Faces (6 page)

Danny looked into his eyes with genuine bewilderment. ‘Why do you want to hurt us? My old man is the one who owes you the money, and you’ve more chance of being paid in Bulgarian luncheon vouchers than getting six large off him.’

Wilfred Murray, the shorter of the two brothers grinned, and it was a calculated and deliberate movement of his face. There was nothing there to make an onlooker think he was actually enjoying himself. ‘Are you a bit thick, mate?’

Danny swallowed down his anger and, forcing his face into a mask of innocence he said quietly, ‘Well, I must be. As far as I’m concerned you have done us lot the favour of our lives; the old man disappearing was a bonus for us, mate. But I warn you now, you come near my family again and you’d better come mob-handed, because if I survive your next visit I’ll make it me life’s work to hunt you two down and obliterate you.’ It was said without anger, and with a quiet dignity that made the large young man in front of them seem almost menacing.

‘Hark at him! Fucking Harry Dash! Are you having a tin bath, son?’ Wilfred’s laughter was loud and laced with sarcasm.

Danny didn’t make any kind of movement, he just stared at them. He saw that he was much bigger physically than the pair of them put together. He was a big lad, he knew, and he also knew that, thanks to his father, he was having to act the hard man and face down two notorious thugs. But he knew that if they threatened his family he would have to do what he had threatened. He put his hand up then, an instinctive movement, and pointed a warning finger at the two men.

‘I mean it. If you come near my family I will not be responsible. If it takes me the rest of my life I’ll find you and I’ll kill you. See, my father is the one you have the fucking argument with, not us. And, while you’re at it, ask yourself what kind of person really believes that someone who lives here could have six large sitting in his back pocket. You’ve got more chance of getting a wank off the queen than recouping that money, and you know it.’

Walter knew the boy spoke the truth but they had collected debts from poorer people than this over the years. It was amazing what people were capable of when under pressure. Walter’s fist shot out and connected with Danny’s face, sending the boy flying backwards. As Danny hit the brown-tiled floor he saw his mother fly out from the bedroom with a small axe that she had raised above her head and, before he could stop her, she had brought it down, with all her might, onto the smaller man on her doorstep. Danny saw him drop like a stone, and then he saw his mother wrench the axe from the man’s chest and aim it at Wilfred’s head. It connected with his shoulder and his scream was heard all over the estate.

‘You fecking touch my kids and I’ll fecking destroy the pair of you.’ She was hacking at the two men now, and they were both bleeding profusely from their wounds. As she hit them, and screamed her anger into their faces, Danny pulled himself to his feet, grabbed his mother around the waist, and pushed her into the kitchen. Seeing the kettle, and hearing the two men coming into the flat, their shock now giving way to anger, Danny picked the kettle up and slung the contents into both their faces. Their screams were loud and long, but his mother’s shrieking seemed to drown them out.

As Danny looked at them, the scalded skin on their faces, the open wounds from his mother’s attack, he wondered if he had wandered into a nightmare. His father had a lot to answer for and, when he finally showed up, Danny would make sure he knew exactly what he had caused.

He shoved the two men out of the flat. As he grabbed hold of Wilfred his hand took off a layer of skin and he knew that had to hurt like fuck. Then he slammed the front door and, leaning against it, he waited until he could breathe properly once more and the urge to vomit had passed. Then he went to his mother; she was still in the kitchen, clutching the axe in her arms as if holding a baby.

‘What have we done, son?’ She was shaking her head, and he noticed just how tiny she actually was.

The noise outside had died down, and he assumed the Murrays had taken themselves off to the local hospital for treatment.

He could hear his sister Annie crying, and after he had pushed a wardrobe against the front door, he calmed his mother down and hugged his sister to sleep. Then, taking the bloodied axe from his mother, he sat on the floor and waited for the next instalment of the drama that was suddenly his life. Jonjo came and sat beside him, the fear in his eyes almost tangible and Danny knew that if his father was to come home now, when he had finished with him, the Murrays’ wounds would look like they had been on a day trip with the WI. Six hundred lousy quid. Their lives had been destroyed over a poxy six large, and the man who had caused all this upset was, as always, nowhere to be seen. He had been left alone to protect his family while his father was on the trot, and he was terrified that he wasn’t strong enough to do the job. His mother was white-faced with fear and shock, and he knew that she would never get over the day’s events and, in all honesty, neither would he. His fourteenth birthday was only five days away and he wondered if he would live long enough to see it.

 

The Murrays’ reception at the Cadogans’ spread like wildfire. Louie Stein shook his head in sadness and made a point of being seen going to the boy’s flat on a regular basis. He knew that his presence would be duly noted and passed onto the people involved. He had a certain kudos inasmuch as he was good friends with a lot of the Faces around and about. In fact he made a point of telling everyone he spoke to about the young man who worked for him having to take on the Murrays to protect his little sister and brother. The mother, he laughed, was a Face in her own right. Angelica the Axe Woman, as he called her, was soon part of urban legend. But the Murrays would eventually want some kind of revenge; that was only human nature. That they had not called in the police was not remarked on. After all, if they had, they would never have been able to hold their heads up again. It was tantamount to grassing, and the fact that the police had not come to investigate, even though the facts were common knowledge to all and sundry, spoke volumes as well.

Even the Cadogans’ parish priest, Father Donovan, a huge surly man who saw his flock’s daily fight for survival as a personal affront, had made a point of visiting two or three times a day. His presence had been appreciated by Danny as well as his mother. It had given them the seal of approval, said they were the injured party and that brought a lot of people round to their way of thinking, seeing as the Murrays were Irish Catholics as well.

But Danny was unable to relax, wondering constantly when the Murrays were going to arrive and exact some kind of revenge. He wouldn’t leave his mother and the kids alone, and when he was at work he made sure they were safe and surrounded by people. That was the easy bit. The hard bit was the waiting and, after two months, he knew that the time was near for a visit, and he accepted the inevitable.

His father was still on the missing list, and Danny found his hatred and distaste for the man growing by the day. He was a big lad, but since working for Louie he had developed muscles that had not been there before. He was broadening by the day, his shoulders and chest had become more pronounced, and his hands were rough and calloused. He knew he looked much older than his years, and he made a point of dressing up. While his peers were wearing cheesecloth shirts and baggy flares, he dressed in shirts and tailored trousers. He was already looking like a gangster, and he knew it was a style that suited him. His build and his natural swagger were suddenly a familiar sight in Bethnal Green, and the eyes that never seemed to show any emotion made the girls swoon at his approach. He was a local hero, and he milked it for what it was worth. He knew that when the Murrays finally surfaced he would need all the help he could get, and he made a point of cultivating anyone he thought might be an ally. His natural cunning was all he had going for him, and he was lucky enough to have it in abundance.

 

Angelica was still trying to locate her husband, and so far it had been a fruitless and frustrating two months. No one seemed to have seen or heard anything about him. To all intents and purposes he had dropped off the face of the earth. But she knew him better than anyone, and she was convinced he was shacked up with one of his birds, waiting it out, letting his family take the heat for him. Angelica had always known he was not the most trustworthy of men, but this latest stunt was out of order - even for him.

She knew her daughter had been badly affected by that night. Annie had always been excitable, but the Murrays’ visit had unleashed a nervousness that was apparent to anyone within five minutes of being in her company. She was unable to sit still, and her chatter was constant and without any kind of structure. She could have three conversations at once, and her nervous laugh was enough to bring tears to her mother’s eyes. A daddy’s girl, she was the only person in his orbit he actually seemed to genuinely care about, and she believed her father was the greatest thing since the ascension into heaven of our Lord himself. It was painful to watch Annuncia pine for her father, and even harder for Angelica to stop herself giving the child the facts of life before she was ready to hear them. One day, Angelica knew, she would work him out all by herself; she didn’t need it spelled out for her - no matter how tempting her mother found it. The Murrays were enough for her young daughter to worry about, and worry about them she did.

And what kind of men were the Murrays? Who in their right minds terrorised women and children? And anyway, what would their revenge be now, seeing they had come off the worst in their initial encounter with the Cadogans? It was Danny she was really afraid for, she knew he was likely to be the one targeted. She also knew that was exactly what he hoped would happen. He had taken to dressing like a thug, suited and booted now, he was earning a few quid, though determined not to pay his father’s debts for him, and assuming the role of head male in the household. A role Angelica was happy for him to fulfil, even though she knew it was wrong; that he was a child when all was said and done. But he was also the only thing keeping them from penury and the pavement. He had even paid off the back rent, and obtained items of furniture she had only dreamed of possessing. He was a good lad, a kind brother and son, and now she knew he was also a very
capable
boy. Big Dan Cadogan had left a void in their lives, and this youngster was trying to fill it, trying to take the onus off her and his siblings. Christ himself knew it was a hard road for him, and a harder road for her, his mother, because she was witness to it all, and she took whatever he managed to give her.

Her Danny Boy, her first-born son, the love of her life, had skipped adolescence and commenced straight to adulthood. He had taken to walking home through the back roads, knowing that he would be an easy mark for anyone who wished to pick him up in a car, or savage him on the quiet. He wanted the reprisal over and done with so they could get on with their lives.

The violence of her own part in the Murrays’ attack had shocked her. A fighter all her life, she had never before used a weapon; she had never had to. Her children’s safety had brought that part of her fighting spirit to the fore. She knew in her heart though that the Murrays would not, indeed
could
not, come back at her over it. That would not be tolerated, in fact, if she ever even got mugged, the finger of blame would be pointed firmly in their direction. They knew that as well as she did. Even their own mother, a heavy-set Yugoslavian woman with pink cheeks and a wrinkled neck, had voiced her displeasure over her sons’ actions. Mothers were out of bounds, as were kids, and it had taken her family’s trials and tribulations to get that point across to the Murrays. But, like her son, she would be relieved when the Murrays finally made a move; at least then they could get on with their lives.

 

Danny was taking his tea break with Louie and, as they sat side by side on an old crate, they were both aware of the easy camaraderie that had developed between them. Danny was grateful to his employer for standing beside him, for making him feel there was at least a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. He knew Louie was watching his back and, since no one had ever done that for him in his short life, the gratitude he felt was pitiful.

The breakers’ yard now had a tidiness that was only apparent to those who actually worked there. Over the last two months Danny had systematically sorted through pile after pile of scrap metal, separating the copper, lead and iron into piles of their own. The cars, their main source of income, were everywhere, and the crushed remains of them were piled up like a huge metal wall. Once the carcasses were stripped of parts they were useless, and therefore disposed of quickly and cleanly in the huge crushing machine that Danny could now operate in his sleep.

When the totters came in these days their scrap was easily disposed of and placed on to the appropriate pile, and anyone who wanted car parts was now able to go straight to whatever they wanted without half a day’s search. Louie was thrilled with what the boy had achieved. Even though the yard was really a blind for his other businesses, he was pleased at how much more efficient the place was now, thanks to this young lad’s hard graft. He had also taught the boy how to barter the totters for their scrap, and Danny had turned out to be a real natural. He had a feel for the place, knew instinctively what was worthless and what would make a few quid. He was not only as strong as an ox, but he was also shrewder than people realised. He was able to do a good deal while letting the other party think they had got the best of the bargain. In his game that was an important part of the job.

Danny had even started to ferret out and salvage a lot of the stuff for himself. Louie paid him a finder’s fee, of course, and he saw the thrill that Danny got from making a few quid on the side. It was a necessity in their world, that need to make a good deal, make a few quid over the odds, even when you were rolling in it. The cars were a separate business altogether, but Danny was like most young fellows and loved anything with four wheels, he was even able to distinguish which make of car a part was from. Passing trade was often young men looking for an exhaust pipe or new gearbox for their car and, before Danny, Louie would have had to stand there and watch them while they searched, to make sure they didn’t half inch anything else while they were there. Now though, Danny would accompany them, chat to them about their needs and wants and, nine times out of ten, lay his large hands on the item in question within minutes.