The Garden Party (12 page)

‘That's the ticket, Charlie.' Ainsclough smiled. ‘Now you're starting to use your loaf. So, Arnie Rainbird, he's been very quiet, what's his game? What's he into?'

‘Into?'

‘Where's his money coming from?' Yewdall explained.

Magg glanced to his left and then leaned forward. ‘Practically everything and anything if it makes money, but lately I hear he's moved into people smuggling. It's the latest business to be in, there is good money to be made and do-it-on-your-back sentences. He was into cocaine and heroin but moved out of that to smuggle people. The profits are the same as for smuggling white powder but the maximum sentence is just four years, though Arnie won't do any time as he never lets himself get close enough to the action. He was blackmailing teachers when he was at school, then ran protection rackets. He battered his way up but he also used his loaf.' Magg tapped the side of his head. ‘He always used this.'

‘Battered?'

‘Yes, battered. Arnie Rainbird is well handy in a scuffle, keeps himself fit, got his own gym.'

‘He was a minder?'

‘He was,' Charlie Magg replied, seeming to the officers to be beginning to relax into a conversation once the rules had been set down. ‘He was a casual heavy; he didn't just protect his boss. If the boss wanted to put the old squeeze on a citizen, well, then he'd use Arnie Rainbird . . . Arnie was your man.'

‘So he was a bit like you in that respect,' Tom Ainsclough said drily. ‘I mean a bit like you put the squeeze on “Stepney” Stevenson?'

‘A bit.' Magg shrugged. ‘What can I say?'

‘So who was Arnie Rainbird's boss?'

‘“Legs” Connolly.'

Yewdall and Ainsclough glanced curiously at each other.

‘It's OK.' Charlie Magg smiled. ‘This goes way back; I mean so way back you wouldn't have heard of “Legs” Connolly. “Legs” Connolly was old when you were learning to use a knife and fork but he'll be in your files. So Arnie Rainbird was in “Legs” Connolly's firm. They did armed robbery in the main, that's where Arnie learned his skills when he came back from Italy. They did security vans, especially the collecting vans; the delivery vans carrying the wages, well, they always carry new notes in sequence; have to wash them before you can use them. That is a nuisance and it can be pricey, but the collecting vans, they just take till takings to the bank, all used notes, didn't need washing, still don't.' Charlie Magg paused. ‘It could get a bit rough, it could get a bit like cowboys holding up stagecoaches in the Old West, but we were up for it and that's where I first met Arnie Rainbird. So, anyway, “Legs” Connolly disappeared, didn't he?'

‘Don't know,' Penny Yewdall replied, ‘did he?'

‘You can bet your life he did.' Charlie Magg smiled. ‘He was offed, iced; it's the way of it when top villains go missing, it's always because they have been chilled. Always. Any blagger really, but especially the top villains.'

‘Seems so.' Penny Yewdall nodded her head gently. ‘It does seem to be the case; a missing villain is a dead villain.'

‘But by then Arnie Rainbird was a rising star. I was taking orders from him even though we started out together. By the time “Legs” Connolly vanished, Arnie Rainbird was getting a nice, well-earned reputation for being an evil swine of a villain. I mean, by then Arnie was collecting victims like they were going out of fashion; I mean, collecting them like there was no tomorrow. You know how it is in the other world.'

‘The other world, Charlie?' Penny Yewdall asked. ‘What other world?'

‘The other world to your world, darling,' Charlie Magg whispered as though he feared a hidden microphone was in the agent's room. ‘You don't get in and move up except in two ways: you do bird, you get some jail time under your belt, it's that what gives you street cred, it means you are not some cardboard cut-out. If you have no street cred you're just a cardboard cut-out and you never get to be anything but a gofer.'

‘Fair enough.' Ainsclough nodded. ‘I can understand that. So what's the second way?'

‘The other way, the other way up.' Charlie Magg once again looked nervously to his left and right and lowered his voice as if fearing a hidden microphone. ‘Well the other way up is the way Arnie Rainbird did it. You take a scalp, then you take another scalp . . . you take a few scalps.'

‘You murder?' Penny Yewdall sought clarification. ‘You take life . . . you kill?'

‘Yes.' Charlie Magg once again glanced to his left and right. ‘That's the second way, and that's how Arnie Rainbird got into “Legs” Connolly's firm and that's how he moved up the ladder. He was just very good with his fists and with his feet; handy in an argument, like I said. Well handy. He would be right in there with his fists, and putting the wellie well in; turn some old warrior's face to mush by stamping on him.'

‘Again, not unlike you and your victim, Charlie.' Tom Ainsclough raised his eyebrows. ‘Seems like you and Arnie Rainbird are like peas in a pod.'

‘Oh yeah,' Charlie Magg sneered, ‘so if that's the case what am I doing in here and he's out there living the good life? Naw, he rose, I didn't; he owns houses, yachts . . . and all I have got to show is five large in the Post Office. We are not so much alike, me and Arnie, not alike at all.' Magg sighed. ‘You need to do more than I did if you want to move up. I mean, just put a Turk in hospital, even if you put him on a life-support machine for a week or two . . . that won't get you very far up.'

‘A month or two,' Yewdall coldly corrected Maggs. ‘He's been in a coma for ten weeks.'

‘Still doesn't cut it,' Magg replied equally coldly. ‘You have to take a scalp, deliberate like. If Stevenson dies it wasn't intentional on my part. You need to take a scalp intentionally, deliberately.'

‘That's how Arnie Rainbird got started?'

‘Yes.' Charlie Magg shifted position in his chair and once again looked around as he leaned forward and spoke in a near whisper. ‘Yes, that's it. You have to take a scalp. Arnie Rainbird got noticed, so the story goes, when “Legs” Connolly wanted this geezer iced; he gave Arnie a chance to prove himself. So he sends Arnie and two blokes as his escort out to do the business. So this geezer is living in a flat in a council high-rise, isn't he, living with his old lady, just him and her, no kids to worry about making things untidy. So Arnie and a couple of boys went to this earthling's drum one night about midnight and they got through the front door like it wasn't there. The old lady starts to kick off, so Arnie Rainbird slaps her and she becomes very cooperative, most silent.'

‘Because she's been knocked out?' Penny Yewdall commented drily. ‘I know what sort of slap you mean.'

Charlie Magg shrugged. ‘Then Arnie slaps the boy, but him, the boy, him he keeps awake, it's Arnie's way of doing things. Arnie Rainbird keeps his victims awake so they know what's happening to them, keeps them conscious right up to the end.'

‘That's interesting.' Yewdall turned to Ainsclough. ‘The skulls . . . they were not damaged.' Then she turned to Charlie Magg. ‘Sorry, Charlie, carry on, you are doing well for yourself.'

‘All right.' Charlie Magg seemed to focus his thoughts and continued. ‘So . . . well . . . Arnie Rainbird and the two escorts truss this soldier up, I mean truss him well up, very neatly using cable ties to keep his wrists fastened behind his back and then push both ankles under the wrists. Can't get out of that, the ankles pull against the cable ties. No one can free themselves from that little old number. Then they wait . . . real calm like, watch a bit of late-night television. Then, at about two in the morning, they give the old lady another slap because she has woken up and is starting to make noises, but before that Arnie Rainbird gives a little advice about what will happen to her if she identifies anyone in a police line up.' Magg paused. ‘Then they wait a bit more, and then they drag out the geezer, who is well out of luck, and by this time he knows it, I mean, he has messed himself something rotten and is making many pleading sounds, until Arnie puts some sticky tape across his north and south, thereafter he is most silent.'

‘So you were told, Charlie.' Yewdall clasped her hands together and rested them on the table top. ‘I mean you were definitely not one of the two redcoats who were provided as Arnie Rainbird's escort?'

Charlie Magg smiled and winked at Yewdall.

‘Just get on with the story, Charlie,' Tom Ainsclough prompted, ‘you're doing well.'

‘All right . . . all right, so after two of the clock in the forenoon and once the late film is over, Arnie Rainbird and the escorts drag this old geezer out of his flat and along the corridor to the lift shaft, and the poor old shaking, quivering sod is bunged into the lift and up they go to the top floor, twelve storeys.'

‘High enough,' Yewdall commented.

‘It's the way Arnie wanted it. So on the top floor there is a steel ladder going up the wall to a trap door and the roof, and the trap door is always kept padlocked. No problem because Arnie did a recce the night before and has with him a very handy pair of bolt cutters, and then the padlock is no more. So they put a rope round the geezer's neck, haul him up to the roof and carry him to the edge of the roof, where below him is all of London Town very like a Christmas tree with many lights shining. So Arnie props the boy up and lets him have a last look at all the lovely lights and the buses and cars on the road, then the boys step back and leave it to Arnie Rainbird. The boys are there to help and to witness but the last bit is down to Arnie Rainbird if he wants to make a name for himself, if he wants to rise then he's on his Jack Jones for the last bit. It's just the rule of the game.'

‘OK,' Tom Ainsclough said, ‘understood.'

‘So Arnie Rainbird pushes the boy to the edge, so by this time he's lying on his side facing outwards and Arnie leaves him like that for a few minutes, then he gently rolls him over the edge and the geezer is well topped. Very well topped indeed. That was Arnie Rainbird's first scalp.'

‘You're being very informative.' Penny Yewdall smiled. ‘You can't be frightened of Mr Rainbird.'

‘Hey.' Charlie Magg held up his huge, fleshy hand. ‘We agreed, I sign nothing. Anything I tell you is just between you and me. I'm helping myself as much as I can short of grassing Arnie Rainbird up. I am not giving evidence.'

‘Just carry on,' Yewdall sighed, ‘but I can tell you that if you and the other escort stepped back and let Arnie Rainbird push your victim to his death, you are all equally guilty of murder in the eyes of the law.'

‘It wasn't the eyes of the law we were worried about,' Magg said with a grin, ‘it was the eyes of “Legs” Connolly that concerned us.'

‘All right,' Yewdall repeated, ‘just carry on.'

‘Do you remember the name and the address of the victim, Charlie?' Ainsclough asked before Charlie Magg could ‘carry on'.

Charlie Magg shook his head. ‘It's one of many, governor, and a long time ago now.'

‘Just thought I'd ask, Charlie. Sounds like an unsolved crime to me.'

‘It'll remain unsolved because I won't be signing anything.'

‘All right, Charlie, in your own time,' Ainsclough said, ‘we're all ears.'

‘All ears,' Yewdall repeated.

‘All right.' Charlie Magg paused once again and after looking to his left and right he continued. ‘So “Legs” Connolly is well impressed. I mean, he is well impressed, or, is he well impressed . . . I mean, is he well impressed or not?'

‘I would guess he was well impressed,' Yewdall replied.

‘Too right he is well impressed, so “Legs” Connolly puts the word out that Arnie Rainbird is “all right” and the next time “Legs” Connolly wants another slime offed he puts Arnie Rainbird on the case, and Arnie is well keen to show how creative he can be. So, once the second geezer is overpowered he puts him in the back of a van and he and the escort run him out of London and out into Essex to the railway line where the Harwich to London trains run.'

‘Fast trains,' Yewdall commented, ‘very fast trains.'

‘Very fast. Have you stood next to a railway line when a fast train is approaching?' Magg glanced at Penny Yewdall.

‘Yes,' Yewdall replied. ‘I think I can see where you are going, Charlie.'

‘So you know what I mean?' Charlie Magg grinned menacingly.

‘The rails sing,' Yewdall guessed, ‘a high-pitched ringing sound?'

‘Yes, miss.' Magg grinned. ‘They sing, a really high-pitched noise; add a little vibration and if a geezer is tied across the line, he knows his number is up. I mean that train had that geezer's name on it. The slime is pulled tight across the line with ropes fastened to heavy objects, like cars, so he cannot pull himself clear, and his neck is on the line and his ankles are on the other line, and it is not long before the train comes and the rails begin to sing and ring, and the geezer is not happy and is saying so very loudly and the rails are also singing louder and louder and then . . . wham!' Charlie Magg made a low whistling sound. ‘When the train had gone the geezer was in six bits; his two arms and his head was on one side of the rails, his two feet on the other side of the rails and the middle bit of him is between the rails and the claret . . . claret is everywhere and “Legs” Connolly is well impressed at Arnie Rainbird's creativity.' Charlie Magg took a deep breath. ‘Then one day “Legs” Connolly is not there, not in his drum, not nowhere . . . thin air number, total vanishing act. No rumours before or after . . . no noise . . . no body is found, nothing, and Arnie Rainbird steps up and sits in “Legs”' chair and nobody makes even the slightest hiss of objection. Nobody will go up against Arnie Rainbird, not by then, because by this time Arnie Rainbird is mucho feared. Mucho feared indeed.'