Tony Black - Long Time Dead

Amy cut in, ‘But if that cow Tina gets her way… this case is over.’

‘Not necessarily,’ I said. I moved to the chair I’d flung my tweed on, leaned over and retrieved my mobi from the inside pocket. It had been switched off; I had two missed calls. I checked the details: one was from Gillian, she had called about twenty minutes after I’d left her home. The other was a first – it rattled me.

‘Wonder what he wanted?… Got a call from Stevo.’

‘Janny guy at the uni?’ said Amy.

‘Aye… he’s never rung me before.’ The thought stung and the possibilities raced before me. ‘Wonder what he’s after.’

‘Call him back.’

‘Yeah… in a minute,’ I said. ‘I have a call from Gillian too.’

‘Gillian!’ said Hod. ‘We just left her.’

‘Yeah, I know…’ I checked my inbox. ‘She’s left a voicemail.’

As I listened to her message, Hod and Amy sat wide-eyed. There was nothing that they’d wanted to hear in that voicemail.

I lowered the phone.

‘That’s it, then.’

‘What?’

I relayed the message: ‘She’s pulling the plug… wants us off the case.’

‘What the fuck… why?’ said Hod. He was on his feet.

I flagged him down. ‘The woman’s had enough… but you don’t need to worry, she’s paying full whack.’

Hod brightened. ‘She is?’

Amy amped it up: ‘For fucksake, is that all you’re interested in?’

Hod fired back, ‘Well, actually… it’s a consideration, aye. I have Shaky on my back, or have you forgotten that?’

She tutted and looked away. ‘Ben had a similar problem, I seem to remember.’

‘Aye, and look how he ended up.’

I had dialled Stevo’s number, waved at the others to shut the fuck up. ‘Hello, Stevo, it’s Gus.’

He seemed to be whispering, timid. ‘Oh, you got my message.’

‘Yes… sorry, my phone was switched off. Just got to it. What’s up?’

There was a pause on the line. It unsettled me.

‘Gus… I-I, er, saw Paul.’

I didn’t like the sound of this already – what the fuck was Paul doing racing from Gillian’s gaff to see Stevo? ‘Oh, yes?’

‘He seems to think that…’ I heard a noise, a clatter of tins.

‘What was that?’

Stevo held schtum. ‘I don’t know.’

‘Is everything okay there?’

His voice dropped even lower. ‘I think there might be someone outside.’

‘Stevo… what did Paul say?’

‘He asked me what I had told you… and some other stuff. He was very… animated.’ He sounded pensive, on edge. His voice was choked with emotion.

‘I bet he was.’ This wasn’t good. ‘Stevo, get the fuck out of there… You hear me? Go home – now!’

His voice trembled; I could hear the fear in it. ‘I think you might be right.’

‘Look, Stevo, if you get any bother, call me right away, okay.’

Silence.

I’d missed the line going dead.

‘Shit!’

I tried to call him back but it went straight to voicemail.

‘Fucking hellfire!’ I yelled. I grabbed up my jacket. ‘C’mon… move yer arse. Things are kicking off.’

‘ Y’wha’ ?’

‘Don’t fucking ask. We need to get to Stevo.’

I made for the door with Hod following. In the stairwell I heard Amy’s heels clacking on the stairs. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’ I asked.

‘With you.’

‘That’ll be shining bright.’ I pointed back to the door. ‘Get up those stairs.’

She made a moue of her mouth, pushed past me. ‘Fucking watch me.’

Hod shrugged. ‘No telling her.’

I knew he was right. We fired down the stairs. My heart was pounding already. A hundred scenarios flashed in my mind, none of them good. Stevo was the last person I wanted to get mixed up in this. Thing was, I knew he had more information than he had let on. He had done a good job of keeping it to himself… so far; I hoped he kept it that way. Dreaded to think how Paul and his mates would react to finding themselves up against someone else at this point.

For the first time, I wished I hadn’t pressed so hard on Paul. The lad was unstable. There was no predicting how he would react to the threats I had put on him. I had the dread feeling I’d fucked up. Badly.

HOD PUT THE PEDAL TO the metal. For the first time in living memory Amy didn’t fiddle with the CD player. We all sat, eyes front, cursing the traffic.

‘This is fucked,’ said Amy.

I looked at her. She was pumped, raring to go. This was the last thing I wanted. She shouldn’t have been with us at all – it was no place for her. I didn’t want to see her get hurt. I leaned forward. ‘Hod, you need to go and see Gillian.’

‘Y’wha’?… Thought we were going to this Stevo guy.’

‘No. Drop me off, I’ll sort Stevo… you and Amy go and see Gillian.’

Amy pointed a painted fingernail at me. ‘Now hold on a minute…’

I put my hand around hers, clasped it. ‘Look, Amy, you need to go there and suss what has changed her mind. I can’t be in two places at once.’

She wasn’t buying it; she was an action junkie like Hod. ‘Can’t we do that after?’

I shook my head, knew she’d need some persuasion. ‘No. I need to know now… what’s changed her mind in the last hour? Press her hard, push all her buttons and watch that fucking Tina one… she’s up to her china blue lids in this shite!’

That seemed to appeal more to Amy. Thought maybe she saw herself slapping Tina about. She said, ‘I can do that.’

Hod spun the wheel, looked focused as he burned up the road. ‘What you thinking, Gus?’

I played it cautious: ‘I don’t know…’

A Punto driver blasted a horn at us; Hod gave him the finger. ‘You must have some idea.’

I stuck to what he needed to know. ‘Well, Gillian’s either found out something she doesn’t want to know… and wants to keep it from us, and plod… or Tina’s found some leverage.’

Hod looked thoughtful. It didn’t affect his driving though – that was still shit. He swerved left to right, near took out a lamp post. The traffic lights turned red but Hod fired through them. A wail of protest went up as we sped over the box junction; a VW skidded into the kerb. Some lanky crusty in a beanie found himself sprinting out of our way, raised a fist as we passed. We made it into top gear, powered up the street. All the while my mind focused on Stevo; I didn’t have a good feeling about his situation. I replayed our phone call again: he’d sounded nervous, frightened. Jesus above… he had good cause to. The thought slayed me.

The van mounted the kerb, two wheels on the flags as we skidded into view of the uni. ‘Just out there… that’s fine,’ I said, banging the dashboard.

I let Hod pull up. As the brakes screeched Amy grabbed my arm. ‘You sure this is okay?’

‘Yeah, deffo. Go with Hod… you know what to do.’

Amy crossed her brows, sucked in her cheeks. I saw she wasn’t sure about what I was suggesting; I needed to seal the deal. I found the energy to move fast, got out of the van, slammed the door behind me. Amy stared at me through the window. I raised a hand and waved them on. Hod didn’t hang about, lifted the revs and sped off.

The uni was dead. Precious few students had hung about over the summer months, save the really keen ones and the ones with nothing better to do. The old buildings looked abandoned, only one or two lights burning as black clouds brewed up a storm. I crossed under the main archway into the courtyard. The front door seemed to be locked up for the day. I checked the handle to be sure – no give in it. The bolt was in place – would need a mortar launcher to budge it.