Lynch was gone.
A small alarm sounded behind the counter. The shop assistant sighed and spoke to the mother.
‘That alarm will be the death of me. I swear it has a mind of its own. .’
O’Neill looked at Ward. ‘Fire exit.’
The younger detective sprinted out the front of the shop, wheeling round towards the side of the building. Ward knocked over a clothes-rail in his hurry to get to the changing rooms where a green sign pointed to the emergency exit.
He got there to see a set of double doors swinging open on their hinges. Ward burst out into the entry as O’Neill rounded the corner. At the far end Joe Lynch stopped running. He paused at the corner and looked back. His eyes met O’Neill’s. The peelers had seen him, but he had seen them too. After a second he turned and took off, vanishing into a crowd of Belfast shoppers.
TWENTY-THREE
It was three days since Petesy had seen Marty. Three days since he had told him he’d had enough, that he wanted out, that he wanted to do something else.
Petesy sat with Micky in his bedroom playing Grand Theft Auto until two o’clock in the morning. He’d told Micky he was done with dealing. On the game they had just jacked a new car and were busy driving round, looking for the cops to get a chase.
Micky kept telling Petesy what to do. Go here. Do this. Do that. Petesy missed one of the turnings and Micky laughed, calling him a dozy bastard. Petesy didn’t care. It was only a game. He thought about his mate. Marty never told him what to do. Never slagged him off, even when he made a balls-up of something.
Petesy left the house just before three. He had texted Marty, who was sitting smoking round the back of the Maxol garage. He said he’d come over and meet him.
It was awkward when Petesy arrived. Marty was still pissed off at him. His white Kappa top had a stain on the sleeve.
‘What have you been up to?’ Petesy asked.
‘Riding that Cara one. Dirty wee hoor. Can’t get enough of it.’
‘You’re full of shit.’
‘I’m telling you, she loves it. Tits?’ Marty exhaled between puckered lips, shaking his head. ‘I could sit there all day, just feeling them.’
They laughed together. Marty tossed Petesy the box of cigarettes. He took one, lighting it from the smouldering end of his friend’s fag.
‘Micky’s a dick by the way,’ Petesy said.
‘What? Your new best mate?’
‘Grand Theft Arsehole.’
Marty smiled at his friend’s joke. He finished his cigarette and lit another one straight away.
‘Listen, Petesy. If you want to go to the Tech, go back to school and all that, it’s fine with me. You’re going to need money for pens and books and everything though.’
‘Aye.’
‘Well, your granny can hardly afford it. So what about if I sponsor you? Keep you sweet? You better become a lawyer or something though, because the chances are I’m going to need one sooner or later.’
Petesy smiled. ‘Sounds good.’
‘There’s one catch,’ Marty said.
‘Oh aye?’
‘You have to bring me to any parties you get invited to. Introduce me to the birds in your class. The snatch down the Tech is supposed to be phenomenal. There’s loads of it. I’ll stick a few books under my arm, nick a pair of glasses from somewhere. They’ll never know.’
Petesy laughed. Marty would never change. They started to walk home. As they turned off the main road Petesy caught Marty grinning to himself.
‘What the fuck are you smiling about?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Fuck away off and tell me.’
‘A gentleman never talks.’
‘Is it Cara again?’
‘She’s a wee. .’
They stopped in their tracks. Two figures were coming towards them. They were 100 yards away, but as soon as the men saw Marty and Petesy they started running. Instinctively the boys bolted, sprinting back in the direction they’d come from. By the end of the road Marty was ten yards in front of Petesy.
Another man came round the corner, wearing a dark green combat jacket. He tried to cut them off. Marty was quick, swerving between two parked cars.
‘Come here, you wee cunt.’
A hand lunged out and tried to grab his tracksuit top. Marty could feel him right behind him. He kept his head down, kept going, expecting to go down at any moment.
Marty cut down an entry between two rows of houses and burst out of the Markets. On the main road he swung right and sprinted up the Albert Bridge. He didn’t let up until he’d gone 500 yards. His lungs were burning. He slowed and looked back over his shoulder. The man had stopped where the entry hit the main road. Even from that distance Marty could make out the figure in the semi-darkness. It was Tierney. He scanned the street behind him, looking towards Oxford Street. There was no one to be seen. Where the fuck was Petesy?
Tierney walked forward under a lamppost. He wanted Marty to see him, to see who he was. After thirty seconds he turned and went back into the Markets. Marty waited a few minutes before crossing the road and starting back. There was no traffic, not even a taxi. He felt alone, incredibly alone. Where was Petesy? Everybody else could go fuck themselves. His ma. Micky. Janty. Even Cara. Petesy was the only one that mattered.
He took the long back way into the Markets, lowering himself over a wall and picking his way along the bank of the river. There was a patch of wasteground that separated the edge of the estate from the water. It was the same place as he’d had a fag with Locksy a couple of days ago. Marty could make out some muffled voices at the far end, hidden by the new fence around the disused gasworks.
Marty crept closer, bracing himself to bolt at any moment. He peered round the corner. There were three figures standing. Tierney, Molloy and another. Petesy lay on the ground at their feet. He wasn’t moving. Tierney kneeled down, grabbing a handful of hair and lifting his head off the ground. He let go and Petesy’s skull bounced off the concrete. Tierney stood up and goaded him.
‘Where’s your big talk now, you fucking wee hood? Do yous think this is a free market or something? That you can just do whatever you want? You and your fucking mate. Where’s your mate now, eh? Fucked off on you, has he?’
Molloy laid a boot into Petesy, who groaned and curled into a ball.
Marty looked round for something. A bottle. A stick. There was nothing.
Fuck it.
He put his head down and sprinted, making for Tierney. He was at full pace when he came out of the dark. He hit Tierney in the face, knocking him off his feet. Marty stood over Petesy to protect him.
Tierney picked himself up. ‘You fucking wee cunt.’
Marty hadn’t thought this far ahead. What did he do now?
‘There must be a special offer on or something,’ Molloy said from the side. ‘A two-for-one on hoods.’
The three men barred any escape route. Molloy walked casually to the wall and lifted a hurling stick that was lying on the ground. The end of the stick had a series of nails protruding out of it. He gave a few practice swings as he walked back to the group. Warming up.
‘So what the fuck are you going to do now?’ Molloy asked.
He took a swing and Marty jumped back wards. The two others rushed him, knocking him to the ground. They were all over him. Punching him in the head. Then they stood up and started laying boots into him. Marty felt the wind go out of him and blackness start to close in.
The two men stood up. Molloy held the hurling stick at his side.
‘You know something? It’s your lucky day. We’re only going to do one of you. The other one of yous is going to come and work for me. We’ll put those entrepreneurial skills to some use.’