Heavy Duty People: The Brethren MC Trilogy book 1 (18 page)

‘
Hey don’t have a go at me mate. I ain’t said anything to anybody.’

‘
Sure?’

‘
Of course I’m sure. I know what’s what.’

‘
OK, but Billy now…’

‘
Oh come on, Billy just has a whinge every now and then, particularly when he’s had a line or two and gets a bit antsy.’

‘
Yeah, well he’s been doing that a lot lately. That’s always a problem. I’ve seen it before.’

That
was the second time I’d had a bad reaction from Dazza when I’d mentioned something that Billy was saying. I’d need to watch that from now on I decided. I didn’t want to get in the middle of something dangerous unnecessarily.

*

Well so much for keeping out of it. I only had fucking Billy round my house the next morning.

‘
What the fuck did you say to Dazza? He’s coming on really heavy with me!’ he gabbled, as I opened the door.

Dazza
had really put the scare into Billy I thought, as I ushered him into the house and shut the door behind him.

‘
I need to talk,’ he said

‘
OK, but not in here,’ I said, grabbing him by his cut off and hustling him in front of me and down the hall.’

‘
Oh hi Billy…’ said Sharon as I wheeled him through the kitchen before falling silent as she saw the look on my face as I almost pushed him out of the back door and into the garden.

‘
You’re close to Dazza but the only one I can trust,’ he said, as I turned on the outside tap. Bugging people remotely outdoors is difficult enough, but the sound of running water would make it nigh on impossible if we kept our voices low.

‘
OK then, so what do you need to talk about?’ I asked, looking at him appraisingly. He seemed nervous, on the edge, paranoid even and I wasn’t sure how much it would be him and how much it would be the whizz talking. Perhaps, I wondered, Dazza was right about him?

He had collapsed into a chair, his whole body slumped back as if in utter defeat,
‘What the fuck do I do Damage?’ he asked at last.

‘
What about?’

‘
About Dazza.’

‘
Easy. You keep your mouth shut and you keep being useful.’

‘
That’s it?’

‘
That’s it!’

‘
But I am being useful, that’s what’s worrying me.’

‘
Look mate, either you’re going to tell me what’s going on so I can see if I can help or you’re not, in which case you’re just wasting my time and yours.’ I left it hanging for a few seconds to give him time to think.

‘
So which is it to be? Time to decide.’

Billy had a hunted look, and then his
head fell back with his eyes closed in despair. I had known him now for almost thirty years, since we were kids at school together. He was going to talk.

‘
Look mate,’ I said softening my tone to an encouraging one, ‘talk to me. What’s the problem?’

‘
Jesus Christ Damage mate, you’ve gotta help me.’

‘
What’s going on?’

‘
It’s Dazza, he is trying to get me fucking killed.’

‘
What do you mean?’

‘
Dazza… Dazza…’

He stopped for a moment, as though he was having difficulty actually formulating
the words. I waited, it was coming, all I had to do was let it, ‘Dazza…’ then it came in a rush, ‘Dazza has had me dealing in Scotland.’

‘
What on The Rebels’ turf?’ I couldn’t keep the stunned shock out of my voice. Dealing into The Rebels’ territory, right under their fucking noses was just about the best way I could think of to start an all out fucking war. If the situation was reversed, we wouldn’t rest until we had wiped out their operation on our patch and taken our revenge for the insult. Christ almighty, what the fuck was Dazza up to?

‘
No,’ a sound of anguish, ‘you just don’t understand.’

‘
Understand what?’ I asked.

‘
You just don’t get it do you?’ Billy shot back with a flash of despair driven anger, ‘He’s not had me dealing on their turf. It’s worse than that. He’s only had me dealing with the fucking Rebels themselves!’

I was almost speechless for a second. I actually couldn
’t believe what I’d just heard.

‘
With the fucking Duckies? Are you out of your fucking mind?

It was as if Billy hadn
’t heard my question, he was too far gone in his own catastrophic imaginings of the consequences that could unfold as I tried to digest what he was telling me, the unbelievable news that Dazza was dealing with our sworn enemies. ‘What the fuck are the rest of The Brethren going to do to me if they ever find out?’ Billy wailed.

What indeed? I thought to myself.
But instead I asked quietly, ‘Did you know who you were going to see?’

‘
Of course I didn’t fucking know. Dazza said he’d arranged a meet so I just went along and then three Rebels turned up. I thought I was fucking dead but no, it was all cool.’

I waited quietly. Now that he had started to talk he would tell it all
. ‘So how did it happen?’ I asked gently.

‘
Dazza said he’d set me up with a meeting, just like the last one. No sweat, I thought. But then I’ve done it before for him a couple of times elsewhere around the country. Met up with guys, been a courier. Only this time it was up in Glasgow.’

‘
Christ, but you must have known that was Rebels’ turf. You didn’t wear your colours did you?’

‘
No I’m not fucking stupid. I just went up their nice and quiet like, booked into a hotel for the night and waited to be contacted like the times before. Like I said, Dazza had set it all up. I was just the messenger, I didn’t know who I was going to meet.’

‘
No?’

‘
No, that’s what I’m trying to tell you, it was The Rebels that Dazza had set me up with.’

I was still having problems with this,
‘No way. You’re fucking joking.’

Billy ignored me,
‘So then there’s a knock at the door. I open it and there’s three of the bastards standing there in the hallway.’

‘
How did you know they were Rebels?’

‘
Because the main guy, the one who came into the room with me, just came right out and fucking told me! Jesus, I nearly crapped myself. He had one of his bodyguards with him, they left the other one outside in the hallway. I thought they were going to take me out there and then. But no, it turned out it was cool.’

‘
Did they know who you were?’

‘
Yeah they knew I was Brethren alright. The last thing the main guy said to me was that OK I had delivered my gear and would be taking back what I had to. But if I ever showed my face again in Glasgow, colours or no colours, I’d be a dead man. But the thing was, this time, they just didn’t seem to care.’

‘
So what did you have to do?’

‘
Just the same as the other times, give them a package, and pick up something in return to go back to Dazza.’

‘
So what was it they gave you?’

‘
Just a list of addresses.’

‘
Addresses? What sort of addresses?’

‘
I don’t know. They just looked ordinary to me, flats, houses that sort of thing. I didn’t know whose they were and I certainly didn’t ask.’

‘
And was that the same as the other times?’

‘
I think so. Yes. It was the same routine each time, hand over the package, pick up an envelope, deliver it back to Dazza. It’s just this time I got a piece of paper instead of an envelope.’

‘
So you don’t know what was in the envelope the previous times?’

‘
No I don’t. But Dazza went ballistic when I handed the list to him. I thought he was gonna kill me there and then for having opened the envelope. It was all I could do to persuade him that I hadn’t had a fucking envelope. I had to wait while he made a call to check before I was in the clear.’

‘
What would Dazza need a list of addresses in Glasgow for?’

‘
Don’t know. A hit maybe?’

‘
Don’t be fucking stupid. What’s Dazza going to want to organise a load of hits in Glasgow for from here, not to mention all the other places you went to.’

‘
Perhaps he is just getting the info for somebody else?’

‘
Someone in The Brethren?’

‘
Sure, why not? Perhaps it’s not his hit?’

‘
Maybe.’

‘
Well we’d have heard about it if it was a hit. I had the first of these meetings a month or so ago now, down in Wales. If it had been going to happen, it would have happened already wouldn’t it? And we’d have heard about a dozen guys getting hit.’

I was sceptical,
‘Yeah, if it’s happened yet.’

‘
You’d want to follow up on those addresses soon if you are gonna do something. You know how quickly guys move on.’

‘
Maybe. But why would The Rebels be giving Dazza or anyone else a list of addresses to hit? They’re hardly going to be setting up their own members are they? And if it was anyone else they’d be organising it themselves. They wouldn’t be looking to The Brethren for help. That’d be the last thing they’d do. No, I just don’t get it.’

And I didn
’t. It was another thing that didn’t make sense. But, at the same time, if there was one thing I knew about Dazza, it was that he never did anything, no matter how crazy it seemed at the time, without a very good reason. It’s just at the moment I couldn’t see what it was.

‘
So what was in the package you took to them?’

‘
I only saw that once.’

‘
Well then, you saw it. What was it?’

‘
You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.’

‘
Try me.’

‘
The guy from The Rebels opened it in front of me. It was only a fucking brick.’

‘
Of what? Coke?’

‘
No a fucking house brick you prat! What d’you think? It was a full K, paper wrap printed with a scorpion logo and everything.
[9]

I gave a low whistle. ‘Cali?’

This was serious shit. I didn
’t know much about coke. Whizz and dope had been my things when I’d been dealing and I’d got out before coke started to come in so much, but I’d heard of El Alacran, the scorpion. It was his logo.

‘
He pay you? This Rebel guy?’

‘
No, that was one of the odd things. He said, “Tell your man we’ll get this checked out like before, and if it does, then let him know he’ll get his cash the way he asked.”’

Like before
, I wondered, thinking about the packets that Dazza had asked Billy to post.

What was
Dazza doing sending and handing out a couple of full K bricks of Cali branded coke?

And
on credit?

To The Rebels of all people?

We were getting in deep here I realised, into some real shit. Billy was still talking, about how something was going on, something big, how Dazza had had some gear arrive that was fucking serious.

‘
What gear?’

‘
I can’t tell you. He’d kill me, he really would.’

‘
Who would?’

‘
Dazza.’

Billy shook his head
. ‘Shit man, you should see what Dazza has got going down. He’s just fucking incredible.’

‘
Like what?’

‘
I can’t tell you man, Dazza really would kill me.’

‘
Don’t be daft, he wouldn’t.’

‘
No you’re right he wouldn’t. He’d have Butcher do it for him. He’s becoming fucking nuts about security, even more so than he was before.’

Before?
We kept coming back to that word again. Before. What did he mean? What the hell is going on here, I asked myself.

*

I saw a big payment coming into one of the accounts the next week. Banked in Glasgow. I let Dazza know about it and he seemed pleased. It meant message received and understood, I assumed.

PART
4

9 August 1994
to 15 September 1994

Clubs that are taken over are either used to being under a boss type already, or are
used to freedom.