I frowned, ‘Is that all?’
‘I could be a good friend to you. I know stuff and I know people, important people. I’m well connected.’
‘Important friends?’
‘Important friends,’ he agreed and he had a hopeful look on his face like he was connecting with me.
‘But you wouldn’t want to introduce them to me. I’m a gangster, remember? A gangster in your city.’
‘Hey look, I got a bit carried away that night. I’d had a drink and I’d been doing my man-of-the-people act, so I gave you a speech to put the wind up you a bit, but I never meant any of it, not really. Look, I’m a realist, there’s no bigger realist than me in this city, son. I know it’s always gone on and always will do, long after you and me are both pushing up the daisies.’
‘So we can be friends then?’
‘That’s what I’m saying, man,’ he told me, throwing his arms wide and beaming at me like I was the prospective son-in-law he’d always secretly hoped for.
I stayed silent for a long while. He watched me expectantly, heart probably thumping somewhere near his tonsils.
‘No,’ I told him finally.
‘Listen son,’ he was pleading now, ‘listen to me. I’ve got a wife and kids, Christ I’ve got grand kids, don’t do this to me, don’t do it to them. Please son, I’m begging you.’
It was my turn to put a hand on his shoulder. ‘Fuck you Ron,’ I told him, ‘you’re going to prison.’ I left him standing there in the bar. As I walked out there was another burst of laughter from his friends at the golf club. Someone must have told another off-colour joke, but Ron wasn’t laughing.
40
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If Ray Fallon had worn a cap it would have been in his hands. For a gangland enforcer he looked pretty humble.
‘What the fuck do you want?’ demanded Kinane. He got to his feet and took a step towards the man who had appeared at the hotel without warning. I was next to Kinane and I raised my hand to prevent him from kicking off in the cocktail bar. Kinane stopped, and gave me a sour look, but I wasn’t about to let him start tearing the room up in front of me. Besides, the demeanour of the man put me at ease. He looked calm, humble even. What he didn’t look like was a man who had travelled all the way down here to start something.
‘I’m wanting a word,’ explained Fallon quietly, ‘if that’s alright with you?’ He directed the question at me, and I nodded. Fallon was alone, which was dangerous for him, but not as dangerous as coming to see me when witnesses could report our conversation back to Malcolm and Andrew Gladwell. They’d have cut him to pieces if they’d known he was talking to me.
‘Leave him be, Joe,’ I commanded, ‘we’re just talking here,’ I motioned Fallon over to a quiet corner of the bar which had no windows, safer for him and for us. We sat down and I offered him a drink.
‘You’ve got some fucking nerve coming here,’ Kinane told him, ‘after the stuff you said.’
‘Maybe so,’ admitted Fallon, ‘but that was just bluster. He knows that,’ he nodded at me, ‘and so should you. It comes with the turf.’
Kinane grunted as if he couldn’t really argue the point. Fallon was right. He and Kinane were like boxers during the pre-fight weigh-in, always sizing each other up and putting each other down, looking for an advantage.
‘So Fallon, why are you here?’ I asked.
‘Well,’ he looked a little uncomfortable, like he didn’t really know how to explain it. ‘It turns out I’ve had my money on the wrong horse.’
‘You can say that again,’ Kinane told him, but I knew they were talking about two different things. Kinane meant we would have won no matter what, and I admired his confidence. Fallon was talking about the character of the man he used to work for.
‘I assume it’s fair to say you had no idea?’ I asked him gently and he flared.
‘Christ, no,’ he glared angrily at me. Then, abruptly, the anger evaporated, to be replaced by something like incomprehension, ‘do you think we realised we were working for…for a nonce. I mean the man was married with three bairns for fuck’s sake,’ he shook his head, ‘…it just shows you can never really know anyone deep down. It turns out he’d been flying over there for years, raping little boys, then coming home again to the missus and his daughters. They never had an inkling. Arthur must be spinning in his grave. I mean,’ and he shook his head again, ‘old Arthur couldn’t even tolerate a bender, let alone a kiddie fiddler.’
‘I can understand your disgust,’ I told him, ‘but I’m not sure how it involves me.’
Fallon’s eyes narrowed and he looked directly at me. This was his big moment. He wouldn’t have put it like that, but Ray Fallon was about to cross the Rubicon. I knew it as soon as I watched him walk through the foyer of the hotel.
I figured I’d better encourage him, ‘what have you got in mind?’
‘I’m a loyal man,’ he began and I knew we were in for a speech, a little bit of self-justification before the knife went in. ‘I worked for Arthur Gladwell for years and I always knew where I stood with him. If he asked for someone to be sorted, I sorted ‘em, square-go. If you stepped out of line with Arthur you’d get filleted and you usually had it coming.’ I nodded like I understood and I supposed I did. ‘People said he was a grass,’ and he frowned like the very notion was an affront, ‘but I never heard anything’. I nodded again. Arthur Gladwell had been a grass for thirty years. It was how he made his way up the food chain, by shopping his competitors to bent coppers in return for them turning a blind eye while he raped Glasgow for three decades but I kept silent. Fallon had been disillusioned enough for one lifetime.
‘Tommy was meant to take over when Arthur died, but we all know what happened there,’ he said nothing further on the matter. I nodded again and let him continue, ‘Alan looked like a different matter. He was a chip off the old bloke, or so we thought,’ his eyes told me how conflicted he was about Alan. ‘What you said about the Sandyhills Sniper made me think. I didn’t want to believe it at first. When you are working for a man you don’t want to see the bad in him but now, I reckon you had him just about tagged. I reckon he paid someone to kill all those people, just so he could get at that copper.’
‘I know he did,’ I assured him. Fallon was like a man who has finally woken up one morning and realised his missus has been shagging all of his mates. Previously he had refused to acknowledge anything but good in Alan Gladwell, now though, he was looking back on every incident and noticing only the bad.
‘Aye,’ he said, ‘and now he won’t be coming back. Me and my lads, well, we’re all feeling like proper numpties.’
‘I’ll bet.’
‘I mean just because Arthur was capable of running a city doesn’t necessarily mean his boys are up to it. Tommy wasn’t, Alan we know about, and the other two…’ he folded his arms, ‘well, I just can’t see it somehow,’ and he gave me a meaningful look. What interested me most was the way he had said ‘me and my lads’. He was speaking for the others, with authority.
‘Someone more experienced, perhaps?’ I offered, ‘someone who has been Arthur Gladwell’s right-hand man for fifteen years and knows how the city works?’
He snorted, ‘you don’t mess about do you? Trouble is, you need money,’ he continued, ‘for a takeover, and Arthur was tighter than a Gnat’s arsehole, God rest him. It’s all tied up so that only his boys can reach it. I mean we’ll get most of it…Eventually…’ Just then I wouldn’t have wanted to be the Gladwell brothers. They’d be given two choices, tell us how to get Arthur’s money and die quick – or die slow and tell us anyway, when you can’t take any more.
‘I’m sure you will need funds to tide you over,’ I said, anticipating his question. ‘There must be a large number of people on the payroll, suppliers who have to be paid?’
‘Yeah,’ he told me, ‘people who don’t like to wait for their money.’
‘Let’s call it a bridging loan,’ I told him, ‘or we could avoid ca
lling it a loan at all.’
He smiled slightly. We both knew that was why he was here, ‘a partnership?’
‘A sleeping partner,’ I assured him, ‘I’ve enough on my plate down here.’
‘It isn’t just the money,’ he explained, ‘I can handle the boys, they can look after the streets, it’s that Amrein,’ he was frowning again like he didn’t really understand our mutual fixer, ‘I need someone to explain it all to him. I don’t want the Euro mafia trying to take control of my city.’
‘Leave it to me,’ I assured him, ‘you won’t have any problems from Amrein.’
Palmer and Kinane stayed silent while we went on to talk terms. There was a loose discussion about the level of funding I was prepared to provide, and the return I would expect on my investment. Fallon knew he was out on a limb, so I could get good terms, but not so brutal that he didn’t stand to gain a lot from this. It’s only ever a deal if both sides are happy. I didn’t want Fallon resenting me more and more over time and then finally coming after me years later when he eventually decided I’d shafted him.
In the end he just said, ‘Right enough’, nodded, and got to his feet. Then he shook my hand.
‘I’ve got to get back. Stuff to attend to.’
‘You’ll need to see the Gladwell brothers.’
‘I’ll have a word,’ he assured me.
I knew then that the Gladwells were finished.
‘That was some deal you got us there,’ said Kinane when Fallon had gone, ‘when this goes through we’ll be untouchable.’ From the look on his face, I could see he couldn’t believe that our problems had instantly come to an end, all because of a quick chat in a hotel bar on the Quayside. I was happy about that. I knew there had been times lately when Kinane had privately and publicly questioned my judgement. I needed a coup like this to get Palmer, Kinane and everyone else I employed remembering I could do deals none of them were capable of. They were all as hard as nails, but not one of them could handle Amrein or negotiate an agreement like this one with a Glasgow firm.
Palmer drove me back to my apartment. ‘I’ll have a word,’ he said, when we were in the car.
‘What?’
‘That’s what Fallon said when you told him he’d need to see the Gladwell brothers.’
‘So?’
‘It’s what you say,’ he reminded me, ‘just before something bad happens to someone. I’ll have a word,’ he repeated.
‘Coincidence,’ I said.
‘And it was all tied up real quick, wasn’t it – your deal with Fallon? Smooth as you like.’
‘Meaning what?’
‘You knew he was coming down tonight, didn’t you?’
‘Perhaps.’
‘That’s why we got such a good deal. You’d worked it all out beforehand?’
‘Most of it,’ I admitted, ‘but I needed him to come here, to make sure he was serious about it. What else is a man like Ray Fallon going to do with himself? With a whole city of enemies just waiting for retribution, he won’t last long if he’s not protected by a large firm.’
‘Is that why you invited him down here?’
‘What makes you think I instigated it?’
‘He wouldn’t have the nerve to chance his arm like that, not after all the things he has said,’ Palmer told me, ‘not without clearing it with you first.’
‘Let’s just say I sent up a flare so he could see it. I put myself in his shoes and I didn’t think he had many options. The Gladwells are history, with or without our intervention, but with them gone we’d have the same old problem. Someone new running Glasgow and Edinburgh, right on our doorstep.’
‘Better the devil you know,’ he said, ‘but can you trust Fallon?’
‘No,’ I admitted, ‘we can’t trust anyone, ever, which is why I employ you.’
‘So why the cloak and dagger?’ he asked me, ‘why not just tell us he was coming?’
‘Kinane.’
‘You think he would have blocked it?’
‘Blocked it?’ I asked him, ‘since when does he get to block a decision I make? No, I just didn’t want to listen to him moaning about it all year.’
Three days later, Ray Fallon drove his car into the underground car park of the same hotel and left it there. He made sure the boot was unlocked. He knew that when he returned later there would be two large holdalls in there containing his start-up cash. All he had to do was assure me the situation in Glasgow was back under control. It didn’t take long.
‘The brothers are gone,’ he explained simply. He didn’t need to elaborate further. I wondered if the Gladwell brothers had retained the sense to tell him what he needed to know about the money they’d spirited away. I doubted it though. They wouldn’t have believed their eyes when their father’s old crew turned against them. Whatever their answer, it would take him months to free up all the cash. Much of it would have been lost to him forever without the relevant passwords, documents, signatures and passports needed to drain the accounts. That suited me fine. It meant he needed me.
‘Good,’ I told him, ‘then we can make a new start. Glasgow is well rid of the Gladwell boys. Here’s to a new era.’ We clinked our glasses together and sipped our whisky. We were drinking in the cocktail bar again but this time the place was half full. We had to be discreet so we spoke softly. I had not bothered to bring Kinane with me this time but I did have Palmer at my side. I wasn’t going to sit down with a man like Ray Fallon on my own.
‘Cheers,’ he told me and he looked relaxed.
‘The money will be in your car by the time you’ve finished your drink. There’ll be more when you need it. I’ll take care of your first three payments to Amrein so you’ll have enough working capital to get by,’ I meant he could pay his suppliers, dealers and muscle without any of them kicking up a fuss.
‘Thanks,’ he said simply.
‘There is one last thing, before you go.’
‘Aye, I thought as much.’
‘I want his name,’ I told Fallon.
Fallon was obviously expecting this and he came right out with it. Palmer and I heard the name of the man who had been betraying us to Alan Gladwell in silence.
Fallon drained his drink and said, ‘I’ll be away then,’ leaving us to digest the information he had given us. We looked at each other but didn’t bother to say anything. I knew Palmer would be feeling as sick as I was. Even after everything we had been through, I was still shocked rigid by it; of all the people.
Eventually a waiter walked by and Palmer nodded at him to gain his attention and summon the bill. ‘What’s the damage?’ he asked.
I’ve read a lot about the Cold War over the years. Spies and traitors always fascinated me. When I was young I thought agents were like James Bond, tough guys who could always beat the villains. Then, when I got older, I realised they were usually squalid little men who took big risks to give secrets away to the other side, sometimes for money, sometimes for women and sometimes for the so-called glory of their cause. Often these guys would end up dead or serving long prison sentences, but sometimes they would get away with it and live to a ripe old age. It seemed to be almost entirely down to luck. Often they only got caught because a defector came over from the other side and brought their names with them. It wouldn’t matter how clever or resourceful you thought you were, if the man who was handling you defected to the other side you were finished.
Ray Fallon had done just that. He was with us now and the price of our friendship was the name of the man who had been handing the Gladwells all their information on us, including Hunter’s address, the location of my town house and the bar where Danny did his regular pick-up the night he was shot. I couldn’t allow that to go unpunished. He’d have to be dealt with and people would have to know why. We couldn’t let this happen again. I gave the order that night.
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Toddy could at least be philosophical about one thing. There were some perks that came from being a m
ember of Bobby Mahoney’s firm. No one messed with you for starters. The freaks, the queens and the nut jobs all left you alone. Men who would normally have been keen to extort money or cigarettes, to bully and assault you, steered clear of you and picked on other, weaker men.
There were also small privileges that Toddy enjoyed. They might be scant consolation right now but, as the memory of his freedom began to recede over time, he knew they would take on an increased significance. Perhaps the best perk was some time alone in the shower. Everyone else had to queue up in line to use it. Then they shuffled forwards in groups, were given a few minutes to wash themselves, which was a nervous time for all concerned; the last thing you wanted to be in a prison was naked. Then they shuffled out and had to wait days to use the facilities again. But it had been fixed for Toddy to go in before all of the other men. The prison guard, Hinds, had been paid to fetch him from the recreation area early, then escort him to the shower and leave him there while he took his time. Toddy would often stay under the water for twenty minutes or more, until Hinds got nervy, and told him he had to come out because the others were on their way.
Toddy took full advantage of his perks. He was serving a long stretch because he had kept his mouth shut. The least David Blake could do was provide the basics; money to his girlfriend, groceries to his mum and her bills paid, some money for Toddy to get the stuff you needed when you were on the inside; books, cigarettes and of course the drugs, which were necessary to numb the boredom. It wasn’t much though, not compared to everything Toddy had lost and the resentment burned in him. He tried not to think of the life he should be leading on the outside. He especially tried not to worry about Kathy and who she was with right now. How long would it take her to give him up as a bad lot?
This was all David Blake’s fault. Toddy blamed the man for all of the time he had spent on remand and every day he would have to do between now and the completion of his sentence. Toddy was just a foot soldier and the time he was doing should have been Blake’s, which is why Toddy felt no guilt over what he had done. One day he would finally be free of this place and, if he was ever going to be able to pick up his life again, which included persuading Kathy to take up with him once more, he was going to need money; a lot of money. Of course the deal he had struck with Alan Gladwell had not been without risk, but he didn’t think Blake would ever suspect. He had played fair right through the court case, not that he had any choice but to keep schtum and take the full rap. Blake would have given him a lot of credit for that but, once Toddy was tucked away inside Durham jail, he would be out of sight, out of mind.
The Damage (David Blake 2) Page 26