Simon Kernick - The Crime Trade

‘We need something to blindfold her with,’ said Stegs, looking around quickly. He spotted one of Tino’s socks in the corner, and grabbed it. ‘This’ll do. It’s not nice, but we’ve got no choice.’

‘That’s my sock, man.’

‘Just get it on her, for fuck’s sake.’

Tino lifted her head gently and tied the sock — a sky-blue number with Tweety Pie on it — around her eyes.

‘What’s going on?’

The voice was an exhausted whisper, but it was enough to scare them both. In a few minutes she’d be getting her faculties back together, and by that time they were going to have her in the car. Stegs looked at his watch. Ten past.

‘Don’t worry,’ he growled in a voice that sounded like a cartoon monster. ‘Just go back to sleep. You’ll be home soon.’

‘Tino. . Tino. .’

Stegs gave Tino a shocked glare. ‘You gave her your real name?’ he hissed.

Tino responded with a helpless look. ‘I couldn’t think of anyone else,’ he whispered back.

‘Fuck me, and you’re meant to be an actor.’

‘I’m an erotic actor.’

‘Well, you’re a shit one. You’d have trouble acting scared at your own execution.’

‘Tino. . what’s happening?’

Judy’s hand reached out, pawing uselessly at Stegs’s arm, and he suddenly had an urge to burst out laughing. It was all going wrong, the whole thing. It could end up costing him everything: his job, his marriage, his liberty. And the thing was, at that point in time he truly couldn’t give a fuck. He was actually enjoying himself for what seemed like the first time in months.

‘All right, come on, get her to her feet.’

They lifted her up, and each took an arm to walk her slowly to the door. She stumbled once but quickly regained her footing.

‘I can’t see,’ she said observantly.

‘Just keep walking,’ growled Stegs in his monster voice. ‘Do what we tell you and you’ll be home in a couple of hours.’

‘I’m frightened.’

Stegs felt like telling her to shut it, but Tino intervened, talking to her soothingly, and without any attempt to disguise his voice. ‘It’s going to be OK, baby,’ he cooed into her ear, as if preparing her for one of his trademark anal assaults. ‘There’ll be no problem at all. Just come this way down to the car. You’re on your way home.’

Stegs pulled open the door, took a quick look in both directions down the corridor and, seeing nothing, led Judy outside. They hurried her to the lift, encountering little resistance, and stepped inside. Stegs pressed the button for the basement.

‘Where am I? Please tell me.’ The words dripped with fear, but were still delivered quietly enough to suggest that she was going to be sensible. ‘I don’t feel too good.’

The lift doors shut, and once again Tino whispered sweet nothings of reassurance into her ear. Stegs hoped that she wasn’t a porn film connoisseur, otherwise the Dutchman was going to be faced with some very difficult questions. Still, it seemed to do the trick; she even rested her head against Tino’s shoulder, as if his very presence made her feel better. Stegs couldn’t understand it. If it was him in her position, he’d be well pissed off, but then the psychology of womankind had never been his strong point. Tino put his arm round her and kissed her head. Stegs gave him a look that said, ‘Don’t get too fucking friendly, we haven’t got time for any shenanigans.’ Tino glared back at him, and for the first time Stegs thought that the bastard might suddenly decide to give him trouble, which would not be a good thing. Tino had a six-inch height advantage and a couple of stone in weight as well. Plus he looked mighty pissed off. A bookie wouldn’t have even bothered taking bets. Still, Tino didn’t have a gun.

The doors opened into the car park and Stegs motioned towards his battered red Toyota, a motor that appeared to befit his lowly status in the pecking order of things. They walked over to it, and Stegs unlocked the boot quickly, eager to get out of there as soon as possible.

‘Man, she is not going in there,’ said Tino.

‘Where am I going? Where?’ Judy asked.

‘It’ll just be until I release her. It’s only down the road. She’ll be in there ten minutes tops, that’s all.’

‘In where?’ she continued.

‘In the boot of the car.’

‘I don’t want to.’

‘Look, just get the fuck in.’

All this growling was doing Stegs’s throat in, and he was getting impatient. He pulled Judy by the arm, and she gasped loudly, as if he’d just burnt her. She was a lot better actor than Tino.

‘I’ll scream. I will.’

‘Put her in the car, not the boot. It is cruel otherwise.’

‘Don’t leave me, Tino.’

Stegs half expected her to add ‘I love you’ and plant a big smacker on his lips. It was that sort of conversation. It made him feel like he was playing fucking gooseberry. It was also highly dangerous, conducting a conversation with an agitated young woman blindfolded with a brightly coloured sock in the middle of a car park that was in regular use. There’d be CCTV cameras in here too, and Stegs didn’t want to give the operator an excuse to have a look at them and pick out his grainy mug.

So he pulled the replica Browning, and that did the trick. Tino stiffened and his eyes widened.

‘One more fucking word,’ said Stegs, pointing the gun at Tino’s head, ‘and you die. Understand?’

Tino nodded frantically, his bravado deserting him at an alarming rate.

‘What’s going on?’ asked Judy. ‘I want this blindfold off.’ She reached for the sock, but Stegs pushed the barrel of the gun against her cheek, and she too got the message pretty sharpish.

‘Get in the boot now if you want to get home outside of a coffin.’

As soon as Stegs had finished speaking he realized he’d forgotten to growl, but there wasn’t a lot he could do about that now. He pushed her inside and she went without complaint, lying down in the foetal position amid the various bits of bric-a-brac, including an empty box that had once contained a baby bottle sterilizer. For some reason, the contrast between the box and Judy made him feel slightly sick.

Tino went for him fast, trying to knock the gun out of his grasp, but he was definitely a lover rather than a fighter. Stegs had been prepared for such an assault and he slammed the boot shut and jumped out of the way, leaving Tino flailing at air. As Tino continued coming after him, keeping low, Stegs brought his knee up hard into the other man’s gut, and at the same time smacked him over the head with the gun. Tino kept coming, so Stegs allowed him to grab him round the waist, before turning the gun round in his hand and smacking him with the butt this time. Tino let go and fell to his knees. Stegs took a step back, then kicked him full in the face, knocking him sideways.

Muffled screams came from within the boot, which made Stegs wonder what the fuck Tino thought he was doing. If he wanted to get caught for this, he couldn’t have made a better job of it. What was it about people that they suddenly got a burst of morality long after the damage had already been done? Tino had drugged this poor bird up to the eyeballs and kept her prisoner for two days solid, and now, without warning, he was prepared to fight to the death in order to get her the best possible method of transport home. It beggared belief, it really did.

‘Tino,’ Stegs said, grabbing the Dutchman by the hair and shoving his head into the car next to his, a nice silver-coloured Merc, ‘you seem to forget that I’m the one with the fucking gun. Now stay there, and when I’ve gone, if you know what’s good for you, go back to your room, pack and get the fuck out of the country. It doesn’t seem to suit you here.’