The Elephant Tree (8 page)

‘I love spending time with you, Jack,’ she’d said to him one night in a restaurant, as she took hold of his hand, ‘It’s just that you still feel like a stranger to me, and I want you to be so much more.’

She looked away as she said that, afraid by coming on too strong she’d scare him off and be left with nothing, but as she released his hand he leaned forward and took hold of hers again.

‘I really like being with you too. Emotional closeness just isn’t something I’ve had a lot of practice with. After my parents died I tried to bury all of my feelings. The pain of that kind of loss is just so hard to bear it was easier to pretend it didn’t exist. I guess I’ve been locked up pretty tight ever since.’

‘I’m so sorry, Jack,’ She said, meeting his gaze again, ‘I had no idea. I don’t want to cause you any pain, but if that is how you’re feeling then I just want to be there for you and help you through it.’

‘OK,’ he said smiling at her, ‘so how do I start?’

‘Well just talking like this is good,’ she said with a grin. ‘You could tell me about your parents, and your apartment is beautiful but there are no photos or anything personal to make it feel like a home. Maybe it just needs a woman’s touch.’

After the restaurant they drove back to Jack’s apartment and spent most of the night on the couch talking and sipping wine, before eventually heading to bed as the first fingers of dawn began to reach around and take hold on the city that lay below them. That was the first night that Angela slept in Jack’s bed.

They awoke around lunchtime having slept for only a few hours. She showered while Jack cooked them both some eggs. The conversation while they ate was light, he even seemed a little coy at times, but smiled a lot.

They travelled down to the foyer together where she kissed him goodbye as he set off for work. Angela went and bought a coffee nearby and sat alone with her thoughts as the city geared up for another day. Afterwards she wandered and, without even realising she was going to do it, ended up at a tattoo parlour where she had her earlobe pierced for a second time, and a small silver hoop slipped through it.

* * *

A clutch of huddled figures stood around at the bar in The Highlander waiting to be served, but the majority of Christmas refugees were gathered around the tables. Scott claimed a vacant bar stool in Angela’s area and waited for her to finish serving the others.

‘Always nice to see a smiling face at the bar,’ Angela said sarcastically, as Scott sat down and began to knead his temples with the tips of his fingers.

‘Glad you appreciate the effort,’ he replied back with a dismissive smile.

‘I didn’t think you’d make it down today with the weather being so nice outside and bearing in mind what you put away last night.’

‘Thanks but I’m a big boy, I can cope. Besides, you think I just hide away indoors during daylight like some kind of vampire?’

‘No dummy, I just mean when we get a day like this so close to Christmas its wall-to-wall with the credit card crew out there. You’d think the shops were giving their shiny shit away for free today there’s so many of them.’

Scott couldn’t help but laugh at Angela’s seasonal cynicism. For someone who had such a positive attitude most of the time, the festive cheer always fell short of wrapping Angela up in its warm cocoon of merriment. Without being asked she went to fetch a beer for Scott. She’d changed into deep blue cargo pants that she wore with her scuffed black boots, a loose fitting black t-shirt with a shapeless blue and black checked shirt worn open over the top. It sometimes puzzled Scott how she could still look so feminine despite her sexless outer garments, but as she handed him the bottle of Heineken, there was no denying how good she looked.

‘How long left till you finish for the day?’

‘Another few hours.’

A customer came up to the bar and Angela went to serve. Scott took a drink from his bottle as his thoughts returned to his brother and the conversation they’d had. He had intended to come out and see Twinkle to discuss whatever opportunity he had hinted at the night before, but after hearing what Jack had said he wasn’t sure it was now something he should do. He was out now though and Twinkle wasn’t usually hard to find so he figured he may as well hear what the old man had to say.

‘You staying out for the night now then?’ Angela asked, as she returned from serving.

‘No, I’m gonna finish this then I think I’ll see if I can run into Twinkle.’

Angela looked at him earnestly for a moment but passed no judgement.

‘I’ve just been to visit Jack,’ Scott said, eager to change the subject.

‘How’s he doing?’ she asked, smiling thinly as her hand raised and brushed against the two silver hoops in her right ear. ‘It must be a couple of years now since I ran into him. Is he still doing those radio shows as well?’

‘Yeah he’s still got all that going on, and no doubt more besides. The endless pursuit of wealth and happiness,’ Scott said, and grinned.

‘So what prompted the family reunion today then, a thick slice of Christmas guilt?’ she asked.

‘Yeah I guess it was something like that,’ Scott said, not wanting to divulge anything Jack had said about Twinkle. ‘He’d texted when my phone was off and asked if I could call in. I saw Stephanie getting out of the lift in his building.’

‘Really, what was she doing there?’

‘She didn’t say, visiting Jack though I suppose. She’s PA to the manager at Aura so they know each other.’

‘She say anything about not meeting me last night?’

‘Just that she got caught up with some stuff. She looked disappointed about it though.’

Angela nodded and then went to serve another customer. Scott drank the remainder of his beer.

‘I’ll see you later, Angela,’ he said, and walked back out into the mass of shoppers.

A cursory glance around a few other bars had turned up no sign, so Scott decided to try John Henry’s, one of Twinkle’s favourite haunts. A conversation with Aldo, one of Twinkle’s old drinking buddies, revealed he was expected there within the hour.

Deciding to wait, Scott sat down with a pint away from the bar at a corner table and lit a cigarette. The clientele in there on Sunday afternoon were the same as most other afternoons. From middle aged to old men, drinking and cursing at the world like it was the last bus which had just left the stop without them. Being a city centre bar these didn’t tend to be old codgers waiting for the wife to prepare Sunday roast before staggering home to eat and then sleep it off. They mostly drank there until they passed out or were thrown out. That’s why Twinkle likes the place so much, Scott thought, looking around at the faded wood veneer tables, and the faded souls drinking at them. Misery was soaked through the place like the old beer soaked through its carpets.

One bright point in there was Joanne. Scott saw her come in breezily to start her shift while he waited at his table. Joanna was the longest serving of the bar staff. She seemed able to suck up any amount of negativity and scorn and just turn the other cheek without becoming bogged down in it like her workmates. She joked that the staff roster had its own revolving door, and that name tags were essential as she never recognised anyone on her side of the counter. She had a cheery demeanour, maybe just edged above five feet in height if she wore heels, and she often joked that she was as wide as she was tall. The regulars had accepted her as one of their own now, and made sure any tips given went directly to her and not into a jar to split with the rest of the staff. Scott picked up his glass and went to sit with her at the bar.

‘Hey Joanne,’ he said, taking a seat on a free stool.

‘Hello Scott, and a merry Christmas to you.’

‘Yeah, let’s not get too carried away and just leave it at hello,’ he said and grinned. ‘There’s never been anything merry about this place for a long time.’

Joanne laughed heartily, an infectious sound that had the same effect on the atmosphere as a defibrilator on an arrested heart.

‘So what brings you into this fine establishment today then?’

‘Just a few quiet drinks.’

‘Quiet we can do, and drinks we can do as well, so you’re at the right place,’ she said, beaming.

‘Twinkle should be in soon so we can all exchange gifts.’

‘Ha, now that I’d pay to see.’

‘You were friends with his missus weren’t you?’

‘Yes, I still am. Don’t see her much since she moved away but we still keep in touch.’

‘You think they’ll ever get back together?’

‘I doubt it. The only way she’d ever have him back was if he quit all the drink and, well, the other stuff as well,’ she said, tapping her nose. ‘It’d be the best thing he could do though. Poor old duffer has been as miserable as sin since they left, never mind what he might tell you. He worshipped her and those kids, she just couldn’t take any more though. The little ones were getting to an age where she couldn’t hide it from them anymore, she wouldn’t have them growing up in that kind of life.’

Scott nodded and finished his pint.

‘Another one of them then, love?’

‘Yeah and one for yourself as well, Joanne.’

‘Well, if it isn’t some Christmas spirit come creeping into the place after all,’ she said, and laughed again as she went to pull Scott’s pint.

After paying Joanne for his beer and tipping more than enough extra for one of her own, Scott picked up his glass and went to play on the pinball table near the front of the bar. It was the latest attempt by management to attract younger blood into the place, although so far it didn’t seem to have worked. He took a swig from the beer and put it down with his cigarettes on the ledge beside him.

Four games of pinball and another beer later Scott’s vigil in the depressing bar paid off. Twinkle arrived alone, showing no surprise at all seeing Scott there waiting.

‘Alright Scott, how’d the party go last night?’

‘Was OK, how come you didn’t stop by?’

‘Other people to see. You know how it is,’ Twinkle said, attempting a smile that never quite settled on his face and absently scratching the growth of stubble on his unshaven chin. That’s one thing Scott had always noticed about Twinkle, no matter how bad things were for him or how fucked up his life got, he always made sure to get washed and shaved before going out into town, like it was the last connection he had to his relatively normal and happier past.

‘Yeah man, I know how it is,’ Scott said, although he wasn’t sure that he did. ‘Any word from Sharon and the kids?’

Twinkle looked at him with a practised scowl he’d reserve for anyone asking about his ex.

‘Fuck that bitch. She had her chance.’

‘OK Twink. So these people you had to see last night, they anything to do with the opportunities you told me about?’ Scott asked, to get their meeting back on track.

Twinkle motioned towards the back of the bar and led the way to an unoccupied table. Scott took a seat and after ordering two beers from Joanne, Twinkle brought them over and sat down.

‘Cheers,’ Twinkle said, and downed about a third of his pint.

Scott sipped at his own, eager to hear what this was going to be about but waited for Twinkle to come to the point in his own time. Twinkle’s eyes drifted around the room, not suspiciously as if he feared being overheard, but glassily as if his mind was elsewhere.

Eventually he refocused and turned to Scott.

‘You can drive, right Scott?’

‘Yeah I can, but I don’t have a car,’ Scott said, starting to feel apprehensive. ‘This isn’t some smash and grab you want me in on, is it?’

‘Nothing like that, no. And it doesn’t matter about a car, we’ll have a van supplied.’

‘Spit it out then, mate, enough with the mystery.’

‘There’s a shipment of tools and electrical supplies coming in to the docks at Eastgate,’ Twinkle said in a hushed tone as he leant in towards Scott. ‘Inside the shipment is a large amount of coke. We’ll have a van with the trade name that the shipment is for on the side. We just drive in, sign for it, load it up and go.’

‘And how much does it pay?’

‘I’ll split the pay right down the middle with you Scott. I was gonna just get someone for a couple of grand if you said no, but for me and you it’s ten grand each.’

‘It’s a nice amount but what about identification and paperwork and all that stuff?’

‘Already taken care of, the guy who wants it knows some Asian lad called Tazeem who can get any type of photo IDs or anything made up. All I need from you is a passport photo and it’ll be done in a day. We walk in with the legit paperwork and proper IDs.’

‘No point in me asking who all this is for then?’

‘No, that’s not important anyway, just that you’re in or out. We make this go off without any problems and there’s more work to follow. To be honest your name was mentioned in passing during my meeting about this, so if you’re gaining some notoriety from those higher up then your days peddling around clubs are gonna be numbered anyway.’

Twinkle’s eyes sparkled in eager anticipation as he leant in further, waiting to hear Scott’s response. It was obvious that Twinkle reckoned this was his last chance to make something of himself and Scott thought he was probably right; it was a chance he knew Twinkle would do pretty much anything to grab hold of.

‘It’s a big sentence we’ll be looking at if anything goes wrong with this, man.’

‘It would be, but the details have already been worked out. Besides, how many nights have you got to trail all those bags of drugs around town to make anywhere near this type of cash? What you think you’d be looking at if you got caught with them? Not every club bouncer is just gonna pocket the lot for himself, especially in the quantities you move these days. Chances are you’d be pinned to the floor with his knee in your back until the feds got there to take you away for a lengthy spell at a barbed wire holiday camp.

* * *

As requested, Neil arrived at the cottage about an hour after Scott returned home.

Scott rolled a joint as he filled Neil in on everything he’d heard that afternoon from his brother. By the time the joint was smoked and extinguished, so was Neil’s previous good mood.

‘So really there isn’t anything conclusive, it could all just be that Twink was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that people are jumping to conclusions,’ Neil said, settling into a satisfied expression.