“I don’t think that’s our priority right now,” said Jez.
“We need to find her.”
“You say one more useless comment and cage fighter or not, I will knock your fucking head off,” yelled Jez, voice bouncing around the small room.
“Keep it together,” said Mikey when an old man walking his dog hesitated by the open door and frowned in at them. “Sorry,” he said to the old man, flashing him his best smile.
The man frowned at them for a moment longer while his dog curled one out on the street in front of the garage.
“You not going to pick that up you dirty old sod?” Jez shouted after the man as he carried on his way, leaving behind the dog shit.
“Stop shouting,” said Mikey.
“Well I can’t stand that. If you’re too lazy to pick up after a dog then you shouldn’t bloody have one. I’m tempted to follow him home and stuff it through his letterbox.”
“Yeah, good idea. You do that while we track down your sister.”
Jez held up his hands. “Sorry. I don’t seem able to control myself.”
“If you can’t get a grip then bugger off and leave it to us.”
Jez took in a deep breath. “I’m fine.”
“Good. Now let’s think what to do.”
“Do you know where Slattery is?” said Jackson.
Mikey and Jez both looked sheepish. “No,” said the latter.
“How can you not know?” exclaimed Jackson. “You’re the most powerful men in the city, you have eyes and ears everywhere.”
“Only up north,” said Mikey. “And there was no way he was going to run up here. He’ll be down south somewhere, where we have no influence.”
“Jules is a bounty hunter,” continued Jackson. “She has contacts all over the country. She could be anywhere. Or what if she’s gone abroad?”
“If she has we’ll find her,” said Mikey, pulling out his phone. “We have someone who can track passports.”
“And if she’s travelling through the EU she doesn’t need one.”
“And she has passports in other names,” added Jez.
Mikey put his phone away. “Crap.”
“We need to assume she’s still in the country,” said Jez. “Although it won’t hurt to put that alert out on her passport. My guess is Slattery’s still in the country. He’ll want revenge and he won’t want to stray too far from his turf. The Slovakian slapper and the fucking traitor Hayden Brody have taken over everything of his but he’ll want it back.”
“He won’t be hanging around Essex,” said Mikey. “Jared might be a dick but he’s not fucking thick. He’d have been topped ages ago if he was.”
“How do we know Slattery’s still alive?” said Jackson. “For all we know someone’s already killed him.”
“Because Jules wouldn’t have gone after him if he was dead,” said Jez.
“How do we know she has gone after him?” said Jackson. He looked to Mikey. “You remember how she said she thought she’d done the wrong thing by surviving the coma. What if she’s decided to just leave Manchester? What if she thinks that she’d be doing right by us all?”
Mikey furiously shook his head. He couldn’t accept that, not when he was closer than he’d ever been to finally being with her. She was divorcing Jackson, he was divorcing Amber and she’d said there was a possibility for them in the future. She wouldn’t dangle that in front of him then take it away so cruelly. He knew her and that was not how Jules operated. “No, she wouldn’t do that. Especially not to Cara.”
“You didn’t see her when Cara said she wasn’t her mum,” said Jackson. “I’ve never seen such heartbreak in anyone’s eyes before. What if she thinks she’s doing the best for us all?” He sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. “This is my fault, because I couldn’t keep my dick in my pants. If I hadn’t knocked up Cindy then we’d still be together. Our little family.” He turned his back on them when tears prickled his eyes.
“There’s no point talking like that,” said Mikey, surprised to find he actually felt a bit sorry for him. He knew Jackson hadn’t wanted things to turn out this way and that he was only where he was now because he’d been devastated and not thinking clearly. “What’s done is done and can’t be changed. All we can do now is deal with the fallout and we will. We’re going to get her back. Do you know any of her informants?”
Jackson shook his head. “No. She was always careful to keep work and home separate.” He frowned. “Although…”
“Although what?” said Jez.
“There was this bloke called Howie. We bumped into him once while we were out shopping. He started talking to Jules about some bloke she was trying to track down and she was really pissed off that he’d spoken about her work in front of me and Cara.”
“This Howie,” said Jez. “Was he fat with long hair? A bit thick-looking?”
“Yeah, that’s him.”
Mikey and Jez looked at each other and nodded.
“I’m coming with you,” said Jackson, following them out of the garage.
“You’re not wanted or needed,” said Jez, waiting for Mikey, who was closing the garage door and locking it again.
“I’m her husband.”
“Not for much longer and shouldn’t you be getting back to that big eyed bint of yours?”
“Don’t talk about Cindy like that, she’s done nothing wrong.”
“Except sleep with a man when his wife was in a coma.”
“Stop throwing that back in my face. I want to help. You wouldn’t even have got Howie’s name if it wasn’t for me.”
“You didn’t have the first clue who he was.”
“But you only knew about him because of me.”
“Let him come,” said Mikey, striding for the car. “We don’t have time for an argument.”
Jez looked back at Jackson. “Fine, you can come but we’re doing this our way and our way can get a little rough, so deal with it. I don’t want to hear any whinging about legality and police. You get it?”
Jackson nodded. “Got it.”
“Good. Then let’s go.”
Jez turned towards the car and winced when he put his foot in something squelchy. He looked down and sighed when he saw his expensive shoe covered in dog shit. “Bastard.”
They were outside Howie’s house in under half an hour, once again Mikey’s imaginative driving and knowledge of the city’s shortcuts ensuring they beat the worst of the traffic. The journey was unpleasant due to the stink emanating from Jez’s left shoe. He’d tried to scrape off the worst of it but there was still some stuck to the sole.
“We play this calm,” Mikey told them as he knocked on Howie’s door. “He’s not done anything wrong. I don’t want to do this heavy-handed. This requires subtlety.”
The door was opened by an overweight, pale man with long dirty blond hair. Howie’s first horrifying thought was that Mikey Maguire and Jez Law were on his doorstep for revenge. When Jules had first come into their lives she’d got him to pretend to attack them with a knife so she could step in and play the hero. Only himself and Jules knew about that and he was terrified that she’d dobbed him in. He could imagine her doing something like that for a laugh. Plus he thought she might have been unstable enough to do such a thing. He’d always been intimidated by Jules, or Venom as she was insisting on being called again but she’d terrified him when she’d come to see him. There was something harder and colder about her, something determined to kill someone for what had been done to her and Howie had been scared that if he hadn’t given her the right information she would have taken it out on him.
However Mikey and Jez didn’t look like they were here for a fight. In fact, they actually looked…pleasant. Fortunately Howie had been a lot slimmer back then, his eating only going into overdrive after the death of his mother, so they failed to recognise him as their attacker.
“Can we have a word please Howie?” said Mikey politely.
“Yeah course. Come in,” he re
plied, standing aside to allow them to pass. He was glad he’d finally got round to cleaning his house yesterday because it meant everything was spick and span for his illustrious guests. Howie was a bit overwhelmed to have the two most powerful and infamous men in the city standing in his poky living room. He personally was a small-time drug dealer and a gatherer of useful information. He did his best to stay away from the big players, apart from Venom, but he’d known her for years. He liked to quietly make his money in unassuming anonymity. But Venom had been hell-bent on causing mayhem and she’d brought said mayhem right to his door.
“Do you want a brew or something?” said Howie, doing his best not to wrinkle his nose, not wanting to say that one of them smelled funny.
“No thanks,” said Mikey. “We’ll be out of your hair soon enough. We just want to know if you’ve seen Jules lately. It’s alright,” he pressed when Howie looked panicked. “You’re not in any trouble. We just want to know where she is, we’re worried about her.”
“She said I wasn’t to tell anyone.”
“You can tell us. We’re only trying to help her.”
“You didn’t see what she was like, she scared the shit out of me.” Howie immediately wished he’d kept his big mouth shut. He sounded like a proper fanny.
“She can have that effect,” said Mikey with a wry smile. “But we promise we won’t let her hurt you.”
Howie was filled with shame, as well as relief. “I got a tip from a friend that Jared Slattery is in Berkshire.”
“What the fuck’s he doing there?” said Jez.
“Word is he ran to Wales after you all…well, after you…”
“Kicked his arse,” said Jez. “Continue.”
“He spent some time there licking his wounds. Then he came back to England and started putting together another crew.”
“In Berkshire?” frowned Mikey. “There’s nothing there but bacon pudding and sheep. Who’s he got working for him, the local women’s institute?”
Jez’s expression was hard. “Are you taking the fucking piss out of us Howie?”
“No,” he exclaimed. “I would never do that. I got word from an old mate of mine, Rory Noble. I don’t know if you remember him, he did some running around for Frank Maguire.”
They all looked blank.
“No, might have been a bit before your time, he was a friend of my dad’s before he died. Anyway, Rory moved to Reading and he started working for a crew down there. Nothing too serious - a few robberies, a bit of dealing. Slattery approached them and they leapt at the chance to work for someone as infamous as him.”
“Even though he’d just got his arse kicked?” said Mikey.
“He’s a big name and that impressed them, as well as the cash he flashed about. He’s paying them really well for their back-up.”
“Does he have anyone else supporting him?”
He nodded. “That Slovakian tart and her crew have gone around Essex and parts of London, intimidating everyone into submission and if they’ve refused to bow down they’ve killed them. They’ve pissed off a lot of people and there are some wanting back what was theirs. They see Slattery as the way to achieve that.”
“As much as I hate to say it,” said Jez. “Katia and her crew are ruthless and organised and there’s no one down there now capable of taking them on. They’ve grown too big.”
Howie didn’t miss the troubled look in his eye. “That’s what Venom…I mean Jules said.”
“Why did you call her Venom?” said Jackson, jumping on his use of the name. “She hasn’t gone by that name for a while. Why did you call her it?”
“Because that’s what she wanted to be called. She’s gone back to wearing all the Venom make-up that she gave up after she had the kid. She said she tried the cigs again but they tasted shite so she didn’t bother. She was armed to the teeth too. She’s after blood and I don’t think you want to get in her way.”
“Did we ask for your opinion?” said Jez.
“Sorry,” replied Howie, inwardly chastising his runaway mouth.
“So, whereabouts in Berkshire is she headed?” said Mikey.
“I’ll give you the address,” said Howie, picking up the pen and newspaper lying on his coffee table. He enjoyed a good crossword. He scribbled down the address, tore off the strip of paper and held it out to Jez, careful to keep him at arm’s length.
“Thanks,” said Jez, glancing at it before stuffing it in his jacket pocket. “We won’t bother you any longer.”
Howie resisted the urge to exhale as they filed to the door. However Jez hung back.
“Just one more thing,” he said. “Did Jules give you a number you could contact her on?”
“Number?” he replied as innocently as possible.
“Her phone’s switched off and I’m quite sure she wants to keep in touch with you in case any more information comes through from your friend. So what number did she give you?”
Howie couldn’t withstand that intense look any longer, so he caved in and produced his phone from his pocket. As he read out the number, Jez typed it into his own phone, as did Mikey and Jackson.
“She’s going to make me pay for this,” said Howie miserably.
“We promised you she won’t and we always keep our promises,” said Mikey. His gaze hardened. “As long as you’ve not fed us any bollocks.”
“I wouldn’t…I couldn’t,” he said wide-eyed.
“Then we shouldn’t have a problem.”
With that they left, leaving Howie to sigh with relief. He sighed again but this time with irritation when he saw the dog shit on his carpet. At least that explained the smell.
“I’m calling her,” said Jackson the moment they’d stepped outside Howie’s house. “Oy,” he added when Mikey snatched his phone off him.
“Think about it,” said Mikey. “You call her and tell her we know where she’s headed and you’ll scare her into rushing things and doing something stupid, which could lead to her getting hurt, or doing a disappearing act altogether. Right now we know where she is and what she’s up to and best of all she doesn’t know that we know. Don’t give away our advantage, for Jules’s sake.”
Jackson nodded and put away his phone. “You’re right, sorry. I didn’t think.”
“It’s okay, we’re all wound up.”
“I’m coming with you to get her back,” said Jackson.
“Who says she’d even want to see you?” frowned Jez. “You’re part of the reason why she did a runner in the first place.”
“Because she listens to me.”
“She listens to me too,” said Mikey. “In fact when she was in the care home I was the only one she listened to.”
Jackson’s eyes blazed. “And how you played on it. You wanted us to split up, didn’t you? I bet you were made up when you found out we were getting divorced.”
“She deserves better.”
“And she deserves better than you,” snarled Jackson.
Jez put himself between them when they squared up to each other. “Give over, you’re acting like prats in the middle of the street,” he said, nodding at the group of children who had stopped playing to watch, one picking his nose before wiping his finger on his top. Jez looked back at Jackson. “Go and pack, you’re coming to Berkshire with me.”
“Don’t you mean with us?” said Mikey.
“Jackson, why don’t you wait in the car? Me and Mikey need to discuss business.”
“Fine, just hurry.”
“What’s this about?” said Mikey once Jackson was sitting in the backseat of his car.
“I think you should stay here.”
“No fucking way.”
“Who do we usually leave in charge when we’re not here and Jules isn’t available to take over?”
Mikey sighed. “Declan.”
“Exactly. Stay here and get your house in order. I’ll take Jackson, Shane and Mark with me down south. Grant can help you deal with Declan. Besides, I’m not putting up with you and Jac
kson arguing all the way down to Berkshire.”
Mikey huffed and looked down at the ground to give himself time to think. He was desperate to go after Jules but Jez was right, no way could he leave the treacherous bastard Declan in charge of their businesses. God only knew what mess they’d come home to. He had to sort him out and kick Amber into touch too. “Alright, I’ll stay,” he said, holding up his hands. “Just bring her home safely.”
“I intend to. Is anything happening between you and Jules now you’re both getting divorced?”
“No, she said she’s not up for another relationship yet. But she did say there could be a possibility for us in the future.”
“Sensible decision. And you’re willing to wait for her?”
He nodded. “She’s all I want.”
Jez patted him on the shoulder. “I know mate.”
CHAPTER 35
Mikey knew the only way to get a quick, quiet divorce was to catch Declan and Amber in the act. It didn’t take long. When he next checked the tracker on his phone he discovered why Declan had been hanging around the café for so long - he’d been waiting for Amber to finish her hair appointment because both their cars were at his flat.
Most men would be furious to discover their wife was cheating on them with their cousin but on the contrary, Mikey was delighted. She’d given him everything he needed to get out of this marriage quickly.
He decided to tackle them alone, wanting no one to find out the truth. He managed to get into the building thanks to an elderly woman coming out the door. After taking in his expensive clothes and charming smile she allowed him through the door. It was amazing how easily people were deceived by appearances.
He climbed the stairs to Declan’s flat, which was on the first floor, surprised by how calm he felt. It just went to show how any love he’d had for Amber had been destroyed. It was Declan’s betrayal that was biting him the deepest.
Outside the door he pressed his ear to the wood to listen but could hear nothing from the inside. Quietly and easily he picked the lock and the door popped open. He walked inside, quietly closing the door behind him and proceeded down the hall leading into the living room. As he got closer he made out some odd sounds - a grunt accompanied by Amber’s distinctive whine, indicating she was having sex.
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