‘Last chance,’ Dom said quietly to Rob as he increased the pressure. ‘Tell me who told you, or I’m gonna slit your throat. And then I’ll slit hers,’ he added, looking over at Suzie. ‘After I’ve had a bit of fun with her.’
‘Harry . . .’ Rob gurgled. ‘It – it was Harry.’
‘What was?’
‘He – he told me about you,’ Rob lied, feeling no conscience about dropping the old bastard in it if it saved his and Suzie’s lives. Harry hadn’t given a shit about him when he’d sent these men round to kill him.
‘I told you that old cunt couldn’t be trusted,’ Austin muttered.
‘Why would Harry tell you about me?’ Dom asked Rob.
‘It was when we – when we were in the Strange,’ Rob spluttered, terrified to move his head in case the knife went in any deeper. ‘He was bragging about knowing people who got away with murder. You’ve got to be tough to survive in there, and he – he used your name to scare them into leaving him alone. He made out like you were mates; said you’d come after anyone who touched him.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me this at the start?’ Dom asked.
‘I – I’m not a grass,’ Rob croaked. ‘And I thought he was my friend.’
‘And you seriously expect me to believe that?’ Dom sneered.
‘It’s true, I swear,’ Rob insisted. ‘It was three years ago and I’d forgotten about it till Harry rang me yesterday and asked to meet up. You can check my phone if you don’t believe me. He withheld his number, but he sent me a text straight after with the address of the pub.’
‘Why did he want to meet you?’ Austin asked from the other side of the room.
‘He – he wouldn’t tell me over the phone,’ Rob said. ‘But when I got there, he said he was going to blackmail you.’ He glanced up at Dom whose dark eyes were unreadable. ‘He said he couldn’t risk doing it himself ’cos too many people know him, so he – he needed someone from out of the area to do it. I said I didn’t want to do it, so he brought me home and told me to keep my mouth shut.’
‘So why did he give me your name and address?’ Dom asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Rob whimpered, tears trickling from his swollen eyes when it dawned on him that he’d probably just signed his own death warrant.
‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Suzie piped up. ‘He was covering his own back. He must have realized he’d made a mistake telling Rob his plan, and he sent you after him, hoping you’d kill him before he had the chance to tell you what was really going on.’
Rob almost stopped breathing when Dom narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. He could see that the man thought Suzie’s explanation was feasible, and he silently prayed that it would be enough to save his life.
‘Even if that’s true, it still leaves us with a problem,’ Dom said. ‘You both know too much.’
‘We won’t say anything,’ Suzie said sincerely. ‘You have my word.’
Dom looked at her and gave a rueful smile. ‘Sorry, darlin’, but I can’t take that risk.’
43
Gee, Davy and Ben had crept round the side of the car park and were now on the road at the side of the terraced row in which Suzie lived. Heading for the alleyway, Gee had decided to check if the BMW was still parked where he’d seen it earlier. Gesturing for the others to wait there in case the men inside were undercover cops, he pulled up his hood and headed over the road to the old church. If he found the men inside the car, he would tell them that he’d decided to check them out because he’d been concerned that they might be gang members waiting to start another war. It was a pretty flimsy excuse, but he would stick to it if confronted.
The car was empty when he reached it, and the doors were locked. Peering through the tinted glass of the passenger-side window, he saw a half-smoked spliff lying on the centre console and a partially full bottle of Jack Daniels in the footwell, along with a mess of fast-food wrappers. Certain that the blokes he had seen couldn’t be police, he gave a high, thin whistle.
‘’S up?’ Davy, the eldest of Carol’s sons asked when he and his brother Ben ran over.
‘They’re not cops,’ Gees said, gesturing for them to look through the window.
‘And they ain’t from this estate, so they’ve got no business being here,’ Davy said, pulling a lethal-looking flick knife out of his pocket and plunging the blade into the tyre.
‘What you doing?’ Gee hissed, watching in horror as Ben repeated the action on the other tyres.
‘Like I said, they ain’t from round here,’ said Davy. ‘And if they’ve got anything to do with what’s going on at that house, this’ll stop them getting away in a hurry.’
Hoping that he was right and the vehicle wasn’t the property of an innocent developer, Gee looked nervously around to make sure no one had spotted them.
‘Come on,’ Davy said when he’d finished. ‘Let’s go see what’s what.’
A mile away, sitting in their squad car outside McDonald’s, finishing the burgers they’d bought from the drive-through, Dan Spencer crumpled his wrapper and, lowering his window, tossed it into the bin.
‘You still thinking about that bird?’ his colleague, PC Neil Hayes, asked, slotting the last piece of his own burger into his mouth.
‘Yeah.’ Spencer nodded.
‘You and her got some kind of history?’ Hayes asked, wiping mayonnaise off his chin.
‘Not in that way,’ Spencer said, guessing what the other man was thinking. ‘Me and Jack have attended a few call-outs there.’
‘Oh, yeah? What kind?’ Hayes asked, chucking his own wrapper over the roof of the car and missing the bin. ‘Make a habit of disturbing her neighbours, does she?’
‘Not her, her boyfriend,’
