On Borrowed Time

by Solomon Carter

  “Here goes nothing,” Eva walked up past the carpet shop which occupied half of the ground floor of Fitzpatrick House and found the residential doorway in the middle. It was a heavy green gloss painted door. She pulled it back. Within the walls and a floor made of some kind of flecked white granite material. It looked dated, but familiar too. There was a big wide stairwell with a wooden bannister curving up and away. Above there were two floors, and green doors leading to private residences. Further on at the end of the ground floor was a similar heavy green door. This one had s spyhole and a small brass plaque beside it. Eva’s heels clacked and echoed all the way up to the second floor. Dan followed one step behind.

  Riley was all the brass plaque said. Eva pressed the big brass doorbell set beside the door. She heard the door chime somewhere beyond. They waited and looked at one another. Eva’s finger was poised to ring the bell again, when the door wobbled inward on its hinges, its lock shunted, and the door gave way. It opened into a small corridor with a room on either side, and then after these was another door. Directly in front of her, was a small man with lively green eyes and swept back unkempt brown hair. He looked animated and maybe vicious too.

  “Who are you?” said the man, by way of a greeting.

  “Eva Roberts. And I’ve come to share some information with Brian Gillespie and Joleen Riley.”

  The man said nothing, but his eyes were moving as Eva saw all kinds of deviousness cross his mind.

  “Eva Roberts. What about this one?” he nodded at Dan.

  “Me? I’m just Miss Roberts’ P.A.”

  The man cackled. “Yeah. I should have guessed. Wait two minutes.”

  The little man let the door shut slowly behind him. He made towards the other door at the end of the short corridor.

  “I like him, do you?”

  “He’s right up there with the winker,” said Eva.

  “No way. The winker was in a different league altogether. Compared to him, this guy is Sunday league.”

  Conversation stopped until the door lock shunted again. The man looked at them harder now. His face was more serious, much more interested this time.

  “You can come through. But be warned, if you have dubious intentions, you better turn around and leave now. It would be much better for you if you did.”

  “Nice. I should say something like that when I have guests at my place. But maybe I’ll read a limerick instead.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “No thanks.”

  “If you are armed, I’ll take what you’ve got now.”

  The small guy let them through and shut the big door behind them.

  “What is this?”

  “A waiting area. But for you, it’s the place you give me your guns, knives and any other tools you’re carrying. Like I said, it’s better you toe the line now. It’s easier all round.”

  “Do we get it back?”

  The small guy grinned like some kind of lesser mammal. “If you come back through here, yes.”

  “Then I’ll be getting it back.”

  Dan dumped a pistol from his pocket into the man’s hand. Eva pulled out the Sig-Sauer and put it in the guy’s other hand. “You people like guns.”

  “You think that’s bad, you should see her with a knife and fork.”

  The guy was never going to get the in-joke. He put their guns in a side desk drawer, and closed it. Dan looked at the desk, already missing his trusty shooter. Eva didn’t pay hers a second glance.

  “Through here. Follow me.”

  He opened the second door, and they were surprised first by sunlight and a breeze, then a view of a courtyard opening up before them.

  The courtyard was made of old cobbled stones the same as the streets once were. They were rough and awkward for Eva’s heels. Ahead of them was another structure, this time only two storeys high, though much larger than a normal house. The front had a line of small windows either side of another wide green front door. Up on the first floor there were bigger windows, lined with net curtains. Outside the front door, on either side was a small bay tree in an oversize half-barrel pot. The place wasn’t pretty from the outside aspect, made from the same dirty grey bricks as the rest of Fitzpatrick House, but this was clearly a home, and for the rougher end of North London, this almost counted as secluded. Before they reached the front door it opened, and a middle aged tough guy in a bright yellow shirt opened it. He didn’t say a word, but the small man with them did.

  “They’re clean.”

  The man nodded and let them into a high-ceilinged old house. Eva looked around the space and noted elements of fine taste, the big wooden framed mirror with painted emblems, a well-tended palm tree, coat hooks and a hat stand. This was civilised. This looked more a civilian house from the suburbs than a gangster pad in North London. The wooden floor was brown with a green hue. The place was tasteful, and spoke of a female influence. Right on cue, the woman who Eva strangely recognised from the faked photograph appeared from a door in the wall opposite a neat set of wooden steps. The woman was lean with big dark eyes. She seemed cocky and aggressive, a look helped by her spikey blonde hair - sculpted and blown to one side. She was wearing a pale grey suit of rough fibre. She made it look good. She stood in the hall and appraised both of them.

  “What do you want here?” she said in a rough London accent.

  “I was led to believe Brian Gillespie was around here. I need to speak to him. It’s a matter of life or death, and he needs to know the truth.”

  “Why would Brian Gillespie be anywhere near here?”

  “Mrs Riley?”

  The woman did not reply, but her eyes narrowed.

  “I was hired by Maggie Gillespie before she died. Brian’s wife. I need to speak to him about something of crucial importance.”

  “That woman tried to ruin him.”

  “Please. If he is here, he will be glad to hear what I’ve got to say.”

  “You wait here,” said Riley. She disappeared. Eva wondered if it was the woman’s interest to tell Brian about their visit. Was Joleen Riley the one who organised the hit on Maggie – and therefore on Eva too? Panic swept around her mind, but it was too late for all that and Eva knew it. Whatever was going to happen was already underway. She looked at Dan. His eyebrows were fixed low on his face. His body looked taut, like a coiled spring.

  After two minutes of getting the silent treatment from the small guy, Joleen Riley appeared. “Brian has agreed to see you. But I really don’t know why you came here. For your sake, you shouldn’t have bothered.” There was mockery in her tone.

  The door opened behind them, and Brian Gillespie appeared with one of the big men she recognised from Fenbrook Manor. He had a neatly shorn red head and a doughnut beard. Brian looked even older than Eva remembered, his head shaped like a squashed brown leather bag, with a mess of straggly hair perched atop. His eyes were so angry and so tired it was hard to sustain eye contact, but Eva knew her life depended on it. The door closed behind them. Now Eva and Dan were sandwiched between two sets of gangsters, and neither set welcomed them at all.

  “You’ve made this so easy, now. So, so easy,” said the old man.

  “Mr Gillespie, please, you need to hear us out.”

  “You? I don’t need to do diddly-squat to please you, sweetheart. That pretty face of yours isn’t going to save you either. You took the piss out of me one too many times. Didn’t you?” His face contorted. “Didn’t you?!” he shouted.

  “Mr Gillespie. I was with your wife when she was shot, three weeks ago in the Galvan house back in Leigh-on-Sea.”

  “I know all that.”

  “Do you know who the police are saying did it?”

  “Some vigilante guy. An arsehole in a mask that the local rags seem to love down there.”

  “Yes. But you don’t think it was him, do you?”

  “You’re full of it. My Maggie’s dead and you were with her. I heard you were being paid – my money – to protect my wife… That’s the size of i
t right?”

  “I was hired to do a job.”

  “And you failed. My wife… my wife is dead.”

  Eva saw the raw emotion flickering around the edges of the old man’s eyes. His old body shook with rage and despair. He was a few feet from Eva. Eva felt Dan’s readiness to defend her. She prayed silently that Dan would not strike first, or else they were dead.

  “Mr Gillespie. We saw who attacked her. We saw the culprit.”

  The old man looked at her with curiosity for the first time. “What?”

  “I’ve seen her again since. The assassin is a woman. She speaks with an international accent, like she has travelled extensively and lived away from her home country. She is a brunette with dark hair, strong and military looking in aspect. She travelled by motorbike mostly. And after she killed Maggie Gillespie, she disappeared and I received this note.”

  Eva unfolded the note she’d found with her handbag in Alex Galvan’s kitchen. Borrowed Time, BB.

  “Borrowed time, signed B.B. That’s supposed to be you, isn’t it? The Bad Boy, Brian Gillespie.”

  “It could be any dickhead.”

  “But it was the second note I had alluding to you. The signs were pointing to you again. Now I know you hate me, Mr Gillespie, and I understand that. But I came here today to find out whether you really hired this female assassin. I’ve got some questions too. Things that are bugging me.”

  “Things that are bugging you? Itches you just can’t scratch? You’re the itch in my life. You are unbelievable, woman! Can you believe this, Joleen? This girl comes here, bold as brass, and asks me questions about a contract on her life. Can you believe it?”

  Joleen Riley shook her head. “You don’t have to deal with this Brian. My boys can clean this up for you nice and quick.”

  “Mr Gillespie. Hear me out. Kendra - the woman with Maggie. She was working with this foreign assassin. I don’t believe either of them worked for you. Am I right?”

  Gillespie got close to Eva. She could smell his old foetid breath. It smelt rotten.

  “I don’t care. You crossed me. I have a right to kill you stone dead, and I told you once before, if you cross me, that is the risk you take. But let’s clear this up… I never telegraph what I’m going to do. This shmuck here, Bradley. He knows what I mean. Like in the boxing ring, if I’m going to hit you, you won’t know it until you’re hit. That slag Kendra. Now why would I use her to tell you I’m going to hit Maggie… and then send someone to hit her? That’s not just stupid. That’s madness. Insanity. Now I am the most evil bastard you will ever come across in your life darling. That much is true. But I am no shit for brains. Kendra made a fuss because it suited her somehow.”

  Eva looked at Joleen Riley. She thought of mentioning the photograph but thought better of it. Maybe that would be enough to drive the vicious woman to murder. If she was the one who had the photo faked, knee jerk violence was almost certainly guaranteed. No. Another time.

  “Then you didn’t hire them? Either of them.”

  “Like I told you before I have my own people. I don’t buy cheap foreign imports to do my dirty work.”

  “People are telling us these imports are expensive.”

  “Even more reason I wouldn’t have used them.”

  “Then think about it, Mr Gillespie. People are going to a lot of trouble to paint you as a seriously bad man. Not just the kind of guy who is a crooked businessman, as some portray you. But the kind of man who puts a contract out on his wife.”

  “But I might be, Miss Roberts.” He drew in close to her face so that his rancid breath and aftershave filled her senses. Dan was quaking, ready to launch. Please don’t.

  “I might be that kind of man. Maggie betrayed me and stole from me. Can a man like me live with that without retribution? I live by the code of honour which says I must.”

  “Did you?” said Eva, her heart racing.

  “That, Miss Roberts. Will go to the grave with me.” He stepped back and she felt Dan relax by one degree. “But you’ve piqued my interest. You are telling me someone is trying to level the blame at me. That’s misdirection you’re talking about. But more than that, that’s trying to give me a bad name. And I don’t like that. Miss Roberts.”

  “If you had a contract out on your wife – I mean if.”

  “Of course, the theoretical if.”

  “Yes. Would you have also put a contract out on the people who assisted her?”

  “In theory, I might have. But only as part of the original hit. Something else I told you, Miss Roberts, is that vendettas are a costly waste of time and money. I will catch up with everyone eventually. I mean, look who dropped by today…”

  “So, if someone was still trying to kill me now… someone who is hunting me down out there… that would be nothing to do with you.”

  Brian Gillespie’s eyes flickered. He looked around at Joleen Riley. She shrugged and shook her head. “It’s nothing to do with us.”

  “When they kill me, Mr Gillespie, they are going to pin the blame on you. They’re in the process of doing that now. And using notes like this, you will be blamed for certain.”

  “Is it the same woman?”

  “Yes, with accomplices. Kendra was one of them.”

  “Maggie brought that bitch on board. I didn’t check her thoroughly enough. How many times have they tried?”

  “Three so far, and they have promised me they’re not going to stop. I believe them. Effectively I am now in hiding.”

  “So you came here? For what?”

  “For clarity. To gain some clarity and I got some too. I think I know what I need to know. You didn’t set up the main hit on Maggie. I believe that. And you didn’t set up the subsequent attacks on me. But when they happen, it’s only you in the frame. Do you see?”

  The old man looked mad, and puzzled. He looked away and paced up the hallway. Then turned back around.

  “I’m stuck here, Miss Roberts. Ideally, I’d like to see you buried. You know what I mean. Finished. The trouble is, if you’re right, and I do that, I could be helping my enemy. Whoever this bastard is. And I’m never going to do that.”

  Joleen interrupted. “You should kill them, Brian. They are loose cannons. You can mop up the opposition later.” Joleen Riley seemed to like them less than Brian Gillespie.

  “Thanks for your input,” said Dan, deadpan as hell.

  The little man drew a gun and pointed it at Dan’s face. “Shut your mouth.”

  “Wait up, Joleen. I like to think before I shoot. We need to check out this story. If there is a hit on this woman, we could infiltrate the situation and work back to the source. I need to know if there’s any truth in this.”

  “Oh, I’m telling you it’s true. Do you think I’d risk my life coming here unless I was already in serious danger?” said Eva.

  The old man looked at her and drifted off in thought. “Maybe not. You’ve got a stay of execution. Both of you. For now. Agreed?” The old man looked at Joleen Riley.

  “If that’s what you want.”

  “For now.”

  Eva watched Joleen Riley. She was hard faced and deadly, any fool could see that. But Eva felt other things too. One, Riley looked at Dan with more than a passing interest. The woman made a little lick of her lips whenever she looked at him. Dan would have been really revolted if he saw that. Second of all, the woman didn’t seem to be a big fan of keeping Eva alive. What the hell was that about? Eva had never crossed this woman before in her life, she was sure of that, but here was Joleen Riley offering to top her as a favour to an old friend. These people were insane. Maybe, just maybe, that was the first qualification in becoming a gangster.

  “This is how we proceed from her, Miss Roberts. This is non-negotiable, so no backchat, okay?” The man fixed his eyes on Eva, but thankfully stayed his ground.

  “You’re taking one of my boys with you. If there’s trouble for you or us, he will call in and get some back up. That way if we see a threat coming our way…” he
turned to Joleen Riley. “We can deal with it before it hits.”

  She nodded. “And we’ll know who we’re dealing with.”

  “The problem is that there are too many players in this already. I mean too many potential players and red-herrings. My boy will be there to read the runes and break heads when necessary.”

  “Come on, is putting some meathead with us really necessary?” said Dan. Eva blinked in frustration. The small guy received a nod from Joleen Riley. He stepped to Dan’s side and kicked him hard in the shin. Dan growled in pain and gnashed his teeth, and clenched his fist ready to strike back. Joleen Riley drew a small black pistol from her suit pocket.

  “Do anything violent and you are dead meat.”

  Dan looked at the gun, then at Joleen Riley. Eva saw her do that little lick-lipping thing. Yuck. Dan had to see it that time. Thankfully, Dan did not make any witty remarks.

  “I don’t like this much. But we’re going to run with it a while. Trevor?” Gillespie opened the front door and howled out into the courtyard. Twenty seconds later, a gorilla in a suit appeared, with a fold of fat over his shirt collar. “You’re assigned to work with these two. Someone is aiming to kill the dolly bird and pin the blame on me. If that’s true, there’ll be something bad to happen on the back of it. You keep watch, and when anything happens let me know. For now you keep her safe, until I tell you otherwise.”

  Eva and Dan exchanged a glance. There was some limited reassurance in Bad Boy Brian’s words, but not much. Because the other side of the coin – unspoken – was the otherwise. Otherwise sounded like a part of the plan. The more Eva replayed Gillespie’s words over in her head, the more she believed protection was just the first half of Trevor’s job. Ensuring she was safely dead was going to be the second. Eva would gamble and take the protection as long as it lasted. But there was a problem. She wasn’t buying the conspiracy stuff at all. For Eva, conspiracies were like cults, black magic, unicorns and elves. They were things idiots spoke of all too frequently. They were things that distracted people from the real world around them, and there was danger enough for anyone in the real world already.