Rotten to the Core (10 page)

The two men had been sitting in the van for over two hours. It was only a little escort van, no room to swing a cat, especially with two huge men inside it.
             
It was a chilly morning
;
March
was normally
a bit milder than this. The street was
quiet,
which was to be expected as it was now almost
three am.
Just the flickering of a streetlamp and a scrawny
white
cat
walking along the path
broke up the darkness of the dull
,
rundown street.

The people who lived here weren’t exactly house proud, looking around the men could see the front gardens of most looked
as if
they were being used as dumping grounds.
There were overflowing r
ubbish bags, old
 
rusty bikes, broken flower pots
,
a
n old bath leaning up against a fence. It was a dump
!

Carl, the
larger
of the two men
,
shook his head in wonder
.
“T
he people
a
round here may not have a lot of money but it
doesn’t
cost much to be fucking clean,
does
it
?
Lazy fuckers
:
p
robably too busy sitting on their arses watching Jeremy Kyle while waiting for their dole checks to clear.
”
             
He thought of his missus
, who always kept their home lovely and clean. She would be there now,
in bed. He couldn’t wait to
be
under the warm duvet and feel her snuggled up next to him, but he ha
d
to finish the job first.
He looked over to Tommy next to him, who was tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.
             

“Where the fuck is he?”
Carl
asked
.
             
Tommy sighed
;
he was also fed up of waiting around. Just like his mate he wanted to get home to his bed. It had been a long day and he wanted a bit of shut eye
.

             
“Fuck knows, mate. He may not even go straight home
;
you know what h
e’
s like
.
”
             
He
looked
over to the house that they were watching
;
it was the only one that looked half
-
decent. It was still rundown, and the garden
was
full of crap, but it had a big solid door on the front, not a
typical
white council one like the rest of them, and thick windows
,
which
judging by the gleam had only recently been fitted
.
T
he driveway was empty and all the lights were off, just the flicker of an alarm system flashing
intermittently
. It stood out because of the alarm system, made you wonder what would need prot
ecting in a shithole like this.
He obviously had someth
ing of some value, Tommy thought.
R
ound here people had no call for security alarms; most would sooner put their last
fiver
on a
few bottles of cheap cider rather than in
their gas meters, let alone install an expensive alarm system.

Suddenly
,
they saw the bright headlights of a car coming towards them
;
finally, it was him. They watched as the beamer drove right past them and turned
 
slowly
onto the driveway.
Taking their chance
the
two men quickly grabbed their bats and made the
ir
way
over to the car, quietly, undetected like the true pros that they were.
             
As the man got out of the car they saw the shock on his face at
the sight
in front of him, shock mixed with genuine fear. Who wouldn’t be scared? They were both over six feet tall, and armed with baseball bats. The worse thing was he knew them, and knew what they were both capable of.
             
Before he could even take in the scene before him, the man found himself
lying on the floor, the bats raining
blows
down on him
,
over and over again. He didn’t beg or plead, he knew he deserved this, this was his lesson, he was well aware that it would come to this. Feeling blood pour down his face, and the sound of a bone crack above his stomach,
 
he felt an almighty pain wash over him before he passed out.

A light came on in an upstairs window above them, the two men decided to make a fast exit. Jumping into their van they sped off, just in time to avoid the plump lady opening the front door and screaming hysterically at the site of her son
’
s broken blood
-
soaked body lying in a heap on the cold floor.
 
People peered out of windows, having a good look, taking it all in so that they could have their own piece of gossip for the morning.
             
Tommy put his foot down
;
the police would be called
,
and
they
needed to get themselves and the van out of
sight. Carl made himself useful,
picked up his mobile and tapp
ing
in
a
number
.
             
“It’s done
,
” he told his boss
.
“
T
he smarmy little fucker has just considered himself told
.
”
             
“
G
ood
,
” said Paul
.
“I’ll see that you both have a little extra in your wages
.
”

Paul put down the phone.
He
had left it a few days after he had been told of Jay
’
s little side-line, and tonight it had been put to bed.
It seemed
Carl and Tommy had done well. From what
he had just been
told
,
Jay wouldn’t be working anywhere, anytime soon. He
’d
got what he was owed
,
as far as Paul was concerned. No-one
took
the piss out of him. Paul had worked too hard
,
for too long
,
to risk his club for someone like Jay to
ruin
it all.
 

Sonia was sitting in
a
dull
-grey
cubical
,
at her son
’
s bedside. They had been at the hospital for over twelve hours and although the doctors had told her that he was not critical, she felt heart-broken. Following a thorough examination and numerous x-rays, they had given him some high dose painkillers and something to help him sleep. Several of his ribs were broken, along with his nose
;
al
though looking at all the congealed blood and cuts and
 
bruises all over him
,
it had looked much worse on first glance.
             
S
onia
looked down at
Jay’s
swollen face
and
wondered how it had come to this.
Sonia
knew
that he
was no angel, far from it
.
I
n fact
,
she knew a lot more than she would ever let on even to him
,
or anyone else for that matter.
Even so she
couldn’t help feeling guilty
;
maybe that
was
why she always made excuses, always
trying
to justify his behaviour
.
S
he should never have left him with Den, she should have taken him with her, brought him up properly
.
T
his was her fault.

Sonia had walked out on Den when Jay was just a baby, after one too many beatings and endless mental abuse. She had nothing back then, and reasoned that when she sorted herself out she would go back for
her son
. But it
had
never quite worked that way. She seemed to be out of work more than in it those days.
Sonia
had always suffered with depression but Den had really knocked her confidence out of her and after finally realising she couldn’t go on
, knowing that if she
stayed with Den she
would probably end up dead, she had packed her bags and left her son behind. She had never felt so lost and
alone until then. The more she had
sunk into her dark thoughts
,
the harder
it had been for her to try and claw her way
out of it
.
 
T
here were days when she couldn’t function at all
;
she hadn’t been able to physically tear herself from her filthy bed.
Popping
anti-depressants
as if
they were sweets
,
Sonia
had spent a good few years walking around so dosed up
that
she may as well have been the walking dead.

The longer she had stayed away from Jay the harder it had been to go back for him, and she
convinced herself that it would be better for Jay to stay put with his dad
.
She
could
barely
look after herself, let alone another human being.

Thankfully
,
with a lot of help from a very good doctor and counsellor,
slowly over the years
Sonia had
sorted herself out and had been over the moon when her son had started visiting her a few years back,
feeling
proud almost of
the
big stocky man he had grown into.
S
lowly
, though, she had
learnt the details of his sordid lifestyle. He lied to her at first of course.
He had p
retend
ed
his endless amounts of money
were
savings but the truth had come out eventually
.
She knew about the debt collecting,
and
the stealing, but the thing she hated the most was the drugs. Thankfully
,
after one or two occasions of some real dodgy people turning up at her door he had moved that side of the business somewhere else
. S
he didn’t want him dealing drugs at all, but at least
now
if he was going to do it, he did it as far away from her home as
possible, sparing her from
 
having the dregs of
society
turning up at her home at all hours
,
for a fix.
             
He was her son
,
and she was aware that she
was partly responsible for the man that he had become,
but she also knew that he was his father’s son, of that much she was certain.
 
             
Sonia
touched
Jay’s
hand
,
thankful that this time he was going to be ok
ay
, but she
was
worried sick that next time he might not get off so lightly.

Kate pulled the
cubical
curtain open
.
S
he put her hand over her mouth
:
the
sight
of Jay
,
black and blue
,
was clearly too much for her. Her poor baby
,
lying there all battered
;
s
he felt bile rise up in her throat, but thankfully she managed to keep it down.
             
“Who did this?” she cried
,
her hands trembling
.
             
“
He
hasn’t spoken yet
.
” Sonia patted the chair next to her and gestured to Kate to sit.
             
Kate was a good girl
and
she loved Jay deeply, Sonia could see that,
b
ut she couldn’t help feeling that
Kate
just wasn’t enough for Jay. He was rarely home and Sonia had lied to Kate when she had phoned on many occasions
;
he had all sorts of girls at their house.