Heavy Duty Trouble (The Brethren Trilogy) (37 page)

Very w
ell then, so going back to the B
onesmen badge itself if we may, can you tell us what the wearing of this badge does actually mean within the club? What does it say about you to other members?

It’s just a sort of award.

What for?

It’s about a level of commitment to the club, it’s something we give to guys who show they are really prepared to sacrifice themselves for the club.

But why Bonesmen? Why the skull and crossbones motif?

Like I said, it’s about commitment and it’s a bit of an in-joke in the club.

About the bones?

Yeah, it’s awarded to guys who show themselves to be bikers to the bone, and who’ll be bikers to the day they die.

So hence the skull and crossbones?

Yeah.

So the badge has nothing to do
with
being ready to kill for the club?

No, that’s just rubbish.

So when Mr Parke quotes Bung as saying that you were introducing a new rule to the club, that all new strikers had to kill for the club to become Bonesmen before they could become members, that’s simply not true is it?

Well sorta.

Sort of? Can you explain that please?

Well what I mean is that yeah, I did say that I wanted all the new guys to become Bonesman before they could get put up for a vote. But no, it didn’t mean they had to go and kill someone.

So what did it mean? And why did you do it, introduce this new rule?

Because I wanted to make sure they proved themselves as dedicated bikers, people who were really committed to the life, before we even thought about accepting them as members.

So it was about
helping to
ensur
e
the quality of your strikers
before they joined
,
a sort of tightening up of the standards,
was that it?

Yeah, like we discussed before. We’re a bike club, so we have to make sure we just have dedicated bikers in it, otherwise what’s the point?

I see. So did Wibble and Bung have Bonesman patches?

Ye
ah
,
they did.

Did they have bikes?

Ye
ah
,
they did.

Did they ride their bikes?

Ye
ah
,
they did.

So were they criminals?

Ye
ah
,
they were.

Can I just ask you to repeat that last answer so that the jury can be certain about what you just said. I asked you if Wibble and Bung were criminals and your answer was?

Ye
ah
,
they were.
That’s why I decided they were out bad.

I’m sorry, can you explain that
to the jury
? What do you mean by
‘
out bad
’
?

It means out of the club and in bad standing.

You mean you were expelling them from the club? A sort of
dishonourable
discharge?

Yeah, something like that
.

I just want to go through this for the benefit of the jury since this is critical. You are saying that you had decided to eject these two men from the club, Wibble and Bung?

Yes
.

And the nature of their expulsion was that they would be regarded as
persona non grata
thereafter
?

If you mean they were in our bad books then
,
ye
ah
,
I guess you’re right
.

You make it very hard for people to get into you
r
club don’t you?

Ye
ah
,
we do
.

It can take years to become a member can’t it? Starting as a tagalong, then being proposed and working your apprenticeship as a striker for a year or often more, before finally being put to a vote?

That’s right.

And the vote has to be almost unanimous across the whole club, that’s right isn’t it?

Well you can survive one black ball, but not two.

So it takes a long time to qualify for membership and it’s not something that’s given out lightly
,
is it?

No it isn’t.

And if membership is so hard earned, then kicking someone out of the club, taking away that hard
won
membership is presumably a very serious step? Not something to be taken lightly
either
?

Yeah
,
it’s serious. It’s about as serious as it gets.

So the decision to expel
these
two members, Wibble and Bung, that was a very serious decision on your part wasn’t it?

Yeah.
It was serious for the club, ye
ah
.

And so if it is such a serious step, you must have had serious reasons for it? As you said, it’s not something that you go into lightly.

Ye
ah
,
we did.

So what were they? What were the reasons for this action, the ultimate sanction as it were that the club could impose on its members, in the case of
Wibble
and
Bung
?

Drugs
.

Drugs?

Yeah, drugs.

It what way were drugs a particular issue in respect of these two men
,
please
Charlie
?

They had carried on where Damage had left off.

They had continued his network
?

Sure they had. Wibble was always his number two. Had been for years, and Bung was Wibble’s sidekick.

When Damage went inside he had to hand it over to someone, he couldn’t do it all from behind bars, so Wibble and Bung just naturally stepped up and carried on running it for him. Pretty soon they knew how it all worked and once they knew that, then they had Damage bumped off...

I’m sorry
. Excuse me for a moment but
did you
just
say that
you believe that
Wibble
and
Bung
had your father killed?

Yeah, that’s what we all figure.

Do you have any actual evidence that that’s the case?

Nah, nothing that you lot would
say
st
oo
d up in C
ourt
,
but we just always figured it had to be them.

Why was that?

Because they were running his route. And once they had it all sussed out, what did they need Damage around fo
r? He was just a threat. Who kne
w when he might have wanted it back, wanted a bigger slice of the pie, wanted to hand some of it over to someone else
?

Someone else presumably being you?

No, not me. I wouldn’t have been interested.

Why not
?

Didn’t you hear what I said? I’d seen what it had done to
my dad Damage
and how it had fucked up his life. I didn’t want that, no fucking way.

Yet you went into
the club
?

That’s different.

The club’s different, whatever you think you know about it, it’s nothing like what you think it is.

So what is it like?

It’s
like a
family.

So Wibble and Bung, were they family too?

They were, for a while.

But famil
ies
fall out don’t they?

Sometimes.

So did they know you weren’t interested in Damage’s business?

I don’t know. I never discussed it with them.

So you don’t know whether or not they would have seen you as potentially want
ing
to inherit your dad’s business, take over the family firm as it were?

You’d have to ask them that wouldn’t you?

But you think that they killed, or had your father Damage killed
,
in order to take his business and the huge amounts of cash it could pote
ntially generate for themselves?

Yeah
.

And you didn’t have a problem with this?

Sure I had a fucking problem with it. I had lots of problems with it.

So how did you feel about it?

Angry.

Angry about what? That they had robbed you?

Oh screw the business. Like I said, I wasn’t interested in that. Fuck it, they could have had it for all I cared.

So it was
about
your
father
then
?

Ye
ah
, of course it was. He was my dad, and they had him killed.

And the club?

That too. Dad had always been very proud of the club, about what it stood for. I didn’t like him dealing the way he did but shit, that’s what he did.
But when he did it, he
made sure he
kept it outside of the club as far as possible.

And Wibble and Bung?

They d
idn’t. Once they got in charge of it, they started to use the club guys more and more. And the guys that were in on it started to have loads of cash to splash around which pretty quickly started to cause
serious
trouble.

You thought it was
corrosive
for the club
, this drugs money?

Yeah, for the guys that wanted in, there was just so much that they could potentially make. And when that happened, they soon lost their loyalty to the club and their brothers.

The loyalty that
your father, D
amage
,
had
always
said was important
?

Sure. It was what it was all about
,
he always told me. Your club and your brothers are your life.

And so you decided you had to cut out the cancer?

Yeah, before it destroyed the club.

So
Wibble and Bung had to go
?

Ye
ah
, they had to go. It was them or the club.

It was that serious?

Ye
ah
.

So you expelled them?

Ye
ah
. I got rid of the crims.

The club is a club for motorcycle enthusiasts, is that correct?

Ye
ah
.

You have strict rules about this, is that correct?

Yeah, everyone has to have a bike...

And not just any bike. I’m quoting here from what I understand to be the club’s constitution which says that every member must own a Harley Davidson motorcycle of 750cc or more. Is that correct?

Ye
ah
.

But it’s not just enough to own one, is that correct?

No, you have to ride it as well.

So again, looking at the club rules that I have here, a member has to have his bike in roadworthy condition for the whole of what the club defines as the riding season, and can actually be fined if it is off the road for more than a month
during that period
. Is that correct?

Ye
ah
.

And why do you have these rules?

Because we’re a bike club
,
of course. It’s about the bikes and riding. That’s what it’s all about. If you don’t get that and do it so you can ride with your brothers, then you can’t be part of the club. It’s that simple.

So what would you say to the suggestion, as reported in Mr Parke’s journal
,
that you have, or
were
arranging to drop these strict rules about having and riding a bike?

That’s a fucking lie. I’d never do that. I’d never let anyone else do that. In fact, if anything I’m taking the
club
the other way.

The other way? What do you mean by that?

Look
,
the club doesn’t get any money off someone in it who’s dealing
.
I mean, no more than from any other member. This stuff people think about drugs being a club business, that people kick in their profits into the club is just crap. I mean, if something is club business, like a show or support gear, then that’s club business and the profits go to the club. If it’s your business, then it’s your business and you take your own profits.