As uniform took over from Collins and Roberts I yelled to Debs, ‘It’s a set-up — I’ve done nothing.’
Debs picked up her bag and coat, turned away from me.
‘It’s all a set-up — Debs, you have to believe me.’
The wagon doors opened, the filth threw me inside. My last sight, before the doors closed, was of Debs running in the opposite direction. She held her hands to her face, attempting to stem the tears. She couldn’t even look at me. I figured the image would stay with me for a long time.
In the back of the wagon I felt a heavy boot to the gut. I curled over, then the batons came out.
I kicked out with my feet.
‘Fuck off, you pig bastards,’ I yelled.
The batons kept coming.
‘You fascist scum.’
A few of my kicks connected, but they piled onto me. As I struggled, hands grabbed at my arms and legs. Out came the plastic cable ties — they trussed me up like a loin of pork.
I could barely move, breathing became difficult, each gasp of air forced cuts in my wrists. The uniforms watched me squirm, then the batons got put away to be replaced by fists.
My new teeth became the first casualty. Spilled like glass beads on the floor.
‘Where’s the smart mouth now, eh?’
There’s no answer to that. Especially when your mouth’s full of blood, and you’ve just lost your second set of teeth in a month.
I tried to curl up, take my punishment. They’d soon tire themselves out.
At the station plod emptied out my pockets. Felt relieved I’d decided not to take the Glock to my father’s funeral. As they fingerprinted me, the front door opened again and Collins and Roberts appeared, leading Amy along. Her hands were cuffed, she looked exhausted. Hair everywhere, eyes a mess of smudged black mascara.
‘Amy,’ I said. My voice cracked, I heard my shock register.
‘Gus, Gus,’ she screamed, close to breakdown. ‘What’s happening to me, Gus?’
‘Don’t worry. They’ve nothing.’ I lunged, tried to get to her, but got held back. ‘They just want to scare us. Don’t worry, Amy.’
Collins and Roberts moved past. I spat at them, missed by a mile, yelled, ‘You weak fucks. Take me on.’
‘Oh, we will,’ said Collins. ‘Patience, patience, Mr Dury.’ He threw his head back, laughed. ‘We’ve something special planned for you.’
I spat again. This time Collins took it full in the face. He raged at me like a lunatic, fired an elbow into my solar plexus.
‘I’m calling your number, Dury,’ he said, looming over me, eyes burning, ‘You got that?’
I fell against the desk, slid to the ground.
‘Take this sack of shit away,’ he yelled.
They left me to dry out in a cell. I hit the wall a few times. Shouted for a lawyer. No surprise, I was ignored. All the while, I feared for Amy. Christ, she was just a girl, ‘You’ve really messed it up for her, Dury,’ I told myself.
I knew the filth were leaving me to sweat before the intimidation started. When they arrived, I saw at once I wasn’t wrong.
Collins, on fire, roared, ‘I ought to rip off your head and shit down your neck.’
‘Aren’t we going to play good cop, bad cop again?’
He grabbed me by the hair, so tight I felt my eyes popping. ‘Test me and you play no more games… ever.’
I tried to bold it out. ‘If I start trembling, it’s ’cos I’m off the drink. Wouldn’t want you to flatter yourself that I was scared.’
He opened his palm, pushed it in my face. I felt my nose crack, collapse into my cheeks. At once the room began to spin. My eyes rolled up into my head and blood trickled into my throat. I fell in and out of consciousness for a few minutes.
Water — a bucketful — got thrown over me.
‘Don’t make this any harder than it needs to be, Mr Dury,’ said Roberts. ‘Think about the girl, if not yourself.’
‘Leave her out of this.’
‘Oh, we’d like to but I’m afraid your little friend is looking at a rather substantial charge sheet.’
Collins laughed. ‘Like hanging with whores do you, Dury?’
‘Amy’s no brasser.’
Collins’ laugh burst around the cell walls, set my ears ringing.
‘Oh, this one’s gonna have the conviction to prove it, I’m afraid,’ said Roberts.
‘What do you want?’ I mumbled.
‘I think you know what that is.’
‘Lay off Zalinskas… that it?’
‘You still have some memory then,’ said Collins. As he stood before me his gut bulged in my face. He lifted an arm, I flinched. He toyed with me, twisting the edges of his moustache into little points.
Roberts butted in. ‘That was our advice to you on our last meeting. We’ve since had cause to believe this advice went ignored.’
‘Oh yeah? What makes you think that?’
Collins slammed his hand on the desk. ‘We’ll ask the questions. You’ll fucking listen, laddie.’
Roberts again: ‘Let’s be clear. We have it on good authority that you’ve continued to pursue a vendetta against Mr Zalinskas.’
I knew I’d been careful to keep clear of Zalinskas since our last meeting, obviously not careful enough.
I called his bluff. ‘And I thought Nadja was only after my body.’
‘What?’ said Roberts.
‘I’m guessing you’ve been talking to Benny’s right-hand man, or in this case woman. It was a man, but then Billy Boy was taken out, wasn’t he?’
Collins edged closer. ‘I’m warning you, Dury.’
Roberts held him off. His Clarks shoes squeaked on the floor.
I started to smirk. I knew now I’d been had by Nadja, probably to root out Billy Boy’s missing footage. I saw that with both Billy and Zalinskas out the picture, she stood to take over the entire outfit. A tidy little manoeuvre.
How much Zalinskas knew about Nadja’s scheming was a blank to me. I guessed not much. Both, however, now needed me out of the way. While the court case carried on, I figured, my life was safe. After that I was all out of options.
The pain in my head intensified, felt like my brow might crack down the middle. Who held all the power in the room was obvious.
My only hope, was to chance my luck. ‘Let’s deal.’
They looked at each other, frowning in symmetry.
‘You don’t hold any cards, Dury,’ said Roberts.
I spat out another mouthful of blood.
‘Let’s see what the Bullfrog has to say about that, shall we?’
‘You’re mad, fucking mad,’ said Collins. He began to laugh again, this time without the maniacal edge.
Roberts pushed him aside. ‘Shut up, would you? Let me talk to the man.’ As he leant over the desk, Collins turned away and kicked at the cell door. ‘I won’t tell you again to shut up. Now, Mr Dury, what, exactly, would you have us say to Mr Zalinskas?’
I sat up, brought my nose to within an inch of his. ‘Tell the Bullfrog I have, in my possession, some very interesting footage. Footage that would not do his current position any favours.’
This played right into Nadja’s hands — exposing the footage was just what she wanted. Risking the wrath of Zalinskas, though, that felt insane. Being in possession of the footage had cost Billy Boy his life and I’d just declared my ownership. But what option did I have? I needed to get Amy on a plane, somewhere far away until all this blew over.
My only hope was Zalinskas’ case would drag on a little longer; if it didn’t, Amy’s life was ruined. And I was a dead man.
‘And if we don’t pass on your message?’ said Roberts.
I rocked back on my chair, looked under the table. ‘I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes.’