‘And as for the Boronis,’ Dennis Hathaway went on, ‘I don’t know who killed their cousins. All I heard was that two clowns killed two clowns. They were messing with the twins. Seems to me anyone could have killed them – their friends as easily as their enemies.’ He pointed now at Luigi. ‘All I want from these guys is an assurance they’re going to keep Brighton for Brighton and not bring in out-of-towners.’
‘Now there I agree.’ Simpson raised his voice. ‘There’s enough business going on for all of us. We don’t need out-of-towners here. We don’t want them. I won’t have them.’
‘With respect, Chief Constable,’ Cuthbert shouted as he tried to push past the CID officer to get at Dennis Hathaway. ‘What you want and don’t want don’t stack up to much against those London boys. They’ve taken on the Met and won. If they want to take over down here, I don’t see how you’re going to stop them.’
Simpson gave him a hard look.
‘Leave that to me.’
It was always difficult for Hathaway to switch gear from his day job to the group. He was feeling more and more distanced from The Avalons. But he was also trying not to think about the more brutal things he was involved in. He couldn’t forget looking back as he and Charlie walked off the Palace Pier in their sweaty, scratchy clown costumes to see the Boroni Brothers emerge from the ghost train shed, slumped forward in their seats, soaked in blood. Then the screams.
He thought the meeting on the Palace Pier today was going to end up that way but, in fact, the kettle didn’t really boil at all.
‘Well, that was a waste of time,’ Charlie said as the four West Pier men headed back along the Palace Pier.
‘On the contrary,’ Dennis Hathaway said, ‘that was bloody great. Look at who’s against us – third raters.’
‘What about the twins?’ Hathaway said.
His father had just grinned.
Tonight they were on the West Pier supporting Pink Floyd. Elaine would be somewhere in the audience with some of her student mates.
Tony and Charlie turned up together. Billy and Dan turned up at seven prompt, in military jackets and jeans.
The Avalons had proper dressing rooms for a change, but they all went out on the pier and leaned over the balustrade. They shared a joint.
‘How are you doing, gents?’ Hathaway said.
‘Not great actually, John,’ Dan said.
Hathaway tilted his head.
‘Oh?’
‘We’re a bit worried about what’s going on with the group,’ Billy said.
‘Things are going great, aren’t they?’ Hathaway said, passing the joint along.
‘Onstage, yes, but offstage, no…’ Dan tailed off.
‘Offstage?’ Hathaway said. ‘What about offstage?’
‘Look, what you and Charlie want to get up to is up to you,’ Billy said. ‘But we just want to be in a successful rock ’n’ roll band.’
‘And we think,’ Dan said, ‘that the stuff you’re doing is putting that success at risk.’
Hathaway looked puzzled.
‘What stuff are we doing exactly?’
Dan shook his head.
‘C’mon, John. Don’t treat us like fools. The two of you are selling drugs with our roadie friend, Alan. And you’re both busy managing other acts. We hardly even have time to rehearse and there’s a lot of new music we should be covering.’
‘We want you to stop dealing at our gigs,’ Billy said.
Hathaway looked from one to the other.
‘Well, that’s going to be a bit complicated,’ he said.
They waited for him to go on.
‘I mean there are other people involved. They wouldn’t be too happy if we chucked it in.’
‘Couldn’t they find other people to do what you’re doing?’
‘Again, it’s not that simple.’
Hathaway seemed to ponder. Pointed at the joint in Dan’s hand.
‘Look, I know you guys smoke dope. You don’t see anything wrong with it. We all think it should be legal, but until it is Charlie and me are providing a service.’
‘But it’s illegal. You could end up in prison. And we could easily be accused of being accomplices.’
‘Not a chance of either of those things.’ Hathaway said.
‘Oh – really.’
‘Really. The police are in on it.’
‘Bugger off. The entire force?’
‘People that count. Look, I’m trusting you with this. The fix is all the way in.’
Dan and Billy looked at each other. Billy spoke.
‘OK, but there’s something else. The direction the group is going. Bill and me, we want to go an acoustic folkie route.’
‘Folkie?’ Charlie said, disgust in his voice.
Hathaway put his hand on Charlie’s arm. He knew that Bill and Dan rehearsed a lot together. Bill had been teaching Dan guitar.
‘OK, here’s a deal. Why don’t you set up as a duo and run a folk club?’
The other three looked at him with varying degrees of surprise.
‘You want to break the band up?’ Charlie said.
‘You’re sacking us?’ Billy said.
‘How are we going to set up a folk club?’ Dan said.
Hathaway latched on to Dan’s remark.
‘As you know, my dad’s company has branched out into pop promotion. Managing bands, running tours – and running clubs. We’ve been thinking about a folk club.’
‘Nobody told me,’ Charlie said.
‘Didn’t think you’d be interested in a folk club, Charlie, and your hands are full managing acts,’ Hathaway said. ‘Anyway, Dan, we wouldn’t expect you to run it but maybe you and Bill could host it.’
Bill and Dan looked at each other. Nodded.
‘We could do that.’
‘So that’s the end of The Avalons?’ Charlie said.
‘Not necessarily,’ Hathaway said. ‘There’s no reason why you couldn’t do both, is there?’
Billy shook his head.
‘Of course not.’
Hathaway looked at Charlie.
‘You OK with that?’
Charlie didn’t say anything for a moment. Then:
‘As long as I can manage these two.’
Bill and Dan laughed. Uncertainly.
Hathaway took Elaine down to Cuckmere Haven. After a walk along the shingle beach beneath Beachy Head, the chalk cliff glaring white in the sunshine, they got fish and chips in newspaper from the cafe and sat on a bench looking out to sea.
Although Elaine was doing American studies she wanted to be an actress. She also wanted to go to India.
‘What do you want to do with your life, John?’ she said. ‘You can’t want to spend it all in Brighton.’
‘Course not.’ He gestured to his left. ‘I’m fond of Eastbourne too.’
She punched his arm.
