Long Time Dead

Chapter 31

I MUST HAVE PASSED OUT. My mouth felt dry, which meant I’d stopped bringing up blood, but my lips were swollen and sore. There was a throbbing in my head, but that was nothing new. The motion of the car had my guts turning over and over, though I figured they’d have been doing all right on their own without any help. My heart battered off the insides of my ribcage where I lay, face down on the back seat. There was a pool of frothy sick, the kind the doctor had said was a sign of dire consequences to come. I knew I’d fallen off the wagon in spectacular fashion but somehow, even knocking at death’s door, it seemed the least of my worries.

I turned over; groaned. Got the driver’s attention. He yelled at me but I didn’t register a word. My mind was fixed on the dull fizz of the street lamps that flew past the window. The world outside looked bathed in a sickly orange glow; seemed to fit.

I raised myself on an elbow. The pug was still yelling at me: ‘D’ye want me to come back there and give you another slap?’

I touched my head – there was a nice cut above my left eye where his last slap had landed. I figured on there being more to come.

My senses slowly started to return to me. I had the vague notion to try and jump out of the car, make a run for it. But I knew, in my condition, that wasn’t an option. Even at thirty miles an hour, I’d end up as spam the second I hit the tarmac. And as for running – there was less chance of that than me finding the winning lottery ticket on the floor.

I worked myself up to straighten my back, found I could get upright without too much effort. It surprised me… I had a spine, then. The pug had another yelp at me: ‘You fucking better settle down or I’ll be pulling over to tan yer arse for you!’

He sounded like my father; at least, his turn of phrase did.

My hands stung like a bastard. I looked down at them, saw the palms were covered in dried blood. I remembered taking a flyer in the pub, and being thrown out onto the street. It didn’t matter to me which of these events had been responsible, the facts of the matter remained the same. I felt a gale of shame blow over me. I knew there would be a time when I replayed this scenario, went over every minor detail and castigated myself for it. That was the alky’s way. I had wondered once if this was why I did it – if I was a shame junkie. But I’d long since stopped wondering about anything. Life had become so unmanageable now that there didn’t seem any point.

I shook myself. If there was a spark of life in me, somewhere, I’d find it. I had Amy to think about and the case I was working held all Hod’s hopes for getting his life back on track. I had lost Debs, I knew that, but Gillian had lost a son; there were other people out there who needed me. I couldn’t let them down. The drinking, I knew now, had been a mistake… but I could move on from that. Or so I hoped.

‘Where are you taking me?’ I said.

The pug’s beefy neck twitched, two fat rolls of meat quivering as he twisted round to yell at me. ‘What the fuck was that? You speaking to me?’

I amped it up: ‘I said… where the fuck are you taking me?’

He slammed on the brakes. My neck jerked backwards, then my head snapped forwards and banged off the seat in front. I took a fair dunt, but wasn’t any more dazed than I had been previously.

The pug pulled off his seatbelt, got out of the driver’s door and marched around the side of the car. He tugged open the back door then looked at me for a second. There was an expression on his face that said he might have been weighing up whether I was actually still alive.

‘Christ al-fucking-mighty, Dury… you look like fucking shit.’

I managed a lame, ‘Thanks… not looking bad yerself.’

He leaned in and clasped a mitt round my throat; I tried to loosen it but my grip was too weak. He held me for about a minute, watched me struggle for air then threw me back on the seat. As I gasped he laughed it up: ‘Jesus… not gonna have much fun with you, y’wee sack of shit, am I?’

‘Depends.’

He looked as though he’d been poked in the eye. ‘What you say?’

‘You taking me dancing, big boy?… Can fair cut a rug, y’know.’

He pulled back a fist, thought better of it. I got the impression he really wanted me in one piece.

‘You’ll find out soon enough where I’m taking you, ya daft cunt.’

We started out again. I watched the street lamps lining the road and my vision began to settle. My stomach felt as if someone had lit a furnace in there. I was on the verge of heaving all over the back seat, but I kept it down. Had a feeling that if I started I wouldn’t stop. And that would be that.

We left the East End and headed out through Porty. The streets were quieter here – bit far out for Festival-goers – but there was still the usual after-hours carnage of blokes pissing in shop door-ways, and girls in high heels and higher skirts screaming blue murder at each other through streaked make-up and lank hair. What did I ever see in this life? At night, being driven around in the back of a car, the whole city is laid bare before you. Makes you think… makes you want to pack up and leave. Maybe I would. If I got the chance.

I started to grow woozy, my eyes opened and closed, and I was in and out of consciousness by the time we reached Musselburgh. We seemed to be in a more residential area now; the street lamps had changed from orange to white and the roads were quieter. I rested my head on the window and caught sight of my reflection. I was beyond rough. My skin was pasty white and deep lines cut from the corners of my eyes to halfway down my cheeks. I seemed to have aged dreadfully. My mouth, minus the top row of teeth, was pinched and dour. I looked like an old jakey. I wanted to laugh, the state of me. I was so rough beyond belief that I knew the world wouldn’t miss me. Who, Amy? Hod? My mam? Sure, they’d miss me… but would they be any worse off for not having me in their lives? I had weighed it all up and come to the conclusion that if this was the end, so be it. I wouldn’t fight it. I wouldn’t even contest it. It would be for the best.

The pug pulled onto a gravel driveway. Bright lights lit up as the tyres crunched into the scree. We seemed to be approaching the rear of a large baronial-style home. The car came to a halt slowly, the wheels hardly making any noise as they stilled. The pug squinted out to the back door; the lights were too bright and he made a visor of his hand above his eyes. He seemed to see what he wanted to see, smiled and made a thumbs-up. I caught sight of a bloke, a lit cigarette in his mouth, making his way down from the back steps. He was another big biffer in a white trackie.

The pug turned on me. ‘Showtime!’

I had to laugh. ‘Is that supposed to put the shits up me?’

His face dropped. ‘I’ll put the fucking shits up you, Dury.’

I managed another snort, felt less brave when I saw the corners of his mouth turning up; he looked the type who enjoys this sort of thing. It’s why they got into the racket in the first place – to bust heads.

The car’s back door was pulled open. I felt a cool gust of damp air and then a large hand with a heavy piece of bling on the wrist reached in and grabbed me by the collar.

In the far corner of the well-lit yard sat a one-storey building. It looked out of place, like a bunker; it seemed to have blacked-out windows. It didn’t inspire confidence in me; could guess what it was used for. As we walked towards it the pug put a boot in my arse. I turned, blared, ‘You can chuck that in! I’m fucking walking, amn’t I?’

The pair of diddies looked at each other and laughed. Was expecting a high five, but they were beneath even that level.

When we reached the door, the trackie pug knocked a couple of times and then the door sprung open. Another shaven-headed lump opened up, nodded us down a tiled corridor. I knew why it was tiled: easier to hose down the blood. At the end of the corridor a door was ajar; I heard voices coming from inside. I was sure I recognised one of them. When I was pushed through the doorway, my worst fears were confirmed.

‘Gus Dury, as I live and breathe!’ said Shaky. He stood in the corner with a group of biffers. They were drinking cans of Red Stripe. ‘Get you a wee tipple, Gus?’

I shook my head. That was a first. But I’d had enough for one night.

‘Och, wise… always gets you into bother the drink, does it no’?’ he said.

I walked into the middle of the room. It looked to have been a slaughterhouse at one stage. There was a rail of butcher hooks hanging from a metal bar that crossed two steel beams in the ceiling. On the ceramic floor was a gutter and grooves to let the blood drain away. If he had chosen this place for effect, it fucking well worked. I felt my throat freeze over; my heart all but stilled in my chest. All I could think of now was Amy, and how she’d feel when she heard how I went.

‘Mind you, Gus… way things are looking for you, you might fancy a wee bevy. Sure I cannae tempt you?’

I shook my head again. Tried to speak, but couldn’t manage words. Somehow I’d lost the power of speech. All language was locked away inside me, I had no access to it. As I stood there looking at the crowd of laughing idiots, all I hoped for was a quick death. I was certainly too weak to put up a fight.

‘What’s that, Gus?… Sorry, cannae hear you,’ said Shaky.

The pug in the leather jacket leaned forward and slapped me across the side of the head. ‘He’s fucking speaking to you.’

The crowd got a laugh out of that.

‘Where did you find him?’ asked Shaky.

‘Stoatin’ about the East End… oot his fucking face, so he was.’

Shaky crossed the few feet between us to look me in the eye. ‘What’s the matter, Gus boy… wee barney wi’ the missus?’

I found words, ‘I’m not married… any more.’

Shaky pulled a face. ‘Oh, it speaks!’ He walked round behind me. ‘That’s right, remember hearing something about that… when I put my feelers out. Did you know I was taking an interest in you, Dury? Oh, aye… big interest, let me tell you.’

I twisted my neck, followed his pacing. ‘Is that right?’

He snapped: ‘I’m no’ a liar!… In fact, anything I tell you, you can be guaranteed of it, bet the fucking farm on my word, so ye can. Now, do you remember what I told you the last time we met, son?’

I remembered, but didn’t let on. Shrugged out a ‘Not really.’

The crowd didn’t like that, let out whoops and hisses. It was high drama for these idiots. Serious as pay-per-view sports.

Shaky felt the crowd baying for blood. ‘String the cunt up.’

My hands were tugged behind my back, then a rope was tightened. One of the butcher’s hooks got dragged along the rail; the shrill shriek of it set my spine on edge. I was raised up and my tied hands attached to the hook. The pain as my body’s weight pulled at my shoulder blades was an agony. I wailed out in utter defeat.

The group laughed and cheered, a few banged tins of beer together. Shaky walked beneath me where I hung… ‘Now, see that Laird laddie – he wasn’t strung up like that, Dury. He had the rope round his fucking neck… Would you prefer that?’

I started to sweat. The pain felt as if my shoulders would explode at any moment. It’s funny how, faced with your own destruction, all notions of bravery leave you. I managed some words: ‘No… no.’

‘What’s that?’ Shaky cupped a hand to his ear. ‘Think I missed it!’

‘I said no… No, I don’t want strung up like Ben Laird.’

Jeers, some clapping. Laughter ringing off the walls.

Shaky didn’t seem to like my response, though. He snapped, ‘Then why the fuck are you still padding about this toon trying to rake into the cunt’s death?’ He grabbed my jacket collar, pulled me down closer to him. ‘Eh, answer me that. Did you just choose to forget what I warned you, Dury? That it? You making a cunt oot ay me? Or are you just plain fucking stupid?’

I couldn’t speak now. The pain was too much; I passed out.

When I came to, Shaky was stood over me, smoking a cigarette. He put the filter-tip in my mouth, played up to me. ‘Answer me this, Dury… what’s your fucking game here, eh? Who’s working your strings? Cos either you have some serious back-up or yer on a death wish… which is it?’

I had nothing to lose by laying my cards on the table so I said, ‘I’m not the one you need to worry about.’

‘Eh? What you fucking on about?’ I had his attention.

‘There’s worse than me you could cross.’

He arked up, grabbed my hair and pulled back my head, ‘Stop pissing me about here, son. Say what you’ve got to say or I’ll put you back up on that fucking hook, and no’ by the hauns this time.’

He let go my hair, my head slumped forward. ‘I know about Ben Laird and Gemmill… about the money he owed and that you want to see the case closed so it doesn’t come back to you…’

‘Well, if you know that, what are you fucking playing at?’

I gasped for breath. Took a gamble: ‘This goes higher up than you think… the filth are all over this.’

‘Are you on about that mad Irish bastard?’

‘You’ve met Fitz?’

‘Creeping about, rattling folks’ cages… He’s no’ playing the game.’

I spat, ‘And neither are you.’

Shaky’s eyes burned. ‘What the fuck you on about?… Now, spit it oot!’

I played my one and only card; it was no ace, but it was all I had. ‘I know you don’t want the kid’s murder laid at your doorstep, so you need to let me get Gemmill out the frame… Trust me, if he didn’t do it, I’ll find out.’

‘He didn’t fucking do it! But you think that’s gonna stop the polis hanging it on him, and my business out tae dry with him?’

I felt my breath seep out slowly. I was close to collapse again. Had little or no energy resources left to draw on. ‘If I get Gemmill off… are we quits?’

Shaky nodded. ‘Aye, oh aye…’

‘And Hod?’

His answer came slower this time: ‘You get our Danny in the clear and yourself and Hod are of no interest tae me.’

I managed a dim smile before my eyes closed on me and the room fell into blackness.