‘Hip belt’, Doc said. ‘Good one. Annie said thirty grand, that right?’
Hendrick nodded and Doc went out of the room. When he came back he was carrying a manila envelope which he handed to Hendrick. Annie watched fascinated; maybe she was still hoping that her deal would go through, but it must have been a faint hope. Hendrick wasn’t acting; he counted the money carefully and put it away in an inside pocket. He had no particular expression for thirty grand just as he had no particular expression for tit-grabbing; I wondered what he did for fun.
‘This is a nice place, Doc. Had it long?’
Doc shrugged; he was looking uneasy and Dean was shifting his feet like a boxer about to start punching.
‘What about a drink?’ Hendrick moved towards the bottles and then suddenly darted right and picked up Dean’s gun. He had the safety off and the thing on full cock in one smooth movement, the way they train them to do where he came from. Our host looked worried for a minute, but his expression changed when Hendrick pointed the gun at me.
‘You know, Doc’, he said, ‘you shouldn’t deal with fly-by-nighters like this. Could get you into trouble. Is his stuff good?’
‘The best’, Doc said.
‘Is it now? Well, I just might take him and it into custody and do myself some good.’ He lifted the. 45 a fraction. ‘You wouldn’t object, Doc?’
Doc licked his lips; there was reluctance in his face, greed as well, but they both had fear to contend with. He let the plastic belt slide in his hands. ‘No, Henk’, he said. ‘Be my guest. Nothing rough here though.’
‘Of course not.’ He moved up to me and put the muzzle of the. 45 under the point of my chin.
‘Where is it?’ This was what he did for kicks; he pronounced the ‘where’ like ‘vair’ and there was a big, blue vein standing out under the pink skin of his temple.
‘No rough stuff here, Henk’, I said.
He brought his knee up accurately and I went down with that feeling of pain and violation rolling through my body. As I hit the floor I felt the gun bite into my back and I had the consoling thought that I might get a chance to shoot him where he’d placed his knee. I lay there blinking as the spasms shot through me. My wallet was in the top pocket of the denim jacket I was wearing and he bent down and lifted it out. He looked through the contents letting them drop to the floor one by one. There was only money, driver’s licence and stray papers. I contemplated an attack from below but the gun in his hand was nicely directed and rock steady.
‘Clifford somebody; nobody.’ He dropped the last paper disdainfully like an ice cream wrapper.
I sat up, controlling the pain and gathered the things from the wallet. I was about to put them back when Hendrick stood on my left hand. He bore down on it with all sixteen stone, and I screamed.
‘Where?’
I shook my head. He swung his other foot at my head; I rolled away from it a bit but he connected near my ear. I felt skin tear and bones click, and there was a roaring sound getting closer. The warmth on the side of my face and neck was my blood.
‘Now, Henk’, Doc said.
‘Shut up! How’d he get here?’
‘Sam brought him’, Dean said. ‘He said he knew Annie.’
Hendrick looked at Sam with interest, she returned the look.
‘He showed me the sample’, she purred.
‘Did he say he had it with him?’ Hendrick was still looking at her, but as if he’d like to hurt her.
‘He didn’t say.’
‘Did he stop anywhere?’
‘No, oh yeah, he did stop. He bought chewing gum.’ She giggled. ‘And bananas.’
‘What else did he do? It’s important.’
Sam was pretty stoned but she gave it a good try. ‘Well, he gave me some gum and he had some good grass in the car. He didn’t smoke and he’s got this sort of springy step.’ She giggled again.
‘What?’ Hendrick snapped.
‘Well, I was thinking how he was Mr Clean, you know, not smoking and that. And outside the shop he shoved his hand into this rubbish bin, like a derro. It looked funny but I guess he was throwing something away.’
He glanced down at me with the look he probably used when he was kicking the kaffirs about. ‘Amateur!’ he sneered. I groaned and let him have his fun.
‘Well, I think that winds it up here’, Hendrick said. ‘Get on your feet you.’ He helped me with a kick on the leg and I promised him something for that too. ‘Annie, you’re coming with us, and you too.’ He waved the gun at Samantha. ‘You can show us the spot.’
‘I don’t know…’ Sam mumbled.
‘Yes, you do. Let’s go.’
‘Hey’, Dean rasped, ‘what about my gun?’
Hendrick looked at the. 45 and slowly swung it around to point at the bridge of Dean’s nose. ‘It’s a good piece’, he said. ‘I like it.’
I got up slowly trying to look more wonky than I felt. I was glad he liked the gun, a man with two guns isn’t looking around for a third; stands to reason. He herded us out of the house and up the steps to his car, a yellow Cortina. Annie moved listlessly and Sam tried to regain some of her oomph, but it was a losing battle, she was stoned and scared. Hendrick gave the keys to Annie.
‘You drive and the blonde can keep you company. I’ll cuddle up in the back here with Clifford.’
Annie drove slowly and steadily and Sam sat rigidly beside her. I slumped back in the seat away from Hendrick and groaned from time to time. The blood had stopped flowing and the pain in my head wasn’t worse than an impacted wisdom tooth. I concentrated on blaming the man beside me for the pain and the ills of the world generally.
After a while Hendrick asked Sam a few questions, and encouraged her replies with a few prods of the. 45. He’d uncocked it, but I remembered the speed he’d displayed before- not yet. We slowed down and after a few false alarms Sam found the right shop. It was closed; there was forest on one side of the road and the houses on the other side were set well back from the road and behind high hedges and shrubberies. There was light from a street lamp a little way off but not much of it. There were two rubbish bins outside the shop.
He got Annie to U-turn and we pulled up twenty feet or so back from the first bin. Hendrick stuck the gun in my ribs.
‘How’re you feeling, man?’
‘Lousy.’
‘Good. Now I want you to get out, go up to the right bin and retrieve something. Then bring it back here to me. If you do anything silly I’ll shoot you and there’ll be all the evidence I need to make it okay. Understand?’
I nodded wearily and got out of the car. There was a light breeze and it hurt the torn flesh by my ear. I limped up to the first bin, paused a minute and then went to the second. I put my hand on its rim and then collapsed, rolling onto my side where I could see back to the car. Nothing happened for several long seconds, and then Hendrick got out. He still held the. 45 and he was very wary. I played dead and let him put his boot toe into my ribs. He seemed satisfied and burrowed down into the bin, still keeping the gun on target. He pulled his hand up with the package and proved he was human-for a split second he forgot me and looked at his prize. Adrenalin was flooding me-I grabbed the gun hand and pulled it down while I swung one foot at the back of his knee. He grunted and came down and I ground the fingers into the cement; I felt his little finger break and his grip relax, and I slammed the hand down again. He let the gun go and whimpered a bit. I got up fast and reached back for the. 38. His eyes were wide with pain and surprise as I put the muzzle between his eyebrows.
‘Henk’, I croaked, ‘you should pick your enemies better.’ I kicked the. 45 away into the shadows and put the. 38 into the rubbish bin. ‘Get up.’