The Driver (31 page)

‘Okay, where do you want it?’ Joe asked, speaking calmly to make it sound as if he was still on side and hadn’t realised that anything was wrong.

‘Follow me,’ Eddie said, snatching the dog’s lead off the hook he’d tethered it to and heading for the door into the adjoining unit.

Carl felt as if his legs were really going to buckle. He struggled not to throw up when he lifted his end of the bundle and the smell gripped his nostrils.

‘Man, this is gross,’ he mumbled, wondering how Joe was managing to stay so calm.

‘Stop thinking about what’s inside and breathe through your mouth,’ Joe advised him quietly.

‘Quit arsing about, you pussy fucks,’ Eddie barked, poking his head back out to see what was keeping them. ‘We ain’t got all night.’

Gritting his teeth, Carl carried his end of the carpet roll through. Then, dropping it like a hot brick, he stepped as far away from it as he could get and rubbed his hands on his jeans in disgust.

A thick plastic sheet was spread out on the floor and two chairs were resting against the far wall. Fred moved a stack of steel sheeting away from one of the walls, revealing an alcove in which a large metal vat was concealed behind yet more tyres. He pulled on a pair of welding gloves and removed the lid carefully.

Eddie lit a cigarette and jerked his chin at Joe. ‘Unroll it.’

‘Aw, fuck, man, don’t make me have to see it again,’ Carl groaned. ‘I haven’t got the stomach for this kind of shit. Can’t I just wait outside?’

Ignoring him, his gaze still fixed on Joe, Eddie said, ‘Didn’t you hear me,
nark
?’

‘Eh?’ Joe tilted his head and gave him a questioning smile. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘You saying you’re
not
a nark?’ Eddie asked.

‘Don’t be stupid!’ Joe snorted. ‘Fucking hell, man, I knew I was picking up weird vibes but I never would have figured you were thinking crap like that about me.’

‘What’s going on?’ Carl asked, looking from one of them to the other.

‘Interesting,’ Eddie murmured, still gazing at Joe but with a slight smirk on his lips now. ‘You’re cool, I’ll give you that.’

‘’Cos I haven’t
done
anything,’ Joe replied sincerely. ‘Come on, man, think about it. If I was a nark, don’t you think you’d have been nicked by now? I’ve seen all sorts while I’ve been working for you, but I’ve never opened my mouth, have I?’

Clive sucked his teeth with irritation. ‘The chat can wait, man. Let’s just get this finished and take it somewhere else.’

‘Chill,’ Eddie said, sauntering over to the chairs and sitting down. ‘Our friend here is about to prove he’s one of us. Ain’t that right, Joe?’

‘If that’s what it takes.’ Joe shrugged. ‘What do you want me to do?’

‘Unroll it, and put the stiff in there,’ Eddie told him, nodding towards the barrel.

Carl grimaced when Joe coolly untied the scarf that secured the bundle and peeled back the top flap of the rug. Apart from his grandad, who he’d been forced to visit in the funeral parlour as a kid in order to pay his last respects, the only other dead body that Carl had seen before today had been a junkie who’d OD’d in the bin cupboards a couple of years back. And that corpse had started to rot by the time somebody had decided to investigate why the wheelie bin wouldn’t go all the way into the shed, so it hadn’t even looked like a real person. But this one was by far the worst of the three dead bodies he’d seen because he actually knew Patsy. Or, rather, he had
known
her – he knew that he would never be seeing her again after this.

Carl didn’t want to, but he couldn’t stop himself from looking when Joe peeled the rug back. Patsy’s eyes were open, the dark lashes matted into spikes around the dust-coated iris of one, while the other was almost completely out of its socket and facing the opposite direction. Her battered head seemed to have doubled in size, and the blue tip of her tongue was poking out grotesquely through the gash that her teeth had made when they had burst through her lip.

‘Oh, fuckin’ hell,’ he croaked, as if he hadn’t believed his eyes the first time around.

‘Shut your mouth,’ Eddie snapped. ‘And help him get her in there.’

Carl wiped his sweaty hands on his jeans. ‘She won’t fit,’ he said, mentally sizing her up against the vat.

‘She will,’ Eddie informed him, his gaze still on Joe. ‘Give him the chopper, Fred.’

The grey man did as he was told without a word.

Joe looked from the machete to Eddie. ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’

‘Use your imagination,’ Eddie drawled.

Carl gagged.

Snapping his gaze onto him, Eddie said, ‘Puke, and you’ll be licking every last drop of it up, you fucker. I’m not having you leaving your fucking DNA around to lead no one back to me.’ Turning back to Joe when he was satisfied that Carl had got himself under control, he said, ‘What you waiting for?’

‘I’m not doing it,’ Joe said firmly. ‘Everything else, yeah. But there’s no way I’m cutting up a body.’

‘You disobeying me, cunt?’ Eddie snarled, strolling over to him and ramming the nozzle of the gun under his nose.

‘I’m
not doing it
,’ Joe repeated slowly, gazing steadily back at him.

‘So you’re telling me you’d rather die?’ Eddie asked, smirking nastily.

‘No, but if you’re going to do it you’re going to do it,’ Joe replied.

‘Youse are doing my head in,’ Clive snapped, losing patience with Eddie because he was messing about too much and costing them time. ‘It’s half fucking five, in case no one’s realised. Give me that!’ He stalked across the room, snatched the machete out of Joe’s hand and shoved him out of the way. Then, dragging the body into the centre of the plastic sheet by its feet, he drew his arm back and hacked into one of its thighs.

It was the most horrendous thing Carl and Joe had ever seen or heard, and they both knew that the images would stay in their heads for ever. But Eddie was fascinated – a bit
too
fascinated, Clive realised when he glanced up after a few minutes and caught Eddie filming him on his mobile.

‘What the fuck are you playing at?’ he bellowed.

‘Aw, quit moaning,’ Eddie scoffed. ‘You’re not even in it – look.’ He turned the mobile around and showed it to him.

‘You can see my hand,’ Clive protested. ‘And my trainer.’

‘Some fingers and the
toe
of a trainer,’ Eddie corrected him. ‘No one’s gonna know it’s you from that, you knob.’

‘Yeah, well, you still shouldn’t be doing it,’ Clive admonished him. ‘It’s disrespectful.’

‘
Disrespectful?
’ Eddie repeated, laughing wildly. ‘Fuck, man, have you actually
seen
what you’re doing?’

‘Just quit it,’ Clive warned him.

Smirking, Eddie slotted the phone back into his pocket and prodded Joe in the gut with the gun. ‘See that?’ He nodded towards Clive. ‘
That
’s what you call loyalty. Now get over there,’ he ordered, gesturing towards the chair. ‘I said
MOVE
!’ he roared, grabbing Joe by the front of his jacket when he didn’t immediately obey and hurling him across the room.

‘Aw, man, come on, there’s no need for this,’ Carl blurted out. ‘He’s done nowt wrong. What’s up with you?’

Eddie lashed out, smashing Carl across the back of his head with the gun. ‘Open your mouth again and I’ll blow your fucking brains out!’ he warned.

Turning back to Joe now, Eddie kicked him in the back of the knees to make him sit down. Then, snatching up the rope that Fred had placed on the second chair, he tossed it to Carl. ‘Tie him up.’

‘Why?’ Carl moaned, rubbing at his head and giving him a confused look. ‘What’s he done?’

‘He’s a copper,’ Eddie informed him, his gaze riveted to Joe to gauge his reaction.

‘Don’t talk shit,’ Carl said with conviction. ‘He’s one of us, man. Through and through.’

‘Yeah, that’s what
I
used to think,’ Eddie said, slamming the gun into Joe’s temple and staring down at him. ‘But that was before Daz recognised him.’

‘Daz?’ Carl pulled a face. ‘What’s that two-faced cunt got to do with anything? He don’t even know Joe.’

‘Oh, but he does,’ Eddie hissed. ‘You see, it seems he saw our
friend
here having a drink with some of his five-o mates over in Wigan earlier tonight. Isn’t that right,
Joey
boy?’

Keeping his cool, Joe shook his head. ‘I’ve got no idea why he’d be telling you something like that, considering I’ve never even met him. But I’ve heard enough about him to wonder why a smart man like you would take his word over mine when I’ve shown you nothing but loyalty.’

‘That’s right,’ Carl agreed. ‘Joe’s one of the best. You can trust him with your life.
I
do.’

‘If I want your opinion I’ll ask for it,’ Eddie spat. ‘Now tie him up.’

‘Aw, come on,’ Carl said, resisting Eddie’s orders. ‘Don’t do this. Daz is a fucking liar, you know that. He’ll have made it up ’cos he’s jealous of Joe taking his place on the crew.’

‘Thirty seconds,’ Eddie warned. ‘And then you know what’ll happen, don’t you?’ He flicked a pointed glance towards the dog.

Reminded of the night when Eddie had set the dog on Daz, Carl turned pale.

‘Twenty-seven . . .’ Eddie drawled.

‘Just do as he says,’ Joe told Carl, seeing the terror in his eyes.

‘Oh, man, this is so wrong,’ Carl groaned, his hands shaking so badly that he dropped the rope twice before he managed to loop it around Joe’s wrists.

Circling the chair when his prey was bound, Eddie said, ‘So, come on, Joe . . . let’s have the truth. And we’ll start with your real name, shall we?’

‘You know my real name,’ Joe replied, bracing himself in anticipation of the blows that he knew were about to come.

‘Wrong answer,’ Eddie said, lashing him across the face with the gun. ‘Try again.’

‘Aw, Jeezus, man, don’t!’ Carl yelped, crying now as he watched the blood spurt from Joe’s broken nose.

‘Real name?’ Eddie repeated.

‘Joe . . . Weeks,’ Joe said, his eyes swimming with tears of pain.

‘Wrong again,’ Eddie snarled, slamming the butt of the gun down between Joe’s legs now. Grinning with satisfaction when Joe screamed, Eddie circled the chair, giving his victim time to recover the power of speech. ‘Ready to tell the truth yet?’ he asked then.

‘I
am
telling the truth,’ Joe sobbed.

Eddie tut-tutted. ‘I really thought you knew me better than this,’ he drawled, shaking his head as if he was scolding a disobedient child. ‘If there’s one thing I hate more than a thief, it’s a liar. At least you can hide your shit to stop a thief getting their hands on it, but you never know where you are with a liar. That’s why you cunts have sniffer dogs, isn’t it? ’Cos you know they can suss out a liar from miles off. They smell the fear, sniff their way right through the bullshit. Like my dog here . . .’

‘Please don’t, Eddie,’ Carl moaned when he unlooped the dog’s lead and walked the animal over to Joe.

‘Last chance,’ Eddie said, smirking down at Joe.

Joe’s breath was coming in ragged gasps now. ‘I’m telling the truth,’ he insisted.

‘Can’t say I didn’t give you a fair chance,’ Eddie said as he released the dog.

It whimpered, and then lay down with its head on its paws.

‘Get up, you pussy fuck!’ Eddie commanded, booting the dog in its ribs. He let out a roar of rage when it yelped and tried to slither between Joe’s feet to hide under the chair. Then he dragged it out by its back legs and started to kick it around the room.

‘Pack it in!’ Clive bellowed, leaving what he was doing and rushing at him. ‘Look what you’ve fucking
done
, man!’

Breathing heavily, Eddie looked down at the bloody mess twitching at his feet. The dog’s legs were clearly broken, and there was a deep indentation in its side where its ribs had punctured its lung.

‘This is
her
fucking fault for softening it up with all that fucking stroking!’ Eddie hissed. Then, his eyes glinting with pure madness, he turned on Joe. ‘And yours, you cockeyed twat. Only she ain’t here to pay for it so you’ll have to pay double, won’t you?’ He aimed the gun at Joe’s leg and fired it.

‘Fucking hell, man!’ Clive complained, holding his ears as the sound of the shot reverberated off the walls and clanged off the metal shutters. ‘You could have give us some warning!’

But Eddie wasn’t done yet, and he blasted a hole in Joe’s other leg.

‘
ENOUGH!
’ Clive yelled. ‘This is getting way out of hand.’

‘No, it ain’t – it’s only just started,’ Eddie told him.

‘You shouldn’t have done that,’ Fred said quietly. ‘You should’ve waited till you were finished here, then took him somewhere else. This wasn’t part of the deal, so I’m out of here. You can finish it off by yourselves.’

‘No one’s going nowhere until the cunt tells me what I want to hear,’ Eddie said, his voice icy as he levelled the gun at Fred now.

‘What you gonna do – shoot me as well?’ Fred asked.

Staring him straight in the eye, Eddie said, ‘Don’t test me old man. Don’t fucking test me.’

28

As he stood on the slip road, Daz felt as if his legs and his thumb had frozen solid. By the time he finally got a lift his teeth were chattering wildly. He climbed into the front passenger seat and nodded a thank-you at the driver.

‘Where you headed?’ the man asked, pulling off the hard shoulder and easing onto the motorway.

Daz’s mouth was numb but he somehow managed to tell him that he was going to Wigan.

‘Now there’s a blast from the past,’ the man said, smiling nostalgically. ‘Used to go to the pier, back in the day. Wigan Casino, greatest place ever, that. That, and the Twisted Wheel. All-nighter, followed by a trip to Blackpool for the all-dayer. Man, they were the days.’

Glancing at the man out of the side of his eye as he prattled on about all the drugs him and his mates used to take to keep them up all night – which made Daz’s own intake sound like kids’ stuff – Daz sized him up. He was middle-aged and obviously some sort of travelling salesman, judging by the smart suit jacket hanging from the hook above the back door and the expensive shirt and tie he was wearing. Soft fuck, if ever Daz had seen one.