Peter Guttridge - The Last King of Brighton

Hathaway looked from his father to his girlfriend. Her eyes were so wide he thought they were going to pop from her head. He moved towards her but Reilly stepped in front of him.

Hathaway looked back over his shoulder. His father shrugged.

‘You can’t help her, John.’

Hathaway walked over to him.

‘What are you doing?’

‘You know what I’m doing. Once the cement sets we throw her in the sea and we don’t have to worry about her talking.’

‘What has she got to talk about?’

‘She saw us deal with Cuthbert, John. That’s the long and the short of it.’ He put his hand on Hathaway’s arm. ‘And now it’s time for you to step up.’

‘What did she really see?’ Hathaway said.

His father looked impatient.

‘Don’t be thick, boy. She’s told us. She saw how sometimes we have to do business. She now has the power to destroy me. Us. We can’t be having that.’

‘Dad, you can’t kill her for that.’

‘Can’t I? Why not exactly?’

‘Dad, I love her.’

His father was transformed. His face turned red and a vein stood out on his neck.

‘Don’t dad me, you bloody disgrace of a son. You love her. Bring out the frigging violins. Be a man for a change. It needs to be done and that’s the end of it.’

‘Dad-’

‘What did I just fucking say? You wanted this life. You begged me for it. Or was it just the fast cars and the flash clothes? We had a deal. You signed up for this. You want to call yourself my son?’ On tiptoe, he pushed his face into Hathaway’s. ‘The only way you’re going to be my son is if you kill her.’

‘Killing Cuthbert I can understand. He’s like us. But she’s an innocent, she has no part in this. It’s not fair.’

‘Fair? Who gives a fuck about fair? If you wanted to keep her innocent you should have kept your prick in your pocket. The minute you nobbed her you compromised her.’ He rubbed his eyes then glared at his son. ‘She saw us. End of story.’

Elaine was crying, rocking from side to side.

‘I won’t tell anyone, I promise-’

Dennis Hathaway whirled on her.

‘Do you think I’m stupid, you little cunt? Of course you’ll promise now. They all promise now. But do you think I believe for one moment that the minute you’re off this pier you won’t blab? A well-brought-up, law-abiding girl like you.’ He looked down at her legs squirming in the tub of concrete. Her skirt had ridden up. She was not wearing knickers. ‘Darling, I’ve seen a bumbo before. Show me a trick with a donkey and I might be impressed. Now keep your fucking feet still!’

‘She’s not law-abiding,’ Hathaway said, desperation in his voice.

His father turned back to him.

‘What, because she mouths off a lot? Well, by her lights. Because she goes on anti-war demonstrations and smokes marijuana? Do me a favour.’ He put his hands on Hathaway’s arms. He lowered his voice. ‘Listen. This has to be done. There is no room for manoeuvre. So the question is: who does it? You don’t want her going into the drink alive, do you? So somebody has to snuff her. Now, I think it should be you for all kinds of reasons. One, because you can’t just take from this racket, you have to give as well. And, two, because I thought that your feelings for her would mean you’d do it with a certain… a certain… what’s the word I’m looking for, Charlie?’

‘Compassion?’

‘Compassion. That’s it. Nice word. Thanks, Charlie.’

‘My pleasure.’

Hathaway laughed harshly, an edge of hysteria in his voice. He looked across at Elaine’s distraught, pleading face.

‘You think killing someone you love is compassionate?’

‘You always hurt the one you love, Johnny boy – the songs tell us that. Never doubt the truths in popular music.’

‘She won’t talk. I give you my word. Put her in my keeping. We’ll go off to India together.’

‘You’re not going anywhere. I need you here, even if you are turning into a nancy boy. We made a deal. You’re going to inherit.’

‘I don’t want to inherit!’

‘Don’t you?’ Hathaway senior moved to straddle a chair over by the table. ‘Don’t you? Then you lied to me. That’s not the impression you’ve been giving me over the past couple of years. Au bloody contraire, if you’ll excuse my French.’

Elaine was wrenched by sobs, her whole body heaving. The concrete was harder round her legs. Dennis Hathaway caught Hathaway looking.

‘She’s got lovely legs, John. You’ve been a lucky boy getting between them. But nothing comes free.’

Hathaway looked from Elaine to his father and around the room at the impassive faces. Only Charlie looked away.

‘I can’t kill her and I can’t let anyone else kill her,’ he said flatly.

Dennis Hathaway stood.

‘I don’t think you want to go there, Johnny. You being a coward is one thing, but that rather limits your options so far as anyone else doing what you can’t do is concerned.’

‘John, please…’ Elaine said, clear drool running from her nose over her mouth, wet eyes fixed on him. A supplicant.

‘Someone wipe her bloody nose.’ Dennis Hathaway looked at Elaine and shook his head. ‘Dignity, darling, is everything.’

Dennis Hathaway looked back at his son, as Reilly took a blue handkerchief from his pocket and almost tenderly wiped at Elaine’s upper lip and around her mouth. He folded the handkerchief once and dabbed beneath her eyes.

Hathaway watched, then looked over at Charlie, standing rigid against the wall. Could he enlist Charlie’s help to overpower the others in the room and rescue Elaine? Even as he thought it, he realized what a ridiculous idea it was. He couldn’t see himself fighting his own father and couldn’t see Charlie helping.

His mind was racing. He did want the life his father was offering. He did want to be a name in Brighton. He did love Elaine. He did want to have sex with every other woman in Brighton. He did want to go to India with her. But the one thing he didn’t want to do was kill this girl he knew so intimately and who knew him so intimately.

‘I’m not going to do it.’

His father leaned on his knees and looked intently at his son for what seemed an age. Then he stood again.

‘Well, some bugger has got to do it. What about you, Charlie? You want the life even more than Johnny here. You’re his mate. Help me out. Help him out. Take his place.’

Charlie flicked a glance from Hathaway to his father.

‘Take his place?’ He looked away. ‘It’s not my kind of thing. Anything else – you know I’m up for anything else-’

‘It’s not anyone’s kind of thing,’ Hathaway senior hissed. ‘Unless you’re a fucking psycho, of course, and I don’t employ them. It’s just part of the business. Something that has to be done.’

Charlie looked at Elaine, slumped in the chair, quiet now. He waved a hand at Dennis Hathaway.

‘I can’t, Mr Hathaway. I know her and everything.’

‘I know you knew her. You did her.’

‘No-’

‘Course you fucking did,’ he jeered. ‘Last night you went for a quickie behind Johnny’s back. If I were your age I’d be tempted, I tell you. She’s a lovely-looking girl. Get those legs wrapped round you-’

‘You can fuck me however you want as much as you want.’

Elaine was sitting up, glaring at Dennis Hathaway. She jerked her head back towards Tommy.

‘I’ll give head to your man here. Your men can have me -’ her bravado ran out and she began to sob again – ‘but please, please, don’t-’

Dennis Hathaway had a look of disgust on his face.

‘Jesus, someone put her out of her misery.’ He looked at her. ‘Darling, I’d love to fuck you but I’m happily married, and whilst I’ll do most things, I draw the line at doing my son’s girlfriend, however much of a disappointment he is to me. I’m sure there must be a rule of etiquette about that.’ He peered into the tub of concrete. ‘Plus, how would I get your legs wide enough apart to stuff it in you, the concrete as set as it is?’