‘Oh no Dad, you have to see this. He has just bought a wireless lawn mower that he has to keep charging up. So, he does a small patch and then the battery runs out, so he goes back to his own house and plugs in the charger. That nurse says hello and then goes back into her house and shuts the back door on him. Last week it took two days for him to cut her grass because the battery needed charging.’ Dante couldn’t contain himself and burst out with laughter. ‘If you want fun Dad, come and see Pete try and charm her. She knows what he’s up to and takes full advantage of it. Last week he knocked on her door with a bowl of ice cream and half a bottle of sherry. He asked if she needed company. She said no, she was busy but took the bowl of ice cream.’ Again Dante burst out laughing.

Frowning, Alex turned to Maggie and then back at Dante. ‘Is it just me but who takes a half bottle of sherry to a woman’s house hoping to get into her knickers?’

‘Well, Pete obviously does.’ Maggie laughed. ‘Poor bugger, he’s lonely since his wife died last Christmas Day. He must have been devastated.’

‘His wife died on Christmas Day?’ Alex’s jaw dropped. Although he had kept a close eye on the neighbourhood, he’d obviously missed some things.

Phyllis arrived and took off her coat. ‘That’s right, selfish bastard he is. Couldn’t believe it when I heard it.’

Alex rubbed his dark stubble. ‘Do you want to extend the conversation a little Phyllis? Why does his wife dying on Christmas Day make him a selfish bastard?’

‘Because he ate his dinner first before calling the ambulance – did you know that? She’d cooked the turkey and everything and then just collapsed and died on the kitchen floor. Pete was upstairs and when he came down and saw that she was already dead, he didn’t want to waste good food so ate his Christmas dinner first. I know this because he went to Olivia’s for some gravy. It was Olivia who called the ambulance while he sat at the kitchen table eating his turkey. He told her there was no point in rushing because she was already dead and the ambulance would be busy, especially on Christmas Day. Can you believe it!’ Phyllis almost shouted with disgust.

Shocked, Maggie stood there with her jaw open, while Alex wanted to burst out laughing. He saw the funny side of it, but now was not the time to point that out.

‘Oh my God, that’s awful Phyllis. Was he sure she was dead? What if she wasn’t and he could have saved her?’ asked Maggie, astonished and shocked at Pete’s dark side. He was such an amiable man; but this, this was too much.

‘Oh yes, we’d all expected it for some time. She was an alcoholic and on borrowed time anyway, but that’s not the point is it?’ Standing there with her arms folded, huge Phyllis almost towered over them all, apart from Alex. Her face was set in stone. ‘Since then, he’s been chasing anyone in a skirt.’

‘Well, how did you escape his seduction techniques Phyllis? You’re a hard woman to ignore.’ Alex grinned and winked at Dante.

‘I moved!’ she shouted as she walked into the kitchen and switched the kettle on.

Alex, Maggie and Dante burst into an uproar of laughter. The whole story was bizarre, and no one would ever believe it, but coming from Phyllis they knew it was the truth. She never made jokes.

Maggie winked at Phyllis who was now handing each of them a cup of coffee. ‘Right, I can smell the cooking, it’s time me and Pauline sorted out that bar and opened up. There are a lot of bookings for the restaurant today which means they’ll be spending time at the bar drinking.’ Taking her mug with her, she walked into the bar, leaving the three of them alone.

‘I’m going to call for George and watch Pete,’ shouted Dante as he ran out of the door.

‘And I’m going to wash my car Maggie, so that you can actually see the number plate. Somebody wrote “wash me” on the back of it, so I am taking the hint. Where has Deana run off to?’ Taking a sip of his coffee, he waited.

‘Where she usually goes… Wendy’s from college, although I do believe Wendy has an older brother and I feel that could be the attraction.’ Seeing Alex’s face drop, she laughed. ‘Oh my God, don’t scowl like that, no wonder she hasn’t mentioned it. She is still Daddy’s little girl.’

‘How much older is he? What does he want with a young girl? She’s only sixteen.’

‘Oh, I think he’s about eighteen and just for the record he has a girlfriend, but that doesn’t stop Deana window shopping, does it?’

A smile spread across Alex’s face. ‘I suppose not. I’ll take my coffee with me. See you later.’ Giving her a peck on the cheek, Alex walked out of the door, although it bothered him that his family was growing up fast and he hadn’t realised it. He knew they were all young adults now. Time was the one thing you couldn’t stop and he hadn’t spent enough of it with his family in the past. In some ways he felt envious of Mark. He seemed to have it all. He had spent every waking day with his son. He had all his friends nearby and didn’t venture far from the community. He seemed to have plenty of money, even though Alex had never seen that mobile mechanic van move more than ten inches from his drive. Maggie was right, he decided, these were normal people with normal lives, well, kind of.

‘Hey Syl… I mean, Alex!’ Mark blushed. ‘How’s it going?’ Wearing his usual vest, jeans and worker boots, Mark wandered over. His hands were covered in oil and as usual he was wiping them with an oily rag. Alex wondered if Mark actually possessed a shirt.

‘What did you call me?’ Alex asked.

‘Syl,’ Mark laughed. ‘That’s what her indoors calls you. She thinks you look like Sylvester Stallone.’

‘Is that before or after he gets beaten up in the boxing ring?’ Alex laughed, smiling at the compliment.

‘I don’t think it matters, but that’s what they all call you behind your back.’

‘Oh yeah, well, it’s better than some I’ve had. What’s your nickname?’

‘What do you mean, apart from loud, fat bastard who’s useless at fixing cars? No idea mate. I don’t think I want to know. You going to wash that car of yours? Be careful; once you take the dirt off it might fall apart. The dirt is the only thing holding it together. I’m selling that Range Rover down my drive if you’re interested.’

Alex knew the Range Rover he was talking about and he knew it didn’t work. For days he’d seen Mark under the bonnet trying to get it started. It was falling apart and even the tyres weren’t the right ones for the car. Even if Alex wanted to, he knew the police would never allow him to register it. ‘Nah, I like my old rust bucket, it suits me,’ he lied. Alex winced inside as he remembered his old red, E-type jaguar. Now that was a car.

‘Tell you what though, if it helps. Some people pay me instead of their car insurance. As a mechanic I’m insured to drive a lot of cars. If the insurance money is a problem I can do it for around five hundred pounds if you’re interested?’ Alex couldn’t believe his ears. People actually went through his insurance to save paying a proper company? Shit! he thought to himself. Are there any more surprises in this neighbourhood? Maggie is deluded that these are normal people living boring lives, he mused. Maybe that’s because she wants to be.

‘I’ll think about it Mark, thanks, but I doubt this old heap is worth five hundred pounds.’ Mark was now looking at the Polish woman’s house, totally oblivious to what Alex was saying.

‘Do you remember Magda throwing a wobbly over her electric bill the other day?’

Recalling the hysterics, Alex nodded. ‘Sure, it was a mix up or something, wasn’t it? Didn’t she owe thousands of pounds?’ Alex recalled Magda waving her electricity bill in the air before them.

‘Yeah, well, Percy’s meter is going backwards and he’s had a cheque for a refund. They’re sending someone out to take a look, but in the meantime, Percy comes to my house saying he doesn’t have a bank account and would I take the cheque and I give him the cash. Can you imagine someone who doesn’t have a bank account?’ Amazed at the prospect, Mark scratched his shaved head.

‘How does he get his pension then?’ Knowing what he knew about Percy, the lack of bank account intrigued Alex. Most informers were paid one way or another, so how come Percy didn’t have a bank account?

‘Who cares? I charged him for exchanging his cheque though,’ Mark laughed, then furtively looked up and down the road and then scratched his head again. ‘I think it’s got something to do with the Liverpudlians; have you seen them? Flash cars, Rolexes. Real bruisers,’ he whispered. ‘But why on earth would they mix with Percy?’

Before Alex could answer, Mark walked down the side of his driveway to his back garden before reappearing with his infamous power washer. Winking at Alex, he started it up and handed him the hose. The noise was almost deafening, and Alex looked down at himself and saw that he was soaking wet as the water gushed out at full speed.

Mark stood closer to him while he sprayed his car. ‘That’s better. No one can hear us now. The Liverpudlians are gypsies, although now they are known as travellers or something. Into drugs and stuff, really hot stuff by all accounts. Percy works for them. Not sure what he’s doing for them, but they are using him good and proper – weird really. Keep an eye on Percy, he’s a dark horse. Not as stupid as he makes out.’

Alex remembered he had noticed a ‘flash car’ as Mark described it, cruising around the neighbourhood. It had stood out like a sore thumb and had immediately raised his suspicions. He remembered that car from somewhere but couldn’t place it. From then on, he’d looked for it daily, expecting the knock on the door from his enemies. But something nagged his mind about that car and now Mark had mentioned the Liverpudlians… Yes, he knew these men. In a roundabout way, he’d had dealings with them. They were drug dealers, Mark was right about that, and trying hard to think back, as Mark talked on, Alex vaguely remembered having to go to Liverpool once to collect money that was owed by these men. They had owed two hundred grand and it had been Alex’s job to collect it or shoot the boss and teach them a lesson if they didn’t pay. When he had arrived, it was that car that had been parked outside. Now it all came flooding back to him.

There had been a couple of men leaving the building and as he had walked in, he’d seen that the safe door on the wall was ajar. Once he had introduced himself and explained why he was there, there had been a bit of a scuffle and an exchange of insults, including someone calling him a Spanish prick! Alex had realised that he had more or less walked into an ambush and Alex now realised that the tip-off had probably come from Matteo. He didn’t have the guts to kill Alex himself, but was more than happy for someone else to do it.

After frisking him and taking his gun from the inside of his leather jacket, they had laid it on the desk before him. Alex had noticed that the leader of the three had two front gold teeth, which had made Alex smile – he’d obviously already had them knocked out by someone. Alex, trained in martial arts, had lashed out at the other men, but had taken a beating. During this, the man with the gold teeth had looked at him like dirt and walked out, leaving his men to finish him off. But Alex had managed to grab his gun and firing it at one of the men, had killed him. The other man had fled, fearing for his own life. Breathing heavily, and with his nose bleeding, Alex had opened the safe door and taken out wads of cash that were owed to him and after firing more shots into the air, he had left the building. And it had been that very car that had started up its engine and attempted to run him over as Alex had run to his own car. Fortunately, Alex had seen it coming and to avoid impact had jumped onto the bonnet, doing a body roll onto the floor as the car drove away.

As Alex thought about that day, his mission now was to see the driver of the car and see if it was the same man with the gold teeth. He had vowed to pay that bastard back one day, and here he was driving down his street.

Above the blast of water while he wrestled with the hose, Alex glanced at Mark and wondered just how much Mark knew about Percy and if he was testing him. ‘What has Percy got that they want? He’s not exactly a mastermind, is he?’

‘Maybe not, but something’s going on, that’s for sure. Why do they always go to his blue bins and drop off and pick up cardboard? He is touting drugs for them, I’m sure of that.’

Alex looked him square in the face. ‘Is that where you get yours from?’ He could have bitten his tongue as soon as the comment left his mouth. He didn’t want to offend Mark; he’d been a good friend and it was nice to have grown-up male company again.

‘Nah Alex, I get mine from my brother-in-law. There is another guy I know but getting hold of him is a pain. You text him, are you working tonight and if he answers he does and if not well, you don’t get anything, do you.’ Mark laughed. ‘Not exactly reliable. Olivia uses speed as part of her slimming routine. Apparently it kills your appetite.’ Sweeping away the splashes of spray from his face and head, Mark shrugged. ‘I’ll fill it full of car cleaner now you’ve got the shit off it.’ Again, Mark walked away, returning minutes later with a bottle of car wash. He proceeded to put it in the power washer. Now, it not only sprayed water, but soapy water and lots of it!

Hearing a noise drown out Mark’s chatter, Alex looked up and saw a helicopter above them. Frowning, he watched it hover above the rooftops and then fly away. That had been the second time he had seen it. The previous time had been while Maggie had been asleep the other night, and he’d heard the noise and got out of bed. Just like now, it seemed to hover above them and then disappear.

‘That helicopter has been flying around a lot lately. It’s bloody noisy and puts me off when me and Olivia are in the midst of passion. The hospital’s not far away, so I presume it’s one of those air ambulances. It seems to fly off in that direction.’ They both looked up at the sky, which was now empty. Again, Alex’s curiosity rose. There had been no logo on the side of the helicopter to indicate it was an air ambulance. No, he thought to himself, there was more to this than met the eye. It was none of the emergency services as far as Alex was concerned because it was unmarked. A fleeting thought crossed his mind and he wondered if it was an unmarked police helicopter keeping an eye on him. It was a possibility, but he felt it was a bit over the top. The plot thickened as far as Alex was concerned. There were more mysteries in this place than an Agatha Christie novel, he thought to himself. Only time would tell.

Avoiding Mark’s gaze, Alex carried on spraying his car. Alex’s cynical side rose to the surface. Was Mark testing him? And if so, what did he want from him? Or was he just a giant idiot, who liked to look as though he was in the know and impress his friends, to make him feel important.

Looking up, Alex saw Deana just about to cross the road. Seeing his wet appearance, she looked him up and down, and walked in a big circle around him. ‘I didn’t realise it was raining. I’d have taken my coat,’ she scoffed, and as per usual, strutted passed them both laughing.

‘You have your hands full there Alex. Christ, I’ve never seen a young girl fight like her before. I was amazed.’ Alex stopped pressing the lever on the power washer and turned to Mark. A frown crossed his brows. ‘What do you mean fighting? Who was she fighting with?’