“I know, I don't like it either,” replies Frank. “ Something strange is going on. We need to find out what and fast.”
The next day Rachel is lying on the couch at Frank's, nestled in Danny's arms. They are talking quietly, enjoying just being together. Martina pops her head round the kitchen door and smiles at the scene before returning to the washing up. Some of the swelling has gone down overnight but Rachel's face is still a mess. Martina is gratified that despite this Danny still looks at her with adoring eyes. Rachel and Danny have agreed to stay with them for another couple of nights while the damage to their apartment is repaired and Martina is over the moon. Her strong maternal instincts are glad to have someone to fuss over and she has spoilt Rachel rotten. Mikey too.
“I'm just nipping to the shop Mum,” says Danny, popping his head round the door.
Martina jumps out of her skin , almost dropping the plate she’s drying. She hits him playfully with the tea towel. “You numpty. I nearly dropped my best china.”
He laughs. “Sorry Mum. Do you want anything?”
“No thanks.” She lowers her voice. “How's she doing?”
Danny looks back through to the lounge where Rachel is lying on the couch watching television. “Better. She's tough,” he adds with a hint of pride.
“Has she asked about Steve yet?”
“No but I'm sure she will when she's up to hearing it."
Martina nods in understanding. Danny kisses her on the cheek and she smiles.
“What was that for?”
“I don't know, just thanks. For being you.”
She smiles back at him fondly.
“Right, I'm off. I won’t be long.”
A few minutes after he’s left the doorbell rings and Martina answers it, drying her soapy hands on a tea towel. Despite the fact Frank bought her a dishwasher years ago she refuses to use it, she doesn't trust a machine to come up to her own exacting standards. Equally stubborn, Frank refuses to get rid of it, one of the few times he’s put his foot down and the machine has sat there for the last ten years, unused. Martina opens the door and her face falls. Superintendent Jarvis is stood on the doorstep, an ingratiating smile on his face, which only serves to annoy Martina.
“What do you want?” she snaps.
“I'm sorry to bother you Mrs Maguire but I need to ask Rachel some questions about the assault.”
“Why? She's already given a statement to DS Sharples.” Sharples is in their employ, which Jarvis is well aware of.
“It won’t take long.”
Knowing he won’t go until he's got his own way, Martina steps aside and sighs wearily.
“Alright but make it quick. She's in a bad way and needs her rest.”
“Of course,” he replies pleasantly.
Jarvis is shocked by Rachel's appearance. Naturally he knows what really happened, having already been acquainted of the facts by his source, but he thinks such damage being inflicted on a woman out of order, especially a woman who is nothing to do with the family business, a nurse of all people.
“I'm sorry Rachel love but this officer,” Martina says the word with disdain, “has some questions. I can tell him to come back another time if you like.”
“It's alright Martina. Let him stay.”
Rachel’s speech is still muffled because of her injured mouth and Jarvis feels a stab of pity for her. She looks back at him steadily and Jarvis sighs inwardly. He can see Rachel has been indoctrinated into the family and won’t give up anything that could compromise them. He had hoped she might prove to be a weak link but now he can see he’s wrong about that.
He goes back over her story and is dismayed but not surprised when it does not change one jot. She got caught up in the chaos on the Henley and was attacked.
“You know we found the bodies of Adam Law and an acquaintance of his, Jerome Kelly, this morning. They'd been tortured then someone stuck them in a car crusher, alive.”
Rachel's eyes flicker slightly but other than that she shows no reaction.
“And we're concerned about the whereabouts of Steven Watts, your ex-boyfriend.” Jarvis is gratified to see Rachel swallow nervously. “He hasn't been seen since yesterday morning. After what happened yesterday on the Montford we are concerned for his whereabouts.”
Rachel turns her attention from him to the television. “I don't know why you're so concerned. He's scum.”
“Have you seen him lately?”
“No,” she replies, afraid to look at him in case he sees the truth in her eyes.
“It's my guess he'll turn up soon. Most likely dead,” he says. He is gratified to see her visibly pale.
“I think you should leave now,” says Danny. They all turn to see him framed in the doorway, a hard look on his face.
Jarvis does not acknowledge him but gets to his feet and places his card on the coffee table before Rachel.
“If you hear anything I would be grateful if you could let me know.”
Rachel refuses to look at him as he leaves the room.
“Goodbye Rachel,” he calls but she continues to ignores him.
Danny follows Jarvis out. “Why can't you leave her alone? Hasn't she been through enough?”
Jarvis puts on his best sympathetic smile. “You know Danny, if someone had done that to my fiancé I would be angry. Very angry. I'd want revenge on the person responsible.” He moves closer to Danny so his face is just inches from his own. “I wouldn't blame you. No one would.”
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“We both know you killed Adam Law and his friend but what did you do to Steve?”
He watches Danny carefully as he speaks, trying to detect the slightest reaction. But Danny is too good an actor and his face remains impassive.
“I said I don't know what you're talking about.”
Jarvis smiles and replaces his hat. “Things are changing round here Danny. Sure you can keep up?”
“Don't worry about me Jarvis. I'm a fast learner.”
With a smile Jarvis stalks off. Danny returns to Rachel and is pleased to see that she has torn Jarvis's card into tiny pieces.
“I really hate that man,” she says.
“Don't worry, he won’t bother you again,” he replies, sitting beside her and pulling her towards him. She looks him straight in the eye. He knows what's coming.
“Is Steve dead?”
He looks back at her steadily. “No.”
When she looks relieved Danny realises his father was right. “Let's just say the damage he inflicted on you he got tenfold.”
This seems to satisfy Rachel and she nestles into him. He kisses the top of her head.
“You don’t ever need to worry about him again. Promise.”
Rachel's eyes start to close, exhaustion overwhelming her. She feels safe once more.
A group of young boys are playing football on the Montford Estate, banging the ball off the burnt out cars that litter the car park, when an expensive black Audi screeches to a halt not far from them. The boys particularly notice it because a flash motor in pristine condition is a rarity on the Montford. The boys all stop to watch as the door opens and a man falls out. The door slams shut and the car speeds away.
The boys crowd round the man lying on the ground. Even the most streetwise of the lads feels sick to his stomach at the face staring back at them with scared, pain-filled eyes, the skin almost completely gone.
Frank is impressed by the way Mikey handled himself. He'd never let him make him a cup of tea but he is considering bringing him in on the family business. Mikey unnerves people, after what he’d done it’s only natural, but now word has got round about how he dealt with Adam Law everyone realises he is a force to be reckoned with and as Frank knows, fear is a useful tool.
Frank starts Mikey in the nightclubs to see how he deals with the pressure of business. Danny has agreed to take him on, it’s the least he can do after he’d saved Rachel. He’s been after someone he can trust to run things in
his absence while he is away on honeymoon and Mikey is the ideal candidate. Not only is he a Maguire but he is a fast learner with a lot of business acumen, surprising them all. The clubs also help to bring him out of himself. Forced to deal with customers, suppliers and staff Mikey has no choice but to be confident and strong. He is also discovering women. His good looks and reputation ensure he has no shortage of admirers and he is making up for lost time, a different woman an his arm every night. He finally feels he has something resembling a life and he is loving it.
The doors of the prison clang open and Ryan Law steps through them, taking a deep breath of air filled with traffic fumes and he smiles, enjoying the sense of freedom. In his mid thirties he is handsome in a rugged sort of way with defined cheekbones, thick brown hair and narrow grey eyes that convey great intelligence. These eyes settle on his last remaining brother, Jez Law, who leans against the black Bentley, a smile on his lips.
“It's good to see you,” says Jez sincerely. The relief he feels at his elder brother's release is almost palpable. After the deaths of Jamie, Adam and Simmy he’s been left running things, a task for which he is woefully under-qualified. Now Ryan has been released it will be alright. He will take over everything and Jez can go back to being a simple heavy.
“I believe I have missed a lot,” says Ryan, fixing Jez with his steady gaze.
Ryan is all affability but Jez has always found him intimidating and he swallows nervously. Ryan radiates power and danger, which makes him very popular with the ladies but he sends Jez into a flap.
“I need you to update me,” continues Ryan in a deep voice that is as smooth as silk. Although he comes from a deprived background his massive IQ and ruthless determination to succeed ensured him a scholarship to a renowned university. This was where Ryan stepped on the first rung of his lucrative criminal career. He learnt good manners and etiquette, a useful front for disguising the savagery beneath.
“Yeah,” sighs Jez, running a shaky hand through his hair. “It's those bastard Maguires again…”
Ryan closes his eyes in annoyance and holds up his hand. Jez goes instantly silent.
“I don't think we should discuss this right outside the prison I have just been released from.”
Although Ryan talks softly his words have the same effect on Jez as if he had shouted them and he pales and hangs his head. Ryan flings the driver's door open.
“Get in,” he orders and Jez jumps to obey.
Superintendent Jarvis feels sick to his stomach as Steve Watts describes what the Maguires did to him in graphic detail. Despite his years of experience in the police force the depths of human depravity still shock him. Thelad had been scarred before but now he is a freak. The Maguires have managed to inflict their usual calling card on him without the release of death. It is the cruellest torture of all. He would have been better off dead. The only option left open to him now is in a freak show or Ripley's Believe It or Not. It would take a bloody good surgeon years to repair that sort of damage. Thankfully his face is hidden beneath layers of protective bandaging so he doesn't have to look upon Steve's skinless face. He feels sorry for the poor boys who’d found him, still on the bright side it might deter them from a life of crime. Steve's lips are red raw and he struggles to speak, the drool soaking the bandages as he talks, adding to Jarvis's queasiness.
“Danny's jealous see. He can't stand it that I had Rachel before him.”
Jarvis sighs and rolls his eyes. He knows it's all bullshit, he's already had the full story. This was done to him in retaliation for the attack on Rachel, which Steve had conveniently forgotten to mention. Jarvis gets to his feet.
“Where you going?” mumbles Steve.
“If you want to feed me a load of old cobblers then that's your lookout but I don't have to sit here and listen to it.” He leans over Steve, lips curling with disgust. “I know you tried to kidnap Rachel and that you beat the shit out of her. If you ask me you're just as bad as the Maguires and you deserve everything you fucking get.”
The viciousness in his voice is clear and Steve is taken aback.
“So you're not going to do them for this?”
“No. You made your bed, you can bastarding well lie in it.”
Jarvis stalks off, leaving Steve to fight back his tears.
CHAPTER 10
Ryan Law is sat in Jez's dirty flat, a disdainful look on his face. The prison he’s just come from had more home comforts than this shithole. Three mangy dogs and a couple of surly cats strut about as if they own the place and the entire flat stinks of piss. The animals give Ryan a wide berth, as though they are aware of what he is capable of. Ryan doesn't understand the nostalgia his family holds for the Montford. For some reason they think they are superior for remaining on it when he has given them more than enough money to buy a nice place of their own. His sister actually put gold taps in her bathroom. She'd got upset when he'd laughed at her for it. Ryan had left the estate years ago when he made his first million and bought a large pad in the suburbs. He has nice, respectable neighbours who don't leave burnt out cars and stinking rubbish in their gardens.
Jez hands him a chipped stained mug in which he has poured his best whisky. Ryan grimaces but nevertheless downs the contents in one go. After all, he hasn't tasted alcohol for years. He almost coughs as the whisky hits the back of his throat but manages to contain himself. That could have been embarrassing because he is well known for being a hardened drinker.
“Mum's arranged a do for you at the pub. We'd better get there soon or she'll do her nut,” says Jez.
“Don't worry, we'll get there soon enough. First I want to know what exactly has been going on.”
Jez takes a deep breath and begins his tale. When he’s finished Ryan slumps back in his seat to take it all in. His puzzled frown slowly turns to rage and Jez goes rigid with fear.
Ryan shakes his head in disbelief then shoots to his feet and starts yelling, sending the cats and dogs running for cover. “What the fuck did you think you were doing? You started a war because Danny Maguire started seeing a girl off this estate. What do you think this is? West Side frigging Story?”
“It wasn't me. Adam and Simmy were angry. The Maguires were taking the piss. They wanted to show them that we're not to be fucked with.”
“And look where it got them, they're both dead, as well as Jamie.” Ryan had been upset over Jamie's death. He'd only been twenty two, a kid. He didn't know what Simmy could have been thinking, sending him in to murder a Maguire.
“It's a good job Adam and Simmy are dead because if they were still here I'd kill them myself.”
“What else could we have done?” reasons Jez.
“You could have left it to me to sort out. It should never have got this far. Now Adam and Simmy are six feet under and who's been running things in their absence? You. Fucking brain of Britain and the businesses have been losing money hand over fist.”
Despite his fear of Ryan, Jez's sense of family pride is incensed. “So what now? We roll over and let the Maguires walk all over us?”
He doesn’t know it but this little stand saves Jez from a severe beating. Ryan at this point is considering how someone so weak and spineless could be of any possible use to the family but the fact that he stands up for himself shows hi, that he does have balls after all. He smiles disarmingly and Jez feels a rush of relief.
“Of course not. We shall have our revenge for Jamie and Simmy but not Adam, he asked for it. Anyone who drags a woman into a war deserves everything they get. It was a cowardly and shameful move.”
Ryan doesn't like what Adam had done to Rachel at all. He had known her when she was a kid on the estate, a gangly teenager with buck teeth, a few years younger than himself. She'd been a good kid and a hell of a fighter but of course he hadn't seen her for years. As far as he’s concerned women and children are sacrosanct, he’s old school like that.
Jez nods in agreement. He shares Ryan's sentiments exactly.
Ryan claps his hands tog
ether loudly causing Jez to jump and slop his whisky all down his shirt.
“Right, we'd better get to this party.”
The hub of the Maguire empire is a large sprawling warehouse complex. Standing five floors high and surrounded by a twelve foot high wall it is protected by a state of the art alarm system, CCTV and motion sensors. A veritable fortress, impossible to get into and even harder to get out of. There’s only one entrance, regularly patrolled by security guards. The cellar is where the Maguires bring their enemies or those they need information from and is well equipped to inflict any torture they see fit.
All the illegal businesses are run from this building. Frank runs the money laundering and loan sharking with Dexie and until recently, Albert. He leaves the drugs to Terry, Alex and Jake, who have less scruples than him about dealing. Cocaine, weed and amphetamines are the only drugs Frank permits them to handle. He despises drugs, hates how they destroy lives and bring entire communities to their knees. He also considers anyone who uses drugs to be weak and pathetic, unable to deal with the harsh realities of life. He hadn't actually wanted his family to sully themselves with drug dealing in the first place but he knew that if he didn't then someone else would. Unfortunately drugs are one of the most lucrative markets in the world and an easy way of earning large amounts of cash quickly, consequently they attract all the unscrupulous lowlifes. So Frank had reluctantly gone into the drug trade so he could control the flow into the city. He wants to make money and give his family the best life possible but he doesn't want to destroy anyone in the process. He told every member of his family that they’re not to touch drugs themselves. If they do then he'll give them the hiding of their life and kick them out of the business. They know the score and family or not, God help them if they break this rule.
However there is one drug at which Frank absolutely draws the line and that is heroin. This isn't like cocaine, it’s something else. Pure evil. It takes over people's lives once they become enamoured of it to the point where all the addict can think about is their next fix. Kids, family, friends all go out the window and nothing else matters but the drug. Frank will not have his name associated with such an article. He leaves that to Ryan Law, who is the city's major supplier. However Frank does all in his power to restrict his distribution network as much as possible. It is one of the bones of contention between them that has helped fuel the war, that and the fact Ryan is also a pimp. He runs most of the brothels and prostitutes in the city, something else Frank will not have anything to do with. But give Ryan his due he does protect his girls, treats them well. He never beats them or rips them off and he never deals in kids. In fact he’s gone out of his way to punish those who do. The girls know he will look after them, which is more than can be said for a lot of pimps.
Dividing Line Page 10