The Drop

always the philosopher in Bobby’s crew, the thinker. You were the only one I ever caught buying the Times .’
    ‘One doesn’t buy the Times , dear boy,’ he told me in a voice that was almost Oscar Wilde, if he’d been raised in Gateshead, ‘one takes the Times .’
    ‘Does one?’
    ‘Yes, one does,’ he said, ‘and if one does, one will have read their fascinating piece on the stars recently. Not the Hollywood variety. Apparently there are one hundred billion stars like the sun in our galaxy that are likely to have at least one planet capable of supporting life. And there are one hundred billion galaxies in the universe, so that means there are… ’
    ‘A fuck of a lot?’
    ‘A fuck of a lot, thank you, of planets that could have life on them but we won’t get to see any of it because the nearest star from ours is hundreds of thousands of years from here at the speeds we are currently capable of. Now, when you consider the vast scale of our galaxy and the ludicrously huge size of the whole universe, you’d have to be completely puddled to believe there’s a god up there somewhere who gives a tinker’s toss about you and yours on planet earth,’ he raised his glass of coke and clinked it against my pint, ‘life is a load of random shite and all of us are just spinning helplessly round the sun. When you can confront that fact head on and still keep your sanity, well, then you are a man my son.’
    ‘I knew you were a fucking hippy,’ I said, ‘and it may be random shite to you but I have to put some sense into it all and quickly. I’ve got to find Cartwright and I have a funny feeling that, alive or dead, he is still on this planet.’
    ‘That ought to narrow it down then, eh?’ he said cheerfully.
    We had a couple more drinks, him sticking with his coke and me sipping more of the local bitter. People carried on getting bladdered around us.
    Sitting with Miller reminded me of my early days working for Bobby. He was a veteran back then but he’d been alright when others had treated me with suspicion if not downright hostility, ‘You know, you’re one of the few from the old crowd who doesn’t treat me like a leper,’ I told him.
    ‘Well, they don’t always get it, that lot. I don’t think they understand what you do for Bobby, but I can see it David,’ and he thought for a moment. ‘They probably can too, they just don’t want to admit it.’
    ‘Maybe, but whatever the reason I’ve always found it easier to deal with you, which is why I didn’t bring Finney with me when I came out to see you earlier.’
    ‘Finney?’ he looked a bit alarmed, with good reason, ‘why would you bring him?’
    ‘I don’t think you’re telling me everything Mark.’
    ‘How do you mean like?’
    ‘About Cartwright,’ I said, ‘everyone I speak to says he’s not the sort of man to get mixed up with anything that’s likely to piss Bobby off but we know he lied about the Drop. He said he was going to take Maggot with him but he didn’t. Now that’s strange behaviour for a man like Cartwright; a quiet, unassuming bloke who seems happy enough with his missus and his football, and a few pints at the weekend, so what the hell happened? You knew him as well as anyone. So what are you not telling me?’ he hesitated then, his eyes moving from me to the floor and back again, ‘you’d be better off telling me Mark, you know I’ll find out sooner or later and I’d rather hear it from you. You’re protecting him aren’t you? What is it?’
    He let out a deep sigh, ‘there was something but if I tell you, you have to go easy on him.’
    ‘No promises and no ifs. You’re going to tell me or I’ll phone Finney and he’ll ask you.’
    ‘There’s no need for that but please, I’m asking you, can you see what you can do for Geordie if it does go tits up like?’
    ‘I’ll do my best,’ I told him, knowing that my influence wouldn’t count for much if he’d screwed Bobby.
    ‘Gambling,’ he said simply.
    ‘Gambling?’ I was stunned, ‘Geordie Cartwright? Are you sure?’
    He nodded reluctantly, ‘been doing it for years man, low key at first. I mean he was losing but all gamblers lose don’t they, whether it’s football, horses, casinos, the house always wins.’
    ‘So what happened?’
    ‘It’s the same sad and simple story. He started small, he mostly lost but he had a few wins. The wins just made him feel like he should have had a bit extra on the horses that came in. So he