Jessie Keane - Ruthless

‘Their mouths and hands – tie ’em up nice and tight.’

Annie did so, seething with anger. He should have told her he was planning this. Furiously she started ripping off lengths of tape, roughly gagging the two men and securing them in their chairs.

‘That’s good.’ When both men were gagged and bound, Max and Alberto gave their guns to Annie. ‘Take ’em out to Dora.’

She hurried in the direction the cloakroom attendant had vanished, and found the woman waiting outside in the alley behind the building, puffing on a cigarette. Annie handed her the guns, scissors and duct tape.

‘When did Max set this up?’ Annie asked.

‘Yesterday,’ said Dora with a quick smile.

‘You’re going to have to make yourself scarce.’

‘All arranged. I’m gone.’ Dora sniffed in disdain. ‘Never did like working for that bastard anyway. He’s all hands.’

Annie went back inside, through the cloakroom, into the office section where the two men were tied up and where Max and Alberto were waiting for her.

‘Are we set?’ asked Max.

She nodded.

‘OK, let’s go.’

They went out into the lobby. ‘Addicted to Love’ was blaring out of the club, and through a swinging bead curtain painted with dolphins they could see a tired-looking stripper bumping along in time to the music, peeling off layers for her adoring public. Max paused by the door and spoke to the Delaney heavies.

‘Benny says he don’t want to be disturbed for a half-hour or so,’ he said. ‘He’s got some urgent work he wants to get through.’ Max gave a shark-like smile. ‘And the mood he’s in, I wouldn’t risk it, if I were you, or he might just decide to tear you an extra arsehole.’

The Carters and the Barolli boys departed into the night.

‘I want a word with you,’ said Annie to Max as they strode towards the cars.

‘Save it. We’ve bought a bit of time, until Benny with the fashionable footwear manages to put in a call to Rufus and warn him we’re on our way. Best make use of it.’ Taking her arm, Max walked her to the Jag, where Tone was waiting. ‘Get her home,’ he said, and hustled her inside the car, closing the door behind her and hurrying away.

Fuck you, Max Carter, she thought.

Tone climbed in behind the wheel, and drove her home.

By the time they got to the Partyland amusement arcade in Southend, it was gone midnight and the whole place was in darkness, the shutters pulled down against the vandals. Everyone piled out of the cars gloved up and with masks over their faces. They paused outside the side door.

Steve stepped forward and, using a heavy police battering-ram, he broke the door in. The alarms started going, but what the hell, they’d be in and out and away before the rozzers responded.

They all thundered up the stairs and into the flat above the arcade, flicking on lights, armed with guns and baseball bats. They went from room to room, throwing open doors, looking for hiding places.

‘Fuck,’ said Max at last. The flat was deserted, and no sign that anyone was living there. The fridge was empty, there were no toiletries in the bathroom. Either O’Connor had lied through his teeth or somehow Rufus had been forewarned and cleared out. But there were no signs of a hurried departure. More likely the guy had never lived here; guessing that Benny would crack under pressure, he’d fed him a story about staying at this place when all the while he was holed up elsewhere.

‘Let’s get out of here,’ said Alberto.

‘Yeah,’ said Max. He took one last look around him. Turned to Steve. ‘Get back here tomorrow though. Take a look, see if he’s loitering.’

‘OK, boss.’

‘And show ’em it don’t pay to fuck around with us.’

When Alberto and Max and their boys got to the Holland Park house, Annie was still up. She was waiting in the doorway of the drawing room when they came into the hall. Their faces told the whole story.

‘No luck?’

Both men shook their heads.

‘I could use some sleep,’ said Alberto, crossing the hall and kissing her cheek. He rubbed her arm. ‘Don’t worry. This is just a setback. We’ll find this Rufus character.’

Annie nodded, aware of Max watching them, of the tenseness in him.

Alberto went upstairs. Annie went back into the drawing room, and Max followed.

‘Did O’Connor lie?’ she asked him.

He shrugged. ‘Who knows. Nobody’s been in that place since the sodding Ice Age. What did you want to see me about?’

‘I would have thought that was pretty obvious,’ said Annie.

‘Nope. It’s not.’ He glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. It was nearly two o’clock in the morning. ‘And it’s too bloody late for guessing games, so whatever you’ve got to say, why don’t you just spit it out?’

‘You know something?’ she said. ‘You take the fucking biscuit. You really. Bloody. Do.’

‘Drink?’ asked Max, heading over to the big world globe containing an assortment of liquors. He selected a tumbler, poured himself a whisky. ‘Oh no, you don’t drink, do you? Can’t hold your liquor. I forgot.’

So here they were again and here he was, helping himself to her whisky, offering her a drink in her own house, making her feel furious and discounted and as though she was the one in the wrong – the way he always made her feel.

She slumped down on to one of the sofas. Kicked off her shoes. Leaned back, closed her eyes. Then she said what had been boiling away in her for the last few hours.

‘Why didn’t you tell me what you were planning? You told Alberto. Why not me?’

Max drank some of the Chivas Regal. ‘That’s a very fine malt,’ he said, holding the glass up to the light.

‘Rosa has excellent taste in drinks. Don’t bullshit me, Max. Why didn’t you let me in on it? I was in shock from the minute you shot that fool straight through the foot.’

‘Do you think he’d have told me a damned thing otherwise?’ asked Max, coming to stand in front of her.

‘You,’ said Annie succinctly, ‘are a complete bastard.’

‘Yeah, but I get answers.’

‘Actually no. You didn’t. All you got was a pack of lies. Or a false trail. And who the hell is “Rufus”? That was the first time I’d heard the name mentioned.’

‘Didn’t it crop up back when you were all cosied up with Kieron Delaney? You and he were quite an item once, as I recall. And Redmond… I always felt there was something there, with you and him.’

Annie sighed bitterly.

‘Max, you’d suspect there was something there between me and the cat .’ Annie thought of Kieron, once a promising artist but, deep down, as dangerously unhinged as the rest of the Delaney tribe. Dead now. Just as Redmond was supposed to be dead. But then Orla was supposed to have been dead too – eighteen years had gone by, with not so much as a whisper about her, until she showed up at Annie’s house in the middle of the night with a knife in her hand. At least this time there could be no doubt whatsoever that Orla was dead. But as for her twin…

Annie thought of the paper shamrocks, fluttering out of Layla’s trainer, out of her Filofax. Someone was saying Look, I’m here. Be warned : I’m coming to get you.

Max finished his whisky, put the glass aside.

‘You cut me out,’ said Annie. ‘You let me go into that situation tonight and you knew it was going to be dangerous, but you didn’t even think to warn me.’

‘Didn’t want to risk you signalling our intention. Things would have gotten even more dangerous if you’d given the game away.’ Max gave a slight smile. ‘You always were a lousy poker player.’