The Drop

tool?’ I told him.
    His injured forehead creased as he tried to recall when it was. ‘Okay, well it was in the Bigg Market and it must have been the night when the Toon lost the replay at home ‘cos I remember the city was packed with pissed-off people drowning their sorrows. You know the usual “the-season’s-over-in-bloody-January-again’ feeling.”
    ‘I know it well. So it was Tuesday night, the place was crawling with fans. Where did you bump into Cartwright and who was he with?’
    ‘Well, he wasn’t with nobody like but he was happy as Larry. That’s what I remember seeing, everybody else in the pub’s acting like their mother’s just died and here’s Cartwright laughing and joking, buying drinks an’ all.’
    ‘He wasn’t noted for that.’
    ‘No, exactly. So I asked him, “what’s gannin’ doon man, you win the lottery or summat?” and he says, “aye, summat like that.” ’
    ‘What else did he say?’ and he gave me an uncertain look. ‘Elaine!’ I shouted, ‘Go and fetch Finney from the pub!’
    ‘No! Don’t do that man!’
    ‘It’s okay Elaine!’
    ‘I asked him what had happened and he just said he had a bit of business lined up. He didn’t say ‘owt but I took it to mean it was tax free like, yer knaa.’
    ‘Yes, I know, a bit of freelance that Bobby needn’t worry about. I take it you didn’t share this bit of wisdom with Finney and Bobby because you were worried they might use a whole tool kit on Geordie?’
    ‘That’s right.’
    ‘Except I know you Maggot, you’re a crafty little fucker so you wouldn’t have left it there, not if there was a chance of you making a few bob out of it as well. You’d have bought Geordie one or three drinks and you’d have got it out of him. He was in the mood to talk, boasting about it even, so a pro like you could have got him to cough in half an hour. “Eeh you’re such a clever bugger Geordie, oh you’re the man Geordie, ooh can I suck your cock Geordie.” ’
    ‘Hey man, steady on.’
    ‘So what was the deal and who was it with? Come on, I told you it’ll stay with me. They won’t know you passed on the info.’
    ‘Well he didn’t tell me what the product was but when he told me the name it wasn’t hard to guess like.’
    ‘And the name was?’
    ‘Billy Warren.’

FIFTEEN
    ...................................................
    I wanted to have another word with Billy Warren anyway. There’d been something about him when I’d seen him in Faces. It wasn’t that he was avoiding me or being guarded, it was the exact opposite and that wasn’t right somehow. Had he been trying to knock me off track? That day, as soon as he spotted me he came over and, when I mentioned Cartwright, he’d admitted he’d seen him, then told me about the Russian. He probably wasn’t lying about that, because Kinane’s lad backed up his story but I reckoned he wasn’t telling me everything.
    ‘Remind me why we are here,’ said Finney as I rang the bell on the front door of his Wallsend flat for the fourth time.
    ‘I just want another word.’ I told him.
    Billy eventually answered the door looking bleary eyed, even though it was the middle of the afternoon. He pretended to be pleased to see me.
    ‘I’ve been leaning on your doorbell you dopey fucker,’ I told him.
    ‘Sorry man, had my music on.’
    ‘Bet your neighbours love you.’
    ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘but they’re old cunts. Er… the thing is I’ve got a bit of company right now, you know.’ He meant he was in the middle of a deal.
    ‘That’s alright,’ I told him, ‘we’ll introduce ourselves,’ Finney pushed passed him and I followed.
    When we got in the flat I told him, ‘nice place you’ve got these days Billy, must be doing alright?’
    ‘I get by,’ he said, still with the cocky smile.
    ‘We’re not taxing him enough,’ I told Finney who nodded solemnly.
    ‘Oh no,’ he protested, ‘don’t be like that. I’ve got overheads and everything. I’m a good little earner, you know that. The boss knows that.’
    I was glad he knew better than to say Bobby’s name out loud because when we walked into the lounge there was a bleached blonde piece there. She was wearing a short skirt so tight she had to sit with one bum cheek parked sideways on his sofa. Her legs were stick-thin and she was browner than a burns victim. She looked like her make-up weighed more than she did, yet her enormous, very fake breasts stuck out in front of her like the