Die Tryin' (22 page)

‘Let’s get the lid back on,’ Nick XR2 said.

They went over and grabbed the lid again and lifted the heavy bastard up. Nick Black wasn’t sure how much more his arms could take. But they managed (after a final big effort and two false starts) to get it up over the rim of the tomb. Collectively, they couldn’t hold on any longer and it fell from their grip. It landed back down with a final stony crunch.

Nick Black wiped his hands on the sides of his jeans, his arms aching.

He then stared at the dragon. ‘I hope I never see this fucking thing again!’ he said, pointing at it with a forceful jabbing motion.

‘That makes two of us, believe me,’ Nick XR2 concurred.

‘Three,’ added Charlie, catching his breath again.

‘Well, there’s no more room for anyone else, so I doubt we’ll be coming back here to dump our bodies in the future,’ Nick XR2 joked.

Nick Black looked away, disgusted. ‘Don’t joke like that, Nick. There won’t be any more bodies…’

Charlie went to speak when Nick Black lifted a finger to halt him. ‘Don’t say it.
Don’t fucking say it!’
He bounced his finger on the air a couple of times afterwards, staring at Charlie from the side of his face. Charlie closed his mouth, and then huffed like a child.

Nick Black sighed. ‘Let’s just go,’ he said. ‘I want my bed.’

‘Yeah,’ Nick XR2 said, and picked up the torch. ‘I hear you loud and clear there.’ He led them back out. Nick Black grabbed the wheelbarrow. Charlie closed the door behind them. It clicked shut with a small echo. Nick XR2 went and locked it with that oversized key, and that was that.

No more Marco, no more Taki; hopefully no more cemetery visits…

The walk back to the car was a lot easier than the walk there, not only because of the lack of Taki, but because the eerie surroundings were now blotted out by the questions starting to form in Nick Black’s head—
Was it really Marco who killed Taki? How can that be? Did he really believe that? Was Charlie insane? If Marco didn’t kill Taki, then who did? XR2? Could he really do that? Gouge his fucking eyes out like that?
Nick Black couldn’t believe it.
But, if Taki was gonna go to the police, then maybe XR2 was doing it to keep them out of trouble.

And if that was the case, was it now such a bad thing…?

Nick Black rubbed his eyes; they felt like hot marbles beneath his eyelids. It was all too much to think about right then, too soon after the event. He couldn’t believe Nick Theodorou could do that; couldn’t believe in ghosts either. He kind of wished it had been Tony who killed Taki because
that
he could believe, very much so.

Who knew, maybe he did…

They reached the back entrance just as another question formed in his mind:
Is Tony okay?

They waited by the car while Charlie put the wheelbarrow back where he found it, and all Nick Black could think of was Tony spending the next four years rotting in a cell. He bowed his head in shame and disappointment.

Charlie soon returned, his wide eyes scanning everything. Nick Black gave him a friendly pat on the back and Charlie smiled uneasily.

They got back in the car, Nick XR2 started it up and then drove away, leaving behind them the latest secret they just buried, and Nick Black wondered with fear and regret if it would be the last.

Nick Black hardly got a minute’s sleep, witnessing darkness morph into daylight.

The questions that surfaced in his mind on the way out of the cemetery wouldn’t give him a minute’s peace. They wanted to be answered, and wouldn’t rest until they were.

On top of that, he was worried about Tony. He might be a psycho, but he was still his friend. He thought about him locked up in a dirty cell with a heavy heart.

The freaky shit Charlie was coming out with at the church was preying on his mind as well. He knew Charlie wasn’t all there, had known that for a long, long time. But he had completely underestimated just how far gone he was. The previous night conclusively proved that Charlie was in another entire fucking universe to every other human being on God’s green Earth.
Seeing and hearing the dead?
What was all that about? And if it was true, how could he have been able to keep it a secret for so long?

And suddenly a thought hit him like a runaway train: was it all a conspiracy against Nick Mavro? Were all three of them in this together? Bump off Taki before he squealed, then make out (using Charlie’s madness as a diversion) that somehow Marco did it?

He stared at the poster of Bob Marley Blu-Tacked to his wall.
Could that be right?
That it was all a plan concocted to take Taki out the formula (and in the process giving them more of a cut of the jewels), and fool Nick into thinking it was some supernatural force that was responsible so that he himself wouldn’t squeal on them because he wouldn’t know what the truth really was? He couldn’t exactly go and tell the police a dead man did it. So, in that case, they were protecting him from the truth as well as covering their own backs?

And then something else hit him. If they killed Taki to silence him, could they then kill him next?

Dead men tell no tales and all that…

Surely they wouldn’t go that far,
would they?

He puffed his cheeks and ran his hands through his hair. It sounded so far-fetched, so paranoid, it was like something straight out of the
X-Files
.

As far out as having contact with the dead, and the dead killing the living?

He groaned and stuck his head under his duvet. He wished he never broke into that fucking mausoleum. No, he wished they never met that bastard Marco that night at the fair in the first place. Then none of this shit would be happening; Marco and Taki would be alive, Tony wouldn’t be in prison, and he would be able to sleep! He liked sleep for fuck’s sake!

And you wouldn’t have untold riches at your fingertips, and the impending debts ready to eat you up like a Venus fly trap would still be there…

He re-emerged from under his duvet and stared at Bob again. ‘What would you do in this situation?’ he asked him. Bob just stared at him through his slanted eyes, the biggest reefer in the world clutched in between his lips. Nick sighed. He knew exactly what Bob would do, so he dipped into the ashtray sitting on the cabinet by his bed and plucked out the half smoked spliff sitting in there. He sparked it up. Very soon, he was mellow, his eyelids heavy.
Ah, MJ. Mary Jane. The sweet skunky green Goddess of all the universe…

No Woman no Cry
abruptly blasted out of his mobile, making him almost jump out of his skin. He leapt out of bed and darted for it, checking the name on the screen. It was Nick XR2.

‘Nick?’ he answered in a surprised voice, it couldn’t have been long past 8 am.

‘Get dressed,’
Nick XR2 said.

‘Dressed? What for?’

‘We’re gonna go and pick up Tony.’

*****

Nick XR2 rolled up about twenty minutes later.

Nick Black rushed outside to meet him. He jumped in shotgun. ‘Where’s Charlie?’ he asked.

‘Don’t know. His phone’s switched off…’ Nick XR2 answered, turning the stereo down.

‘So, where’s Tony?’

‘Outside some nick in Haringey.’

‘And they just let him out?’

‘Looks like it,’ Nick XR2 said, pulling away from Nick Black’s house.

‘Did he say anything else?’

‘Like what?’

‘Like if they’re gonna charge him?’

‘He didn’t mention anything.’

Nick Black reflected. ‘Strange innit?’

‘What is?’

‘That they’ll just let him go like that.’

‘They can’t keep him locked up at the station forever you know.’

‘I know, but…’

‘Look. You can ask him what you like when we see him,’ Nick XR2 said, turning the stereo up again. He had KISS on. Nick Black hated KISS. ‘Okay?’

‘No, it ain’t okay. I hate this music,’ Nick Black replied, talking about Beyonce, whose voice was currently all around him.

‘Well, that’s tough shit ’cos
I
like it.’

‘Well, if you’re gonna listen to that, is it okay if I have a spliff?’

Nick XR2’s head snapped round, and the look in his eyes was like hellfire.

Nick Black grinned. ‘Only joking, Niko,’ he said. ‘Chill out, man.’

‘After what’s been going on, I can’t chill out, believe me,’ he said stopping at some traffic lights, and turning the radio down a notch.

Nick Black let out a heavy sigh and nodded his head in agreement. ‘I couldn’t sleep last night. Just kept on seeing Taki all mutilated and shit. Can’t believe what’s been going on. It’s freaky shit, man! Freaky!’

‘I know it is,
re,’
Nick XR2 said solemnly.

‘It’s surreal. I mean did you hear Charlie as well? Seeing and talking to dead people? What the fuck is all that about?’

‘Charlie’s a case,’ Nick XR2 said. ‘I wouldn’t take what he says seriously.’

‘But then, like he said: how else do we explain what happened to Taki? Who the hell done that to him, man? And why?’

‘There’s gotta be a more rational explanation than a dead person doing it.’

Nick Black glanced out of the window for a second, then turned to face Nick XR2. ‘Look, Nick. Now, I’m your friend, okay?’

‘Right
…’ Nick XR2 replied in a slow voice.

‘Now, just tell me the truth. Did you, Tony, or Charlie do that to Taki?’ Nick Black quickly raised his palms in the air. ‘I mean if you did, I know it’s because Taki couldn’t handle what went down at the cemetery, and on that score he was a danger to us all, and although you lot didn’t have to kill him, I can understand why you did even though you didn’t have to because I know
I
didn’t do it, and unless Taki was into some serious shit that we didn’t know about like proper gangster type stuff, and he owed them money, or fucked a gangster’s daughter, I can’t understand why anyone else would kill him, and you wanted to keep me out of it in case I said something, but you don’t have to worry about me, I won’t squeal,
so you don’t have to kill me too,
and—’

‘Enough!’ Nick XR2 shouted, karate chopping the air between them both. Nick Black flinched, and then sat back in his seat, pursing his lips tightly.

‘Look,’ Nick XR2 began. ‘Like I said last night. I had nothing to do with what happened to Taki. Now as far as I know, neither did Tony, or Charlie, but I can’t say for sure because I wasn’t with them for the whole of last night. But, I
suspect
that they had nothing to do with it either because as far as I know, none of us are murderers.’

‘Tony is…’

Nick XR2 brought the wheel round and overtook a Mini. ‘No, he’s not. He’s a violent bastard, yes.
But a cold hearted killer?
No. Tony’s sheer size and power, plus that violent streak he’s got were bound to get someone killed eventually. To be honest, I’m surprised he’s gone this long without doing it already.’

‘That’s true…’

‘Now, if you’re gonna ask me if Tony’s the type to think to himself that Taki’s a threat to us so I better kill him, then no, I think that’s wrong. I don’t think Tony’s calculating enough for that.’

‘And you?’ Nick Black stared at Nick XR2 from the corner of his eyes as he asked.

Nick XR2 glanced at him incredulously, looked back at the road, then looked back again, anger now flashing in his eyes. ‘What the fuck about me?’ he snapped.

‘Look, man. I’m just trying to work out—’

‘Well you’re barking up the wrong fucking tree!’

‘You were the last one to see him alive, and the first to find him dead.’

Nick XR2 chuckled to himself and zipped past a bus. ‘Okay, Lieutenant fucking Columbo. So, according to you, I’m gonna be stupid enough to kill Taki, then call you to come help me get rid of his body? That’s what your great detective intellect has managed to deduce from this shit, is it?’

‘Well,’ Nick Black shrugged as he contemplated. ‘…
yeah.’

Nick XR2 chuckled and shook his head. ‘Well, what about
you
?’ he then asked.

‘Me?’
Nick Black exclaimed.

Nick XR2 grinned and nodded his head with vehemence. ‘Yeah.’

‘What about me?’

‘How do I know
you
didn’t kill Taki, and this isn’t all some kind of reverse psychology designed to lead me into a false sense of security? Like what the cripple did in
The Usual Suspects.’

‘Because I ain’t a cripple. And I ain’t that clever.’

‘How do I know you’re not lying? You’re more educated than me, with your degree course and that. You could be an evil genius.’ Nick Black went to answer, then stopped. ‘Ha.
See?’
Nick XR2 asked with a gleam in his eye.

‘All right. All right,’ Nick Black conceded, his palms in the air. ‘We’re all paranoid about this. None of us knows what’s really going on. Apart from Charlie. Or so he thinks…
What do you reckon?’

‘About?’

‘Could Charlie have killed Taki?’

Nick XR2’s mouth turned downwards. ‘I can’t say for certain,’ he replied. ‘But, I’ve been wondering about Charlie since last night. Charlie’s a different kettle of fish to Tony, to any of us. He’s got problems. In the mind. We’ve all known that for a while now…’

‘Yeah, I heard people call him Charles the Freak you know?’ Nick Black said.

‘And Mad Charlie,’ Nick XR2 added.

‘Mad Charlie?’ Nick Black echoed. ‘Not heard that one.’

‘Yeah, I heard it a few times… But, he’s our friend, you know what I mean? Now, we don’t know how far gone he really is. Do these things he hears tell him to do stuff…’

‘Like kill people you mean?’

Nick XR2 nodded. ‘Like kill people. Like kill people who he’s paranoid about. We just don’t know.’

Nick Black rubbed his chin and watched the streets of north London whiz by. ‘You know, we found him sitting on a park bench not too far from the church last night,’ he said to the window.

‘Did you?’

Nick Black turned to face Nick XR2, who was turning his head at regular split second intervals, interested in what he was hearing. ‘Yeah,’ Nick Black affirmed. ‘Just sitting there looking spaced out, you know the way he does.’