Broken (33 page)

The room was full of naked women and girls. He looked them over expertly before accepting a drink from a small dapper grey-haired man in his sixties wearing a Versace suit.

Boris sipped at the vodka then said, ‘Is this the whole consignment?’

The other man cleared his throat noisily before answering.

‘Nah, the others were a bit ropey so I gave them to Christy. He’s taking them over to Paddington. They can’t speak much English either so they’re better off out of it really until they can. I have this lot’s passports and everything. They won’t be any trouble. Sergei explained the score and most of them seemed like they expected it.

‘No shrinking violets among them anyway,’ he assured Boris. ‘The tall redhead gave me a blowjob earlier and it was professionally done. With her skin and hair she’ll make a small fortune. The Chinks like the reds, they do, and the blondes. Natural, though, which she is. The black-haired one with the big eyes is a bit of a fucker. Wouldn’t trust her too far. Needs a hiding, I reckon, and she’ll get one and all. But she’s well-stacked and some men like a fight, don’t they?’

He laughed at his own wit. The girls watched him warily.

‘A couple of days without clothes will sort out the hardest cases. Usually does. I have a crew coming in later to service them so I’ll be able to sort the wheat from the chaff, like. But I reckon we have a few good earners here.’

Boris looked them over individually. His eyes settled on a tiny blonde with a hand-span waist and big blue eyes.

‘Bring her over to me tonight.’

The man nodded. ‘Okey doke. But don’t let Sergei have her, will you? He marks them and it takes days before we can shunt the fuckers out again. The last one needed eight stitches, Boris, and it’s a pain getting in a bent doctor and all the rest of it. We don’t need the fucking publicity.’

‘I’ll have a word with him, but you know what he’s like. Each to his own.’

‘True. But I can’t abide the hag personally. I think they get a raw enough deal as it is, mate, without him launching himself at them. Not only that, they can’t earn and that’s the whole idea of the poor little mares being here in the first place. We’ve got over a quarter a million a year in this room. You can smell their muffs when it’s hot. Make you throw up, some of them. The two dark ones sitting on the couch are at each other all the time. I reckon we could get a live show out of them and they’d enjoy it and all. That always brings in money. Punters can tell after a while when it’s acted, and a real live show gives them the edge. Makes them spend more.’

‘Where are they to go?’

The other man shrugged.

‘I thought I’d put them in flats with established pros. They’ll soon learn the ropes - they ain’t stupid. I promised them they would pay off all they owe in two years. That gives them a goal, like. I tell them all sorts to get them working. But after a few years they’re no good any more anyway. They lose that fresh look, start looking like whores if you know what I mean.’

Boris nodded. ‘You have done well, Geoff. Where are the others going in Paddington?’

‘Plain flats - you know, the cheaper end of the market - and a few will be taxied around the smoke, like. Bit ropey, as I said, but all right for what we want. A couple can go in the parlours. Beverley will train them up for a drink. So we didn’t get a bad batch really. I’ve had better, and I’ve had worse, to be honest.’

The girls were watching the men dull-eyed. They knew what was being said even if they couldn’t understand the language. Boris stared at them all again and they dropped their eyes under his penetrating gaze.

‘Send the little one over and I’ll speak to you in the week, OK?’

‘Fair enough. Before I forget, did Sergei tell you about Julie?’

‘What about her?’

‘She had full-blown AIDS. One of the guys disposed of her Saturday. Her body won’t be found - she was crushed in a breaker’s in North London. He shoved her in the boot of a car. But we need someone to take over the parlour in Canning Town. I thought we could give the job to Amanda. She’s pretty bright and already running the place.’

‘Was Julie still working?’

‘Oh, yeah, she didn’t really look ill for ages. Then she started to look right fucking rough. I hate to think of the number of men she gave it to. But, as she said, if they wanted it with her, they had to take her as she was. Always had a sense of humour, right up to the end. But we had to nut her, she knew too much. Took it well by all accounts. I reckon she was probably glad to go, don’t you?’

Boris shrugged, bored by the conversation. ‘Bring me the girl later.’

He was humming as he got back into his car. A young girl walked past. She had long brown hair and a wiggle in her walk. He watched her in the wing mirror and smiled. He liked the young girls in England. They had a confidence about them that was attractive. He knew they all had an eye to the main chance and that intrigued him. Money was power in this country. Most people were willing to do literally anything to get it.

It amazed him.

He knew the girl had looked at him and toyed with the idea of driving after her and talking to her. But he couldn’t be bothered. There were plenty more like her around if you knew where to look.

Jimmy Pierce was scared. He knew that Jacky Gunner and Joey Partridge were on the missing list and daren’t tell Boris who would go ballistic.

He sipped at his Scotch, trying to make it last. He knew he should not be drinking but was so terrified he needed something to ease his nerves.

His wife looked at him through the serving hatch from the kitchen. She knew that something was wrong but couldn’t get a word out of him.

‘Have another, mate. Keep drinking,’ she said sarcastically.

‘Shut up, Shirl, you’re getting on me tits.’

‘Ooh, pardon me for breathing.’

Her sarcasm was lost on him as he drank and worried.

‘Me mother’s coming later. I hope you bleeding well cheer up before she arrives. You know what she’s like - suss out anything her, and keep at you till you tell her everything she wants to know. Missed her vocation she did. Should have been Old Bill.’

When he didn’t answer her with his usual disgusting comments about her mother she knew that it was serious. She walked through to the dining room where he sat at the table steadily drinking.

‘Come on, Jim, what’s the score? Should I be worried for the kids?’

He looked into her eyes. ‘I’ve fucked up, Shirl. Big time.’

She sighed, looked down on to the balding head of her husband and said gently, ‘What you done, mate? Tell me and we’ll see if we can come up with something. Have you been gambling again?’

He tossed back his drink. ‘Oh, that’s you all over, ain’t it, Shirl? Fucking blame me.’

She closed her eyes and said through her teeth, ‘Well, unless you spill your bleeding guts, Jim, I can only assume that’s it, can’t I?’

‘Where are the kids?’

‘They’re all out - why? Here, have you got another bird pregnant again? Only if you have I’ll fucking have you spayed, Jimmy, I mean it. You can go in the vet’s with the bleeding cat.’

He pushed her hard in the chest, nearly knocking her to the floor. ‘No, Shirl, it ain’t nothing like that. This is serious hag.’

‘Any more little whores on my doorstep and I’ll show you what serious hag really is, mate. Our Sharon was disgusted last time.’

‘Fuck Sharon.’ He was quiet for a second, then grabbing his wife’s hand he pulled her through the house and outside to the garage. Inside he locked the door and said to her gently, ‘Don’t scream - all right?’

She nodded reluctantly. Her skin was crawling and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know what was going on now. He opened the boot of his car and gestured for her to look inside.

Shirley walked cautiously around the black Mercedes, the hairs beginning to stand up on her neck and arms. She looked into the boot and as she opened her mouth to scream her husband put one large meaty hand across her mouth.

‘It’s Tommy Broughton, dead and in the boot of my car, and I don’t know how long he’s been there but by the smell he’s been dead a few days. Gunner and Partridge were at a safe house in Rettenden and they’ve gone on the missing list somehow. Boris the Russian is going to torture me and laugh while he does it if I can’t tell him where everyone is once he realises they’ve gone.
That
is what is wrong with me, Shirl. Now, what dazzling ideas can you come up with this time to get me out of the shit?’

She knocked his hand away with all the strength she could muster.

‘You ungrateful bastard! You bring home a dead body and expect me to take this kind of shit as usual. Well, boy, you take Tommy and you get rid of him. I don’t want him near my children. Then I’ll tell you what to do next, shall I? You, Jim, can fuck off out of it until you have sorted everything out. And if I don’t see you ever again, quite frankly after this little lot it will be too soon.’

He pulled her into his arms. ‘Oh, don’t be like that, Shirl, I’ve got a lot on me mind.’

She rolled her eyes at the ceiling and for the millionth time wondered what the hell she had ever seen in this man she had married.

‘You drive the car to Binky’s yard for me. I’ll follow on in a cab, OK?’

She blinked her eyes at him. ‘Why have
I
got to drive there?’

‘ ’Cos the Old Bill don’t hassle you, do they, love? I’ll have to get it trashed and then report it stolen, like. That way at least we get the insurance.’

‘Who do you think killed poor old Tommy?’ Her eyes were once more drawn to the body in the boot. ‘It wasn’t you, Jimmy, was it? Promise me?’

‘Why would I kill Tommy? I was doing a fucking right saucy scam with him, woman. Use your bleeding loaf. Kelly’s topped him, ain’t he? He’d obviously found out what was going on.’

‘But Kelly’s in hospital - he was shot.’

Jimmy rolled his eyes. ‘Well, smell Tommy. He’s as high as a kite, love. Been dead ages. Look at him, for fuck’s sake. He’s green. Look, he’s even got mould on his boat.’

‘No, thank you. I will take your word for it. Now shut the boot up, it’s horrible.’

He slammed it shut.

‘Well, will you drive over to Binky’s or not?’ he demanded.

She nodded. ‘ ’Course I will, but you owe me one for this, you fucker.’

He hugged her. ‘You are a good old sort, Shirl. Salt of the earth you are.’

She frowned. ‘Not so much of the fucking old, if you don’t mind.’

They smiled at one another, on the same wave-length as usual.

‘Here, wait till Sharon gets in, I have to drop her at East Ham anyway, she’s going round her bloke’s. I can drop her and Tommy off at the same time, eh?’

Her husband smiled. ‘Fair enough. Now all I have to do is try and locate the other two and I’m back in the ball game.’

‘See, Jim? A trouble shared is a trouble halved.’

‘We’ll see, girl, we’ll see.’

 

Binky looked at the Merc and tutted. He hated having to trash the nice motors, so if possible he didn’t - though he never told the original owners that.

After waving off Shirley Pierce he had looked the car over properly. It was a beauty. He had then made a few calls and a potential buyer was standing beside him at this very minute.

‘What do you reckon then?’ Binky asked.

‘Nice motor, good mileage. I could ring it in a few days. How much you looking at for it? And more to the point, who owned it?’

Binky grinned, his little eyes almost disappearing into his fleshy face.

‘You’re getting a right nosy fucker, Simon, and no mistake. What does it matter who owned it?’

Simon shrugged his skinny shoulders. At nineteen he was at the top of his profession and he knew it. He could take a prestige car from anywhere in under a minute. No alarms could beat him, he was a natural born car thief. And unlike most boys his age he made a point of making money, serious money, out of his talent.

‘I like to know its previous in case it ends up going back to them. I had a case like that before and it caused untold hag, mate. Whoever wanted this crushed had a reason, and I want to know what the reason was.’

He was serious now and the fat car dealer sighed noisily.

‘A mate wanted it crushed for the insurance. As long as the bleeding thing disappears he’s happy. You’ll have to break in, though. He took the keys.’

The youth sniggered. ‘He’d got your number, then. Didn’t trust you, did he?’

Binky laughed but didn’t answer. In fact, Shirley had told him that if the car didn’t disappear tonight, he would in its place. But he wasn’t too bothered by threats like that. Once Simon had it, it was as good as crushed. It would end up abroad more than likely. It was, after all, a brand new motor.

‘Let me have a butcher’s inside then.’

He popped the locks in twenty-five seconds. Binky was well impressed.

‘You are good, Si, I can’t take that away from you.’