Ian had the sense that some of his old life was being handed back to him and he couldn’t be more grateful. It was a strange dichotomy of beautiful things happening against the background of such utter darkness. Mark had come into his life. Graham had come back into his life. But Lucifer was lurking in the shadows. Derek Campbell was out there somewhere and until he’d been dealt with there could be no moving on.
‘ Look, don’t forget that this city is alien territory to Campbell’ said Graham ‘ You’ve got the advantage here’.
‘ Yeah, but he’s getting help, Graham. He wouldn’t have been able to torch the clubhouse otherwise. He’s working with a group of far-right head cases over here and I don’t underestimate him, Graham. And neither should you’.
Jimmy Kent had seen more burned out cars left at the back of disused factories than he could even hazard a guess at. When he first joined the force it was a weekly diet of burned out cars and sectarian murders. He’d stand around on mornings just like this, with the rain pissing down making the whole scene look so fucking grey and suicidal, waiting for the plods in suits to come and drop their pearls of wisdom over the situation and tell uniformed grafters like himself what they already knew. Now he was the plod in the suit and he knew just what the look meant that the uniformed P.C was giving him as he walked up.
‘ D.C. I Kent’ said Jimmy as he held up his warrant card ‘ So what’s the story here, constable?’
‘ The car was found by kids earlier this morning, Sir’.
‘ Any signs of a body inside?’
‘ No, Sir. No sign, no trace’.
‘ Right’ said Jimmy, looking the VW over with his usual slightly suspicious eye. ‘ I take it forensics have been called?’
The constable paused to get the sound of his voice right. Of course he’d fucking called forensics. ‘ Yes Sir, I called them straight after I’d run the licence check’.
Jimmy raised his eyebrows. So what’s this, a rookie who could actually think for himself? Well now there’s a thing. ‘ And did the licence check throw up anything interesting, constable?’
‘ Well that’s why I called you, Sir. The car is registered to Shaun Campbell. The Shaun Campbell, Sir, son of Derek’.
Standing at the front door of the home she grew up in, Natalie gave out a big sigh. This was the house where she’d felt safe until her uncle had raped her and forced her to perform acts of sexual humiliation. The home where her mother had repeatedly branded her a liar. She should’ve gone straight to her contact who was going to get her over the border without asking any questions. By now she would’ve been on a flight out of Dublin heading for London and the first stage of her new life but she’d delayed her trip for an hour or so to make this little detour.
‘ Has Daddy talked to you about me?’ Natalie asked after her mother had let her in and led her into the kitchen.
Angela scoffed. ‘ Has Daddy talked about you? You really think the world revolves around you, don’t you’.
‘ I’m pregnant, Mum’.
Angela paused and then laughed with complete derision. ‘ You stupid little bitch’.
Natalie fought back the tears. ‘ Why do you think so little of me, Mummy?’
‘ Oh please. You’ll be sucking your thumb next’.
Natalie was crying now. ‘ And why are you so damn vicious towards me? Do you know how many times you’ve killed me over the years?’
‘ Oh listen to the poor little drama queen!’
Natalie picked up a casserole dish that had been sitting on the hob and threw it down on the floor with such force it made her mother jump back with shock. The broken pieces scattered all over the place.
‘ Why aren’t you putting your arms round me, Mummy?’ Natalie pleaded as she sobbed. ‘ Why aren’t you doing what any mother should do?’
‘ You know what to do’ said Angela, coldly. ‘ There are places called clinics and you can get rid of it’.
‘ Is that all you’ve got to offer me?’
‘ Oh you cashed in your chips here a long time ago, my girl’.
‘ After your paedophile brother laid his dirty hands on me I never felt safe here again!’.
‘ Ah change the record. Don’t you ever get sick of telling lies about my brother because I get sick and tired of hearing them’
‘ They’re not lies!’
‘ You’re a liar, Natalie!’
‘ Your brother was a paedophile!’
‘ Liar!’
‘ He was!’
‘ Liar!’
Natalie gave her mother the back of her hand right across her face.
‘ Just go, Natalie’ said Angela, composing herself despite still feeling the shock of Natalie’s slap. ‘ I never want to see you again’.
‘ Shaun’s dead’.
Angela didn’t show any reaction but inside she was seething. If her plans were affected by something to do with Natalie she’d strangle her daughter with her own hands.
‘ Did you hear what I said?’ Natalie demanded.
‘ I heard what you said, Natalie’.
‘ I’m carrying your grandchild’.
‘ It means nothing to me’.
‘ You’re evil’ said Natalie. ‘ Look at you, standing there like Lady bloody Muck when all you are is a banker for terrorists. I know everything about your activities and your contacts. I wonder what your neighbours would say if they knew that Derek Campbell was being paid by you? Shall I go outside now and tell them?’
‘ You’re the daughter from hell so you are!’ Angela raged. ‘ I’ve hated you since the moment you were born!’
‘ Daddy loves me. Why can’t you?’
‘ Oh daddy, daddy, daddy!’ Angela mocked. ‘ And to think he isn’t even your father’.
Natalie felt the breath escape her. ‘ What did you say?’
‘ Nothing’ said Angela. She hadn’t meant for that to come out. Not yet anyway.
‘ Repeat what you just said!’
‘ I was pregnant when I met the man you call your father’.
Natalie couldn’t get her head around it. ‘ It isn’t true’.
‘ Oh yes it is. Richard needed my family’s money and I needed a father for you. I often wonder if I made the right decision. I should’ve gone off and had an abortion’.
Natalie was devastated by her mother’s savagery. ‘ How can you be so cruel?’
‘ Cruel? I’ll tell you what cruel is. Cruel is falling in love with a man who lets you down. A man who breaks your heart when you find out he isn’t the man you thought he was. You don’t know what I went through when I found out I was pregnant with you. Every time I look at you I see him and the hatred burns inside me’.
Natalie grabbed her mother by the throat and pinned her up against the wall. She picked up a bread knife that was lying on the kitchen work surface and watched her mother’s eyes widen with terror.
‘ Tell me who he is’ Natalie demanded, holding the knife at her mother’s face. ‘ Tell me who my father is or so help me I’ll slash your stupid face’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘ I told him to be here for about six’ said Ian.
‘ Tell me more about him’ said Mark.
‘ He was my best mate’ said Ian, pulling a plain blue t-shirt over his head in their bedroom. ‘ He was like a brother to me’.
‘ So there was never anything … ‘
‘ … like that? Oh Jesus, no. Graham is as straight as they come’.
‘ You must’ve been made up to see him today’.
‘ As we were talking the missing years just disappeared’.
‘ That’s the sign of a true friend’ said Mark ‘ I’m looking forward to meeting him’.
‘ Well you don’t have long to wait’.
‘ What was he planning to do this afternoon?’
‘ I told him to go and enjoy Manchester. I mean, what does a
fortysomething married man with three kids do when he’s got an afternoon to himself in a strange city?’
‘ Walk around missing his wife and kids’ said Mark ‘ Although he’d probably never admit that’.
Six o’clock came and went and by five past Ian was getting twitchy. He rang Graham’s mobile and it went straight to voicemail.
‘ Something’s wrong’ said Ian as he walked into the kitchen where Mark was preparing a roast beef with all the trimmings. ‘ His phone went straight to voicemail and it hasn’t done that all the other times I called him this afternoon’.
‘ It might just be a reception problem with his phone’ suggested Mark.
‘ I smell it, Mark’ said Ian ‘ Something’s going on. Shit! I should’ve told him to go home’.
Ian’s mobile started ringing. He looked at the caller display and saw that it was Graham.
‘ Thank Christ’ said Ian before answering it. ‘ Hey, buddy, where are you?’
‘ Hello, Judas. Long time, no hear’.
The voice on the other end made Ian’s blood run cold.
‘ Thanks for inviting your friend Graham here to stay over’ said Derek ‘ It gave him and me a chance to have a wee talk’.
‘ Where is he, Campbell?’ Ian demanded. ‘ Where have you got him? He has nothing to do with your fight with me and you should let him go now’.
‘ Oh don’t be too hasty now, Judas. We haven’t spoken in twenty years. There must be a lot for us to catch up on’.
Ian knew he had to stay calm and focused although it was bloody difficult. He couldn’t stand Campbell’s voice and the way it was slow and deliberate, dripping with menace. ‘ Don’t play fucking games with me, Campbell! Just tell me where you’ve got Graham and I’ll come down there’.
‘ All in good time, Judas, all in good time’ said Derek, loving every moment of the stress he could hear in the Judas’ voice.
Ian knew this wasn’t a time to let Campbell get the better of him. God knows what he’d done to poor Graham. He hated himself for persuading Graham to stay over until tomorrow. He could’ve been safely back with Wendy and the kids by now.
‘ Just tell me what you want, Campbell’.
‘ I trusted you. I brought you into my organisation, into my home, let you eat at my table with the food my wife cooked for you. I gave you the means to get your revenge and what did you do? You grassed me up and sent us all to the Maze you
cocksucking little shite! Oh yeah. I found out what you and Kenny Campbell had been up to. You told me you were just mates but you were a pair of filthy little pervert scum. But what I really want to know, what has really kept me awake at night all these years, is why did you do it? Why did you betray me after all I’d done for you? Everybody had to go through you to get to me. You were second only to me in the Ulster Defenders. Why did you do it, Judas? Just tell me that and we can all go home’.
‘ I had no choice’.
‘ Sorry, Judas, what was that?’
‘ I said I had no choice’.
‘ Oh we all have choices, Judas, like the choice of which flight to take home and when for example’.
‘ You’ve had your fun, Campbell, now enough!’.
‘ Oh no, Judas, the fun is only just beginning’.
‘ What do you mean?’
‘ There’s an old mill across the water from your place, Judas. Be there in five minutes and bring your new bum boy. He needs to see what we’re going to do to his car’.
‘ What the hell are you talking about?’
‘ Just be there in five minutes!’ Derek bellowed. ‘ Both of you!’.
Campbell hung up. Ian turned to Mark.
‘ Where’s your car?’
‘ What?’
‘ Where’s your fucking car?’
‘ Well it’s outside where I left it a couple of days ago’ said Mark. He went over to the window and looked out at the parking spaces that filled the square between the four blocks of flats. ‘ Ian, it isn’t there. It isn’t there where I left it’.
‘ When did you last see it?’
‘ Like I said, a couple of days ago. I haven’t used it since then. Ian, what the fuck is going on?’
‘ Campbell’ said Graham. ‘He’s taken your car, he’s got Graham, and he’s summoned us to the old mill on the other side of the canal’. He kicked the kitchen door and cursed. ‘ Fuck! He’s cornered me, Mark! He’s fucking got me right there and I don’t like it’.
‘ Well we’ve got no choice but to do as he says’ said Mark, his heart beating rapidly. ‘ So come on, let’s move it’.
They went down the two flights of stairs to ground level and out the door. The canal ran alongside the block of flats and on the other side was a large cavernous old mill building which was one of the few in the surrounding area that had yet to be turned into bright spanking apartments.