Peter Corris - Heroin Annie

Hendrick ignored Doc’s patter and looked again at me. ‘Who’s he?’

‘Dealer’, Doc said, ‘small time, nothing to interest you Henk.’

I took a chance. ‘Not so small’, I said. ‘Fair sized consignment, first grade stuff.’ The heroin was lying on a chair arm and I pointed to it. ‘Sample.’

The pale eyes seared me like acid. ‘Is that so?’ he said. ‘Interesting.’ He walked over to Annie, took the cigarette from between her fingers and dropped it into her glass.

‘Dirty habit, Annie’, he said. His big white hand came up and he took a grip on her left breast Annie looked down.

‘I’m glad it’s you we’re dealing with Henk’, Doc said rubbing his hands briskly. ‘Annie had some story about a Vietnamese. You don’t look like a Viet.’

Hendrick laughed. ‘Well, Annie wasn’t completely in the picture.’ He squeezed her breast harder. ‘It’s my job to get in touch with all these desperados. But Doc here is a gentleman compared to some. I do the community a service by keeping him in business.’

Sam was looking at him with her mouth slightly open-another one not repelled. Paul was well away with the grass; he’d smoked most of the joint and he was lying out on a sofa as if he was ready to levitate. Dean was still at his post.

Doc spread and waved his hands like the Pope bestowing a benediction. ‘There’s no better smack that copper smack, let’s see it, Hendrick.’

He moved away from Annie and unbuttoned his jacket; the black butt of the gun curved out near his shirt pocket. He nodded at Dean. ‘You, put the popgun over there near the telly and then go back near the door.’ Dean did as he was told after a nod from Doc. Hendrick pulled out a package from his pocket and tossed it to Doc. It was wrapped in plastic, and when Doc had unwound it a couple of dozen small, linked plastic pockets rippled out like a snake.

‘Hip belt’, Doc said. ‘Good one. Annie said thirty grand, that right?’

Hendrick nodded and Doc went out of the room. When he came back he was carrying a manila envelope which he handed to Hendrick. Annie watched fascinated; maybe she was still hoping that her deal would go through, but it must have been a faint hope. Hendrick wasn’t acting; he counted the money carefully and put it away in an inside pocket. He had no particular expression for thirty grand just as he had no particular expression for tit-grabbing; I wondered what he did for fun.

‘This is a nice place, Doc. Had it long?’

Doc shrugged; he was looking uneasy and Dean was shifting his feet like a boxer about to start punching.

‘What about a drink?’ Hendrick moved towards the bottles and then suddenly darted right and picked up Dean’s gun. He had the safety off and the thing on full cock in one smooth movement, the way they train them to do where he came from. Our host looked worried for a minute, but his expression changed when Hendrick pointed the gun at me.

‘You know, Doc’, he said, ‘you shouldn’t deal with fly-by-nighters like this. Could get you into trouble. Is his stuff good?’

‘The best’, Doc said.

‘Is it now? Well, I just might take him and it into custody and do myself some good.’ He lifted the. 45 a fraction. ‘You wouldn’t object, Doc?’

Doc licked his lips; there was reluctance in his face, greed as well, but they both had fear to contend with. He let the plastic belt slide in his hands. ‘No, Henk’, he said. ‘Be my guest. Nothing rough here though.’

‘Of course not.’ He moved up to me and put the muzzle of the. 45 under the point of my chin.

‘Where is it?’ This was what he did for kicks; he pronounced the ‘where’ like ‘vair’ and there was a big, blue vein standing out under the pink skin of his temple.

‘No rough stuff here, Henk’, I said.

He brought his knee up accurately and I went down with that feeling of pain and violation rolling through my body. As I hit the floor I felt the gun bite into my back and I had the consoling thought that I might get a chance to shoot him where he’d placed his knee. I lay there blinking as the spasms shot through me. My wallet was in the top pocket of the denim jacket I was wearing and he bent down and lifted it out. He looked through the contents letting them drop to the floor one by one. There was only money, driver’s licence and stray papers. I contemplated an attack from below but the gun in his hand was nicely directed and rock steady.

‘Clifford somebody; nobody.’ He dropped the last paper disdainfully like an ice cream wrapper.

I sat up, controlling the pain and gathered the things from the wallet. I was about to put them back when Hendrick stood on my left hand. He bore down on it with all sixteen stone, and I screamed.

‘Where?’

I shook my head. He swung his other foot at my head; I rolled away from it a bit but he connected near my ear. I felt skin tear and bones click, and there was a roaring sound getting closer. The warmth on the side of my face and neck was my blood.

‘Now, Henk’, Doc said.

‘Shut up! How’d he get here?’

‘Sam brought him’, Dean said. ‘He said he knew Annie.’

Hendrick looked at Sam with interest, she returned the look.

‘He showed me the sample’, she purred.

‘Did he say he had it with him?’ Hendrick was still looking at her, but as if he’d like to hurt her.

‘He didn’t say.’

‘Did he stop anywhere?’

‘No, oh yeah, he did stop. He bought chewing gum.’ She giggled. ‘And bananas.’

‘What else did he do? It’s important.’

Sam was pretty stoned but she gave it a good try. ‘Well, he gave me some gum and he had some good grass in the car. He didn’t smoke and he’s got this sort of springy step.’ She giggled again.

‘What?’ Hendrick snapped.

‘Well, I was thinking how he was Mr Clean, you know, not smoking and that. And outside the shop he shoved his hand into this rubbish bin, like a derro. It looked funny but I guess he was throwing something away.’

He glanced down at me with the look he probably used when he was kicking the kaffirs about. ‘Amateur!’ he sneered. I groaned and let him have his fun.

‘Well, I think that winds it up here’, Hendrick said. ‘Get on your feet you.’ He helped me with a kick on the leg and I promised him something for that too. ‘Annie, you’re coming with us, and you too.’ He waved the gun at Samantha. ‘You can show us the spot.’

‘I don’t know…’ Sam mumbled.

‘Yes, you do. Let’s go.’

‘Hey’, Dean rasped, ‘what about my gun?’

Hendrick looked at the. 45 and slowly swung it around to point at the bridge of Dean’s nose. ‘It’s a good piece’, he said. ‘I like it.’

I got up slowly trying to look more wonky than I felt. I was glad he liked the gun, a man with two guns isn’t looking around for a third; stands to reason. He herded us out of the house and up the steps to his car, a yellow Cortina. Annie moved listlessly and Sam tried to regain some of her oomph, but it was a losing battle, she was stoned and scared. Hendrick gave the keys to Annie.

‘You drive and the blonde can keep you company. I’ll cuddle up in the back here with Clifford.’

Annie drove slowly and steadily and Sam sat rigidly beside her. I slumped back in the seat away from Hendrick and groaned from time to time. The blood had stopped flowing and the pain in my head wasn’t worse than an impacted wisdom tooth. I concentrated on blaming the man beside me for the pain and the ills of the world generally.

After a while Hendrick asked Sam a few questions, and encouraged her replies with a few prods of the. 45. He’d uncocked it, but I remembered the speed he’d displayed before- not yet. We slowed down and after a few false alarms Sam found the right shop. It was closed; there was forest on one side of the road and the houses on the other side were set well back from the road and behind high hedges and shrubberies. There was light from a street lamp a little way off but not much of it. There were two rubbish bins outside the shop.