much does he owe you?’ Raymond asked calmly.
Eddie was pleased, but also quite taken aback by the kid’s attitude. He seemed keen to pass the task and Ed hoped that it wasn’t just the champagne talking.
‘Eight grand he’s fucked me over for. He brought a load of hooky motors off of me. He owed ten altogether, but he paid back two, then he came out with some cock and bull about the Old Bill nicking the cars off him. It’s a load of old bollocks, I know it is, but he’s been fobbing me off ever since. I try and be fair with people, Ray, but I’ll be honest with you, if I still hadn’t got me dough by the end of this month, I was gonna do the cunt meself.’
‘Can I take something with me to use if I need to?’ Raymond asked.
‘I’ll give you something to carry. I’ve got a cosh, a baseball bat – you can take whatever you want. Anyway, you ain’t gotta worry. Me and the boys will sit just outside the gate. Any agg, we’ll be there like a shot, mate.’
Raymond smiled. He’d never suffered from having a nervous disposition and he wasn’t about to get one now. He needed this job and he would do whatever he had to, to prove his worth. ‘I’ve got me own tool, I’ll use that, and thanks anyway, but I’m sure I won’t need any help.’
Eddie was stunned by the boy’s coolness. ‘Be warned, Ray, Mad Dave’s a big old lump. A wanker he is, but a pushover he ain’t.’
Smiling, Raymond topped up both of their glasses. ‘To me and Mad Dave. May the best man win, eh?’
Two days later, all Savile Rowed up, Raymond sat in the back of a white transit van alongside Eddie, Ronny and Paulie. Uncle Reg had donned his check cap and pipe, and had offered his services to drive.
‘I wore this just in case we were seen. I look like some OAP on a jolly boys’ outing, no one’s gonna clock us with me driving,’ he laughed.
‘So you’re ready to play with the big boys are you, Ray?’ Ronny asked sarcastically.
Raymond could tell immediately that Ronny didn’t want him in the firm and was determined to prove him wrong. ‘More than ready,’ he answered politely.
‘Next on your right, Reg. You know where it is, don’t you? Straight down the bottom of that road.’
‘Don’t worry, I know I’ve semi-retired meself, but I ain’t fucking senile yet,’ Reg said jokingly.
Ronny nudged Paulie as they pulled up outside Mad Dave’s appalling-looking car site. ‘I’d love to be a fly on the wall, wouldn’t you?’ he whispered.
Paulie ignored him. Whatever the end result, this kid had bigger bollocks than most.
‘What tool did you bring?’ Eddie asked, as he opened the back door.
From nowhere, Raymond pulled out the biggest butcher’s knife Eddie had ever seen. ‘Fucking hell. Where did you get that from?’
‘I used to be a butcher, didn’t I? And I know exactly how to use it. Now, are you sure his bird’s gone home?’
Eddie urged Reg to poke his head around the gate.
‘She drives a light-blue Ford Fiesta and parks it just on the right as you go in.’
Within seconds, Reg hobbled back, giving the thumbs up.
Ronny sat quietly as Raymond stepped out of the van and strolled into the car lot like he owned the place. Flash little cunt, I hope he comes unstuck, he thought to himself.
With the knife tucked firmly down the inside of his jacket, Raymond spotted the Portakabin and marched straight in.
Mad Dave was sat on a black leather chair. He had his feet on a wooden desk, a beer in one hand and a copy of the Sun newspaper in the other. ‘Can I help you?’ he said, without properly looking up.
‘Yes, you can. I work for Eddie Mitchell and I’m here on his behalf to collect the eight thousand pound that you owe him.’
Mad Dave took a large gulp of beer, burped, then threw his head back with laughter. ‘You’re ’aving a giraffe, ain’t yer, mate? So you’re telling me that that mug Eddie Mitchell has sunk so low in his fuckin’ business empire that’s he’s sent some teenage kid round to threaten me?’
Raymond grinned. ‘I’m not a teenage kid and I’m not threatening you. I’m just asking for the dosh that you owe.’
Mad Dave cracked open another beer and downed it within seconds. ‘Do yourself a favour, kid, and fuck off home,’ he told Raymond.
As Mad Dave stood up, Raymond felt a slight twinge of fear. The geezer was fucking ginormous. ‘I don’t want no aggro, just pay me the money and I’ll leave,’ Raymond urged him.
Laughing hysterically, Mad Dave walked towards Raymond and lifted him by his new shirt and tie. ‘Go away, you silly little boy,’ he said, as he dragged him towards the Portakabin door.
As fast as a greyhound chasing a hare, Raymond pulled the knife out and shoved it straight through Mad Dave’s guts.
As he hit the floor, Mad Dave’s eyes rolled straight into the back of his head. Raymond bent down to check on him; he had seen enough dead animals to know when someone was brown bread. Desperate not to get the man’s blood on his new suit, Raymond knelt to one side as he searched through Mad Dave’s pockets. He’d spotted the safe when he first came in and it was one of them cheapies that wasn’t coded by numbers. Finding a massive bunch of keys, Raymond walked towards the safe and tried numerous ways to unlock it. ‘Come on,’ he said, as he turned key after key.
Finally, Ray felt the lock turn. He quickly grabbed all the money from inside, pocketed it, and washed the blood off his hands in the sink. Spotting a tea towel, he wiped the safe, the desk and the door. He hadn’t touched anywhere else, he was sure he hadn’t. Washing the blood off the knife, he put it back inside his jacket. His new suit was ruined. He’d caught his pocket with the knife and ripped it, and not only that, it was also sprayed with blood.
With the tea towel firmly attached to his hand, Raymond opened the cabin door. He then ran for his bloody life.
Waiting for Raymond to return was the longest wait of Eddie’s life. Ronny hadn’t helped with his stupid comments and jokes. Willing the kid to come through for him, Eddie smiled as he saw him running towards the van.
‘Drive, quick, go,’ Raymond said, as he leaped into the back.
Paulie and Ronny were stunned to see splashes of blood on Ray’s suit. He didn’t have a mark on him, so it couldn’t be his.
‘Are you OK? What happened?’ Eddie asked nervously.
Raymond was aware of his arms shaking as he put his hand in his pocket and pulled out bundles of £20 notes wrapped up in elastic bands. ‘There’s ten bundles there. I should imagine there’s a grand in each,’ he managed to stutter.
Ronny couldn’t believe his eyes. ‘What the fuck? What did you do? Whose blood is it?’
Raymond put his head in his hands. ‘I had to kill
