Читать книгу Greywater - Mr David Dalby - Страница 4

“Eddie, I want you to stay where you are.” Dean Hudson said into his smart phone. “Don’t send any of your men out until I call you and tell you it’s ok.” Hudson was parked up in his car, but, while on the phone, he was carefully looking up and down the street.

“Why would I do that?” Eddie’s slightly irritated voice came back at him, and not for the first time Hudson wondered if Tony was really the only stupid one in the family. Having looked the street over, it was near empty and wet with the recent rain, he sighed inwardly.

“The police, Eddie. They are interested in you now.”

“You deal with the police.” Eddie Symes said, dismissing the whole thing. “Why aren’t you here?”

“I’m not there, Eddie, because I’m trying to get you out of the….” He had wanted to use the word, mess, but settled, instead, for the more neutral word, “…situation, that your brother got you into.”

“Deal with it.” Eddie liked to give out orders like that. Hudson had quickly learned Eddie Symes wasn’t a very hands on kind of boss. He liked to sit in the big chair and he liked to tell people how things should be according to him. But, in reality, Eddie didn’t really know how to make things happen and he expected others to interpret his orders in their own way, yet to his satisfaction.

“It’s going to cost you, Eddie.” He said, knowing that wouldn’t go down at all well with his client.

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Eddie, as predictable as ever, said. “Why does everything you do end up costing me?”

“I’m a solicitor, Eddie.” Hudson said, expecting any reasonable person to understand that was explanation enough, “Or would you like me to sit on my hands until the clear-up fairies come along and do the job for free?”

“What…fairies? What are you on about?”

“Never mind, Eddie. You’re going to be looking at a minimum of ten thousand euros. But, if I were you, I’d budget for fifteen.”

“Fifteen? You think I have fifteen thousand in my back pocket?”

“No, Eddie, you have it, and more, in your safe in the office where you are now. Getting you out of the hole your brother just dropped you in is going to come at a price. Think of that price as a lesson for the future.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Eddie, keep your brother under control in the future. If you don’t he’ll cost you a lot more money and probably time in prison. I can fix this for you, but it will cost you more than you wanted to pay.” While he’d been talking on the phone, Hudson was checking the dashboard camera. It had recorded his journey here to this narrow side street, and he ran it back, looking for anyone or anything that was out of the ordinary. He knew most undercover police vehicles quite well and none showed up on the screen.

There had been one marked police car, but that had been travelling in the opposite direction. He’d watched it in his rear view mirror. The police car had driven down the street and turned left at the traffic lights. It had nothing to do with him.

“Just do as I say, Eddie, please. The police will have someone watching your place and probably photographing anyone who comes in or goes out. Lay low and keep quiet. They’re not a sophisticated bunch and we should be able to clear this whole thing up in a very short time.”

“Hang on, I’ll check…”

“You don’t have to…oh never mind.” Hudson shook his head.

“Yes.” Eddie’s voice came back, “There’s a car outside, don’t recognise it, looks like a couple of men in it.”

“Just leave them Eddie. They can’t do you any harm if you sit in your office and do what you do all day.”

“I need you to fix this. I’m not sitting in here for the rest of my life.”

“You won’t have to, Eddie, I’m on it right now.”

“You know where Sanford and Harris are now?” Eddie said. Hudson gave him points for remembering their names. A couple of days ago he barely knew they existed. Eddie had fifteen men working for him. Or had before those two went on the run. Five of the men he brought with him when he came to town. The other ten were locals. Eddie didn’t bother to learn who the locals were.

“The police have Sanford.” Hudson said.

“I know they have. Where is he?”

“I’m working on that Eddie, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find him. Like I say, they’re not very sophisticated and they’re not very bright. More than likely they will have moved him to somewhere they consider a safehouse. It’s just a matter of finding it.”

“How about Harris?”

“I’m on that as well Eddie. He’s not very bright. So he’s probably in town still and laid low with someone he thinks he can trust. Just leave it to me and don’t do anything….” Hudson resisted using the word ‘stupid.’ “…..just don’t do anything Eddie. Not until I have sorted this out. OK?”

“OK, I can lay low for a couple of days.”

“Until I have sorted it out, Eddie.” Hudson said, more firmly.

“Yeah, a couple of days. You can sort it out in a couple of days.”

“Goodbye, Eddie.” Hudson said and broke the connection. There were times when he understood why the police wanted to put Eddie inside for several years. It would give everyone some much needed peace. Hudson waited in his car a little longer, until a woman pushing a baby buggy had safely passed by and turned right into the supermarket car park at the end of the street.

Then he got out and quickly walked across the now empty road to the Salvation Army hostel that was next door to the Indian restaurant that, according to its publicity sign, served an exotic cuisine.

How exotic it was possible to be with a Salvation Army hostel on one side and a charity shop on the other was open to question.

Dean Hudson hurried inside.

“Mr Hudson, what a pleasure to see you again.” The women in the reception area smiled brightly at him, but Hudson assumed she smiled brightly at anyone who came through the doors. She seemed the type. Eternally cheerful and always ready to lend a hand. She had a lot of fancy braid on her uniform lapels, so she was probably some high rank. Hudson wasn’t religious at all and didn’t know anyone in the city, outside this woman, who was. He knew nothing of the ranks these people held and got a slight headache every time he had to feign pleasure at being in her company. But he was a solicitor and it’s a poor thing when a solicitor can’t lie convincingly.

“It’s always a pleasure to see you.” He said, waving a hand, “I really wanted to see if my old friend, Mr Williams was in.”

She shook her head and, for a brief moment, looked sad, which worried Hudson, “I’m sorry to say he is with us again. The poor man.”

“I know.” Hudson also shook his head, and looked at his feet just in case she might notice any smile on his face. “I do try to assist him when ever I can.”

“You do, Mr Hudson. He’s a good soul. They all are.”

Drunks, derelicts and drug addicts was what these people were, Hudson reflected. They weren’t good souls and at least eight of them were on the sexual offenders register. “They are.” He said with utterly fake, but believable enthusiasm. “Would it be possible for me to speak with Mr Williams for a moment.”

“You may take as many moments as you like, Mr Hudson. I know how much you have helped that poor man in the past.” She shook her head, “Yet he still comes back to us. Heaven alone knows why.”

He comes back because he’s unskilled labour, Hudson thought. There’s nothing in the modern world that a man like Lenny Williams can do that is of any legal use whatsoever. “I wish I knew the answer to that.” Hudson said, “Is he in the common room?” The common room was just off the dining area. The inmates, or whatever the popular term for derelicts such as Lenny Williams was, could sit on donated furniture and watch a donated television. The place was otherwise bland and soulless. It smelled strongly of bleach. Which was a good thing. Hudson didn’t want to know what it might smell of without the bleach.

Hudson knew his way around the place by now. Though, in truth, there wasn’t very much to know. The dining room, common room. The limited sleeping area at the rear and the offices upstairs. That was about it. If Hudson ever put any thought into it, which he had once, briefly, he’d have appreciated just how much the staff was doing here with very limited means.

There were four men in the common room. Three of them were at the far end, watching the television. There was some ancient movie playing in black and white. Alastair Sim was being creepy as a Scotsman attempting to rent a holiday cottage.

Lenny Williams sat on the sofa away from the others.

He looked up briefly as Hudson came in and sat down.

Williams wasn’t very old, he was thirty three, in fact, and had served in the army since he was seventeen. He’d come out a couple of years ago with the rank of warrant officer. He had his army pension but his experiences hadn’t been good ones. He was now on the streets, his wife wouldn’t let him in the house, his little girl hadn’t seen him in ages, There had been talk of a divorce.

That was how Hudson had originally come to meet Lenny Williams. Now sitting here in donated clothing, looking like he needed a shower and a shave.

“The last payment didn’t last very long.” Hudson said.

Williams shrugged, “It never does.” He said. He might have looked a mess but he wasn’t drunk and he wasn’t on drugs. He actually was physically very fit. He was slim and strong. “We live in a very expensive world, Mr Hudson. At least it’s expensive when all the work you can get is packing beans on supermarket shelves.”

Hudson said, “Beans are very nutritious. So they tell me.”

“What do you want, Mr Hudson?”

“A chat.” Hudson said, lowering his voice, “A private chat.”

Williams glanced over at the trio, enthralled by the old movie and pointing out who the mouthy child actor was who kept saying there was “lousy organisation.”

“They’re not interested, we could be having an orgy here and they wouldn’t notice.”

“I’d still like to go somewhere private.” Hudson thought that might be true, but he was a very careful man. “Come on.”

“All right.” Williams sighed, “There’s nothing I like better than standing outside in the rain when I don’t have to.” He stood up quickly and smoothly.

“It’s not raining.” Hudson said. He took longer to stand up, though he was hardly more than a couple of years older than Williams.

“It will.” Williams said, fatalistically, “It never does anything else in this damn city.”

Williams, although the reluctant one, led the way through the rear door and into the back yard.

It wasn’t raining, but looked as if it soon would be. The yard was just that. A small concrete area. The recycle bins were here and a metal bucket on a highly weathered concrete plinth. The bucket was dull of sand and littered with cigarette butts. Some of the more desperate inmates insisted on rescuing those and turning them into new cigarettes.

Hudson knew Williams didn’t smoke so when he took out a cigar he didn’t bother to offer one to the man. He lit up. “Eddie Symes.” He said.

Williams nodded, “I heard of him. He took over from Charlie Warren. Someone knocked Warren off in his office, that’s what I heard. Some say it was his right hand man, Shipley. But I don’t buy that. Ship isn’t the sort to turn on his own boss. Not without a good reason.”

“Right, you know who Eddie Symes is then.”

“I know. Comes from down south. He turned up with his brother. His brother’s a idiot, but a vicious bugger. Shotgun Tony they call him. He likes to use a sawn off. Messy, crude, about his limit. Symes had five men with his. Don’t know what he did down south but I can guess. Probably the same thing he’s doing now he’s up north. Trying to establish himself as a big man. Right now he had the smallest slice of the pie but he’s the sort who wants more.”

“You know quite a bit about Eddie by the sound of it?”

“Word gets around.” Williams said, vaguely, “I also see Eddie’s brother was causing trouble for Victor Monk.”

“There’s no problem with Victor Monk.” Hudson said quickly. “There is simply a situation that needs to be sorted out.”

“I bet there is. Who do you want me to sort out?”

“Harry Sanford.” Hudson said, “Charlie Harris.”

Williams shook his head, “Names don’t mean anything to me.”

Hudson took two postcard side pictures from his inner pocket and handed them over. “The names are on the back.” He said.

Williams turned the pictures over. Then studied the faces. The pictures were not great ones. They were old snaps that Eddie’s people had turned up from somewhere or other. “Where are they?”

“That I don’t know yet.” Hudson said. “But we’ll pay five thousand euros apiece for them.”

“I want half in advance.” Williams said.

“I bet you do.”

“And I want expenses.”

“Lenny, I don’t think you quite understand your position here.”

“Don’t I?” Williams said, “You want someone who’ll do these two men for you. Well I’m trained for that. You can’t let Eddie or his idiot brother do the job. You can’t even let any of his men do the job. Even if they would. People don’t like killing their own colleagues. It gives them the idea they aren’t indispensable. This town isn’t exactly brimming over with assassins, whatever you might read in the newspapers. I’ll do the job, Mr Hudson, but I want half the amount in cash upfront and I want expenses.”

“Anything else you needs?” Hudson said. He couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

If Williams heard it, and there was no doubt he did, he didn’t choose to pay any attention to it.

“With expenses there’s a lot of stuff I can get myself. A hotel room, a shower, new clothes, a shave, a car.”

“Expenses, Lenny. We’re not crowdfunding your new executive lifestyle.”

“You’re going to fund something. I’m not waiting around in this place any longer than I have to. Also, I need to be ready to go soon as you find these people. Which means I need a car and I need decent clothes so I can blend in.”

“You have decent clothes. Those clothes are decent.” Hudson pointed out.

“Would you wear them?”

“That isn’t the point, Lenny.”

“I’ll need a phone as well.”

“Maybe you’d like a laptop computer as well while we’re at it?”

“No, but it might be worth getting me a tablet.” Williams said, taking Hudson seriously. “That’s the trouble with you civilians. You have no idea about the logistics of any military operation. Why do you think the British Army is in the mess it’s in today? Lack of investment.”

“OK, Lenny, Ok. I’ll see what I can do about expenses.”

“Fine, but I do nothing until the first payment. Sanford and Harris could have gay sex right in front of me and I wouldn’t do anything until I get paid.” He paused, “Which reminds me. I need something else.”

“Something cheap, I hope.”

Williams grinned at him, “Yeah, you might say that. I want a woman.”