Head of the Firm Page 21

  But now it looked like Bradley had disappeared with Alastair’s money and Billy wondered if Ged’s dislike of their oldest brother was born of something else. Did Ged really believe that Bradley had used nefarious means to escape a prison sentence when three other brothers had been sent down for their part in a massive conspiracy-to-supply operation? Money had gone missing then too. Solomon Shepherd’s money – and Solomon was just as ruthless as Alastair McGrath. How the hell did Bradley walk away from the whole thing unscathed? He was either the luckiest man alive – or a dirty, lying cunt! Only time would tell which.

  Chapter Sixty-Nine

  Jay Marshall and Alan Kelly walked through to the office at the back of The Blue Rooms. They knocked out of respect for the two men on the other side of the door.

  ‘Come in,’ one of them bellowed.

  Jay pushed open the door and the two of them walked inside to see Jake Conlon sitting behind his desk and Connor Carter pacing the room.

  ‘What do you two want?’ Connor snapped. ‘I’ve been hearing all kinds of rumours about you two and your fucking uncle Jimmy. If it wasn’t for the fact I used to like you, and I’ve had my hands full, I’d have been paying you two a fucking visit.’

  ‘We know. We were going to come and see you. But then we heard about Paul, so we thought we’d leave it until things calmed down. But we’ve got some information for you,’ Jay said.

  At this, Jake sat up and Connor walked over to them. ‘Oh? And what’s that?’ he asked.

  ‘Bradley Johnson and his brothers are the ones who’ve been trying to take over your turf. They came to us. The five of them all tooled up. Smashed up the shop and everything.’

  Connor shook his head. ‘I thought you two could handle yourselves?’

  ‘We can, Con,’ Alan replied. ‘But there were five of them. Bradley had a shooter. And Sandy was there! They threatened her too.’

  Connor nodded, seeming to understand they were in an untenable position.

  ‘We were going to come and let you know. Go over there and do them over. But…’

  ‘But?’ Connor snapped.

  ‘It was the day before Paul was shot.’

  Both Connor and Jake bristled at the mention of Paul’s murder.

  ‘So, why are you telling us this now?’ Jake barked. ‘In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re kind of busy looking for the fucker who murdered my best mate and his brother.’

  ‘Well, that’s what we wanted to talk to you about. We think the Johnson brothers were behind it.’

  ‘What?’ Connor said. ‘You think that shower of pathetic no-marks murdered my brother?’

  Jay and Alan nodded. ‘I know they’ve always been beyond useless, Con,’ said Alan, ‘but the other week they looked like a proper professional outfit. I told you, Bradley had a gun. The five of them were well up for it. They said that you and Paul would have your hands full for a while. We thought they just meant with you sorting out your business after…’ Jay stopped speaking when he realised he was approaching the delicate subject of the rift between Jake and the Carter twins, and he didn’t know what that was about, or whether it was still an issue. ‘Well, after you all seemed to have a falling out.’ He looked between the pair of them and they said nothing, so he went on. ‘Then we saw them again yesterday, and Bradley as much as admitted being behind Paul’s murder.’

  ‘What?’ Jake and Connor shouted at the same time.

  ‘If this happened yesterday, why are you only telling us about it now?’ Jake shouted.

  ‘We came here yesterday, but neither of you were about. We didn’t want to speak to anyone else about it.’

  ‘Of course not,’ Connor said. ‘Thanks, lads.’

  Alan and Jay continued to stare at Jake and Connor until they realised they had been unceremoniously dismissed.

  Chapter Seventy

  ‘Ready?’ Jake asked as he looked at Connor.

  Connor nodded and the two of them used the battering ram they’d acquired to break down the door to Bradley Johnson’s house.

  The sound of screaming filled the house as Bradley’s wife Tina came flying down the stairs. ‘He’s not here,’ she screeched at them.

  Jake pushed her aside.

  ‘Please. My kids are up there,’ she pleaded with them.

  ‘We won’t hurt any kids,’ Connor snapped at her. ‘But I’m going to search every fucking inch of this house until I find your gob-shite husband.’

  ‘I swear he’s not here,’ she continued, crying and shouting as she followed them around the house.

  Jake ran upstairs while Connor concentrated on the ground floor. He searched every room, including all of the cupboards, despite the fact Bradley would have had to be a contortionist to fit into any of them. He stood in the hallway glaring at Tina. ‘Tell me where he is and you and your kids can go back to your beds,’ he snarled.

  ‘He’s not here. He left after your uncle and Grace Carter came today. I swear I don’t know where he is,’ she cried, snot and tears streaming down her face.

  ‘Grace and Sean were here today?’ Connor snapped at her.

  ‘Yes. This morning. Bradley told them he had nothing to do with Paul and I thought they believed him.’

  ‘So they just left?’

  She nodded.

  ‘So why did he do a runner then? If he didn’t do it?’

  ‘Probably because he knew it was only a matter of time before you showed up,’ she snivelled.

  ‘So, he left you and his kids here to deal with that on your own? He’s a real fucking charmer, isn’t he?’

  Tina was about to respond when a breathless Jake came running down the stairs. ‘He’s not up there,’ he said. ‘Just a load of terrified kids.’

  Connor glared at Tina. ‘When you hear from him again, tell him we won’t stop looking for him. So if he really had nothing to do with my brother’s murder, he’d be doing himself and his fuckwit brothers a favour to come and find us instead.’

  With that ringing in her ears, Jake and Connor walked out of Bradley’s house and climbed into Connor’s car.

  ‘What now?’ Jake asked.

  Connor shook his head. ‘Fucked if I know. Did you know your mum and our Sean went there today?’

  Jake blinked at him in surprise. ‘No! Why?’

  ‘Probably the same reason we did. Only they found Bradley there, and left him unscathed apparently.’

  ‘Really? That doesn’t sound like my mum, and certainly not like Sean.’

  ‘I know, mate. Maybe they know something we don’t? Maybe we’re barking up the wrong tree with the Johnson brothers?’

  ‘For now, they’re the best leads we’ve got, Con. I say we find at least one of the fuckers and find out what he knows.’

  ‘You’re right. How about we go looking for one of the others instead then?’

  ‘Sounds like a plan,’ Jake replied.

  Billy Johnson had been on edge all day. Ever since his phone call with Ged. He’d been thinking about Grace and Sean Carter’s visit to Bradley’s house earlier, and while they had left seemingly believing that Bradley was telling the truth about not being involved in Paul Carter’s murder, he wasn’t sure there still wouldn’t be any repercussions. When he saw the headlights of a car stop in the street beneath his bedroom window in the small terraced house he shared with Scott, he jumped up to look outside. Billy almost shit his pants when he saw the unmistakable figures of Jake Conlon and Connor Carter getting out of a car and walking towards his door.

  Billy ran into his brother’s bedroom. ‘Scott,’ he shouted as shook him awake. ‘Scott. Get up, and get out now.’

  ‘What?’ Scott said as he rubbed his eyes.

  ‘I said get up and get the fuck out, kid,’ Billy shouted. ‘Quick! Out the back way. Jake Conlon and Connor Carter are outside, and I don’t think they’re calling round for a brew.’

  As soon as Billy had finished speaking, they both heard the hammering on the front door.

  ‘Shit!’ Scott jumped up a
nd started scrabbling for his clothes.

  ‘You’ve got no time to get dressed,’ Billy snapped. ‘Just get the fuck out.’

  ‘What about you?’ Scott stared at him.

  Billy shook his head. ‘I’ll try and stall them. You get away. Go to Craig’s and get him and Ged round here.’

  ‘But Billy…’ He stared at his older brother in horror.

  ‘Just go, Scott,’ Billy said as he pushed his baby brother out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

  The banging on the door continued and Billy couldn’t help but feel it was like a death knell. He prayed that Scott got out in time. Scott had never wanted to be part of the family firm. He had brains and he could have been so much more, but Bradley wouldn’t have it. Billy would be fucked if he’d let his baby brother pay for his oldest brother’s ego.

  ‘We should have brought the ram with us,’ Jake sighed to Connor. ‘We’d be in there by now.’

  ‘Calm down. He’s probably in bed. I’ve just seen a light go on. He’ll be here in a minute.’

  Sure enough, a few seconds later the front door opened and Billy Johnson stood before them in boxer shorts.

  ‘Billy?’ Connor said before pushing his way into the house, with Jake close behind.

  Connor bundled Billy into the back room of the house. Billy remained quiet and unusually compliant, which suggested to Connor that he’d had an idea they’d be paying a visit.

  Connor pushed Billy onto the old leather sofa.

  ‘Where’s your brother?’ Jake snapped.

  ‘Which one?’ Billy asked.

  ‘Bradley,’ Connor shouted.

  Billy shrugged. ‘I don’t know. He fucked off this afternoon after he was paid a visit by your mum and your uncle.’

  Jake punched Billy in the back of the head. ‘We don’t fucking believe you.’

  ‘I know you don’t,’ Billy replied. ‘But it’s the truth. I don’t know where he is. I swear.’

  Connor delivered a swift kick to Billy’s balls that made him double over in agony. Lifting his head up by his hair, Connor looked into his eyes. ‘Did you have anything to do with my brother’s murder, Billy?’

  Billy shook his head. ‘No,’ he groaned, earning him a punch in the face which broke his nose.

  ‘We can keep going like this all night, Billy boy,’ Jake said to him. ‘Tell us what you know and we’ll go easy on you.’

  Billy shook his head and spat the blood from his mouth. ‘I don’t know anything.’

  ‘He’s a tough one, isn’t he?’ Jake said to Connor. ‘I’m going to enjoy making him talk.’

  ‘Me too,’ Connor agreed.

  When Craig, Scott and Ged Johnson arrived at their brother’s house thirty minutes later, all they found was the broken and battered body of Billy Johnson. Scott broke down in tears and cried like a baby while Craig phoned an ambulance, which could do nothing other than carry his brother’s dead body to the police morgue.

  ‘This is all fucking Bradley’s fault,’ Ged hissed. ‘What the fuck was he thinking taking credit for Paul Carter?’

  Craig shook his head. Even he didn’t know. It seemed Bradley had disappeared and left them all in the shit.

  Chapter Seventy-One

  Bradley Johnson peered out of the door of his dad’s old caravan and cursed the incoming rain clouds. The caravan had a leaky roof, and it was fucking freezing in there as it was. Nobody else knew that he’d kept the old rust-bucket on a tiny campsite in North Wales. Not even Tina or Craig. No one would know he was here. His initial plan had been to hide out until things calmed down back home and the Carters had stopped their bloody rampage.

  He looked at the bag of money on the small Formica-topped coffee table and wondered whether he should just do a runner somewhere hot and sunny instead. That was Alastair McGrath’s money, and he suspected that the old Scot wouldn’t take too kindly to someone stealing even a fiver from him, never mind two hundred grand. He could get himself settled somewhere, and then send for Tina and the kids. He would miss his brothers, but they would never forgive him for abandoning them when the going got tough.

  Besides, he’d suspected that Ged was getting increasingly sceptical about why Bradley was the only brother who hadn’t been sent down after they’d all been arrested in a massive drugs operation years earlier. The official reason had been that there just hadn’t been enough evidence to pin on him. He’d been referred to as the luckiest bastard who ever lived, but the truth was Bradley was a grass. He’d sold out his own brothers to save his own skin and had turned informant for the police in return for no charges being brought against him. With a death threat from Solomon Shepherd hanging over his head as well, he’d also pegged Ged and Craig as the brains of the whole operation, swearing that Sol Shepherd had nothing to do with any of it. It was why Ged and Craig had been handed much heftier sentences than Billy. Bradley wasn’t cut out for prison. His brothers had done their time with ease, but there was no way he would have survived inside. It had killed him to turn on his brothers, especially Craig, but it had had to be done. It was simply a matter of survival. And that’s what he was doing now. Surviving. His brothers could look after themselves in a way he’d never been able to.

  Sitting down on the threadbare sofa, Bradley picked up the Pot Noodle he’d heated up for his dinner and stuck a fork into it. He slurped down the hot noodles and sat back in the chair. He felt no guilt at all for leaving everyone in the shit. Instead, he focused on his relief that he was still alive and with all of his limbs and bones intact.

  Chapter Seventy-Two

  Grace had been surprised to see Connor and Jake standing on their doorstep earlier that evening. Surprised and relieved. She had barely seen them since the day Paul had been killed, and was living in a state of constant worry about where they were and what they were doing. The fact that Billy Johnson had been found beaten to death in his home late the previous night hadn’t escaped her attention, and she was sure that Jake and Connor must have had a hand in it. Right now, though, she didn’t want to think about that. The boys had turned up and suggested getting a takeaway and watching a film, and she wanted to have just one night of normality again. It would be good for all of them. However, Billy’s death had only strengthened her resolve to find Paul’s killer as soon as possible. The sooner she put an end to all of this madness, the better.

  Belle and Oscar were tucked up in bed, and Jake and Michael had gone out to pick up the food, leaving Connor and Grace alone in the kitchen. Grace poured him a mug of coffee and placed it on the table in front of him.

  ‘How are you feeling?’ she asked.

  He shrugged. ‘I don’t even know, to be honest, Grace. I feel like I’m missing a limb. I keep turning around expecting him to be there, or looking at my phone waiting for him to phone me, but…’

  ‘I can’t even imagine, Connor,’ she said softly.

  ‘I can’t believe I’m never going to see him again. The thought of my whole life without him is just mind-numbing. How can I do anything without him when he’s always been a part of everything I do?’

  Grace shook her head. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘It hurts so much, Grace, and I don’t know how to start to make it better.’ He sniffed as a fat tear rolled down his cheek.

  Grace put an arm around him and kissed the top of his head. ‘Grief is the price we pay for love, Son,’ she said.

  ‘You know it should have been me,’ Connor said as he wiped his face with the back of his hand.

  ‘Don’t say that.’

  ‘No. You don’t understand. It should have been me. I was the one who was supposed to be at the gym that day, not Paul.’

  The hairs on the back of Grace’s neck stood up. Connor and Jake had gone off and done their own thing after Paul’s murder. They hadn’t had put any stock in getting intel from the police or finding out the detail of what went on. They’d been too busy trying to avenge Paul’s murder in as bloody and violent way as possible.

  ‘What do you mean?�
� Grace asked, her voice calm and steady, despite her heart starting to race.

  ‘I was supposed to go there and give Eric some money so we could rent the place, but I went to meet my bird instead. If I hadn’t, then it would have been me who took that bullet, not Paul.’

  Grace pulled his head to her shoulder and stroked his hair. ‘You can’t think like that, Connor.’

  After a moment, Connor lifted his head and nodded. He took his mug of coffee and took a big swig of it. ‘Where’s my dad and Jake with that pizza?’ he said, in an obvious attempt to change the subject as he looked at his watch.

  ‘Probably stopped at the off licence for a few bottles of Bud on the way back. We haven’t got any beer in.’

  ‘Probably. Can’t have pizza without a beer.’

  Grace smiled at him, but her brain was spinning and she wanted to have some time to herself to think things through. What if Paul hadn’t been the intended target? And who knew that Connor was supposed to be going to the gym that day? Obviously Eric did. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought to speak to him before now. But then she’d had no idea about Connor’s planned meeting with Eric, she’d just assumed Paul had been followed, as had the police. It was still a possibility, but she wanted to speak to Eric as soon as she got the chance. Glancing at the clock, she saw it was after nine o’clock. Eric’s gym closed at eight. She’d have to wait to speak to him tomorrow.