‘I’m happy,’ Charlie said. He folded the money and put it in his shirt pocket.
‘I should bloody well hope so,’ Slaughter said. ‘Now get the fuck out of here. You’re stinking the place up.’
Charlie turned toward the door.
‘Tomorrow then,’ Slaughter said. ‘Usual time.’
‘Yes sir,’ Charlie said, and he limped out.
Because he was working that night, Charlie did not return to his room. Instead he made his way by tube to High Street Ken and from there he turned south because last time he’d gone north. He walked the streets and eventually he found two places that looked like they would be all right. One was a lush basement with a path round the side and the other had scaffolding. Neither had too-small windows. The only problem was the knee.
Charlie found a pub, had a meal and a drink. Then he made a decision and a phone call, and began the wait for the early hours.
The next afternoon Charlie made his way to Balham High Road. To protect the knee he left early so he had a few minutes to spare. He was about to pass the time in the betting shop across the street from Slaughter’s door when he noticed the man himself leave and walk down the street.
Charlie didn’t know what to do. He was too far away to call out, and Slaughter was walking too fast to be caught. But it was unlike Slaughter not to keep an appointment. It had never happened before.
Charlie stood thinking until it was the time he was due. All he could think of was go to the top of the stairs and wait.
But when he got to the top of the stairs, Slaughter’s door opened before him. Standing in the doorway was Lorna. Her skirt was short, way up over her knees. She said, ‘I heard you on the stairs, Charlie. You ain’t half clumpy. Come on in.’
Charlie hesitated.
‘I don’t bite,’ Lorna said. ‘Honest.’ She turned her back and walked into the room.
Charlie could do nothing but follow but he stood and waited by the door as he watched Lorna take Slaughter’s seat behind the coffee table.
‘Close the bloody door. I’ll catch my death.’
Charlie closed the door.
Lorna said, ‘Well what did you get?’
Charlie limped to the table and emptied his pockets. As he did so Lorna said, ‘You hurt yourself? I saw you was limping yesterday. You OK?’
‘It’s nothing,’ Charlie said.
Lorna moved to stand. ‘Let me see.’
‘No!’ Charlie said.
Lorna sat back again and her skirt rose farther up her legs. ‘Suit yourself.’
‘It’s all right,’ Charlie said. ‘It’s all right.’
On the coffee table Lorna sifted through two credit cards, three cheque-books, and a big handful of jewellery including two gold rings, but no cash. ‘I’m not having a good run,’ Charlie said.
‘I know,’ Lorna said. ‘Your luck ain’t been so good. But that’s OK.’ From her cleavage she took a roll of notes and offered them.
Again Charlie hesitated.
‘What’s the matter with you today?’ she said. ‘Don’t you like me or something? Because I always thought you did, only now you act like I got the bloody plague.’
‘I… I like you,’ Charlie said.
‘Well take the bleeding money then,’ she said, ‘cos you and me has got to have a little talk.’
‘We do?’ Charlie said. He took the money. It was five new twenty-pound notes. After he counted them out he said, ‘This is too much, Miss Lorna. This stuff ain’t that good.’
‘Sit down, Charlie,’ Lorna said. ‘Here, by me.’
Charlie didn’t know what to do.
‘What the fuck’s the matter!’ Lorna said. ‘I’m trying to do you a favour, but everything I say I gotta say six times before you do what I want. Jesus, I used to think Lennie treated you like shit, but I’m getting sick and tired myself. You going to sit down, or what?’
Charlie sat.
‘Thing is,’ Lorna said, ‘I been hoping one day I’d have a chance to say something with Lennie not around and today’s the day cos Lennie decided to go to the races.’ She patted her skirt flat.
Charlie watched her carefully.
‘Thing is, Charlie, Lennie is ripping you off.’
‘He’s… what?’
‘Making a mug out of you. That’s the tall and the short of it. I could see all along you was a straight enough guy, and I hated to see Lennie take advantage, but there wasn’t nothing I could do about it till now.’
Charlie stared at her hard.
Lorna said, ‘You’re thinking about Beverley, ain’t you?’
Charlie nodded.
‘Well that’s exactly where he’s doing you, Charlie. He takes most of your share of what you bring him, don’t he? And that’s cos he’s supposed to have Beverley fixed up in a hospital place and it’s getting her off the stuff, right?’
Charlie nodded, his eyes open wide and focused unblinkingly on Lorna.
‘Well he’s ripping you off right, left and centre. He’s putting everything in his own pocket and he’s laughing all the way.’
‘But Bev?’
‘You want to know where Lennie’s got your Beverley? You really want to know? He’s got her working up the Cross. She’s working for him, Charlie. She’s hooked up to her eyeballs and she’s buying it on her back. So he’s got you both, Charlie, and he’s bloody laughing.’
Charlie continued to stare, motionless. But his breathing became more rapid.
‘I know it’s rotten,’ Lorna said. ‘And I only tell you cos I want to help you. I know he’s my old man, and that ain’t going to change and nothing I can say could change him anyway. If I told him, “Don’t do this,” or “Don’t do that,” the only thing that would happen is I’d be back working alongside your Bev. He likes me well enough, does Lennie, but I ain’t so stupid as to think there ain’t plenty of others would do. I may look it, but I ain’t stupid.’
Charlie still said nothing.
Lorna said, ‘But fair’s fair, Charlie. And he ain’t being fair with you, so I thought when I got the chance I’d help you get some of your own back. What do you think?’
Charlie thought. He said, ‘How?’
‘By ripping him off,’ Lorna said. ‘By ripping him off good and proper.’
Again Charlie said, ‘How?’
‘He’s got a house. We live there, Lennie and me. And it ain’t half bad. So I thought the best way for you to get your own back was for you to do your business at Lennie’s own gaff. I can tell you where he keeps all his cash, and he’s got securities. And you can take my jewellery too – he’d never let me keep it anyhow if we split up. You’ll make more money in one night than you ever seen before, and you can use it to get Bev back, and try to do her some real good if it ain’t too late. How’s that sound?’
Charlie stared at her.
‘Bleedin’ hell, Charlie, say something. I’m risking my bloody neck here. There ain’t nothing in it for me. If you do Lennie’s place like I say, it may not cost me money, but he’ll be like an orang-utan with a sore areshole for a month and that won’t be fun, believe me. So, you on for it, or not?’
Slowly Charlie nodded.
‘The best thing is for you to pull the job tonight, cos him and me is going to be at a party. You can do it early, between ten and eleven, cos you’ll know we’re out. It’s got to be the chance of a lifetime to get your own back. So what do you say? You want the address?’
When he left Lorna, the first thing Charlie did was take the tube to Camden Town. In the kitchen of a scruffy flat ten minutes walk from the station he gave three of the new twenties to a woman named Sally. Sally was surprised that Charlie gave her so much. ‘You did good last night, huh?’