Rise and Fall (3 page)

Les had worked at West’s Garage for nearly thirteen years, and he loved his job. The location, a small side road in the centre of Lambeth, just off the high street, was spot on. 

Under the boss Gary’s strict orders, they only ever took on as much work as they needed to from real punters, so the books would tally up at the end of each month. They needed to make sure they were keeping up appearances should anyone get suspicious that the garage was being used for anything dodgy and demanded to see paperwork. It was a great front and worked a treat as a cover for the dodgy motors that passed through the rusty garage doors. To anyone on the outside, they looked like another small-time garage. 

Les knew that there was nothing small time about his boss, Gary West, though. Gary was the brains of the outfit. He had managed to set up a big contract with some Ugandans that had turned out to be a nice little earner for them all. All they had to do was supply to order and shift top-end motors out of the country. Gary had so many customs officials in his pockets that he barely had room in there for loose change, so that was actually the easy bit.

Most days Les loved his job, but today wasn’t one of them; today, his patience was being tested to the limit. He glared at Jamie. He couldn’t stand the bloke, his attitude stank and he had a knack of rubbing Les up the wrong way. How they had managed to work together for the past ten years without killing each other remained a mystery, but on Gary’s request Les put up with Jamie.

“Wonder what Gary will make of this little beauty, huh? Should put a smile back on the miserable git’s mush.” Jamie noticed that the comments he had been making all morning about Gary were doing the trick and winding up Les nicely. Les was never happy with anything Jamie said or did, so he enjoyed adding fuel to the fire and riling Les.

Les, loyal to Gary, didn’t want to listen to him being cut down by Jamie. He ignored him and got to work, glad to get his teeth into sorting out the Range Rover. He loved keeping busy, especially if it meant he didn’t have to listen to Jamie spouting anymore of his shit. Les climbed into the driver’s seat to take a closer look at the interior, thinking that if it had been up to him, they would never have taken on Jamie. Les had always thought that Jamie was trouble, but Gary had taken an instant liking to the kid and had taken a chance on him by letting him into the firm. Gary was normally a shrewd man who made the right choices and they had certainly raked in a nice amount of cash over the years, but Les had never been able to get his head around why Gary had taken on the little scroat; and as the years had passed, Les’s dislike for Jamie had grown. 

Yes, Jamie was good at stealing motors, Les would give him his due: he had a way of finding the top-end motors they needed, and he was smoother than butter when it came to hotwiring them and getting them back to the garage in record time. But Gary had made a massive gamble in taking him on, ignoring Les’ reservations about the boy. Jamie had only been fifteen when he had walked in and brazenly asked for a job. Les couldn’t believe the balls of the kid, nor could he believe it when Gary had seemed impressed at the young boy’s confidence. Walking in as a complete unknown and being given an ‘in’: it was unheard of. Of course Jamie had only walked into what he thought was a legit car garage back then, but he had seemed clued up on who Gary was and what he would be getting himself involved in. The way that Jamie had handled the situation had made a good impression on their boss. 

The boy was strong and had youth on his side, but Les had experience and he had been at the garage since day one, and as the years had gone on he had been incensed as he watched the kid get all the kudos. It really irked Les that Gary seemed to be acting all proud of Jamie, like Jamie was his main man, when it was Les who had worked at the garage the longest. The whole situation left a sour taste in Les’ mouth.

Whatever Les thought of Jamie, though, from the start he had been made to swallow it. Whatever Gary said, went, and after all these years of working for him, Les didn’t need that explained twice. Trying his hardest not to cause a fuss, especially seeing as Gary seemed adamant about his decision Les had swallowed his pride and just let things be. 

When things started really taking off for the firm, a few years back, they had taken on Shay and Gavin. They had been mainly employed as runners, helping Jamie to get the motors in, and also as an extra bit of muscle when they were needed, but Les never really had an opinion on either of them. They were a pair of Muppets as far as he was concerned; he never saw them as a threat the way he did Jamie. 

It was fair to say that Les had never been the brainiest, and he knew it too. Jamie got the motors in and Les worked his magic on changing the chassis numbers and matching up the paperwork they had collected from their contacts. Then the cars were out of their hands, which generally meant they were loaded straight onto a container and shipped to Uganda. It was an easy setup, which had made them all a small fortune. 

“What do you think then, Les; this one got what it takes to make Gary happy?” 

Jamie’s question was innocent enough, but it still had an unmistakably shitty tone to it, and Les was barely able to keep his patience with the boy’s sarcasm as he demanded: “What's your problem, Jamie? Gary does nothing but sing your fucking praises. All bloody week you’ve done nothing but bad mouth him, and I’m getting sick of listening to it.”

“Me bad mouthing Gary? I wonder why… You can’t bloody tell me that you haven’t noticed that there’s something going on, Les. Gary seems to be going soft; look at the state of him, the man’s a right mess. I’ve never seen him look so frigging miserable. What, am I not allowed to state the fucking obvious?” Jamie threw back his remark, frustrated that Les wasn’t able to see what he so clearly could. 

Jamie was entitled to his opinion and if Les couldn’t see what was staring them both in the face, he was even more stupid than he looked. Jamie couldn’t help the way he felt; Gary was going down in his estimation after the events of the last week, and the more Jamie mulled the situation over the more pissed off he felt about it all. Les was right about one thing though; Gary did think that the sun shone out of Jamie’s backside. The man had taken him under his wing, so to speak, and had taught him everything he knew. That didn’t make him any the less pissed off about things, though.

Over the years, Gary had even helped Jamie through his driving test by footing up the money for his lessons and had sorted him out with his own sporty little Volkswagen Golf. Jamie was also paid a good wage, which had enabled him to be able to afford his own flat over-looking the river. He had been living the dream thanks to the opportunity his boss had given him, and he was grateful for all of it. Gary had gone above and beyond over the years, teaching Jamie everything there was to know about the business. He could practically run the show if he needed to, which was what Jamie had a sneaky suspicion Gary had wanted all along.

Jamie knew that he was being out of order talking disrespectfully about Gary, but he was so angry about the way that Gary was acting; it was a side of him that he hadn’t seen before. Gary had always been such a strong bloke and to see him weak and vulnerable had really thrown Jamie. Jamie had never had a father figure in his life, but he was guessing from the way that Gary acted towards him, that he was more or less treated like a son. They had so much in common and spent hours chatting about all kinds of things, and Gary often commented that Jamie was a chip off the old block, like a younger and fierier version of himself, and Jamie had happily noted the pride in the man’s voice when he had said it.

Jamie liked the thought of having someone like Gary watching his back, it made him feel secure. Using the break that he had been given, wanting to prove that he was worthy of it and to make Gary proud, Jamie had slowly worked his way up over the years. He had worked hard and learnt every part of the trade. Gary had hinted on several occasions that one day, when he was too old for all this, he would need someone to take over. Of course that was all way off in the future, so the comments had been subtle and left to hang in the air, but the intention had been there all the same. Having someone who watched out for him was something Jamie had never experienced. He often thought of his younger brother, Kevin. He would be twelve now: how time had flown. He regretted that Kevin would probably now no longer know, or else no longer care, who Jamie was; he had left it too long now to go back for him. Jamie hadn’t realised, when he walked out on his vile mother all those years ago, that he would never be going back, he really hadn’t thought that far ahead. Ten years had flown by, and he had a new life. The Jamie he had once been was better left in the past.

Jamie’s thoughts returned to the present when he caught Les smirking at him. He could almost see the cogs turning in the man’s transparent head as he realised how Gary would react, once Les informed him of all the shit Jamie had been spouting about him. Jamie tried to control his rising temper. Les was a prick. He had made it very clear that he didn’t like Jamie, and for the most part Jamie ignored him. Jamie couldn’t be arsed to give the bloke any reason to go running back to Gary, complaining about him. Besides, the more Les showed his apparent one-sided hatred towards Jamie, the more Les confirmed to everyone that he was the one with the issue and not Jamie. 

“Look, Les, I know you don’t like me, you’ve made that more than clear over the years, and to tell you the truth, I don’t really give a flying shit that there’s no love lost between the two of us. I ain’t here to be your mate; I’m here to earn a living. But come on, even you must be able to see that Gary’s losing it lately. Look at the deal we did last week: we’re a fucking laughing stock,” Jamie persisted.

Les knew that there had been more to Jamie’s bad attitude that day, finally they were getting somewhere, Les thought. All the shitty little comments about Gary, which Les had felt had been uncalled for, were because of this. Even Les could see there was some truth in what Jamie was saying. Of course he had noticed that Gary hadn’t been himself lately; you would have had to have a guide dog and a white stick not to see it. Gary had been acting in a way that was completely out of character and the past week had been a nightmare for them all, but there was still no need for Jamie to be so narky about him.

The deal Jamie had referred to had been with a Jamaican bloke. He was supposed to be the first of many of the new contacts that Gary had made recently. This Yardie bloke was new on the scene but had started to get a reputation for ripping off people, so Jamie and Les had been wary at first. Gary had insisted that the deal was kosher, however; he was adamant that, despite the man’s reputation, his contact that had put his name forward was reliable and that the deal would pay off. Gary had assured the two men that it was all under control. 

It had turned out to be a set-up, much to Gary’s cost. The motors they had bought were junk, and Jamie had figured that not even that Dynamo magician bloke would be able to transform the pieces of crap they had been stuck with. They were like baked-bean cans on wheels, probably the worst cut and shut cars Jamie had seen since he started in the business. They were worthless; the only place they were fit for was the local scrap yard. They had been shafted for thousands. When Jamie had told Gary, he had expected to start a war. There was no way that they could be mugged off so publicly like this by this Jamaican bloke, especially after their source had given them their word on him. The bloke seemed to be taking over a lot of the firms around here, and Jamie thought that Gary needed to put a stop to him trying to do them over, or they would be the ones out of business next. Who would want to deal with a bunch of mugs? Once that piss-taking Yardie bloke thought that he could lord it over them, they would be screwed. Jamie couldn’t have been any firmer about his thoughts on them needing to sort this situation out and pronto.

Jamie was prepared for violence; it came with the job. He had come across more than a few sticky situations since he had worked for Gary and Les, and he could handle himself, especially if they went in tooled up. He knew as soon as you showed a tiny crack of weakness, they would be crawling all over the yard like sewer rats.

Gary's reaction, however, had not been what Jamie had anticipated at all. 

Jamie had stormed into his office, furious about all the shit cars they had been stitched up with, and after telling Gary how bad the motors they had been shafted with really were, he had been left speechless by Gary’s reaction, or rather lack of one. He had just sat there and swallowed it. Seeing his boss looking so worried and out of his depth had knocked the stuffing out of Jamie. He had seen for the first time that Gary was no longer in control, the Yardie had clearly got one over on him, and Gary didn’t look like he had any intention of fighting back. Gary had told Jamie, in no uncertain terms, to leave the situation well alone. Jamie had been riled about the whole thing and had spent the past week going over the whole conversation time and time again in his head. As the days had gone on, he had noticed that Gary seemed more and more shaken up. The more Jamie stewed on it, the more he had come to the conclusion that it was time to take matters into his own hands; if Gary wasn’t prepared to sort this mess out, then Jamie would be left with no choice. He would walk. He couldn’t work for this firm any longer if they were going to sit here and take it from this Jamaican bloke. Jamie was not one to let people have anything over him; that he would always remain in control was something he had promised himself ten years ago when he walked out on his mother. The way that Jamie saw it, they had two options, either he made Gary see sense and they both sorted this mess out once and for all or Jamie would leave. It was as simple as that, as far as he was concerned. 

Les had a point, though; Jamie shouldn’t be bad mouthing Gary, not after everything he had done for Jamie. But he felt so angry with Gary for not doing what he had always instilled in Jamie: standing up and fighting back.