by Simon Wood
‘No. I just thought it was strange.’
I spotted Morgan wandering about in the lobby. He hadn’t seen me, but he would. My time was up.
‘Thanks, Jo-Jo,’ I said, rising. ‘I really appreciate the talk. Let’s get back to the party before we miss all the fun.’
Jo-Jo grabbed my arm. ‘Do you know something?’
‘Maybe. I don’t know. We need to get back.’
Morgan trailed us back to the ballroom. Jo-Jo kept pushing me for answers, but I didn’t give him any. I thought it was going to be a problem with Morgan nearby, but Mr Fanning saved me by pulling Jo-Jo to one side for a chat.
It was a relief to sit down with Steve and Dylan. They failed to look as happy as I did.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Derek,’ Steve said.
Derek still held court over in his corner of the room. Graham and the Hansens were with him. The thirty or so people far outnumbered the three of us at our table.
‘Do you think Graham or the Hansens talked?’ Dylan asked.
‘I think someone did,’ Steve said.
Derek was laughing and joking, but his gaze was locked on me. He knew. The rumour had gotten to him. Now I would see how he would react.
Lap Twenty-Two
The next morning, it was business as usual for a Saturday. Steve and I worked on the new car and finished checking the set-up. It might seem like overkill but every time the car comes off the track, it needs to have its toe-ins, camber and ride heights checked. Clip a curb and it’s more than likely that the alignment has been knocked out a fraction. There’s also some general maintenance stuff to make sure nothing’s leaking, bent or broken. The car was in good shape and ready for its next outing.
I tried booking another test at Brands Hatch for the coming Wednesday, but they were fully booked. It wasn’t surprising. Qualifying for the Festival began on Friday. All the foreign teams would be in town by Wednesday and fighting for track time. I should have booked earlier but all my sneaking around had gotten in the way. All I could do was test elsewhere. It wasn’t a great alternative, but better than nothing.
I called around the circuits and didn’t have any luck. Except for the Festival, the racing season was over in the UK. The tracks were mothballing operations until the spring. Even Stowe Park had closed its doors for the winter. My only option was Knockhill in Scotland, but that was too far to be practical with the time available.
‘Have you called the Hansens?’ Steve asked when I explained the situation.
‘No. Why?’
‘If they’ve got a track day on, ask them if they’d let you have a run between their student classes.’
After the little ambush they’d sprung on me last time, I wasn’t so keen, but I didn’t have much in the way of options. I got Tony Hansen on his mobile. He had his last track day of the year on Wednesday. As a favour, he could give me twenty laps. And Tony being Tony, that favour came at the price of two hundred pounds. I wasn’t in a position to argue and accepted his generous offer, in spite of the fact that he was probably on the phone to Derek now telling him when and where to find me. I’d have to be extra careful.
‘Hello,’ a voice called from downstairs. ‘Anyone home?’
Steve and I were up in the office and we looked down into the workshop. It looked like my worries about Wednesday were pointless, considering Derek Deacon was wandering through the workshop.
‘Stay here,’ I told Steve. ‘I want you as a witness.’
‘To what – your beating? No way.’
‘Yes. I’ll need someone to call the cops.’
Steve grimaced, but he nodded his agreement.
‘I’m here,’ I called out and descended the stairs.
By the time I walked into the workshop, Derek was rooting around, picking up tools and putting them down and examining the cars Steve was restoring for his clients. He patted Graham Hill’s Lotus.
‘You’ve got some nice wheels here.’
‘They aren’t mine. They belong to Steve’s clients.’
Derek nodded then his gaze fell to my new Mygale. He walked up to it. If he was hoping to scare me, he was doing a good job. He crouched to study the car’s lines up close and smiled at what he saw.
‘This the car for the Festival?’
The Mygale looked so vulnerable on its stands. One hard shove would send it crashing to the ground.
‘Yes.’
‘Nice.’ He looked around then paused for a second. ‘How many Formula Fords do you need?’ He laughed. ‘It sounds like one of those light bulb jokes. How many racecar drivers does it take to screw in a light bulb? None. Their pit crew would do it for them.’
He laughed. I didn’t.
He sidestepped the car to take another step towards me. ‘You didn’t answer my question, Aidy.’
‘I’ve only got the one.’
‘But I see three.’
‘I only own one.’
He nodded again. ‘That’s right. Vic Hancock leased this one for the Festival. And that one,’ he pointed at Alex’s car under the drop cloth, ‘doesn’t belong to you.’
He brushed by me to jerk the drop cloth off the car. I didn’t bother stopping him. He wanted to make a point and I wanted him to make it. The more he talked the more he incriminated himself.
‘Why do you have Alex’s car?’
‘I’m going to have it destroyed.’
‘That’s what I’ve heard, so why do you still have it? It’s not that hard to get it crushed. I heard Hancock offered to do it, but here it is. You’re not thinking about cannibalizing it for parts before selling it, are you?’
‘Christ, no. Of course not.’ I didn’t pretend to hide my disgust.
‘So if you’re not stripping the car, then why are you keeping it – to prove I killed Alex?’
There was no point in playing coy anymore. ‘Yes.’
Derek rubbed a hand over the tyre burn. ‘So, you thought if you kept the wreckage, you’d be able to piece together how I did it. Was that the idea?’
I said nothing.
‘How’s that working out for ya?’
I still said nothing.
‘That good, huh? For that to work, you need my car to line up all the telltale marks. The problem with that is it still wouldn’t prove that I pushed him off. You’d need something more substantial to back it up. Wouldn’t you?’
‘If you say so.’
‘I do. I would say you’d need a recording of the crash to prove it.
‘That would be helpful.’
Derek grinned. ‘I stuck a shotgun in your face and told you to forget it and still you keep clinging to your belief.’
‘No shotgun today, I see.’
Derek opened up his jacket to let me see he was unarmed. ‘Physical threats don’t work with you. I’m hoping that talking to you will make you see reason.’
‘So convince me.’
He put the bravado to one side and looked me in the face. ‘I didn’t kill Alex.’
If that was true, he shouldn’t have been frightened of me or what I knew, yet here he was. It looked as if my story about having a tape had worked.
‘So it’s coincidence that ever since you said you’d kill Alex, people have been protecting you.’
‘I have a lot of friends.’
‘Friends who go around beating people into silence.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Did you see Paul last night? Someone beat the living crap out of him.’
‘That wasn’t me. I have no reason to hurt Paul.’
‘Coincidence again?’
‘It wasn’t me.’
Derek picked up a five pound mallet, examined it then swung it as if he was limbering up before exerting himself. I held my ground.
‘I heard a rumour about a tape of Alex’s crash. Do you have it?’
‘That’s become a rare commodity. The people at Redline destroyed their original. Paul had his copy taken from him after a good kick
ing. Anybody who has seen it won’t talk about it. It’s like no one is supposed to see this footage.’
Derek stopped swinging the mallet and gripped it tight in his fist. ‘Again, you’ve not answered my question. I’m trying to be polite here as an apology for the whole shotgun thing. Do you have the tape?’
‘Why?’
‘Have you seen it?’
‘Does me having it make you sweat?’
Derek grinned and the mallet went slack in his hand. ‘You haven’t seen it. What’s the problem – is the person with it asking too much?’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘If you had the tape, we wouldn’t be having this conversation and you wouldn’t still be holding on to Alex’s car. You’d know the truth.’
‘And what’s that?’
A crash from the other side of the workshop doors cut off Derek’s answer and shouting followed. I recognized Dylan’s voice and glared at Derek. I should have known he would have come mob-handed. When talk didn’t work, force had to take over.
I shoved past him for the doors. Derek dropped the mallet and raced after me. I threw the door open. It slammed into Morgan, sending him crashing to the ground. The full shotgun crew was here. Tommy and Strickland held Dylan down. I hurled myself at them, taking both of them down.
Dylan broke free, jumped to his feet and threw a punch at Derek. Derek blocked it and laid Dylan out with a punch of his own.
Tommy put me in a headlock, cutting off my breath, while Strickland drove a fist deep into my gut, dropping me to my knees. Tommy laughed and dragged me to my feet to line me up for some punch bag duty. Strickland duly obliged. I clenched my stomach muscles up to protect myself, but collapsed when he buried a fist low into my gut. I sagged in Tommy’s grasp.
Dylan tried to get back onto his feet. We both knew from too many school playground fights that you had to keep on your feet. Stay on the ground and you were prime meat for a kicking party. Derek knocked Dylan back down and pinned him to the ground with his weight.
It left Morgan with no one to fight. He brought out a flick knife and snapped it open. ‘We should have taken care of you back there in the field. No one would have found you.’
Tommy and Strickland got drunk on the idea. Tommy rearranged his hold on me, hoisting me onto my toes. Strickland tore open my shirt, exposing my stomach to Morgan’s knife.
‘Have you ever seen your intestines?’ he cooed as he approached.
He didn’t get far. Steve burst through the open doorway with a quick-lift jack handle in his hands. The four foot length of pipe made for a useful street weapon.
‘No,’ Derek yelled out.
Steve brought the handle down on Morgan’s forearm, breaking it. Morgan screamed and dropped to his knees, the flick knife slipping from his loose grasp. Strickland gathered up the knife and went for Steve.
The jack handle was big and heavy, making it unwieldy. It would take Steve time to tee up another swing, far more time than it would take Strickland to stab him. I knew it and so did Steve, but he had nowhere to go.
‘No,’ Derek yelled again. ‘Leave him.’
Strickland ignored Derek and kept going. Steve swung the handle to protect himself. Strickland sidestepped his swing.
Derek didn’t hesitate. He jumped off Dylan and charged at Strickland and Steve. He dropped his shoulder and slammed into both of them, smothering the attack and driving them both to the dirt.
Tommy loosened his grip on me and my feet touched the ground again. I drove my heel down his shin. He screamed out and doubled up, but didn’t release his hold. I drove my elbows into his stomach and he finally let go of me.
Dylan was up and both of us charged into Derek and Strickland who were still piled on top of Steve. Strickland wriggled from under Derek’s grasp. He didn’t have the knife in his hand. I grabbed him by the shoulders and jerked him back, sending him crashing into Morgan.
Tommy slammed into my back, sending my head snapping back before driving me into the ground.
Derek pulled himself to his feet with the flick knife in his fist. Dylan went for it, but Derek slapped him aside. He grabbed Tommy and peeled him off me, then put the knife under the chin of his own man.
‘Enough,’ he growled to all of us.
Tommy raised his hands slowly above his head. Derek pushed him away.
Dylan helped Steve to his feet. Despite the pounding they’d taken, they looked OK.
I slowly got to my feet. My neck ached and I felt lightheaded.
Derek pointed the knife at me. ‘I didn’t come here for this. I just came to talk. Stay away. I don’t want to hurt you, but you’re giving me no choice.’
There was plenty I wanted to say, but I didn’t. I’d gotten the reaction I’d hoped for, but not the result.
Derek threw the knife with frightening skill. It buried itself in the dirt at my feet. ‘We’re going. Remember what I said.’
Derek gathered up his gang. He half-carried Morgan to his car. Tommy got behind the wheel and drove them away.
‘Bloody hell,’ Dylan said with an exhale.
With the danger gone, my hands started to tremble.
‘You two OK?’ I said.
They both nodded.
‘You need to get home,’ Dylan said. ‘They got to the house too.’
I locked up. Steve wanted to stay. I didn’t want any of us being there alone, just in case Derek planned on coming back. If he wanted Alex’s car, he could have it. It was of no use to me at this point.
Dylan drove us to Steve’s house and took us around to the back door. It had been forced open and not too efficiently. Whatever tool had been used to bust the door open had left deep gouge marks in the door and frame.
I pushed the door open and ventured inside. I didn’t have to fear anyone lying in wait. They’d been and gone. The place had been turned over. Everything Steve and I held precious lay on the floor – some of it in pieces.
‘Christ,’ I murmured.
‘I came over to see you and found the place like this.’
Steve brushed past me and picked up a picture of him and Gran. There’d be plenty of other mementos in just as bad a condition.
No wonder Derek knew I didn’t have the tape. He’d already been here and searched for it.
‘I’m sorry, Steve. I didn’t think he’d do this.’
‘But we should have expected it.’
‘All this for nothing,’ I said.
‘Not for nothing,’ Dylan said.
‘What?’
‘I know when they’re moving the cars. I overheard Derek’s boys discussing it.’
‘When?’
‘Tomorrow night.’
I grinned. ‘Let’s return the favour and crash his party.’
Lap Twenty-Three
The following night found us back in the south-west. The three of us came to a halt two streets from Morgan’s workshop. We meant business this time. There wouldn’t be a second shot at this. Once the cars were delivered, who knew when another shipment would arrive? We were going to follow the cars to their next point of call, then phone it in to the local police. Brennan’s protection only went so far. He might be able to shelter Derek on his turf, but not on someone else’s. If all went well, it ended for them tonight. I tried not to think about what would happen if it went badly for us.
We’d driven down in three fresh cars. All our vehicles were known to Derek and his guys. Steve had returned the Subaru and got a Vauxhall Vectra and a Renault Laguna as replacements. Dylan had borrowed his dad’s Honda Accord. All three cars were pretty anonymous, but powerful enough to keep up with most things on the road, especially Derek’s car transporter. Having three cars gave us lots of options when it came to surveillance. If the shipment of vehicles was hauled over a long distance, one car was going to get noticed, but with three cars we could rotate the tail.
I slid from my Vauxhall into the cold, dank night. I waved Steve and Dylan over. We huddled up in front of my car.
‘Everybody still up for this?’ I asked.
‘I’ve got my sunny seeds,’ Dylan said tapping his jacket pocket.
‘I’m serious. Last chance for anyone to back out.’
‘We’re doing this,’ Steve said. ‘End of subject.’
‘OK,’ I said. ‘You ready, Steve?’
He nodded and put on his mobile phone headset. I called his number and he picked up the call.
‘You’re all set,’ I said. ‘Stay in touch.’
‘I will.’
Dylan and I got into my car as we watched him walk towards Morgan’s workshop. My heart skipped a beat when he turned the corner and disappeared from sight.
Steve was checking for lookouts. We weren’t going to get caught in Brennan’s surveillance trap like last time. Out of the three of us, Steve was the only one Brennan didn’t know.
I set my phone to speaker so Dylan could hear. ‘Anything?’ I asked Steve.
‘Nope. Nothing so far. No one sitting in cars or hanging around. I’m coming up to Morgan’s place now.’
Dylan tracked Steve’s progress on a street map with his finger. The map showed the street as being only a few inches long. It looked like nothing, but anything could happen in those few inches.
‘OK, Steve?’ I asked.
‘Fine, son.’
Dylan glanced my way. ‘He’ll be OK. Don’t worry.’
I wished I shared his optimism.
After three agonizing minutes, Steve reported, ‘All clear. There’s no one out here.’
I breathed easy again. ‘How about the workshop?’
‘Sunday night is just another work night.’
‘Is Derek there?’ Dylan asked.
‘I don’t think so. I don’t see anything to transport the cars either. I’d say he hasn’t arrived yet.’
‘Where are you?’ I asked
‘At the end of the street.’
‘OK. Come back.’
‘Steve, don’t double back,’ Dylan said. ‘If you go right and then take your next right, you’ll end up back here.’
‘See you in a few,’ Steve said.
When Steve returned, he knocked on Dylan’s window. I powered the window down.
‘It looks as if we’re good to go, so let’s do it,’ he said.