Dead Pretty (19 page)

After a few minutes Carl skirted Mark's estate and headed for the hill road. He slowed down, taking the old Merc down to third and just gliding it to the edge of the trees which fringed each side of the road. Ahead was a few hundred yards of open road, and the church. The Mercedes was parked outside, but he couldn't see into the churchyard. From this angle its surrounding wall blocked any view. Carl stopped the car and let it idle. He was barely conscious and there was a numbing sensation spreading up through his arm to his face. It was in his cheek now, which felt like he'd had a shot off the dentist. He tried to flex his arm but it wouldn't obey him.

Carl waited. Surely nothing would happen in such an open place, Christ, there was a pub not far down the road. This was all so unreal, but then everything had been, since Julie's son knocked on the bloody door.

The Mercedes had the sun behind it when it came into the open. It stopped on the brow of the hill above the church, then left the cover of the trees and came on slowly towards the church.

Mark wanted to scream, to let everything out, as if it might give him a solution. It was a ridiculous thought but the need came on him strongly. He'd seen a film with Lena once. He remembered it because it was the first time he'd ever gone to the cinema, as an adult. It had always been video crap in the house when he was a kid. Julie took him to see
Snow White
once, but even at the age of seven that was something from another world, and it had bored him rigid. Lena liked old stuff, classics, she called them. With her, he'd sat through something about Germany before the war, lots of dancing, singing, and poofs prancing about in nightclubs. There was a woman in that, who liked to scream under railway bridges when a train passed overhead. He hadn't understood that scene then, but he did now. All that woman's rage and frustration was being pumped out. She felt better afterwards. Something bad was gone from her. That was just a film, but this sudden urge was shaping up his jaw as the black car stopped outside the church.

Angelo and the big man got out of the car. They were dressed in city overcoats, which meant they couldn't move very fast. Not that they had to. They had Julie. They'd killed Carl. All the power was theirs. The big man had his arm around his mother, it was almost an affectionate hold, but Julie squirmed like a kid. She looked tiny and ashen-faced. Mark had done it to her again. Perhaps they'd both been slowly dying since that day Shane vanished. Perhaps that was what the need to scream was all about. All that lay within exposed to the world in one, long, desperate shout.

Angelo pushed open the iron gate of the churchyard. It creaked, emphasising the still quiet that was around them. Mark saw the hawk head swiftly away down the valley. You're not dull, mate, he thought. Mark stood up by the tall headstone of the dead teacher and Angelo saw him. He approached Mark, the big man staying back with Julie.

‘So, Mr Mark Richards. Here we are again.'

Mark didn't answer at first. Each man studied the other. Mark saw Kelly, hurtling through space, a lifetime's booze washed out of him in a second. Hitting concrete. His hand tightened on the Smith and Wesson in his right-hand pocket. Angelo glanced towards it.

‘That would be stupid.'

‘Let my mother go.'

‘Can I come closer? We can talk.'

Angelo shouted something to the big man.

‘I tell him to keep your mother safe, not to harm her. Unless, of course, you
are
stupid.'

‘That's close enough,' Mark said.

‘Okay, I'll sit here.'

Angelo brushed leaves from an elaborate marble gravestone, long since fallen to the ground.

‘What is this language?' he murmured. ‘Not English.'

‘What have you done to Carl?' Mark said.

‘It was unfortunate. Sometimes people get in the way. If he hadn't tried to take your mother away it might have been different.'

‘No, it wouldn't have.'

Angelo smiled. The same thin smile Agani had used, one which didn't reveal any teeth.

‘Maybe not. It's business, no? I've said this to you before. Such a pity you shot Agani. You should have accepted things. Got on with your life.'

Mark nodded towards Julie. ‘Let her go.'

‘Maybe, maybe.' Angelo patted his pocket. ‘Can I get a cigarette?'

Mark nodded. Better for Angelo to occupy his hands this way.

‘There was no need for that bastard to kill Lena. He didn't gain anything from it. That's not
business.
'

‘You have me there, Mark. I agree. But Stellachi is Stellachi. How do you say it in English   a law to himself.' Angelo sighed. ‘My English is good now. My mother would be so proud. She's still alive, you know. Eighty-three. I send her things.'

‘Let her go and I'll come with you. Let her walk down to that pub.'

‘Mark, Mark. How can I? What I say to you is, give me your weapon and get into the car with us. We can talk there, not out in the open like this, in this place of the dead.'

‘I thought it was the perfect spot.'

‘I like your style, man. We could use someone like you. You'd fit in well. Agani was annoying too many people, his death might be forgiven. You have balls, Mark.'

He was being fed a crock of shit but Mark decided to go with it. Angelo was used to dealing with stupid people, with stupid values and stupid lives.

‘Come on, Mark. Give me your gun. Give me both your guns.'

‘I only have one. I gave the other to Carl.'

Angelo pulled hard on his smoke.

‘Oh, I am forgetting my manners. Do you want one?'

Mark shook his head.

‘Which gun do you have, you say?'

‘The 38.'

‘Put it down then   there.'

Angelo pointed to a spot between them. ‘That gun behaves, it is from the old days. Automatics are unpredictable.'

Angelo shouted something else to the big man, who put a pistol to the back of Julie's head. It was dull black but the sun still caught it, and displayed it to Mark. Anyone out for a walk on the old hill road would get the sight of their life. And the fright.

‘No tricks now, Mark. Just place it on the ground.'

The gun did not want to leave Mark's hand. He felt it declaring an ownership. If this was Hollywood he'd drill the big man between the eyes before he could react then down Angelo as he struggled to free his own gun from his coat. Then wrap up Julie in his arms and get her away. Carl wouldn't be dead, and Shane would come back, a clean-cut teenager who'd escaped to a better life. If this was Hollywood. Mark wasn't sure if he could even hit Angelo and he was just feet away from him.

Mark put the gun down.

‘Now kick it away.'

Mark did. It slid into the long grass like a snake.

‘Good, good.'

The big man put his own gun away but kept a brawny arm around Julie's neck. Anyone passing would think it was an awkward embrace.

‘Lean against that headstone,' Angelo said. ‘Come on, Mark, we're almost there. You are still alive, and so is Shulie. Angelo kicked Mark's legs further apart, police style, and searched him for the other gun. Mark sensed his wariness. Angelo knows Carl never had that automatic, but he can't find it on me, he thought. He's worried about that.

‘So,' Angelo said, ‘you are clean. If your friend did have the other gun it didn't help him much, did it? Guns are overrated. They cause too much trouble, you know that now, eh?'

‘I always knew it.'

Angelo looked around quickly, then hit Mark hard into his rib cage. He didn't see it coming and was badly winded, dropping onto one knee for a moment.

‘You take a pretty good shot,' Angelo said. ‘That's for what happened in London.'

Mark heard Julie shout out something but her voice was smothered by the big man's hand.

‘Come on,' Angelo said, ‘let's go to the car.'

The big man moved farther back with Julie, they were just outside the church gates now, by the side of the car. Mark knew he had to walk as close to the other gun as possible, grab it, stick it in Angelo's ear without him resisting, and pray he could get the big man to swap Julie for Angelo. Easy, Mark. A piece of piss. The big man might snap Julie's neck in a second and let Angelo sink or swim, but it was the only plan he had.

‘Don' come, Mark,' Julie shouted, her voice thin, and almost lost in the wind, but loud enough to startle a few birds. They replied to her nervously, chattering from the trees that fringed the churchyard. They'd been quiet up until now, sensing that something very strange was going down, even by human standards.

‘Save yourself,' Julie added, rather forlornly.

‘Too late, Mam.'

As Mark said this he pushed Angelo over as hard as he could, dropped to the floor and fished for the automatic. He got it at the second attempt, but was still too quick for Angelo. His size was no advantage here. Mark had the gun against the man's temple as Angelo was trying to scrabble up with his own gun. Angelo shouted something short to the big man that Mark knew must be
kill her
in their language. The big man's fingers tensed on the trigger but nothing happened. He shouted something back but did not increase his grip on Julie's neck.

‘Stupid,' Angelo shouted, ‘stupid, Claudan.'

‘Tell him to let her go,' Mark said, ‘tell him to get in the car, then you can join him.'

‘I told him to kill her,' Angelo murmured.

‘I know you did, you bastard. Why hasn't he?'

‘Because we are brothers and Claudan is a fool. He still thinks he looks after me. He still believes in family, and blood, and he doesn't think the woman is worth it. Any woman.'

‘Are any of us? Do you really want to die that much?'

‘No more than you, but if we let you go, we are dead anyway. That's how it works. Is it not a lovely world, my friend?'

Mark stood behind Angelo, and it was the Albanian's turn to be searched. He took back his Smith and Wesson, and another automatic, the twin of the one he held, and a small notebook. He was now the three-gun kid but Angelo seemed more concerned about the notebook.

‘You are only stretching things out,' Angelo said. ‘Even if you get away now, where will you go? What will you do?'

‘Why can't it be over? No one has to know about this. Agani's dead but you've killed Lena, Tony, Kelly and Carl. Four for one. Four eyes for one.'

‘Maybe it would be, if it was up to me. I agree, Agani was not worth all this fuss, but if you take an eye from us, and if it is an important eye, we demand both yours, and the eyes of your loved ones and anyone else who gets in the way. That is how it is. Everyone will know about Agani, in all the countries we operate in. How do you say it   the grapevine. They are not interested in why he died, but they are interested in you now, and how
you
die, and how soon you die. And who kills you. A lot of them will like this. It's like the old days, before we were rich, and behaved like whores.'

‘Yeah, I know   it's business.'

‘More tradition, but you are learning.'

‘Why my mother?'

‘As I said, because she's part of you, and she knows too much now. This is your fault, if you wanted to protect her you should not have come back. You should have put a gun to your head.'

Angelo's words sunk home. Mark changed guns. He did not trust the trigger of the automatic, the Smith and Wesson felt more solid, a gun for outdoors, and he could see the barrel start to revolve as it prepared to go to work.

‘Don't say anything else that isn't English,' Mark said.

‘Or what? You think Claudan won't snap your mother's neck like a twig if you shoot me?'

Mark stuck his head close to Angelo's, and pushed the gun's barrel hard against the back of his neck. He smelt peppermint.

‘I think I'm past caring. We'll all go together, you and your brother, me and Mam.'

He wasn't past caring, but this had an effect on Angelo. Mark pushed him forward until they were close to Julie and the big man. He talked to Angelo's brother himself.

‘Let her go, if you want Angelo to live. Then get in your car. Keep your hands on the wheel and Angelo can join you. Then you go.'

The big man nodded and pushed Julie forward.

‘Get behind me, Mam,' Mark said, ‘but keep to the side.'

He was aware of Julie passing him, heard her racked sobs as she stumbled over the cracked-up ground of the graveyard but he did not look around. He didn't take his eyes off the big man, or relax his grip on his brother. The big man did what he was told, and held the Mercedes wheel with his bear-like hands, heavy gold glinting from his fingers. Mark dared a glance around to check on Julie.

‘Get behind that large headstone, and stay there.'

‘I'm not leaving you.'

‘Mam, for Christsake, just go. I'll be with you now.'

Mark pushed Angelo through the church gate to the car. He realised he could probably shoot the pair of them. For the second time.

‘Get in the car and go,' Mark shouted. ‘Just fuck off.'

Why couldn't he shoot? He had before, but he was not like these men, not by a long chalk. Ripping up women, throwing old men out of windows, it was all far removed from anything he'd done. These were creatures from his darkest fantasies, but they were real, they were here and they put his petty felonies into perspective. Mark doubted if either man had a heart any more; what ticked within was just a machine, any humanity had been brutalised out of it a long time ago, like it had almost been with him. Almost. Mark knew now, at this most extreme moment, that
almost
was a very important word and it gave him strength. He had to take this chance to get Julie away. Extra time was the only prize on offer here, Mark knew it, and so did the brothers.

Angelo got into the car, shut the door, and pointed a two fingered gun at him. His thin smile came back as he leant forward in the car and came up with the real thing, a short-barrelled shotgun. Angelo pushed the door back open and levelled up the gun. At this range it would take anything out. The man was calm, sure of his actions and did not rush, making his movements look like a slow-motion replay. Mark had plenty of time to shoot but his finger locked on the trigger and did not press. In his mind Agani's head was separating again.