‘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.
Suddenly, a couple of weighted-down envelopes and doggie bags came flying down the chute into a box nestled amongst the rubbish bags in the skip. Instantly, Luke put his hand in the well-buried black box and took them out and opened them, handing Alex one. ‘Go on,’ he urged. Pensively Alex opened the envelope. Inside was money. ‘You see Alex, they all pay to enter and use the stuff in safety. But no one really gets it for free, we just don’t handle cash.’ Luke winked and standing on tiptoes, he reached into the box and took out a host of envelopes, stuffing them in his jacket.
Amazed, Alex looked on at the pile of doggy bags and envelopes containing cash. ‘Don’t people steal them?’
‘No, these people like to come here, so they aren’t going to fuck it up for themselves. Honour amongst druggies eh. They would rather steal the drugs than the money Alex. They are addicts; money is only a means to an end. And it’s emptied regularly, just in case the bin men come early.’ Laughing, Luke walked to the van. ‘Come on, slow coach. All that inhaling has made you look spaced out!’
While dropping Luke back off at home, he was surprised at his next question. ‘By the way Alex, how is your daughter? Diana, is it?’
‘Deana, and she’s okay. Why?’ Suddenly Alex’s fatherly instincts kicked in.
Casting a sideways glance at Alex, Luke carried on. ‘Just wondering. She was a good mate to help me that night you found me.’ Luke blushed. ‘Her boyfriend is a really lucky guy.’
Frowning, Alex looked at him. ‘Did she tell you she had a boyfriend?’ Once he saw Luke shake his head, he carried on, ‘Anyway she’s fine and too young for you by all accounts.’
‘I was only asking Alex; no need to jump down my throat,’ Luke snapped.
‘You know Luke, I wasn’t always in my thirties. I was your age once. But my advice about Deana is I would steer clear; she would eat you for dinner and spit out the bones.’
Luke followed his kindly lecture by getting out of the van. Alex couldn’t help laughing. Boys will be boys, he mused to himself and smiled.
It had been one hell of a night, Alex thought as he drove home, and he had bloody enjoyed it!
19 DARK ENTITIES
Mark hadn’t even noticed when Alex had dropped the van keys back before making his way into the back entrance of the pub. Since Maggie knew about his absence, he didn’t feel the need to hide his return.
But storming into the hallway the minute he shut the door, Maggie strode towards him. ‘Where the hell have you been?’ Maggie shouted. ‘You’ve been gone nearly four hours!’ Red faced and angry, Maggie’s blonde hair seemed to fly around her head like a banshee’s. Alex was used to thinking on his feet, and so he knew the closer to the truth, the better the lie would be. He hadn’t realised how long he had been out; he had been so engrossed with Luke. Looking up, he saw Dante coming downstairs. ‘Are you okay Dad? Mum was worried.’
Shamefully, he looked past Maggie towards his son. ‘I’m fine, Dante.’ Alex smiled although inside he felt like shit. He had made his family worried about his safety while he was running around having fun with a couple of druggies. ‘It was supposed to be a half-hour job, but Mark’s van broke down!’ he lied. Instantly Dante burst out laughing and with that Maggie stopped shouting and burst out laughing, too.
‘Well, that serves you right. I bet you looked like a real prick! But you’re safe and that’s all that matters.’ Walking towards him, Maggie hugged him. ‘Four hours with no contact is a long time, Alex. No more favours, okay?’
‘Are you kidding me? That was my first and last favour. I had to stand in the rain trying to get his van fixed – I couldn’t exactly ring a mobile mechanic, could I?’ He grinned and hugged her back, looking up the stairs and winking at Dante, who walked back towards his bedroom. ‘Come on Maggie, I’ll help you clear away for the night. God knows, I need a distraction and an early night. Never again,’ he muttered convincingly enough to satisfy her.
Alex realised tonight wasn’t the night to discuss Percy’s suspicions with her. He had totally fucked up and there was no way he could tell Maggie that they’d potentially been found given how worried she’d been about his absence.
While tidying up, he took some empty crates down to the cellar. Seeing that no one was behind him, he went to the old beer barrel that he had put the golf bag full of guns in. Quickly he searched around for two automatics and their ammunition and took them out.
If someone was going to enter his house upstairs, he needed something to hand. He knew Deana already had hers firmly stashed away somewhere. He had taught them all, including Maggie, to shoot. At first it had been a game, just messing around in the garden with an air rifle and some old tin cans. But as time had gone on their lessons had become more serious. Even when gangsters were your friends, there was always someone who wanted you dead.
Now this was his insurance, he thought to himself. He couldn’t always be there to protect them, but it made him feel better knowing there were guns in the house and that his wife and children knew how to use them.
He would also make some kind of booby trap to stop anyone in their tracks on entering. Alex realised he was being paranoid, but with Percy’s news he knew they had to be on their guard. Maggie may have slipped into normal suburban life, with her friends and customers, but they weren’t from normal suburbia. Their lives were in danger. Alex hadn’t spent hours and hours in police stations, identifying photos of mafia members and their connections just to fail now.
Alex placed the guns in the back waistband of his trousers and pulled his shirt out to cover them. With the rifle in its black leather cover, he thought it looked like a walking stick or an umbrella even. He decided he would put it in the back hallway near the entrance. There were so many coats hanging there, no one would notice it. After hiding the rifle, he walked into the bar, where Maggie was still polishing glasses and putting them away. There were still some glasses to be put in the dishwasher.
‘Why don’t you go up Maggie? You look washed out. Go on, I’ll finish up here. Go and have a soak or something. Sorry I made you worry, love. It’s a shame we can’t have mobile phones of our own.’ They both looked at each other. Maggie presumably still had the one he had got her to speak to her mother with. As they stared at each other, the same thought passed through their minds.
‘It’s a shame you don’t have one, and after a couple of hours I could have seen if there was a message, just letting me know you were okay.’
His brows crossed, and he lowered his voice to a hushed whisper. ‘We’re not allowed them, you know that. The police have even tampered with Deana’s laptop, much to her annoyance. She can’t even be on Instagram like her friends. Christ, people must think we’re weirdos or something,’ he snapped, shaking his head. He felt angry, but couldn’t do anything about it. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. And at this moment in time, he was glad that the police did their surveillance checks. God knows who was watching his kids going to school. Maggie was an easy target behind the bar, but at least she was always surrounded by people which made an attack on her less likely, he thought to himself. He didn’t care about himself, but his family meant everything to him.
‘Go and have your bath, Maggie. You’ve had a long day on your feet and your blood pressure must be through the roof because of me. Try not to worry, I’ll sort something out. My family come before anything else in life.’ Walking forward, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight.
‘I think I will have a bath and soak my feet. Thank you.’ Blowing a kiss, she left.
Pouring himself a brandy, Alex looked around the empty pub, with beer-stained glasses waiting to be stacked in the dishwasher. What a night, he thought to himself. Gulping back the brandy and feeling it warm his throat, he felt better. ‘Right Silva,’ he said out loud, while rolling up his sleeves, ‘time to earn some brownie points and clean up.’
