‘Tell anyone about this and we’ll make sure your piss is the most tested in the country,’ I told him, ‘and my friend here will definitely come back and break both those precious legs.’
Finney let him get up, the WAG followed him sharpish and they both headed for the door.
‘Just a minute,’ hissed Finney as they reached it and they both froze, ‘come here.’ Golden Boots reluctantly walked back over to face Finney, ‘you haven’t said thank you.’
‘Eh?’
‘For teaching you a valuable lesson,’ the Premiership’s finest just stared at him like a frightened rabbit, ‘well go on then, say it.’
There was a sizeable pause while he tried to find the words, ‘Thank you.’ His voice was a high pitched squeak.
‘What for?’
Another pause.
‘For teaching me a valuable lesson.’
Finney nodded, giving them permission to leave. As Golden Boots walked out of the door, I told him, ‘welcome to the real Premier League.’
SIXTEEN
When they were gone, Billy said, ‘Jesus lads, he was my biggest earner.’
‘Tough,’ I told him, ‘sit down. I want a word.’
Finney was clearly still troubled by the footballer’s behaviour. ‘You know who that was, don’t you?’ he asked me.
‘Yep,’
He shook his head like the world had gone completely mad. ‘Can you imagine Alan Shearer behaving like that?’
‘No,’ I said truthfully, ‘I can’t.’
I got Finney to search Billy’s flat while we went over the story of Cartwright and the Russian one more time. It didn’t take Finney long before he came out of the bedroom carrying a large holdall. It contained around three kilos of coke.
‘Oh shit,’ said Billy.
‘No wonder you can afford this place Billy,’ I said, ‘there’s got to be fifty grand’s worth there. Now, how did you come by that?’
Billy was evasive at first, for all of about two seconds, until Finney picked him off the ground by his neck and pressed him hard against the wall. I watched his feet kicking a few inches from the floor and let him gasp for breath for a moment before I told Finney to loosen his grip and let him drop to the ground, where he lay choking.
‘Now then Billy,’ I told him, ‘we know you didn’t tell me the whole truth about Cartwright so explain it all to me now or I walk out of this door and leave Finney to finish you off. I’m in too much shit to waste any more time on you. You’ve got one chance.’
‘I don’t know nothing about it,’ the words were strangled in his mangled throat.
‘I’ll leave you to it then Finney,’ I said.
‘Right,’ he said matter-of-factly and he started to roll up his sleeves while Billy looked on horrified.
‘Make sure it’s not quick.’ I said and walked away. I’d almost reached the door.
‘Wait!’ cried Billy, ‘wait, wait, I’ll tell you.’
We had to make the silly bastard a mug of tea to calm him down. He had to grip it in both hands he was shaking so much. At first he was so scared all we could get out of him was apologies.
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I was only trying to…’
‘What have you done Billy?’ I asked him, ‘you’d best tell us and I’ll see what I can do for you. It’s the only way. If you don’t tell us Finney’s going to kill you anyway aren’t you?’
Finney nodded, ‘definitely.’
‘It wasn’t much, honest,’ he assured me, ‘we was just trying to do a little on the side. A bit of business, that’s all, tax free, you know. I always pay my way with Bobby but this was a chance to do something just for me.’
‘And Cartwright,’
‘And him too.’
‘With this Russian?’
‘Yeah, how’d you know that?’ and he gave me a look like I was Mystic Meg or something.
‘Did you introduce him to the Russian or did he bring him on board?’
‘No he was Cartwright’s man. I don’t know how they met, honest I don’t. He brought him down the pub to see me.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I’ve known Cartwright for ages and I trust him… I mean as much as you can trust people in our game… he’s not greedy you know.’
‘Not like you, you mean?’
‘I was just trying to put a bit aside. I don’t want to be doing this all my life do I?’
‘What was the plan for the coke?’
‘I’d told Geordie ages ago that I could sell a bit more than normal if only I could get a supply from somewhere else.’
‘Someone other than Bobby?’
‘Well, yeah. I told him we could split the proceeds if he could find me someone reliable.’
‘Who were you going to sell to?’
‘That dopey fucker you just scared off. All his mates are on it. Half the Premier League runs on white powder. You’d be amazed at who’s doing it. They can’t get a buzz from nothing else. They’ve got women on tap, gambling’s pointless ‘cos they’re all millionaires by the time they’re twenty, drugs is the only thing that excites them. They all want to be gangsters.’
‘That’s funny, most of the gangsters I know want to be footballers.’ I said.
‘Too right,’ said Finney.
‘Anyway, the bloke’s a tool right enough but he’s minted and he wants a couple of kilos a time so he can show it off at parties, you know, he wants to be Charlie Big Potatoes. Plus he doesn’t know anything about it does he? We can cut it and pass off any old shite as the purest Bolivian and he’s none the wiser. He pays over the odds because he can and he don’t care. He doesn’t know what a pint of milk costs so he’s not going to know how much a kilo of coke is. There was going to be a big mark-up, very big. Cartwright said he could get the coke off the Russian and he’d pay him. My bit was disposing of it to my football contacts.’
‘And you never thought to ask him where he was going to get the money for that amount of blow?’
‘It was none of my business was it?’ protested Billy, ‘he said he would get the guy his money but that I had to set up the meet with our footballer for that same day.’
‘So he’d pay the Russian for the coke and sell it on through you to Golden Boots straight away for a nice, quick profit?’
‘Exactly.’
‘Did he say why it had to be so quick?’
Billy shook his head, ‘That was his business.’
‘So you reckon you didn’t know he was stealing money from Bobby Mahoney to fund this deal?’
“Course not!’ he said, ‘I would never have allowed… ’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ I interrupted, ‘so what happened?’
‘Cartwright dropped the coke off like he said he would. I set up the meet but I had to call it off at the last minute.’
‘Why?’
‘Well it turned out our client had to play in a reserve match at short notice so he couldn’t come by after all. In any case, Cartwright didn’t come back,’ he shrugged.
‘Cartwright didn’t come back,’ I said, ‘because Cartwright was being killed, most probably by his Russian mate.
‘Jesus,’ said Billy his eyes widening, ‘he got killed for a few grands worth of coke?’
‘No Billy,’ I told him patiently, ‘he got killed because of the money he was holding for Bobby, which was worth a lot more than a couple of Ks of coke.’
‘Oh Christ,’ he turned pale, well, even more pale, ‘what can I do? Name it man, anything. What can I do to make this right?’
‘Can you contact this Russian?’
‘No, it all went through Cartwright.’
‘I don’t know then Billy,’ I said regretfully, ‘you’re in the shit now and no mistake.’
‘I knew I shouldn’t have listened to Cartwright,’ he was rocking back and forth on his sofa like a traumatised soldier. ‘I knew it.’
I let it sink in for a while so even a man as stupid as Billy Warren could work out how much trouble he was in. When he was good and scared I told him, ‘okay, you want a way out of this,’ I said, ‘here’s what you’re going to do. You are going to phone up Golden Boots and get the deal back on. Only this time you won’t be making anything because Finney will be standing behind you when you hand it over. Do that and make a few more deals with the Premiership’s finest and we’ll see if Bobby will let you be square, eventually, as long as you keep your nose clean.’