The Know (13 page)

Paulie laughed.

‘Don’t worry, Jon Jon, McArthur will live, more’s the fucking pity!’

Jon Jon sighed, then lighting a Marlboro Red told his boss the story of Jeanette and Jasper.

Paulie drove for a while in silence and then he said seriously, ‘I’d have done the same at your age. You’re still fucking half-cracked. Let’s see what occurs before we make any plans, OK? He wouldn’t be stupid enough to go to Old Bill, would he? Not a bullyboy like him.’

This was said in a derisive manner, but like Jon Jon, Paulie privately wondered if Jasper was going to make a statement. If he still wanted Jeanette he would need to get her brother out of the way. Personal problems caused more hag than anything in their line of work. Many a good man was banged up on the say-so of the old woman when she wanted shot, they were all aware of that.

 
Joanie was happier than she had been for a long time. When Paulie had said she was to work full-time in one of the parlours, she had assumed it was still as a brass. But it seemed that thanks to her son’s meteoric rise she was to be a receptionist. She would virtually run the place after a spot of training from a head girl known as Lazy Caroline.

Paulie had seemed genuinely benign when he had explained her new role and she felt the stirrings of hope once more. If she used her loaf she could maybe have things back like she’d had them before. But whatever happened she would run his business like it had never been run. This was her chance, a golden opportunity, and she would not waste it. As Joanie sipped her tea she felt she might just explode with happiness.

The first thing she was going to do today was get a good cut and colour, get her streaks done properly and her nails done. Maybe even treat herself to a new outfit, one befitting her new station in life as receptionist-manager of a massage parlour. It was like a fairytale.

Her eye wasn’t half-bad, she’d had worse, and she could cover it up for the time being. Once she got her hair sorted out she would be fine.

When she heard a knock on the door she assumed it was Monika. Opening it, she was shocked to see Jeanette standing there.

‘Where the fuck have you been all night? The school’s been on the phone again . . .’ Then something in her daughter’s face registered and she said loudly, ‘What? What is it? Is it Kira?’

Jeanette was upset and it came over in her voice as she bellowed, ‘No, it’s not your fucking precious Kira!’

Then the whole story tumbled out.

Jasper Copes? Of all the people in the world her daughter had to take up with! Jasper, the local bullyboy, the local racist.

It was laughable really, if Joanie had had a laugh left inside her.

 
Jasper stared at the two policemen warily.

‘I don’t know what you’re on about. I was mugged.’

The older detective sighed heavily.

‘Did this mugger have a white stick and a dog by any chance? Only they missed your wallet, keys, jewellery,
drugs
.’

Jasper shrugged.

The man leaned nearer the bed. Aware he was on a mixed ward he whispered now, ‘Don’t take me for a cunt, Jasper. Your mother has already filled me in on the details.’

Jasper tried to grin.

‘Was she pissed as usual?’ He laughed once more. It was painful and it sounded painful. ‘She don’t know what day of the week it is half the time; the other half she don’t know her own fucking name. Now as I said, I was mugged. Or shall I rephrase that? It was an
attempted
mugging. Why don’t you leave me alone?’

‘So you’re going to sort it out yourself then, are you?’

This was said derisively and duly taken on board by the battered boy lying in his hospital bed. Jasper beckoned with one finger and the policeman leaned towards him, his face suddenly alive with interest.

‘Fuck off, filth.’

The officer shook his head sadly. His voice was resigned as he said, ‘You never learn, do you? Next time he’ll bury you, son, and he will have more witnesses than a bent filth on a bender. He’ll bury you - and do you know what? I won’t even bother to break sweat. You’re not worth helping, you deserve all you’re going to get. And knowing Jon Jon Brewer, you’ll get plenty.’

They left Jasper then, but those words stayed with him. But he was not grassing anyone up; it was not in his nature. Plus he wouldn’t last five minutes on the pavement if he even chanced it. He just wanted to go home, but was still in tremendous pain and at least he felt safe in hospital.

Jasper Copes knew he was in a nightmare of his own making.

 
Kira left school at lunchtime. She was walking alone to the chip shop when as she crossed the busy road she saw Jeanette and waved. Her sister blanked her completely. Crushed, Kira carried on walking to the chippie, but the sun had gone from her day now.

Then, waddling towards her, she saw Tommy, and his big welcoming smile made up for her sister’s contempt. She found that now and again she bumped into him at lunchtimes and she was beginning to look forward to it. Bethany was playing the hop as usual but Kira was too frightened to keep it up. She knew her mother worried about her, and Joanie had explained that when Kira was in school she didn’t have to worry because she knew where she was. It had been explained in such a way that the child was frightened to truant now in case she broke her mother’s heart. Consequently she was often alone.

But today she was lucky. Not only did she see Tommy, but there inside the chip shop was Bethany. Her friend ran outside, her round face troubled.

‘Have you heard?’

Kira shook her head.

‘Heard what?’

‘About Jon Jon!’

‘What about Jon Jon!’

Kira was alarmed now. As Bethany explained yet another version of the events of the night before, Tommy made his goodbyes. No, he couldn’t take to Bethany. He knew her sort and he wanted Kira to himself. Just him and her. That was enough for him
and
for her most of the time. Such was his disappointment, he didn’t even stick around for the gossip about Jon Jon.

 
Jeanette looked lost as she waited for her brother. Her long hair was unbrushed and she had not bothered to apply any makeup since she only cried it off. It had taken her mother ten minutes to talk Jon Jon into meeting her. She sat in the local McDonald’s, nervous and agitated. Luckily the staff were used to customers like her. This McDonald’s was a meeting point for skagheads. More deals were done in here than in the City of London not ten minutes away.

As Jeanette stared out of the window at the car park, she watched the comings and goings around her. She saw small packages and rolled-up tenners exchanging hands at an alarming rate. She knew the majority of the dealers and their clients. Every now and again a smart BMW or ZX would pull up and replenish the dealers’ pockets with plastic baggies full of crack, heroin or cocaine.

If you wanted grass or solid it was now more a street-corner thing; decriminalising it only made it easier for the dealers. They didn’t have to travel far to work. Instead they just wandered around, chatting and being what Jon Jon called ‘easy’.

She was surprised to see him pull up outside with Paulie’s number two, Earl. If Jon Jon was bringing a fighter then he must be worried about reprisals. But who was he more worried about? Jasper and his crew or the police?

Jeanette sighed. It was useless speculating, she would know the score soon enough.

 
Earl had been given the hard word by Paulie, but was happy enough with his new duties. Inside he’d acknowledged that sometimes it had all got too much for him. He was great at the actual collecting, it was working the money out and counting it up that he had the problems with. If he was in the middle of counting and a bird walked by or his mobile rang he was fucked, would have to start the whole process over again. It was time-consuming and boring.

Now he was babysitting Wonder Boy as he privately called Jon Jon. He had heard about his escapades the night before and grudgingly admired him for it. He was a hard little fucker and still only seventeen. Paulie, though, was good at picking out the movers. Hadn’t he picked out Earl himself? Plus he liked Jon Jon. Earl was black, both his parents were too. Jon Jon, although a mongrel, was a good kid.

He was also mates with Sippy, so that alone guaranteed him entry into any company he chose. Sippy was Earl’s cousin and they were tight. He had told Earl to watch Jon Jon who was going to be big on their circuit before the year was out, and already the prophecy was coming true.

The heavy gave Jon Jon a friendly wink as they entered the Mackie D’s. Jon Jon was pleased. He had been worried about Earl’s reaction to him usurping the number one position, but he had taken it well.

Now he concentrated all his energy on his sister who looked so young and so appealing with her tear-ravaged face that he felt the urge to muller Jasper Copes all over again.

 
Karen Copes was so drunk she couldn’t grasp what was being said to her. So she smiled and nodded and wondered when the fuck the police would leave her house.

Her daughter Junie was doing the talking as usual. She had been primed by Jasper and knew exactly how to word it and in what context to put it.

The police left none the wiser and extremely frustrated because they knew that this was as far as it was all going to go. They didn’t give a toss about Jasper, he was just another young gun they wanted off the pavement. But they would have liked Jon Jon Brewer on a plate and this time it wasn’t going to happen.

He had more lives than the fucking X Men, and he was a slippery little sod. But they would wait. Wait and listen.

He would be theirs in the end.

 
Joseph Thompson was thrilled with his day. As he parked outside his girlfriend Della’s house he saw her wave to him from the front garden. He’d been hoping she would make it home for lunch. Inside she put the kettle on and chatted as she unpacked her shopping. He loved it here, it was bright and sunny and friendly.

Della was in her early fifties, heavy-breasted and plump. Her grey hair was cut short and she tended to dress in track-suit bottoms and T-shirts. But she was always smiling, and always happy to see him.

‘Have you considered what we talked about, Joe?’

She was staring at him quizzically, but he knew she wasn’t the type to push it. He smiled easily, hoping she would not go on when she heard what he had to say.

‘It’s hard, Della, you know the score with Tommy.’

She sighed.

‘I understand, of course I do. But from what I hear he will be OK on his own.’

Joseph frowned.

‘What have you heard then?’

She caught the undercurrent in his voice. She knew he was touchy about his boy and thought she understood why. Joseph didn’t know but she had already seen Tommy. Her friend from Bingo had pointed him out to her up the shops. She lived on the same estate and said to Della that everyone there liked Tommy, or Little Tommy as he was called. But when Della had seen him for herself she had understood Joseph’s feelings. His son was cruelly obese, and she felt that for a man of Joseph’s temperament it must be hard to live with someone who was so far from perfect.

He’d been so secretive about his boy, for a long time refusing even to discuss him. That alone proved how he felt about things. She had also heard vague rumours that Joseph was not kind to his son but wasn’t sure whether to believe those stories; he was so kind to her and her children, and he doted on her grand-daughters. He said it was so nice to be part of a
real
family, and she had understood what he meant.

‘I heard nothing specific,’ she said now. ‘You old silly! I mean, he seems to have got a little niche for himself where you live, that’s all.’

Joseph visibly relaxed.

‘I don’t know, Della. I can’t just leave him on his own like.’

She smiled gently.

‘Well, the offer’s there when you feel ready.’

She changed the subject then. She wasn’t getting deeper into a conversation where she was going to be asked to have his freak of a son living in her house, or more to the point where she had to explain outright that
that
was something that was
never
going to happen. Della wasn’t as sweet and nice as people thought. She could argue her end when she needed to. Her dead husband had found that out and changed his attitude accordingly. She was sure Joseph Thompson would do the same.

First things first, though. She had to get him through the door.

She smiled as she said, ‘How about a nice bit of egg and bacon for your lunch?’

Joseph grinned.

‘Sounds lovely.’

She opened the fridge and took out some bubble and squeak.

‘I cooked extra cabbage and mash yesterday. This will go down a treat with it, eh?’

She also took out tomatoes, mushrooms and sausages. She knew how to make a man feel wanted, did Della. And she was a fantastic cook, a great little housewife, and wasn’t after the old how’s your father morning, noon and night.

Joseph could do a lot worse, he knew that. He would work on giving Tommy the bad news.

 
Jasper was feeling better, but his heart wasn’t in the conversation he was having with his crony Dessie.