Heavy Duty People

by Iain Parke

  What indeed? I thought to myself. But instead I asked quietly, ‘Did you know who you were going to see?’

  ‘Of course I didn’t fucking know. Dazza said he’d arranged a meet so I just went along and then three Rebels turned up. I thought I was fucking dead but no, it was all cool.’

  I waited quietly. Now that he had started to talk he would tell it all. ‘So how did it happen?’ I asked gently.

  ‘Dazza said he’d set me up with a meeting, just like the last one. No sweat, I thought. But then I’ve done it before for him a couple of times elsewhere around the country. Met up with guys, been a courier. Only this time it was up in Glasgow.’

  ‘Christ, but you must have known that was Rebels’ turf. You didn’t wear your colours did you?’

  ‘No I’m not fucking stupid. I just went up their nice and quiet like, booked into a hotel for the night and waited to be contacted like the times before. Like I said, Dazza had set it all up. I was just the messenger, I didn’t know who I was going to meet.’

  ‘No?’

  ‘No, that’s what I’m trying to tell you, it was The Rebels that Dazza had set me up with.’

  I was still having problems with this, ‘No way. You’re fucking joking.’

  Billy ignored me, ‘So then there’s a knock at the door. I open it and there’s three of the bastards standing there in the hallway.’

  ‘How did you know they were Rebels?’

  ‘Because the main guy, the one who came into the room with me, just came right out and fucking told me! Jesus, I nearly crapped myself. He had one of his bodyguards with him, they left the other one outside in the hallway. I thought they were going to take me out there and then. But no, it turned out it was cool.’

  ‘Did they know who you were?’

  ‘Yeah they knew I was Brethren alright. The last thing the main guy said to me was that OK I had delivered my gear and would be taking back what I had to. But if I ever showed my face again in Glasgow, colours or no colours, I’d be a dead man. But the thing was, this time, they just didn’t seem to care.’

  ‘So what did you have to do?’

  ‘Just the same as the other times, give them a package, and pick up something in return to go back to Dazza.’

  ‘So what was it they gave you?’

  ‘Just a list of addresses.’

  ‘Addresses? What sort of addresses?’

  ‘I don’t know. They just looked ordinary to me, flats, houses that sort of thing. I didn’t know whose they were and I certainly didn’t ask.’

  ‘And was that the same as the other times?’

  ‘I think so. Yes. It was the same routine each time, hand over the package, pick up an envelope, deliver it back to Dazza. It’s just this time I got a piece of paper instead of an envelope.’

  ‘So you don’t know what was in the envelope the previous times?’

  ‘No I don’t. But Dazza went ballistic when I handed the list to him. I thought he was gonna kill me there and then for having opened the envelope. It was all I could do to persuade him that I hadn’t had a fucking envelope. I had to wait while he made a call to check before I was in the clear.’

  ‘What would Dazza need a list of addresses in Glasgow for?’

  ‘Don’t know. A hit maybe?’

  ‘Don’t be fucking stupid. What’s Dazza going to want to organise a load of hits in Glasgow for from here, not to mention all the other places you went to.’

  ‘Perhaps he is just getting the info for somebody else?’

  ‘Someone in The Brethren?’

  ‘Sure, why not? Perhaps it’s not his hit?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘Well we’d have heard about it if it was a hit. I had the first of these meetings a month or so ago now, down in Wales. If it had been going to happen, it would have happened already wouldn’t it? And we’d have heard about a dozen guys getting hit.’

  I was sceptical, ‘Yeah, if it’s happened yet.’

  ‘You’d want to follow up on those addresses soon if you are gonna do something. You know how quickly guys move on.’

  ‘Maybe. But why would The Rebels be giving Dazza or anyone else a list of addresses to hit? They’re hardly going to be setting up their own members are they? And if it was anyone else they’d be organising it themselves. They wouldn’t be looking to The Brethren for help. That’d be the last thing they’d do. No, I just don’t get it.’

  And I didn’t. It was another thing that didn’t make sense. But, at the same time, if there was one thing I knew about Dazza, it was that he never did anything, no matter how crazy it seemed at the time, without a very good reason. It’s just at the moment I couldn’t see what it was.

  ‘So what was in the package you took to them?’

  ‘I only saw that once.’

  ‘Well then, you saw it. What was it?’

  ‘You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.’

  ‘Try me.’

  ‘The guy from The Rebels opened it in front of me. It was only a fucking brick.’

  ‘Of what? Coke?’

  ‘No a fucking house brick you prat! What d’you think? It was a full K, paper wrap printed with a scorpion logo and everything.9

  I gave a low whistle. ‘Cali?’

  This was serious shit. I didn’t know much about coke. Whizz and dope had been my things when I’d been dealing and I’d got out before coke started to come in so much, but I’d heard of El Alacran, the scorpion. It was his logo.

  ‘He pay you? This Rebel guy?’

  ‘No, that was one of the odd things. He said, “Tell your man we’ll get this checked out like before, and if it does, then let him know he’ll get his cash the way he asked.”’

  Like before, I wondered, thinking about the packets that Dazza had asked Billy to post.

  What was Dazza doing sending and handing out a couple of full K bricks of Cali branded coke?

  And on credit?

  To The Rebels of all people?

  We were getting in deep here I realised, into some real shit. Billy was still talking, about how something was going on, something big, how Dazza had had some gear arrive that was fucking serious.

  ‘What gear?’

  ‘I can’t tell you. He’d kill me, he really would.’

  ‘Who would?’

  ‘Dazza.’

  Billy shook his head. ‘Shit man, you should see what Dazza has got going down. He’s just fucking incredible.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘I can’t tell you man, Dazza really would kill me.’

  ‘Don’t be daft, he wouldn’t.’

  ‘No you’re right he wouldn’t. He’d have Butcher do it for him. He’s becoming fucking nuts about security, even more so than he was before.’

  Before? We kept coming back to that word again. Before. What did he mean? What the hell is going on here, I asked myself.

  *

  I saw a big payment coming into one of the accounts the next week. Banked in Glasgow. I let Dazza know about it and he seemed pleased. It meant message received and understood, I assumed.

  PART 4

  9 August 1994 to 15 September 1994

  Clubs that are taken over are either used to being under a boss type already, or are used to freedom.

  Damage 2008

  Chapter 8 – THE DOUBT

  I didn’t hear from Billy for about a week after that. I guess he was just lying low for a bit. Shacked up with one or other of his birds I assumed. And then when he did call me I wished he hadn’t.

  He was down the station. And he needed Jim the brief. So I called Dazza and arranged to meet.

  ‘What’s up?’ he asked as I walked into the café.

  ‘I’ve had a call from Billy. He needs Jim, he’s been arrested.’

  ‘Arrested? What for?’

  ‘He got stopped by the plod and they found coke and a gun in the car…’

  ‘Oh for fuck’s sake…’ Dazza seemed exasperated, ‘what’s the fucking idiot think he’s doing? I thought I t
old him to keep himself clean. Is that really so fucking difficult?’

  ‘For Billy?’ I asked.

  He just grunted in acknowledgement. Then he lapsed into silence, staring out of the window for a few seconds as he gathered his thoughts. ‘Jesus,’ he said at last, ‘he’s so coked up these days and I know he’s leaky. Look what he’s been telling you.’

  ‘What’s he told me?’ I objected, ‘Sod all mate. I don’t know anything and I don’t want to know anything. I prefer it that way. He’s just had a couple of moans that’s all, he’s never told me anything about whatever it is he’s obviously doing for you.’

  ‘Obviously eh?’

  ‘Yeah, obviously. Come on now,’ I said catching the expression in his eye, ‘Don’t you go making something out of that. Look, I asked you to give him some work, you gave him some, so obviously he’s doing something for you.’

  Dazza stared at me silently.

  ‘So the question is, what do we do about getting Jim in there and getting him out?’ I insisted.

  Dazza nodded and pulled out a mobile, ‘I guess you’re right, leaky or not we need him outta there.’

  *

  The thing was, by the time Dazza tracked Jim down to where he was in Court, and got him across to the station, Billy was already in the process of being released on police bail.

  ‘They let him out?’ barked Dazza suspiciously once I’d got off the phone, ‘what d’ya mean “they just let him out”?’

  ‘He gave the plod a story,’ I said, ‘you’ll like this, it’s a real laugh.’ In retrospect I don’t know why I told Dazza the story. Partly I guess because I thought it was funny, partly I guess because he would get to hear about it anyway, but partly also, I guess, as a bit of a test, to see his reaction.

  ‘He told them that they’d got him bang to rights guv as he’d stolen the car and so he didn’t know anything about the coke and gun in the glove box. What d’ya make of that eh? Fucking brilliant.’

  But Dazza was in a grim mood still.

  ‘And you fucking buy that do you? I fucking knew it, he’s singing. It’s the only reason he’s out so quickly. That’s what they always do, they look to get you to offer them someone higher up the tree as the price of letting you off. Look, how did they get him in the first place?’

  ‘He just got tugged…’ I protested.

  ‘Yeah right, he gets tugged and just by chance instead of traffic just writing some process they decide to search the car and find the gear and a piece? That’s bollocks and you know it!’

  ‘Maybe,’ I conceded.

  ‘Nah. There’s no fucking maybes about it. There’s no way traffic would pick that up. The only way that happened was a tip off from someone. Someone set Billy up to get off themselves, and now Billy’s doing the same.’

  ‘Now you’re just being paranoid Dazza!’ I protested, ‘Billy’s OK I tell you. Let me talk to him.’

  ‘OK, OK,’ he held his hands up and then stabbing his finger on the table for emphasis he added, ‘Maybe you’re right, and maybe you’re wrong. But I’m telling you this for free. This is his last fucking shot. Any more fuck-ups and he’s a dead man. When you are speaking to him, you make sure you tell him that from me.’

  ‘I will.’

  *

  Despite what I’d said so confidently to Dazza, I wasn’t really so sure myself. I would need to find out for myself if Billy was talking.

  If Billy was at home of course. The lights were off.

  I knocked and rang the bell. There was no reply so I rang again. Giving up on that as an approach I stepped back away from the door and as I looked up at the bedroom windows I saw a curtain twitch where it had been let fall.

  So I shouted up, ‘Come on Billy, it’s me, Damage! Come down here and let me in you tosser.’

  There was no answer so I went back to the door and leant on the bell.

  It took what seemed to be an age before I heard him shuffling around behind the door and ask, ‘Who’s there?’

  ‘It’s me Billy!’ I shouted.

  ‘Are you on your own? No one else with you?’

  ‘Of course I’m on my own. Now stop screwing about and open the fucking door willya?’

  There was the sound of chains, then of a key in the lock, and then there was Billy, peering out furtively, checking left and right to make sure I was alone, ready to slam the door in my face if I tried to rush him.

  ‘Christ man,’ I said, ‘you look like shit!’

  And he did. His face was a pasty white, his eyes were bloodshot red and his hands were shaking.

  ‘Yeah well, feel it too.’

  I stood on the doorstep. ‘Well?’

  He looked at me, sighed and then held the door open wide for me to go in.

  *

  I passed Dazza’s message on to a deflated Billy. He was up and down in spasms as I talked to him, really on edge. At one point I thought he was going to burst into tears on me. He really was on the downward spiral, I could see that. God I’d better keep him out of Dazza’s sight or that would be it.

  ‘But I don’t understand mate, why is all this stuff about you such a big deal for Dazza?’

  ‘It’s because of what I know.’

  ‘About Dazza and The Rebels?’

  ‘That, and other things.’

  ‘What other things?’

  ‘I can’t tell you.’

  ‘Why not?’

  The very thought of it seemed to hit him like a blow as he crumpled into a chair and hung his head in his hands.

  ‘Christ man, he’s going to kill me anyway. And you’re his main man now,’ he said almost accusingly, looking up with a flash of anger in his eyes, ‘So what have I got to lose?’

  I didn’t say anything. His despair was on my side, I waited him out until it came in a rush.

  ‘He’s got big stuff going on, he’s got a new route for gear coming in that he’s just trialled and it works, so now his real shipments are going to start.

  ‘So what’s the real shipments?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘When’re they coming?’

  ‘A month’s time.’

  ‘What, middle of September?’

  ‘Yeah, almost exactly. The first one’s scheduled for a Wednesday night.’ His voice died off into a keening whine of ‘Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God…’

  ‘It’s OK Billy mate,’ I said grabbing him by the shoulders, ‘It’s OK, I’ll tell Dazza it’s OK, you’re not talking. You just stay here.’ I was thinking about how to handle this. Billy was on the edge of going to pieces and all the way over at times. I had to buy him and me some time while I tried to figure this out.

  ‘You’re going to lie low. And I’m going to tell Dazza that you’ve asked me to send a message. Have you got that Billy?’ I demanded, pushing my face into his, desperate to get his attention. I needed to get him focused on me and to get what I was trying to tell him.

  ‘I’m sending Dazza a message for you. That you suggest that Dazza changes it, whatever it is, to another place or time. So then he knows he’s safe ’cos you don’t know when it’s gonna be. How’s that?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Well I do. Don’t worry, I’ll sort this. OK Billy?’

  He was just shaking his head. So I slapped him. Hard.

  ‘Just fucking pull yourself together Billy. I told you, I’ll sort this.’

  He looked at me disbelievingly.

  ‘You just have to stay here and stay calm. Have you got that?’

  He mumbled something.

  I tugged him to his feet.

  ‘I said, have you got that?’

  ‘Sure, yeah sure, I’ve got that.’

  I let him go and he just sort of collapsed back into his chair.

  ‘OK then. Just sit tight and wait till I get back.’

  *

  ‘Look Damage, face it, we’ve gotta problem.’

  ‘What’s that then?’

  ‘Billy.’

  ‘Billy?�
�

  ‘He’s talking.’

  ‘How d’you know?’

  ‘The cops catch him with coke and a gun and next thing he’s out on bail after a cock and bull story like that? Bollocks, he’s grassing us up. It’s the only thing that makes sense.’

  ‘How do you know he’s a snout?’

  ‘How do you know he isn’t?’

  ‘How do know anybody isn’t?’

  ‘You don’t.’

  ‘Hey I was tugged in too. Remember? D’you think I’m a grass too?

  ‘No, that’s different.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I know you,’ he said calmly.

  ‘What are you on about, you know me? You know Billy as well don’t you? Maybe better than me, you’ve been using him long enough haven’t you.’

  ‘Yeah I’ve been dealing with Billy long enough. Long enough to know what he’s like anyway.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘But I know you. The way you came in that day back then when you came to tell me you were out of the business. You know I’ve told you not many guys would come in to do that but you did. You were prepared to take whatever came. That was the moment when I really knew you, that you were a stand up guy, that I would never need to worry about you ratting me out.’

  That was quite a compliment.

  ‘Whereas Billy, Billy’s just bad for security. He knows too much, he’s using too much, he’s just become too much of a risk.’

  And deep down, despite the fact we were mates, I now knew Dazza was right about Billy as a risk. The plod would always press for info, always be looking for someone to give up someone higher up the tree in return for a ticket. And I did have to face it, Dazza was spot on, Billy was becoming heavily coked and unstable. However old a friend Billy was, Dazza’s suspicions weren’t unreasonable, they were just wrong, I thought.

  But they also risked turning into a self-fulfilling prophesy if Dazza ended up scaring Billy so much that he felt he had nowhere else to go for safety but to the plod.

  I had to have one last try. I owed Billy that much.