“How?” said Amanda.
“We could blackmail Faith and Vance with those photos of them together?” offered Rick.
“That won’t work,” said Ben. “Even their own brother didn’t believe them, so no one else will. Faith will just put it about that they were photoshopped. Everyone might have a good snigger over them but that would be it.”
“Do you think they’re photoshopped?” said Eddie. “I mean, what if they really are sleeping together?”
“Adam swore they are but he’s desperate for revenge and a bit soft in the head. He could have faked them.”
“We could rob the clubs,” said Amanda. “They’ll keep a lot of cash on the premises.”
“They won’t fall for another false alarm.”
Her eyes gleamed. “What if it wasn’t a false alarm?”
“You mean, set fire to the nightclubs?”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” she said darkly. “You’ve been around Eclectic, you’ve seen its strengths and weaknesses. I bet you already know how to do it.”
“Yes,” he said slowly.
“It’s opening night tonight. It would be perfect.”
“You’re on about doing it when the club is full?” said Eddie.
“That would have the most impact and cause the most chaos,” replied Amanda.
“You’ve really lost the plot now. We could end up killing dozens of people and that is not who I am.”
“You already got in deep when we killed Dillon,” she retorted.
“When you killed him. It was nothing to do with me.” He turned pleading eyes on Ben. “You can’t seriously be considering this. It’s insane. We save lives, we don’t take them.”
“Eddie’s right,” said Rick. “This is too far.”
“You didn’t seem to have a problem with it at the furniture warehouse,” Amanda told them. “We left Faith and Vance Chambers to burn alive and you were happily shooting at them all.”
“I wasn’t trying to hit them,” said Eddie. “I just wanted them to back off.”
“What a load of crap,” said Amanda. “You were enjoying yourself, I could see it in your eyes.”
“How could you see anything with all the smoke in there?”
“Stop arguing,” said Ben. “It’s not helping and I’m not sure how effective hitting Eclectic and Pulse will be. We both know all the money is kept in safes that we don’t have the combination for.”
“The Chambers family know the combinations,” said Amanda.
“Kidnapping, again?” groaned Rick. “It was difficult enough the first time. That lot are fucking hard.”
“We could go for one of the Chambers family who aren’t hard,” said Amanda. “Like the mum or the sister.”
“The sister’s hobby is stabbing people in the eyes with her nails,” said Eddie. “She’ll be as tough as the rest of them.”
“But not the mother.”
“What do you think a woman who raised a brood like that lot will be like?”
“She’s a God-fearing old biddy. It’ll be a piece of piss.”
“No,” said Ben. “This isn’t the right way to go. We tried kidnapping once and it didn’t work. We need to try something new.”
“I’m sure the answer lies in the clubs,” said Amanda.
“Perhaps but setting fire to them when they’re full of people isn’t it.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know, I’m so tired. Let’s go home and get some rest, we can’t think when we’re in this state. We’ll reconvene at the station tomorrow at eighteen hundred hours.”
Matthew ducked out of sight as they got back into the van and drove off. When they’d gone he made a phone call.
“Caleb,” he said. “I’m going to give you an address. You and your brothers need to get down here as soon as possible.”
Matthew watched as Caleb, Kevin and Jason wandered around the unit the firefighters had been using as their base.
“Why didn’t you call us when they were here?” said Kevin. “That might have been some fucking use.”
“Because they were all armed and I didn’t think having a shoot-out would help anyone, especially after what you’d just been through. And I’m not hearing much gratitude here. I ran out on Alice to help you.”
“We are grateful,” said Caleb. “We really appreciate all your help. God knows we need it. We barely got out of that fire alive. We could have lost Vance and Faith today.”
“This needs to end,” said Jason.
“They’re not going to stop,” said Matthew. “Not from what I heard anyway. I did record them saying they killed Dillon Enfield. Amanda was the one who actually did it.”
“I’m not surprised,” said Kevin. “She’s a proper nutter.”
“Can you use it to nick her?” said Caleb.
“No. I didn’t have a warrant to record them and if I do then everything will come out about your business and the Maguires will kill me. Two of them aren’t sure about continuing with this. You should be warned that Amanda wanted to set fire to Eclectic tonight when it’s full of customers.”
“Christ,” sighed Jason.
“They talked her out of it. Even Ben said that was nuts. Then she came up with the idea of kidnapping your mum.”
“Why didn’t you tell us that sooner?” exploded Kevin. “We left her with only Abi and Michael for protection.”
“Because the others shot down that idea too and because I knew you’d put her somewhere safe. They’re all exhausted and sick of it, apart from Amanda, who seems to revel in the violence and excitement and two of them are ready for giving up altogether. They’ve never been weaker. They’ve gone home to rest and will be meeting up at the fire station at six o’clock this evening, probably to start their next shift. You know when
