The Drop

Darlington.

THIRTY-ONE
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    I t was starting to rain. There were some young lads standing around outside the station trying to look hard. I walked straight up to them,
    ‘I’ll give you a tenner for a use of your phone.’ The lad looked at me like I was mental. I stuffed the note into his shirt pocket and I must have looked as if I’d had a very bad night because, without a word, he handed me his mobile. They all eyed me suspiciously, as if I was going to run off with his precious Nokia, ‘don’t worry,’ I told him, ‘you’ll get it back.’ And I turned away as I dialled Palmer.
    ‘Jesus,’ he hissed, ‘where’ve you been? I’ve been ringing you for ages.’
    ‘My phone’s gone but don’t worry about that. Get in your car and drive. I need you to pick me up, now.’
    ‘Okay,’ he said, ‘where are you?’
    ‘Standing outside Darlington station.’
    ‘Darlington?’ he asked, ‘what are you doing there?’
    ‘Just get here,’ I snapped, ‘on your way down I need you to make sure I have a car, a phone and a few hundred quid waiting for me when we get back to Newcastle. Get one of your boys to meet you with that outside my brother’s place.’
    ‘No problem,’
    ‘And I want you to bring something with you now.’
    ‘What?’
    I kept my voice low as I told him then I rang off and threw the phone back to the young lad. I walked out of the station and down the ramp, turning the collar of my jacket up against the rain.
    Palmer didn’t say anything when I climbed into the car. There was plenty of time for explanations on the drive back to Newcastle. I waited till we were on the main road before I asked him.
    ‘Did you bring it?’
    ‘Glove compartment.’
    I opened the glove box and took it out, weighed it in my hand but kept it low, out of sight, ‘loaded?’
    “Course,’ then he gave me a look, ‘not taking the piss, but have you ever fired a gun before?’
    ‘Yep,’ I told him casually, not adding how recently.
    ‘Fair enough,’ he said.
    I put the Glock back in the glove compartment and closed it.
    ‘I need to tell you what’s been going on,’ I told him, ‘I am going to be relying on you, so you’d better be on your game.’
    ‘Right,’ he said simply. What I liked about Palmer was that he never seemed fazed about anything. It was hard to imagine a jeep through some plate glass doors. He didn’t look like that sort of guy - but then I probably didn’t look like a murderer.
    ‘Tommy Gladwell and his Russians are trying to take over the city tonight,’ I said.
    He nodded sagely, ‘and we are going to stop them?’
    ‘Yeah,’ I said resisting the temptation to add, ‘we are going to try.’
    ‘There’s just one thing,’ I told him, ‘you know that Tommy is Arthur’s boy and you know all about Arthur Gladwell?’
    ‘That scussy wee shite. Aye, I’ve heard of him but he doesn’t scare me if that’s what’s worrying you?’
    ‘It’s not that,’ I said, ‘it’s just, you’re both from Glasgow so, if that’s going to be a problem, I need to know it now.’
    ‘If it’s a question of loyalty,’ he said, ‘Tommy Gladwell didn’t put food on my table when I was cashiered out of the army. You did.’
    I wasn’t expecting a big speech and I didn’t get one but what he’d said was good enough for me.
    ‘In any case, Arthur Gladwell is a boil on Glasgow’s arse, always has been. He won’t be winning any popularity contests up there.’
    Palmer had a couple of questions but it didn’t take long to put him in the picture. He’d already tortured most of the story out of grey-hair, whose real name turned out to be Terry apparently, but there was one last piece of the jigsaw that I still didn’t have.
    ‘Did you get that name for me?’
    ‘Yeah,’ he said thoughtfully, ‘I did.’
    And when he told me who had been selling us out, I have to say that, for some reason I still can’t fathom, I wasn’t even a bit surprised.
    I’d never been happier to experience the unmistakeable smell of tobacco and stale piss outside the flats, especially when I noticed there was a light on in Our-young-un’s window. I left Palmer in the car to watch my back and wait for his man to show up with the cash, the phones and the car. I went to collect Danny. I didn’t want to hang about. We needed to be gone from there as soon as. I couldn’t afford to be caught in the city by Vitaly and his thugs.
    I was pretty sure