‘Because he had a boxing-glove earring, and a gold chain with a bulldog on it.’ Pausing, Fabian inhaled deeply. ‘I’m really sorry, Jenna, I should have told you last night, but I was worried what Tony would do to me, ’cos he was already mad at me.’
‘It’s all right,’ Jenna murmured, feeling sick to her stomach. ‘Thanks for letting me know.’
Hanging up then, she exhaled shakily. If it was true, and it obviously was or Fabian wouldn’t have told her to ask Bobby and Austin, it could only mean one thing: that Tony was behind those men jumping her in the yard that day. And if he was behind that, he’d probably organised the other trouble, too. The fights that had kicked off for no good reason; the raids – during which, she realised now, Tony had been conveniently out of town; the taxi firms blacklisting them – everything. Wearing her down, eroding her profits and damaging the club’s reputation, then, finally, sending those men to put the fear of God into her, all designed to leave her with nowhere to turn but to him – the one person she’d believed could help her. And all so he could get a stake in her club.
And now that he had it, there wasn’t a single thing that Jenna could do about it, because if he was willing to do all that just to get it, he would surely be willing to do whatever it took to keep it. And the police couldn’t help her, because Tony’s name wasn’t even on the contracts. Hiding behind Leonard Drake’s respectable name, he would say that she was crazy if she complained that he had conned her.
How could she have been so stupid?
Jenna’s mobile began to ring. She switched it off without looking at it, fearing that it would be Tony checking up on her – making sure that she hadn’t warned Fabian.
Well, tough: he was too late. Because she had warned Fabian – and Fabian had warned her. And now she knew where she stood, she had to find a way of getting Tony out of her life and out of her business before he took everything from her.
Getting up, Jenna grabbed her bag and headed out.
Dressed, Fabian grabbed his wallet, cards and car keys and ran down the stairs. Fearing for his life, because Tony and Eddie would surely kill him if they got hold of him, he jumped into his car and took off in a squeal of burning rubber. He didn’t know what he was going to do now. Jenna knew about the coke, so he might as well kiss his job goodbye – not that he could go back there anyway, because Tony owned half the business. But at least he had some savings to tide him over while he found a new job. In a new town. Somewhere far away from Tony Allen.
Driving to the old part of Hulme now, Fabian parked up under one of the covered open-ended garages and ran up to Bubba’s flat on the third floor of the scruffy block. Bubba would let him hang out there for a while, until he’d figured out where to go.
Hammering on the door, he took out his mobile and rang Melody to warn her while he waited for Bubba to answer.
‘Wha’s up?’ Melody said groggily. ‘You woke me up.’
‘Tony knows,’ Fabian told her quickly. ‘Him and Eddie are on their way to my place now.’
‘How?’ Melody demanded, sitting bolt upright in her bed. ‘Don’t tell me you told him?’
‘No, I didn’t fucking tell him,’ Fabian snapped. ‘Do you think I’m an idiot? He must have got it from you.’
‘It wasn’t me!’ Melody retorted, her voice panicked. ‘He was asking me last night, but I totally denied it. I’d be dead by now if he didn’t believe me.’
‘Well, he obviously didn’t,’ Fabian snapped. ‘Sure you don’t talk in your sleep?’
‘Fuck off !’ Melody snarled, throwing the quilt back and leaping out of bed. ‘Who told you he knew, anyway?’
‘Jenna just called from the club. Him and Eddie have ransacked my office, and they found your knickers in my safe.’
‘Which knickers? I haven’t left any knickers there.’
‘Diamante thongs,’ Fabian reminded her.
‘Oh, my God,’ Melody muttered. Then, ‘Okay, that’s cool. If that’s all he’s got, we just say I took them off in the toilets one time, and the cleaners handed them in to you as lost property.’
‘That’s not all,’ Fabian admitted. ‘There’s CCTV footage of us together in the office. My, er, security camera was still running the first time, but I didn’t notice till we were leaving. I meant to delete it, but I forgot.’
‘Forgot?’ Melody yelled. ‘How could you forget something like that? What’s on it, anyway? If it’s just us doing coke, I can—’
‘Everything,’ Fabian interrupted quietly. ‘You can see everything.’
‘So you’ve watched it?’ Melody said, stunned that he could be so stupid. ‘If you only realised when we were leaving the office, you must have watched it after you went back or you wouldn’t know what was on it. So why the fuck didn’t you delete it then?’
‘I don’t know,’ Fabian muttered.
‘You shit!’ she snarled. ‘You kept it on purpose, didn’t you?’
‘It was insurance,’ he admitted, getting irritated now. ‘In case you did something stupid.’
‘Oh, well, congratulations,’ Melody shot back sarcastically. ‘You’ve just won first prize in the knob-head of the fucking century awards! I never said a goddamn word, but you’ve dropped us right in it, haven’t you?’
‘I’m sorry,’ Fabian murmured, reaching behind him and rapping on Bubba’s door again.
‘Where are you?’ Melody demanded, holding the phone between her cheek and her shoulder as she struggled into her jeans.
‘At a friend’s,’ he told her evasively. ‘Where will you go?’
‘Tell me where you are – I’ll catch a cab over to you,’ Melody said.
‘No!’ Fabian yelped. ‘Sorry, Melody, but you said you couldn’t get away from Tony because he’d find you and kill you. And I can’t risk being with you if he does.’
Melody opened her mouth to call him a bastard, but stopped when she heard another voice in the background say, ‘Yo, dude, what’s with the rat-atat-tatting?’
Staring at the phone when it went dead in her hand, she tried to remember where she’d heard the voice before. But she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
But she’d worry about that later. She had to get out before Tony got back. And as soon as he found out that Fabian had done a runner, he would be back for her.
Throwing a jumper and jacket on, she grabbed her handbag, then ran to the closet and pulled the pack of sanitary towels out of her toiletries bag. She had no idea where she would go, but at least, with the money, she’d be able to hide out for a while.
Melody had just reached the door when Tony walked in and knocked her clean off her feet with the hardest punch she’d ever felt in her life. Dazed, she opened her eyes in time to see him running at her. Screaming when he kicked her in the back, she rolled into a ball and prayed that he would kill her before the beating came to an end.
20
Vibes’s instincts were prickling. Something was wrong, he was sure. He’d tried calling Jenna, but she had switched her phone off. And that was odd, because Kenneth had said she was looking forward to hearing from him. She would have seen his name on the screen, so why would she turn her phone off if that were the case?
Taking a chance on her being at work, he tried her on the club phone instead.
‘Hello, Zenith. Anna speaking. How can I help you?’
‘Hi, Anna,’ Vibes said, remembering her as the girl who worked on reception. ‘It’s Vibes.’
‘No way!’ she cried, her voice ringing with surprise and delight. ‘How are you? Wow! Wait till the others hear that you’ve called – they’ll be so jealous that they weren’t here to speak to you!’
‘Say hi to everyone for me,’ he said. Then, ‘Sorry I can’t chat, but do you think you could put me through to Jenna’s office?’
‘Oh, you’ve just missed her,’ Anna told him. ‘I can try Mr Allen for you instead, if you like? He went out earlier, but he’s always in one door and out another, so he could still be around somewhere.’<
br />
‘Mr Allen?’ Vibes repeated. ‘Tony Allen? Why would he be there?’
‘Oh, didn’t Jenna tell you? He’s her partner now.’
‘Her partner?’
Chuckling softly, Anna said, ‘I forgot how long you’ve been away. A lot’s happened here since you left. We had a load of trouble – fights, and police raids, and all sorts. Then Jenna and Mr Allen went into partnership, and everything got sorted out. It’s been great for ages now. He’s even opened an offshoot club in the old storeroom, but we’re not allowed in there so I can’t tell you what it’s like.’
‘I gotta speak to Jenna,’ Vibes said, feeling sick. ‘Do me a favour and tell her to call me if you see her before I reach her, will you? It’s urgent.’
Cutting the call then, he found Kalli’s number and called her.
‘Oh, my God!’ Kalli said when he told her what he’d found out. ‘Jenna’s got no idea. She can’t have, or she’d never have agreed to let him buy into the business.’
‘Any idea where she might have gone?’ Vibes asked. ‘I know I’m probably overreacting because of what I know about him, but I’ve got a feeling something’s wrong. My friend told me she’d be happy if I called, so I can’t understand why she’d turn her phone off if she saw my name. She wouldn’t do that, would she?’
‘Definitely not,’ Kalli replied softly, hoping that he’d get what she meant when she added, ‘she really, really likes you.’
Completely missing it because he was so concerned, Vibes said, ‘I don’t suppose you’ve got Fabian’s number, have you? I could call him, see if he’s seen her.’
‘I haven’t got it, but I can get Anna to look it up for you, if you like?’
‘Would you?’ Vibes said gratefully. ‘I’d appreciate it. I’ll call you back in ten.’
Disconnecting, he sat down on the bed and looked at the newspaper he’d picked up the previous morning, which had the same photograph on its front page as the one he’d seen on the TV news bulletin. And, having scrutinised it with a magnifying glass, he was positive that the men were Tony and Eddie.
He had considered calling the police, but he wanted to speak to Jenna first, to find out if they were still hanging around at the club. But now that he knew she’d gone into business with the man, he was thinking that maybe he should call them anyway – just to be on the safe side. If Tony Allen – or Cerrullo, or whatever his goddamn name was – could sit and laugh over a severed head, he was capable of anything. And there was nothing Vibes could do to protect Jenna if he set his sights on her, not from all the way over here.
Startled out of his thoughts when his mobile rang, Vibes frowned when he saw Kalli’s name on the screen.
‘You shouldn’t have called me,’ he said, answering it. ‘It’ll cost you a fortune.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ she assured him. ‘I got Fabian’s number, but I rang him to save you doing it, and it’s switched off.’
‘His, too?’ Vibes frowned.
‘Yeah, and I thought I’d best tell you what happened last night,’ Kalli said, her tone grim now. ‘Some man called in to the club to see Mr Allen, and Fabian sent Austin round to his new club to get him. Mr Allen was really annoyed about it, and came looking for Fabian. Then, apparently, somebody told him something he didn’t like about Fabian and his girlfriend, and he started threatening Melody, so I sent Austin down to get security, because he looked like he was going to hit her. Anyway,’ she said, taking a sharp, much-needed breath, ‘when Anna just went to get the staff file to get Fabian’s number for me, she said that his office door was wide open, and the office itself has been turned upside down. And she said Mr Allen and Big Eddie went storming out just as she got to the club today, so she thinks they probably did it. And then Jenna just left without saying a word a few minutes later.’
‘I’ve got to go,’ Vibes said suddenly. ‘Thanks for that, sweetheart.’
‘Do you want me to go to Jenna’s flat and see if she’s there?’ Kalli asked.
‘No, stay out of it,’ Vibes told her quickly. ‘I’ll call you later.’
Hanging up, he mulled everything over for a few minutes. There might be nothing going on, but could he really sit here and do nothing if there was even a chance that Tony was posing a threat to Jenna? He didn’t think so.
Reaching for the phone, he dialled the contact number listed at the foot of the newspaper article.
Putting the phone down, Detective Bill Martinez stood up and, tucking his shirt in, strolled across the office to his colleague, Matt Knight. ‘Just had a call from some guy,’ he said, handing him the sheet of paper he’d written the info down on. ‘Claims Anthony Cerrullo and Edward Derby are in Manchester, England, staying at some hotel called the Waterford.’
‘Sound genuine?’ Knight asked, looking at it.
‘Yeah. Says he’s been working over there, came back just a few months ago. Seems Cerrullo’s going under the name of Allen now. Hanging out with an actress called Melody Fisher.’
‘Oh, yeah?’ Knight said, peering up at him now. ‘I wondered where she’d gone.’
‘You know her?’
‘Nah, the wife was raving about her. Saw her in some movie with Sandra Bullock and rated her. Mentioned that she hadn’t heard anything about her for a while.’
‘Could be worth looking into, then?’
Grinning, Knight reached for his desk-phone. ‘Best let the big guy know. You never know, there could be a trip in it for us. Passport up to date?’
Getting up quietly, Susan DeLornio wandered across the office and put a couple of letters she’d just finished typing in the out-tray. Looking at her watch then, she said, ‘I’m going out for coffee, guys. Can I get you anything?’
‘Depends what you’re offering,’ Martinez said, giving her a leering smile.
Tutting loudly, she walked out.
‘You’ve got a hope in hell,’ Knight chuckled. ‘She’s one of the untouchables.’
‘Leper?’
‘Catholic.’
‘What a waste,’ Martinez grumbled. ‘Why can’t they ever get any horny temps in this goddamn place?’
Taking the elevator down to the ground, Susan walked out into the open. Smiling at the security guard who held the door for her, she crossed the square and walked casually around the corner. Then she went into a phone booth and dropped her quarter into the slot.
‘Cerrullo and Derby are in Manchester, England,’ she said quietly when the call was answered. ‘Waterford Hotel, under the name of Allen. They’ve got Melody Fisher with them.’ Smiling when she got her reply, she said, ‘My pleasure. But you’d better hurry. The Feds are gonna be all over the place soon as my boss gets the green light.’
21
Leonard’s car wasn’t in the drive. Pulling up outside the locked gates, Jenna peered at the house, but there wasn’t so much as a whisper of movement behind the elegantly curtained windows.
Annoyed with herself for driving all the way over here without calling first, she banged a hand down on the steering wheel. She didn’t know what she’d hoped to achieve by coming here, anyway. She supposed she’d just wanted to hear Leonard say that he hadn’t known about Tony when he’d agreed to put his name to the contracts. Some reassurance that she hadn’t been the only one he’d taken for a ride. If Leonard was in the dark, as she truly hoped, then maybe, between them, they could come up with a plan to get Tony out.
Reaching into her bag, she took out her mobile and switched it back on, intending to call Kalli and see if she was available for a coffee. She didn’t want to go back to the club just yet, and she didn’t want to go home, either, in case Tony decided to visit her there. Jumping when the phone immediately started to ring, she saw Vibes’s name on the screen.
‘Jenna, are you all right?’ he asked, his voice sounding so concerned that Jenna thought something bad must have happened to him.
‘Yes, I’m fine,’ she told him. ‘Are you? Kenneth told me all about the case, and he said the verdicts were
coming in soon. Have you—’
‘Never mind that now,’ Vibes said quickly. ‘I don’t know what’s going on over there, but I think you’re in danger.’
‘Why?’ Jenna asked, shocked that he was saying this when he couldn’t possibly know anything.
Explaining everything to her that he’d found out at his end, Vibes said, ‘I had no idea you’d gone into partnership with him. I can’t believe you did that.’
‘Neither can I,’ Jenna admitted shamefacedly. ‘I was in such a mess, I couldn’t see any other way out of it. But I’ve just found out that he probably set everything up from the start.’
‘I’m coming over,’ Vibes told her. ‘It’ll probably take a few days, but I want to be with you.’
‘Oh, God, that would be fantastic,’ Jenna gasped, aware that she was crying. ‘We’ve all been missing you so much.’
‘Have you been missing me?’ he asked, his voice quiet and low now. He was dreading a negative reaction.
‘More than you’ll ever know,’ she admitted. ‘But I didn’t want to call you, because I – well, it doesn’t matter now. Kenneth told me everything. Just come back, Vibes. I really need you here.’
‘What about Jason?’ Vibes asked. ‘Is he gonna be a problem?’
‘Jason?’ Jenna repeated. ‘Why on earth would he be a problem? I haven’t seen him in almost two years.’
‘For real?’ Vibes sounded confused. ‘But I thought . . .’
‘Ah,’ Jenna said, remembering when she’d made that slip of the tongue during one of their conversations. ‘I said his name in the present tense, and you thought I was still with him. Well, no, I’m not. He lied to me, because he was married the whole time we were together, and I got as far away from him as possible when I found out. I never want to see him again. Okay?’
‘I see,’ Vibes said, trying to remember that he’d called for far more serious reasons, even though his heart felt like it was busting right out of his chest with joy. ‘Okay, well, I’ll be with you soon, so we’ll talk more then. But right now, you need to be careful.’
The Club Page 35