Death Message

‘How long d’you need these days?’ Brooks asked. ‘To get a trace?’

‘Nobody’s tracing this call.’

‘It’s been five minutes already, hasn’t it?’

‘There’s no one listening in, I swear to God.’

‘Right.’

‘It’s why I gave you this number.’

Thorne could hear the fatigue in the pause, and in Brooks’ words when they came. In the short time they’d been talking, his voice had been getting slower, thicker; as though an anaesthetic were kicking in.

‘I think I actually believe you,’ he said.

‘That’s good.’

‘And… I don’t know.’

‘What?’

‘Where it’s going to end…’

‘Marcus?’

But Brooks had already gone.

The rain had eased off, and they were waiting at the front of the club when Thorne’s taxi pulled up. He had thrust a te

Louise, Parsons and Hendricks moved away from the queue that was waiting to go inside, with Parsons hanging back from the other two a little as Thorne came towards them, his arms outstretched, questioning.

‘Why did you let the kid go?’

Louise shook her head, angry. ‘What?’

Thorne clocked the glare from Hendricks as he wheeled away in frustration.

‘Christ, I was lucky he didn’t want to do me for assault.’

‘He was put up to it.’ Thorne glanced across at Parsons and took a step closer to Louise.

‘Ke

Thorne nodded, lowered his voice anyway. ‘It was all set up. He was going to hand Phil over to Brooks later on.’

Hendricks was studying the floor; scraping a training shoe back and forth across the wet pavement. He wore a thin black shirt over jeans, and Thorne supposed that he’d left his jacket in the club. That the fact he was soaked was probably not the only reason he was trembling.

‘Where did you get all this from?’ Louise asked.

Thorne could see from the cold smile that she already knew. His voice dropped lower still. ‘Brooks called when I was on the way over.’ He was about to say more but was silenced by the scream of a siren. They all turned to see an ambulance belting down from the bridge; watched it jump the lights and race south.

‘Does he know where I live?’ Hendricks asked.

Thorne hadn’t given Hendricks too many details when they’d spoken earlier, but there seemed little point now in keeping anything back. ‘The video on the message was taken outside your flat.’

‘Well, that’s fucking dandy.’

‘It’s all right, Phil…’

‘Am I coming to yours then tonight, or what?’

‘He certainly knows where I live,’ Thorne said. ‘I think we should all go back to Lou’s.’ He looked across. ‘If that’s OK?’

Louise was nodding to Parsons, who took off his jacket and passed it to her. When she turned back, the smile had got frostier still. ‘Fine with me.’ She moved across and wrapped the jacket around Hendricks’ shoulders. ‘I presume your mate didn’t happen to mention if I was in his address book, did he?’

Thorne felt sure that Brooks had been given all such information, but was almost as certain that he would not be using it. ‘I think it’ll be all right now.’ He looked at Hendricks. ‘I told him to back off.’ Hendricks returned the stare. ‘When he called, you know? I think he got the message.’

‘You think?’ Louise said.

‘I think we understand each other.’

‘Have you any idea how fucking ridiculous that sounds?’

‘Louise-’

‘How ridiculous you sound?’

Thorne stood there, wishing he hadn’t left Holland back at the car. For all the self-righteous anger that had coursed through him earlier, he felt isolated suddenly, and apprehensive. Every bit as ridiculous as Louise said he was. When the dust had settled he knew there would be questions to answer and he didn’t know how he was going to face them.

The wet pavement smelled like new carpet.

‘Right, we should get back to Pimlico,’ he said. ‘Ke

Parsons looked to Louise for approval.

‘I’ve got stuff inside,’ Hendricks said. ‘And anyway, I’m not going anywhere until I’ve had a seriously large drink.’ He began to head back towards the club and, after a few seconds, Louise turned to follow, taking Parsons with her.

Thorne watched them walk away, listening to the fading siren, a mile or more distant. Each hand clutched at the warm lining of a jacket pocket, and he realised that Hendricks wasn’t the only one who was shaking.

PART THREE. ‘FORWARD’

THIRTY

He’d enjoyed more relaxing Sunday mornings.

Up before anyone else, Thorne had watched TV for a while, then decided he might as well head over to Holland’s place to pick up his car. He took a paper with him for the Tube ride across to Elephant and Castle. Flicked through it, hoping that gossip or goals or suicide bombs might take his mind off the mess he was in.

The professional frying pan and the domestic fire.

While he had been charging around gay clubs, there had been a double shooting in Tottenham. The estate on which two young black men had died had long been considered a no-go area, and, reading the story, Thorne decided that these latest events were hardly likely to turn it into a tourist hot-spot.

The train from Pimlico had been almost empty, but he’d changed on to a packed Northern Line train at Stockwell, and he could barely read the paper without elbowing his neighbour in the ribs.

He looked at the front-page story again.

A brutal event, and simple; drugs-related almost certainly. Reading, he realised just how much he yearned for something bog-standard, where there were no difficult choices to make. He wanted this one done with. There were cases, just a few, that had marked him, inside and out, but he couldn’t remember one that had left him feeling so out of control.

He had no idea where it – where he – was heading.

Looking up from the paper, he caught the man opposite staring; watched his eyes flick quickly up to the adverts above his head, then drop to the paperback on his knees.

On Tube trains, everyone was looking at someone else. It didn’t matter where you were sitting, on which side. You would never be able to see what was coming.

Holland’s girlfriend, Sophie, didn’t quite throw Thorne’s car keys at him when she opened the door, but she looked as though she’d have liked to. Thorne said hello, then sorry, and stepped inside. It was the warmest greeting he was likely to receive that day.

‘I was just going to nip to the shops,’ Sophie said when she and Thorne walked into the living room. ‘Do you want anything?’

Holland glanced up from the sofa. He looked as though he’d had about as much sleep as Thorne had managed. He shook his head; he and Thorne both well aware that Sophie would just be killing time until she was sure that Thorne had left. A while back, Thorne had contemplated calling her, maybe coming round one day when Holland wasn’t there, to try to sort out whatever was between them. But he’d done nothing, and now things were pretty much set in stone.

‘You could pick up some kidney beans if you want. I might do us a chilli later on,’ Holland said.

When she’d gone, Holland made tea.

‘Thanks for last night,’ Thorne said.

‘I should think so, too. That car’s a nightmare to drive.’

‘I didn’t mean the car.’

Holland looked at him through the steam from his tea. ‘What happened?’

Thorne filled him in: everything from when he’d left him in the rain with the BMW, up to, but not including, the point when he had got back to Louise’s flat and faced the music. Holland smirked, reminded Thorne of the moment when he’d taken control of the microphone in Beware and started shouting. ‘I reckon you’re a natural,’ he said. ‘Just need to get you a baseball cap or something…’