The Cleaner (25 page)

He craned his neck around so that he could look into the back at Pinky.

“You done good tonight, younger. Did exactly what I told you. Ain’t no way no-one’s going to be able to tie that back to us and, anyway, it’s all gonna get lost in all this nonsense.”

“Yeah,” Pinky said proudly. “Thanks.”

“First time you done that, right?”

“Yeah.”

“How was it?”

“Cool,” Pinky said. “You should’ve seen his face when I pulled the gun on him.” He giggled. “Looked like he was going to shit his pants. Then”––he made the shape of a gun with his forefingers––“blam blam blam blam.”

Bizness looked at the him. There was a smile on his face but there was no emotion in his eyes. They were blank and empty. Boy was a stone-cold killer. It was a little unsettling. He could see he wasn’t the smartest kid and he knew he’d end up getting merked himself eventually, but, until that happened, he’d keep him close. People like him, with no empathy, they were hard to find. They were useful, too. There were plenty of people he could do with having out of the way. Wiley T, for a start. Finish the job that JaJa never even started.

“That’s sorted out your problem, then?”

The boy craved his approval, like they all did. He laughed derisively. “There ain’t no case without Pops. That’s finished.”

“Won’t hurt with the stuff on YouTube, either,” Mouse offered.

Bizness felt his mood curdle just a little. He remembered that someone had recorded the old man standing up to him at the record signing, posting the clip online. There had been traffic on his Facebook page, too, and he had been called out for it. Mouse was right: when word got around that he had put out the hit on Pops, and that he had shot up the old man’s house, things would soon be back the way they were supposed to be again. No-one would be stupid enough to stand up to him now. Bizness wasn’t the things they were saying. He wasn’t a hood-rat. He wasn’t a kid you could just scare off. He was a serious player. A gangster with a reputation to defend. An authentic, one hundred percent OG.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “That shit’s gonna be good for business.”

That brought his thinking around. Business. It had been easy to find a replacement for the Dalston Lane crackhouse that the old man had torched. It wasn’t as if Hackney was short of empty properties and Levelz and Tookie had found a new place ten minutes away. They were already setting up again and putting out the word. Bizness hated crackheads, and he hated crackhouses, but they brought in plenty of Ps and he knew how to make the business work. It was like any business; you just needed to advertise, create a little demand, that was all. In this case you let it be known that there was cheap crack to be had and then you waited for your punters to come. Easy. It was like spreading shit and waiting for the fungus to grow.

“No way through here,” Mouse said. “We gonna have to detour.” He edged the Beamer further along the road until they could take a side street. He buried the pedal and they lurched forwards, wheels squealing as the rubber gripped. Bizness stared out of the window as they passed the rows of terraced houses and then the ugly boxes of the Estate.

Youngers were gathered on the street corners, their eyes following the car. Bizness wondered whether they knew who it belonged to. Some of them did, you could tell from their faces; he loved it when they nudged their friends and told them that it was him, loved the open-mouths and their surprise. It made him feel good. He had been one of them, once, stood around on the streets and doing nothing, shotting a little if he could get his hands on any merchandise, getting into beefs with other boys, looking for hype with lads from outside the postcode. He liked to remind himself how far he had come, how far he had left them behind. He was a player now, there was no question about it. He was a Face and everyone knew it. Some had started calling him the God of Hackney. He liked that. Maybe he’d change his name, release a solo record under that next. The God of Hackney. Had a ring to it, for sure. BRAPPPP! couldn’t go on forever and, after all, as far as most people was concerned he was BRAPPPP!, anyway.

“We picking up JaJa now?” Pinky said.

“Yeah. You know what to say to him?”

“Just what I saw, innit,” he said. “Ain’t no problem.”

The boy was the last loose end he had to snip. He was waiting for them next to the entrance to the Lido in London Fields. Mouse had BBMed him earlier and told him to wait for them. He slowed the car to a stop. The boy got in next to Pinky, shut the door, and Mouse accelerated away again.

“Aight, younger. How you doing?”

“Alright,” Elijah said hesitantly. Bizness was pleased to see that the boy was still nervous around him. That was good.

“What’s he doing here?” Elijah said, nodding at Pinky.

“He’s in the crew now,” Bizness said. “You heard about Pops?”

He looked down at his new trainers, pressed close together in the footwell of the car. “Yeah,” he said.

“What you hear?”

“He got shot.”

“Other people know, too?”

“People are talking about it.”

Bizness folded his arms. “He had it coming to him, younger. Mandem was up to no good. First rule––you don’t ever,
never
, grass to the Feds. You do that, you’re worse than a dog. I know you know that, but it pays to keep it at the front of your mind. Pops forgot, see? And so he got what was coming to him. Ain’t no reason to feel bad about it.”

“You did it?”

“Nah. I made it happen.”

“Who, then?”

“You sitting right next to him.”

Elijah gaped at Pinky. “Him?”

“Yeah. Boy did good, just what I told him to do. Put four bullets into him. Ice cold. You want to pay attention. You got a lot to learn.”

“What do you mean?”

“I ain’t forgotten what happened with Wiley T, little man. You still got to make up for that.”

Elijah kept his eyes fixed on the floor. Yeah, Bizness thought, boy was real scared; of him and now of Pinky, too. That was just how he wanted it. You could get someone who was scared to do just about whatever you wanted them to do.

He changed the subject. “Reason you’re here, I want to talk to you about something. This man, the old fassy who burnt down my property––you know what we did to him today?”

He shook his head.

“There’s an AK-47 in the boot. We shot his house up.”

“You killed him?”

“Nah––we saw him come out, but he probably got shot, though, either that or the grenades we tossed in through his window would’ve done him. Messed his place up good. He won’t be bothering us no more.” He grinned at the thought of it. “It’s the same thing as Pops, see? Can’t have people questioning me, disrespecting me. You have to make an example out of people like that. You get me?”

Elijah nodded. It was a small, timid gesture.

“So,” Bizness went on, “the thing is, I heard something that’s troubling me. I heard you know who he is.”

“I––”

“Don’t mess me around on this, younger. It’s important. Pinky?”

“I was outside your Mum’s flat last week, wasn’t I? I saw him coming out. The HMV thing, too, I recognised him from there. I got an eye for faces, know what I mean? It was the same old man, I’m sure of it.”

“Come on, then, younger, what’s his name.”

“Milton.”

“You know what he does?”

“He never told me,” he replied quietly. “Said he ain’t police, though.”

Bizness sucked his teeth. Police didn’t typically burn down crackhouses, so he was happy that the old man wasn’t lying about that. “If he ain’t police, you know why he’s putting his nose in our business?”

“Dunno––honest.”

“He’s been staying with your Mums, though. Right?”

Fear washed over the boy’s face. “Not staying. One night.”

“Like a boyfriend or something?”

“Dunno.”

“Is it to do with her some way or another?”

“Dunno––”

“Come on, younger, there’s no need to worry. Nothing’s gonna happen to you or your Mums, I just need to know what’s going on so I can make sure he don’t do no more damage than he’s already done. Is he helping her?”

“I think maybe she asked him to keep an eye on me. I ain’t told him nothing, though, I swear. I don’t want nothing to do with him.”

“Aight, younger. That’s all I needed to know. That’ll do for now. Stop the car, Mouse––we’ll let him out here.”

They were near Bethnal Green now, nowhere near where they had picked him up. Another big group of hooded kids had gathered, heading along Mare Street towards Hackney’s High Street. They passed the blacked out windows of the Beamer, some of them staring, fire in their eyes. The busses weren’t running; JaJa was going to have to walk home. Bizness didn’t care about that. He picked up his phone and shuffled through his contacts for the number he wanted. He watched Elijah shuffling away with his head down as the call connected.

“You there?” he said.

“Yeah, man,” Tookie said.

“Do it.”

45.

MILTON STOPPED to fill up with petrol and then drove across to Blissett House. The traffic was heavy and it had taken him longer than usual. A large crowd of teenagers, their faces covered by bandanas and hoods, suddenly swept across the street, bringing the traffic to a halt. Milton clenched his jaw as he sat waiting for them to clear out of the way. An Audi was three cars behind him; Milton watched in the rear-view mirror as bricks started to bounce off the roof and bonnet. The windscreen caved in, a missile landing square in the middle of it. A police Matrix van was behind the Audi, the officers inside it powerless to do anything. A kid, his face wrapped in the purple bandana of the LFB, ran up to it and swung the golf club he was carrying into the side of the van, swinging it again and again and again until the wing was crumpled and bent.

He banged his fist against the dash. The stakes had been raised and he was suddenly very afraid. He had not expected Bizness to back down but neither had he expected him to do what he had done. He operated without compunction, with no regard for restraint. Milton was concerned that he would do something else, something worse.

He took his mobile and called Aaron. The phone rang five times, then six, before the call connected.

“Hello?”

Milton did not recognise the voice. “Can I speak to Aaron, please?”

“Who is this?”

He hesitated. “I’m a friend of Aaron’s. Who are you?”

“Detective constable Wilson, Stoke Newington CID. Who is this, please?”

“Where is Aaron?”

“I’m afraid Aaron has been shot, sir.”

“Is he alright?”

“I’m sorry, no, he’s not––he’s dead, sir. Please––”

Milton cut off the call and bounced his mobile across the passenger seat. The lights were still red. He felt a tightening in his gut, a cold knot of fear and dread. He slammed his palms on the steering wheel.

Come on, come on, come on!

The lights changed and he stamped on the accelerator, the rubber shrieking as he took a hard right turn. The traffic thinned out a little and he was able to make better progress, pulling out and bullying his way along the opposite lane whenever it slowed.

He knew something was wrong as soon as he reached the Estate. A thick plume of smoke was rising into the darkening sky. As he got closer, he saw that it was wreathed around the side of the block, lit by the spotlights on the corners of the building as it crawled up and pitched into the sky as a dirty, clotting cloud. He swerved the car onto the forecourt. A crowd had gathered around the foot of the building, their eyes fixed on the sixth floor. Thick smoke was gushing from one of the flats. A window shattered and more spilled out. Milton stared into the source of the smoke and saw the orange-red of the fire.

Sharon’s flat.

He sprinted across the forecourt to the stairwell, shouldered the door aside and took the stairs three at a time. He reached the sixth floor, slammed through the door and onto the walkway. He recognised Sharon’s neighbours among the group that had gathered at the end of the walkway. He grabbed one, the old lady who lived next door, and tugged her to one side. “Is she still in there?” he asked.

“I haven’t seen her come out. Her boy, neither.”

Milton released her arm and ran down the corridor. The heat climbed until it started to singe his eyebrows, a solid wall that washed over him and made it hard to breathe. He took off his coat and wrapped it around his hand, reaching out to the red-hot door handle and twisting it open. The room beyond was an inferno: the carpets, the furniture, even the walls and the ceiling seemed to be on fire. The flames lapped across the ceiling like waves. The smoke was dense and choking, and the sound of the hungry fire was threatening.

Milton heard a single scream for help, quickly choked back.

He draped his coat over his head and shoulders and stepped inside.

46.

RUTHERFORD LEFT THE HOUSE, locking the door behind him. It was another sultry, sticky night. The sound of sirens was audible in the distance, an up-and-down ululation that seemed almost constant, and seemed to be coming from several directions at once. He paused at the door of his car, took off his jacket and tossed it onto the passenger seat. There was something else in the atmosphere tonight, an almost tangible edge. He could not define it, but it made him uneasy. This part of Hackney often had the hint of menace to it, especially at night, but this was different. Something was wrong.

Milton had called him five minutes earlier. He had sounded anxious. Rutherford hardly knew him but he was not the sort of man that he would have associated with worry. He had explained that there had been an accident, and that Elijah’s mother was in Homerton hospital. Rutherford asked what had happened but Milton had ignored the question, asking him to find the boy and bring him to the hospital as quickly as he could. Rutherford had been eating a takeaway curry in front of a film but he had put the plate aside at once and put on his shoes.

Rutherford opened the door and settled in the driver’s seat. He had asked Milton where he could find Elijah. Milton said that he wasn’t at home but, save that, he had no idea. That wasn’t helpful, but Rutherford said that he would do his best.