Heavy Duty Trouble (The Brethren Trilogy) (23 page)

‘
I used to be a project manager with one of the big construction boys,
’ he explained
,
as he added some milk from the jug and gave it a stir, ‘
but they go
t
nervous once I got made up to P,
they
were concerned about potential adverse publicity
was the way the HR woman put it to me
. S
o they
offered
me a good package
to fuck off
and
I took it and
went
freelance. I didn’t mind really, my boss
thought
I was good and he’s made sure I’ve had a steady flow of work ever since like he said he would. And as it happened, what with being P, I needed to have more time available for club business anyway so it suited me
alright in the end
.
’

That Wibble had obviously held down what would have been a reasonably high pressure and well
paid
job in construction management explained a lot about his abilities to manage the club’s affairs and the guys within it. A building site must have been a busman’s holiday for him I reckoned.

‘
So the question is
,
I guess,
’ I said
,
switching back to the matters at hand,
‘
are you going to allow those guys to take over the club?
’

‘
No fucking way
,’ he said emphatically,
‘
The club belongs to all of us, not just some clique
around Charlie
.
’

‘
And someone’s got to stand up for that?
’

‘
Yes
,
well I guess they have at that.
To get the club to where it needs to be.
’

*

R
eluctantly
, particularly considering what I’d seen only the night before, I was having to
look at Wibble in a new light
these days.

He
was
a bit like
the Gerry Adams of the Brethren
I thought, struggling for an analogy that worked
.

You didn’t get to be the top of the outlaw club tree without doing some serious shit
.

You might think that he’s doing whatever he’s doing with some power play in mind, some ulterior motive, you didn’t have to think that he’d suddenly had some Damascene conversion to peace and light, some sudden realisation and regret for the horrors
,
t
he violence, the suffering.

But what you did have to see was the reality of
what
he was doing, the
potential for
ending the violence.

And if it was real, wasn’t that a price worth paying?

You could never get peace without someone at the top deciding it was time to stop. But someone at the top could never get there, or make the stop stick, without having been in it themselves. They would never have got to the top through peace.

Blessed are the peacemakers. Yeah, well perhaps. But even if they had to have been warmongers first?

It seemed like I was going to need to be supping with a very long spoon.

*

‘So h
ow are you getting on with Bung?
’ he asked.

‘
Oh
,
O
K
I guess
…
’

‘Until last night?’

‘Well, yeah, Christ…
’

‘Look we’re involved in a war here,’ he said firmly
.
‘You know that and what it means. People are going to get killed until we put a stop to it. That’s what happens in war.’

‘That’s not what happens in war…’ I protested.

‘Oh don’t be fucking soft. Of course it is. You know that.’

‘Yeah
,
but…’

‘And we want to avoid any more bloodshed than’s absolutely necessary.’

‘So it was necessary to do…’ I still couldn’t really bring myself to put it into words.

‘Yes it was. If it stops
another
crew deciding to come and have a go, and us needing to take them out as well, then yes, it was worth it.’

He looked me square in the face.

‘And don’t go crying about the guy that died. He was the
T
roll’s P. No way was he clean. Don’t forget those guys had come out there to burn down Scampi’s place and kill everyone and anyone inside, including you.’

And
they had
damn near succeeded
,
I had to admit. Much longer
stuck in the building
and I’d have been the one burning, not him.

‘You know Bung says he doesn’t watch CSI for entertainment, don’t you?’

I shook my head and then with a sigh, took the bait
.

‘So what does he watch it for then?’

‘Oh that’s easy mate, new ideas.’

Wibble knew what he was doing, I had to give him his due.

‘
I hear
Bung
was telling you about his murder rap
,
’
he said, ‘Back when he was a squaddie.’

‘
Well yeah, as a matter of fact
he was
. No offence
,
but I have to say I
was
sort of surprise
d
he got involved in a fight over a black guy.’

Wibble
raised an eyebrow
at that.

‘Why?
Cos
of the club colours and stuff?’

I nodded.

‘Well
you’ve gotta understand, back then
Chalkie w
ould have been like
family
to him
.
Like a lot of the guys say, in the army you fight for the other guys in your squad
because
you know they’ve got your back
,
and you don’t care if they’re white, yellow, black, brown or fucking green. If you’re a mate then you’re a mate.’

‘But now, in the club I mean?’

‘Hey,
it
do
es
n’t make
any
difference to me. I don’t have a problem with black guys. I’ve had good black mates at work and around the clubs on the doors,’ he meant nightclubs, ‘but it’s true, we don’t have any in the club. To start with it was a
Yank
thing, the guys in the mother club are a bit redneck and anyway it just didn’t really arise.’

‘But now, if a black guy wanted to join?’

He considered the idea for a moment, then shrugged, ‘I’d be cool with it. Sure I reckon some of the guys would be anti, we’ve got some racists like anywhere else, so a black guy would have a harder time of it maybe than anyone else, but if he had the right stuff, then I think he’d win through in the end.’

‘At least,’ he added as an afterthought, ‘if it was a club where I’m P.’

‘You mean with Charlie it might be different?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know,’ was all he said.

*

There was a knock at the door and Jonquil put her head round it to ask if we needed anything else.

‘No we’re good love,’ he said.

‘Do you want me to take that then, if you’re done? she nodd
ed at
the tray.

Wibble glanced over to check with me.

‘I’m done thanks,’ I said raising my hands.

‘Oh yeah,’ he said turning back to
Jonquil
and picking up the tray
to hand it to her
, ‘that’d be great.’

‘Do you mind if I ask you a question?’ I said
,
as she took
it from
his proffered hands.

She glanced at him for a steer and I saw the quick nod of approval he gave her.

‘Sure, what is it?’ she asked standing up, tray in one hand, the other on the door handle.

‘
I think h
e’s offering me a deal,’ I said.

‘Is he?
’
she smiled back,
‘
well if I was you I’d take it.’

‘But that’s just it,’ I said, ‘
I don’t know. S
hould I
?’

‘So what can I tell you that’s going to help?’ she asked.

‘C
an I trust him
?’ I said, nodding at Wibble.

She stopped then and looked down at him seriously before
staring
me straight in the eye
as if challenging me to dare
to
contradict her
.

‘
All I can say is
,
he’s never lied to me
,
’
s
he said firmly.

‘
Not once?
’

‘
N
ever,’ she said, and with that she was gone, the door closing behind her and Wibble’s steady gaze on me again.

‘
Damage put it nicely once
in that book you wrote
,
’ he said, ‘
You quoted him on it.
There’s no bullshit from us
.
’

A bit like we had a deal that I disappear and I never hear from you again
,
I thought
?
But I just nodded.

‘So
let’s hear it then,
what’s the
plan and what’s the
deal
,
Wibble?’

‘Who said there was a deal?’

I shook my head at him. It was another of
those
things that I’d learnt from Damage after all,
‘There’s always a deal.’

*

‘
So how are you going to fight Charlie?
’
I asked. It was what it all came down to really, his
,
and now my survival
,
I reckoned.

‘
We need to get to the cash before he does
,’ he said, ‘If w
e get it,
then
we’re safe
. W
e can get
ourselves
the
guys,
the
guns, whatever we need
to win
.
’

‘But?’

He shrugged, ‘But if
Charlie gets
to
it
first
,
then
we’re all dead
.’

‘
And what about me?
’
I asked. ‘Once this is all over I mean.’

‘Well that depends on you to an extent, doesn’t it?’ he said, ‘If y
ou don’t want to help us, then we’ve got no need for you now, in fact you’re a bit of a problem to have around while all this sh
i
t is going on.
’

I knew where that line of reasoning led, and it wasn’t one I wanted to explore any further thank you.

‘
And if we lose, then there’s no way that Charlie’s going to let you go, not with what you know.
’

‘
And if you win?
’ I asked.

‘
Well
then
we’ll have got what we needed,
’ he said, ‘and we’ll be taking the club away from all this gangster shit,
so I’ll
tell you what, I will
do you a deal
after all
.
’

He leant forwards, ‘So this is my offer.
You disappear again, you’ve shown you could do it
once
before and keep your mouth shut
,
so I’m prepared to take the chance you’d do it again. Shit, if there’s as much dosh as I think there is we’ll even cut you a share. An even mil as your retirement fund. How
doe
s that sound?
’

‘
How do I know I can trust you?
’
I asked.

‘
You don’t,
’
he said,
leaning back again, ‘
not for sure. But then you have to ask yourself whether you
think
I’m a stand up gu
y
? Do you think I’m the sort of bloke who’d stand by a deal or not?
’