The Night the Rich Men Burned

by Malcolm Mackay

  Fraser’s nodding along to every sentence. All this movie-mobster shouting sounds pretty good to his ears. This is the way a powerful person should talk, he thinks. This is a guy showing how tough he is. Fraser prefers this to the quiet, businesslike manner he sees in John Young.

  ‘You know what we’re going to do? You know what we’re going to do about this?’

  Fraser’s opening his mouth, about to throw in what he thinks will be a convincing answer. Something he thinks will add to the conversation, if you can call it a conversation. But that wasn’t a question that invited an answer. Fraser’s only just gotten his mouth open when Marty starts talking again.

  ‘We’re going to send a message. You and me, we’re going to send a message. A message to that shit Peterkinney. A message to everyone else as well. Let them see that you don’t fuck with Marty Jones.’

  Now he’s looking for a response. Looking to Neil Fraser, a man who’s never been quick with his responses. Marty picked him carefully. Picked him because he knows Fraser loves this bullshit mouthing off. Loves going to Marty’s parties. Loves playing at being the big tough guy. Slow-thinking, but always willing to act. Willing to do what he’s told, as long as the rewards are good. And Marty will make sure he gets a good reward for this. Parties, mostly. Drugs and women. That’s what Fraser wants. A bit of money, sure, but it’s more about the lifestyle.

  Picked him for another reason, too. Marty remembers. Remembers who hates who. That’s an important thing to remember in the industry. When you arrange parties, you get to meet a lot of people. Hear all the gossip. Marty knows how valuable that is. Fraser hates Peterkinney. It’s been mentioned a few times. There was that scuffle between them. Was it a proper fight? No, hold on, Angus Lafferty broke it up before it turned physical. Another man people respect and fear. They do what he tells them, so the fight never really started. But Fraser was pissed off about it. Complained a few times. Made a few noises about what he would do if he saw Peterkinney again. Probably seen him again since. Did nothing. But now the opportunity is going to land right in his lap. He can’t say no.

  ‘Yeah,’ Fraser’s saying. ‘We should go get him. We should make sure people know that he can’t get away with it.’

  Marty’s nodding. This is what he wants to hear. Fraser not only agreeing, but being enthusiastic about it. He wants to be a part of this. He wants to go out and hurt Peterkinney. He wants to deliver the message and get himself closer to Marty. No reluctance. Which is dumb, by the way. Marty knows how stupid Fraser is being here. Fraser gets a lot of work from John Young. Young uses Fraser because Fraser is physically big and intimidating. As long as Fraser keeps his mouth shut and stays intimidating, Young’s happy with it. But Fraser isn’t happy. Fraser wants more, despite not being capable of handling more. He has ambitions he’s not nearly smart enough to fulfil. Easy for Marty to exploit.

  ‘Good,’ Marty’s nodding. ‘Because I’ve got a plan. We’re going to send him a real message. No fucking around, you know. Get the message out to him. Make sure everyone knows what a big deal it is to fuck with me, you know?’

  ‘Yeah, sure.’

  Marty’s nodding and smiling. This is the hard bit. See, Fraser’s muscle. That’s all he is. He’s big dumb muscle, and he goes out and beats people up. Cheap and nasty. This is going to be something else. Marty wants to push Fraser a little further. Wants him to do more than just beat Peterkinney up. Peterkinney isn’t some little bastard that didn’t pay his debt. Beating him up doesn’t send anything like enough of a message. He has to be seen to suffer more than a rogue client.

  ‘I want you to send the message, Neil,’ Marty’s saying. Standing in front of him. Fraser still sitting in the swivel chair, moving slightly back and forth. Marty trying to make a strong impression. ‘I want you to go and pay him a visit. I want you to send a message that can never be ignored. You with me on that?’

  ‘Yeah, sure, I’ll go pay him a visit.’ He still doesn’t get it. He still doesn’t see that this is more than just a beating. Marty’s going to have to spell it out.

  ‘You agree with me that it’s not enough just to give the arrogant bastard a beating, right?’

  ‘Yeah, okay. I do.’ Nodding along, but a little less enthusiastic now. Doesn’t like the edge that’s come into Marty’s voice. Obvious that Marty’s trying to push this a different way. This is going to move in a direction he hasn’t gone before.

  ‘We need to make sure that he’s out of this. That people see that if you fuck with me, you’re out of the business. You know? So it’s not enough to beat him, right. We have to do more. I say we stick him. You go out, find him alone and stick him. That’ll send the message. You and me, Neil, sending the message. Then you and me celebrating, you know.’

  Fraser’s nodding. He wasn’t nodding at the talk of stabbing Peterkinney. That’s a little more than he’s used to. But the talk of celebrating. That makes him happy. That’s enough for him to start nodding along. He hasn’t noticed that Marty kept using the word ‘we’. It won’t be we. It’ll be Fraser going out and doing all the work. He will take all the risks. Do all the dirty work. The ‘we’ will start when the job is done. Him and Marty celebrating. But it’s the promise of the celebration that matters.

  ‘Good,’ Marty’s saying to the nod. Not letting Fraser talk about it. If he starts talking, he might start questioning. If he starts questioning, there might be a problem. ‘I’ll get you a list of addresses. The place he lives, his office. You go find him. Get it done quick. Listen, I’ve got a huge party coming up this weekend. Big thing. You and me are going to make it a hell of a weekend.’

  And Fraser’s bounding out the door. The big unit, happy as Larry. He’s going to get the rewards. Marty’s happy too. The rewards won’t cost him anything, because he’s throwing the party anyway. He’ll let Fraser hang around. Could be useful. A guy close to Young could really help at a time like this. Marty’s struggling to keep Jamieson’s protection because of Peterkinney. He grassed him up to Young. Marty’s in the bad books. He hasn’t been kicked out yet. Jamieson hasn’t abandoned him. Not yet. Marty’s too profitable to be ditched for a first offence. But he’s not going to be as well protected as he was. He’s going to have to win them back around. Fraser might help with that. Sending a message. That always helps. Marty’s sighing as the energy of the performance drains from him. He used to enjoy this sort of thing. Performing, fighting, striking back. Now it seems childish. Seems like it’s getting in the way of bigger things.

  5

  Took the best part of an hour for Jefferson to pick up the phone and make a call. Glass won’t get the money. Tough shit if he does. He’s had more chances than he deserves. He won’t, anyway. Jefferson’s seen the like so many times. They buy a little time, and then turn up at the end of the week looking for more. Glass will be the same. He won’t get the money. He’ll come back begging for more time. Might as well get rid of the debt now and save a week of waiting.

  So Jefferson made the phone call. That took more thought than you might imagine. Jefferson is a man with his ear to the ground. Every good lender is. It’s not just knowing who you can lend to and who you can’t. You need to know who to sell the debt to. He’s been selling to Patterson for a while now. A few months, and it’s been a good few months. Productive for both parties. Patterson bought some poor debts. Gave good percentage. But times are changing.

  Jefferson listens. Jefferson understands. Potty Cruickshank is making moves against Billy Patterson. Potty Cruickshank has Alex MacArthur helping him. That means they’re big moves. That means it’s time to make sure that Potty isn’t still pissed off with him. He needs to rebuild bridges. Not that he thinks Potty will definitely win. He and MacArthur are taking such a long time to make any impact on Patterson. That’s a sign in Patterson’s favour. But you cover your bases, don’t you? Cruickshank and MacArthur together is one big fucking tag team.

  So Jefferson called up Cruickshank. Let him know that he has a few debts he’s lookin
g to shift. See how Cruickshank took it. Potty’s an old pro. Potty didn’t make any fuss about Jefferson making sales to Patterson. Didn’t even mention Patterson. And now Cruickshank’s car has pulled up outside the office. Making his way in. Fatter than ever, which is saying something. He’s filling the doorway, looking out of breath already. Only taken a few paces from the car. Maybe it’s the stress. A man like Potty isn’t used to having to fight these battles. Not exactly in fighting condition.

  ‘Gary, good to see you,’ he’s saying, smiling. Waddling across to the desk. There’s an extra-large and extra-comfortable chair in front of the desk to accommodate his fat arse. Jefferson had to borrow it from a neighbouring office. Won’t mention that, obviously. You don’t mention the fact that you’ve had to take special measures to accommodate someone else’s obesity. Potty’s shaking hands with Jefferson and carefully lowering himself into the chair. The slow lowering of a man used to spilling over the sides. Used to straining the chair beneath him.

  ‘Good to see you too. It only occurred to me this morning how long it’s been since we did business.’

  Potty’s smiling. Play the game. Create the convenient little lie. Pretend that they never really fell out. That they never really stopped doing business. Let’s pretend and get on with it. But if Jefferson’s stupid enough to think that Potty will forget, there could be a nasty surprise coming down the road. Potty doesn’t forget. Let’s not get melodramatic: he’s not going to do anything about it. Not right now. Maybe not ever. He won’t try to make something happen. But if an opportunity lands in his lap to punish Jefferson, he will take it. No more than that. Another lesson learned from his uncle. People will line up to cause trouble; don’t join the queue. Keep people happy until the chance organically arises. It usually will. You only take direct action when you really need to. So Potty’s playing the game, and waiting.

  ‘It has been a while,’ Potty’s nodding. ‘Time to put that right, I would say.’

  ‘Yes,’ Jefferson’s saying. Not too enthusiastic. Not when Patterson’s still in the game. Not when he’s doing such a good job of standing up to Potty. This meeting still comes with the risk that Potty might not win this battle.

  ‘Let’s look at the book, shall we,’ Potty’s saying. Leaning forwards to look at the debts that Jefferson’s putting in front of him.

  There are only a few debts on the book Jefferson’s passing across the table. Keeping it soft. Mostly safe. Debts Potty can be sure of turning a profit on. Debts Jefferson’s already made his profit on. He’s put Alex Glass on that list. Right near the top. Right where Potty can see it. The ones at the top are the ones Jefferson wants rid of. The ones he hopes Potty will pick up, all in the name of rebuilding those collapsed bridges.

  Potty’s scanning them. Checking every name before he makes any sort of judgement. Another lesson from Uncle Rolly. Don’t throw yourself at the first name on a list. When you’re buying debt, you have to put yourself inside the head of the lender. There will always be debts he will want to sell you more than others. Of course, a lot of the time you’ll just be negotiating for one particular debt. But when you’re looking at the books, you look at the whole damn thing. Take in the detail. Spot the elephant traps, if you can.

  Which is exactly what he’s doing. Looking for names he recognizes. Ones he’s dealt with before. Mercifully few of those. A few big debts here, a few small. Nothing to get wildly excited about. Occasionally you stumble across a debt that just blows you away. Impossible to understand how anyone could be so stupid as to get into that kind of trouble in the first place. Six figures, occasionally. That’s usually gambling debts. People with a decent job and a house of their own who gamble more than they should. Keep getting credit extended because they’ve got that job and that house. In the end, they can’t pay it back without selling the house. Won’t sell the house. So Potty steps in and his boys persuade them. None of those today.

  Eyes scanning back up towards the top of the list. Mid-range stuff. Again, all very ordinary. But these are the ones Jefferson wants to sell. So Potty will make the effort to be polite. He won’t buy all of the names at the top. One or two out of the top three. Then a few from further down. Enough to make Jefferson happy. Enough to let him know that Potty has more generosity left in him if Jefferson behaves himself in the future.

  ‘Anything I should know about any of these fellows?’ he’s asking. And they are all fellows, in case you’re wondering. Not a woman on the list. Jefferson has women who owe him. Female debts to sell. But not to Potty. Other people will pay better to have a woman to collect from.

  Potty wants to know if there’s any good reason for him to avoid any of these names. If any of these men are connected to people that Potty would piss off by collecting on them. You don’t want to be collecting from a Jamie Stamford without realizing it. Potty’s smart, well connected. If any of these men were well connected he would know. But you always ask. Might be someone awkward, from lower down the chain. And if a problem turns up that Jefferson didn’t warn him about, Jefferson’s in trouble.

  ‘Could be. I don’t know how interesting it is to you. The boy Alex Glass, down for six thousand two hundred?’

  ‘Uh-huh. What about him?’

  ‘He used to be very tight with Oliver Peterkinney. You know the boy Peterkinney. Little kid, set up his own collection agency?’

  ‘I know of him,’ Potty’s saying. Of course he bloody does. Knows all about him. Keeping a close eye on that one. Got his fingers burnt with Patterson by not keeping a close eye on him. Won’t make that mistake a second time. Keeping a close eye on the boy because he seems to know what he’s doing. Everyone dismissing him as a kid. Like that matters. Doesn’t matter how young he is, he’s smart and tough. Smart and tough is worth watching. Managed to get some good people on board with him as well. Potty has a theory that there might be someone else in the background, pulling strings. Just a theory. Maybe Peterkinney isn’t just the front man. Maybe he is the boss.

  ‘Well, this kid Glass used to be his best pal. They ran together for years. Story is, it was Glass who got Peterkinney into the business. Got him a job with Marty Jones. Only in the last six months or so that they’ve grown apart. Glass doesn’t work for him, so, I don’t know. He doesn’t work for him, needs to borrow money from me. Maybe they ain’t that close any more. But they were. Close as brothers for many years.’

  Potty’s processing all that. Just sitting there, looking straight ahead. A slight smile on his face, but that’s often there. Don’t read too much into that. He’s thinking. Thinking about Peterkinney, and about Alex MacArthur and Alan Bavidge and all the other pieces of the jigsaw scattered before him.

  ‘So the boy Glass did work for Marty, did he?’

  Jefferson’s shrugging. ‘Did a bunch of scruff jobs for him. Low-end muscle work. Gofering. If he’s doing anything for him now then it’s not much. Certainly not enough to pay me off. His girlfriend works for Marty too,’ Jefferson’s saying. A sneer at the word ‘girlfriend’, turning quickly to a grin at the mention of working for Marty. Not hard to guess what a young woman working for Marty does. ‘She must be making money, but, I don’t know, not enough. Or they don’t share the finances. Whatever it is, I’ve not had a penny from him in nearly two months.’

  ‘So he doesn’t have enough to live on?’ Potty’s saying. There’s hope in that voice. The hope of a clever little plan. ‘Shame.’

  ‘I don’t know about enough to live on. Not enough to live the life he wants to live. One of my boys saw him at a party. Told me all about it. One of those parties, if you know what I mean.’ Hoping Potty does, because Potty isn’t the kind of guy you spell these things out to in gratuitous detail. ‘Expensive parties, those. I think the kid might be a user. But he was snorting his money away the night after he turns up here paying 6 per cent of what he owed me. Six per cent. So he’s living the life all right. Or trying to.’

  A whore for a girlfriend. A party lifestyle. A past of working presumably v
iolent jobs for Marty Jones. A childhood friend of the new kid on the block. Oh, this could work out nicely. Still has to play it the right way, but this could be the opportunity he’s been waiting for.

  Potty’s buying up all three debts at the top of the list, because he’s feeling a little happier about life. Buying a couple towards the bottom as well, just to round it off. They all seem reasonably safe. He’ll turn a profit on every one of them, and rebuild his relationship with an important lender into the bargain. But that’s just work. None of that is what makes him happy. What makes him happy is thinking of what Alex Glass will do for him. What he will have to do for him.

  6

  There’s a different atmosphere when you’re under attack. Not scared. Thrilled, a little bit. Nervy, sure, but that’s not always a bad thing. If you’re under attack and struggling, it feels bad. But that’s not how Billy Patterson feels. He feels like he’s doing rather well. That’s where the thrill comes in. Someone’s attacking you and you’re standing up to it. Someone who considers themself a major player is failing to bring you down. Everyone can see it. Everyone knows. This could turn into the fight that confirms Billy Patterson as a serious force.

  Potty’s made moves against a couple of guys. Bought one. That was disappointing. Disappointing, but no more than that. People get bought in this industry. It happens. Patterson did a good job of keeping it quiet. Potty spread the word around, but it didn’t seem to do a huge amount of damage. Truth is, it ended up being a relief. One man bought, nothing else happening. After the first attack, Patterson expected worse. Opening shot, followed by ever-increasing attacks. Didn’t happen. Little while later they beat every ounce of snot out of Andy Leven and then set his house on fire. He was in hospital for a couple of weeks. No surprise that his wife decided for him that he wasn’t going to work for Billy any more. Patterson understood, made no issue of it. Last he heard, the Levens were packing up their kids and moving out of the city.