After shouting towards his friends that Alex couldn’t have a drink because he was working for him, he handed over the keys and address. ‘Thanks for this Alex, come and have a drink when you’re finished,’ he whispered.
Alex nodded, having no intention of having a drink with Mark and the others, and made his way to the van before driving to Luke’s.
Parking further up the road from Luke’s house, Alex walked the rest of the way and knocked.
‘Alex, come in!’ Luke beckoned excitedly, opening the door wide. ‘Let me introduce you to Mum first. She knows Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t turn up this late, so let’s put her mind at rest.’
Donned in Mark’s long waterproof coat and his balaclava, he followed Luke into the lounge. ‘Mum, this is my mate Alex I was telling you about. He’s come to say hello and then we’re popping out for a few beers. Is that okay?’
Musing to himself, Alex didn’t think Luke’s mum looked blind. She was a pleasant old lady with grey hair and decently dressed, considering Luke seemed to be her only carer.
Standing up, she smiled and beckoned Alex towards her, feeling his face and pulling back his balaclava. ‘You’re older than his other friends Alex, I hope you set a good example for him.’ She smiled and sat down again. ‘It’s always nice to meet Luke’s friends. Off you go and have a good time boys. Luke, put the television on, I like to hear the news.’
‘I’ll make you a cup of tea before I go Mum and a sandwich for later.’ Seeing her nod, Luke beckoned Alex to follow and they walked towards the basement. Opening the hatch, which almost blinded Alex, Luke grinned broadly and walked into the basement. ‘Take a look at this Alex!’ he exclaimed. ‘We’re sitting on a fucking gold mine.’
Once Alex had got used to the light, he looked around. All of the plants were in full bloom. It looked like a florist’s shop. Pulling him by the arm of his coat, Luke steered him to the other end of the basement, pushing away odd bits of furniture and junk that were covered in cobwebs. ‘These are the seedlings.’
Alex looked at the hundreds of small pots containing seedlings in amazement. There were rows and rows of them. ‘Christ your gardener’s good Luke. All this in only a few weeks?’
‘He’s a big fan of that Alan Titchmarsh gardening programme and has been using that tomato feed grower. That lot over there are ready to sell, but they’ll need transporting to my mate’s so that he can prepare them. That’s where you come in.’
Alex burst out laughing. ‘Tomato feed grower? For fuck’s sake Luke I wouldn’t write to Titchmarsh’s programme and tell him that!’
‘If we leave it raw and uncut Alex, that will mean it’s good stuff and people will come back for more. People pay for good stuff.’ Luke grinned. ‘Of course, once they’re hooked, psychology kicks in and they think it’s good stuff even when we put herbs in it. We’ve started a herb garden out the back – all above board. But we’ll give them the good stuff first and let word spread.’
Alex liked Luke. He was likeable and a good businessman. He was also honest, which was unusual. ‘Whatever you say Luke, you’re the CEO of the outfit, I’m just a worker bee,’ Alex laughed.
‘I’d better go and make Mum’s tea and take her her meds. She can be a bit unsteady on her legs sometimes,’ Luke explained.
‘What’s wrong with her? She looks okay to me.’
‘Cancer. I thought I told you. I’m not putting her in some old people’s home, where she can’t find her way around and is stuck in a chair all day. She’s okay here and I can look after her.’ Casting his eyes downwards, a sad note crept into Luke’s voice. ‘She hasn’t got that long left Alex and spends a lot of time in bed lately. Life is just shit sometimes. It’s bad enough her being blind, but cancer as well. I sometimes give her cannabis to ease the pain and it really does help. If those bastards had killed me, like they were supposed to, then God knows what would have happened to Mum. Who would look after her? To cover my tracks, I’ve hired a carer to come in twice a day. If those Liverpudlian bastards have a gut feeling that I might still be alive, they will see someone else is looking after her and not me.’
‘I see your point and that’s a big responsibility. But I don’t mean to be rude, but you’re only young and she looks older than I would expect your mother to be.’
‘Yeah, she had me and Kev late in life. She lived life to the full in the early days and what with the cancer, people think she’s my grandmother. Wouldn’t you look old with all of that shit chemo running through your veins? It ages you, Alex.’
‘You’re doing a great job mate and I am sure she appreciates it.’ Admiringly, Alex looked at Luke. For a shady businessman, his heart was definitely in the right place. ‘She’s lucky to have you, Luke.’
Alex thought he saw tears well up in Luke’s eyes and decided to change the subject. ‘And what about this brother Kev of yours? Does he help?’
‘Oh yeah, let’s go and meet him. You want to see his place, though – it’s a shithole,’ Luke laughed, ‘so don’t say you haven’t been warned! But he is definitely our man. Plus, look at this…’ Going to a drawer, Luke held up an old mobile phone and switched it on. ‘This used to belong to the Liverpudlians. They were the ones who gave it to me, so it’s been switched off for ages, but I’ve been making a note of the numbers stored in it. See what I mean?’
Alex looked on as Luke scrolled through message after message – there were hundreds of them all asking for Luke to deliver drugs to various locations. The key phrase would be ‘are you working tonight?’ which seemed innocuous, but meant Luke was on for a deal.
‘And what happens when the people mention they are being contacted by a new dealer on a different number? You’re going to get caught out, Luke. Even though WhatsApp is encrypted, the mobile isn’t, so they could potentially track you down from this. My advice would be to use it on the move. Catch a train to somewhere new, do your selling and then switch it off.’ Alex scrolled through some of the addresses already stored on the phone and noted Mark’s address and telephone number. He said nothing, but wondered if he knew Percy’s Liverpudlian friends. Was he deeper in with them than he had thought?
Slapping Alex on the back, Luke burst out laughing. ‘If I didn’t know any better Alex, I’d say you’ve done this before! Come on, let’s go and see Kev.’
They walked towards a tower block that Luke had pointed out once before. It was the usual estate tower block and the lift wasn’t working. People were milling around outside and Luke gave a thumbs up as they approached a metal door which resembled a prison cell door with a sliding hatch. ‘Come on in Alex.’ Luke waved excitedly.
Coughing as he walked in, Alex found his eyes nearly watering from all of the different kinds of smoke in the air. ‘My God, what the hell is that smell?’
Luke walked in, shrugging. ‘It’s chasing the dragon. It can be done with meth, heroin, anything pretty much.’
Peering beyond the curtain of smoke, Alex’s eyes focused on a group of teenagers watching an enormous, thin man with a glass tube. Using his lighter, he lit the bottom of the tube to melt whatever was inside, and inhaled it from the top. Frowning, Alex had to admit to himself that he’d heard the saying many times, but never actually witnessed it. It looked gross and everyone was completely off their heads with it.
The walls of the flat were either vandalised or spray painted in some elaborate mural. Walking further towards the kitchen area, he saw the worktops were covered in empty cans of lager and pizza boxes. It had a microwave, even an oven and sink, but the place was a dump.
Lying on a sun lounger, a man about Luke’s age was tying a band around his arm ready to shoot up heroin with his friends. He was wearing sunglasses and Alex presumed he was Luke’s brother.
‘Hey Kev, not yet mate, this is Alex. I told you about him.’
Kev took off his dark glasses and gave Luke a high five. ‘Just in time bro, I was on my way to heaven.’ His lopsided grin resembled Luke’s, Alex thought to himself. Looking around and feeling like a pig in a poke, Alex took in all the people coming and going and making their way to their designated drug spot of choice. The dress code was mainly jeans and a T-shirt, until he saw an unshaven, grey-haired man. He was obviously homeless because he had all of his possessions with him in a rucksack.
Following his eyeline, Luke shrugged. ‘Think he just comes in out of the rain, but he doesn’t steal anything and sometimes he earns his keep by clearing away the surfaces. Probably gets off on all the smells in here.’
‘I thought we were here to talk business, Luke. Is he up to it?’ Alex pointed at Kev. ‘And are there any lights in here apart from dimly lit lamps for Christ’s sake? Does this place ever get raided?’
‘Yeah, the police come every now and again and raid it, but this is personal use. We aren’t selling. Have you seen any money exchange hands? And we’re all so fucking high, none of us remember who we got our gear from. The police aren’t going to waste time on us.’ Kev spoke up.
To be fair, Alex thought to himself, Kev might have been high, but he was coherent when it came to business. And he was right, he hadn’t seen anyone with cash in their hand. No one cared as long as they didn’t bother anyone. Now Alex felt stupid, because Kev had pointed out the obvious that he hadn’t seen. Being firmly put in his place, Alex relaxed and smiled. ‘Let’s start again, Kev.’
‘Sure, thing man.’ Kev raised his arm and gave Alex a high five, which he returned. ‘Come onto the balcony.’
Alex welcomed the fresh air as they walked on to the balcony and inhaled the night air into their lungs. He felt quite dizzy after being in that opium den. ‘Scripts are all ready to be picked up tomorrow. Some of the housebound even have theirs delivered so all is good. Got some distributors for your plants, so get that lot chopped up and bagged. Already got orders and they are going to hit the nightclubs. So, when you going to deliver Alex?’
Astonished and surprised, Alex said, ‘I’ve got the van now. Where do you want me to deliver to?’
‘There’s an allotment about six miles from here. Joey and Tyrone will be waiting for you, I’ll give them a call, say you’re on your way. You know where it is, don’t you, Luke?’ Seeing Luke nod, Kev carried on. ‘Got the lads on the lookout for bins. We will screw those bastards who tried killing you.’ He turned to Alex. ‘They came around here, trashing the place and asking about him. Said I hadn’t seen him for days. Thankfully, I was high so I didn’t feel the beating they dished out. Looked like shit in the morning though, black eyes and a couple of broken ribs. Makes no difference, everyone knows I wear dark glasses anyway.’ Kev laughed.
Frowning, Alex was puzzled. Although he didn’t want to sound stupid, he had to ask. ‘Excuse me lads, why are they on the lookout for bins?’ He’d heard this mentioned before but hadn’t quite grasped the significance. The dealers he had dealt with in the past were big time; they had meeting points, collection points and it was done on a much bigger scale. He’d seen truckloads of cocaine and whatever else disguised in false walls of trucks and barrels of cooking oil containing tightly, waterproof wrapped packages. But bins?
‘Delivery and drop-off purposes, Alex mate. Take a look around when you’re driving or walking; it’s surprising how many people have more than one bin. They are allowed three, one of each colour. No one takes any notice, that’s why it’s ingenious. The drugs are usually put in the blue one because it’s dry in there as it’s only cardboard. That’s the best place to hide drugs Alex, somewhere dry, without contamination. We leave the payment in there too. Those Liverpudlian lot use the bin scam – me and Luke know that. So, we look out for bins on people’s driveways. Some of our prescription customers leave their unwanted pills in the bins for us to collect too. It’s simple but it works. And if they’re good enough for Royal Mail and Amazon to leave parcels in, then why not us?’ He smiled. ‘It’s a much easier arrangement, as long as it’s not bin collection day. Shit! Those bank holidays fuck you right up when they change the dates for collection.’ He laughed. ‘Christ, we’re totally fucked then!’
Looking at them both, Alex had to smile. Seeing Luke and Kev laugh like that meant they had been caught out on bin collection day at some point and lost the lot!
While they talked, Alex made a mental note to do his own survey on the duplicate bins. It intrigued him. It was so simple and yet it worked.
Reaching inside, Kev grabbed a pack of four lagers off the windowsill. ‘Not you Alex, you’re driving. And you’re going to have a load of plants in the back. And Luke is a lightweight. One can and he’s legless. So I’ll have four for all of us.’ He laughed again.
Alex had to admit, his laughter was infectious. He was a genuine man, exactly the same as Luke. He could also see this young man had his head firmly screwed on, considering he seemed to be spaced out all the time.
Luke nodded to Alex. ‘Right, we had better go then Alex. Time is cracking on and you have to get back.’ After another high five each, Luke and Alex made their way to the door, and as they turned towards Kev to wave, they saw him sit back in his sun lounger and carry on where he had left off.
Around the back of the flats outside were rubbish skips full of bin liners. ‘People from the top of the flats put their rubbish down these chutes in the corridor,’ explained Luke. ‘Every floor has one; it saves people having to walk down all those flight of stairs or get the lift when it’s working just to put a rubbish bag in the bin. All the rubbish comes here and the council dustbin vans take away the skips and leave new ones in their place. Saves having a million dustbins outside.’ It was simple enough, Alex thought.
Luke looked up. ‘Watch, Alex. Watch and learn.’ He grinned.
