a barrier across it. On the left were some bays for the flats that ran along the top of the shops. One was free. Danny stood up out of the car. Aaron’s head and shoulders appeared across the roof.

  ‘You still got the blade?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Danny’s hand fell to the lump in his waistband.

  ‘You need to impress me, Danny. I expect to see just how strong you are. I need to see it for myself. A lot of people have been saying you haven’t got what it takes, you know?’

  ‘Let’s go find the rummy.’ Danny pushed his door shut and walked back the way they had come. Both men had instinctively pulled up their hoods. The streets were quiet. A solitary car moved up the hill and flashed them to walk over. Danny felt the knife’s outline again, conscious of it, his mind playing tricks that everyone knew what he was carrying, and what he was thinking. They walked the Leas, the sea now visible on their left, but a hundred metres below them. They walked under a metal arch, where a plaque explained that it was a memorial to the fallen soldiers during both world wars, who had marched from this point down to their waiting boats. More recently it had been added to, in commemoration of police officers who had been killed in the town. Danny remembered it being on the news. There were wooden benches lined up. They must have had sensors that detected his movement because a tinny voice suddenly filled the air with the reading of an extract from a soldier’s diary. It made Danny jump. He could feel Aaron looking over. He walked on.

  The gate was obvious. It had a thick chain and bright signs with DANGER! written in bright red lettering. Aaron gestured for Danny to go first. He climbed it and dropped over. He heard Aaron drop behind him. The path sloped down gently. The light from the ornate street lightin
g reached what looked like a dead end. For a few seconds Danny felt a little upbeat. Maybe the rummy wasn’t here! A few more steps and his heart sank again. It wasn’t a dead end; the path turned back on itself. Danny turned with it. The artificial lighting was all but gone as the path slipped further down the cliff, the slope suddenly harsher. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust. Now the path was mainly black but lit with a silvery hue where the breaks in the trees allowed. A little way along, one of these silvery bands picked out the figure of someone sitting up, legs out straight. There were silhouettes of bottles where the feet ended. Danny knew it was their man.

  ‘The fucker’s here!’ Aaron was excited. Danny could feel his breath as Aaron leaned into his back, clearly wanting to push straight on. ‘It’s fucking perfect, man. Do it here!’

  Danny stayed still. His feet planted to the ground, he couldn’t move forward. He felt another shove in the back.

  ‘What are you waiting for, man? Let’s get this done! Do it here! No one will even find him for days.’

  ‘What if he’s not alone?’ Danny was still rooted. He was desperate.

  ‘Go see!’

  Danny moved this time — the insistent pushes were getting firmer. The seated figure moved, just the head turning towards him. Danny’s eyes adjusted as he got closer. It was William. He was alone. There was no getting out of this now.

  ‘Rummy!’ Aaron called out over Danny. The path wasn’t very wide but Danny pushed past. He stepped over to where William sat, to where Danny could now see that the path ended. Aaron looked through the gate and over the edge of the fence. He turned back to Danny and grinned. He had his thumb up.

  ‘What brings you boys here?’ William’s words were a little slurred, no worse than normal.

  ‘Danny here needs to talk to you, rummy.’

  ‘Talk?’ William’s head rolled against the upright fence post as he moved from looking left at Aaron to take in Danny to his right. He lingered on Danny. ‘He don’t look like he’s got the kahunas! Am I right?’ He laughed, his head rolled back so he was facing towards Aaron.

  Aaron didn’t laugh with him. Instead he stared straight over at Danny. ‘That’s what I said. But it’s always the quiet ones you gotta watch, right? They’re the ones that can really surprise you when they need to step up.’