‘I was driving, and I saw her jumping in the air with karate kicks or something. She looked like a ninja warrior. Didn’t she tell you? Oh shit, have I dropped her in it? I thought you’d know.’ Mark squirmed, and his face looked troubled.

Brushing it off nonchalantly, Alex smiled. ‘Oh yeah course, she took lessons when she was younger. Just another phase kids go through. But why was she fighting in the street?’

‘Dunno Alex, but let her know if I ever piss her off, she should give me the chance to apologise first. She is one mad, angry woman!’ Mark laughed.

Alex’s mind wandered as Mark continued to talk the hind legs off a donkey. He remembered teaching Deana to fight when she was just a young girl, first it was kickboxing, then judo and she had taken to it like a duck to water, even to the point where she had entered tournaments and won. It all seemed a world away now, but obviously Deana had kept it up. He wanted his children to be able to protect themselves, knowing the world he came from. They had to be tough to survive. Dante had taken his lead from Deana, but he preferred boxing to Deana’s high kicks, although you wouldn’t think it to look at him. Most people described Dante as geeky, with a shy persona and horn-rimmed glasses. It was a good disguise for what was inside.

Alex still worked out, too. He knew there would be trouble to come, and he wanted to be in shape and ready for it. Letting his mind roam into the past, he saw himself in his sharp suits alongside Paul Pereira and the other mafia families. His gut feeling told him that it wouldn’t be too long before Paul and his spies would track him down. He’d given the police enough information about gangsters they already knew about, and police inspectors that were on the payroll. Sooner or later the police would have enough ammunition to walk into the courtroom and imprison them all for a very long time and the last name they would all remember would be Silva. Half of him wanted it over and done with, even if that meant they shot him. He thought about how happy Maggie was these days. At least if he was dead, she could carry on – hopefully. There were no guarantees though.

He loved seeing her happy, but they had been moved around a lot lately for their own safety and her getting so attached to this place unnerved him. How would she feel if the detectives that looked after them suddenly turned up and said they had to move again? Maggie was busy making a home for them here and he hated the idea of them leaving like thieves in the night, in the back of an unmarked police car to God knew where. It would break her heart and she would finally resent and hate him and that was the one thing he feared most of all. She was his heart and soul; his reason for turning on his fellow criminals. Losing Maggie would break him. He hadn’t wanted to get attached to this place or the people, but strangely enough fate had stepped in and he’d been swamped with friends. Sighing to himself, he knew they wouldn’t be friends for long once they found out he’d been lying to them and just what kind of a man he was.

‘Hey Alex, wake up mate, you’re miles away. You’ve nearly washed the colour off that car of yours and I’ve got a water meter. You need a drink?’ Playfully, Mark slapped him on the back and went inside his house with the intention of appearing again with a couple of bottles of beer.

Shrugging, Alex looked at the now dripping car. ‘Wing it Silva, you always have in the past. Don’t stop now…’ he said to himself.

9 UNRAVELLED MYSTERY

While the restaurant and its waitresses, including Deana, were running around with plates of food, and the eighties music in the bar blared out, Alex had felt stifled by it all. This wasn’t his life, this was someone else’s life he was living and to be honest, sometimes it bored him. He missed the excitement of his former life; the buzz and adrenalin that had soared through him while he was on a job had made him feel alive. Mr Suburbia, he was not. He wasn’t a chameleon like Maggie and found it hard to adapt, although he was giving it his best shot.

Leaving everyone behind, he had walked into the dark December frosty night. Looking up, he saw the sky was clear, but the icy breeze made him shiver. Sometimes he liked being alone and letting his mind catch up with the things that ran around it. Avoiding the beer garden, which was usually full of people smoking, he walked closer to the pavement and lit a cigarette. Looking up he noticed a silver BMW driving slowly before stopping and flashing its headlights. Turning his head, Alex noticed a larger vehicle coming from the opposite direction. He couldn’t help himself; call it habit, or stupidity, he walked across the road where the BMW was parked, and knocked on the window. Seeing the confused look on the face of the middle-aged man driving it, Alex waited while the electric window was wound down.

‘If you’re doing a drugs drop, you’re way too obvious,’ Alex remarked.

‘And what would you know? You’re the publican bloke that just moved in aren’t you?’

Alex smiled at the scouse accent. Considering the expensive suit this man was wearing and his very groomed experience you would expect him to speak more eloquently. ‘I am, but whatever your drop-off is, it’s not good.’

‘What the fuck has it got to do with you? I don’t see anyone else butting their nose in my business. Do me a favour mate – fuck off.’

‘I will.’ Alex grinned. ‘If you tell me how you have wired up Percy’s electric meter to the neighbour’s. Because that is what you’ve done, isn’t it?’ It hadn’t taken long for Alex to work out that someone was using Magda’s electricity and that was why her bill was so high. It was an old trick, but it did come with consequences. In the short term you could get away with it, but you eventually got found out if you were too greedy.

Alex looked up at the night sky. ‘It’s a clear night tonight mate, and whatever it is that you’re lighting up and keeping warm in old Percy’s house can easily be spotted. Just a tip.’ Inhaling on his cigarette, Alex stood up, away from the window, and started to cross the road towards the pub. Hearing the car start up and feeling its headlights behind him, he moved aside thinking the driver was going to run him over, but instead it stopped beside him, and the driver leaned his head out of the door. ‘Who are you mister?’

Turning his head and holding his hand up to his eyes to stop the glare of the car’s headlights, Alex laughed. ‘You know who I am, you’ve just told me. Have a nice evening.’ Flicking his cigarette to the pavement, Alex walked back to the pub. Alex congratulated himself on his calmness. He was right, as soon as the driver of the car spoke to him, he saw his gold teeth. What a small world, he thought to himself. The man had shown no sign that he recognised or remembered Alex even though he had attempted to run him over and have him beaten up. Now, Alex thought to himself with a grin, this was his chance to turn the tables and surprise this would-be small gangster. Vengeance was always best served cold!

Inside the pub, he saw poor old Dante had been roped in to help wipe tables. Cocking his head to one side and catching Dante’s eye, Alex grinned and saw the exasperated look on his son’s face.

Alex looked around and instinctively knew that something was missing. He scanned the busy pub again, and realised Percy was missing, which was unusual, considering he usually did a bit of glass collecting for a few beers and a free meal. Maggie also gave him a few quid for his help, but tonight Alex couldn’t see him anywhere. Why wasn’t he there claiming his freebies?

Strolling into the restaurant area, Alex knew something was wrong, but he was missing a piece of the jigsaw. Then he saw Deana rushing past him, her blonde hair pushed back into a ponytail and her faced flushed as she carried an armful of dirty plates towards the kitchen. ‘Deana, wait a minute.’

‘A minute, I haven’t got a minute. Did you know that Mum and the brewery were doing a “buy one get one half price” night with an alcoholic drink thrown in? Fuck, I’m run off my feet. Poor old Dante is wiping tables as quickly as Mum’s filling them again. It wouldn’t do you any harm to help!’ she snapped.

Relaxing his stance, Alex smiled, flashing a set of white teeth. Putting his hands into his leather jacket pockets, he stood back. ‘Now why would I do that, Deana? If I helped you, you would have nothing to complain about. Have you seen Percy?’

Still balancing the gravy-stained plates that were starting to drip slightly as they wobbled, she frowned. ‘Percy? He’s not here this weekend, is he?’

‘What do you mean? I didn’t know he went away for dirty weekends.’ As he tried to make light of it, Percy’s absence intrigued Alex even more.

Thrusting the plates towards him as she heard her name being shouted, she turned around and then back at Alex. ‘Look, you take these; they piss me off in the kitchen barking orders. I have to help clear the other tables, and as for Percy, yeah, he’s gone to do that night fishing or something. Gone with a friend; he will be away all weekend. Ask Mark, he’ll tell you. Apparently, he does it a lot.’

Flustered, Deana marched off towards another row of tables and started gathering plates. Alex took the plates he was holding and walked through the kitchen swing doors and put them on the long metal worktop. Spotting the poor young kitchen apprentices emptying and filling the dishwashers, Alex’s mind wandered, and he rolled his eyes to the ceiling in thought. Why were those Liverpudlians at Percy’s tonight? If it was a pick-up or a drop-off, as Mark called it, why was another car there and why were they signalling to each other?

Going through the back exit without being seen, Alex walked towards the street again, then stopped short. Parked directly in front of Percy’s house on the pavement was a large white van. From where Alex was standing, it blocked Percy’s house from sight from his side of the road. You couldn’t see it at all.

Back in his younger days, when he had first started breaking into houses, they used to park a van outside the house they were going to burgle. All the vans they used had side sliding doors. This way you blocked anyone’s view while you burgled a house and put your booty straight into the side of the van. No one saw you, or the house being burgled. Other times, they had used vans with delivery or plumbing logos on the side. It was easy to get these things printed out and stuck on the side of a van. It sounded simple, but it had worked many times and no one ever saw or suspected a thing. His favourite, Alex smiled to himself, had been using the local council workmen logo. No one took any notice of it. The bigger the large transits were, the more invisible they seemed to be.

Treading carefully, Alex could see there was no one around. It seemed to him that once everyone got home from work, they either spent the night in front of the television or went out for a quick meal to save them cooking and then spent the night in front of the television. It might be Maggie’s idea of heaven, but to him it was bloody boring! His past life had been so full and so busy, sometimes he didn’t have time to catch his breath but here, he walked, he helped out in the bar and was permanently watched, supposedly for his own good, by the police. He felt confined and felt like breaking out, but there was nowhere to break out to. Now, at last, something had sparked his interest. He knew this kind of work; it was second nature to him.

Walking further up the street away from the pub, he put the collar of his black leather jacket up and put his chin down to try and hide his face. A few yards away, he turned as though walking down the street towards Percy’s and was surprised that there was no action. Confused and intrigued, he found himself walking closer to the van and Percy’s house. He had been right, the van had a side sliding door, but it was firmly shut. Now he knew something wasn’t right; none of this added up. If someone was burgling Percy’s or dropping off drugs they would have been gone by now. Standing there he lit a cigarette, knowing that someone would notice him if they were watching. But there was nothing. His mind worked overtime as he walked back to the pub. Even an hour later when he looked out of the window, the van hadn’t moved.

‘Oh my God Alex, I’m glad that’s over,’ Maggie sighed as she put the bolt across the pub door. ‘Bloody hell, if that was a trial run for the Christmas bookings we have, we’re going to need some extra agency staff for the bar and the restaurant. I’m absolutely shattered. Pauline and Phyllis have worked their socks off. I know you laugh, but they are bloody good at their job.’

Alex turned towards the optics and picked up two glasses and got them both a brandy. ‘You look like you need one of these; it will help you sleep.’

‘I don’t need any rocking tonight love, and if you’ve got any ideas about action down those trousers of yours, you’re definitely wrong. I’d probably fall asleep while you were doing it.’ She laughed and took a sip of the brandy he held out to her.

‘Thanks for that Maggie, it’s good to know I keep your interest.’ Smiling, Alex walked forward and put his arms around her and held her tight, letting her head rest on his shoulder. He had other things on his mind tonight, so sex was definitely out of the question. ‘I love you Maggie, you know that don’t you?’ he whispered.

‘And I love you Alex, my Portuguese prince, but if this is the start of your seduction tactics, don’t bother. If you love me, let me sleep,’ she laughed.

‘Go on, up to bed. I’ll switch the lights off here and put those few glasses in the dishwasher. You’ve done enough. Go on, off to bed woman or I might change my mind and let my Portuguese snake appear!’ Slapping her bottom, he let out a huge laugh.

‘You’re shameless Alex Silva. But thank you, I’ll see you up there.’

Finishing his brandy, he did as promised and had a last tidy up around the bar, turning everything off. Checking his watch, he saw that it was only just past midnight. He had an unsettled feeling about tonight, and something inside him told him to check the van out again. He didn’t like involving Deana, but she was wily and could be trusted. Walking upstairs he saw that Maggie had gone straight to bed and was already wrapped inside the duvet snoring. Then he walked to Deana’s bedroom and without knocking, he opened the door. She was lying on the bed, still clothed with her headphones in. Touching her shoulder, she opened her eyes with a start, shocked look.

‘I did knock,’ he lied.

‘What is it? What’s wrong, Dad?’ Sitting up, she took out her headphones and waited.

Alex put his finger to his lips and whispered, ‘Mum’s asleep and I need back-up. Come with me.’

Sliding off the bed, she frowned. ‘Are you okay?’ she mouthed.

Beckoning her to the bedroom door, he put his finger to his mouth again and instinctively Deana followed him. A hundred things passed through her mind at once. Her first thought was that they had been found and it was going to be some kind of shoot-out. She shivered at the thought and her blood ran cold, but she trusted her father.

Seeing her shiver slightly, Alex looked around and saw her fleecy dressing gown on the back of the door and handed it to her. Tentatively, they crept down the stairs and unlocking the back door, they walked out into the street.

‘What’s going on, where are we going?’ she whispered.

‘Percy’s. I have a hunch and I need a lookout, are you up for it?’

‘He isn’t there; why are you going to his rat hole?’ Wrapping her dressing gown firmly around her, she followed her father up the street, mentally thanking herself for still being dressed. It looked like it was going to snow and the air was freezing cold.

Following her father as he walked up the street and around the back of Percy’s house, she was intrigued. Percy had nothing worth nicking that was for sure, so why was her father coming here in the dead of night in secret?

Deana could hardly see her father, he was dressed all in black, even his hair was black, but she could see he was wearing gloves. Old habits die hard, she thought to herself. Now curiosity had got the better of her so she waited. Her dad tried the door handle and they both turned to each other when the door opened. She could only presume somebody was in there, but they’d come this far and they weren’t turning back now.