“De Niro, man! The film of the fucking century!”
“Oh, yeah A few times It was a great film, yeah ”
“ ‘Great’? Man, it was fucking brilliant! The slow motion…Did you see the sweat flying up with every dig, huh? Boom, boom wham! I tell you, you could feel it, man Right?”
His stomach had knotted up on him. Terry Malone sounded a bit pissed. Maybe he was out of his box on something.
“I thought you were inside, Terry You know?”
“Well, I was, wasn’t I?”
“How’d it go for you?”
Malone laughed.
“Poxy, that’s how. Fucking p-o-x-y. Thanks for asking. But it’s back to form, you know. Got me old job back. And I want to make up for what I lost, man. So Bobby knows that. He gives me this little number right off the bat. Call it a contract. And all this crap about unemployment, hah? You working, Jammy?”
“No. Rock and roll. A few nixers.”
“Stuck for a few bob, are you?”
“No, not so much. The odd game too, you know. Snooker. Pool.”
“Ah yeah. You used to be sharp. You still?”
“Yeah, well I can still pot ’em. ”
“That’s nice. Wait a minute. I know. You’d a preferred that Bobby had sent Painless around here, right? Him and Lolly, the team Laurel and fucking Hardy ”
He thought about making a break for it.
“What’s the matter, Jammy? Don’t you want to hang around for a little chat?”
He could think of nothing to say. He shrugged.
“What are you scared of, Jammy? You know how to look after yourself, right? Come on up here, I want to talk to you, show you something. Come on, what’s keeping you?”
He took a few halting steps into the space between them. Terry Malone’s hand shot out. He sidestepped and moved down the bank a few feet. Malone gave a breathless laugh and let his hand hang in the air.
“You still got them, Jammy. You’re quick. That’s good. Now listen. You’re a nice lad, Jammy I mean it. Do you think I’m trying to get up your back?”
“No, I don’t. No, Terry. It’s just that, you know, I wasn’t expecting…”
“Yeah, yeah… Your heart’s in the right place. Eddsy told me that too. Believe me?”
“Yeah. Yes.”
“That’s good. You know how Eddsy is. Moody, right? Ha ha ha. But Eddsy’s always rabbiting on about loyalty. You know what loyal is, Jammy?”
Terry Malone took a step toward him. The lamplight showed the bruises on his face.
“See them? That’s about loyalty. You know what I mean?”
“No, Terry. I don’t. Not really.”
“Ah, some day I’ll explain it all to you. When I got more time, like. I’ll just tell you this much for now. I do me time in the ’Joy, walk out, look up and down the street. There’s none of mine there at the gate to give me the big welcome or anything. Get the picture?”
“Sort of, Terry, but I’m not sure-”
“No, you don’t,” snapped Malone. “.’Cause I fucking don’t! How could you then?”
“I don’t know, I mean.”
He couldn’t recall if he’d heard of Terry Malone doing drugs. Maybe he’d picked it up in the nick.
“Where was I? Oh, yeah. Loyalty. I had a few jars on me when I got in the door. Next thing I know is I have this two hundred percent dogfight with me brother, you know?”
“Ter-Tommy?”
“Tommy, yeah. Tommy the Pig. Call him that, I don’t care. Really. Why should that bother me? So that’s loyalty for you: I only get hammered at home. My own fucking brother. Isn’t there some lesson in that or what?”
“I suppose, yeah. Yes.”
“You were loyal to that fuck Hickey, weren’t you? You felt sorry for him, right?”
Malone had calmed down a bit. He wondered if this was part of being high.
“Sort of. Well, I felt a bit sorry for him, I suppose.”
“That so, now? Well, loyalty’s a two-way street, Jammy. Eddsy thinks you can make people be loyal if you just scare the shite out of them. You think Hickey was loyal to you?”
He tried to swallow but his mouth was chalky. The stink from the canal seemed to have gotten suddenly worse.
“I don’t know, Terry, like. I mean you never know with people, do you?”
Terry Malone had his hands in his pockets as he strolled toward him. The thick lip was twisted up weird because Malone was trying to smile. He smelled something from Malone’s breath now, a sweet-sour tang in the air momentarily stronger than the stink off the water.
“ ‘You never know,’ huh.” He shook his head. “Come here, will you. Walk down here a bit. I got something I want you to see. Somebody.”
“Well, Terry, like, it’s not like I don’t want to talk to you. No, it’s not that or anything.”
Terry Malone laughed.
“Oh, yeah, man. I forgot. You think I’m here to do for you. Don’t be worrying, man. It’s just I get to talking and, well, the time just flies. You got to go? Go ahead.”
Tierney shrugged.
“You’re shitting bricks, aren’t you, Jammy.”
Tierney said nothing.
“Scared? Of Eddsy? You shouldn’t be. If you were the job, you wouldn’t be standing here talking, man. Okay? So take a walk here. Nobody else, man. You have my word.”
Tierney took one step, then another up toward the footpath.
Why couldn’t he breathe right? The night seemed to be tight over his face. Terry the Bull kept talking.
“So there’s Eddsy himself waiting when I get out the door of the ’Joy. Right there in the car. Waves me in. Says he heard I was going to walk, thought I’d like to get back into the world, you know? And that feels good. Maybe not as good as if you’d a seen your own family there at the gate. Because, well, let’s face it, I was no big thing to Eddsy, was I? Sure I did stuff with him and Bobby and Martin. But, hey-a welcome like that! Gives me a fistful of tenners. I had a half a bottle of champagne drunk before we hit town, man. Champagne! Tells me a place I can stay if things don’t go over rosy at home. Eddsy knows more than I do about human nature, I’d have to say after that. Makes a point of being there himself, you see?”
He nodded. The fear was beginning to ebb a little.
“But I only cop on later why Eddsy’s so interested in me. I don’t get all the news inside, do I? It’s Tommy the Pig. He’s got himself a new job, hasn’t he. And he’s bent Eddsy’s nose. To do with this girl getting done in. So Eddsy tells me about it. How she screwed up, how she tried to screw him out of merchandise. Know what I’m saying?”
“Well, I can kind of guess… ”
“The brother’s trying to break down a friend of Eddsy’s. You know Lolly Lenehan?”
“Sort of.”
“‘Sort of? Everybody knows Lolly. They put him in a corner, Tommy and the cops. Lolly’s looking at five years. They want Lolly to help them nail Eddsy and the brothers, see? But Lolly’s not saying anything. Lolly’s bought into these speeches that Eddsy’s always giving: loyalty. But Eddsy has this stupid thing, you know. It’s personal with him now. He wants to hit back. Lolly and him were close, right? So I’m starting to get the idea. The car, the booze, the hits… Eddsy’s got a job for me. See? Guess why I got the big parade and all?”
He shrugged.
“Ah, you’re too polite, aren’t you? Hey, Jammy! Polite can be a lot of things, man! Don’t take me for a mug, okay? Polite can mean a sneak. Stoolie. It can mean thick, thick ideas you get because you didn’t listen right! You know what I’m saying now?”
