Simon Kernick - The Murder Exchange

The place was heaving, as befitted a Friday night, with the majority of the youthful crowd packed onto the dance floor. The music was loud, repetitive and boring, the kind my daughter’s thankfully too young to like. At the bar at the far end, I noticed a few older people, mainly men in their thirties, and even one or two in their forties, clustered together against the noise. Some of them were wearing suits, though none of them looked like office workers, and I wondered who they were.

My eyes drifted along, then stopped dead. Someone looked familiar. I walked nearer, manoeuvring my way through the crowd until I was only about ten yards away. Now I was absolutely sure. No doubt about it. I’d seen his photograph four hours earlier, after it was faxed over by his old regiment. The man in front of me, drinking a bottle of Becks and looking like he owned the place, was Max Iversson, the fugitive half the station was looking for.

Iversson

There was no way I was queueing to get into Fowler’s place. There must have been two hundred people standing there like lemons while they waited for the doormen to give them the sort of attention my ex-missus used to give me when she’d drunk too many white wine spritzers. But who wants it off some bald bloke with no neck? Not me, that was for sure. I thought about heading straight to the front and saying I was mates with Elaine but, to tell you the truth, I didn’t really want to draw attention to myself, not now I’d suddenly turned into the Fugitive. So I headed round the back, jumped over the locked gate that led into the staff car park, and scanned the deserted rear of the building for any sign of an entrance. It took all of about three seconds for me to spot a window slightly open on the ground floor, about a foot above head height. It wasn’t much of a size but I’m quite a slim lad so I was confident I was going to get in. I hauled myself up with one hand while using the other to flick off the latch and open the window up fully. At the same time, I heard the unmistakable sound of piss hitting urinals and, as I poked my head inside, I saw a row of three blokes staring up at me as they deflated their bladders.

‘Evening,’ I said with a ready smile, trying hard to wriggle through the gap. ‘You couldn’t give us a hand, could you?’

The bloke nearest me, a young student type about twenty or so, looked shocked but nodded anyway, re-deposited himself in his trousers, and grabbed hold of my nearest hand, giving it a feeble tug.

‘Come on, boy, put some welly into it. You couldn’t even give yourself a hard-on with a grip like that.’

He tried again and, after a few grunts and groans of effort, managed to pull me in, with me landing on him a fair bit harder than I think he was expecting. I thanked him as he got unsteadily to his feet and, ignoring the strange looks coming from the other blokes in there, headed out of the door and into the club, recoiling momentarily from the wall of sound that hit me.

I scanned the room for Elaine, not sure I’d even recognize her after all this time, but couldn’t see any sign of her. Mind you, I couldn’t see a great deal among the buzzing crowd. I took a brief moment to admire a few of the scantily clad young females who seemed to be in abundance, then fought my way to the bar and waited for a space to open up, before ordering myself a beer from one of the harassed-looking bar staff. When it came about two minutes later, it cost me three quid. Three quid for a lousy bottle of Becks. If it was true that people were fighting for ownership of this place then it was no wonder. The money being turned over must have been incredible. I took a sip from the bottle and turned away from the bar, finding myself some space near the dance floor.

Which was when I saw her, walking purposefully in my direction while talking to one of the doormen, a stocky bloke who was striding fast just to keep up with her. I recognized her instantly. She’d changed quite a lot from school, as you’d imagine — I mean, it had been a long time — but it wasn’t so much in the look. It was more the poise, the way she carried herself. Back then she’d been attractive, with lovely big brown eyes and a good body, but she’d never really made the best of it, probably because she hadn’t really needed to. Now she looked hot, the type of woman most blokes are immediately attracted to because they know without a second’s doubt that she’ll be a demon between the sheets. She was wearing a black cocktail dress which matched her long curly hair and high-heeled court shoes. I wondered then whether that hound Johnny had slept with her more recently than school. If he had then he’d been a lucky man.

She turned away from the doorman as the two of them reached the bar and our eyes briefly met. Although she was still a few feet away and there were a number of people in between us, I saw an immediate flicker of recognition pass across her face. She stopped for a moment, then looked at me quizzically before approaching.

‘Max? Max Iversson?’ she shouted above the noise, walking up to me.

I got a glorious scent of musky perfume and warmth as she came up close. I tell you this, I wanted to have this woman before I’d even opened my mouth. She might have started off the chain of events that had almost had me killed but I’d suddenly become a man who was willing to forgive and forget.

‘Hello, Elaine,’ I said as coolly as I could manage. ‘Long time no see. How are you? You look good.’ I gave her a smile.

She smiled back. ‘I’m well. You?’

‘Yeah, not bad, not bad,’ I said, my mouth almost in her ear. I was only going to be able to keep up a conversation with this amount of background noise for so long.

‘Christ, it’s a bit weird running into you like this. The last I heard you was in the army.’

‘I did ten years, but I finished a long time back. You know how time flies.’

‘Too right. So you’re still local, then? I haven’t seen you in here before.’

‘No, it’s a little bit young for me, to be honest. It’s my first time.’ And my last at these prices, I thought.

‘So what brings you in here? On the pull, are you?’ She grinned.

‘Well, I came to see you, actually.’ She looked surprised. ‘It’s about Johnny Hexham.’

The surprise turned to concern. ‘Johnny? What about him? He’s all right, isn’t he?’

‘Oh yeah, he’s fine.’ That bastard was always fine. ‘At least he was when I left him earlier. Look, Elaine, I know it’s an odd request, but I need to talk to you fairly urgently and it would be a lot easier if it wasn’t here.’

The concern now turned to suspicion. This was a woman with a speedy turn in facial expressions. ‘Look, Max, I’m running this place pretty much on my own tonight, so if you’ve got something to say-’

‘I own a company that provides security. A few days ago you asked Johnny to put someone you know in touch with a company like that.’

She clicked. ‘Oh shit. And yours was the company?’

‘Correct.’

‘So where’s Roy? I haven’t seen him all day. Do you know what’s happened to him?’

‘That’s what I’ve got to talk to you about. But I don’t want to do it in here. Is there any way you can get out and we can go somewhere a little more private? And a bit quieter?’

She thought about it for a moment, then nodded. ‘I’ll see what I can do. Wait here. I’ll be back in a minute.’

I nodded and stayed where I was as she turned and disappeared into the crowd. While she was gone, a kid of no more than eighteen, out of his head on something, walked into one of the pillars that bordered the dance floor and knocked himself out. I watched as people stepped over him like he wasn’t there until eventually a couple of his mates turned up and, laughing, dragged him away. Then, a few yards beyond them, I saw a bloke who looked well out of place. Mid to late thirties, scruffy suit, thick black hair; to be honest with you, he looked a lot like Columbo in his early days and, like Columbo, I knew straight off he was a copper. He was talking into a mobile phone and watching me at the same time. Our eyes met and I knew he was on to me, though Christ knows how. It was time once again for quick thinking. If he was in here, there could be more of them out front, making it too risky to go out that way.