‘Strip, Hardy,’ Loomis said, ‘and then bend over.’
I took the. 38 and pointed it at the bridge of Loomis’s big-pored nose. ‘I’ll strip,’ I said. ‘I know you have to be sure I’m not wired. But I’m not going to spread my bum for you or anyone else and you can tell Black Andy that for me. I’m feeling fucking humiliated enough just talking to him.’
The other heavy made a move towards me but I kept the gun steady on Loomis, who gave a buck-toothed smile, causing me to remember his nickname. He gestured to his mate to back off. ‘You always had some balls, Hardy, I’ll give you that. You can put the gun within reach and strip. Me and Chris’ll just admire your physique while you show us there’s no wire.’
‘Fair enough, Bucky.’
His face darkened but he wasn’t about to be put off his stride. ‘You’ll keep, Hardy. You’ll unload the gun before we go back in and drop the bullets into a pocket of your jacket. Then I think Mr Piper’ll be happy to see you. Of course, if you’re wearing a wire Chris and me will have to take steps here and now.’
I put the pistol on the shelf in front of the mirror between two washbasins and took off my jacket and shirt along with the holster. I undid my belt and dropped my strides. I lowered my underpants to my knees, then I pulled them up along with the pants. I lifted one leg after the other onto the shelf, unzipped the boots and pulled them off, then put them back on. It was all demeaning and tiring and made my blood boil, but I kept my eyes on Loomis while making sure the pistol was within reach.
About halfway through the procedure the door to the toilet swung in, but Chris put his weight against it.
‘Not now,’ he said.
Loomis, who’d been leaning against a stall door, pushed off. ‘Okay. That’s fine. Get dressed and we’ll go and have some lunch. Remember what I said about the gun. You can hang on to the pocket knife and the mobile.’
I took my time about getting ready just to annoy him. We went back into the corridor and I flipped out the magazine of the. 38 and spilled shells into my hand. Loomis leaned down to do a count and nodded as I put the pistol back in the holster. Then he gripped my wrist, twisted it and caught the shells as they fell out.
‘Fuck you, Hardy,’ he said.
There was a scattering of diners in the restaurant but they took no notice of the three of us as we walked towards a table at the back, half partitioned off from the rest of the place. Black Andy Piper sat alone at the table and I’d scarcely have recognised him. Never tall, he’d expanded to twice the bulk he’d had when he kicked the shit out of me at the Cross. The hair was now silvery white. With his nutcracker nose and jaw structure and leathery skin, he looked like an inflated Bob Hawke. The table was big enough for four but Piper waved his minions away and gestured for me to sit opposite him. He exchanged nods with Loomis before dismissing him.
‘You’re looking well, Hardy,’ he said, and his growl wasn’t unlike Hawke s either.
‘Thanks.’
‘What d’you do? Take vitamins?’
‘Good genes.’
He had a glass in front of him and another beside it and there was a bottle in an ice bucket on a stand. He lifted the bottle out and showed it to me.
‘Retsina?’
‘Fine.’
He poured me a glass and pushed it across, topped up his own and proposed a toast. ‘To letting bygones be bygones.’
I raised my glass in response. ‘For now at least.’
‘Fair enough. So you’re still mates with that cunt Parker. He saved your bacon a few times as I recall.’
The retsina was cold and strong and I wanted to gulp it, forced myself not to. ‘We’re mates. Save the abuse, Piper. You’ve got no time for Frank and it’s mutual.’
Piper took a good pull on his wine and gave a contented sigh. ‘I’ve ordered. Tucker’ll be here in a while. I love this kind of food. Mary introduced me to it. You like it?’
‘Yes. Let’s get down to it. Warren North. You want him for your reasons and I want him for mine. Where is he?’
Piper smiled showing teeth he’d spent a lot of money on-crowns, ceramic in front where he once had gold. ‘Jesus, Hardy, not so fast. We have to come to terms. I dunno where the fuck he is but I’m going to find out. He’s in control of some merchandise but he’s lost the franchise, if you know what I mean. I have to know how you stand on that.’
‘I couldn’t give a shit. If people want to put poppy juice in their veins, I say let ‘em. I’d legalise it.’
‘Would you now? That’d really fuck things up. Okay… ah, here’s the food.’
I knew I was going to have to put up with Piper’s Godfather routine and decided I might as well enjoy it. The spread that was laid out looked to be enough for four or six and must have accounted for his weight gain. He speared things from a number of plates, piled them up in front of him and gave the food his full attention. I followed suit, taking about a quarter of what he did. It was the usual- stuffed olives and vine leaves, various dips, flat bread, spiced and skewered meats, grilled and pickled vegetables. Hog heaven.
I started to speak but Piper held up one hand to check me and concentrated on his food until he felt fuelled enough to get down to business. He wasn’t finished by a long shot, but he was prepared to pick now and talk between bites and sips.
‘I suppose you know by now how the Master thing was supposed to work,’ Piper said. ‘Of course, I was just a… facilitator, not a player.’
‘I’ve got a pretty good idea. But North was playing his own game. I’m betting the original shipment was meant to be soft but North and maybe Master changed it to hard and that made a certain amount of killing worthwhile.’
Piper sucked on an olive, spat the pip accurately into a dish and nodded. ‘Something like that. North’s a ratbag and the word is he’s closed down a lot of his options.’
‘So, can you find him?’
‘Yeah, given time. He’ll be trying to cut a deal with one scumbag or another, but he’s going to find it hard. Eventually he’ll end up between a rock and a hard place. Do you know that Jack Nicholson’s the first person to go on the record as saying that? It was when all that Polanski shit was going down.’
‘I didn’t know you were a movie buff
‘I’m not. Mary is.’
‘Ah, Mary’
‘That’s right. Mary. You can see that I’ve got interests to protect in this thing.’
‘One of them being Jack the Odd.’
‘You’ve got the idea. So I have to proceed cautiously and make sure it all comes out right in the end.’
‘Me too.’
“What’s in it for you, Hardy? The woman? Are you fucking her? I wouldn’t if I was you. That Master’s a tough cunt and now that he’s out and about…’
I’d had enough to eat but I thought about another piece of bread with some babaganoush and decided why not? It gave me a chance to think of a reply. I ate the bread in two bites and drank some retsina. ‘Professional pride.’
Piper’s white-toothed grin was mostly a sneer. ‘Oh, yeah, I remember you were always big on that, like fuck you were.’
‘Come on, Piper. You know what I want-to be there at the time and make sure the woman’s safe. What do you want, apart from a clean slate for all of your mates?’
Piper slid a last piece of meat to the end of a skewer and popped it into his mouth. He chewed and then pointed the sharp end of the skewer at me. ‘A hundred grand,’ he said.
24
As I walked back to my car with the bullets for the. 38 loose in my pocket, I thought that Piper’s demand for
