Beyond the Rage (26 page)

50

‘You are fucking kidding me?’ Kenny demanded and jumped to his feet.

‘Why? What? Why are you so...?’ Peter’s expression widened in alarm. ‘You know him, don’t you? The fucker’s worked his way into your life.’

‘Matty the Hut.’

Kenny wanted to kick something. He wanted to tear Matthew King apart with his bare hands. He walked a pace. Spun. Took another step. Fury surged through him, threatened to blind him with its force.

‘I need to get home,’ said Peter. ‘I couldn’t bear it if...’

‘No,’ said Kenny. ‘The time for running from this man is over. We deal with him now. Once and for all.’ All the times he had met with King; all the conversations they had ran through his mind.

‘I don’t get it,’ Kenny said. ‘Why the broken arm? Why the thing with the prostitutes?’ He had an image of Alexis’ mother lying in a pool of blood. His thoughts ran into the wall of realisation. ‘Fuck me, but he’s a clever bastard.’

‘What?’

Kenny told him about his mission of mercy down to Dumfriesshire. How there was a body but it never appeared in any news programme or the body didn’t turn up in any hospital. ‘The whole thing was staged.’ His head turned this way and that. ‘Why so elaborate? Why is he going to all these lengths? Why not just murder me?’

‘Where’s the fun in that?’ Peter said. ‘Nobody held a grudge like Matt King. And now he’s waited eighteen years for this moment. You don’t savour that and then end it in the flash of a gun.’ Peter placed his hand on Kenny’s shoulder as if willing him to calm down. ‘He knows your weaknesses and your strengths. He knows you better than you know yourself.’

‘Like hell he does.’

‘Here’s what he really wants: me. He thinks it was me who returned the gun. If it had gone back to the hotel that would have been manageable, but he thinks I was playing him at his own devious game by sending it to his home. Cos that’s what he would do. The whole event with his son played out just the way he would have hoped one of his plans might have. That’s why this is all so over the top.

‘Here’s what he was thinking.’ Peter held up his hand and counted off his points on his fingers. ‘He needs to manipulate you into looking for me. He knows you are the only one I would react to. But he also knows how capable you are of defending yourself so he needs to distract you on a couple of levels. He knows you have a weakness for hookers. In pops Alexis. He knows that you have a brain on you, so he needs to manipulate your emotions, keep the distractions piling up. So he puts this woman through all sorts of shit knowing you’ll do your knight-on-a-white-horse thing and come to the rescue...’

‘...and he’s seen me fighting so he knows I need to be limited in some way to make me more manageable, but not so much that I can’t get around.’ Kenny exhaled, loud and sharp. ‘There’s people around who are
that
devious?’

‘Oh, the Kings were masters at all this shit. You’ve just got to remember what he did to your poor mother.’

‘My God,’ said Kenny and shivered. ‘I was upstairs sleeping. He could easily have done whatever he wanted with me. Mum knew that and saw she had no option. Save my life by killing herself.’

‘Kenny, son.’ Peter held him by the shoulders. ‘I need to make sure the kids are safe.’

‘They’re only going to be safe if we end this now. Today.’

‘But...’

‘But nothing. Are you not fed up running?’

‘Aye, but that’s how clever he is, he knows how to threaten us with the loss of the things we care about.’

‘Right. While you’re still here, the kids are safe. The minute you go back home, he’ll track you and find them. Then it’s–’

‘Jesus, you’re right. If I go back home, I’ll lead him straight to them.’

‘So we stay. We find him and we finish this.’

Peter swallowed and nodded. And thought of something.

‘King’s been talking to you recently?’

‘Shit. Yes. I was at a low point the other day. We chatted down at the gym. Can’t remember what I told him, to be honest.’

‘You didn’t know about me at that point, so that’s fine. What did you know?’

‘Not hellish much...’ Kenny grimaced. ‘But I did tell him about Aunt Vi.’

‘What about her?’

‘How she was ill in hospital and how she was sure she was dying. Oh fuck…’ – Kenny rubbed his face – ‘And how she confessed to me that Ian was your son. If that’s not enough, I also told him about Vi saying they killed the wrong woman.’ Kenny stamped on the ground. ‘Man, I’ve been so stupid.’

‘That’s where he’s going next.’

They both said her name at the same time.

‘Vi.’

51

In the car and they’re driving across to the hospital. Kenny’s phone rang three times. Each time he read the display and cut the connection. He couldn’t deal with Alexis right now. She had a part to play in all this and he couldn’t quite work out if she was as much of a victim as he was or if she was in any way complicit.

‘It’s the prostitute,’ he told his father.

‘Don’t be too harsh on her,’ said Peter. ‘She would have had something that King could use against her.’

Kenny said nothing, simply focusing on the road ahead. They were hitting the last of the rush-hour traffic, but it all seemed to be heading in the same direction as they were.

He tucked the car in behind a 4x4 and then aimed at the slip-road for the Clyde Tunnel. He resisted the urge to drive too fast. It would draw the wrong attention and stop him from getting where he needed to be.

‘Fucking put your foot down, Missus,’ Kenny shouted at a car in front. ‘Jeez, it’s like they’re out for a wee stroll. It’s the fucking city. There’s nothing to see.’

‘God, I’ve not been through here in years,’ said Peter as the car entered the tunnel and the strip of lights on the roof led them into a brief darkness.

‘You were never tempted to come back to the big smoke?’

‘Apart from a couple of times when you were a teenager, I avoided the place. Didn’t want to give King and his clan an excuse.’

‘You think we’re facing more than King?’

‘I
’d
be surprised if he was doing this all on his own. He’s bound to have at least one sidekick. He’ll not have too many. From what I understand he’s gone for an air of respectability. It wouldn’t do to be surrounded by a gang of thick-necked thugs.’

‘His main weapon is a guy called Mason Budge. He’s the guy who seems to enforce King’s will and from what I hear he’s created a real aura of fear about himself.’

‘What kind of name is that? Mason Budge.’

The gates of the hospital were visible just ahead. The traffic lights were at red. Kenny drummed at the steering wheel.

‘Is there anyone you could phone to warn?’ asked Peter.

‘Nah, Colin fucking hates me. Ian will be high on hash and if I tell the nurses a psychotic killer is about to turn up, they’ll be waiting for me with a straitjacket.’

The light changed and they were through. The drove through the hospital grounds, Kenny anxious to drive faster but knowing the danger that might put them in. At last they arrived at the right part of the vast hospital grounds, found a parking space and ran into the building.

Colin was sitting in the waiting room round the corner from Vi’s room. He was staring at the pages of a magazine, not seeing anything when Kenny and Peter appeared.

The urgency of their movement made him stand up.

‘What are you doing here, Kenny?’ he asked. ‘And why are you bringing a...?’ Colin looked at Peter and after a moment of confusion, recognition struck. ‘Pete? What the...?’

‘We can do the friends re-united thing in a moment. How’s Vi?’

‘What do you mean?’ Colin looked from one to the other. ‘He’s no friend... what do you mean, how’s Vi?’

‘Who’s with her?’

‘I was until minutes ago. A doctor came in. Nice young guy. New...’

Kenny didn’t wait until Colin finished; he turned and ran towards the room. He burst through the door to see a man in a white coat leaning over the bed. It took a moment for the sense of the scene to hit him. The man was holding a pillow over his aunt’s face.

He roared and charged forward. The man stepped away from the bed, read Kenny’s lunge and ran round the other side of the bed. The man was grinning and this infuriated Kenny. He heard Peter and Colin arrive just behind him.

Budge noted the numbers were no longer in his favour and he charged at Kenny. He didn’t go for his head, or throat; he went for his arm. The cast took the blow, but the pain was immense. Kenny groaned. That moment was enough for Budge. He ran at Peter with his shoulder and thrust him against the wall and then easily stepped aside from Colin’s clumsy attack. In a heartbeat, he was out the door and down the corridor and through the double doors.

Kenny recovered from the pain, stepped over his uncle, ran out of the room and looked down the corridor. Nothing.

‘Nurse,’ he shouted at the Station. ‘Phone the police. Someone has just tried to murder my aunt.’

The nurse looked up from her paperwork, locked into stupidity by the apparent absurdity of Kenny’s shouts.

‘Now. Police. There’s a murderer in this hospital.’

‘Right, right.’ The nurse picked up the phone in front of her and dialled a number.

‘And get someone in here, pronto. Someone just tried to suffocate...’

‘Kenny, Kenny,’ he heard his uncle speak. ‘It’s okay.’

‘I’m okay, son,’ Vi’s voice sounded just behind his uncle. Kenny turned and stepped back into the room. Vi was leaning back on her pillows, stretching her hand out to take his. ‘You were just in time.’ She then looked at Peter and the recognition was instant.

His father was standing in the middle of the room, looking bewildered. Three people he
’d
spent the last eighteen years hiding from were within touching distance and he didn’t know quite where to put himself.

‘Pete?’ asked Vi in a shaky voice.

‘Hello, Vi,’ Peter said. ‘Seems like you’ve been in the wars.’ Peter didn’t know where to look, or what to say. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and managed to look like a schoolboy in front of the headmaster’s office, despite the grey in his long hair and his beard.

‘Is it really you, Pete?’

‘Aye,’ he said. ‘It’s me.’

‘Aye and you can bloody piss off again,’ shouted Colin, ‘...back under the stone you crawled from.’

‘Colin.’ Vi reached out her hand for her husband’s. ‘We’re all a lot older and a lot wiser than we were in those days.’ She grabbed her husband’s hand and held on tight. With this small gesture, she was telling him he had nothing to worry about. She was his. Completely.

‘You’re looking remarkably well for someone who’s just had an attempt on their life, Aunt Vi,’ said Kenny, moving closer to the bed and taking a hold of his aunt’s other hand. He leaned forward and planted a kiss on the paper of her cheek.

‘Goodness,’ she cried. ‘What’s been happening to you?’

Kenny held up his arm. ‘Och, you know. Walked into a door.’

‘Aye, and if I’m not mistaken, that door just tried to murder my wife.’

‘Colin, you can massage your male pride some other time, ya daft lump.’

‘After all you’ve been through, darling,’ said Colin.

‘Aye, I’ve not had so much attention for years,’ said Vi. She was smiling but Kenny could see it was through the strain of the last few moments. She felt that she had to hold it together for her husband.

‘You’re alright, Vi?’ asked Peter. ‘You don’t need us to get a nurse for you?’

‘Goodness, no,’ said Vi. ‘But a wee cup of tea after all that excitement would be worth it.’ She looked at her husband. ‘Darling, would you mind?’

Colin looked from his wife to Kenny and then to Peter.

‘Please, Colin?’

‘Aye. Okay,’ said Colin. ‘But you two can forget it if you think I’m getting you anything.’ Pride restored in Colin Land, he left the room. Only then did Vi allow the trauma of what she
’d
just experienced to show. Her hand shook badly as she placed it in front of her mouth.

‘Oh my God,’ she said. ‘That man was trying to kill me, wasn’t he?’

‘Yes, but you’re safe now,’ said Kenny.

She breathed deeply, exhaled slowly, closed her eyes. A tear squeezed out from behind one eyelid.

‘It’s okay, Vi,’ said Peter. ‘You’re safe now.’

‘I’m not worried about me,’ she said and smiled through her tears. ‘I’ve faced dying so much in the last few weeks it no longer scares me. It’s you two I’m worried about.’

‘Don’t know what you’re talking about, Aunt Vi,’ Kenny laughed.

‘Don’t treat me like a fool, Kenny son,’ she said, patting his hand. ‘I remember those days all too vividly.’ She looked at Peter. ‘It’s come back to bite us, hasn’t it?’

Peter nodded.

Vi looked away from them both and out of the window at a sky dark with greys. Her eyes were haunted, chasing ghosts before her vision returned to the room and the two men. She looked from one to the other before settling on Peter.

‘You have a family now?’ she asked and judging by her expression it was a guess.

Peter nodded.

‘Did you find happiness?’ Vi asked and Kenny thought she
’d
never looked more at peace.

Again, Peter nodded.

‘Good. I’m pleased,’ she swallowed as if drawing steel to her spine. And again she looked at Kenny and back to Peter, her eyes full of tenderness. ‘Because now I’m going to ask you to put everything you hold dear at risk, Peter, and end this. Once and for all.’

52

There were twelve steep stone steps up to the hotel entrance. An ornate steel railing was positioned either side of the steps. That’s to offer any drunks a wee hand as they leave the hotel bar, thought Kenny. Give themselves something to hold on to as they leave after they
’d
spent the last of their wages.

It was the kind of place, he thought, that should have had a sign above the door that read only those in the early stages of cirrhosis need walk through here. The hotel itself was part of a long row of sandstone tenement houses, bordering Queens Park and built by the Victorians.

They
’d
be birling in their graves, thought Kenny, when he walked up to the purple wooden door into the hotel, with his father by his side. In those days this would have been a hotel for middle-class families, taking time out from the strains of village life and seeking the bright lights of one of the biggest cities in the British Empire.

Nowadays it was nothing better than a doss-house for alcoholics and addicts reliant on the welfare system to give them a roof and a bed.

Before they walked in the door, Peter put a restraining hand on his son’s arm.

‘Are you prepared to do what we need to do in here?’ he asked.

Kenny nodded. His face set on grim. He didn’t have a weapon on him, but he knew how to kill a man with his bare hands. Fuck, he thought. How casually the thought worked through his mind, but he knew he had no other choice. A warning wouldn’t work for this guy. Nor would a jail sentence; he
’d
simply pay someone else to carry on the vendetta for him. There was only one way this was going to end. Matty the Hut’s funeral service.

‘You?’ he asked. ‘You ever killed anyone?’

Peter stared at Kenny, emotion worked at the muscles along his jaw. ‘I
’d
rather not answer that question, son.’

In through the door and a small desk, no wider than a child might sit at, acted as a reception area. Kenny doubted if it was ever manned. To the left of this, a set of double doors led into a room with the ambitious title above the door of
Lounge
. If ever anyone attempted to lounge beyond those doors, their wallet would be emptied and their teeth spread across the sticky, carpeted floor.

The walls around the room were panelled with Formica to the halfway point, where a cream paint took over. Here and there, sporting trophies were hung on the walls along with some sponsored adverts from brewers.

Only one other man was in the room. He was leaning against the bar, wearing black jeans, a black T-shirt and, in stark contrast with what you
’d
expect in a place like this, he was pink with health.

‘Fuck me,’ he said with a huge smile. ‘If it isn’t Peter O’Neill.’

‘Matthew,’ Peter nodded, moving closer to the man. Kenny looked at his father from the corner of his eyes and thought, yes, he looks ready.

‘Kenny,’ said Matthew. ‘How’s the arm?’

‘Fuck you,’ said Kenny.

‘No need for profanity, son.’

‘And yet again, fuck you.’

Matthew simply smiled. ‘I take it you two have now been re-united? You can thank me for that, Peter.’ A shadow flitted across his face. ‘At least you have a son to be re-united with.’

‘You expect sympathy? After everything you’ve done?’ asked Peter.

‘I expect nothing, Pete. I asked for loyalty from you all those years ago. Remember? I could have made you rich beyond your wildest. You were nothing,’ he spat. ‘I gave you prestige, money and you play a horrible–’

‘What happened, Matt, was an accident. A tragic accident.’ Peter’s view was locked on King. Kenny stepped further into the room and looked around. There was just the one door. The only other way out was through the window. Slowly, so as not to alarm King, he walked away from the door and positioned himself so that he could see all of the occupants of the room and he
’d
notice as soon as anyone else entered. To disguise his movement, he picked up a beer mat from a table.

‘Look, Pops,’ Kenny said, ‘Stella Artois. Those wanky beers get everywhere.’

King smiled at Kenny as if to say his attempt to wind him up was juvenile.

‘No, Peter,’ he said. ‘Here’s what happened, you devious fucker…’ And for the first time since they entered the bar King displayed some real emotion. He recognised this and visibly restrained himself. ‘You were afraid that by turning down my gun and that particular contract...’ He faced Kenny. ‘Sorry, how rude of me, Kenny. I should explain your dad did certain jobs for me. Where lessons needed to be learned.’ Kenny looked at Peter, whose face was white, lips drawn tight and fists clenched by his side. ‘Your dad was quite the nasty individual in those days, Kenny.’

‘And what you need to know, Matt, is that particular apple didn’t fall too far from the tree,’ Kenny replied.

‘Don’t make me laugh,’ said King. ‘Sure you can fight, but you’re a pussy. You couldn’t really hurt someone if your life depended on it.’

With an effort, Kenny managed to bite back his response. This was not going to be about his ego. Let King carry on thinking whatever he wanted.

Satisfied he had Kenny in his pigeonhole, King turned to Peter.

‘Giving my son the gun and letting him think it was a toy...’ King shook his head. ‘Tut, tut.’ His face was twisted with something so complex that labels like hate were inadequate. He had spent almost two decades in a state somewhere beyond rage and only now was he close to the revenge he sought. ‘I’ve spent so many days thinking of this moment. You, Kenny, you took such a long time to grow up. Life is full of frustrations, eh?’ His grin was bright with an insane light. ‘But you had to be of a certain position in life for my plan to work. Too young and I just couldn’t rely on you reacting the way I wanted.’ He clapped his hands. ‘I should have been a film director. Or…’ He paused. ‘Imagine what I could do with something like
Big Brother
.’

‘Cut the theatrics, Matt,’ said Peter. ‘You’re not crazy. At least not in the accepted version of the word. What do you want? What is it going to take to make this all stop?’

‘Your mum was a lovely woman, Kenny. You were up in your bed. Tucked up in your Action Man quilt. You should know how brave your mum was. She didn’t want her son to die...’

‘You bastard,’ Peter lunged forward. Kenny held his hand out, grabbed his father’s arm and restrained him. He knew King wanted to get them riled up. Angry men don’t fight so well. While King continued to speak, Kenny studied him. He well knew that Matty the Hut could look after himself, but that didn’t explain the man’s confidence. He was in a bar on his own with two men he knew were more than capable of hurting him. What was the game plan? When were the paid mercenaries going to troop in?

King was still speaking. ‘You want it to stop, Pete? You watch as your son hangs from a noose made from a selection of school clothes. Arrange that and then it can stop.’ King turned to Kenny and clapped his hands. One, two, three times. ‘Do you know every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies?’ King chuckled. ‘Bono is such a wanker.’

‘Do you know, I think he is crazy, Dad,’ Kenny deliberately used the title. He wanted King to worry that despite his best efforts the two men were reconciled. ‘Carrying a vendetta for so long has got to twist a man.’

‘I’ll tell you what’s twisted,’ said King. ‘You’re thirty now and you’ve yet to have a proper relationship. You
’d
rather pay for it than earn it the hard way. Through love, respect and affection.’

Kenny laughed. ‘Morality lessons from a man like you, King. You are fucking crazy.’

‘How’s your little whore?’ King asked. ‘Think her bodyguard is keeping her safe?’

‘Cool. You got her.’ Kenny feigned disinterest. ‘Well, that’s one less worry on my mind. Since I worked out your fucked-up little plan and her part in it, I’ve been wondering how to ditch her. I take it you got Mason Budge to do the needful?’

Kenny’s use of the name surprised King. ‘You are a resourceful lad.’ To Peter. ‘You should be proud of the boy. While you still have the time.’

‘You have to go through me to hurt him,’ said Peter.

King stepped away from the bar. ‘Happy to.’

‘Now wait a minute, children,’ said Kenny. He was not keen for the action to start until he had a better idea of what King’s game plan was. ‘Step back from the nice man, Matt. Let’s talk. Is there anyway we can sort this out without resorting to violence?’

‘Told you he was a pussy,’ said King. His arms and shoulders all but trembled with anticipation at the violence he planned. ‘In case you hadn’t realised I’m taking a biblical stance on all of this. Eye for an eye, wife and son for a wife and son. Or even...’ –King’s smile was as bright as a candle. He
’d
been waiting to reveal just how much he now knew – ‘…a wife, a lover and two sons.’

Peter and Kenny exchanged glances. King still didn’t seem to know about the family up in Balquidder. It needed to stay that way.

King clapped his hands. Once. Twice. Three times. ‘Every time I clap my hands a child in Africa dies,’ said King while making a face that said,
Who the fuck cares?

That’s it, thought Kenny. That’s the signal.

He moved quickly to the door, which meant he was behind Peter, but that would have to be okay and just as he got into position to the side of the door a man walked in.

Budge.

‘I hope you didn’t start the party without me, Matthew,’ Budge said. He was standing ready for everything, weight balanced perfectly on each foot. He was speaking to Peter’s back and couldn’t quite see King’s face and missed any warning that he might have given.

Kenny knew there was no time for banter with this guy. Long and short of it, Budge was a killer.

Kenny attacked.