Enforcer (27 page)

There were nine coppers on watch outside the room. We were told it was for our protection. We weren’t under arrest. We hadn’t been charged. They obviously thought we were even in danger in the toilets because they used to follow us in there.

The coppers would do a patrol through the room and go out onto the verandah. A couple of them would stand out there, have a smoke, then come back and sit on chairs just outside the door. They also had their own room with a television and lounge chairs where they sat for most of the day.

Most of the coppers weren’t too bad. When our old ladies or relatives came, they didn’t hassle them too much. But then we ended up with this bloody crown sergeant and he thought he was just it. Every time one of our old ladies turned up, he wanted to search them. I got sick of it so I yelled out to him one day, ‘You ever put a hand on my old lady I’ll rip your fuckin’ throat out, in bed or not.’

He told me I wasn’t as tough as I thought I was. And I said, ‘Well come over here and we’ll find out.’ He left the room. Later that day an inspector turned up. I had a word with him and I told him about this crown sergeant. I said if he kept him there, there was going to be a blue. ‘I don’t care if I get thumped, I’m gunna have a go at him.’ This inspector was a pretty good bloke. He walked out and went into their little room and I heard him telling the coppers off, saying they had to give us a bit of leeway. After that, all our old ladies had to do was open their bags to show they weren’t bringing in guns or whatever, and they were allowed to stay as long as they wanted.

In the quieter times the cops would come in and chat. Mostly, they just wanted to know what it was like being a biker, especially the female cops. They wanted to know if the things they heard about what bikers did to women were true. Porky and Lard had a bit of a time bullshitting them but I played it pretty straight. One of them was a sergeant called Cathy. She was a good sort with a long blonde ponytail. She’d sit on the edge of my bed and talk to me for hours. Like most women, she seemed fascinated by the whole biker thing. She asked did we rape sheilas and what was ‘pulling a train’. I told her that pulling a train was the same as an onion, when a sheila just lays back and takes everyone that’s there. I told her that we didn’t rape sheilas but that the trains did happen, although I never went in them.

She must have told the other cop sheilas because in coming days I had others sit down wanting to know things. They didn’t seem to be grilling me for intelligence. It was all female stuff. They wanted to know about the wings, which were a little patch some bikers wore on their vests. I told them the Bandidos and Comos didn’t have wings but a lot of other clubs did and that all outlaw bikers knew what they meant. The most popular ones were the red wings, for someone who’s gone down and licked out a sheila who’s got her monthlies. Then there were the brown ones – same sort of thing. You get the picture. Gold ones were for rooting a cop sheila and they seemed very interested in that one.

O
ne afternoon we heard the thunder of bikes pulling up outside. Then we heard the coppers in the corridor saying, ‘You can’t come in.’

‘Try and stop us.’ I recognised Davo’s voice. Then all the Bandits just pushed past the coppers and came in. They were there for about half an hour. It was great to see everyone, but the coppers had called for back-up so Snoddy decided it would be better if the blokes left rather than cause a disturbance. Snoddy asked the coppers if just he could stay because he wanted to talk to me. They agreed. All the fellas went downstairs and Snoddy came over and pulled the curtains around my bed. I had a good idea what he was going to say. I could see tears developing in his eyes. ‘I’m so sorry about what happened to Chop and Shadow.’

‘I know you are, Snoddy.’

‘If only I’d listened to you back at Lance’s they wouldn’t be dead and you and the other brothers wouldn’t be here.’

‘Well it’s too late to change that.’

‘But can ya forgive me?’

‘Snoddy, there’s nothin’ to forgive. If anyone’s to blame it’s me for not standin’ me ground and I’ll regret it to the day I die.’

‘Whaddya mean?’

‘I knew I should have gone to the tavern and checked it out but I let you and Shadow talk me out of it. Any other time I wouldna done that. You know the club’s safety always comes first with me, and I’ve never let anyone talk me out of what I’ve thought was the right thing to do for the club.’

Snoddy took my hand and put something in it. I looked down and it was the Campbell ring. ‘I don’t deserve it, Ceese.’ I just shut my hand on it and we looked at each other.

‘I heard you nearly got Jock,’ I said.

‘Yeah, if it hadn’t been for fuckin’ Bear the old cunt’d be dead.’

‘Yeah, Wack told me about it.’

Lard or Porky had also told me that a fourteen-year-old girl, Leanne Walters, had been caught in the crossfire. Snoddy knew more of what had happened. He said Jock’s good buddy Kraut had been running and Snoddy was following Kraut through the sights of the carbine. Snoddy didn’t realise it, but Kraut was heading towards the girl. Snoddy fired from forty metres and the bullet went through Kraut’s arm and deflected off some bone – he had a massive wound to his arm – and hit the girl. Snoddy said it was the worst thing that he’d ever done. The young girl had died.

‘Well, where do we go from here?’ he asked. ‘Do you want me to resign?’

‘No. There’s no one else out there to run the club. You’ve gotta pull ’em together. Just remember the cops aren’t gunna let this go. They’ll be trying to bust everyone they can.’

‘Well, no Bandits made a statement. But we were kept there all night, and I know for a fact that all the Comos made statements and signed them.’

‘Fuckin’ scumbags. I s’pose they thought they were giving us up by signing the statements. Just tell the brothers to keep their mouths shut and not to sign a thing.’

‘Don’t worry, I’ve already done that. Is there anything I can do for you and your family? What about your mum?’

‘You can look in on her and keep an eye on Donna. She’s taking it real hard. She was real close to Shadow and won’t ask for help even when she needs it. If she needs anything make sure she gets it.’

‘Always.’

‘Donna tells me that Joanne’s been going out partying even though Shadow’s only been dead a month.’

‘Well I didn’t like to say anything, but she’s been going out a bit with Mouth. I think it’s just to keep her mind off things. But her mind should still be on Shadow.’

‘I don’t think Mouth’d try anything. But just make sure no one puts it on her. You know how Shadow would feel about that.’

‘Don’t worry, Ceese, no one from the club will go near her. I’ll put the word out that no one’s to touch her.’

‘Thanks, Snoddy.’

‘You sure there’s nothing I can do for you right now?’

‘No.’

‘Maybe one day I can earn the ring back.’

‘Maybe one day you can. Look after yourself, Snoddy, and most of all, look after the brothers.’

‘I will.’

With that he went over and had a few words with Porky, then Lard, then Wack. He walked out and it was the last time I ever saw him.

Afterwards, Wack said to me, ‘I heard you talking about the ring, and that one day he might get it back. You’re gunna give it back to him, aren’t ya?’

‘Course I am, but I think Snoddy in his own mind needed to hand it back. I think he wanted to be punished for what happened to Shadow and Chop. It’s like I told him, I don’t blame him, but I wasn’t gunna tell him he did nothing wrong, and make him take the ring back. When I get out of here he should’ve settled down and I’ll give it back to him then.’

As usual Donna came in that night. I asked her how the kids were. She said that Daniel and Lacey were all right. They were too young to know what was going on. But Lee and Chane were copping a hard time at school, and so were Peggy and Samantha. ‘The other kids and a lot of the teachers are giving them a real hard time over you being one of the main people mentioned in the papers.’

‘Yeah that’d be right,’ I said. ‘The teachers’ll change their tune when I get out . . . Where are our kids now?’

Donna said our good friends Cheryl and Pancho were looking after Daniel and Lacey. ‘They’ve been really good, especially Cheryl. I don’t know what I would’ve done without her help.’

‘Yeah, she’s always been a top chick.’

Me and Donna talked for a while. A copper poked his head in the door and said, ‘I think it’s time for visitors to leave.’ Donna gave me a big tonguey and left.

O
NE MORNING
I heard some noise out in the corridor. This young copper came in and said to me, ‘There’s a huge Hells Angel out here who wants to see you, Caesar.’

‘Is his name Guitar?’ I asked.

‘That’s right.’

‘Well let him in,’ I said.

But the crown sergeant came in and said we weren’t allowed visitors from another club. Guitar left without a fuss.

Another time I got a basket with some fruit, a bottle of wine and a get-well card sent by Sy from Lone Wolf. They were wishing me a speedy recovery and I thought that was really great. Most people, and all the other clubs, had wanted to stay right out of it, but Sy and Guitar have always been top blokes.

My mum was always there. She’s the sweetest, quietest thing, but, as usual, tough. A lot of women would just fall on the floor if they lost two sons shot dead like Chop and Shadow. But she knew that she had to keep going for the three of us in hospital and she knew she had to keep our sisters in one piece, too. All my sisters live close to Mum. They can walk to her place. And she had my eldest son Chane, who was fifteen at the time, living with her too.

Lard’s Mum was another good one, always making sure we were all right. Lard’s brother Aspro came a lot too. The cops thought he was in the club at first, but we explained that he was just Lard’s brother and had nothing to do with the club so they stopped hassling him after that.

I
WAS
really worried about Wack and the way his arm was healing, but the nurses were doing the best they could. I was still pretty crook myself. I still had the fever caused by four abscesses that had formed where the slugs had gone through my right lung and out my back. Someone was always putting cold cloths on my forehead.

I still managed to have a bit of a laugh despite the pain and fever. One day Lard put himself into a wheelchair and went down to the public phones at the other end of the ward. The coppers came in and discovered he was missing. They checked the showers then freaked out. They were running all over the hospital looking for him. Meanwhile, Lard wheeled himself back to the room, put himself to bed and asked, ‘What’s going on with all the coppers running round everywhere?’

‘They’re looking for you.’

Porky cracked up. Anyway, a while later three or four cops poked their heads in the room and went off their brains. ‘Where have you been, Melville?’

Lard laughed. ‘I went down the fuckin’ phone. Where d’ya think I’ve been? Out jogging? I’ve got half me foot blown off.’

‘You could have told us where you were going.’

‘Go and get fucked.’

I’
D JUST
had a pain-killing injection when two detectives came into the ward. They marched up to my bed. ‘We’re here to question you about what happened at the Viking Tavern, Campbell.’ I told them to go away. I was finding it hard to keep my eyes open; the injections really knocked me about. But they kept on ranting and raving.

Lard butted in: ‘Can’t you cunts see me brother’s in a real bad way? Get out or I’ll call the matron.’

So the two Ds left. I mumbled a ‘Thanks, Lard,’ and went off to Disneyland.

O
NE DAY
I was watching Wack, who was deep in thought. ‘What’s up, Wack?’ I asked.

‘Oh, I was just thinking about Chop and Shadow, and how we were real targets that day.’

‘Yeah, I know what ya mean.’

He just lay there so I said, ‘Come on, Wack, Shadow and Chop wouldn’t want ya worrying about ’em. They’re up there having a good time. They’re with the old man.’

‘It’s not so much that I’m worrying about ’em,’ he said. ‘I’m just really pissed off. You’re laying over there full of fuckin’ holes. I got half me arm blown up. Snake got shot in the guts. Shadow and Chop are gone. Bull was the only lucky one, and he would feel real bad about that. Six of us went out there and the rest of the club . . .’

‘Nah, not all the club,’ I reminded him. ‘Bongo and Mouth weren’t there.’

‘Well all the club but them two. And they probably would’ve stayed up on the street anyway. When you look at it, it was the Campbells that got all the damage.’

‘Yeah, but Lard got shot in the foot, and Porky’s got a big hole in his leg,’ I said.

‘And Roach’s got a broken arm,’ he added. ‘Who else got hurt?’

‘Davo. He got stabbed.’

‘I forgot about that. But even counting that, you look at it, there’s still more of us copped it, because we’re always up the front. I’m sick of seeing me brothers get hurt. From now on why don’t we let the rest of the club do some fighting, Ceese?’