The Girl by the Thames (17 page)

This was just the start of the new improved Niners. He’d lead them on to bigger things. No more hanging around some scabby lock-up. They’d go big time and become a proper criminal firm. He thought of the cars he’d have and the money and the influence. He’d be a local don.

He looked at everyone around him and the joy that was in their faces. He’d created this and it felt good, it felt right. He liked rewarding their hard work and loyalty, and there’d be plenty more where that came from. This was just the start.

Mack and Seb were looking anxiously at the lock-up door, waiting for Gem to finish so they could have their turn on the girls. He didn’t understand why Lena and Tanya wanted to walk away from all this. They could have had it all. It didn’t matter though. It was a minor setback, and he didn’t really care. Although he wouldn’t mind having a go on Tanya. Even with her bruised up face, she was still a hottie. But with Vicks around that would be suicide. Maybe he’d keep the two girls locked up there for a few days and then come back when Vicks wasn’t around and get up to some mischief. That would teach them not to walk out on the Niners.

Duff took another slug of beer. As he lowered his bottle he noticed two large shapes moving down the road towards him. It was definitely two blokes but their silhouettes didn’t look right, it was like they’d been inflated. They definitely weren’t police. Whoever they were they would regret strolling down here for the rest of their lives.

“Look lively,” Duff said to the rest of them. “We’ve got a couple of fools paying us a visit.” Duff emptied his beer bottle, pulled out his gun and held it gangster style sideways. The rest of the gang sobered up fast, and stood in a line, ready to attack the two pricks who had wandered into their territory.

As they emerged out of the gloomy night, they could see the two men both carried long sticks. Duff sniggered to himself. Who turns up to a gun fight with sticks?

The two men raised their sticks to chest height. Duff still couldn’t figure out what they were doing. Suddenly there was a harsh cracking sound and something tore past Duff’s ear, slicing the air in two. A loud bang came from behind him. Duff turned around and saw that a shaft of long slender metal had embedded itself in the wall behind him.

Duff quickly realised what the men were carrying. Spearguns. As they approached, the man who had fired reloaded his and fitted another spear. They were both dressed in large dirty all-in-one waterproofs. One was small and ginger, the other looked like a farmer and had a thick bushy beard.

Duff had seen knives and guns before, and he wasn’t frightened of either. But there was something slightly medieval about a speargun that sent an unfamiliar flash of terror down his spine. They were big and powerful and he could see the barbaric point on the end, just waiting to plunge itself into his flesh. Duff held up his gun up a little higher, but it began to shake.

“Who the fuck are you?” said Duff. 

“Who the fuck am I?” said the smaller of the two in a harsh Scottish accent. He had a murderous, almost spaced-out look on his face. “I’m Mr stick-your-fucking-head-to-the-wall, that’s who I am.”

“Do you know who you’re dealing with?” said Duff. “I’m the one with the fucking gun.”

“Add up, fuckwit. There are two of us. By the time you’ve fired, one of us will have ventilated your head. Whatever happens, you die.”

Duff tried to hold his gun steady. Being tough was a lot harder when you were facing someone else who was tooled up. But he couldn’t lose respect, not now, not after he’d come so far. He turned to his gang, still holding the gun on the two men. “Whatever happens to me, I want you to take these two down.”

Just as Duff finished, the Scottish one sprang forward and bayoneted Duff in the hand with the end of the speargun. Duff cried out and dropped the gun. The one with the beard kicked the gun behind him out of anyone’s reach. Duff clutched his cut hand. It wasn’t deep but it stung like a bastard and hot wet blood spilled through his fingers.

The barb of the speargun was now pointed straight at Duff’s forehead.

“Think that hurts,” said the Scot, nodding to Duff’s hand. “Wait till one goes through your skull.”

Duff could see the man’s eyes up close now. They were hollow and bloodshot, and he recognised the madness hiding behind them. It was a look he knew well and it told him all he needed to know: this wasn’t an idle threat. He would do it.

“I’ve shot tiger sharks that wanted to eat me with this. Do you think I’ll have any problem shooting a worthless cunt like you?”

Duff didn’t answer.

“Well?”

Duff looked across to the rest of the gang. The other man had his weapon pointed at them. The whole gang could probably overpower the two of them. But would any of them have the balls to make the first move?

Duff went slightly crossed-eyed, trying to focus on the point that was sticking in his forehead. At this range he would certainly die. He would never survive a spear through the head. That sealed it for Duff. This wasn’t worth dying for. He could always find out who these assholes were and make them pay later.

“What do you want?” asked Duff in a defeated tone.

“The two girls, Lena and Tanya.”

Duff suddenly got scared, properly this time. If this guy found out one of his gang had just raped them, then he could still end being speared in the head. Duff’s mind went into overdrive. A plan quickly formed. He’d open the door, see Gem getting up to no good, then pretend he knew nothing about it. He could shout at Gem, making a big show of it and say something like
what the hell do you think you’re doing?
Maybe even drag Gem out with his trousers round his ankles. This would hopefully deflect the situation away from him and onto Gem. Gem would then be the one to get it in the head. Duff could come out of it unscathed if he kept his cool.

But when Duff lifted the lock-up door it was nothing like the situation he imagined. The two girls were sitting on boxes, fully clothed, while Gem lay unconscious; face down on the floor with his trousers round his ankles. Tanya smiled when she saw the two men but Lena kept looking at the floor. Tanya led her friend out by the hand, past Duff who still had the speargun pointed at the back of his head. He prayed she wouldn’t say anything.

“You two walk up the road,” said the ginger one. “We’ll follow in a second.” When the girls were out of earshot he faced Duff and the rest of the gang, “Any of you touch those two girls again and I’ll have a spear for each one of you. And next time, you won’t see me coming. I won’t kill you, I’ll fire one through your spine so you can’t walk again. Kinda hard being a gangster in a wheel chair. Have a nice evening.”

The two men moved away up the road, walking slowly backwards, keeping their weapons trained on the gang. One of the men stopped briefly to pick up Duff’s gun, and then they were gone.

Chapter 19

Greg was angry, Tanya could tell. He strode past her without speaking, and even Rog had a job keeping up with him. It was pretty easy to see why. Tanya’s little call for help meant he had to break off from rescuing the whale to deal with two stupid hoodies who’d got in over their heads. He’d just put both his and Rog’s life at risk for them.

She hadn’t told him that one of the gang had tried to rape Lena, she thought it best not to, especially after seeing Greg with a temper. She was pretty sure if he knew what had really happened, then someone else would have got killed tonight. Tanya didn’t want that, she just wanted to get away from the Niners and protect her friend. Besides, Lena was already traumatised enough; another death would probably send her over the edge, if she wasn’t there already. The less Greg knew about what happened tonight the better.

Tanya caught up with Greg as they reached the car. “Thank you,” she said. The words seemed strange to her even though she meant them.
Thank you
wasn’t a phrase she uttered that often.

“No problem,” Greg replied without making eye contact. He threw Duff’s gun into a bush.

“No, I really mean it,” said Tanya.

“Thank you,” added Lena.

Greg turned around to face them both, “Listen, I want to be your friend, Tanya, and yours Lena, and I want to help you, but I can’t come running every time you get into trouble, especially not tonight of all nights. You know how important this is. Plus, I’ve got a family to think about. We were lucky tonight. But that prick had a gun. It could’ve easily gone wrong.”

“Sorry,” they replied.

“Okay, it’s done now and you’re safe. But if you get involved in any more gang stuff, I can’t help you, alright. Those guys don’t forget. I should know I used to be in a gang. I’m not getting involved anymore. You can come to me if you want to talk about things or need advice or anything else, but I’m not doing that again. Okay. And neither is Rog.”

“Okay,” they replied.

“Good, now we’ve got a whale to save. Lena, would you like to join us. It’s getting late or we could drop you back …”

“I want to come,” Lena said looking at Tanya. “See what all the fuss is about.”

“He’s amazing …” Tanya said but was suddenly cut off by Greg.

“Okay, this isn’t a jolly, it’s going to be a lot of work and you’ll probably get soaking wet.”

“Er, okay,” said Lena.

Greg disappeared around the back of the car, putting the spear guns in the boot. He returned holding his wife’s dirty Wellingtons and held them out to Lena.

“You’ll need these,” he said. Lena took them. “Put them on in the car, we need to get moving.”

As they drove back to the river, Tanya talked non-stop to Lena about the whale. Part of it was excitement but part of it was to occupy Lena’s mind. The whole evening had been one long trauma for the girl, and now, bizarrely she was going to help save a whale. Tanya hoped the experience might ease the horrors of what she’d been through. Lena listened to everything that Tanya said, and Greg also chipped in about what she could expect to happen when they got there.

The streets were empty and they made good progress but as they got closer to the river, Lena suddenly leant forward.

“I wouldn’t go that way if I were you,” she said.

“Why not?” asked Greg.

“Cos there’s a riot going on down there.”

“Riot?” said Rog turning around in his seat. “I didn’t hear anything about a riot.”

“Trust me.” Lena assured him. “There’s a riot going on.”

Just as the car rounded the bend, up ahead they saw the road was blocked with two police cars. Their lights flashed and there were a line of traffic cones from one pavement to the other.

“We’ll have to go around,” said Greg. He threw the car into reverse and headed back the way they came. Each street they tried was the same. The police had blocked the road. Greg tried pleading with one policeman. He flashed his ID and told them about the whale but they wouldn’t let him through, it was too dangerous. Eventually, they were forced to head east for over a mile and then loop back alongside the river, hoping to outflank the police blockades. The strategy worked and they got to the river without being stopped.

“Where is everyone?” asked Greg. The barriers were still there and litter blew around in little whirlwinds, but the people had disappeared. The reason soon became clear the second they got out of the car. From the streets behind them, hidden from view came the roar of a rioting crowd. Shouts, screams and the clatter of horses’ hooves echoed along the adjacent streets.

“Jeez, it’s awful close,” said Rog.

“Everyone’s been scared off by the rioting,” said Greg.

“I suppose you can’t blame them. That sounds pretty nasty,” Rog added.

“Never mind, we have to carry on.” Greg reached into the back of the car and pulled out the underwater speaker. It was a wide thick metal disk with a grille on one side. The whole thing was attached to a coil of thick black cable.

Tanya took Lena aside, “Are you okay with this?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s not the riot I’m scared of, it’s the Niners. Now where’s this whale?”

“Come on I’ll show you.” Tanya led Lena over to the embankment wall. There below them was the hulking form of the humpback still trapped in the mud.

“Wow,” said Lena. “It doesn’t look real.”

“Oh no,” said Tanya. “Greg! Greg!”

“What’s the matter?” Greg ran over. “Oh, no, I don’t believe it,” he said, kicking the embankment wall in frustration. Rog came over to see what the problem was. As he looked over the edge he saw that all the volunteers they needed to pull the whale off the river bank had gone, scared off by the rioting.

“Bloody cowards,” shouted Greg. “This is a disaster.”

“Can’t us lot pull him out?” asked Lena.

“There’s not enough of us, sweetheart,” said Greg. “It takes at least thirty, but they’ve all run off.”

Rog put his arm around Greg’s shoulder. “You can’t blame them, Greg. People get scared.”

“I know, I know, but all this has been for nothing.”

“Well, I’m not giving up,” said Tanya. “Come on, Lena. I’ll show you how to stop him drying out.” The two girls walked down onto the riverbank and found some discarded buckets. They filled them up at the water’s edge and began covering the whale with water.

A minute later, Greg and Rog joined them. It was all completely futile but it felt like the right thing to do. The whale was doomed but at least they could make him more comfortable.

Tanya stroked the humpback’s skin which was cracked like a sore lip. The sight of it made her wince and she could see the raw flesh underneath. “Don’t worry she said, “We’ll figure something out. Now let’s get some water on you.”

She made another trip to fill her bucket up and on the way back she saw a sight that made her heart jump. A small group of people were heading down the ramp. They were followed by some more and then some more.

“Look,” she shouted happily to everyone. “The volunteers have come back.” Everyone stopped what they were doing to take in the sight of much needed help arriving. “We can still do it.” Tanya jumped up and down excitedly.

“Let’s get to the ropes,” said Greg. “There’s still time.”

The tide was coming in fast and swashed around their ankles like dirty gravy. Greg, Tanya, Lena and Rog moved away from the whale and waded down to the end of one of the ropes that snaked around in the current. They picked it up out of the water and got ready to pull. The group of people moving down the ramp had now become a steady stream, more than enough to pull the whale off the bank.

“Over here,” Greg shouted to them, waving his arms. “We need all of you over here.” But the crowd ignored him and headed straight for the whale, crowding around him like he was a sideshow freak.

“Why aren’t they coming to help,” said Lena.

Then someone threw a bottle at the whale and the answer became clear.

“They ain’t volunteers,” said Tanya. “They’re rioters.”

Someone threw another bottle at him which bounced harmlessly off his back and rolled down his side. More people started throwing things. Tanya instantly dropped her rope and tried to run through the water back to the whale.

“Oi,” she shouted. “Leave him alone.”

Greg and the others joined her, shouting at the rioters, screaming at them to stop. The people seemed oblivious and as Tanya neared she could see the frenzied looks on their faces, fuelled by the thrill of destruction. They swarmed around the whale, some were hitting him with their fists as if he were a giant black punch bag. Tanya screamed at them to get off him but they just kept on slamming their fists into him.

Tanya finally reached closest one and kicked him in the in the back of the knee, he collapsed instantly. She picked up a nearby bucket and swung it into the side of his head, making sure he didn’t get up again.

Greg and the others reached Tanya and joined her in pushing away the rioters. At first they were ignored, but soon like a hive mind, the crowd turned on them as one. The four of them were vastly outnumbered. Tanya was surrounded by three men who pinned her against the whale.

“Please don’t hurt him,” she said. “He’s done nothing to you.” They were just about to punch her, when Greg and Rog smashed into them, knocking them off their feet and into the water. Greg grabbed hold of Tanya and dragged her out of the chaos.

“We’ve got to get away from here,” he said, pulling and lifting Tanya by her shoulders.

“But what about the whale? We need to protect him.”

“They’ll kill us if we do.”

Greg and Tanya followed Lena and Rog up the ramp. They weren’t even half way when more rioters came spilling down.

“Follow me,” said Greg. He led them back into the water, which was now lapping against the side of the whale. In the distance it became clear where they were heading. Greg’s boat was anchored just a few yards away. When they reached it, Greg and Rog stayed in the water and helped the girls clamber in. As they were about to follow them two rioters reached them ahead of the pack.

Greg managed to get half in the boat, sitting astride the large inflatable tube that ran around the top. He grabbed the anchor chain and pulled it out of the water as fast as his arms would go. The two rioters didn’t realise what he was doing until was too late. When the anchor cleared the water, he swung it around his head like a medieval mace. Then he let go. The large prongs of the anchor caught both rioters in the head, knocking them backwards.

Greg pulled the anchor back in and Rog started the engine. More rioters were upon them now but it didn’t matter. Rog gunned the engine and turned the boat hard sending a bow wave over them. The boat sped away and into the deep water in the centre of the Thames where the rioters couldn’t get to them. They now had a clear view of the whale being attacked. A couple of rioters had even managed to climb on his back.

“You fucking assholes,” Tanya screamed, as streaky tears spread from her eyes. “How can they do that to him?”

“Because they’re scum,” said Rog.

Tanya collapsed to her knees on the floor of the boat, sobbing. Lena knelt down beside her and put her arm around her.

“Maybe we should get out of here,” said Rog. “There’s nothing we can do and it’s horrible to put the girls through this.”

Greg didn’t answer for a second. Then he said:

“Cut the engine.”

“What are you going to?” asked Rog.

“I’m not sure, let’s see what happens.”

Rog turned off the engine and let the let the boat drift slowly in the current. Greg pulled the underwater speaker out from where it had been stashed in his waterproofs. From another waterproof pocket he took out his ipod. He plugged it into the underwater speaker and switched them both on. Sitting on the edge of the boat, he dangled the speaker in the water. Tanya watched him toggling through the menu on the ipod until he rested on one track marked humpback whalesong.

“Here goes nothing,” he said and hit play.

They all heard it immediately. A deep, long sonorous moan rose up from the depths. It vibrated through black water calling out its lonely song to the trapped whale on the shoreline.

They looked back at the whale which was now swarming with rioters.

“They’ve killed it already,” said Tanya.

“Wait,” said Greg.

Suddenly the top of the whale arched in a violent jerk, catapulting the two people up in the air. As they came down they lost their balance, tumbled off the side of the creature and fell on several other people, knocking them over. From the boat they heard gasps and screams from the crowd. People immediately moved back but some of them hadn’t moved far enough. The whale’s tail swept them sideways, left and right, swatting them like flies. Great plumes of water fired up into the air as he writhed and twisted. It was as if the whalesong had brought him back to life.

Everyone in the boat cheered.

The whale’s thrashing became more intense as he struggled to get to what he thought was his mother. The rioters tried to get away but the water was much deeper now, hampering their progress. Every time the whale convulsed it sent out another wave, knocking them off balance. Rioters trampled over each other to reach the safety of the ramp and their terrified screams rang out in every direction.