The Front (12 page)

       
The real damage he’d sustained was a gaping wound to the back of his head where he’d hit the floor when he fell. This was two inches long and half an inch deep, and a lot of blood had drained from it already. It was this that had laid him flat.

       
As she tended to this, Wendy kneeled directly in front of Lee, with her aching stomach resting on her thighs and her breasts at such an angle that he was afforded a fantastic view of her cleavage each time she bent forward. Unaware of the enormous pleasure she was granting him, she dabbed at the wound with a sponge, regularly squeezing the blood into the bowl of water Ged had placed on the floor beside her. When this needed changing for the second time, she sat back with a frown.

       
‘This needs stitching. It’s too deep and it won’t stop bleeding.’

       
Lee shook his head – as best he could lying face down with Wendy holding his crown in her vicelike grip. ‘No!’ he squealed, his voice muffled by the cushion. ‘I’m not going to the sick house. Stick some plasters on it, it’ll be all right.’

       
‘Don’t be stupid,’ Ged scolded him gently. ‘If it needs stitching, it’ll have to be stitched. I’ll take you to the Infirmary.’

       
As Ged reached for his jacket he noticed Wendy wincing for the fourth time since they’d picked Lee up. It suddenly occurred to him that she might be in labour, and he asked if she was okay.

       
‘Yes!’ she hissed through gritted teeth, releasing a series of short, sharp breaths. ‘I’m . . . absolutely . . . fine!’

       
‘Ooowww!’ squawked Lee, twisting his head as her fingers dug in hard. ‘Wendy! I know you love me, but can’t you control your passion?’

       
‘Fuck off!’ Wendy snarled, then bent double as another pain tore through her stomach. ‘Oh . . . God!’ she groaned, gritting her teeth again and pressing down on the rock-hard bump as she waited for the pain to subside. Her face turned purple.

       
Lee’s face, just inches from hers, was a picture of puzzlement. ‘What’s up, Wend’?’ he asked. ‘You constipated, or what?’

       
‘You stupid prick!’ Wendy laughed despite the pain. Lee came out with the most absurd things. ‘I’m having the bloody baby, you moron!’

       
Sam sat bolt upright in his chair. ‘You what?’ he squawked. ‘Now?’

       
‘Yes, now!’ Wendy hissed, shooting him a filthy look. ‘Not that you’d notice, dickhead!’

       
Sam’s hands fluttered ineffectually at his sides. He didn’t know what to do. He wanted to help, but what could he do?

       
‘Should I get some towels?’ he asked eventually. ‘Boil some water, or something?’

       
Wendy gripped her stomach, thrusting her chin hard onto her chest. ‘Why? Planning to wash the car, are you?’

       
Mal, who’d been lying on the mat in front of the fire, clutching a bottle of brandy to his chest throughout, now rolled lazily onto his side and propped his head on his hand to watch the floor show. Seeing the expression of amazement on Lee’s blood-drained face, he sniggered and waved the bottle tantalizingly.

       
‘Yo, Lee! Y’ look like you’re in shock, mate. Wanna little drinky-poo?’

       
‘Too right!’ Lee’s wide eyes shifted from Wendy’s pain-racked face to Mal’s drunken grin. Reaching for the bottle, he made to roll off the couch, but Wendy, temporarily recovered from her latest contraction, shoved him back with her fist.

       
‘Owww!’ he yelped, rubbing at his shoulder where he could feel the imprint of her knuckles. ‘What a woman!’

       
Wendy launched herself at him then, teeth bared, eyes blazing as she grabbed the front of his T-shirt and shook him viciously, bouncing his head off the cushion. ‘You . . . stupid . . . little . . . BASTAAARD! It’s your fault I’m having it now. If you hadn’t started this, none of us would be here now! I hate you!’

       
‘Ooohhh, baby . . .’ Lee leered, blood trickling down his hair onto the cushion. ‘You’re sooo sexy when you’re mad!’

       
As another pain ripped through her, Wendy had to let go of him. Doubling over, she screamed, ‘Get me to hospital! It’s coming!’

       
Suzie staggered to her feet, her own body a mass of aches and pains. ‘I’ll call an ambulance,’ she said, tottering over to the phone.

       
‘Nine, nine, friggin’ nine,’ Mal drawled. ‘Nee nah, nee nah! Yeah, that’s a fucking great idea, that, innit? Some cunt gets shot an’ the next thing you know, there’s a fucking ambulance shooting round to my fucking gaff! Yeah, great! Let’s call the dibble while we’re at it, eh? And how about the National fucking Guard? That’d be a fucking big laugh, that would!’

       
Pulling the bottle round, he tipped it up for a drink and smacked himself in the teeth. Laughing crazily, he rolled around on the mat, splashing brandy everywhere.

       
Ged watched him in undisguised disgust for a moment, then turned back to the others. Seeing Sam’s pasty face, and Suzie helplessly wringing her hands by the phone, he sighed heavily, once again feeling the burden of responsibility falling on him.

       
‘Sam?’ He spoke calmly, waiting until Sam’s helpless eyes swung from Wendy to him before going on. ‘You’ve got to get ready to go to hospital. Go and get some water on your face and sober up, yeah?’

       
Nodding mutely, Sam stumbled into the kitchen. When he’d gone, Ged turned to Suzie and told her not to phone for an ambulance because it would be quicker in the car. Suzie said she’d get her coat and go with them, but Ged shook his head.

       
‘Thanks, sweetheart, but I don’t think you should. It’ll look funny enough taking Lee in like this without anyone seeing the state of you. Stay here and get some sleep. Okay?’

       
‘Okay,’ she agreed reluctantly.

       
Ged smiled. She was a good kid. All she needed was a bit of affection.

       
Turning to Lee and Wendy, he waved them to the door. Lee opened his mouth to protest, but Ged held up a firm hand, telling him: ‘In the car. No arguments. Can you make it down?’ he asked Wendy then. ‘I can carry you, if you want.’

       
‘I can walk!’ she snapped indignantly and, pressing her fingers in hard below the bump as if she could hold the baby in by will-power alone, she staggered to the door.

Max passed The Man’s Jag as he drove into the car park. He caught a brief glimpse of the girl in the passenger seat and wondered if she knew about Jake. He shook his head. That shit was nothing to do with him.

       
Parking, he jogged across to the doorway and pressed the intercom button, peering around all the while to see if he was being watched. After a short wait the buzzer sounded, releasing the lock. Max went in quickly, pulling the door firmly into place behind him and rattling it to make absolutely sure it was locked tight before walking up the stairs to where The Man was waiting in the doorway – his face clearly displaying his anger and disquiet.

       
In the living room, Max flopped into the same chair as before and lit a cigarette, nervously watching as The Man stalked into the room.

       
‘So what the fuck’s going down?’ The Man shot at him, his eyes glittering slits in his sweating face.

       
Max shifted in the chair, pulling his leather coat-tails free. He shrugged. ‘Just what I said. It was all dark at the front, so I cruised round the back to look in the yard, and I see the jeep sitting there. So then I bell you, and you say tek a look.’ Pausing, he reached out for Jake’s untouched juice. ‘Can I?’

       
The Man nodded and Max took a long drink, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.

       
‘Anyhow,’ he went on at last. ‘I get out, leaving my lights on so’s I can see into the yard, yeah? And at first I don’t see nutt’n, so I think to check the jeep – see if he’s kipping in the back or something. But he’s not. And then I see him lying by the door, and when I go over I see all this blood.’ He paused again, taking another long drink.

       
‘And?’ snapped The Man impatiently.

       
‘And so I feel ’is neck, but I can’t feel no pulse, yeah? And that’s when I tell you he’s dead and you say come back here.’

       
‘Shit, man!’ The Man sat heavily, punching the chair arm with a dull thwack. ‘I said don’t touch him! Wha’pp’n to your raas brain?’ He jabbed a finger at his own forehead. ‘Y’ lost all your sense now, is it? Shit, man!’ With a heavy sigh, he put his elbows on his knees and stroked the corners of his mouth with his thumbs, deep in thought.

       
‘I didn’t really touch him,’ Max said quietly. ‘I only rest my finger just so . . .’ He lightly touched a finger to his throat to demonstrate.

       
Watching this from beneath his brows, The Man shook his head slowly. ‘You know the Babylon got them dee-en-ay tests,’ he said, his voice low and grave. ‘All it tek is one strand offa them pretty dreads—’ he jabbed a finger at Max’s hair ‘—and they’ll swarm all over you!’ He kissed his teeth. ‘Raas!’

       
Max slouched in his chair, resting his head on his clenched fist as the enormity of the situation began to sink in. If he’d gone straight to The Nile earlier as planned, he’d be rocking his gal’s ass by now. Instead, he was sitting here, getting depressed.

       
He knew full well the implications of his actions tonight. The junkie he’d dispatched to a watery grave was one thing. That would be eaten by the fishes along with any trace of himself by the time the Babylon found it. But a respected businessman lying dead in a yard, just feet from a main road and only a matter of hours from discovery, with traces of himself on the corpse, was another thing altogether. And he hadn’t even done it!

       
‘So the bag wasn’t there?’ The Man was asking now.

       
Max shook his head unhappily. ‘I could see clear by the time you axed me to look for it, and there wasn’t no bag in the yard. How much you lost?’

       
The Man’s face darkened. ‘A lot!’

       
Max rolled his eyes. ‘Shit!’

       
‘Listen,’ The Man said after a minute. ‘You’d better go meet your gal.’

       
‘Nah,’ Max shook his head dejectedly. ‘It’s too late. Anyway, I don’t feel like it now.’

       
‘Go,’ The Man insisted. Standing up he headed for the door. ‘Don’t keep her waiting, man. Go get seen so you got an alibi, yeah? Forget all this for tonight, but keep your ears open, yeah? Anyone mentions Pasha or the shop, or someone having money to burn, come and tell me about it, yeah?’

       
Max nodded, following The Man to the door in a cloud of despondency.

       
‘Look, don’t worry,’ said The Man as he waved Max down the stairs. ‘If you only touched his neck a little bit, I don’t think it’ll show. Peace, man.’

       
Max gave him a sick smile, then continued down the stairs. It was all right for The Man to say ‘Don’t worry’ when he himself hadn’t been within a mile of the crime scene tonight.

5

Jake still hadn’t uttered a word, but Linda was oblivious to the heavy silence in the car. She was too busy stroking her seat, enjoying the sensual feel of the smooth leather beneath her fingers. She’d become very attached to this car in the short week she’d been Simeon’s girl. She loved the luxury of it. The touch and smell of hot leather. The musky scent of Simeon’s aftershave. The sexy music throbbing from the expensive system. Money and danger – a heady combination. Sophisticated. A world she’d craved to be a part of for the longest time. And now that she was, she had no intention of letting it go.

       
Linda smiled as she thought of Simeon. The Man . . . her man! So big and strong – and wrapped around her little finger! Anything she wanted, she only had to ask and he’d be sure to give it to her.

       
Simeon was special, there was no denying that. Like a lion – powerful, demanding respect. Everything she’d always dreamed of, in fact. Yet, somehow, tonight, some of his appeal had faded. For tonight, she had seen Jake as something other than his right-hand man, and it had excited her beyond her wildest dreams. If Simeon was a lion, then Jake was a caged tiger. Gorgeous, unpredictable – and definitely dangerous.

       
Glancing across at the still-silent man, Linda drank in the details she had previously overlooked. The mocking curve of his lips. The surprisingly slender nose speckled with light freckles. The muscles in his arms, rippling like waves as he turned the wheel. As the heat of desire spread across her thighs, she wondered how it would feel to be with him. To have those arms around her, his husky voice whispering words of love as he moved deep inside her.

       
Running her fingers through her silky hair, she stretched languidly and raised her arms snakelike to stroke her fingertips along the roof. She wished he wasn’t taking her straight home. Wished he’d take her somewhere nice and secluded.

       
Jake’s lips fluttered in the tiniest smile as he watched Linda from the corner of his eye. Far from rousing his interest, her little snake-charming display merely confirmed what he’d felt all along – that she was a cheap little slut. And a stupid one at that, if she thought her little show would make him want to be nice to her.

       
Easing the Jag off the Princess Parkway, he considered taking her out into the countryside for a bit of fun. The Man wouldn’t have a problem with that. She might, but The Man wouldn’t.