The Front (20 page)

       
Determined not to be outdone by Mal, Lee was waving his arms to get Elaine’s attention. ‘Yo, Elaine, me darlin’! Come and park your arse over here and tell me all about yourself.’ Moving over, he patted the cushion beside him.

       
Giggling, Elaine obligingly trotted over to the couch. And when Mal had finished his rolling, he went and sat on the other side of her. Seeing her scrunched between the two of them like that, with a catlike smile on her fat face, Suzie’s heart sank. God! She’d never leave now. What had she been thinking of, giving her the address?

       
‘Want a brew, ’Lane?’ Mal asked, passing the spliff to her and blowing his smoke into her face suggestively.

       
‘Ooh, yeah,’ gushed Elaine, blushing at the way he’d said her name. ‘Tea, please. Three sugars.’

       
‘Shove it on, doll,’ Mal told Suzie as if everything was hunky-dory.

       
Sam felt awful for Suzie as she traipsed into the kitchen. He’d noticed her expression drop when she’d seen who her visitor was. Now, after just a couple of minutes, he understood why. This girl was a common little tart.

       
Getting up, he stretched, then casually strolled into the kitchen. Suzie was filling the kettle, looking very downhearted.

       
‘You all right?’ he asked. She nodded, but he could see she was shaking. ‘Don’t let it get to you,’ he whispered, squeezing her arm. ‘She’s not a patch on you, and despite everything, Mal does love you, you know?’

       
‘Thanks,’ she murmured with a tight little smile.

       
‘Any time.’

       
Suzie sighed when Sam went back into the living room. She wished she did know that Mal loved her, but it was hard sometimes – especially when he was flirting with other women. She could hear Elaine giggling as Mal and Lee tried to outdo each other, and it cut her to the heart. At least Lee was single, she consoled herself. If Elaine was going to get off with one of them, it would have to be him. Anyway, Mal wouldn’t stand her filthy mouth for long, whereas Lee would find it a turn-on. Mal hated hearing women swear, and Elaine was one of the worst.

       
When the doorbell rang again, Mal didn’t move. ‘Oi!’ he shouted. ‘Get the door!’

       
Suzie went, knowing full well he was talking to her. It pissed her off when she heard Elaine giggle again as Mal said: ‘She knows her name, don’t she?’

       
The man at the door looked weird, and Suzie immediately wanted to slam the door in his face. It wasn’t his scruffiness, or the dank smell of sweat and rotten socks she found disturbing, it was his shifty eyes. The way he furtively looked every which way, as though he was psyching himself up to whip his coat open and flash his dick at her.

       
‘Mal in?’ he asked.

       
‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘Who should I say wants him?’

       
‘Just tell him it’s Stevo,’ he said, slightly irritated to be kept on the step by this stuck-up little madam. ‘And don’t take all day, eh?’ he added, flashing her an insincere grin. ‘Nay offence, pet, but I’m not too fond of hanging about in strange places.’

       
Mal jumped up when she told him who was at the door. ‘And you left him outside, you daft cow?’ Shoving past her, he rushed to the door. ‘Stevo! My main man! Come in  . . .’

       
Suzie heard them going into the bedroom. She sat down and lit herself a cigarette, wondering why she couldn’t go even one full day without screwing up. Never mind a day – even an hour would do.

       
‘Eh – you’ll never guess what, Sooze!’ Elaine beamed at her from the couch. ‘Leo’s asked me out, haven’t you, Leo? Great, eh?’

       
‘Lee!’ he corrected her. ‘Leeeee . . . Leeeee!’

       
‘Oh, yeah, right,’ she laughed. ‘Lee-Lee! Don’t worry, I won’t forget.’

       
‘It’s all right, I forgive you,’ Lee said. ‘E’yar – d’y’ wanna look at me stitches?’

       
‘Cor, yeah!’

       
Sam raised an eyebrow at Suzie as Elaine jumped up onto the back of the couch and pulled Lee’s head back between her legs. She carefully unwound the bandage, then set about examining the war wound with morbid fascination.

       
Mal bounced back into the room minutes later, rubbing his hands together gleefully. Stevo had done him proud. He stopped short just inside the door when he saw what Elaine was doing. ‘What’s this?’ he said. ‘A chimps’ nit-picking party?’

       
‘I’m looking at his stitches,’ Elaine said. ‘It’s ’orrible! Come and have a look!’

       
‘You must be fucking joking!’ Mal shuddered and pulled a face, then turned to the others, yelling, ‘Is this a bleeding morgue, or what? Let’s get some music on. It’s party time!’

       
‘Get a spliff going, Sam,’ he said, throwing his stash tin at Sam. ‘And where’s those brews, Sooze?’ He laughed. ‘Hey, that rhymed! Brews – Sooze! I’m a bleeding poet and no way did I know it! Your mam had the right idea calling you that, didn’t she, Sooze?’

       
‘Which reminds me.’ He turned back to Sam. ‘Subject of names, what are you calling the sprog?’

       
Sam shrugged. ‘No idea, mate. Hadn’t thought beyond Benjy. Wendy was sure it was going to be a boy.’

       
‘Ah, that’s nice,’ Suzie said. ‘And it could still work for a girl.’

       
‘Have you heard her!’ Mal howled. ‘Benjy for a girl! It’s not a girl’s name, that!’

       
‘I like it,’ Suzie said quietly.

       
But Mal wasn’t listening any more. Flipping through his tapes he pulled one out and stuck it in the machine, turning the volume up full blast.

       
‘Ooh! Bob Marley!’ Elaine squealed. ‘I love him!’

       
‘Me too!’ said Lee. ‘Well, not “love”, ’cos I ain’t a batty boy, but you know what I mean! Looks like we’re gonna hit it off, me and you!’

       
The doorbell rang again – barely audible above ‘Buffalo Soldier’.

       
‘Bleedin’ ’ell, it’s like Piccadilly round here today,’ Mal shouted. ‘Suzie, go and get it, will you?’

       
It was Ged. Much more relaxed than when he’d left, having had a couple of hours’ sleep, a shower, a change of clothes, and a visit with his daughter. He screwed up his eyes at the volume of the music.

       
‘Bloody hell, mate!’ he yelled to Mal. ‘Bit overboard, isn’t it?’

       
Elaine’s eyes widened as she spotted Ged. He was gorgeous – a real hunk. Well over six foot and built like a bouncer, with his hair shaved down really close. Really manly. For a second she forgot all about the bandage she was rewrapping – until Lee nudged her. Winding it on quickly, she slid back down onto the couch and waited to be introduced to Ged, who was busy talking to Suzie.

       
‘Well, you’re a sly one, aren’t you?’ he said. ‘I saw you on TV earlier. Budding film star, eh?’

       
‘Don’t be daft,’ Suzie said, blushing furiously.

       
‘Did you see me, too?’ Elaine chirped up. ‘I was there and all, wasn’t I, Sooze? We looked brill, didn’t we? Proper glamour pusses and no mistake!’

       
Ged noticed her for the first time – and immediately didn’t like what he saw.
Slut on the make
, he decided.

       
‘Sorry, can’t say I noticed you,’ he said politely. Then, turning back to Suzie, he smiled. ‘You looked good, Suzie. You should think about taking it up professionally. Right make-up, right hair-do, you’d run rings round the likes of Liz Jardine. Which reminds me – we’ve got to watch the six o’clock news, ’cos they’re doing the full story.’

       
‘We already know, mate,’ said Mal. ‘So what did you make of it, then?’

       
Ged shot a warning glance towards Elaine. They shouldn’t discuss any of this in front of her. She definitely wouldn’t be trustworthy. ‘Tragic, really,’ he said guardedly. ‘He was a nice bloke, from what I remember.’

       
‘No way!’ Elaine jumped in, eager to dazzle them all with her inside knowledge. ‘He wasn’t all kosher, him, you know. I was telling Suzie earlier, wasn’t I, Sooze? He was dealing all sorts of stuff, him, under the counter, like. Smack, and that. And I know this woman, right, who saw him getting attacked. I was talking to her about it just this morning, wasn’t I, Sooze? She said it was a big gang of blokes what did it. About nine or ten of them at least, she reckoned – with baseball bats. They laid right into him, and she was watching the whole thing from the phone box. Anyhow, she’s told the police all about it, so you might see her on the news and all, ’cos she got interviewed—’

       
‘You what?’ interrupted Suzie. ‘I never saw that.’

       
‘Oh, yeah,’ Elaine said. ‘It was after you left, like. When I went back round, the news people was walking round asking everyone if they knew anything, and my friend went trotting over to tell them.’

       
‘Did they believe her?’ Ged asked.

       
‘Course!’ said Elaine. ‘Well, she saw it, didn’t she? Anyhow, they must have, ’cos she had to give a statement to the pigs after.’

       
Ged and the others exchanged a quick look. It certainly looked hopeful – as long as the police believed the bullshitting cow who claimed to have witnessed the whole thing. And if she was anything like the mouthy one on the couch, Ged thought, she’d probably convinced herself she was telling God’s honest truth, and the police would take it reasonably seriously.

       
‘Well, this calls for a celebration,’ Mal said. ‘We’ve still got a bottle of bevvy to get through, and I’ve got me lovely Charlie in the bedroom.’

       
‘Ooooh – kinky!’ Elaine giggled.

       
Mal gave her a look. What the fuck was she on, the silly cow? Still – never mind her. They had celebrating to do.

       
‘Lee, off yer arse and set the mirror up,’ he said. ‘And haven’t you made those brews yet, Sooze?’ Laughing again, he went to the bedroom to get his coke, chanting, ‘Brews – Sooze . . . Brews – Sooze.’

Stevo turned the corner from the stairwell and stopped dead in his tracks, looking at the splinters of wood scattered around the landing outside his front door. His stomach flipped over. Someone had been in – someone with very big feet. Even from here, he could see the huge imprint of a boot where the lock should have been.

       
Maybe they were still in there, waiting for him?

       
He instinctively backed up into the shadows of the recess beneath the stairs, and peered at his door through the narrow gaps. His breath came in ragged little bursts as he waited for signs of movement from within his flat. After a few minutes, having heard nothing, he began to think it would be safe to go in. Maybe whoever it was had been in to rip him off but, finding nothing, had left quickly?

       
Just as he began to step out, he heard footsteps coming from inside his flat. Edging back as far as possible, he peered out fearfully. It was either the police or a rip-off crew. Either way he’d get his head kicked in if they spotted him.

       
‘I’ll come back later,’ The Man said, slamming the door back on its hinges as he stepped outside. ‘And when I get him, I’ll rip his fucking head off and shove it up his raas fucking arse!’

       
Stevo’s knees turned to water. What the hell was The Man doing in his flat? And why was he talking like that? What had he done to upset The Man, for God’s sake?

       
Jake came out next, rubbing his fingers down his leg as if he’d touched something nasty. Then three enormous men Stevo had never seen before, followed by Max.

       
Stevo’s mouth dropped open when he saw Max. What the hell was he doing here? He’d paid him what he owed this morning. If he’d had a problem, he wouldn’t have laid that ounce on him – would he? His mind raced. Was it the coke? Had it come from The Man? Had word got around that he’d cut it too much, or bumped his price too high? Or was Max setting him up – saying he hadn’t paid what he owed?

       
‘I’ve a good mind to leave Jake here till he shows his face,’ The Man said now.

       
Stevo was filled with dread. There was no way he wanted to get into it with Jake. He was a raving psycho. The Man was a definite heavyweight, there was no denying that, but at least he had a reputation for being fair. But Jake! He’d just as soon torture and mutilate someone as listen to reason.

       
‘Cha!’ Jake exclaimed loudly. ‘I ain’t hanging about in this filthy dump!’

       
Stevo just about managed to hold in his juddering sigh of relief.

       
‘Look, why don’t you let me do it?’ Max suggested. ‘I’ll speak to him, suss out what he knows.’

       
The Man looked at his watch. ‘All right,’ he said at last. ‘I’ll give you two hours to find him and get his story. But after that, Rico and the boys are on it – and believe me, Max, I ain’t fooling! Seen?’

       
‘Seen,’ Max agreed glumly.

       
Stevo shrank back into the brickwork as The Man, Jake, and the heavies marched past just inches away. He held his breath, knowing full well he’d be thrown head first over the balcony if one of them saw him. And he didn’t even know what he was supposed to have done.

       
He waited until he had heard the car doors slamming and the tyres squealing out of the car park down below before exhaling and opening his tightly shut eyes. Max was bad enough, but even he’d sounded scared just now. There was something heavy going down.