Robert was focused on the larger of the two men, who was also the one doing all the talking. I looked around, trying to see if there was a way I could get closer to them so I could hear what they were talking about when the smaller of the two men drew his fist back and hit Robert hard in the stomach. It was a nasty blow. Hard enough to make me wince even though it wasn’t me that had been hit, and one that Robert hadn’t seen coming. He went down on the icy ground with a sharp exhalation of air I could hear from my vantage point. The smaller man took a step backwards and pulled his foot back as if he was going to kick Robert in the head, but his companion put a hand out to stop him. The little guy shrugged his shoulders at his colleague and turned away. For the first time, I got a decent look at his face, or at least what little I could see of it under his hat. The only thing I could really make out was a solid jaw and small eyes. Not enough to recognise him if I saw him again.
The larger of the two men crouched down and said something to Robert before getting back to his feet. He turned to his colleague and nodded. The second man’s foot drew back again, and he put the boot hard into Robert’s ribcage three, maybe four times before taking a step back and looking around the clearing. I shrank back into the bushes as quietly as I could, thinking for a second he was looking directly at me. I held my breath until he looked away, not wanting to give him any sign I was here. From what I could see, he could be the other guy’s big brother, but then again they were dressed almost identically. I watched as they both stepped back through the bushes towards the main road. Robert was now kneeling on all fours, and from the clouds coming from his mouth, he was breathing deeply. Probably trying not to be sick. I realised that I could finish it here and now. Just step out and give him the good news with the baseball bat, but somehow it didn’t seem fair when he was down already. I wanted him standing in front of me, eye to eye, so I could look at him and he at me. I also had no idea where the two men had gone. After a minute or so, Robert got to his feet, rubbing his stomach and chest as he did so. He stumbled back toward the main road, pushing against the bushes to get back to the pavement. I watched him go, figuring that there’d be another time for us to finish our business, before I lit a cigarette and headed back to the pub.
It took me longer to get back to The Heartsease than I thought it would, and as I approached the alleyway at the back of the pub I realised that it was almost closing time. I climbed onto the wheelie bin, over the fence and down onto the picnic table before walking back into the pub through the back door. The only people in the pub were Big Joe, Tommy, and David. All three of them looked at me as I walked in, questioning looks on their faces. I nodded at Big Joe who was standing behind the bar holding an empty pint glass in the air. He started filling it up as I sat down next to Tommy and David.
“Job done?” Tommy asked, looking hard at me.
“Nope, nothing doing,” I said. “He got a kicking all right, but not from me.” I relayed the events of the evening to them both, stopping when Big Joe came across with a pint for me and starting again for his benefit.
“And you’ve got no idea who those blokes were?” Big Joe asked when I’d finished the story. “You’d never seen them before?”
“No, mate,” I replied, taking a large sip of my beer. “Not sure I’d recognise them again, either. One big, one smaller but still a fair size. Didn’t get hair colour, both dressed in black.”
“What’s this Robert joker’s last name?” Joe asked. “I can ask about, see if anyone knows anything?” I shook my head. The last thing I wanted Robert to find out was that the landlord of my local was asking questions about him.
“Honestly Joe, it’s fine,” I said. “I’ll catch up with him eventually, don’t you worry.”
It was proper cold by the time I left the pub and walked back to my flat. Ice was forming on the car windscreens, and I realised that I’d not put the heating on before I’d left earlier in the evening. When I got to the flat and opened the door, the temperature inside was almost as cold as it was outside. I got into bed as quickly as I could and lay there shivering.
It wasn’t as if there was a warm person in the bed next to me. Not anymore.
It was almost a month before I caught up with Robert again. It was another Thursday, another quiz night. He’d missed the last couple of weeks’ entertainment. I knew because I’d been watching from my usual spot over the road. I’d changed my routine, mostly to avoid messing Tommy and David about. Running past the pub the weekend after Robert had been sucker punched, I looked at the sign to find out what time the quiz started. For the next couple of weeks, I’d been in the community centre car park about half an hour before it begun and had left a few minutes after the start time. I guessed that he was lying low for as he never showed up on any of the nights I was watching.
That Thursday though, I’d struck lucky. About ten minutes before eight, a taxi had pulled up outside The Griffin. It had a large yellow canary on the side of it, and a sign that told the world it was a Canary Car. I suppose the bloke who ran the firm must have been a Norwich City fan. Robert got out of the car after giving the driver some cash and walked into the pub. I pulled a phone out of my pocket and texted Tommy and David to let them know it was on for tonight. It was a throwaway phone, bought for a tenner off the market and fitted with a sim that came with a couple of quid credit. All bought for cash. My usual phone was back at the Heartsease, in Big Joe’s hands. I’d written out some text messages for him to send from it at various intervals throughout the evening so that if anyone looked, my proper phone was there all along and I was using it in that location. I’d been a bit hesitant giving him the pin number for my phone, but needs must. I knew Tommy and David would make their way to The Heartsease once they’d got my text message, and they’d swear blind I’d been all night if anyone asked. My face was already on the CCTV arriving at the pub and then, later on, we would all be on the camera leaving together after a hard night on the pop. A few seconds later, the throwaway phone buzzed and I read the message from Tommy confirming he and David were on their way to The Heartsease.
I looked across at the pub and could see Robert through one of the windows. He was sitting at a table with two other men who I’d never seen before, although I’d seen one of them walk in a few minutes before Robert had arrived. I’d never seen Robert leave with anyone else, either. He always seemed to leave just after the quiz finished, on his own. I spent the next couple of hours smoking far too much, watching Robert through the window. It wasn’t as cold that night as it had been when I’d waited for him before, but I’d brought a small hip flask filled with cheap whisky. My unofficial three pint a night rule was only a guideline anyway, and a bit of Dutch courage wouldn’t hurt. I unscrewed the flask and took a small sip before tucking it back into the pocket of the hoodie I was wearing. Just enough to warm my stomach. I wanted to leave some for afterwards.
While I waited, a fog rolled in from the Norfolk Broads, which were only a few hundred feet behind The Griffin. It seemed fitting somehow, how the light changed and became much more diffuse. More threatening. I thought through my plan as I watched the swirling mist. I had a solid alibi in place, backed up with CCTV that proved I was where I said I was. The running clothes I was wearing were all disposable, bought from Snetterton Market with cash. It wasn’t kit I would go running in, but I’d chosen it so that I could blend in by at least looking the part. The natural distrust of the stall holders at the market meant that nothing was recorded anywhere, either on paper or on film. My feet were freezing in a pair of cheap trainers, but all my clothes would be going into a yellow plastic bag at the end of the evening, along with the baseball bat. The only thing I would keep was my hat. I’d worn it on almost every job I’d ever done, and as I’d never been caught, this made it lucky. The plastic bag with the clothes in would be going to a friend of Big Joe who worked as a hospital porter at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital. One of his jobs was loading bags of clinical waste into the industrial incinerator, and for fifty quid a
pop he’d throw in an extra bag of whatever you wanted him to as long as it wouldn’t explode. Fifty quid was a lot for one bag, but the incinerator was big enough to cremate all sorts of nasty stuff from the hospital so was pretty much bulletproof in terms of destroying any evidence. Money well spent in my opinion.
I could see Robert laughing with his friends inside the pub, and I used this to psych myself up. I don’t think I’d laughed properly since I’d buried Jennifer. Not like he was laughing now, that was for sure. Standing around in the cold for over an hour and a half didn’t help. I looked at my watch every few minutes until twenty to ten. Almost time for Robert to leave, based on the time previous quizzes had taken. I knew whatever happened, this was ending tonight. I took another sip of the whisky, a large one this time, and waited for the door of the pub to open.
A couple of minutes later, the door opened, and Robert himself stepped out into the cold night air. Despite the fog, I could see him clearly. He took a few steps forward and stopped, looking down at his phone and jabbing his thumb at the screen. Robert held the phone up to his ear and spoke for a moment before disconnecting. I guessed he was phoning for a taxi. Good idea, especially after what had happened to him the last time he’d walked home. You never knew what sort of people would be hanging around this time of night, I thought as I patted the inside pocket of my jacket to check that the baseball bat was where it should be. I'd sliced a hole in the bottom of the pocket liner to fit the bat into it, and a couple of times it had slipped through the hole completely, but it was right where I wanted it to be. Robert turned and walked towards the alley at the back of the pub. It was on.
I crossed the road, looking left and right to see if there was anyone around as I did so. The only person I could see was a man in a strange looking hat walking a dog. He was at least a hundred yards away and didn’t look as if he was hurrying. I wasn’t going to hang around anyway, not with a Canary Car on the way. I knew their offices were about ten minutes away up in Thorpe St Andrew, but the car could be closer. I pulled the baseball bat halfway out of my pocket as I walked towards the alleyway, and slowed down to deaden the noise of my footsteps as I walked into the dark corridor. When I inched my way to the courtyard at the back of the pub, I could see Robert with his back to me, using the yard as a toilet. I stopped a few feet behind him to wait for him to finish his business. His shoulder jerked as he finished and zipped up his trousers. I waited until he turned around.
“Hello Robert,” I said as he turned to face me. “Remember me?”
I’ll never forget his expression that night, not for as long as I live. It was almost comical. At first, he hadn’t got a clue who I was, no doubt helped by a few beers. Then, as the penny dropped, his face changed completely. He didn’t look scared like he had when he’d been talking to the two men in the clearing, just before he’d taken one to the gut. He didn’t look scared at all. He looked absolutely terrified, which was exactly how I wanted him to look. I tightened my grip on the baseball bat hidden behind my back.
“I said, do you remember me?” I muttered through gritted teeth. This was it.
“What the fu—”
I never gave him the chance to finish the sentence. I whipped my right hand round from behind my back, putting as much weight as I could behind it. Just before it hit his head, I flicked my wrist to increase the velocity of the bat. It crunched into the side of his face with what was, with hindsight, the most satisfying sound I’ve ever heard in my life. It was like a carton of eggs being dropped to the ground from a great height. A solid thump, mixed with the sound of what I thought was cracking bone. A warm spray of blood splashed across my face as he wheeled round, unconscious before he’d even hit the deck. His phone span from his hand and skittered across the alleyway. I’d not even noticed him holding it and wondered for a second how he’d taken a leak with his phone in his hand.
Robert crumpled, making no sound at all apart from his body hitting the ground. I looked down at him, at the thin trickle of blood that was coming out of his nose. Had I hit his nose? I’d been aiming for the side of his head, but maybe I had caught it. Not that it mattered in the slightest now. I held the bat with both hands in front of me like a sword. It was a solid enough little weapon, but the handle was a bit too small for me to get a really good grip on it so I adjusted my fingers until they were comfortable. As I prepared to smack him again, I looked across at the phone on the ground. The screen was still lit, and I could see a crack in the middle of it. I didn’t know if that crack was a result of it hitting the ground, or if it had been there for a while. With a glance back at Robert, who wasn’t going anywhere, I took a step toward the phone and had a closer look at the broken screen. The only thing I could see was a picture on the screen of Robert and Jennifer. I squinted, trying to make out the picture. In it, Robert was standing behind Jennifer, with his arms wrapped around her. They were both smiling at the camera. I couldn’t tell when it had been taken, where they were or who had taken it, but the sight of Robert with his arms around my dead wife enraged me. It didn’t matter that the picture was old and taken long before Jennifer and I had ever got together.
The fact he had it on his home screen was enough.
I looked at Robert lying on the floor of the alleyway as my throat tightened. What had I done? It wasn’t as if I heard Jennifer’s voice from beyond the grave, reprimanding me, but I might as well have. The satisfaction of smacking him with the bat had gone within seconds and was replaced by a growing sense of unease. This wasn’t me. This wasn’t the man that Jennifer knew, or would have wanted me to be. I threw the bat onto the floor where it bounced, narrowly missing Robert’s phone. I wasn’t bothered about fingerprints on the bat as I had gloves on, and everything I was wearing would be incinerated by this time tomorrow, anyway. There wasn’t much time as the taxi could turn up any minute, so I hurried back to the end of the alleyway, stopping short of the entrance to make sure it hadn’t turned up. That wouldn’t be good, being spotted leaving the alleyway by a Canary Car.
There was no sign of a taxi, so I ducked out of the alley and crossed the road, pulling my hood up as I did so. I looked both ways and saw the dog walker I’d noticed earlier about fifty yards closer than he had been when I walked into the alley behind the pub. Silhouetted in the light of a streetlamp, he was watching his dog take a shit on the pavement. For a second, he looked like the priest on the posters for that film about an exorcist that came out years ago, except I couldn’t remember the priest on the posters having a dog, or it shitting while he watched it. The mist meant that I couldn’t get a good look at him, which was a good thing because if I couldn’t see him then he wouldn’t be able to see me, either. I hurried across the road, away from the dog walker, and cut down a narrow alleyway between two houses. I’d been through the alleyway several times over the last few weeks as I’d planned out my route back. When you’re dressed as a runner, you can go anywhere with no one taking a blind bit of notice.
I reached the end of the alley and broke into a slow jog, wanting to put distance between the scene and me but without drawing too much attention to myself. A few months ago, I wouldn’t have been able to run for a bus without wheezing, but my stamina had got a lot better since I’d cut right back on the booze and smokes. I knew the route I would take like the back of my hand, and I figured that I’d be back in The Heartsease with a pint before anyone came close to finding Robert. As I picked up my pace, I wondered if he’d even be found before the morning. I didn’t care. It wasn’t cold enough for him to die of exposure, and I’d shoved him onto his side so he didn’t swallow his tongue. He’d wake up in a while with a banging headache, and crawl back under the stone he came out from. The message had been delivered, that was the main thing.
A few minutes later, I reached one of my favourite places in the whole of Norwich. It was here, on this bench, that I’d kissed Jennifer for the first time. If the graffiti was to be believed, a kiss was one of the milder things that had happened on this bench. I took a few
deep breaths, pulling the hip flask from the inside pocket of my running jacket and loosening the lid before taking a large slug from it. As the cheap whisky burned my throat, I started laughing. This turned into a cough, and the next thing I knew I was trying to laugh and cough at the same time. Any unease I had felt earlier was gone. I was bulletproof, and Robert had got what he deserved. The justice that the court had failed to deliver had been delivered. I looked up at the sky, at the faint stars in the blackness, and for the first time since Jennifer had died, I felt a sense of peace. I raised the hip flask again and drained it.
Knowing the minute I walked into the Heartsease I would have to relive the moment with the others, I sat on the bench for a few moments just to get my head together. A few minutes later, I got to my feet and wandered across the park and through the back streets of Thorpe St. Andrew, heading for the alleyway that led to the back of The Heartsease. When I got there, the wheelie bin was in the same place, and getting over the fence was simple.
I was looking forward to seeing my mates, recounting the events of the evening. As I walked into the pub with a grin that almost split my face, the only people inside were the people I wanted to see — Big Joe, Tommy, David. They all looked at me expectantly, and I put both thumbs up in the air like a complete tool. I couldn’t help it. I was too buzzed.
Blind Justice Page 12