Betrayed (3 page)

Silence.

‘Why not, Liz?’

Silence. Rosie watched her as she wiped tears from the corners of her heavily made-up eyes.

‘Because I thought she would turn up. I didn’t want to do anything that would get them digging around on what the night
really
was – you know, the UVF fundraiser. I didn’t
want to be the one who grassed that up to the police. So I just said Eddie dropped me off, then took Wendy home to her house.’

‘And is that not what happened?’

‘No. Not quite.’ She wiped under her eyes where the mascara had smudged. ‘We went to a flat Eddie uses in the city centre – he keeps the place very quiet, so nobody knows he’s got it. We just had a couple of drinks.’

Rosie nodded.

‘We weren’t drunk. Just tipsy. Then Eddie dropped me off at my flat.’

‘So the only thing you didn’t tell the cops is that you went back to Eddie’s for a drink?’

Liz bit her lip.

‘Well. No.’ She paused. ‘The next day, I got a phone call from Eddie saying to keep it quiet that we were at his for a drink. He said it was because Wendy was going out with Jimmy Dunlop and he didn’t want him to get to know about it. I didn’t tell the cops about that. I tried to phone Wendy all day, but couldn’t get her. I thought she’d be sleeping. Then I was working at night, so I didn’t go round to her house till the next day. There was still no answer. Her mum and dad were away on holiday, so she was in the house by herself. I spoke to Jimmy, and he was upset because he couldn’t get her either. It was only when her parents came home the next day that they called the cops because there was no sign of her anywhere.’

‘Jimmy Dunlop?’ Rosie said, hoping she was remembering all the details. She didn’t want to take a notebook out as the barman kept glancing over at them. ‘Do you know him?’

‘Yeah. He’s UVF too. Wendy told me he was in Belfast last month taking the oath at the Shankill. They’ve been going out for nearly three months. He’s all right, Jimmy. Hard, but a good guy. He’s nuts about Wendy and she’s really into him too. That’s how I know she wouldn’t just up sticks and leave home. She was staying with her ma and da. She’s the only one in the family. She wouldn’t leave them like that.’ Tears came again and she shook her head. ‘Something’s happened to her. I just know it. It’s been a month and we’ve heard nothing. That’s not Wendy.’ She looked at Rosie. ‘Can you help? Can your paper do something?’ She took a tissue out of her pocket and blew her nose.

‘We can write something, Liz. I need to work out exactly what, though. I need to talk to the editor and see what we can do. But maybe you should have told the cops what you’ve told me.’

‘No fucking way. And get my throat cut?’

Rosie took a deep breath.

‘But you’re telling me.’

‘That’s different.’ She looked Rosie in the eye. ‘You won’t tell anybody it was me who told you stuff, will you?’

‘Listen, Liz. Nobody will ever know you talked to me. But you must never tell anyone you spoke to me. It would be dangerous for you if the kind of people we’re dealing with
thought you were talking to a reporter. You know that, don’t you?’

‘Don’t worry. I’m not stupid, Rosie. I know I’m taking a risk just sitting here. But I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t want to go to the cops. Then when you came to my house yesterday, it got me thinking.’

‘Have you told Jimmy Dunlop anything?’

‘No. Nothing.’

‘Would he talk to me?’

Liz shrugged. ‘You could try. He’s not a bad guy. No way is he involved in Wendy’s disappearance though. But he’s a UVF man through and through now.’

‘What about her parents? Would they talk?’

‘No. They haven’t said much. They’re nice people. But I don’t think they’ll know anything.’

Rosie asked for Liz’s mobile number and stored it in her phone.

‘I’ll be in touch in the next couple of days, and we’ll meet again. Meanwhile, say nothing.’

‘I know.’ Liz finished her drink and stood up and looked at her watch. ‘I need to go. I hope you’ll help find Wendy. I don’t care what you do with any of the rest of the information I gave you. I don’t care if you blow the whole thing sky high. I’ll even help you. Wendy and me have been pals from school. I need to find her.’

‘I’ll do what I can,’ Rosie said.

She watched as Liz walked across the carpet, and as she
pushed open the swing door, the sound of flutes and drums drifted into the bar. Rosie looked at her watch. Give it a few more hours and it would be the screams of police and ambulance sirens, as the Orange and the Green that had split the city down the middle for generations descended into the annual mayhem.

CHAPTER TWO

Jimmy’s gut was in a knot as he waited in his car outside Eddie McGregor’s house. He was well used to going on jobs with Eddie, and it never mattered to him whether it was a punishment beating or a routine robbery – he was up for anything he was asked to do. At twenty-four, he was already a known hardman, fearless but disciplined, and Eddie had used him more and more to assist on jobs, earmarking him for the UVF when the time was right. But this would be Jimmy’s first ordered hit that had come all the way from UVF command in Belfast, and now that he’d been sworn in, he wanted to be sharp as a tack.

He stared out of the windscreen. It had been nearly a month, and every day that passed, it was becoming clearer that Wendy wasn’t coming back. If she’d just disappeared he would have lived with it, even though he was crazy about her. But he was haunted by her phone call, her sobs as she told him Eddie had raped her. He knew she was telling the
truth. Even though he hadn’t known her long, in the weeks since the first time he’d taken her home from the pub, they had clicked. It wasn’t just the sex – they’d become best mates, and he saw a side to her that you didn’t see in the bar. With him she was softer, vulnerable, and he was sure they could have made a go of it.

Jimmy had considered talking to his father about Wendy’s phone call, but he didn’t want to place him in an awkward position, having to go against another UVF man on the word of someone who wasn’t even here any more. Big Jack Dunlop was one of the most respected Loyalists in Belfast, notorious after he bombed a Glasgow pub – a known haunt of IRA men – at the height of Northern Ireland’s Troubles. He took a back seat these days, but he still had clout. It would be a loss of face if his father took the rape claim to Belfast, which he would have to do by UVF rules. The top brass there would hold their own inquiry, haul Eddie over for questioning. But it was all based on a phone call from a woman who wasn’t there to back it up. It was pointless. Maybe it was time to move on. He let out a sigh, wishing he hadn’t got drunk a couple of nights ago and told Wendy’s pal Liz about her phone call. That was stupid, because Liz was a bit of a piss artist. He’d phoned her the following day to warn her not to mention it to anyone. He knew she’d probably be too scared to go to the cops. But if she did, there would be all sorts of shit flying around, and he was sure to be the guy pulled in as a suspect.

He felt miserable, his mind drifting back to his first face-to-face talk with Eddie, after Wendy vanished. He recalled how nervous he’d been as Eddie looked right through him as they stood outside the pub.

Eddie had got in first.

‘How you doing, man? That’s weird about wee Wendy, isn’t it? Just disappearing like that.’

‘I know, Eddie. That’s what I wanted to ask you about.’ Jimmy felt uncomfortable.

Eddie gave him a cold look.

‘Me? Fuck has it got to do with me? I just dropped her off at the house. Dropped Liz off first, then Wendy. Then I went home. Fuck all to do with me where she went to after that.’

His tone was aggressive and Jimmy was on the back foot.

‘I know,’ Jimmy said, feeling disarmed and already regretting approaching him. ‘What I mean is … Well … When you dropped her off, what kind of mood was she in? Was she all right?’

Christ! Whatever he was trying to do here, he was fucking it up royally.

Eddie, a head and shoulders taller, looked down at him. He smirked and spat on the ground.

‘I’d say she was a bit horny, mate. You should know. You were dry humping her outside the bar before she got in the car.’ He looked Jimmy in the eye. ‘Did you not go round and give her one after she got home?’

‘No. I didn’t, Eddie.’ He clenched his jaw and looked at the ground.

‘But you spoke to her on the phone, did you not?’

‘Aye.’

Jimmy let the silence hang in the air and looked up at Eddie’s face for any sign of guilt. There was none. He glowered back at him, his blue eyes narrowing.

‘So what did she say?’

Jimmy took a deep breath and swallowed his rage.

‘Nothing.’

Wendy’s sobs were ringing in his ears. He knew Eddie was lying. But he was backed into a corner. If this had been anyone else, Jimmy would have broken his legs by now. He would have hit first and questioned later. But Eddie was his company commander, feared and respected from London Road to the Shankill. He had seen it with his own eyes when he went over to swear the oath last month in the back room of a Loyalist pub in north Belfast beneath the flag and in the presence of the brigadier and two masked, armed UVF paramilitaries. Eddie’s word was gospel in every quarter. You didn’t even think about taking him on.

Eddie’s eyes seemed to soften a little. He took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and handed one to Jimmy.

‘Look, son.’ He gave him a perplexed look, lighting both their fags. ‘I know you were shagging the wee bird. But fuck’s sake, man. It’s only a shag. Wee Wendy has seen more cockends than bookends, from what I hear. So don’t get
yourself all hung up about it. It looks like she’s just fucked off somewhere and didn’t want anybody to know. Including you. So get over it. People have all sorts of shit going on in the background, and maybe she was owing money or something and did a runner.’

‘I liked her,’ Jimmy said, disconsolate. ‘I’d been going out with her for a couple of months and she seemed all right.’

Shit! He sounded like a fucking teenager being disciplined by the headmaster.

Eddie shook his head slowly.

‘Jimmy. Listen. You never know what’s going on in somebody’s head. Especially a fucking woman. Look. She might turn up. She might not. But you don’t need to be getting your balls in a lather over it.’ He started to walk away. ‘If you want a ride, I’m sure they’ll be lining up for you, man.’ He gave him a playful punch on the shoulder, grinning. ‘Especially now you’ve got a bit of status. UVF he-men don’t need to look far for a fuck.’ He walked off then turned around. ‘Come on. I’ll buy you a drink. I want to tell you about a wee job we’re lining up anyway. You’ve got more important things going on than a fucking woman.’

Jimmy followed him into the bar, rage burning through him.

Now, as Jimmy watched Eddie striding towards the car, he tried to focus on the job ahead.

The contract, Eddie had told him and Mitch yesterday,
was on two heroin dealers who had to be taken out of the game. The request, from a medium-ranking Glasgow hoodlum, had gone to the UVF top brass in Belfast for approval. It was common knowledge among the troops that gangsters, from Liverpool to Manchester to Glasgow, often used the UVF to bump someone off. It was secure and tidy and there was never any comeback. Nobody with half a brain would grass up the UVF. The rules were simple; the UVF in Belfast named the price for the contract, and it was nonnegotiable. There was no room for sentiment. Anybody had a price, and once the money was put up, the person they wanted wiped out was as good as dead.

The pair about to be dealt with were small-time thugs who’d got too big for their boots. Not only had they moved in, punting heroin on someone else’s turf in the north of Glasgow, they were also stupid enough to stiff the local godfather for twenty grand.

‘Awright, Jimmy,’ Eddie muttered out of the side of his mouth. It was more of an order than a question.

He got into the front seat and shot Jimmy a sidewards glance, thin lips tight in his lean face. Two-day stubble made his pale skin look pasty. He put a black holdall at his feet and unzipped it. He took out a revolver and handed it to Jimmy.

‘Stick it in your waistband. But make sure the safety catch is on or you’ll blow your dick off.’

Jimmy quickly checked the standard nine millimetre
automatic pistol. From his weapons training, he could strip any weapon down and put it together blindfolded. He stuck the gun into the waistband of his jeans. He’d used it before, and feeling the cold metal against his bare stomach gave him a feeling of power. He drove off as Eddie rolled down the window, hawked and spat.

They went out of the housing estate, dubbed Millionaires’ Row with its massive detached properties, and drove down towards the main road where Mitch was waiting at the traffic lights. He pulled over and Mitch got in the back seat.

‘Evening, chaps,’ he said cheerily, giving Jimmy a friendly dig on the shoulder.

‘All right, Mitch.’ Eddie didn’t turn around. He went into the holdall and handed him a gun. ‘Make sure the safety catch is on.’

‘Where to, Eddie?’ Jimmy asked.

‘The M8. Out towards Lanarkshire, then down the M74. About half an hour. Near Stonehouse,’ Eddie said, looking at his watch. ‘I should get a call in about fifteen minutes to say these cunts are on their way. They’re driving a silver Mondeo. I’ll get told the reg. So keep your eyes peeled in the back, Mitch, once we get to an area where we can see the cars coming off the motorway onto the Stonehouse road.’

‘Okay, boss.’

The air was crackling with tension. Jimmy felt sweat break out on his back, and he rolled down the window.

‘Now when we get there,’ Eddie shifted his body so he
was addressing both of them, ‘just do exactly as we talked about, the way we planned it. We can’t afford to make any fuck ups, because these guys will be tooled up. It has to be clean and quick. Classic ambush. Understood? Just do everything I tell you.’

Eddie liked to give the impression of a crack soldier who had seen a bit of action. The fact was he’d never actually been a regular soldier, but he had been in the Territorial Army as a sergeant and he’d adopted the military demeanour. Nobody had ever been brave enough to call him a weekend soldier.