The Unquiet Heart Page 6

  The two behind our cart looked stunned. But my man’s reflexes were still working; he ducked my club and I caught him a glancing blow on his shoulder. I followed through with a tackle that brought him down. He was wriggling and kicking like a lassoed bullock. Stank like one too. I’d lost the club, and we fought in silence until I could hold his arm and get a clean punch in. I got him on the side of the head and drew blood over his eye. It slowed him. I hit him again and his head fell back with a crack on to the floor. He lay still. One down.

  I got to my feet; Stan was standing panting over the flattened body of his man, ready to hit him again if he moved. He didn’t look like he was going to any time soon. I dragged my bloke over to Stan and told him to guard them both. I ran over to the others. Midge had nailed his man, but Cyril was lying flat on the floor. There was no sign of the other. Bugger! We pulled off Cyril’s balaclava. He gave a groan and stirred, and we helped him sit up. We all removed our masks. It was good to scratch.

  “You big jessie,” I said. “You all right?”

  “Yeah, skip. Sorry. He ducked. I didn’t.” Cyril touched his head and came away with blood. I pulled a hankie from my pocket and gave it to him.

  “What do we do?” hissed Midge.

  “Nothing. We’ll never find him in this rat run. Forget him. This is a good haul. Tie them up and bring them over to the door. We’ll sit it out till Tommy gets here in the morning.”

  “What about the bint?” asked Stan.

  “I’ll go get her and bring her up here. We’ll leave the other one where he is. He’s not going anywhere.”

  Shortly we had the three of them trussed up and moaning gently by the doorway. I reached out, grabbed the rope and slid down to the barge. I checked the man we’d left; he was well held. And awake; he glowered at me over his gag. I glanced over and saw Eve watching me. I walked over and gave her my hands. She clambered up swiftly and neatly. I held the rope and watched in admiration as she hauled herself up to the door. All that swimming must have developed her arms. One of the boys pulled her in and I followed. I found her shaking her hair loose and being admired by the boys who were preening in front of their prisoners.

  “Get your fucking hands up!”

  We whirled and stared into the dark chamber. The missing man was standing not ten feet away. He was a skinny little guy but he was holding a big fat gun. Slowly we did as he asked. I noticed Eve slipping back behind me so that I would shield her from the gunman. Smart girl.

  He came towards us. I recognised the huge set of teeth in the little face. Sid the foreman. It figured.

  “Now get over there, you bastards! Away from them.” He waved his gun towards the doorway. We shuffled until he had us set up with our backs to the river. Eve was cowering behind me, holding on to my jacket at the back. His mates lay between us and him. They were stirring and ready to be freed. I felt a complete fool. I also felt vulnerable standing so close to the lip of the doorway.

  Sid bent down and pulled the gags off the three men.

  “Thank Christ, Sid!” said one of them. “Don’t just stand there. Finish the fucking job. Shoot the fuckers.”

  Sid stood up, and looked at us. A grin came over his weasel face.

  “I seen you in the yard. You’se fucking coppers?”

  I shook my head, wondering about stepping back and jumping. But Eve was between me and the exit. I hoped one of the others would make the jump. Better to risk a broken leg than a shot in the belly.

  “Well, that’s all right then. You ain’t gonna be missed.”

  “Shut the fuck up talking, Sid. Shoot!”

  Sid raised his gun and took aim at my chest. He could hardly miss from six feet away. I braced myself. I suppose I shut my eyes. A gun went off and I heard a scream. It wasn’t me. Sid was writhing on the ground, clutching his shoulder. Eve’s right arm stuck out under mine. Smoke was clearing from the little gun in her hand. I didn’t waste any more time thinking. I dashed forward and kicked the gun away from Sid. He was squealing in pain like a skelped pup. I retrieved his gun and walked back to Eve, now the centre of attention and congratulatory hugs by my lads. She wasn’t looking joyous. Her face was strained and tight, like a kid who knows she’s done wrong but won’t admit it.

  “I said no guns.”

  “Not to me you didn’t,” she said fiercely.

  “I didn’t expect you to need the warning.”

  Midge butted in. “Fuck’s sake, Danny. She saved our skins.”

  I sighed and nodded. “You’re right. Eve, thanks. Thanks a million. Now I suggest you use that journalist imagination to think up a good story for the boys in blue tomorrow.” She looked at me warily. I smiled and stepped forward and put my arms round her. My turn to hug. Through her thick worker’s clothing, her curves pressed against me. She felt good in my arms.

  “Thanks. I mean it. You were amazing. You all right?”

  She looked up and nodded, and this time she smiled and I could feel the tension leave her and the shakes begin. I gently prised the gun from her. It was a toy, a Beretta 0.25. I’d ask later where she got it and how she learned to use it.

  “Let’s get Sidney here as comfortable as we can. It won’t be serious. It was only a pea-shooter.” I held up the gun. The boys laughed and bent to work. When we were done, we settled down for what was left of the night. That’s how Tommy Chandler found us come daylight.

  SEVEN

  Tommy almost wept when he found what had happened – whether in gratitude to us or anger at being betrayed by his foreman was hard to tell. We only just managed to stop him from kicking the lot of them into the river, still tied. And Tommy would have added a couple of bricks to help them on their way to hell.

  It took half a pack of Craven A to calm him down. I asked him to get some of his boys up to mind the prisoners, and pointed to the remaining one down on the barge. I wanted my men well away from the scene when the rozzers got here. Same with Eve. I especially didn’t want her having to explain what she was doing with a gun and why she was so handy with it.

  Tommy was so grateful he would have agreed to lying to the police on a warehouse full of bibles. There was no love lost between the East End and the law at the best of times. So an hour later, when the squad cars squealed up outside, Tommy and I were alone, ready with a slightly tailored version of the facts.

  “You say you were the night watchman, Mr McRae?” the inspector was asking. We were in Tommy’s office and Inspector Austen was tugging at his thick bottom lip. A sure sign that he was weaned too early. I imagined him in private having a really good suck of that thumb.

  “Temporary watchman, inspector. Mr Chandler asked me to help him stop the thieving. I’m a private detective – Finders Keepers.”

  He didn’t like that. They don’t. Private dicks are seen by the boys in blue as only one shade lighter than the crooks themselves. I think it’s professional jealousy.

  “And the gun? This is your gun?” Now he was mauling his mouth, trying to rub out his lips. No wonder his hair was thin and his skin so pale; this man needed a holiday, or a new job.

  I looked at Eve’s Beretta lying between us. “That’s mine all right. I have a licence.” That was a risk; I was guessing they wouldn’t check it out. Why would they?

  “You don’t have a licence to go round shooting people.”

  “Self-defence. Look at what he had.” I pointed at the other weapon lying on the table. It was a .45, and looked like a Bazooka alongside mine.

  “Where do you think you are? The Wild West? Beat him to the draw, did you?”

  Just then I saw some commotion outside through the glass panels of Tommy’s office. The sound carried through. Inspector Austen looked pissed off, as though his brilliant interrogation had been on the point of forcing an unwitting confession out of me. He got up and went to the door. He opened it and shouted out.

  “What’s going on? I’m in the middle of taking a statement here.”

  Then I saw her. Eve was standing in the middle of
the warehouse in her normal clothes – beret, belted coat and shoulder bag – arguing with a policeman and scribbling in her little black notepad. The constable was clearly past the point of being civil. His face was red and his collar looked two sizes too small as he ran his finger round it, trying to let blood through to his small brain. Eve saw the inspector and her face lit up as she strode towards him.

  I heard a soft “Oh Christ” from him.

  From her: “Inspector Austen! I should have known you would be the one to nab these crooks! I’d like a few words for my readers.”

  Apart from a hectic flush on both cheeks which accentuated the dark pools below her eyes, Eve was the innocent but far from retiring professional reporter. She saw Tommy and me, but there was no recognition for either of us. Tommy reached for his fags, then realised he had one hanging from his lip.

  “One of you two must be the owner. Mr Chandler?”

  Tommy stuck his hand up like a school kid. Eve thrust hers out and shook his roughly.

  “And you are…?” She stood in front of me, her eyes bright and challenging.

  “Who’s asking?” Two could play her game.

  “Eve Copeland, reporter from the Daily Trumpet, Mr…?”

  I took a risk that Inspector Austen would play along with a wind-up of the press.

  “Hamish MacTavish, night watchman.”

  She squeezed her lips together to curb the grin. She shook my hand, and dug the nail of her pinkie into the palm of my hand. I don’t know if it was tiredness, or after-effects of the fight, or too long without a woman, but I had a sudden and overwhelming wish that we were alone and I was biting those compressed lips.

  The rest of the scene became an all-round farce: Austen trying to get rid of Eve and Eve trying to get the story she already knew from the inside. Tommy and I played along as best we could. Behind us, the sorry-looking gang were marched off, glowering at me with a message in their eyes that I had just bought myself a heap of trouble. The wounded foreman was carted off moaning on a stretcher, chest bound and face blanched.

  Eve caught the late edition with enough tantalising hooks to ensure that the main morning run would sell out in minutes. It painted a picture of a plucky night watchman – one Hamish MacTavish – and a few doughty storemen besting an armed gang intent on plundering a treasure house piled high with exotic silks. She even hinted at having witnessed the shoot-out herself after a tip-off by underground contacts. This fearless reporter scaled the warehouse river-wall just in time to see the tail-end of the tussle. She referred to Hamish as the ‘humble hero of the waterfront’.

  The boys and me laughed about the first article that evening over a few drinks in the George. I’d come with their wages from Big Tommy. He’d been so pleased he’d added a bonus tenner to each of us, and the way Midge and Stan were putting it away, they’d have nothing left in the morning except the mother and father of all hangovers.

  “I thought you was a fucking magician, Hamish, the way you drew that gun,” Stan was slurring. “A fucking magician. Didn’t even see you move.”

  Cyril butted in, slopping his pint over the already sodden table. His beard glistened with beer. “Then we saw it was the bint! Could hardly believe it. I know it was a pop gun. But what’s she doing carrying it? And where did she learn to shoot like that? Have her in my unit any day, so I would.”

  We were in a little corner of the lounge bar, a bit away from other customers but the lads’ voices were getting louder with every round.

  “Keep it down, will you?”

  “What’s it matter, Danny?” asked Stan, who’d chosen the tallest seat at the table and managed to look like an elf on a kiddie’s high chair. He could have done with a bib as well, the state of his shirt.

  “I just don’t want the world and his wife to know. You get names and photos splashed around and next thing the rozzers’ eyes are on you, or some prat decides to take you on to prove he’s a big guy. Low profile, that’s best, then we can get more work. If you’re sober enough!”

  “What? Us? Don’ you worry your pretty head, Danny boy,” said Midge through his thickening tongue.

  I was suddenly aware of someone standing nearby. I turned. His shoulders were as thin as a rail and his spine humped under his shiny jacket. Sparse black hair was slicked down with too much Brylcreem, and he kept passing a fag from one hand to the other taking a short suck in between. It was Fast Larry, a bookie’s runner of my acquaintance. When he saw I’d noticed him, he smiled and edged a couple of feet closer. They can smell the money, these boys.

  “No nags tonight, Larry. We’re just having a quiet drink.” Quiet? I glanced round at the ever-louder trio. Fast Larry was shaking his head and was now within three feet. He signalled with a finger to his lip and pointed at me. I let him come right up. He bent over. I could smell his sour breath. I turned my head.

  “The word’s out, Danny.”

  “What word is that, Larry?”

  “You and the boys, here. You done over the gang in the paper there.” He pointed at the evening version of the Trumpet soaking up the spillage.

  “Not us, mate.”

  Larry rubbed his oily nose. “Gamba put the word out.”

  My blood started running faster. “Gamba?”

  “Gambatti. Pauli Gambatti. He’s looking for you. Those were his boys you got nicked this morning. He’s not ’appy.”

  The underworld grapevine never ceased to impress me. I looked at Fast Larry and wondered why he was telling me this. Loyalty to his regulars? Larry was only as loyal as the last bet. Ordered to by Gambatti? A strange instrument. Or just malicious? His eyes were flicking all round the room. He was one of life’s parasites. Always on the edge of a crowd looking in. Seen as a go-between, not a person in his own right. Breaking the news to me got him into my life stream, gave him existence. But I couldn’t, wouldn’t acknowledge it.

  “You’ve got it all wrong, Larry. If you bump into your mate Pauli, tell him we had nothing to do with it.” I was conscious the others were listening now.

  “Yeah, piss off Larry,” called out Stan, who felt he could lord it over at least one bloke who was in worse shape than him.

  Fast Larry winced like he’d been struck. He turned and shuffled off. But he’d left behind a small cloud. I didn’t have to explain to anyone at the table who Gambatti was.

  EIGHT

  Nor did I have to explain to Eve. I found her the next night celebrating her scoop with her fellow hacks in the Coal Hole in the Strand. The pub was just far enough away from Fleet Street to avoid bumping into the editor, but close enough at a slow stumble to put the evening edition to bed. Eve saw me and pushed towards me. None of her flush-faced cronies seemed to miss her. Her face was rosy with drink and success. It was a big transformation in thirty-six hours.

  She waved the front page of the Trumpet at me. “Read all about it! Fearless reporter scoops gang-bust!”

  “I’ve seen it. A great story. Almost wish I’d been there.”

  “It’s what we agreed, isn’t it?” Her voice dropped. She looked anxious, as though I was upset.

  “I don’t need the publicity. Not with Gambatti out for blood.”

  “He’s going to be my follow-up piece.”

  “Are you daft?” I exclaimed. “Why get Gambatti even more upset than he already is? You can’t name names without proof.”

  She drew me further away from the rabble at the bar. We were standing by a shelf running along the smoke-blackened wall. Her face was close enough for me to smell her scent. She pressed a hand to my lapel and fingered the cloth. We got a hoot from her friends at the bar. She ignored them.

  “Danny, this is my biggest scoop in years. I need to milk it for all it’s worth. I’m too public for Gambatti to do anything to me. He’d be the first suspect.”

  “From what I’ve heard, that wouldn’t matter a toss. He’s a complete nutter. He had a waiter’s fingers chopped off for slopping soup in his lap. He made a fortune out of the war. While the good fo
lk of London were cowering in bomb shelters he sent his lads out on looting sprees. Lost a few of his gang in the air raids, but he never worried about it. Plenty more deserters to chose from. Cleaned out whole streets, they tell me. Even nicked the poor blighters’ blackout curtains. Flogged them back to the owners on Saturday at the market. He’s an all-round villain.”

  “That’s what makes him so newsworthy.” Her eyes shone provocatively. And something in them – maybe a recognition of what we’d just been through – told me that if I leant forward to kiss her she wouldn’t slap my face. Her smile grew and she shook her head.

  “Not here. Meet me in an hour, Baker Street tube. Unless you’re too tired?” I wasn’t.

  Nothing would make me too tired for a date with Eve Copeland. Which I guess this was. Forty-five minutes later I was pacing around outside Baker Street station checking each entrance in case we missed each other. I stamped out my third cigarette, turned and saw her. She was standing looking at me, her face quizzical, as though she was wondering why I was here. Or maybe why she was. Then she seemed to remember she’d summoned me but couldn’t decide what she was going to do with me now. I wasn’t sure myself. She switched on the smile and walked towards me. She thrust her arm through mine, leaned up and pecked me on the cheek and led me off towards her flat in Marylebone.

  We lay on our backs, gazing at the ceiling, hips and legs touching in luxurious intimacy. I’d lit two cigarettes and given her one. Bergman and Bogart in Casablanca. It was the best cigarette in the world. We’d been clumsy and urgent at first; she seemed as deprived as me. Maybe she’d been telling the truth about boyfriends. Maybe the dragon who rented the room to her usually did a better job of blocking visitors. I hoped so. Eve made me take my shoes off to climb the creaky stairs. I felt like a burglar sidling up the edges of the steps in time with her. Halfway up she’d given me heart failure by shouting out, “Early night, for me, Mrs Gibson.” And got the reproving response above the sound of the wireless, “Just as well, Miss Copeland, after last night! I don’t know what sort of job that is for a young woman.”