Barking Boy Read online

  Stacey had burst out crying when she’d seen Tommy. Not only was it unlucky to see the groom before the wedding, but her Tommy looked as though he’d just gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson. “Who did this?” she demanded through her tears.

  Tommy shrugged his shoulders, before wincing, as his mum dabbed TCP on the cut above his eye. “I don’t know, babe. I was out cold.”

  Janet Carter pursed her lips. She’d put money on one of the Williams boys having a hand in this. She wouldn’t say anything just yet, though. Not today of all days. But after the wedding, she would voice her opinion on who she thought was responsible. She turned to her second eldest son. “You must have seen who did this. You and Tommy are usually joined at the hip.”

  Jimmy shook his head. “I didn’t see anything. The boozer was packed solid. It wasn’t until I went looking for our Tommy, that I even knew anything was wrong.”

  Tommy lit a cigarette. He blew the smoke out noisily. It wasn’t exactly the money that they’d pinched that bothered him. It was his dented pride that hurt the most. In any normal circumstances, whoever it was, wouldn’t have gotten the better of him, and they’d had to resort to dirty tactics, by hitting him from behind to get one over on him.

  “Well, we won’t let it spoil our day.” Stacey sniffed back her tears. “But you’ll have to stand at an angle for the photos Tommy, otherwise the cuts and bruises will show.”

  “Yeah, I’ll do that.” Tommy studied his reflection in a hand mirror. They’d done him over good and proper, and as a result, he was livid. He would find out who’d done it though. People always talked, and someone was bound to brag that they’d got one over on Tommy Carter.

  Frank Carter took one look at Davey Abbott, and turned up his nose. He couldn’t stand the man, and everything he stood for. He’d swallowed the fact that his eldest son worked for him, but he wasn’t happy about it one little bit. Even the fact that Davey had paid for a large portion of the wedding, didn’t soften his mood toward him. Why would the man pay for the wedding? That was the question he’d kept asking, but no one seemed to want to answer? What did Davey Abbott have to gain by stumping up the cash?

  He grabbed hold of his son’s arm, bringing him to a halt beside him. “What’s he doing here?” he hissed.

  Looking toward Davey, Tommy kept his voice low. “He’s me boss, Dad. And besides, he’s paid for most of today. I had to invite him.”

  Frank shook his head. If he knew anything about Davey, it was the fact that he didn’t do anything for nothing. He had a feeling his son was getting in over his head, and his protests were falling on deaf ears. He watched as Davey strutted around as though he owned the place, and he decided that after the wedding, he would have a serious word with his boy.

  Davey felt a sense of pride as he watched Tommy Carter say his vows. He’d become fond of the young man, and he’d taken his place in the front pew, as was his right, considering he was not only Tommy’s boss, but he’d also paid for the day. Tommy was fast becoming one of his greatest protégées. The boy was a fast learner. In fact, he reminded him of himself when he’d been the same age.

  Having had no children, Davey had begun to see Tommy as the son he’d never had, and like an over protective father, he was furious about the beating the boy had suffered. He would keep his ears to the ground and find out who was responsible, and when he did get a hold of them, they were going to wish they’d never been born.

  “Are you happy, babe?” Tommy asked, as he spun his bride around the dance floor.

  Stacey grinned. She was so happy, she felt giddy with it all. “It’s been a fantastic day, Tommy.” The three-course meal Davey Abbott had paid for was scrumptious and must have cost a fortune, that was without the finger buffet that was to come later on in the evening. Everything from jellied eels to sausage rolls would be laid out for them. It was a proper east end wedding, and one that people would always remember. She looked across to her family, even her dad and brothers were behaving themselves, which was a first.

  Beaming, Tommy held Stacey close. “This is just the start for us, Stace, you just watch.”

  Stacey rested her head on her husband’s shoulder, as he whirled her around. She knew he may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but her Tommy was perfect in her eyes.

  After a short honeymoon in Blackpool, Tommy and Stacey returned home to his parents’ house. They’d been given the back room, or the dining room as it had been formally known, and peering inside the dark room, Stacey smiled as she came to sink down onto the double bed. It wouldn’t take her long to make the place feel like home. Tommy had promised she could decorate however she wanted to, and she’d already decided on a pink and grey colour theme.

  “So, you twos are back?”

  Tommy turned toward Jimmy and grinned. “Yep. How’s everything been here?”

  Jimmy shrugged. “It’s been okay, our Gary was a natural.”

  Impressed, Tommy ruffled the hair on the head of his younger brother, Gary. While he’d been away, both he and Jimmy had gone out collecting the debts in his absence.

  “Davey said to remind you he wants a word, when you’re back.” Jimmy kept his voice low.

  Nodding his head, Tommy was thoughtful. He’d already known that Davey would want to speak to him, he’d pulled him aside toward the end of the wedding and said as much. “I’ll go and see him in a bit.”

  Overhearing their conversation, Stacey looked up. “You’re not going out already, are you? We’ve only just got home.”

  Tommy sighed, he wasn’t used to explaining his comings and goings. “I have to, Stace, it’s to do with work.”

  “What am I supposed to do then, while you’re out?”

  “My mum’s here. You can keep each other company.”

  Blowing out her cheeks, Janet walked through to the kitchen. It wasn’t her place to keep the girl company. As much as she liked Stacey, she would always be a Williams in her eyes, and if she was being perfectly honest, she didn’t think she would ever fully take to the girl, or any girl her sons brought home for that matter.

  “You’ll look after Stace, won’t you Mum?” Tommy called out.

  Rolling her eyes, Janet swallowed down the irritation. The girl was about to become a mother herself, she didn’t need babysitting.

  “It’s okay, I’ll be fine.” Stacey answered quickly, her lips curling down at the corners. “I’ll go and see me mum.”

  Kissing his wife’s forehead, Tommy left the house. “They’ll be okay, won’t they?” He asked Jimmy for reassurance. “I mean Mum and Stace, they’ll get on eventually?”

  Jimmy shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t know what to say. It was women’s business, nothing to do with him.

  The two brothers walked the short distance to Davey’s scrap yard on River Road. It was here, the majority of Davey’s business was carried out, the more illegal business anyway.

  Tommy pushed open the office door. In one corner, sat a tattered grey filing cabinet. On top of it piled high, was a precarious stack of paperwork. Blue-tacked to the walls, were posters of topless page three models, and in the far corner, was a rickety wooden desk cluttered with even more paperwork, a telephone, and a mug full of biro pens and pencils. Tommy almost gasped at the sight which met him. Stacey’s elder brother, Pete, had been tied to a chair in the middle of the small room. “What’s going on?” Immediately, Tommy narrowed his eyes.

  “My sources have told me this is the bastard responsible for robbing you, or at least his name was put forward anyway,” Davey answered, as he stood in front of the man. In his eyes, it was the same thing. After all, there was no smoke without fire.

  Spotting the gun in Davey’s hand, Tommy’s eyes widened. “Fucking hell Davey, what are you planning to do with that?”

  “Little lesson for you, Tommy. It’s the easiest and quickest way to make them talk,” Davey stated, as he smacked the gun around the side of Pete’s head.

  “Did you know about this?” Tommy demanded, as he rounded on his young
er brother.

  “Well, yeah, but I could hardly say anything in front of Stacey, could I? Not exactly a good welcome home present, is it?”

  Stunned, Tommy wiped his hand across his face. He could hardly believe what he was seeing and hearing. Surely, it wasn’t his own brother-in-law who’d robbed him? Stepping inside the office, he rounded on Pete. “Did you do this?” he demanded.

  “I swear on our Stacey’s life, it wasn’t me, Tommy.”

  “I can’t fucking believe this is happening. I’ve only just come home from me honeymoon.” Tommy puffed out his cheeks.

  “Of course it was him. He’s a fucking Williams. They’re all thieving bastards.”

  As the enormity of the situation kicked in, Pete’s eyes were wide with fear. “Honest, Tommy, I didn’t do anything. You have to believe me.”

  “Look Davey, he said he didn’t do it.” Tommy took a step forward.

  “Don’t be so fucking wet behind the ears. If you let this cunt get away with it, you’ll be finished in this business. Every other bastard out there will think they can get one over on you.” Davey Abbott’s steely grey eyes were hard.

  Faced with a dilemma, Tommy stood thinking through his next move. The truth was, he had no idea who’d attacked him on his stag night, and they only had the word of Davey’s source that it was indeed Pete who was responsible.

  “I didn’t do it, Tommy. I swear to you.”

  The metal shaft of the gun hit Pete, full on, in the face. His head rolled to the side with the force of the whack.

  “You need to sort this fucker out, once and for all, brother-in-law or no brother-in-law,” Davey stated.

  “Let’s just think this through, eh? We all need to calm down.” Tommy’s day was beginning to turn into a complete nightmare. How could they even let his brother-in-law go now, after this? Stacey was bound to find out, and he knew all hell would break loose when the rest of the Williams family knew what Davey and Jimmy had done.

  “There’s nothing to think through.” Davey began pistol-whipping Pete once again. This piece of shit wouldn’t get away with what he’d done to Tommy, and on his stag night, too, of all days. In fact, they would teach him a lesson he wouldn’t forget in a hurry. The quicker Pete learned that no one—and he meant no one—fucked over one of his men, then the quicker they would let him go.

  The gun explosion was deafening to their ears. Startled, Tommy ducked for cover. “Fucking hell.”

  Shocked himself that the gun had accidently gone off, Davey leaped backwards. He stared down at the gun in his hand. How the fuck had that happened?

  Crawling out from underneath Davey’s desk, Tommy immediately looked toward his younger brother. Jimmy was covered in blood splatter. He turned to look toward Davey. One of them had been hit, he knew that much, and with the three of them still standing, it only left one other person. His heart was in his mouth, as he slowly turned his head toward Pete.

  The sight which met him, had Tommy retching on the floor. It was obvious Pete was dead. His brains were splattered across the far wall and ceiling.

  Chapter Three

  Stacey was going out of her mind. Her brother Pete had been on the missing list for more than seventy-two hours. She grasped hold of her mum’s hand tightly. She could see the same worry she herself felt, etched across the older woman’s face.

  “Maybe he’s done a runner,” Steven Williams stated.

  Jack dismissed his son’s words. “Our Pete wouldn’t do that. When have you ever known him to run before?”

  Their dad was right. Even when he’d known he was going to be sent to Borstal for the third time, Pete didn’t run.

  “Well, he’s got to be somewhere,” Stacey chirped in. She looked across to her husband, hoping he would have a suggestion as to where her elder brother could be.

  Leaning against the door frame, Tommy kept his face neutral. How he was able to face both his wife and her family after what he’d done, he had no idea. Immediately, he recalled the scent of Pete’s blood on his hands. He felt sickened to the core by the sheer thought of what had taken place in the aftermath of his brother-in-law’s death. It had taken them hours to saw through the flesh and bone, before burning his remains in an oil drum.

  “Well, someone, somewhere, must know where he is.”

  The Williams nodded their heads at Jack’s words. “Where should we start looking?” asked Jack Junior.

  Jack tapped the side of his nose. “We’ll have to start by retracing his steps. Someone must have seen him.”

  Tommy cleared his throat before speaking. He was worried, in case Jimmy’s name came up in their enquiries. “Maybe he just wants a bit of time by himself, a bit of space, and will turn up when he’s good and ready.”

  All eyes turned toward him, before they burst out laughing. “A bit of space,” Jack laughed, holding onto his stomach. “Fuck me, Tommy. Who do you think our Pete is, some kind of la de fucking da?”

  His cheeks flushing red, Tommy shrugged his shoulders. “It was just a suggestion,” he mumbled.

  Catching her husband’s eye, Stacey grinned. You could trust her Tommy to lighten the mood.

  “I could fucking kill you for this,” Tommy roared, as he held his brother, Jimmy, up against the wall by his throat. “How am I meant to keep this a secret from my wife and the rest of her family? They’ll find out. I know they will, and then what, eh?”

  Jimmy gasped for breath. It wasn’t even his idea to grab a hold of Pete. It was Davey Abbott who’d done it. He just happened to be there when it happened.

  Tommy threw his brother away from him. He was worried. His Stacey meant the world to him, and if she ever found out about what they’d done, he knew she would never forgive him.

  “Take it up with Davey, not me.”

  Jimmy’s nonchalant attitude was like a red rag to a bull, and Tommy chased his brother through the house. His fists were curled into balls, and his feet were heavy, as he charged up the stairs after him. Jimmy may be able to run, but he couldn’t hide in the tiny council house.

  “What’s going on up there?” Stood with her hands on her hips, Janet Carter bellowed at the top of her voice. When she received no reply, she raced up the stairs after her two sons. “Stop, stop!” she screamed, as Tommy’s fist was ready to connect with Jimmy’s face. “What’s going on here, eh?”

  “It’s him,” Tommy spat. “Get him away from me, Mum, before I end up killing him.”

  Leading Jimmy out of the room, Janet bit down on her lip. Tommy had changed, ever since he’d started working for that Davey Abbott, and it wasn’t a change for the better. Her boys had always been close. Of course they had their spats, all brothers did, but ever since he’d returned from his honeymoon, Tommy and Jimmy had been at loggerheads.

  “What’s going on between the two of yous?” she demanded.

  Jimmy shrugged his mother away from him. He wasn’t a baby. He could take care of himself, and he didn’t need her to protect him from his brother.

  To hell with Tommy, Jimmy thought angrily. He kicked at the door frame in frustration. “Get out, all of you!” he screamed at his younger brothers, before slamming the door of the bedroom he shared with them shut.

  Davey Abbott rubbed at his tired eyes. He was becoming bored with explaining himself to young Tommy Carter. If it had been any other man questioning him, they would have felt the force of his fist by now. “How many times do I need to tell you it was an accident? Do you honestly think, I planned to shoot the fucker with all three of us in the office? Think about it logically, Tommy.”

  Tommy blew out his cheeks. He didn’t know what to think anymore. The only thing he knew for certain, was that he couldn’t work with his brother for the foreseeable future, not when he felt like he wanted to kill him stone dead every time he looked at him.

  “So, what am I meant to do with you both, eh?” Davey had recently taken Jimmy onto his payroll for the sole purpose of working alongside his brother.

  Sitting forward in his s
eat, Tommy looked Davey in the eyes. “It’s bad enough I have to live with him. I can’t work with him at all.”

  Davey nodded his head. “Okay, I’ll have to send you out with Mad Dog Harris instead then.”

  Satisfied, Tommy smiled. Working with the mad Scotsman had to be better than working with Jimmy.

  Mad Dog Harris had grey, cropped hair, and a saddlebag moustache. He reminded Tommy of an older version of Charlie Bronson; the prisoner that is, not the actor.

  A man of few words, Mad Dog had barely said two words to him on the short drive toward East Ham, and if he was being totally honest, that suited Tommy down to the ground. He wasn’t in the mood for small talk.

  They stopped outside a Turkish restaurant, and Tommy looked across at the building. He’d been warned by Davey to tread carefully. You didn’t mess with the Turks, apparently. They were all a bunch of mad bastards.

  Tommy stepped out of the car, and adjusted his clothing, before crossing the road and pushing open the door to the restaurant. “Mehmet Ali?” he enquired.

  Mehmet Ali turned toward the young man in front of him. “Who are you?” he barked.

  “I’m here to collect the money for Mr. Abbott.”

  Mehmet eyed Tommy suspiciously. He’d never seen this boy before in his life. “I don’t know you,” he answered, beginning to walk away.

  “Don’t piss me off, mate. I want Mr. Abbott’s money.” Tommy knew he needed to take control of the situation, and fast, before he was laughed out of the restaurant. He also knew for a fact that Mad Dog Harris would relay how he’d handled the situation back to Davey, and he didn’t want to lose face with his boss.

  “I said, I don’t know you.”

  “I heard what you said,” Tommy said, moving forward. “And like I said, I’m here to collect Mr. Abbott’s money. Now, you do as I say, otherwise you’re going to find yourself going head-first along that bar of yours.”