Page 46 of All Mine
‘Contacted the pub landlord where they run the poker games from. Told him to pass on my message. He said they’d be in touch.’ They both considered that in silence for a moment. It sounded ominous.
‘How long ago was that?’
‘A few days. But nothing yet.’
‘You worried?’ Etienne asked quietly.
‘Been worried for years, Et. But now it feels worse. Like I’m so close to getting out of it, you know?’ Alex’s voice shook. Although they were twins, Etienne suddenly felt older than him. Responsible for making everything better. Alex paused while a train announcement sounded far away, mentioning Newcastle and other places.
‘I want to come home. To start a real life. I’ve made a lot of wrong decisions over the past few years, all because I couldn’t trust myself.’
Etienne watched out of the restaurant window as he tried to imagine where his brother was. Somewhere in the north by the sound of it. Faraway cities flashed through his mind– Middlesbrough, Leeds. . . He could be anywhere.
‘What’s the plan then, with the Dougalls?’ he asked.
When Alex replied, it was in a whisper. As though he didn’t want people to hear.
‘When they contact me, I won’t give them any clues as to where I am. I need to do this on my terms. It’s safer. That’s why I want to stay on the move until it’s done.’
Etienne imagined his brother existing in cheap bed and breakfasts and living out of a suitcase. He closed his eyes.
‘Hopefully I can just transfer the funds, or arrange a drop-off point for the money and hand it over. And that will be it. A clean slate.’
It sounded a bit too easy to Etienne. Were they being terribly naive?
‘Why don’t you come here now? And wait for them to contact you? I’ve got a spare room. You can hide out upstairs.’
‘Etienne . . .’
‘You wouldn’t even have to come downstairs if you don’t want to. Just think, you could place your order and it would be like having a fantastic French bistro delivery service, three times a day.’
‘No.’
‘But I could look after you here, Al,’ Etienne said, realising how urgent he sounded. How much he wanted to do the right thing this time.
‘I don’t want to put you in danger.’
They listened to each other breathing down the phone. As they had done in their cots, and in their twin beds in their shared room before they fell asleep. It was oddly comforting.
‘Are the Dougalls that bad?’ Etienne asked.
‘You don’t want to know,’ Alex said.
‘Like what?’ Etienne said, unable to leave it alone, morbidly curious.
‘Like people getting branded for cheating in a game. On the face. With a hot screwdriver. Which they make the cheat heat up themselves on the fire. They carve the letter D on their cheek.’
Etienne flinched. Images of cattle branding flooding his mind. The branding iron, the red glow of the hot iron, the sizzle as it touched flesh. The smell, he could imagine the smell.
‘And someone didn’t pay their debt quickly enough, so they got their thugs to pay his wife a visit and beat her until he got home with the money.’
Etienne exhaled slowly. He hadn’t realised that all those terrible stories he’d heard were actually true.
‘So, now you see why I’m staying on the move. And why I don’t want anyone linking us together.’
‘I get it.’
‘It would be safer all round to keep it between us until it’s over.’
