Kill Tone

by Lance Winkless

  The wrapping soon becomes a reflex for Jack, just as it was for Daryl right from the start. Without having to concentrate on the wrapping, the two men talk about the plans for the morning. Daryl has lined up three ‘associates’ to help out with sales at the festival, which is a good number because it means they can all fit in one car. One of the other three is Daryl’s cousin and the other two, Daryl also knows well and he assures Jack that they are reliable.

  Daryl’s cousin was always meant to be helping, but the other two will be an extra expense. Not that Jack will be out of pocket; they are going to sell twice as many as planned so Jack will actually be considerably up. Daryl suggests selling each pill for 10, so Jack works out that after paying the Russians back their 20K, 4K for Daryl’s cousin, 3K each for the other two, which is coming out of Jack’s end, and then Daryl’s 25% cut, he should be left with 50K. This sum is a best-case scenario, of course, as they might have to drop the price of the pills if they aren’t selling and will probably have to give discounts to customers who buy ten pills or more.

  Therefore, Jack drops his expectation to 35 to 40K, and if he clears that, he will be more than happy. That amount will be more than enough to set himself up and start providing for his daughter. Daryl will clear up to 20K too, and it will be well earned, as Jack’s plan would have been nowhere without him.

  Christ, he earned that after last night’s trouble.

  Jack and Daryl agree that Jack will pick them up at five-thirty in the morning. Allowing for traffic around the venue, that will get them there before seven. Jack has agreed to meet his security contact Jimmy on the gate at that time, so the timing should be okay. Shit, Jack suddenly thinks; he forgot to include Jimmy’s payment in his sums, so that’s another 5K off his end. Jack, however, is still more than satisfied.

  The full plastic food containers have mounted up on the table and the final block has been split open, the pills scattered in front of them. Jack’s thoughts go dark for a moment, looking at the scene. What would his Sophie say if she were to suddenly walk in? What would Jenny say?

  How could he ever explain his reasoning for having illegal drugs piled up and ready to sell? How could he tell them he was doing it for them? They wouldn’t believe him, and sometimes he doesn’t believe it himself. Does the end justify the means?

  Jack pushes those feelings down, since it is far too late to have second thoughts and he cannot afford them now. He has to make it work, his life depends on it.

  Daryl gives Jack the privilege of wrapping the final pill and putting the last lid on the container. Daryl, in fact, goes and gets two fresh beers from the fridge while Jack completes their task, the final part of which is stacking the containers back into the sports bag. Jack places the last container in and zips the bag back up before he allows himself to put the bottle of beer to his lips. He takes a large gulp of the beer and then leans back and pushes the table away with his feet.

  “That wasn’t too bad,” Jack says, bringing his bottle down.

  “Easy-peasy being a drug dealer, isn’t it?” Daryl teases.

  “You reckon so? After last night?” Jack jokes. “Seriously, I know the hard part is to come. What’s your feeling about tomorrow?”

  “My boys will be cool. It’s you I’m worried about if I’m honest,” Daryl says, looking at Jack seriously.

  “How so?”

  “You’ve got no experience, man. You gotta play it cool, be subtle. Don’t be trying to push anything on people who don’t want it or don’t know what they’re doing. A word is enough; if they know, they know, and if they want some, they will come to you. Look at them, and you’ll know if they are going to be interested before you even have to ask. If they look too young or naïve, let ’em walk by, and if they look serious, do the same. And most important, man, if they look like police, even a hint, turn and walk away. Blend into the crowd. Don’t run, walk until you can’t and you have to run. If you have even a sniff of police, walk. Even if you’re in the middle of a deal, don’t hesitate, walk. Cus if you get arrested, you’re on your own, bruv. I was never there, you get me?”

  “I understand,” Jack says, his face flushed, feeling like he would if he was getting a dressing down from Jenny.

  “I’m sorry if I sound harsh. I’m just worried cus you got no experience.”

  “I’ve got this, Daryl, I hear what you’re saying and you’re right. I’ll take it easy to start with, break myself in slow and ‘play it cool’.”

  “Good, we’ve got all weekend to shift the stuff so there is no need to rush it.”

  “We might even be able to kick back and watch a few bands on Sunday if things go well?” Jack points out.

  “Maybe, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Daryl says, still cautious. “You got everything you need for the weekend?”

  “Yep, everything is ready to go, you?”

  “Just got to pack it up.”

  “Do you want another drink before you go?” Jack asks.

  “No thanks, I’d better get off, I’ve got a few errands to run before tomorrow,” Daryl says, picking up his phone.

  “Okay, I’ll see you bright and early in the morning then.”

  “Yep, very early for me. Make sure you put the stuff away, out of sight,” Daryl says, nodding towards the sports bag.

  “I will, don’t worry.”

  Jack sees Daryl out and doesn’t move from the door for a moment to take a breather. He wonders if the seriousness of what he is going to do tomorrow and the severe possible consequences are finally sinking in. Eventually, he goes and picks up the sports bag and takes it back to the kitchen to put back in the oven. He will be eating in tonight; he daren’t risk leaving the pills in the house alone at night, so he gets a beer out of the fridge and rifles through a drawer to find a food delivery menu.

  Chapter 8

  Jack pulls up outside Daryl’s place in Andrei’s car. Leaving the windows open on the car overnight certainly helped dry it out. The back seat is still damp, however, and so Jack has put some towels over it and has kept the windows down while he drove.

  The sun has risen, but only just. Although the morning is still dim, Jack can feel the warmth in the air and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. Good news. For some reason, even though the weather forecast was good for the weekend, Jack was worried that he would wake up and it would be raining. That would have made their job difficult and could have put some of their customers off making a purchase.

  He was being paranoid; it’s going to be sun all the way, right throughout the weekend. He is confident about that now.

  Daryl is leaning up against his car, smoking as Jack arrives, talking to three young men. One of them is black and Jack assumes that that is Daryl’s cousin, whilst the other two are white. Daryl sees Jack pull up and gives him a nod to let Jack know he has seen him, and he pushes himself up off his car as he does. The three young men look over in Jack’s direction, following Daryl’s nod.

  Jack gets out of the car and goes to meet Daryl as he walks over with the rest of the crew a few paces behind him. All are carrying bags that contain their belongings for the weekend.

  “Uh, this is too early for me,” Daryl complains as he reaches Jack and shakes his hand.

  “The early bird catches the worm,” Jack teases him.

  “The birds are welcome to the worms if it means I can stay in bed!”

  “I didn’t know you smoked?” Jack quizzes Daryl.

  “I don’t, but then again, I don’t get up this early in the morning normally. I bummed one, couldn’t help it,” Daryl confesses. “Anyway, this is my cousin, Reggie,” Daryl says, pointing at the young man who Jack had assumed was his cousin. They shake hands. “This is my good friend Joe.” Jack shakes the hand of a taller young man wearing a baseball cap. Finally, Daryl introduces Jack to Tom, who really does look quite young, especially with his blond, curly shoulder-length hair.

  The introductions done, the bags are loaded into Andrei’s car. Daryl takes the passenger seat
, confining the three younger guys into the back seat for the journey. None of them seems to mind; they are actually quite excitable, making jokes and taking the piss like they are about to set off on a day out. Jack wonders if Daryl suddenly feels like one of their parents. Jack does as he pulls off.

  Jack makes good time. There is little traffic on the roads this early in the morning and his phone tells him he should arrive at 6.40 a.m. Protests grow from the back seat until eventually, Jack gives in and pulls into a drive-through for them to get some breakfast. He finds himself quite hungry too, as soon as he smells the food, so orders himself something too which he eats while he carries on driving.

  Almost immediately after they leave the drive-through, they are leaving the outer city limits behind. It isn’t long before Jack is driving down country roads to get to the festival taking place on a farm just outside the city. Traffic bottles up on the smaller roads and their progress slows, but according to his phone, they will still arrive on time. Jack is grateful they aren’t heading to one of the main entrances to the festival, where he is sure the traffic would be terrible. They will be entering the venue through the busman’s entrance where all the staff working at the festival have to go, including the artists.

  Finally, Jack gets sight of the entrance and the cars queued up at it waiting for clearance. He gets the paperwork to hand that should get them through the security cordon that Jimmy, his contact, has provided. Jimmy didn’t make any fuss about adding two more people onto the list. He hasn’t even asked for any more cash to cover it. Perhaps he is happy with the payment they agreed on?

  As they approach the cordon, Daryl tells the three in the back to quieten down a bit. They at least need to act like regular security personnel if difficult questions are going to start to be asked. The lads comply at the first time of asking, giving Jack some hope that they might pull this off.

  ***

  Jack got to know Jimmy when he was a doorman at a bar Jack was drinking in regularly a year or so ago. Jimmy was like a part of the furniture, always there. Even on Jimmy’s nights off, he would go in for a drink and occasionally, he was the one on the borderline of needing the attention of his colleagues manning the door that night after he’d had a few too many. It was on one of those nights when Jack and Jimmy found themselves drinking together, that the seed for Jack’s plan had been sown.

  All Jimmy had done was mention that he was moving up in the world and had secured a supervisory position at the Kill Tone Festival. The annual Kill Tone Festival is famous throughout the city and Jimmy always worked at it as security, but this year, he was going to be in charge of his own team. The very next morning, Jack was hungover in bed when he started to think about Jimmy’s new position and how some unscrupulous people could possibly abuse it. The seed had grown over the following days and weeks until he mentioned it to Daryl, who also saw the possibilities and with Daryl’s contacts, another piece of the jigsaw fell into place.

  Soon after, while having another drink with Jimmy, he had gently floated the idea, hypothetically of course. That was when a large piece of the jigsaw was slotted into place. Jimmy confessed that he was having money troubles; he liked a wager on the horses a bit too much and had got into debt with the wrong people. It wasn’t serious, Jimmy had told Jack, only a couple of grand, but he didn’t know where he was going to get the money from to settle his debt. Working a door didn’t pay much, he had informed Jack. Jimmy hadn’t needed much persuasion, he even wangled the paperwork, and now here they were all about to join Jimmy’s security team for the weekend.

  ***

  Security at the festival entrance hands back the paperwork, and Jack accelerates as he is waved through into the staff car park situated in a dusty field. The butterflies start to settle in Jack’s stomach as he drives away. He did have a horrible feeling that the security was going to insist on searching the car before letting them through. His stomach settling, Jack notices the ‘Staff Registration’ hut where he is to meet Jimmy. He drives into the field to park up.

  Everyone gets their gear out of the car and they walk over to the registration hut. Jack is very self-conscious, getting the feeling that everyone around is looking at him and eyeing the sports bag in his hand as he walks. He tells himself he is just being paranoid and tries to concentrate on looking for Jimmy.

  “Jack!” the familiar voice of Jimmy shouts. Jack turns to see Jimmy striding towards them. Jimmy is in his late forties, about six foot and slightly overweight. He is already kitted out in his hi-vis security tabard, and is sporting a baseball cap with security emblazoned across the front in white stitching.

  “Good timing,” Jimmy says as he reaches Jack and shakes his hand.

  “Excellent timing, Jimmy, good to see you,” Jack tells him, taking his hand and noticing that he has a sprung wire winding up his neck and into his ear. Jack doubts that they will be issued with the same equipment.

  “Let’s get you all registered,” Jimmy says when Jack has made the introductions. Jimmy leads the way to the registration hut and before long, they are all walking back across the field towards the next entrance to the festival, with their own security hi-vis tabards and baseball caps.

  Jack was correct, there are no radios or earpieces for them.

  They are all waved through the entrance into the festival, emerging into one of the tented campsites that surround the periphery of the fields where the show’s stages are situated. Through and into the festival, Jimmy leads them around the edge of the campsite for quite some distance.

  “Where are we going?” Jack asks.

  “To your tent for the weekend, it’s in the area cordoned off for the security staff. I’ve managed to get you all into your own tent, so there won’t be anyone else sharing it.” Jimmy says, just as Jack sees a sign reading ‘Security Area’.

  “Great, thanks Jimmy,” Jack says.

  Again, they are all waved through the entrance and into the area where all of the security staff will be sleeping in tents that are already erected. Jimmy quickly stops outside a large green tent that is close to the entrance.

  “Okay lads,” Jimmy says. “This is your tent for the weekend, number 8,” he says pointing to a white sign with the number on it attached to the front of the tent. “There are made-up camp beds inside for you all. The shower area is over there and the food tent is over there,” he says as he points to both.

  “Now, a few rules you need to stick to while you are here. Firstly, I’ve got you in as security but you won’t actually be security, so don’t start pretending you are and pissing about or taking the piss, okay?” Jimmy looks at everyone, his eyes bulging until he gets agreement. “Thank you, good. Secondly, only use your security wear for moving about the site. It will get you in anywhere, apart from the VIP, backstage area, as you need an extra clearance pass for that. When you are where you want to be, to do your work, take the security wear off, okay? The last thing we need is someone reporting that some of the security staff are doing what you are going to do; that could lead to some serious shit, yes?” Again, Jimmy looks for agreement, which he receives. “Thirdly, and most importantly, if you get caught don’t mention me, just say you stole the security gear from one of the security huts, okay?” Everyone nods agreement. “Thanks, guys, please try and be discreet, I don’t need to tell you the ramifications if the law gets involved. Okay, I think that’s about it. Oh, there are maps on top of your beds so that you can find your way around the site. Jack.” Jimmy says, beckoning Jack over.

  “Good speech,” Jack tells Jimmy as they take a few steps away from the others.

  “I hope I was clear, Jack and will you reiterate it to them that I don’t want anything coming back on me? You understand?”

  “Of course Jimmy, I’ll do that. We are going to play it low key, none of us wants any trouble, especially with the law.”

  “Good,” Jimmy says, getting a copy of the festival map out of his pocket and opening it up to show Jack. “This is the Village area,” Jimmy says,
pointing. “And this is where ‘Big Dave’s Hog Roast’ shack will be. At the back of the shack, Dave has secured a metal box for you to use, as we said, and here is the key for it, okay?”

  “Yes, thanks, Jimmy.”

  “Dave said not to talk to him, just use the box and leave his money and the key inside at the end, okay?”

  “I understand Jimmy, thanks,” Jack says, taking the key.

  “Thanks, Jack. I’ll be around if you need me, but it might be best if we keep our distance.”

  “Yes, you’re right. I’ll only find you if absolutely necessary and we will catch up next week to settle up, okay?”

  “Yes, that’s okay. Until next week then, good luck,” Jimmy says and leaves Jack to it.

  Jack takes a moment to watch Jimmy walk away and to take in his surroundings. Hi-vis is definitely the fashion in this part of the campsite; they are moving around everywhere to get to their assignments. The campsites for the festival have been open since yesterday for fans to set up their tents and be ready for the music to start at midday today. Security was in operation yesterday, but Friday is when it really ramps up and more security operatives are drafted in, this year including Jack and the others, ready for the festival to start.

  Watching as the security staff move around, Jack gets a feel for how he should act so that he blends in with them. A confident stride and a look of self-importance should do the trick.

  Down to business then, Jack thinks as he turns to join the others.

  Pushing the material of the tent’s door across, Jack sees that four of the five camp beds lined up in front of him have already been claimed. They have left one on the end for Jack, next to Daryl, and Jack puts his bags down on it.

  The three younger men are chattering away and looking at the maps of the festival site left on their beds. Jack picks up his map, he has already studied it online but familiarises himself again with the layout of the festival. Daryl is doing the same.

  “It’s a big site,” Daryl says.