I called his bluff. ‘And I thought Nadja was only after my body.’
‘What?’ said Roberts.
‘I’m guessing you’ve been talking to Benny’s right-hand man, or in this case woman. It was a man, but then Billy Boy was taken out, wasn’t he?’
Collins edged closer. ‘I’m warning you, Dury.’
Roberts held him off. His Clarks shoes squeaked on the floor.
I started to smirk. I knew now I’d been had by Nadja, probably to root out Billy Boy’s missing footage. I saw that with both Billy and Zalinskas out the picture, she stood to take over the entire outfit. A tidy little manoeuvre.
How much Zalinskas knew about Nadja’s scheming was a blank to me. I guessed not much. Both, however, now needed me out of the way. While the court case carried on, I figured, my life was safe. After that I was all out of options.
The pain in my head intensified, felt like my brow might crack down the middle. Who held all the power in the room was obvious.
My only hope, was to chance my luck. ‘Let’s deal.’
They looked at each other, frowning in symmetry.
‘You don’t hold any cards, Dury,’ said Roberts.
I spat out another mouthful of blood.
‘Let’s see what the Bullfrog has to say about that, shall we?’
‘You’re mad, fucking mad,’ said Collins. He began to laugh again, this time without the maniacal edge.
Roberts pushed him aside. ‘Shut up, would you? Let me talk to the man.’ As he leant over the desk, Collins turned away and kicked at the cell door. ‘I won’t tell you again to shut up. Now, Mr Dury, what, exactly, would you have us say to Mr Zalinskas?’
I sat up, brought my nose to within an inch of his. ‘Tell the Bullfrog I have, in my possession, some very interesting footage. Footage that would not do his current position any favours.’
This played right into Nadja’s hands — exposing the footage was just what she wanted. Risking the wrath of Zalinskas, though, that felt insane. Being in possession of the footage had cost Billy Boy his life and I’d just declared my ownership. But what option did I have? I needed to get Amy on a plane, somewhere far away until all this blew over.
My only hope was Zalinskas’ case would drag on a little longer; if it didn’t, Amy’s life was ruined. And I was a dead man.
‘And if we don’t pass on your message?’ said Roberts.
I rocked back on my chair, looked under the table. ‘I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes.’
63
A while back, the producers of the Brits pulled off a coup when they got Paul Weller to agree to appear at their awards ceremony. They had every reason to feel proud of themselves, had been trying to get the Modfather for years. But then, they blew it.
They asked Weller to do a duet with James Blunt.
‘I’d sooner eat my own shit,’ he was reported as saying.
I felt the same way about my only option.
As I sat in the cell, I mapped out a plan in my mind. But none of it sat easily with me.
I paced up and down, near wore out the floor.
After an hour or so, Collins and Roberts showed their hand and sent in a doctor.
He checked my nose, said, ‘It’s a clean break but it’s been broken before.’
I smelled whisky on his breath. ‘And?’
He wiped away the dried blood with a cotton bud, squeezed the bridge. ‘You can’t polish shite.’
‘Is that a medical opinion?’
‘It’s my opinion.’ He stood up, put on his shabby dogtooth coat. ‘Don’t pick it for a few days, it’ll heal itself.’
He tapped on the cell door to be let out. I shook my head at him, he hadn’t even asked me how I’d sustained these injuries. Just presumed I’d fallen down the stairs on the way to the cells.
‘Another upright citizen. The city can be proud of you, Doctor,’ I said.
He didn’t bat an eyelid.
I paced for another half hour, then sat on the cell floor, staring at the wall like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. Wished I had a pitcher’s mitt and a baseball. All I had was misgivings, fears, regrets.
Occasionally my nose throbbed. I tried to clear out the blood inside by pressing a nostril, one at a time, and blowing out. It helped at first, but soon became too painful to touch. I let it be. Left nature to take its course.
The throbbing settled into a persistent pain in my head and jaw. I learned to stay still, any movement resulted in agony. After a while, pain became the norm and I numbed my mind to it. I found if I concentrated, a Zen-like peace could be achieved. I’d just about perfected this when I heard a key in the lock.
I expected to see Collins and Roberts again, felt ready for them. But this time, shock walked in.
My blood began to race. My heart pumped me up for a whole new kind of fight.
As the door closed I stood up, faced the enemy.
‘That looks like a terribly painful injury you’ve got there, Mr Dury,’ said Cardownie. He wore a green sporting jacket, leather patches on the elbows and one shoulder. Tucked around his neck, a cravat, yellow with green paisley swirls. He’d obviously been yanked from a shooting party.
‘Funny that, there’s nosebleeds every time we meet,’ I said.
He laughed aloud. ‘I’m so glad not to be the one on the receiving end this time.’
‘There’s time yet.’
His laugh subsided, he took off his tweed cap. ‘Come now… we can be civilised, can’t we?’ He squirmed, tucked his hands behind his back and fired a crooked grin at me. He’d been sent by Zalinskas to do his dirty work. I saw now where the real power lay.
‘Civilised… now there’s a word. Goes hand in hand with profits.’
‘Quite. Coolidge, I believe. You’re obviously an educated man.’
He sounded like a character from a Noel Coward play. My fists clenched. I wanted to grab his scrawny neck in my hands, twist the life out of him. Kept seeing the footage of him pushing aside that young girl like some worthless rag after he’d had his fun with her.
‘Nothing that’s worth knowing can be taught,’ I said.
He missed that one, put on his ‘what a chippy fellow we have here’ smirk. The kind he kept for the below stairs type that I clearly appeared to be to him.
I prepared to deliver the lash. ‘Don’t you agree?’
Silence. He twisted his tweed cap in his hands. This whole affair seemed such an irritation to him. I mean, for someone like him to be forced to come down here, sort out this mess. To deal with a common grunt like me. I saw I churned his insides, just like the rest of the masses beneath him.
I gunned the pedal. ‘I know Billy Thompson knew the value of knowledge.’
Cardownie’s face twisted at the mention of Billy, but I wanted a wince out of him. ‘What’s that you say, Minister… an upstart? Och, I’m sure you’re right, Billy Boy was definitely an upstart. Son of a publican, the gall of him, thinking he could drag himself out of the gutter, make something of himself.’
‘He was a common criminal!’ burst out Cardownie.
‘Now, now. What’s raised your dudgeon, Minister? The common bit or the criminal bit?’
He put his sleekit eyes on me, then drew them away. I knew he wanted the footage, but while I had it, there was time to play.
‘I’m gonna take a guess here — not the criminal bit. No, because we know you have some powerful friends from that particular community, do you not, Minister?’
‘I have not,’ he barked.
