Heavy Duty People: The Brethren MC Trilogy book 1 (19 page)

Damage 2008

8
              THE DOUBT

I didn
’t hear from Billy for about a week after that. I guess he was just lying low for a bit. Shacked up with one or other of his birds I assumed. And then when he did call me I wished he hadn’t.

He was down the station. And he needed Jim the brief.
So I called Dazza and arranged to meet.

‘
What’s up?’ he asked as I walked into the café.

‘
I’ve had a call from Billy. He needs Jim, he’s been arrested.’

‘
Arrested? What for?’

‘
He got stopped by the plod and they found coke and a gun in the car…’

‘
Oh for fuck’s sake…’ Dazza seemed exasperated, ‘what’s the fucking idiot think he’s doing? I thought I told him to keep himself clean. Is that really so fucking difficult?’

‘
For Billy?’ I asked.

He just grunted
in acknowledgement. Then he lapsed into silence, staring out of the window for a few seconds as he gathered his thoughts. ‘Jesus,’ he said at last, ‘he’s so coked up these days and I know he’s leaky. Look what he’s been telling you.’

‘
What’s he told me?’ I objected, ‘Sod all mate. I don’t know anything and I don’t want to know anything. I prefer it that way. He’s just had a couple of moans that’s all, he’s never told me anything about whatever it is he’s obviously doing for you.’

‘
Obviously eh?’

‘
Yeah, obviously. Come on now,’ I said catching the expression in his eye, ‘Don’t you go making something out of that. Look, I asked you to give him some work, you gave him some, so obviously he’s doing something for you.’

Dazza
stared at me silently.

‘
So the question is, what do we do about getting Jim in there and getting him out?’ I insisted.

Dazza
nodded and pulled out a mobile, ‘I guess you’re right, leaky or not we need him outta there.’

*

The thing was, by the time Dazza tracked Jim down to where he was in Court, and got him across to the station, Billy was already in the process of being released on police bail.

‘
They let him out?’ barked Dazza suspiciously once I’d got off the phone, ‘what d’ya mean “they just let him out”?’

‘
He gave the plod a story,’ I said, ‘you’ll like this, it’s a real laugh.’ In retrospect I don’t know why I told Dazza the story. Partly I guess because I thought it was funny, partly I guess because he would get to hear about it anyway, but partly also, I guess, as a bit of a test, to see his reaction.

‘
He told them that they’d got him bang to rights guv as he’d stolen the car and so he didn’t know anything about the coke and gun in the glove box. What d’ya make of that eh? Fucking brilliant.’

But
Dazza was in a grim mood still.

‘
And you fucking buy that do you? I fucking knew it, he’s singing. It’s the only reason he’s out so quickly. That’s what they always do, they look to get you to offer them someone higher up the tree as the price of letting you off. Look, how did they get him in the first place?’

‘
He just got tugged…’ I protested.

‘
Yeah right, he gets tugged and just by chance instead of traffic just writing some process they decide to search the car and find the gear and a piece? That’s bollocks and you know it!’

‘
Maybe,’ I conceded.

‘
Nah. There’s no fucking maybes about it. There’s no way traffic would pick that up. The only way that happened was a tip off from someone. Someone set Billy up to get off themselves, and now Billy’s doing the same.’

‘
Now you’re just being paranoid Dazza!’ I protested, ‘Billy’s OK I tell you. Let me talk to him.’

‘
OK, OK,’ he held his hands up and then stabbing his finger on the table for emphasis he added, ‘Maybe you’re right, and maybe you’re wrong. But I’m telling you this for free. This is his last fucking shot. Any more fuck-ups and he’s a dead man. When you are speaking to him, you make sure you tell him that from me.’

‘
I will.’

*

Despite what I’d said so confidently to Dazza, I wasn’t really so sure myself. I would need to find out for myself if Billy was talking.

If
Billy was at home of course. The lights were off.

I knocked and rang the bell. There was no reply so I rang again. Giving up on that as an approach I stepped back away from the door and as I looked up at the bedroom windows I saw a curtain twitch where it had been let fall.

So I shouted up, ‘Come on Billy, it’s me, Damage! Come down here and let me in you tosser.’

There was no answer so I went back to the door and leant on the bell.

It took what seemed to be an age before I heard him shuffling around behind the door and ask, ‘Who’s there?’

‘
It’s me Billy!’ I shouted.

‘
Are you on your own? No one else with you?’

‘
Of course I’m on my own. Now stop screwing about and open the fucking door willya?’

There was the s
ound of chains, then of a key in the lock, and then there was Billy, peering out furtively, checking left and right to make sure I was alone, ready to slam the door in my face if I tried to rush him.

‘
Christ man,’ I said, ‘you look like shit!’

And he did
. His face was a pasty white, his eyes were bloodshot red and his hands were shaking.

‘
Yeah well, feel it too.’

I stood on the doorstep.
‘Well?’

He looked at me, sighed and then held the door o
pen wide for me to go in.

*

I passed Dazza’s message on to a deflated Billy. He was up and down in spasms as I talked to him, really on edge. At one point I thought he was going to burst into tears on me. He really was on the downward spiral, I could see that. God I’d better keep him out of Dazza’s sight or that would be it.

‘
But I don’t understand mate, why is all this stuff about you such a big deal for Dazza?’

‘
It’s because of what I know.’

‘
About Dazza and The Rebels?’

‘
That, and other things.’

‘
What other things?’

‘
I can’t tell you.’

‘
Why not?’

The very thought of it seemed to hit him like a blow as he crumpled into a chair and hung his head in his hands.

‘Christ man, he’s going to kill me anyway. And you’re his main man now,’ he said almost accusingly, looking up with a flash of anger in his eyes, ‘So what have I got to lose?’

I didn
’t say anything. His despair was on my side, I waited him out until it came in a rush.

‘
He’s got big stuff going on, he’s got a new route for gear coming in that he’s just trialled and it works, so now his real shipments are going to start.

‘
So what’s the real shipments?’

‘
I don’t know.’

‘
When’re they coming?’

‘
A month’s time.’

‘What, middle of September?’

‘Yeah, almost exactly. The first one’s scheduled for a Wednesday night.’ His voice died off into a keening whine of ‘Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God…’

‘
It’s OK Billy mate,’ I said grabbing him by the shoulders, ‘It’s OK, I’ll tell Dazza it’s OK, you’re not talking. You just stay here.’ I was thinking about how to handle this. Billy was on the edge of going to pieces and all the way over at times. I had to buy him and me some time while I tried to figure this out.

‘
You’re going to lie low. And I’m going to tell Dazza that you’ve asked me to send a message. Have you got that Billy?’ I demanded, pushing my face into his, desperate to get his attention. I needed to get him focused on me and to get what I was trying to tell him.

‘
I’m sending Dazza a message for you. That you suggest that Dazza changes it, whatever it is, to another place or time. So then he knows he’s safe ’cos you don’t know when it’s gonna be. How’s that?’

‘
I don’t know.’

‘
Well I do. Don’t worry, I’ll sort this. OK Billy?’

He was
just shaking his head. So I slapped him. Hard.

‘
Just fucking pull yourself together Billy. I told you, I’ll sort this.’

He looked at me disbelievingly.

‘You just have to stay here and stay calm. Have you got that?’

He mumbled something
.

I tugged him to his feet
.

‘
I said, have you got that?’

‘
Sure, yeah sure, I’ve got that.’

I let him go and he
just sort of collapsed back into his chair.

‘
OK then. Just sit tight and wait till I get back.’

*

‘Look Damage, face it, we’ve gotta problem.’

‘
What’s that then?’

‘
Billy.’

‘
Billy?’

‘
He’s talking.’

‘
How d’you know?’

‘
The cops catch him with coke and a gun and next thing he’s out on bail after a cock and bull story like that? Bollocks, he’s grassing us up. It’s the only thing that makes sense.’

‘
How do you know he’s a snout?’

‘
How do you know he isn’t?’

‘
How do know anybody isn’t?’

‘
You don’t.’

‘
Hey I was tugged in too. Remember? D’you think I’m a grass too?

‘
No, that’s different.’

‘
Why?’

‘
Because I know you,’ he said calmly.

‘
What are you on about, you know me? You know Billy as well don’t you? Maybe better than me, you’ve been using him long enough haven’t you.’

‘
Yeah I’ve been dealing with Billy long enough. Long enough to know what he’s like anyway.’

‘
So?’

‘
But I know you. The way you came in that day back then when you came to tell me you were out of the business. You know I’ve told you not many guys would come in to do that but you did. You were prepared to take whatever came. That was the moment when I really knew you, that you were a stand up guy, that I would never need to worry about you ratting me out.’

That was quite a compl
iment.

‘
Whereas Billy, Billy’s just bad for security. He knows too much, he’s using too much, he’s just become too much of a risk.’

And deep down, despite the fact we were mates, I
now knew Dazza was right about Billy as a risk. The plod would always press for info, always be looking for someone to give up someone higher up the tree in return for a ticket. And I did have to face it, Dazza was spot on, Billy was becoming heavily coked and unstable. However old a friend Billy was, Dazza’s suspicions weren’t unreasonable, they were just wrong, I thought.

But they also
risked turning into a self-fulfilling prophesy if Dazza ended up scaring Billy so much that he felt he had nowhere else to go for safety but to the plod.

I had
to have one last try. I owed Billy that much.

‘
Dazza he’s OK, he’s not talking to anyone, let alone the plod. He’s got himself barricaded in his house. I’ve told him to stay home and lie low, not to leave the place until he hears otherwise. There’s one thing though.’

‘
Yes?’

‘
He said to ask whether you still wanted him at the thing next month or whether he should stay home or just clear out completely?’

‘
The thing? What thing?’

‘
He didn’t say and I didn’t ask. He said you’d know and you might want to think about changing the date so that he didn’t know it.’

‘What? Why?’

‘Change the date for when whatever it is, is going to happen. That way he won’t know it so there’s no way he’s a danger to it.’

‘Christ, so now he thinks that I think there’s a risk he’s a grass
, and he has to prove to me he isn’t? I don’t like that Damage. I don’t like that at all.’

‘Look what’s the guy to do? He must know that we’re suspicious about him because he gets lifted. He wants to make sure you’re secure and to prove to you that he’s no problem, only then we’re suspicious that he wants to prove he’s OK! It’s Catch 22 mate. Keep going round this loop and you can never trust anybody over anything.’