46
The dance floor was heaving; sweaty bodies grinding to the music while drunken people chatted, laughed and sang along to the songs pumping out of the speakers. There must have been three hundred people bopping away on it and hundreds more standing at the sides or lounging on the huge comfy sofas or in the secluded booths.
It certainly was the place to be usually, but maybe not tonight. She was sipping from a bottle of something fruity and alcoholic, which was too sweet and too cheap, not her usual tipple, but then nothing about her was usual tonight. She felt she had surpassed herself, and was feeling very smug once again, lapping up every second of it. Earlier that day she had gone to a salon and had her long hair chopped off and had it styled into a shaggy bob with a fringe that hung into her eyes; she had then asked them to dye it black. The hairdresser had tried to persuade her to keep her lovely golden locks, but Tanya insisted that she wanted a complete re-style. The hairdresser had reluctantly done the cut, and actually said in the end that it quite suited Tanya. Some women were lucky that way and could do pretty much anything to their hair so that it looked great no matter what, she had admitted. With her new hairstyle and racy clubbing clobber, she looked like a completely different girl: unrecognisable. Tanya had hooked up with a bunch of lads when she had first come in to the club: it had been too easy. They looked as if they couldn’t believe their luck, drooling at the sight of her dancing up against them and acting like she was right up for it. She had no time for any of them, of course, they looked like a bunch of complete and utter losers but she needed to mingle and not stand out by being alone, which would draw attention to her. That was what she didn’t need tonight. Most of the time she had been there they had been plying her with drinks and compliments so it wasn’t that hard a task, she figured, to make a tiny effort with them.
She looked at her watch; she had been here for almost half an hour and Jay would be about to kick off the first part of their plan by making an anonymous call to the police. It was a fool-proof plan, Tanya’s handiwork. Jay would say that there was an armed gunman in the club and that he was about to open fire; any minute now, the club would be in complete and utter mayhem. Perfect.
Looking around, Tanya could see the security guys, all eyeing the bag that Paul Goldie had placed down carefully by the DJ booth as instructed. Glugging down the last mouthful of her drink for Dutch courage, she whispered to herself that it was now or never. Reaching under her very short skirt, she pulled out two very well-concealed smoke bombs that Jay had managed to get hold of from some dodgy ex-soldier he knew. Pulling off the tops, she threw them onto the floor in front of the stage. The smoke poured out within seconds and people started swinging their arms and coughing. A few of Paul’s security men looked at each other in alarm before making their way over amongst the coughing people and the now giant smoke cloud that had formed around them all. Tanya quickly threw herself down and crouched on the floor; crawling on her hands and knees to get a better view of the bag, she grabbed it with both hands then quickly made her move to the ladies’ toilets before the smoke started to clear. Taking her opportunity as she ran through the cloud Tanya screamed, as loudly as she possibly could,
“Oh my God, he’s got a gun, he’s going to fucking shoot us all”.
It had the desired effect, people too pissed to think straight started panicking all around her, screaming and pushing to get away from the smoky dance floor in terror at the thought of a gunman amongst them. Everyone started running in all directions; there was chaos everywhere.
Hearing the commotion and seeing the smoke and panicked faces, the security moved in and was making their way through the haze to the booth. They thought that Jay might be there; maybe he was the one with the gun. They knew their orders: they had to get a visual and keep him in sight, but they couldn’t see anyone matching Jay’s description.
People were fleeting in utter panic, as they rushed about trying to get away. Paul and Billy had seen the commotion on the screens and had made it down there in seconds, desperately trying to see Jay. How had he got in without them seeing him, and armed too: it just didn’t make sense. Shouting to try and calm everybody down, Paul took charge of the situation.
“It’s okay, people, it’s a false alarm, there’s no need to panic: everyone is perfectly safe.” He hoped what he was saying was true, he hadn’t seen anyone with a gun, and as far as he knew none of his security men had either.
Just when Paul thought he was starting to gain control again, the front doors swung open and dozens of armed police officers stormed the club, charging in fully kitted out in riot armour.
“Everybody stay where you are; get down on the floor with your hands on your heads.” Bodies dived to the floor, the music had stopped playing and the harsh main lights had been turned on, most people were starting to sober up.
Billy and Paul were side by side on the floor; Paul put his arm up and shouted to the officer who had commanded them to get down that he was the club’s owner, and the officer let him get to his feet but told everyone else to stay where they were. Looking around the officer could see that there was no trouble here. When they had first arrived to all the running screaming people they had thought they were going to enter a massacre scene from a horror movie, but it turned out no one was hurt. Nobody knew who had initially seen the gunman either. After checking the club and making sure that no one had been hurt or threatened they decided that it had probably been a hoax call.
People started getting up, dusting themselves off and slowly filtering out of the club. The drama had ended what had been a good night out for most. The officers started filing out too. There was no sign of Jay, and as he looked towards the DJ booth Billy shook with anger when he saw there was no sign of the bag of cash anymore either.
47
“We are laughing all the way to the bank, babes.” Jay picked Tanya up and swung her around in the tiny cottage lounge, which in itself was a hard task as you couldn’t so much as swing a kitten. Tanya lapped up his praise and tilted her head back playfully.
“I can’t believe you did it, you’re fucking amazing, Tan… did I ever tell you that?”
Kissing her hard on the lips, he put her down, feeling dizzy with excitement. They had done it: they had really done it. Oh, the look on Billy’s face right now would be priceless: they had just taken a quarter of a million pounds from the bloke, he must be sick as a fucking parrot.
Jay’s adrenaline had been pumping all night long, he had been so worried that someone might have recognised Tanya and fucked the whole thing up for them. This was the biggest job he had ever pulled off, and with the enemies he had now made it had been the riskiest, but even he wouldn’t admit out loud how he had been shitting himself tonight. Tanya, once again, had come up trumps. Jay had led them to believe that this was his plan; that it was all his doing, and that they were dealing with him alone. He shook his head in wonderment, Billy had taken it as read and not realised that Tanya was involved at all: let alone the main instigator.
“I know, I know; I’m a fucking genius!” Tanya was also pleased as punch with herself. She couldn’t keep the grin from her face. She had walked into the club and swanned around amongst them all, in disguise, and fleeced them for everything they had: well, everything Billy had. Men were pitiful. They had been so busy looking for Jay and searching all the men who went into the club, they hadn’t considered that they should have been looking out for a woman. Billy wouldn’t have thought for a minute that it would have been her coming for the money, but then he probably hadn’t given her a moment’s thought since he had thrown her out. It proved what a stupid little man he was. He didn’t have high expectations of her. She was unwilling to let that thought get to her, however; he had underestimated her and that would be to his own cost; nothing was spoiling this high for her tonight.
“How the hell did you manage to get out of the club in one piece with that bag in tow?” Jay nodded at the holdall Tanya had smuggled out of the club, which was now sitt
ing in the middle of the coffee table, full of fifty pound notes. Tanya explained while she poured them both nice big glasses of cold Sauvignon, that she had lowered the bag out of the toilet window into the little passageway at the side of the club and then she had made a dash for the main door, along with the hundreds of other screaming people who were trying to get out of the club. There were people everywhere, running about trying to get to the main doors, in fear of an imaginary gunman; she had slipped out unnoticed. Just as she had got out and reached the passageway, the police had turned up with sirens blaring and all lights blazing. Unbeknown to Tanya, Billy’s lookout, Jonny, had been so consumed with the drama of the clubbers running out looking terrified and the police turning up he hadn’t spotted Tanya running with the bag of cash and getting into the Golf that was sitting a little further down the street. She had got away with it: easy money.
Downstairs Kate could hear the commotion, she had been drifting in and out of sleep all day; dreaming was the only thing that had broken up her time whilst she had been here, it was the only thing that took her away from this waking nightmare. Tanya’s car pulling up had woken her and Kate could hear the sound of her and Jay laughing loudly now upstairs, obviously both very pleased that they had pulled their plan off. Her brother had paid up, it seemed. Kate could imagine that he would be going through hell, not only because she was missing but also that he had just been fleeced out of a quarter of a million pounds. As long as her brother had breath in his body, Kate knew that he wouldn’t rest until he had it back: every single penny. Tanya and Jay were as good as dead now after pulling this little stunt.
Trying to sit up, she swung her legs round and moved so that her back was against the wall. The whole time she had been here, her hands and feet had been tied; they treated her worse than a dog. She felt filthy: and she was filthy. She wondered when they would let her go; she had heard them say that they would as soon as they had the money, so she hoped that it wouldn’t be long. Wriggling her toes, trying to relieve the cramp in her legs, Kate stretched out and tried to think positively. Soon she would be out of there; soon she would be at home.
“We can dump her in some lay-by, or leave her in a motorway cafe toilet; give Billy a call with the details and then just keep on driving.” Jay was excited about starting their new life; a new start was what he needed. He would always be able to start from the bottom and work his way up, he had done so many a time. With Tanya at his side, the world was his proverbial oyster; he knew they could make it. He loved her so much, he really loved her. It was something he had never felt for anyone else. There was a fuzzy feeling in his stomach when he thought about her, as if he craved her: like a drug, he had to have her. Jay had decided it was a good thing, this love business, that he would finally give in to it and see where it took them. Tanya seemed happy, looking at her tapping her feet to the music playing in the background and sipping her drink, apparently deep in thought, he had never seen her look more beautiful. As if his look had interrupted her thoughts, she glanced up.
“Drive where though, Jay? Where are we going to go? Do you think that Billy is seriously going to let us get away with this? That we can start again anywhere? It doesn’t matter where we go, because he’ll find us. Two wronguns like us, we’d have to change our names, keep ourselves to ourselves, which in our way of life would be hard to do. Reputation’s everything, and if we lay low, what sort of money will we ever be able to make? It’ll only be a matter of time before he catches up with us. We’ll be forever watching our backs.”
“Nah, Tan, he’ll never find us; give it a few months and it will all be forgotten; he’ll be so happy to have his sister back in one piece and me gone for good, he won’t give a shit anymore, he’ll probably think that it was money well spent,” he reassured her.
“You don’t know him like I do, Jay. He will never, ever, let this go; this will eat away at him, he will be looking for us, mark my words, we’ll constantly be playing a waiting game, it’ll only be a matter of time. We’ve just fucked him over with two of his prized possessions, his precious little sister and a massive chunk of his money.” Tanya stared into space, deep in thought now as she downed the rest of her glass. The mood in the room had suddenly changed. She had not stopped to think about what was going to happen afterwards, it had only just dawned on her that there was no way that they could just up sticks and start afresh elsewhere. She had only got as far as her little revenge plan; she had not thought past the provoking Billy bit. The sort of circles that Tanya and Jay mixed in, the sort of dealings they would be doing to make some cash: someone, somewhere, would leak it back to Billy and they would never be free, not really. She had to think of another way forward, something that would guarantee them a way out, she was starting to realise that Jay was a liability, and he really wasn’t seeing the bigger picture at all. Tanya needed to think about the situation before they made their next move; she had an idea, but she decided that this was best not shared with Jay.
“We need to keep her for another night,” Tanya nodded in the direction of the basement door. “Let Billy sweat it out while we sleep on it and tomorrow we’ll decide what our next step should be. I’m going to bed; it’s been a long night.”
She bundled up the cash and took the holdall upstairs with her, leaving Jay sitting in the chair racking his brain for some idea as to what they could do. The mood was bleak; he had thought they would be celebrating, but Tanya was stressed and uptight. Maybe she was right, though, they did have to think about their next move; he would be stupid to take Billy letting this one go for granted.
48
Billy couldn’t believe it: he had been fucking done over by Jay Shaw. That fucking sponger had walked into the club and taken a quarter of a million pounds from him without being clocked; no-one had caught a glimpse of the bloke.
Neither the smoke thing nor the hoax call to the police were rocket science, he supposed, but clever enough. He had wondered how Jay would do it. Billy and Paul had gone over and over the tapes for hours and there had been security everywhere; how the fuck Jay had got in unnoticed, neither could say. Billy should have known that Jay would play silly buggers.
Billy gulped down a shot of whiskey; he was fuming. The only way he would have been able to track the bastard down was to have caught him in the act and followed him, he had got away unseen and now Billy was again at Jay’s mercy, and he fucking hated every second of it. Tomorrow, his sister would have been gone for six days, and he was worried sick about her. If that bloke had done anything to her, he would fucking slaughter him.
He had been at home for a couple of hours now, sitting at the kitchen table, staring at the phone. Like a fucking mug. Jay would be laughing his smug fucking head off at him.
He couldn’t even think about the dilemma of Jay calling his bluff and demanding more money. Billy had made a small fortune from his dealings over the years, and he had wisely tied it up in property all over London. Getting his hands on quarter of a million pounds in just less than twenty-four hours had been a challenge, and one he begrudged to say the least. He had worked hard for that money, made a promise that he would never struggle for anything. He had vowed years ago never to be at the mercy of anyone, like his mum had been.
He realised that he had been quite tight with his cash up until now; he didn’t spend on anything much in particular. He always had cash in his pocket, enough to buy anyone he was with a few rounds in the pub, and okay he had invested wisely, but he could have done more with it. He could have taken Kate on holiday, treated her to nice clothes; they could both have lived life a bit. He smiled at the thought, Kate was almost as stubborn as him in some ways, and her pride would have told him not to waste his money on her, but he should have done so anyway. As soon as she got back, he was going to take her to Westfield on a shopping spree, treat her to a slap-up meal and then maybe ask her about going away somewhere, God knows she would need to go on holiday somewhere after this ordeal; he had no idea what state she would be in.
&nb
sp; Emma could come too, of course, and he may even ask Paul. Paul had been a rock over the last few days, Billy was thankful of the support. Paul was the strong silent type but he had a big presence, and he was not a man to be shafted by anyone. Paul had confided that he really cared for Kate, and Billy could tell that he had been genuinely upset when he spoke of Kate, and how he hoped she was okay. Yeah, Billy had a good feeling about Paul. His sister could do with a decent man: one who would look after her; respect her; give her the life she deserved. Maybe, this time round, for once Billy really would step back and let her get on with it.
Billy took his phone to bed. He would probably toss and turn all night, waiting for the call, but he needed to rest, and he had no idea what else he could do. It had been another long day. Jay assured him that he would let Kate go when he had the money, but it was gone five in the morning, over five hours had passed since Jay had taken the money, and there had been no call.
Tanya looked at the clock on the bedside cabinet: it was almost five thirty. Jay hadn’t come to bed, and she guessed that he had fallen asleep on the sofa. She had been lying in bed for hours, unable to sleep, wondering what to do. She knew their plan wasn’t going to work.
Tanya knew that with Jay, she would be in for a life of dodgy dealings, and as much as she thought she could cope with that if she had to, she knew deep down that she didn’t want that for herself. She wanted more: more than Jay was able to offer. It was fair to say that she had had more than her share of fun with him, and using him to help settle the score with Billy had made her very happy. At the end of the day though, Jay was a man, so he couldn’t be trusted. It would only be a matter of time before he fucked everything up or pissed even more people off. It seemed to be a habit of his. Trouble turned up wherever he went, he was a magnet for it, and getting into more trouble was not a risk she wanted to take. Sure, he was all over her like a rash at the moment, but give him time and his wandering eye would return.
Rotten to the Core Page 19