The Know

  He started singing loudly, ‘It’s getting hot in here . . . So take off all your clothes!’ It was the ultimate insult to his woman, and his manhood.

  Gerald saw the way the wind was blowing and waved the black guy down as if to say, Ignore him. That suited the man down to the ground. He didn’t really want a straightener with this lot, but he also could not be seen to swallow the situation.

  ‘Leave it out, Kieron. Anyway, drink up. We’ll have one more and then the old man wants to see you both, OK?’

  Kieron nodded but he wasn’t happy about it, that much was evident.

  ‘I wanted to go out, I’ve made arrangements.’

  James laughed now, really laughed, at his little brother’s words.

  ‘Well, you’ll have to unmake them then, won’t you?’ He waved the barman over as he said crossly, ‘And stop winding people up. That’s my old school-mate Easton and he’s a right decent bloke.’

  He shook his head at Gerald. Kieron was normally as good as gold, he must be more out of it than usual.

  ‘What’s he want to see Pippy for?’

  As out of it as he was, he knew his father wouldn’t want to see Pippy Light unless it meant trouble.

  James shrugged.

  ‘You can ask him yourself in a minute. I said for him to call in or ring to let me know where to meet. Whatever suited him. So let’s get another one in before he arrives, like the spectre at the feast. He’ll muller you when he sees you, Kieron. You look like you’ve been on it, and knowing you, you have.’

  He was giving him a brotherly warning. For all their father took a bit of coke or had a puff himself, he couldn’t stand seeing his children do it and only Kieron and one other brother, Dennis, had ever been tempted. The other five were drinkers, pure and simple.

  James included Easton and his girlfriend in the round and smiled at them, rolling his eyes at his little brother as the other man nodded his thanks. Face had been saved and the night was undisturbed as yet. But it had been a close call. The trouble with the McClellans was, you fought one, you fought them all. There weren’t only the brothers and their father, they had more cousins than the Saudi Royal family. Easton wouldn’t willingly take that lot on unless he had half of Railton Road with him celebrating Notting Hill Carnival, and even then he’d think twice about it. The McClellans were heavy duty.

  He kept a close eye on the little brother though. If Kieron stronged it Easton would glass him, he had no choice. He nearly fainted with relief when he saw Jon Jon Brewer walk in with the father five minutes later.

  Jon Jon came over to Easton and they shook hands. As young as Jon Jon was, Sippy loved him and that was good enough for Easton. Jon Jon went back to the McClellans’ where both Gerald and James greeted him warmly as they had been instructed to do on the phone.

  Big John observed it all.

  Then he looked at Kieron and Pippy Light and felt the sickness close in once more. His Kieron had had it all handed to him on a plate. The very name McClellan gave him access to anyone and everything he wanted. Had allowed him to get away with something worse than murder.

  Who ever would have dreamed that one of Big John McClellan’s boys was a beast? It didn’t bear thinking about, and neither did the consequences of his son’s debauched lifestyle.

  He had routed enough nonces in the nick, seen them beaten, burned, had joined in the fun . . . and all the time he’d had one growing up in his own family. He saw those pictures once more in his mind’s eye and swallowed down the bile. He glanced at his watch. Another couple of drinks and he would be numb enough to start the ball rolling.

  Jon Jon winked at him and he felt a terrible urge to cry. Was he going soft in his old age? He couldn’t answer that question yet. But he trusted he would be able to before the night was out.

  Pippy sat and watched it all, saw the way Jon Jon was treated. Saw the way Big John watched him as if he was Jon Jon’s father and not some errant coon who had legged it at the first opportunity. And he knew with deadly certainty that finally it had all come on top.

  He drained his drink quickly, ready to seize his opportunity to go on the trot. But he knew it wouldn’t happen. He was going nowhere without the McClellans. They would all see to that.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Gerald and James were watching their father and brother, and could see that something big was going down. They were outside the club now and Jon Jon Brewer was shaking his head at them as if to warn them not to interfere.

  They were both thinking the same thing.

  When had an outsider ever known anything about family business that none of them knew?

  Pippy was also watching the proceedings.

  Then the McClellan boys saw their father grab their little brother by the throat, and instinctively went to intervene.

  Big John stared at his two eldest sons. Usually his pride in his boys knew no bounds. If anyone had ever told him one of them was a beast . . .

  His anger boiled over.

  ‘Get in your car and fuck off, boys, just leave this cunt to me.’

  Gerald placed one hand on his father’s arm.

  ‘Come on, Dad. Let him go home now and then we’ll talk about whatever it is tomorrow, eh?’

  Kieron looked at his father, saw he was coked up and said quietly, ‘Come on, Dad. We don’t want this being talked about all over the place, do we?’

  It was a threat. Even Gerald picked up the nuance in his brother’s voice and turned to stare at him.

  ‘What have you done now, Kieron?’

  It was an accusation. One he had made many times before.

  Big John was grinning now.

  ‘Go on, tell him. I dare you. But you ain’t got the fucking guts, have you?’

  Kieron didn’t rise to the bait, and Big John knew that he never would. He really didn’t have the nerve. He was a coward on top of everything else.

  ‘What is all this about? What am I missing here?’

  Gerald was staring from father to brother now. His powerful shoulders and arms were reminders to Kieron of just what he was dealing with here. It occurred to him then that this was one time his mother couldn’t bail him out because she’d have no idea about this meeting. His father, he knew, did just what she wanted most of the time from guilt over the fact he fucked anything with a pulse at every opportunity.

  James had once told him that. Dad treated their mum like that because he had been banged up for so long he had to live life to the full now. Even tried to say that she knew all about his philandering and didn’t care.

  But whatever the score was there, Kieron knew he was on his last life with his old man and he would have to talk his way out of this one very carefully.

  Big John pointed at Gerald and said, ‘Put Pippy in the car and follow us, OK? You’ll know soon enough.’

  It was a lightning decision but he’d decided there and then that they had to know. Once their brother vanished they’d remember tonight and wonder. Because they would want retribution for his death, it was better for all concerned if they were in on it from the off.

  Also, he didn’t want all the guilt heaped on him and Jon Jon. This was family business after all. He also wanted to make sure he didn’t relent at the last moment. In front of his sons he always played the hard man. With his wife it was a different story. How he’d keep this from her he dare not think.

  Kieron picked up on this, of course. He always had.

  ‘Dad, does me mum know you’re here?’

  He stared insolently at his father as he said it.

  ‘Get in the fucking car, you cunt!’

  ‘Here, hold up, Dad. What the fuck has he done now? I’ll sort it,’ Gerald pleaded.

  ‘No one could sort this out, son. You’ll realise that before the night’s out. Your so-called brother has crossed the line, and if I have my way he’ll be fucking passing over it once and for all tonight.’

  Gerald could not believe what he was hearing.

  ‘Come on, Dad, you’re out o
f your nut! Leave it till the morning. I’ll take him home, Mum will be worried . . .’

  ‘Shut the fuck up, and follow me to the breaker’s yard in Romford. It’s nice and private there. And whatever you do, don’t let Pippy Light get away from you. I want him as well, right?’

  He forced his youngest son roughly into the car. Jon Jon was already in the back seat.

  Gerald walked over the road to his own car. He knew it was pointless to argue with his father when he was in this mood.

  ‘What’s going on, Ger?’

  James was as worried as he was.

  He shrugged.

  ‘Fuck knows.’ He looked at Pippy as he said, ‘But he can enlighten us on the drive, if he knows what’s good for him.’

  Joanie and Bethany had talked until the child had fallen asleep. That was the funny thing with kids: no matter what happened to them they could still sleep. She tucked the girl in before she poured herself a large drink and sat on the sofa sipping it as she struggled to comprehend what Bethany had told her.

  The two little girls had gone off with Pippy Light and some bloke called Kieron in a car. Kira had been persuaded to go with them. Bethany had been dropped off at a house in Ilford, and Joanie’s baby had never been seen again.

  You didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to work out what had happened to her. Deep inside she had always known that her daughter had been murdered. It was a mother’s instinct, she supposed. Now she was more worried about what Jon Jon would do when he found out. It stopped her thinking about Kira, and what had happened to her before she had died.

  Joanie downed the drink in one gulp and felt the burn as it hit her stomach. She knelt on the floor and opened up her treasure cupboard. She took out all her things and looked at them once more, knowing that never again would she feel the sheer joy they had once brought her. Never again would she fantasise about having a lovely home one day, with a garden and a swing for Kira and nice plates to eat off and dinner parties full of the rich and famous.

  She could never think about any of it now without remembering her youngest daughter. Never again would she know a happy day.

  Little Tommy’s face rose before her eyes and she pushed the image away. The guilt she felt for what he’d suffered was overwhelming and she didn’t have the time or the energy to face it at the moment.

  Then, going to the kitchen, she got a black bin bag and started to fill it with all her treasures, as Jon Jon used to call them.

  Kira had loved looking at them with her, it had been a treat for them both. Joanie had enjoyed seeing her daughter revel in all the lovely things. Together they’d planned their dinner parties: food, course by course, and wine, everything down to the colour of the napkins and the setting of the cutlery.

  Now it was all gone, every moment of innocent happiness.

  Her baby was gone too and she was never coming back.

  Joanie was crying as she took the bag and walked out to the rubbish shute. As she stood on the landing and looked out over the estate she wondered at a life where nothing good ever happened for long. In the rare interludes when things seemed to be going well for her, she’d always been waiting for it all to fall out of bed. Now her life had fallen apart at the seams. It was only good for tabloid fodder and neighbourhood gossip.

  She looked in at the windows of the flats around her. Saw the lights, the different wallpapers, the flickering of television screens; listened to the pumping music and the screams and laughter of the teenagers hanging about the street below, and envied everyone their uncomplicated lives.

  Her mother used to say that for most people life was shit; it was what everyone else in their life made it. You never had a choice really, it was other people who fucked you up. Until tonight Joanie had not understood what she had been talking about. Every person who was hurt was only hurting because they loved someone. Look at little Bethany. She loved Monika so much and it was a wasted love. The worst of it all was that, as young as she was, Bethany already knew that fact.

  Joanie clasped the bin bag to her and, sinking to her knees, cried like a baby, the pain inside her chest so acute she really did think she might die from it.

  ‘Please, Dad, listen to me for a minute, will you?’

  Kieron was starting to panic now. No matter what he said to his father he was ignored or ridiculed.

  Big John mimicked his voice nastily.

  ‘Dad, listen to me, will you? Will I bollocks!’

  Jon Jon looked at Kieron with no feeling for his distress.

  ‘Why don’t you shut up, you fucking perverted cunt?’

  Kieron, some of his usual animosity to the fore now, said, ‘Are you really going to let him talk to me like that, Dad? A fucking coon and you’d let him talk to me like that? Where’s the Big John McClellan I know and loathe?’

  Big John laughed.

  ‘Oh, upset you, has he? You fucking noncing piece of shit!’

  Jon Jon leaned over between the seats in front of him.

  ‘Did you have any dealings with my sister Kira? Only I can see from the photographs your dad showed me that you know her little mate Bethany intimately.’

  Big John laughed.

  ‘That’s a good one, Jon Jon, you have a way with words. Intimately. How old was she then, Kieron? Nine, ten?’

  ‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’

  He started to laugh and Big John, even though he was driving, leaned backwards and attempted to punch his son in the face.

  ‘You stroppy little bastard! I’ll kill you for what you’ve done to me . . .’

  He stopped the car in the middle of the road and jumped out. Opening the passenger door, he started to punch his son in the head and body. He was losing it. After all he had had to contend with, he was finally losing it.

  It took Jon Jon all his strength and powers of persuasion to get John back into the driving seat.

  People were staring at them, wondering what was going on but not willing to get involved. Looking at this big angry man, who could blame them?

  ‘Calm down, for fuck’s sake, before we all get nicked! Pull the car into the kerb, people are looking.’

  Kieron was slumped in his seat, quiet at last. He was also bleeding profusely.

  Jon Jon saw that Gerald and James had pulled up behind them and were watching the scene in silence. As he couldn’t see Pippy he had to assume they had talked to him already.

  He walked over to their car. Cupping his eyes, he looked into the back window. Pippy was lying on the seat. He was bloody and battered but still alive, and that was all Jon Jon was interested in.

  Gerald opened the driver’s window.

  ‘Is it true, Jon Jon?’

  He nodded.

  ‘Jesus Christ, it can’t be . . . Kieron’s a fucker but he wouldn’t do something like that . . .’

  Jon Jon took the folder from his jacket pocket and passed it through the window. He pointed at Pippy Light.

  ‘Don’t you dare kill him. I need to talk to him about my little sister, OK?’

  They nodded.

  ‘Once I find out what I need to know he’s all yours.’

  As he walked back to Big John’s car a police vehicle drove past them at speed, all the lights flashing and siren blaring out, looking out for the incident that had been reported.

  But Jon Jon, like the others, ignored it.

  As usual, they were too late.

  Paulie was in his office at Angel Girls. He liked being there lately, it was the only place he could relax. Though he wasn’t relaxing tonight. He was smoking a cigarette, something he only did occasionally, and in between puffs he was shredding documents. He had already destroyed all the discs he had and the computers where things might have been stored. Not that anyone else had ever been near his computers but fear and paranoia had taken over. He had felt an instant connection between Jon Jon and McClellan, knew now that the big man had somehow sussed something out. It was just too pat the way he’d showed up, trailing a moneyspinning deal, and asking if Paul
ie had a good man he could put on to it. But it was only when Jon Jon had blanked him by missing the meet that he had finally put two and two together.

  Why had he ever let himself get involved with Jesmond and Pippy? Because it had never occurred to him that an innocent like Kira might get involved in what he had financed. Never in a million years would he have believed things could go that far. Foreign kids, they’d said. Born and brought up to it. Knew no better.