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  ‘Alec. The local not good enough for you anymore, eh?’ Minto said. His large hand landed on Sindy’s shoulder.

  ‘Always nice to have a change,’ I mumbled.

  I waited for him to go and in the meantime kept my eyes fixed to the pattern on the carpet.

  ‘Over here, lads!’ Minto said – and with that he gathered a few stray chairs and squeezed them around our table for two.

  ‘You can have these seats in a minute,’ I said quickly. ‘We were just off anyway.’

  Minto was paying no attention to me; he was busy gesturing to one of his mates at the bar. He pulled Sindy onto his lap as he sat down and refocussed his attention.

  ‘Not going to introduce me to your new lady friend here?’ he said, leaning forward with an outstretched hand to Daniella. ‘I’m Minto. Like the breath fresheners.’ He met her eye as she shook hands. ‘The ones you suck.’

  She slipped her hand from his. ‘Daniella.’ Then turning to me: ‘Shall we head off, Alec?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Not so fast,’ said Minto. ‘Alec here owes me a pint, don’t you, Alec?’

  ‘Do I?’ I stood up and reached into my pocket while Daniella picked up her bag. I put a few quid on the table. Fuck knows why I handed anything over, given that he owed me a new door. ‘Have the next one on me,’ I said.

  ‘Money? That’s not very sociable of you,’ he said. ‘Not very sociable at all.’

  Daniella was right behind me, her way blocked as we were both forced to engage with Minto at the table.

  ‘What do you think, Sindy?’ Minto said. ‘Don’t you think that’s a bit rude of Alec? You want his company, not his money, don’t you?’

  Sindy smiled up at me from Minto’s lap. ‘Yes, that’d be good.’

  ‘You think Alec’s a nice boy, don’t you?’

  Sindy giggled. ‘Yes, he is.’

  ‘You think he’s a nice, clean, attractive boy. Don’t you?’

  ‘Alec – let’s go,’ Daniella whispered into my ear. ‘Just push past his chair and get out of here.’

  ‘We’re off,’ I said. ‘See you later, all right?’ I tried to squeeze past the chairs, but no one was shifting.

  ‘Why don’t you go with ‘em, Sinds?’ Minto said. ‘Be nice for you to have some different company. You don’t mind, do you, Alec?’

  ‘What?’

  Minto laughed and pushed Sindy off his lap, giving her arse a pat for good measure. ‘Go on. Go with them. Alec doesn’t mind.’ His focus shifted behind me. ‘Nor does the lovely Daniella.’

  I paused but reached behind me for Daniella’s hand, figuring we needed to leave – and if that meant having Sindy along, so be it.

  ‘Actually, the lovely Daniella does mind.’ I felt my hand jerk as Daniella stopped. She was looking down at Minto. ‘Alec and I are only seeing each other for one night so we’ve got a lot to catch up on. No offence to you, Sindy, but I think we’d like some time to ourselves.’

  I felt my jaw slacken as I waited for Minto’s reaction. My hand had become almost too slippery to keep hold of Daniella’s. I sensed a universal breath-hold amongst the group. Even Sindy looked between us like she was ready to make a run for it.

  Minto leaned back in his chair and looked Daniella up and down. ‘You make a very compelling argument,’ he said, with a wry smile. ‘Sindy wants Alec’s company; you want Alec’s company. Lucky Alec, is all I can say. But you’re the visitor so...’ He pulled Sindy back on to his lap, smoothing her thigh. ‘Never mind, Sinds. We’ll keep you entertained. Won’t we, lads?’

  There were dirty laughs as Minto ran his big paws over Sindy’s small body. The tattoo on his hand spelled ‘loyal’ and the sight of it against Sindy’s flat chest made me want to hurl.

  Sindy caught me looking and she smiled – but there was something else behind the expression; something cold and unexpected.

  Daniella’s lips tickled my ear. ‘Let’s go, Alec. Now.’

  And we did. We flung open the pub door, both of us suddenly greedy for fresh air. Raucous laughter belched from the building behind us and, as we headed away, the wild echoes of it seemed to follow us all the way home.

  Chapter 14

  All I know is that I was in a deep sleep when it happened. Daniella was staying with me for the third weekend on the trot, so I’d been sleeping soundly, confident for once that I was doing pretty bloody well on the romance stakes.

  A loud thwack woke me, and my bedroom door shot open like it had been hit by a wrecking ball. Daniella bolted upright as the light flicked on and three people raced into the room. There were thundering footsteps everywhere – above us, each side of us, below us – I could hear doors being kicked open and orders barked all around. My heart pogoed then seemed to shudder to a halt as one of the men ordered us up.

  Daniella and I somehow synchronised our movements so that we managed to keep the duvet clutched around both of us. I could barely take my eyes off the guy barking instructions in our direction, but I was aware of the others rifling through my possessions, chucking stuff on the floor and tipping things out of bags and boxes.

  Next door, Minto’s voice sliced through the wall, yelling and cursing between thumps and bangs. Above our heads, the scrape of a bedframe; in the hall, more heavy footsteps on creaking stairs.

  Daniella’s bare leg touched mine as she edged closer behind the duvet. The guy in front of us didn’t do anything – just stood there, ‘minding’ us while his sidekicks took apart my belongings. They were uniformed, smart looking. It started to dawn on me what was happening and why. The realisation brought me comfort.

  ‘Fucking bastards!’ I heard Minto yell from his room. ‘I told you, I’ve got nothin’!’

  One of our room-searchers gave a shake of the head to the guy in front of us. They both looked to the chunky one in the corner who was busy flipping through my dusty paperbacks and dropping them one by one into a pile on the floor.

  ‘You won’t find anything,’ I found myself saying. ‘I’m not into that shit.’

  The cop ignored me and glanced instead towards Fat Lad who shook his head. ‘Nothing.’

  In the end they left as quickly as they came, skulking out the door like a bunch of partygoers at the wrong address.

  I could feel Daniella’s arm still shaking against mine as the house became silent again. I had the tremors myself, but mine were of the too-much-coffee kind: every nerve pumped, primed and ready for action.

  ‘How about that?’ I said, half-laughing. ‘How about that!’

  ‘Shit! I’ve never been so scared in my life.’ Daniella wrapped her arms around me, and we stood in the middle of the mess, holding onto one another. ‘I can’t believe what just happened.’

  ‘You don’t get drug raids in Bristol then?’ I said.

  ‘No!’ And once she’d had chance to get her breath back, she sounded almost rueful. ‘It was a rush, though, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Well, kind of,’ I said.

  I could feel her starting to shiver. The summer’s sticky temperatures had dropped away, and my cavernous room had returned to being chilly again. ‘Listen, why don’t you go back to bed?’ I said. ‘I’ll go and make you a cuppa. Or do you need something stronger?’

  ‘Have you got anything stronger?’

  ‘Nope.’

  She slid those slender legs of hers onto the mattress, pulling the duvet with her while I stood there in my undies.

  ‘Tea it is then,’ she said.

  In the kitchen, Black and Stobes were having a smoke and I could hear low muttering as they stared out of the window. They spun around when I came in and I sensed their relief when they saw it was me.

  ‘They pull your room apart too?’ Stobes said. ‘Fucking shit storm in mine.’

  ‘Yeah, mine will take some putting back together,’ I told him.

  ‘What I don’t get is how come they didn’t find anything,’ Black said, lowering his voice and nodding towards Minto’s room. He looked both amused and amazed, as if M
into had performed some impressive sleight-of-hand trick.

  I filled the kettle. ‘How d’you know they didn’t?’

  ‘Cause he’s still here, that’s why,’ Black said. ‘They’d have taken him in otherwise.’

  ‘Don’t s’pose he was that bothered,’ Stobes said to Black. ‘What they’d have found here would have been nothing in the grand scheme of things.’

  I looked at them, trying to read the subtext.

  Black looked at me and shook his head. ‘C’mon, Alec – you think Minto would have anything much here?’

  ‘I dunno. Where else would he keep it? At Sindy’s?’

  Stobes and Black exchanged another glance. I felt like the kid in the playground not included in the game.

  ‘Minto has his fingers in everything,’ Stobes said. He waved a dismissive hand around us. ‘But what’s here – this is nothing. Fuck all.’

  ‘Just as well Sindy wasn’t here,’ Black said.

  ‘You sure she wasn’t?’ I said. ‘She was with him earlier.’

  Again, with the knowing glance: Black and Stobes swapped a dirty smile. ‘She’s probably otherwise engaged, butty-bach,’ Black said.

  There was a noise in the hall and each of us instinctively made ourselves busy.

  Minto didn’t look surprised to find us gathered in the kitchen. ‘Fucking pigs!’ he said. ‘Did they ask you lot anything?’

  Black stubbed out his fag in the sink. ‘They were more action than words.’

  Minto nodded. ‘Pricks.’

  ‘They didn’t find anything?’ Black said, folding his arms and looking at Minto. ‘How was that then?’

  Black was the only one who knew him well enough to dare going down this track. Though even he didn’t get off scot-free. Minto tossed him a look. ‘They didn’t find anything ‘cause the pricks don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.’ He helped himself to the water I’d just boiled. ‘What pisses me off is how come they knew I was here. At home – now, tonight.’

  There was a shrugging of shoulders as we all exchanged glances, but Minto only slid his eyes in my direction. ‘It was like the tossers were tipped off or something.’

  The kitchen became mighty quiet as Black and Stobes followed his gaze.

  ‘What?’ I went over and refilled the jug. ‘You think I tipped them off? Like I’d welcome having my room ransacked in the middle of the night. Yeah, sure!’

  Minto raised his eyebrows at the others before looking back in my direction. ‘Just sayin’, Alec. Just sayin’. No need to get your jocks in a knot. If you did nothing, you have nothing to fear, do you?’

  And he kept his eye on me a second longer than he needed.

  By the following morning, the whole event had a whiff of unreality about it. Had it not been for the shambles in my room, I might have assumed I’d dreamt it all. But when I opened my eyes the scene was still there – my meagre possessions scattered around the room as if someone had picked up the flat in the night, given it a shake and plonked it back down again.

  Daniella was sleeping messily, mouth slightly open and one pale arm crooked upwards so her knuckles rested against her lips like she was giving them a kiss.

  There was a loud belch from the other side of the wall and along with it came the reminder of Minto. ‘Just saying, Alec. Just saying.’ The comment kept jabbing me, poking me to make sure I didn’t relax, didn’t get complacent. And careless.

  I got out of bed and went over to the window, peering down to where Minto’s motorbike was perched against the kerb, the curve of the petrol tank like a big, fat smile.

  ‘What exactly’s going on in that pea-sized brain of yours?’

  I looked over to the bed where Daniella was grinning at me. She hadn’t moved – her fingers were still bent in the same position near her mouth and the outlined sprawl of her legs was visible beneath the duvet; the tip of her big toe peeking out of the end of the cover like it was on surveillance. Same sleepy position, but she was awake now as if the power button was on and all her dials aglow.

  ‘I’m contemplating stuff that’s far too complex for you to understand,’ I told her, going over there. I landed on top of her, the duvet forming the meat in our cosy little sandwich.

  ‘Is that right?’ She struggled to shift to a more comfortable position, and I figured that quick thrust of hers against my crotch was no accident. She nodded towards the window. ‘What were you looking at?’

  ‘The weather. The street,’ I said. A brief pause. ‘Checking if Minto’s bike was there.’

  ‘Of course it’d be there – it was his disgusting belch that woke me up!’

  ‘Someone’s belch.’

  ‘You think it might have been sweet little Sindy, do you?’

  ‘No!’ I laughed, digging my fingers into her ribs so she’d wriggle underneath me. ‘I just mean it could have been anyone. It’s pretty much open house at Minto’s.’

  She took control of my wrists and rolled me over, so we were side by side. ‘I wonder how he’s feeling about the late-night visit,’ she said. ‘You reckon the police found anything?’

  ‘Sadly not. As Black said, if they’d found anything, he wouldn’t still be here. He’d’ve been busted.’

  ‘Shame he wasn’t then.’

  ‘Damn shame,’ I said. ‘Mind you, he didn’t look pleased to have been put in the drug squad spotlight.’

  Daniella’s blue eyes got bigger: ‘You’ve already seen him today? When?’

  ‘No, last night in the kitchen.’

  ‘Last night? Why didn’t you say?’

  ‘Ah, I was tired and…’ I shrugged: I didn’t even know why I’d kept it from her. ‘I think I was trying to put it out of my mind.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘He was pissed off.’

  ‘Well, of course he was. Everyone was.’

  ‘No, I mean he was pissed off that somebody had grassed him up.’

  ‘Oh.’ A line formed between her eyebrows. ‘Do you think someone did then?’

  ‘Must’ve. Can’t have been a lucky guess really, can it?’

  Her gaze drifted towards the window as she mulled it over. ‘I wonder who.’

  ‘There must be plenty of possibilities.’

  She looked off into the distance again and I probably should have left it.

  ‘Maybe it was someone who got fed up of Minto playing the hard man,’ I said. ‘Someone who doesn’t like the way Minto treats his girlfriend.’

  ‘Mm.’

  ‘Maybe someone who got pissed off at the way he treats his flatmate and his flatmate’s property.’

  Daniella looked back at me and then to the plywood screen still holding my door together. She passed me a smile.

  I didn’t need to say any more – obviously I didn’t – but despite all that, I couldn’t resist a smug little nod that proclaimed, ‘Yeah. I did that!’

  Chapter 15

  Neither Daniella nor I said it out loud, but it was no co-incidence that we found ourselves, the following Friday, somewhere that Minto definitely wouldn’t be. His bulk might have cast a shadow over half of Swansea, but I was pretty sure we’d be safe seventy ks away at my folks’ place.

  I decided against giving Mum and Dad advance warning of our plans. I figured if they found out I was not only going to pay them a visit but would arrive with a girl in tow Mum would have a conniption fit in all the excitement.

  We parked the Marina outside the front gate, and I saw Daniella look all around as she undid her seatbelt, taking in the thirties terraces, the dishevelled gardens, the seen-better-days cars. Even though it was still late summer, there was a wintery gloom about the place, as if the sun’s full warmth could never stretch quite as far as these rail-side streets.

  ‘Isn’t this nice?’ Daniella said, a bit too cheerily.

  I knew instantly she saw me as some sort of poor relation, and I didn’t bother answering.

  ‘Are you sure they won’t mind me just calling in with you?’ she said as we got out of the car. ‘I
feel I should have brought flowers or something.’

  ‘Mum will be too busy gushing over you to worry about whether you’ve come bearing gifts.’

  Daniella gave me a teasing smile. ‘You mean I’m not just next in a long line of girlfriends turning up at your door?’

  ‘Most of them only get as far as my country club. They rarely get parental visiting rights. You should feel honoured.’

  ‘Better be on my best behaviour then,’ Daniella said, closing the gate.

  As I struggled to get my key in the lock, I turned to her. ‘Now, remember they’re not expecting me, so I’ve no idea what the situation will be in there. But can I just apologise in advance for absolutely everything they say or do? I hope you aren’t expecting much.’

  ‘Alec!’ she laughed, thumping me on the arm. ‘Don’t be so mean – I’m sure they’ll be lovely.’

  ‘See? You’ve already built up your expectations to unattainable levels,’ I said.

  The front door flew open almost yanking my arm out of its socket.

  Dad stood there, looking like he’d be caught with his pants down. ‘Oh,’ he said. ‘I wondered what all the noise was.’

  ‘Us, Dad.’

  Daniella gave him a big smile and held out her hand. ‘Hi, there. I’m Daniella, a friend of Alec’s.’

  Dad fumbled his hand from his pocket. ‘Jim,’ he muttered.

  ‘Oh, look who’s here!’ Mum said, emerging from the kitchen. She hurried out to give me a kiss then stood smiling at Daniella while I made the introductions.

  It was suddenly very cramped in our hall, but Dad soon disappeared upstairs.

  The intensity of Mum’s fluster would have probably registered on the Richter Scale, but I was at least relieved to see her looking her old self, rather than the ravaged person I’d left behind a few weeks earlier.

  Mum clearly couldn’t wait to get us sitting down with a mug of tea in our hands. I wondered how long she’d been hanging out for a cosy little scene like this again. Only Jill Mitchell had had this treatment before.

  Once the potted life story had been wrung from Daniella, Mum homed in on present day and Daniella explained about her food technology course. I could see Mum taking in everything about her: the clean hair, the polished nails, the Osmond teeth – all that and career ambitions too. Mum’s smile seemed to get wider with each snippet until she looked almost giddy with approval.