Tony Black - Paying For It

I tried to curl up, take my punishment. They’d soon tire themselves out.

At the station plod emptied out my pockets. Felt relieved I’d decided not to take the Glock to my father’s funeral. As they fingerprinted me, the front door opened again and Collins and Roberts appeared, leading Amy along. Her hands were cuffed, she looked exhausted. Hair everywhere, eyes a mess of smudged black mascara.

‘Amy,’ I said. My voice cracked, I heard my shock register.

‘Gus, Gus,’ she screamed, close to breakdown. ‘What’s happening to me, Gus?’

‘Don’t worry. They’ve nothing.’ I lunged, tried to get to her, but got held back. ‘They just want to scare us. Don’t worry, Amy.’

Collins and Roberts moved past. I spat at them, missed by a mile, yelled, ‘You weak fucks. Take me on.’

‘Oh, we will,’ said Collins. ‘Patience, patience, Mr Dury.’ He threw his head back, laughed. ‘We’ve something special planned for you.’

I spat again. This time Collins took it full in the face. He raged at me like a lunatic, fired an elbow into my solar plexus.

‘I’m calling your number, Dury,’ he said, looming over me, eyes burning, ‘You got that?’

I fell against the desk, slid to the ground.

‘Take this sack of shit away,’ he yelled.

They left me to dry out in a cell. I hit the wall a few times. Shouted for a lawyer. No surprise, I was ignored. All the while, I feared for Amy. Christ, she was just a girl, ‘You’ve really messed it up for her, Dury,’ I told myself.

I knew the filth were leaving me to sweat before the intimidation started. When they arrived, I saw at once I wasn’t wrong.

Collins, on fire, roared, ‘I ought to rip off your head and shit down your neck.’

‘Aren’t we going to play good cop, bad cop again?’

He grabbed me by the hair, so tight I felt my eyes popping. ‘Test me and you play no more games… ever.’

I tried to bold it out. ‘If I start trembling, it’s ’cos I’m off the drink. Wouldn’t want you to flatter yourself that I was scared.’

He opened his palm, pushed it in my face. I felt my nose crack, collapse into my cheeks. At once the room began to spin. My eyes rolled up into my head and blood trickled into my throat. I fell in and out of consciousness for a few minutes.

Water — a bucketful — got thrown over me.

‘Don’t make this any harder than it needs to be, Mr Dury,’ said Roberts. ‘Think about the girl, if not yourself.’

‘Leave her out of this.’

‘Oh, we’d like to but I’m afraid your little friend is looking at a rather substantial charge sheet.’

Collins laughed. ‘Like hanging with whores do you, Dury?’

‘Amy’s no brasser.’

Collins’ laugh burst around the cell walls, set my ears ringing.

‘Oh, this one’s gonna have the conviction to prove it, I’m afraid,’ said Roberts.

‘What do you want?’ I mumbled.

‘I think you know what that is.’

‘Lay off Zalinskas… that it?’

‘You still have some memory then,’ said Collins. As he stood before me his gut bulged in my face. He lifted an arm, I flinched. He toyed with me, twisting the edges of his moustache into little points.

Roberts butted in. ‘That was our advice to you on our last meeting. We’ve since had cause to believe this advice went ignored.’

‘Oh yeah? What makes you think that?’

Collins slammed his hand on the desk. ‘We’ll ask the questions. You’ll fucking listen, laddie.’

Roberts again: ‘Let’s be clear. We have it on good authority that you’ve continued to pursue a vendetta against Mr Zalinskas.’

I knew I’d been careful to keep clear of Zalinskas since our last meeting, obviously not careful enough.

I called his bluff. ‘And I thought Nadja was only after my body.’

‘What?’ said Roberts.

‘I’m guessing you’ve been talking to Benny’s right-hand man, or in this case woman. It was a man, but then Billy Boy was taken out, wasn’t he?’

Collins edged closer. ‘I’m warning you, Dury.’

Roberts held him off. His Clarks shoes squeaked on the floor.

I started to smirk. I knew now I’d been had by Nadja, probably to root out Billy Boy’s missing footage. I saw that with both Billy and Zalinskas out the picture, she stood to take over the entire outfit. A tidy little manoeuvre.

How much Zalinskas knew about Nadja’s scheming was a blank to me. I guessed not much. Both, however, now needed me out of the way. While the court case carried on, I figured, my life was safe. After that I was all out of options.

The pain in my head intensified, felt like my brow might crack down the middle. Who held all the power in the room was obvious.

My only hope, was to chance my luck. ‘Let’s deal.’

They looked at each other, frowning in symmetry.

‘You don’t hold any cards, Dury,’ said Roberts.

I spat out another mouthful of blood.

‘Let’s see what the Bullfrog has to say about that, shall we?’

‘You’re mad, fucking mad,’ said Collins. He began to laugh again, this time without the maniacal edge.

Roberts pushed him aside. ‘Shut up, would you? Let me talk to the man.’ As he leant over the desk, Collins turned away and kicked at the cell door. ‘I won’t tell you again to shut up. Now, Mr Dury, what, exactly, would you have us say to Mr Zalinskas?’

I sat up, brought my nose to within an inch of his. ‘Tell the Bullfrog I have, in my possession, some very interesting footage. Footage that would not do his current position any favours.’

This played right into Nadja’s hands — exposing the footage was just what she wanted. Risking the wrath of Zalinskas, though, that felt insane. Being in possession of the footage had cost Billy Boy his life and I’d just declared my ownership. But what option did I have? I needed to get Amy on a plane, somewhere far away until all this blew over.

My only hope was Zalinskas’ case would drag on a little longer; if it didn’t, Amy’s life was ruined. And I was a dead man.

‘And if we don’t pass on your message?’ said Roberts.

I rocked back on my chair, looked under the table. ‘I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes.’

A while back, the producers of the Brits pulled off a coup when they got Paul Weller to agree to appear at their awards ceremony. They had every reason to feel proud of themselves, had been trying to get the Modfather for years. But then, they blew it.

They asked Weller to do a duet with James Blunt.

‘I’d sooner eat my own shit,’ he was reported as saying.

I felt the same way about my only option.

As I sat in the cell, I mapped out a plan in my mind. But none of it sat easily with me.

I paced up and down, near wore out the floor.

After an hour or so, Collins and Roberts showed their hand and sent in a doctor.

He checked my nose, said, ‘It’s a clean break but it’s been broken before.’

I smelled whisky on his breath. ‘And?’

He wiped away the dried blood with a cotton bud, squeezed the bridge. ‘You can’t polish shite.’

‘Is that a medical opinion?’

‘It’s my opinion.’ He stood up, put on his shabby dogtooth coat. ‘Don’t pick it for a few days, it’ll heal itself.’

He tapped on the cell door to be let out. I shook my head at him, he hadn’t even asked me how I’d sustained these injuries. Just presumed I’d fallen down the stairs on the way to the cells.

‘Another upright citizen. The city can be proud of you, Doctor,’ I said.

He didn’t bat an eyelid.

I paced for another half hour, then sat on the cell floor, staring at the wall like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. Wished I had a pitcher’s mitt and a baseball. All I had was misgivings, fears, regrets.