“You’re at the gym, aren’t you?” Madeleine guessed, and took my lack of reply as confirmation. “I’ll tell you when I get there. I’ll be with you in less than ten minutes.”
“Madeleine, you are not coming with us,” I warned. Not this time, I added silently, but I should have saved my breath. She wasn’t listening.
“I’m on my way, Charlie,” she tossed back at me, mulish. “Deal with it.”
I started to argue, forcefully and with expletives, but that was a waste of time, too.
“Aah, that’s a naughty word,” Tara’s voice said on the other end of the line. “I’m telling!”
***
In fact, Madeleine didn’t tell me where the snooker club was when she arrived. She must have worked it out on the way over that as soon as she did I’d leave her behind.
When we heard her pull up the three of us went outside, Attila locking up behind him. We found her still behind the wheel of another Grand Cherokee, bottle green and right-hand drive this time.
“Hop in,” she said. “I’ll take you there. It’s easier than explaining.”
The boys went for the back seat, leaving me up front with Madeleine. Wayne grinned at my attempts not to grind my teeth too obviously.
My enamel was in particular danger of disintegration when I realised exactly where we were going. Explaining where the snooker club was would have taken her about ten seconds, because it was the one down near the new bus station, over the top of a café. I could have put my finger on it right away, given half a chance.
She pulled up and switched the engine off, but before she could get out I put a hand on her arm.
“We play this one my way,” I said firmly. “Don’t tell him anything. No names. If we frighten him he’ll just tell us crap to make us go away. So, we reason with him,” I went on, jerking my head in the direction of the rear seat, “with these two looking menacing in the background, just in case. OK?”
She nodded. Reluctantly, but she nodded.
“Don’t worry about me,” she said.
I should have known.
***
With me leading, and Madeleine close on my heels, the four of us pushed through the single shabby door which was the only part of the snooker club at ground level.
The doorway led straight to a narrow staircase up to the first floor, then opened out into a huge room, dimly lit, with eight full-size tables lined up down the centre. I wondered for a moment if the floor had been reinforced to take the weight.
Jav and a couple of his mates were playing at one of the tables at the far end. As soon as they recognised us, they started to scatter.
One of them tried to make a dash for the door past Wayne, who grabbed him with one huge hand, twisting the cue the boy had been about to use as a weapon out of his grasp with disdainful ease, and slamming him against the edge of the nearest table.
“You may as well let him go,” I called across, nodding to where we had Jav cornered. “This is the one we want.”
Madeleine, meanwhile, had walked right up to our quarry.
“Hi Jav, remember me?” she said brightly, then brought her knee up sharply between his legs.
Jav reeled back, gasping, and bumped against the nearest wall. He slid down it to the floor as all the strength leached out of his limbs. Tears sprang to his eyes. Wayne and Attila shifted their feet in unconscious male sympathy.
I grabbed Madeleine’s arm, spun her round.
“This was not how we agreed to do this,” I said in a low growl.
“It wasn’t how you agreed to do it,” she threw back, eyes fired, “I never got to have my say, did I Charlie?”
When I didn’t immediately answer she stepped forwards again and dug her fingers into Jav’s hair to wrench his head up. His face looked more puffy and bruised than it had done when he’d collared me outside the flat, only the night before.
It seemed a lifetime ago.
“This bastard set you and Sean up,” Madeleine went on, voice rising. “Sean took a bullet in the shoulder because of this little shit, and you want me to reason with him?”
I stared at her blankly for a moment as she dropped her hold on Jav’s hair and stalked round me, then I caught the faintest glimmer in her eye.
I shrugged. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. “Well, we’ve a hole dug if we need to use it, Mad,” I said, keeping my voice artfully casual, “but you ice him too fast and we won’t find out what we need to know.”
Jav’s eyes swivelled between Madeleine and me, and back again. He looked beyond us, but Wayne and Attila, bless them, just stood a few feet away like a two-man roadblock, their faces devoid of expression.
I watched as it finally dawned on him that there was no escape. Whatever threats had been made to him, they were nothing in his mind compared to the danger he was facing now.
Madeleine smiled nastily. “Oh, he’ll talk,” she said, and somehow managed to inject just a trace of insanity into her voice, a slightly unbalanced singsong note. “It may take a while, but he’ll talk. They always talk in the end.”
I shrugged again, flicked my eyes dispassionately over Jav’s huddled figure. “Sorry Jav,” I said, sounding genuinely regretful. “You had your chance.”
I started to move away.
Madeleine took one step closer to him. That was all it took. Jav scrunched himself into a ball and started wailing.
“OK, OK,” he yelled. “I’ll tell you! Just keep that crazy bitch away from me!”
I jerked my head to the boys and they moved forwards like they’d been practising for a synchronised display. They dug a hand under Jav’s armpits and lifted him clear off the floor. I swept the loose snooker balls on the table top out of the way and they dumped him on his back in the middle of the green baize.
I glanced round the rest of the room. There seemed to be more people than there had been when we arrived. I kept a wary eye on them, but for the moment they didn’t seem prepared to do more than watch.
Madeleine leaned over Jav, turning the blue ball over in her hand, and then clenching her fingers round it. “D’you think I should leave him with his teeth?” she asked.
Jav tried to struggle upright, but Attila put one hand in the middle of his chest and pushed him down hard against the slate. The boy took one look at the German’s impassive face and stayed down.
I moved round into his line of sight on the other side of the table. “OK Jav,” I said. “Talk. Who set us up?”
He twisted his head from one to the other. “It was them security men,” he said, fright making his words vibrate with sibilance, “you know, the ones on the estate. They wanted you out of the way before they grabbed Roger Meyer.”
“They’ve got him?”
He nodded. “Yeah, not for long, though. Lavender’s about to go up in flames. They goin’ to torch them derelict houses, the ones between the estates. When they do, Roger’ll be in one of them.”
“When?” Madeleine snapped at him.
His eyes rolled, showing all the whites. “I don’t know. Soon.”
“How come you know all this?” I asked, wary in case he was still lying to us.
“They got me to scope out a place for them. Told me to find one with a cellar, somewhere they could stash him.”
“We better get over there right now,” Madeleine said.
Jav shook his head. “He won’t be there yet. They don’t want to risk anyone finding him before the place goes up.”
“Why are they doing this?” I wanted to know. “They’re supposed to be protecting the estate. What’s in it for them?”
Despite his fear, Jav looked scornful. “It’s big business, lady,” he hissed. “You didn’t think it was random, did you – the crime round here?”