Paul had been gobsmacked when Billy had called and told him that Jay’s second call had come this morning demanding that the money be left by the DJ booth at midnight that night. Jay had said once he had picked the money up and got out of the club safely without anyone interfering or trying to do him any harm, then and only then would he text Billy to tell him Kate’s whereabouts: he said that he was the only one who knew this. He had stating categorically that if anything happened to him while he was picking the money up, Kate would be left where she was, in a remote location where she wouldn’t be found for weeks, by which time it would be too late for her.
Billy had asked what if he was being set up, what if he paid up and Jay didn’t stick to his end of the deal? Jay had just replied that he had no other choice but to trust him.
“Pay up, don’t fuck it up and you’ll get your sister back. Any trouble and I promise you this, Billy, you will never see her again.”
Jay must have fucking lost the plot, picking Goldie’s was the stupidest location anyone could have thought of. The door was being manned, there were cameras everywhere, and Jay must have known that. He must have known that both Paul and Billy would be watching for him like hawks, not to mention Billy’s guys, who would be all over the place. Jay must be mental if he thought that he would be walking out of there with his legs intact, let alone a bag full of cash, was safe. Maybe he thought that there was safety in numbers or something and that he would be able to just sneak in undetected, but there was no way that was going to happen.
Billy was getting the cash, a cool half a million; it would be there any minute. Paul knew that Billy had no intention of letting Jay get away with it, though. He had been sorting out the plan of action with Jonny and Lee all day, and they had decided that they would have two cars ready, one at the front entrance and one at the back; they would let Jay walk in and out without any interference from anyone and when Jay tried to get away they would tail him from a distance; once they knew where he was hiding out, they would wait it out for a bit, hopefully getting Kate back. They would give it a bit of time, just enough to lull Jay into a false sense of security, let him believe that maybe he had actually got away with it, then they would make their move with Billy and Ryan’s help: they would ransack the place and, more importantly, ransack Jay Shaw.
It was only nine o’clock now; the clubbers normally didn’t start arriving until after ten, the night was still young. Hoping that he had enough men in place and praying that the night wouldn’t throw any nasty surprises, Paul wandered up to the gentlemen’s club; he had decided he would stay up there and man the security cameras with Joe, his security manager. He had a great team on, and even though everyone was on strict orders not to approach Jay or get in his way whilst he collected the cash, Paul wanted all eyes on him. They needed to keep him in their sights long enough to establish where he was going to, otherwise the money would be long gone and Kate’s fate would be left in his slimy and untrustworthy hands.
45
Emma had almost bitten her nails down to nothing; her nerves had got the better of her. She had smoked more cigarettes in the last few days than she probably had in her entire life, so many that she felt like throwing up; she thought it was the fags making her nauseous but she was worried for her friend too. Every time she thought of poor Kate and what she might be going through, she felt as if she would throw up. Emma knew that the chances of what had happened to her repeating themselves and happening to Kate were slim, but that didn’t stop her mind going into overdrive and making her fear the worst. After all, she knew Jay better than all of them; she had been the one to witness first-hand what an evil bastard he could be. She knew Jay would want the cash badly, but even he wouldn’t be stupid enough not to go through with the deaclass="underline" surely?
Emma was behind the main bar, just like any other Friday night, except this wasn’t like any other Friday night. The time had passed so slowly, and every time Emma had had a chance to glance at the clock between serving people, it seemed like the clock’s hands had barely moved. The atmosphere was so charged it was like electricity thrashing through the club, everyone was on tenterhooks, just waiting.
Billy had looked a state when he had turned up, he hadn’t shaved and his clothes looked like they had been slept in; judging by his grey, shadowed eyes he had had very little sleep, Emma thought. She had been having trouble sleeping, too, and had been grateful that Billy had stayed in the flat with her; she didn’t think her nerves would have been up to staying there on her own, not with this crap going on. Her nerves were already shot to pieces, and knowing that Billy had been lying on the sofa downstairs had been a huge relief to her.
Billy was upstairs with Paul at the moment, in the gentlemen’s lounge and as she looked around at the amount of shaven-headed beefcakes dotted around the place she hoped with everything she had, that one of them came through tonight for Kate’s sake. He couldn’t get away with this. So many things could go wrong tonight. Emma hadn’t wanted to work, but Paul had insisted that everyone carry on as normaclass="underline" they should keep their heads down and get on with their jobs no matter what the night brought. It was finally a quarter to twelve; there had been no sign of Jay. Emma’s mind was whirling and she had been mucking up orders all night. To make up for it, she had been dishing out free shots to keep people happy and was now surrounded by a pissed crowd who was laughing and dancing without a care in the world. She was trying hard to concentrate but she kept looking around, scanning the club to see if she could spot his face like everyone else working tonight seemed to be doing: just looking and waiting.
Paul was doing his best to keep Billy cool upstairs, they had been glued to the monitors for over an hour and so far no one had seen Jay enter the club. Paul was worried that if Billy saw Jay, he would lose all sense of reason and want to annihilate the fucker, and Paul didn’t want to risk anything fucking up getting Kate back in one piece. He had told Billy that the best place for them to be was upstairs, and it was true. The cameras were on every entrance, including every fire door, all the stairs were covered and, most importantly, so was the DJ booth. It was ten minutes to midnight now, and as they had discussed Paul was going to take the bag of cash and place it next to the DJ booth. In ten minutes, they would finally have a lead as to where Kate was: they all needed to stay on the ball.
46
The dance floor was heaving; sweaty bodies grinding to the music while drunken people chatted, laughed and sang along to the songs pumping out of the speakers. There must have been three hundred people bopping away on it and hundreds more standing at the sides or lounging on the huge comfy sofas or in the secluded booths.
It certainly was the place to be usually, but maybe not tonight. She was sipping from a bottle of something fruity and alcoholic, which was too sweet and too cheap, not her usual tipple, but then nothing about her was usual tonight. She felt she had surpassed herself, and was feeling very smug once again, lapping up every second of it. Earlier that day she had gone to a salon and had her long hair chopped off and had it styled into a shaggy bob with a fringe that hung into her eyes; she had then asked them to dye it black. The hairdresser had tried to persuade her to keep her lovely golden locks, but Tanya insisted that she wanted a complete re-style. The hairdresser had reluctantly done the cut, and actually said in the end that it quite suited Tanya. Some women were lucky that way and could do pretty much anything to their hair so that it looked great no matter what, she had admitted. With her new hairstyle and racy clubbing clobber, she looked like a completely different girclass="underline" unrecognisable. Tanya had hooked up with a bunch of lads when she had first come in to the club: it had been too easy. They looked as if they couldn’t believe their luck, drooling at the sight of her dancing up against them and acting like she was right up for it. She had no time for any of them, of course, they looked like a bunch of complete and utter losers but she needed to mingle and not stand out by being alone, which would draw attention to her. That was what she didn’t need tonight. Most of the time she had been there they had been plying her with drinks and compliments so it wasn’t that hard a task, she figured, to make a tiny effort with them.