Chapter Twenty-One

Leap Before You Look

Sandra had watched enough TV to realise they were in the shit now, so to speak. The thing about TV, she thought, as they were ‘politely’ extracted from the restaurant towards the back door, was that when somebody found themselves in a dangerous, life-threatening situation it was exciting, it was thrilling, it was what you wanted to see. The thing about reality was then when you found yourself in a dangerous, life-threatening situation it was really fucking scary and you didn’t want to be there anymore. The one thing they had in common was the desire to get away.

The unnamed man had suggested they leave with him out the back through the kitchen. When Sandra had asked why they should go with him, he had gestured out the window where they saw two men, ‘casually’ meandering on the street. They were huge, and looked a little like someone had taken a marshmallow and jammed it into a suit. It was a little unconvincing. He suggested she take note of the bulge underneath one side of their jackets.

“Are they guns?” she asked, surprised.

“Yes. Yes they are”, he said.

“Really?” Liz was shocked. “Guns. I mean, people actually carry these things?”

He sighed.

“Yes, we do. You’d be surprised how many people actually have them.”

“It’s just that, you see them on TV and whatever, but you’d never think anyone in the real world is actually carrying them.”

“Not everyone. Just people like us.”

“And who are people like you?” Sandra asked. He had very casually, and very professionally, flicked open his jacket a pinch to reveal a holster, and although she couldn’t see it properly she assumed a gun as well.

“Time to leave”, and he stood aside and gestured cordially.

“You wouldn’t just shoot us here in this restaurant”, she said as she stood up. He leant forward as whispered in her ear.

“Without hesitation. We’ve been asked to collect you or to kill you. And I’m not in the mood for killing a room full of people, so please cooperate.”

“Everyone in the room?”

“No witnesses. These owners have known ties to organised crime. There’d be no questions, only tears.”

“Is that what you are? Organised crime?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. This is the 21^st century. We’re in business.”

They all were standing now. Liz grabbed her bag, and they began walking in file with Stephen, Sandra, Liz and the unnamed man following behind. As they passed through the restaurant they were surprised to see how many waiters there actually were, and then watched as a number of them filed away from the floor and accompanied them to the kitchen door. One of them held the door open for them and let them through, as if provided a courteous service. He stayed behind after they entered, as if guarding the door.

The kitchen was loud. People were shouting in a variety of languages, deep fryers deep fried, meat was sizzling, fans roaring. It was deep, but they could see the back door not far away. Somehow their little conga line of doom passed through the chaos of a dinner rush without consequence or notice. Sandra leant towards Stephen.

“So are these guys serious?”

He tilted his head towards her as they walked.

“Yes. Completely. These are bad men Sandra. They will take us somewhere, talk to us, and kill us if we tell them everything they want to know.”

“Kill us if we tell them?”

“Yes. If we don’t, then they will kill everyone we ever cared about. Probably right in front of us.”

“So we’re dead either way.”

“Yep. But it’s either us or our families too. That’s why you don’t see me arguing.”

Sandra looked around the kitchen. The only people here were the kitchen staff. The waiters had all stayed in the restaurant.  There were probably more men out that back door, and a car to take them wherever. She had no time to think. There were a lot of knives around.

She pretended to slip, and caught herself on a bench. As she did Liz bumped into her as did the unnamed man behind. She stood up as if adjusting her balance, her hand resting on the handle of a skillet. She looked to the right hand side of the man, shocked. Liz believed her too, and turned to look, which caught the man’s gaze. Sandra then swung the frying pan into the man’s head, making a painful dull clunk. He doubled over, holding his head in pain. Sandra then raised it high above her head to swing down once more, but Stephen stopped her.

“Stop. You could kill him.”

He would have killed her. But she didn’t have it in her to do that to him. She was having enough trouble building up to the second blow, and was grateful that she’d been rapidly talked out of it. Liz was standing on the spot with her hands up. The kitchen went on around them. These guys seemed to have mastered the art of ‘I saw nothing detective.’

“LIZ!” Sandra yelled, breaking her out of her trance. She stared at Sandra, who was trying to get around her to the fallen man. “Move!” She stepped aside and Sandra reached into the man’s pocket to retrieve Sebastian’s phone. As she went for his pocket he grabbed her hand, and held it tightly. He looked up at her, teeth grinding in pain and anger, and fixed her with murderous eyes. She saw his free hand delve into his jacket in one swift movement, and she struggled to let go but only shook his arm, his grip holding fast.

Time froze. She could actually see his intent to kill, she saw it clearly in this man’s eyes – he was going to kill her. There was nothing there but anger, hatred, something indescribable, something that didn’t care about killing, it was cold and it wanted to take her life and end it. Of course, whacking a hired killer over the head with an iron skillet probably contributed to this. She fought as hard as she could but those eyes would not let go of her. Until suddenly his face become obscured by the very same skillet, and it came down repeatedly upon his forehead, WHAM. WHAM. WHAM.

He let go. His bloodied face fell to the floor. Stephen stood there, skillet in hand. There was blood on the base of it.

The kitchen continued around them.

Stephen hurled the skillet into a nearby sink full of water.

“Come on, we have to get moving”, he said. Sandra was immediately aware. They looked around the kitchen but could see no way out, other than the back door.  “You two go out first, follow my lead.”

They did. Sandra stepped out the back door, Liz followed behind her. The first thing she saw was a black sedan, she had no idea of the make but it didn’t look cheap. Standing next to the sedan was a driver, flicking a cigarette away as he saw them emerge. Sandra stopped and stared at him, unsure what to do. Liz bumped into her when she froze, but the driver so far suspected nothing.

When Stephen came out at the end he seemed to recognise him. Stephen nodded, and the driver opened the back door and Sandra and Liz climbed in. Stephen stopped at the driver.

“Where’s Gerry?” he asked, before his breath was knocked out of him as Stephen drove his fist into his stomach. Sandra and Liz watched from the back seat of the car as he doubled over, and Stephen smacked the man’s head onto the corner of the windscreen. He fell out of view, and Stephen climbed into the driver’s seat. He looked back at the two of sitting the back.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“What the fuck is going on?” Liz cried out. “Who the fuck are you?”

“You might want to put your seatbelt on”, he said, and the car took off down the alley. They saw no one on the way. Sandra looked behind and saw only the driver lying in the gutter. No one came out of the restaurant to follow. They quickly turned down one road, then another. Sandra undid her seatbelt and climbed into the front as Stephen turned down a main road. She sat, and put her seatbelt back on.

“Stephen? Or is it Daniel? Who were those people?”

He looked like he was trying to avoid answering, but gave up in the end.

“Former business associates I suppose you could call them. Look, when things got really nasty between Richard and I, I got involved with some businesses that have... questionable ethics.”

“Questionable ethics? Is that really what you call it?”

“Look, threats, nasty behaviour, when you get into big business it’s more commonplace than you’d think. Only these guys don’t threat, they do. That’s essentially their job. You pay them money, they threaten until they have to hurt, and they hurt until they have to kill. After a while you get a reputation and people just do it.”

“People who know them you mean.”

“People who know them.”

“And what if you don’t know them? What about my family? You said they’d come after my family.”

“They might. They might not, I don’t know, you were on the periphery of this, they might have been ok but now, now I don’t know. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do. You should call them, if you can. But I’ve got to get to my wife and kids.”

“Stop the car.”

“What?”

“STOP THE CAR.”

He did. He pulled up suddenly on the side of a main road. Traffic zipped by loudly. Sandra looked at Stephen, and could see the panic in his eyes with each passing headlight.

“How am I involved in all of this Stephen?”

“I don’t have time to explain”, he said. “Just get out now or let me keep driving.”

She pulled the handbrake on.

“Tell me what I need to know.”

“I can’t tell you that right now. Just go somewhere safe, contact your family, tell them to get somewhere safe, you have my number, I have yours, call me in six hours.”

She paused. Then let go of the brake.

“Alright. Six hours. If I don’t hear from you I’ll assume that you’re dead.”

“Likewise’, he said.

“Liz?” she turned to her friend, was sitting in the back intently watching every back and forth like a game of tennis.

“Right. Let’s go then San.” She undid her belt and the two of them got out of the car. Before he left, Sandra stuck her head in.

“Six hours. If nothing either way, one of us is dead. Yeah?”

“Yes”, he said, and drove off so fast the momentum shut the door for her. They ran down the nearest side street.

“So what do we do now?” Liz asked.

Sandra already had a plan.

“We’ve got six hours. Where’s your dad these days?”

“No idea. Last I heard, he was discovering himself in South America. Your mum?”

“She’ll be fine, she’s a hundred miles away. ”

“Did you grab Sebastian’s phone off that guy?”

Sandra shook her head.

“With everything that happened, it just slipped me by.”

“Me too.”

They looked around for a moment, considering their next move. Then Liz spoke.

“Where the fuck are we?”