As soon as the girls were out of sight, I ran over to Wayne and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. “I’ve told you and Carl before, I want nothing to do with your little betting scheme.”
“You should come with me,” Wayne responded. “Trust me, you don’t want to piss off the boss right now.”
-*-
I followed Wayne to Carl who had now set himself up in a slightly larger DIY store. I knew what this meeting would entail, but I didn’t let that make me complacent. Carl and Wayne were not good people, and they were no doubt capable of doing terrible things when they didn’t get their own way.
“Good evening, Mr. Cornish,” Carl said, lighting a cigarette from behind a makeshift desk.
I sat down in the empty seat and did my best to look cool and composed. There was another one of his minions in the corner, but at a push I could take the three of them.
I shouldn’t be here. Even being near these people carried a great risk of being implicated in a betting ring that would ruin my entire career. This was how it had started for Gary: innocent meetings that soon turned nasty.
“How is young Shaun doing?” Carl asked. “I hear you’re looking after him at the moment.”
“He’s an orphan now, thanks to you. How the fuck do you think he’s doing?”
“From what I hear, he had a tragic car accident. I don’t see how that’s my fault. If only he hadn’t gone to the police, he never would have been driving that night and never would have crashed his car.”
“What do you want, Carl?” I asked. I couldn’t sit here and listen to his bullshit about Gary. I knew what’d happened. He’d reported the crime to a dodgy cop who had then informed Carl about Gary’s confession. Carl must have sent one of his lackeys out to sabotage the car. I’d never be able to prove it, but I knew what happened.
“You ignored my request,” Carl said calmly, taking a long, slow drag on his cigarette. The shop was a mess, with tools and materials lying around everywhere, but Carl still insisted on using an ashtray to collect his ash anyway.
“You mean your request for me to throw the quarter-final game? Yeah, I must have missed that one.”
“I had a lot of money riding on that game, Mr. Cornish.”
“My Granddad used to gamble,” I said. “My Nan used to give him hell for it, but you know what he said? ‘I only gamble what I can afford to lose.’ Perhaps those are words of advice you should live by?”
“Very good, very good. It’s no problem, anyway. I can recoup it all in the final. I must say, you did a marvellous job of helping England to the final. Phenomenal kicking.”
“Thank you.”
“England are now favourites to win the final. The last thing anyone will suspect is for you to have a bad game. Why, whoever made that bet could win a small fortune, especially with so many people betting on this game.”
“I wouldn’t advise making that bet,” I said. “You’ll only lose more money.”
Carl put out the cigarette even though he’d only gotten through half of it, and leaned forward on his elbows.
“You’re going to make sure England lose the game,” Carl said.
“No, I’m not,” I replied, still sitting back casually in the chair.
“You a family man, Mr. Cornish?” Carl asked.
“You know full well that my mum is under protection,” I said. “I have so many people guarding her that your men won’t get close. That’s why you didn’t do anything after I ignored your last request.”
“What about other family members?”
“My father left before I was even born. If you find him, you’re welcome to him. Tell him I said ‘hi.’”
I heard a phone beep behind me. Carl looked over my shoulder at Wayne, but I resisted the urge to look round. Carl smiled and sat back in his chair again. He’d just received good news.
“You’ve been holding out on me, Mr. Cornish. Imagine my surprise, when one of my men spotted you out and about the other week with a young woman and a girl.”
I sat bolt upright in my chair. So much for trying to remain calm. “You stay the hell away from them.”
“Michelle and Maisie Portman. Cute girls. They’re your step-sisters now, right?”
“I can protect them too,” I growled. “Just give this up, Carl. I’m never going to go along with your scheme. The second I get out of here, I will put every security guard in the country on those two. You won’t get close.”
“Yes, I figured you would. You know, it strikes me that I never properly followed through on my threat for your failure to lose the quarter-final game. No wonder you won’t agree to throw the final. You probably think I’m all talk.”
“I’m not going to let you so much as look at them,” I snarled.
“I don’t think I want to look at them anymore,” Carl said, as a snide grin spread across his face. “Shame too. They were such pretty girls.”
I stood up and reached over the desk, grabbing Carl by his cheap suit and shoving my face in front of his. “What have you done?” I yelled.
Wayne and the other minion, grabbed me by the shoulders and between the two of them they just about managed to pull me off of Carl, who was now laughing hysterically.
“You really shouldn’t let young women walk home alone,” Carl said. “There are some truly nasty people out there.”
I shook off Wayne and the other man, and ran out of the store. I backtracked until I was back in the spot where I’d abandoned Michelle and Maisie, and then ran in the direction they would have taken to get home.
When I rounded a corner and saw the flashing lights of police cars, I realised I was too late.
-*-
I visited the girls in hospital, but I could never stay for long. I couldn’t bare to look at Maisie and see the pain she was in without feeling sick with guilt.
Michelle had escaped relatively unharmed, although she must have landed on her side and badly bruised her arm, because she could barely move it and winced when anyone touched her. Of course, she refused to see a doctor because that would mean leaving Maisie’s side for a few minutes.
I wanted to stay with them, but I had a rugby game to play. I’d have happily missed the final to spend time with Michelle and Maisie, but I didn’t have a choice.
I’d assumed Carl was just a glorified thug, but I’d underestimated him. He must have an entire network of people under his command, and he clearly had access to personal information about me.
I’d specifically not said anything publicly about Michelle and Maisie, but he’d found out about them anyway. I couldn’t take the risk anymore. Who knows what he would do to them next time.
The entire team was nervous before the final, so no one noticed how terrified I was. We were the favourites to win for the first time since the tournament had started, and no one knew how to deal with that label. We all preferred being the plucky underdogs.
The team was on fire. I scored all the kicks that would be considered easy, but I made sure not to score with anything remotely missable. Even without me on good form, we were still only two points behind in stoppage time.
When we were awarded a scrum deep inside the opposition half, I felt the expectancy of the crowd in the stadium bubble to the surface. Tens of millions of people would have figured it out.
All we had to do was get the ball out of the scrum, where the scrum-half would pass it to me, and I would have an easy kick to win the game. The kick was almost unmissable, but that’s exactly what I had to do. For Maisie. For Michelle.
I dropped the ball and pretended to lose balance as I kicked it. I sent the ball straight into the hands of an opposition back who kicked the ball out of touch. We’d lost. England had lost the World Cup Final because of me.
-*-
I treated Michelle like shit over the weeks following the final. I even blamed her for my miss.
I told myself it was all part of getting her out of my life so that she would be safe from Carl, but if I was completely honest with myself, the nasty things I said to her came far too easily.