Get Even (17 page)

Sharon was ironing when Lenny walked into the house, and he forced himself to smile at her. He saw the relief in her face and felt a moment’s sorrow. He held his arms out and, as she ran into them eagerly, he held her tightly to him. He could smell her perfume and her shampoo. She always smelled nice, did his Sharon.

‘I’m so sorry, Len. You are right. Even my dad thinks so. I will really come down on the boys, I promise you.’

He kissed her head gently, swaying as he held her to him. ‘I’m sorry for being such a hard bastard, Shaz. I know they are a handful, that’s why we have to sort them out now. Leave it much longer and they won’t have a chance.’

She saw Reggie in the doorway looking awkward, so she pulled herself free from her husband and said brightly, ‘Can I get you fellas something to eat? How about a beer?’

‘Some sandwiches and a cup of tea would be handsome, Shaz.’

She went into the kitchen and started to make the food. The men followed her out there and sat at the big, scrubbed table that was her pride and joy.

After a few minutes Lenny said to her, ‘I don’t know what time I will be finished tonight, love, so lock up properly. I am going to stay at Reggie’s. We have a lot of running about to do.’

She sighed. ‘OK, mate. I want to finish the ironing, have a bath and then get to bed. I’m shattered, if I’m honest.’

‘How have the boys been today?’

She placed a plate of sandwiches on the table and set about pouring the tea.

‘Good. I think they know that they are on their last chance. I didn’t let them have any treats whatsoever and now you have removed the portables from their bedrooms they seem to understand that this is serious.’

‘I will go and check on them.’

He went up the stairs quietly so as not to wake the boys.

‘When are you going to find yourself a nice girl, Reg? They must be lining up for you!’

Reggie smiled. This was par for the course and it irritated him but he had to play the game.

‘You know me, Sharon, love them and leave them.’

‘Typical bloody man. Good-looking fella like you should already be thinking of settling down.’

He bit into another sandwich to save having to answer her.

‘Gerry was telling me that you rarely even go out with women! Says your mum is worried about you!’ She was laughing as she spoke, but it occurred to her when she saw his face that Reggie didn’t think what she was saying was funny.

‘Look, Sharon, just because I don’t discuss every aspect of my sex life with my sister and mum doesn’t make me a bad person. I just prefer to keep my private life
private
.’

He was being short with her and they both knew it. Sharon was immediately contrite.

‘I’m sorry, Reg. I was only having a joke, mate.’

He sighed and forced a wide smile on to his face. ‘Honestly, Sharon, Gerry and my mum are always trying to marry me off. I have plenty of time for that. I am a man who needs to sow his wild oats!’

Sharon laughed with him, but for some reason she felt that there was more to it than that – yet for the life of her, she couldn’t say why.

Lenny and Reggie finally tracked the Carter twins to a brothel they owned in King’s Cross. It was a nice house in what had once been a pleasant road; now it was another casualty of bedsitterland. It was a substantial size and it earned them a good wedge. They had girls of all ages, shapes and colours for the punters’ delight. The funny thing with the Carter twins was that, as bastard-like as they could be, they treated their girls with the utmost respect. Maybe that was why Lenny had always liked and got on with them.

They didn’t suffer fools gladly, and they were very touchy where their dignity was concerned. Both were big, arrogant men, in their late twenties, balding, running to fat and married to a pair of dark-haired sisters who they worshipped and adored. They were strange fuckers, odd coves, but they were good earners and they were respected in their own way. They didn’t suffer fools gladly though and the fact that they were always looking for the insult or the piss-take made them people to be wary of. A lot of Faces were guilty of the same thing – it was just that not as many felt the urge to murder over it.

Lenny and Reggie walked up the steps to the front door and went inside. It was a typical cathouse: it stank of perfume, grass and sweat, with the stench of baby oil and sex underneath. There were girls in various states of undress in the main lounge where a short black man was the bartender. The music playing was Alexander O’Neal; it was loud enough to drown out conversations but not so loud that you couldn’t hear what your chosen partner was saying. The barman gave them each a beer and Lenny motioned to one of the bouncers, informing him he needed to see the twins. The man knew exactly who they were and nodded. He walked off towards the back of the house.

Reggie and Lenny saw the girls eyeing them up and both felt a wave of revulsion. How could men do it? Fuck knew who’d been through these women; it was the same with the rent boys who hung around King’s Cross. A young woman of about seventeen, with a slim figure and heavy breasts, made to walk over to them, and Lenny waved her away as if she was contaminated. He was embarrassed by this kind of place; he didn’t feel comfortable being there and it showed. The older women with more experience eyed them critically – and both men were aware they were found wanting.

Dicky Carter came seeping into the room, all expensive teeth and cheap aftershave. He had his arms out in welcome. ‘What a fucking honour! What brings you two into my establishment?’

Lenny grinned as he said, ‘Well, it ain’t for one of this lot, Dick!’

The man laughed, a loud, boisterous laugh that belied his true nature. He came across as a buffoon and that was exactly how he wanted to be perceived.

‘Come through to the back, boys. Dom is there – he’s looking forward to saying hello.’

They followed him warily. This was when the Carter twins were at their most dangerous: when they were smiling and joking and laughing with you. Lenny had heard a story once where Dominic Carter had been telling a joke and, just before the punchline, he had cut a man’s throat with a razor. The Carters had found that utterly hilarious but they were in the minority.

In the large kitchen they saw that Dom was already pouring them large whiskies. They sat down at the scruffy Formica table and accepted the drinks.

‘So, what can I do for you two?’

Dicky was smiling as he spoke; Dominic was straight-faced and seemed genuinely interested in their answer, whatever it might be.

Lenny sipped the whisky and said easily, ‘The Wilson brothers, as if you didn’t know, you rascals.’

The Carter twins looked at one another for a moment and then they both burst into loud laughter – real laughter this time.

‘What did I tell you, Dom? Lenny Scott is a funny fucking man!’

Then the laughter stopped as quickly as it had started and Dom said seriously, ‘It is not what you think, lads. They were into us for a lot of money. They were dealing outside your firm, and they thought they were safe because of Jack Johnson and yourselves. Well, they fucking well made a big mistake because me and my brother ain’t scared of anybody.’

It was said not as a threat, but as a statement of fact.

‘Where are they?’

This from Reggie, who was not as welcome as Lenny and should have remembered that. He immediately realised his faux pas.

Dicky sneered at him as he said theatrically, ‘It fucking speaks!’

Lenny closed his eyes to regulate his breathing and his temper. He wasn’t in the mood for game-playing tonight.

‘Answer the question, lads.’ His voice was low and he sounded genuinely interested in the answer.

‘Nowhere you will ever find them. They are gone, mate.’

Lenny Scott nodded.

Dominic Carter leaned forward and said conversationally, ‘Before they slipped off their mortal coils, they tried to tell us that you two were stuck up each other’s arses. Said that you went off on a boat together for days on end. Nice people you had working for you, Lenny.’

Lenny and Reggie were both shocked at the words and it showed.

‘They fucking what?’ Lenny sounded suitably outraged, which, of course, he was.

The twins were laughing again now.

‘I know. Honestly, by the time we were finished with them they would have said anything to get another few minutes on the earth. Pair of treacherous cunts. Reckoned they’d sussed it out a few months ago. Said there was something a bit iffy about you two and your
deep
friendship.’

Reggie and Lenny realised that the Carter twins believed it. Lenny nodded gently at Reggie, and they both pulled out knives from inside their coats.

It was all over in under two minutes. The Carters had had their mouths sliced open and their throats cut.

Lenny and Reggie watched them bleed out. That was the trouble with the serious nutters: they never thought anyone would ever take them on their own doorsteps. They had let their guard down, and paid the price for their big fucking mouths.

The men slipped out the back door, aware that this deed would be all over the Smoke by breakfast time. But what the twins had said had rattled them and they wondered who else had heard the same story. Both were quiet as they drove back to East London.

‘You two had a lovers’ tiff?’

Sharon’s voice was full of fun so she was shocked when Lenny turned on her and shouted angrily, ‘What is that supposed to fucking mean?’

She realised that he had been drinking, and remembered all too clearly that he was not a good drunk. She was stammering now as she tried to placate her big, powerful husband. ‘I’m sorry . . . Look, Len, it was just a joke . . .’

Lenny, even drunk as he was, knew deep inside that he should not be bullying the woman who had done nothing to him. But he couldn’t stop. The anger had been building inside him since the run-in with the Carters. And now, weeks later, it had reached boiling point.

Sharon felt cold dread wash over her as he advanced. The kitchen table was between them and, as she tried to run away from him, he leaned across it and dragged her by the jumper over the table towards him. All the while he was screaming and shouting at her, his words making no sense whatsoever.

‘You and your smart fucking mouth! You can’t keep it shut, can you!’

As he raised his fist, she pulled away from him with all the strength she possessed, and ran into the hallway. Lenny chased her, so drunk his huge body was banging against the doorway and the walls. He brought her down by the front door, sending the telephone table crashing to the floor. He hit her three times in the face and head before his sons’ screams broke through his anger. He looked up the stairs and saw them watching, wide-eyed and white-faced, as he attacked their mother.

It was as if Lenny was waking up from some kind of nightmare. He looked at his Sharon, and saw the blood streaming from her nose and mouth. She was terrified and he pulled himself off her and staggered to the sink where he started to throw up the whisky and brandy he had been consuming all afternoon in the pub.

Sharon dragged herself from the floor; the shock of what had happened had barely set in, so she didn’t even hurt anywhere yet. Seeing the blood dripping down on to her clothes, she stared at it in total amazement until her maternal instincts took over and she went up the stairs and gathered her sons to her. That was when the tears started.

Lenny could hear his wife and his sons sobbing above him and he stood gripping the sink tightly, wondering at what he had turned into.

But he knew exactly what was wrong with him, and he couldn’t admit it to anyone in the world.

He was frightened his secret was out.