Every Night I Dream of Hell (17 page)

Marty was scowling. Now, days gone by I had seen Marty scowling and it looked petulant. He looked like a kid about to throw a tantrum. Not now. This scowl was dangerous. It was the sort of scowl that said he had seven men with him and Adam had two and fuck anyone who counted differently.

He stood there, halfway between the entrance and the bar, looking at his brother. ‘Adrian Barrett, you provided a girl for him.’ Said it quiet, trying to keep his temper in check. Smart leaders don’t lose their temper.

‘Never met Adrian Barrett,’ Adam said, giving a wee glance sideways to MacLennan as though he was being the smartest guy in the world.

‘You met his right-hand man, Elliott Parker. You provided him with a girl to use. I hear you know where they’re staying. Tell me.’

The smile on Adam’s face got a lot less sure of itself. He glanced at MacLennan and Fraser but they were now extremely busy looking at the floor. They knew that this wasn’t some brotherly confrontation; this was business. This was way beyond their pay scale, and it scared the crap out of the pair of them. A few sentences in and Adam didn’t have any backup left.

‘Why don’t you take a seat and we can talk about this?’ he said, after pausing for a few seconds. He looked across at the little tables and chairs on the other side of the dance floor against the back wall of the club.

‘Why don’t you tell me where the fuck they are?’ Marty said through tight lips. That temper was bubbling away.

‘I didn’t meet anyone called Parker,’ Adam said. ‘I provided girls for some people. That’s part of what I do, brother. None of them was called Parker. We can talk about who—’

‘Quit dicking around,’ Marty shouted at the top of his voice. The shout bounced around the empty dance floor. Everyone tensed a little. Mikey and Ronnie took a step forwards, ready for the fight that usually trotted along following a shout.

Adam put a hand up like he wanted to say something, trying to take the edge off this. Anything he said at that point would have set Marty off. I saw it, and Kevin did too. That’s why Kevin took a few steps forwards, putting himself halfway between Marty and the bar. He was asserting control.

‘We know that you provided someone for Parker. We know that you’ve since told people that you know where they are. Tell us where they are, Adam; this doesn’t have to turn nasty.’

Kevin Currie is an impressive man if you know who he is, what he does. By that I mean what he really does, the sort of risks he handles, the tough decisions he makes. If you don’t know, don’t understand the detail, then you might think he’s a soft little middle-aged man who sells knock-off DVDs and cigarettes. You might make a grave error. Adam Jones laughed at him. Stood behind the bar and snorted. Looked at Marty as though Marty was the only one he would deal with.

As soon as he laughed, Kevin turned around. With his back to Adam, he nodded at me and Conn. That was our signal; we didn’t need to be told what happened next. Conn, Mikey and Ronnie moved quickly across to the bar, covering MacLennan and Fraser. They fenced them in, didn’t do anything else. Didn’t need to. Neither of them was going to try and fight back. Adam stood behind the bar, looking at them, waiting for them to do something. Waiting for someone to throw the first punch. He looked disappointed with his own two. Shows how dumb he was if he thought either of them was loyal enough to fight us on his behalf.

Adam was watching this when he should have been watching me. I had hung back about half a second, let the other three get in front of me and take their positions. They provided a barrier between me and the bar, one that I could swing behind as I made my way towards Adam Jones. He saw me when it was too late to do anything; I was almost in front of him. He looked nervous, obviously thought about running, but tried standing his ground. Admirable tactic, if you’ve got what it takes to back it up. The bar between us wasn’t going to help him, and the sudden widening of his eyes when he realized he was my target told me he knew it. That was my reputation, leaping ahead of me and screaming my name.

The one thing he did was look behind me, presumably at Marty. Just time for a glance across, where his twin was standing with Kevin, Ben and Billy. Perhaps hoping that Marty would say something. People always think that it’s just scare tactics, that the worst thing possible can’t possibly happen to them. If ever Marty was going to step in and make sure that the worst didn’t happen, that was the moment. But Marty stayed silent. He was the last person in the world that was going to step in and help Adam now.

Move fast. Don’t give a person time to react. Try and do something they can’t possibly expect, so that you stun them, even just for a couple of seconds. Those couple of seconds, when they’re trying to work out what’s going on, are the couple of seconds where you take total control. I got to the bar and reached my arms right across it. He saw them coming, both arms shooting out towards him. He would have thought I was going for the front of his clothes to grab him, or even his throat. I wasn’t. I grabbed him by the ears. Didn’t have a great grip, but I didn’t need one; he was happy to do all the work for me. I yanked him towards me and he very nearly leapfrogged that bar. To the untrained eye it might look like I dragged him across, but I was just holding on. He leapt like a man scared of losing his ears.

He was whimpering, sliding across the top of the bar and dropping heavily onto his knees on the other side. I had to lean down to hold on, gripping the ears as tight as I could. Don’t stop. Don’t give him a second to think about what’s happening. Don’t let him fight back. I glanced sideways as I started to pull him across the floor. Marty was watching, a grim look on his face, Kevin and Ben staying expressionless beside him. Billy had moved back to the door, making sure nobody came in to break up the party. Adam was still on his knees, trying to get up. He was shuffling and stumbling in the direction I was leading, trying to get up. He stumbled and I pulled at him, my grip slipping from one of his ears. He shouted something but I didn’t care what, I wasn’t going to stop. Keep dragging. Keep a hold of those ears. Never give him a chance.

We’d gone ten, fifteen feet, him whining beside me as I leant down and dragged him. Aiming for the tables and chairs where he had suggested talking when we first came in. He was going to get his chat, and his location of choice. Just wasn’t going to make the journey the way he had intended. I stopped at the first table; no point making more work for myself than I needed to. I lifted him up and he wasn’t expecting it; I could feel his ears stretch and strain. The boy screamed, loud and frightened. If nothing that had happened before then had told his two pals that he wasn’t in charge here any more, that did it. That one scream, terrified and weak.

He was up on his feet, whether he realized it or not. His eyes were shut when I shoved him into the chair. He went down harder than I expected, eyes still shut. The chair rocked back a little when he hit it, not nearly far enough to tip over. Didn’t matter to him. He had lost all sense. Ears burning, eyes watering and shut, he didn’t know what was happening. He must have thought he was going to tip backwards because he suddenly lurched forwards, trying to protect himself. Both hands reached out, flat onto the table, making sure he was secure. He grabbed the edge of the table with one hand, like that was the protection he needed.

No security. Never let them settle. Keep them uncertain. I placed my feet and punched him hard in the mouth. Aiming for the mouth, making sure that he had another part of his head to worry about. Knocked him sideways off the chair. Adam landed hard on his side with a gasp, a little blood coming quickly onto his lips. His eyes were shut, like he was happy to just lie there. Playing dead maybe. Seen people doing it before, pretending to be unconscious in the hope of buying time. I wasn’t selling. There was a pain in my right hand but I ignored it. Doesn’t matter how many skulls you hit, there’s still a little shoot of pain. I took a step towards him and bent down, grabbing him by the shoulders of his shirt and lifting him up. He wasn’t heavy, and he didn’t resist. I shoved him back into the chair where he sat lifeless, head tilted forwards, mouth shut. Waiting for the next terrible thing to happen to him. Assuming that something even worse was coming and knowing there was nothing he could do to stop it. He was beaten. He was ready to be questioned.

No one said anything. I stood silently and waited for whoever wanted to ask some questions to come forward. Adam sat in the chair, trying to pull himself together. His eyes were still shut. He started to open them but they were watery and I don’t think he was seeing much. His hands were in his lap. He raised one to his mouth, touched the blood. No teeth came away. He put them up to his ears and, to his obvious surprise and relief, found they were exactly where he had left them. He rubbed them and blinked heavily, trying to clear his eyes. Still silence around us, nobody stepping forward to take the lead from me.

I looked over my shoulder, a way of hurrying the rest of them along. Adam was about to remember where he was and what was happening to him, and that was going to make him harder to question. Ronnie, Conn and Mikey were still standing by the bar, babysitting Fraser and MacLennan. Everything that had gone on and those two hadn’t moved a fucking inch. Told me everything about that pair. I could do anything to their supposed pal and they wouldn’t even raise a voice, let alone a challenge. Nobody would expect them to start a fight when they were so significantly outnumbered, but they hadn’t even suggested backing off a little. They weren’t even looking at Adam. They were looking down at the floor. Ashamed of themselves. Kevin and Ben hadn’t moved. Billy was still over by the door. Marty had. He’d come just a little closer.

Now he was walking across to us, stopping beside me. People like Marty often stood beside people like me for the sake of looking tough, threatening. Not this time. He stopped as close to his brother as he could get, and that meant beside me. Marty didn’t look angry any more. It was out of his system because he’d already seen his brother being punished. He still looked pissed off, but the worst of it was gone. He looked down at Adam.

‘Tell me where he is,’ he said. There was sadness in his voice.

Adam said something in response that sounded a lot like fuck off. It was a mumble though, and as soon as he started to speak, little trickles of blood made their way out of his mouth. He started to mumble, barely coherent. The word brother was in there, presumably aimed at Marty. Some plea, or some castigation. Could have been either, wasn’t possible to tell. The words were slurred, getting louder, more blood and spit coming out. Then he was shouting, Lord knows what. He was trying to look at Marty. Then looked past him and started shouting at someone back there. Again, no idea who he was talking to or what he was saying.

‘Tell me,’ Marty said, and this time he wasn’t shouting or angry. This time he sounded desperate.

It was that desperate tone that changed the mood. The shouting and spitting had been Adam’s attempt at defiance, his last attempt at being a tough guy. The beating I’d given him might have defeated him, but he was still clinging on to a shred of self-respect. That tone Marty used, that was what really scared him. Adam looked up at him through red eyes. His mouth hung open. His expression changed.

‘I don’t know exactly,’ he said, not shouting inaudibly like a fucking retard this time. He was quiet, looking down at the floor. ‘I know . . .’ he said, and paused to spit out some blood. Some hit the floor, some dribbled down his chin and onto his shirt. ‘I know they were using a couple of different places. I know where those places are. I don’t know which one they’re using. I’ll tell you them, the ones I know.’

Marty knelt down beside him and he started to mumble again. Sounded like vague descriptions rather than actual addresses, but he was providing just enough detail for us to know where to go. This was progress. Marty was leaning in close; I could see that Adam had accidentally spat some blood onto Marty’s shoulder. One of the descriptions was of a house that I didn’t recognize, the other was of a dive of a hotel that I thought we’d already looked into.

‘They’re moving, see,’ Adam mumbled. ‘Going back and forth and stuff, so nobody can pin them down. The hotel. That’s the one they’re at now, I think. Just went.’

Marty stood up and looked round at Kevin. I walked with Marty over to where Kevin was standing. We talked in whispers; no need to share this with Adam and his two hapless companions.

‘I’ll hit the hotel,’ I said in a low grumble. ‘Take someone with me. Billy, let’s say. You two and Ronnie go to the house and check it. Less likely to be anything there.’

Kevin nodded. ‘Conn and Mikey?’

‘Someone needs to stay here and make sure that none of these three put a call out or do anything else stupid.’

Kevin nodded again. It meant us going in light to the hotel. Me and Billy Patterson didn’t add up to much of a crew, but it was enough to start with. The first task was just to make sure that they were there.

Being the man in charge, it was Kevin who walked casually across to Adam and looked down at him. Even left alone he hadn’t tried to get up. I very much doubt he’d have managed to run for it, even if he had been inclined to try.

‘Some of the boys are going to stay behind, and we’re going to check these addresses you’ve given us. If it turns out the addresses are bullshit, I’ll call them up, and we’ll finish what we started here,’ Kevin said to him, that casual tone all the time.

I went over to Ronnie and told him he was leaving. Told Conn and Mikey to sit tight and wait for the call. Told Billy he was coming with me; Ben Carmichael could watch the door instead. Me and Billy headed for the hotel; Ronnie, Kevin and Marty for the house. I could have taken Ronnie to the hotel, but there was still a small question mark over Marty. Billy was one of Marty’s people. Billy and Marty alone with Kevin wasn’t something I could risk yet. Out into the street, me and Billy getting into Kevin’s car and heading straight for the hotel.