Jacko nodded at a tall boy loping across the grass towards a group of men. ‘I’ve been tailing him for five minutes. It’s definitely him.’
Tom Parker looked like a tosser – shirt and tie, schoolboy hair, shaking hands with all the adults. Looking at him made Mikey want to puke, made the knot in his gut tighten.
‘Let’s get him.’
But before he could move, Jacko caught him, said, ‘Whoa! That’s
‘Bollocks to the plan!’ Mikey tried to shake him off. ‘Let go of me. I’m sick of this.’
‘You whack him now, you’ll get arrested,’ Jacko hissed. ‘How’s that going to help Karyn?’
Mikey shoved him off. ‘It’s gonna help me!’
A woman walked past and looked curiously at them. ‘Hello,’ she said. ‘Everything all right?’
‘Perfect,’ Jacko said, putting his arm round Mikey and reining him in. ‘We were just saying what a lovely evening for a bail bash.’
The woman moved away, frowning slightly.
Mikey shrugged Jacko off again. ‘I hate this place.’
‘I know, I know.’
‘I hate him too. Look at him – surrounded by suits and still untouchable. He’s getting away with everything!’
Jacko sighed, opened his coat, pulled out a bottle and passed it to Mikey. ‘I also located the drinks cabinet. I think you’ll find this twenty-five-year-old malt whisky will clear your mind.’
Mikey took three long gulps. It flamed in his throat, warmed his belly. It was good to sink inside the feeling that somehow this was all going to work out. He took another gulp, and another.
Jacko smiled. ‘Better?’
Mikey nodded. He was thinking of his mum with her morning Valium. For the first time he understood why she talked about taking the edge off the terror.
‘He’s the centre of attention,’ Jacko said, ‘so we need to stay calm and move on to phase two.’ He winked. ‘You get to do what you’re best at, Mikey, and talk to girls. We need tactical intelligence – does he do martial arts? Is he left or right-handed? Has he got brothers and are they here? The usual stuff. I’ll keep a visual and gather data as I tail him. We both need to suss out the best location for phase three – preferably somewhere dark and quiet with good escape routes.’ He checked his watch. ‘We’ll reconvene on this position in an hour.’
Mikey felt momentarily dizzy. He rubbed his eyes. It would be great to pretend this was an ordinary night, that they’d crashed some random party, that he was here on the pull.
Jacko pressed the whisky bottle on him. ‘Keep this, it’s doing you good. Think of the Vikings, Mikey. Free booze. Posh birds. We’re here to plunder.’
Mikey shook his head as Jacko walked backwards away from him. ‘The Vikings?’
‘Yep. And don’t worry, the face-to-face thing’s gonna happen. We’ll perforate him at the end, when it’s quiet.’ He tapped a finger to his head. ‘Stay frosty.’
Mikey took another swig of whisky and watched the clouds. Soon it would rain again. A downpour would be good – wet people rushing back to cars, the whole party ruined. Tom Parker would be left alone. An easy target.
Mikey scanned the lawn, looking for him, but he’d gone now, the circle of men broken up. There was the drunk girl again, moving slowly along the fence, staring at her own feet. She wouldn’t be any help.
But there – who was that? On the bench, underneath that tree. Lanterns swayed above her, people everywhere, and her simply sitting there, the one still point. Mikey put the whisky in his pocket, plucked two beers from a waitress and smiled. He knew this girl. She’d opened the door to him earlier. She was Tom Parker’s sister.
Seven
When he got to the bench, she looked up, but didn’t smile.
‘Mind if I sit down?’ he said.
She shrugged, as if she didn’t care either way, and slid along to make room. He put the beers on the bench between them. ‘One of these is for you.’
‘No thanks.’ Her voice was softer than he remembered.
He took out his tobacco and rolled a thin one, offered it across. ‘Smoke?’
She shook her head.
‘So,’ he said, ‘not in a party mood then?’
‘Not particularly.’
‘Missing revision?’
He meant it as a joke, but she didn’t get it. ‘It’s not that, it’s just, I never expected it to be so…’
She let the sentence drop.
A group of girls cheered as some Lady Gaga song suddenly blared from the speakers outside the marquee. They started dancing, singing along to the words and pointing their fingers at the sky. A couple of boys stood watching and one of the girls wiggled her arse at them. Adults stood about on the grass, leaning towards each other in deep conversation. It was like there were two parties happening at once.
‘Your brother knows a lot of people,’ he said.
She sighed. ‘Never underestimate the power of curiosity.’
‘Are any of your friends here?’
‘I didn’t invite anyone.’
‘You invited me.’
‘Apart from you.’
She slid a fraction further away to show her utter lack of interest. He smiled. This would be a breeze.
‘Where’s your boyfriend then? Is he here?’
She frowned. ‘Who?’
‘Just thought you’d be with someone. Looking like you do.’
‘No.’
Mikey inhaled, exhaled. He knew it was up to him to say something else, but most girls would’ve laughed when he mentioned a boyfriend, would’ve been flattered. Now everything that came into his head sounded fake. He sat and smoked and tried to work out what to do next.
It was solved for him – her phone rang and she stood up to fish it out of her pocket. ‘Tom, yeah, I did text you,’ she said. ‘Because I couldn’t see you anywhere, that’s why. This is madness. Do you even know half these people?’ She glanced back at Mikey only briefly before walking off down the slope. When she got to the fence, she opened a gate he hadn’t even known was there and disappeared through it. Now what did he do?
Across the grass, Jacko was talking to some bloke in a suit and tie. He was taking his responsibilities seriously by the look of it – nodding and smiling, asking questions, gathering information. Mikey felt his throat tighten. That Jacko would do this for him when it wasn’t even his fight – it was like having a brother.
He stood up, determined. He was going to walk across the grass and go through that gate and make Tom Parker’s sister talk.
As he crossed the lawn, he realized how massive this garden was. Holly would love to live in a place like this – so big she could have her own frigging football pitch. Beyond the fence was the river, so that gate must be a private entrance to it. He imagined him and Holly running down this slope to their boat, jumping in whenever they wanted and getting the hell out of this town.
The lights from the party didn’t reach the river, but he could still see the girl through the gate. She was off the phone now, standing there gazing across the water. A train was moving slowly along the tracks on the other side of the river. Its lights splashed the grass at her feet, her face lit up for a second and then went dark again. He’d envy this party if he was on that train – the marquee, the music, the enormity of the place. Funny how things could seem better from far away.
Before he even got through the gate she said, ‘You shouldn’t sneak up on people in the dark.’
