Tony Black - Paying For It

Occasionally my nose throbbed. I tried to clear out the blood inside by pressing a nostril, one at a time, and blowing out. It helped at first, but soon became too painful to touch. I let it be. Left nature to take its course.

The throbbing settled into a persistent pain in my head and jaw. I learned to stay still, any movement resulted in agony. After a while, pain became the norm and I numbed my mind to it. I found if I concentrated, a Zen-like peace could be achieved. I’d just about perfected this when I heard a key in the lock.

I expected to see Collins and Roberts again, felt ready for them. But this time, shock walked in.

My blood began to race. My heart pumped me up for a whole new kind of fight.

As the door closed I stood up, faced the enemy.

‘That looks like a terribly painful injury you’ve got there, Mr Dury,’ said Cardownie. He wore a green sporting jacket, leather patches on the elbows and one shoulder. Tucked around his neck, a cravat, yellow with green paisley swirls. He’d obviously been yanked from a shooting party.

‘Funny that, there’s nosebleeds every time we meet,’ I said.

He laughed aloud. ‘I’m so glad not to be the one on the receiving end this time.’

‘There’s time yet.’

His laugh subsided, he took off his tweed cap. ‘Come now… we can be civilised, can’t we?’ He squirmed, tucked his hands behind his back and fired a crooked grin at me. He’d been sent by Zalinskas to do his dirty work. I saw now where the real power lay.

‘Civilised… now there’s a word. Goes hand in hand with profits.’

‘Quite. Coolidge, I believe. You’re obviously an educated man.’

He sounded like a character from a Noel Coward play. My fists clenched. I wanted to grab his scrawny neck in my hands, twist the life out of him. Kept seeing the footage of him pushing aside that young girl like some worthless rag after he’d had his fun with her.

‘Nothing that’s worth knowing can be taught,’ I said.

He missed that one, put on his ‘what a chippy fellow we have here’ smirk. The kind he kept for the below stairs type that I clearly appeared to be to him.

I prepared to deliver the lash. ‘Don’t you agree?’

Silence. He twisted his tweed cap in his hands. This whole affair seemed such an irritation to him. I mean, for someone like him to be forced to come down here, sort out this mess. To deal with a common grunt like me. I saw I churned his insides, just like the rest of the masses beneath him.

I gunned the pedal. ‘I know Billy Thompson knew the value of knowledge.’

Cardownie’s face twisted at the mention of Billy, but I wanted a wince out of him. ‘What’s that you say, Minister… an upstart? Och, I’m sure you’re right, Billy Boy was definitely an upstart. Son of a publican, the gall of him, thinking he could drag himself out of the gutter, make something of himself.’

‘He was a common criminal!’ burst out Cardownie.

‘Now, now. What’s raised your dudgeon, Minister? The common bit or the criminal bit?’

He put his sleekit eyes on me, then drew them away. I knew he wanted the footage, but while I had it, there was time to play.

‘I’m gonna take a guess here — not the criminal bit. No, because we know you have some powerful friends from that particular community, do you not, Minister?’

‘I have not,’ he barked.

‘No? Then who pulled you away from your pheasant shoot?’

Cardownie smacked his hat off his corduroys, then stuffed it in his jacket pocket, pointed a finger at me. ‘Now look here…’

‘I’m looking.’

‘Oh, what’s the point? You clearly have your agenda.’

‘Haven’t we all?’

‘ What?’

I seemed to have lost him, felt like it was time to spell things out, said, ‘Must be annoying for you to find someone who doesn’t share your agenda. I bet that doesn’t happen very much in this town, Minister.’

He looked ready to pop. ‘I’ve had just about enough of this. If you want to play silly little games that’s your prerogative, Mr Dury. I for one am not prepared to stand idly by and listen to this… this, arrant nonsense.’

I raised my hands. ‘You done?’

He made towards me, the soles of his expensive brogues slapped heavily across the floor. ‘Do not goad me, Mr Dury. I can walk out of that door every bit as easily as I walked through it. You, however, cannot. And neither can your young lady friend.’

Game over. But I’d had some fun with him.

‘What’re you selling, Minister?’

He lowered his tone, the smile eased back into place. ‘Glad you’re prepared to see sense. Now, about the matter of the… item of property pertaining to Mr Zalinskas’ business affairs.’

‘Oh, that.’

He stuck a finger under his cravat, took a handkerchief from his pocket and patted the moisture from his forehead. ‘Quite. What do you propose to do with it?’

I turned up the heat. ‘We are talking about the same item here. I mean, to be doubly certain, we are talking about the footage of some teenage prostitute taking a length off your good self.’

He dropped the handkerchief, turned away. ‘Mr Dury, must you, please… I really won’t hear you-’

‘Tell the truth? Oh, don’t worry about that, my lips are sealed — or should I say, can be.’ I walked round in front of him, looked him in the eye. ‘You see I’m just as prepared to be bought as any of your gentlemen’s club buddies.’

His jaw tightened. Veins raised in his temples and throbbed like insects burrowing beneath his skin. ‘I am, shall we say, in a position-’

‘Authorised — let’s get the word right.’

‘As I say — I am authorised to see the charges pertaining to both yourself and the young lady dropped.’

‘Wiped clean. Not dropped to be reactivated at a later date. Wiped clean, or do I need to call in a lawyer to draw up an official agreement?’

He returned to his handkerchief, carefully folded it, dabbed at his upper lip. ‘I don’t think the services of a legal practitioner will be required. In your demotic, Mr Dury, the charges will be wiped clean. I can guarantee that. In exchange, of course, for the safe return of said items.’

‘ Item… Billy only had one copy, and I didn’t make one either.’

‘How can I be assured of that?’

I crossed the floor again, stretched out my hand. ‘Minister, we’re both gentlemen, surely.’

‘But there are people who will seek assurances that this unfortunate incident shall never again be-’

I cut in, ‘Whoa, whoa, there. I’m trusting you on the charges angle, a little bit of respect in my direction, if you please. Otherwise…’

He caved.

‘How will you arrange delivery?’

‘On the outside.’

Cardownie made for the door, knocked twice then turned back to face me. ‘I need hardly remind you, Mr Dury, that you have incurred the displeasure of some extremely powerful people in this city.’

‘I guessed as much.’

‘Do you really think you can get away with it? I mean to say, one can quite easily have a class of creature like you stamped out.’

‘Is that what you told Billy when he tried to blackmail you?’

The smirk again. Keys rattled outside the cell door. ‘Your type never learn, do they? No matter how harsh the lesson.’

‘My type?’

The door handle turned. ‘Make the delivery, Mr Dury, and take your medicine, now there’s a good little man.’

Col cleared the snug for us, made coffee. Amy curled up at my shoulder; she still trembled like a frightened child. I’d sent Hod to make the drop, until he got back with the all clear, we were on pins.

‘You should see a doctor for that nose,’ said Col. He placed a blanket round Amy’s shoulders. ‘Drink up, girl… Goodness, she’s in a terrible state, Gus.’