Eddie’s mind was buzzing from the information Cole had just revealed. He felt for the phone in his pocket. He’d put it on silent and had hit record before he’d got to the front door of Cole’s flat. He hoped it was still recording now.
Pulling his hand away from his pocket, paranoid that Cole might notice and become suspicious, Eddie thought about Jake as a killer. Eddie struggled to see it in him, but if Cole said he had proof and that the reason Jake was in on the deal was because Cole had helped out with getting rid of the body then who was Eddie to argue?
‘Going to grab some crisps from the kitchen, you want any?’ Cole asked as he got to his feet. Eddie glanced up at him and nodded.
‘Aye, cheers.’
Cole left the room and as he headed through to the kitchen, Eddie noticed that he’d left his phone on the coffee table. It lit up with a text message and he couldn’t help but notice the image of the man that was Cole’s screensaver. Frowning, he cocked his head to one side to get a better look. It wasn’t Cole, obviously. Who would have a screensaver of themselves?
The screen died and Eddie sat back in his original position when he heard Cole coming back from the kitchen. Looking up, he saw a bag of crisps flying through the air towards him. He caught it in his hands and pulled the bag open.
‘Your phone lit up by the way,’ Eddie said, crunching on a mouthful of crisps.
Cole looked down and pressed the home button on the phone, shrugged and sank back on the sofa. He didn’t say anything about the text or the picture on the screen. Why would he? He barely knew Eddie; he wasn’t going to give anything up.
‘Was probably Jakey boy, checking things are all on track,’ Cole said. He sucked air in through his teeth before sinking back another half.
‘Why do you say that?’ Eddie asked. He narrowed his eyes and kept them on Cole. There was something on the tip of Cole’s tongue and Eddie wasn’t sure what was coming next.
‘He won’t want you to know he’s gay, or a killer. He doesn’t believe any of those things himself. He’s in denial. Has been since it happened. Poor bastard’s probably been gay his whole life but because of who he is, what he does for a living… well,’ Cole paused. ‘It doesn’t exactly go, does it? Gay gangster. He’s a dangerous bastard, Eddie. Don’t get too close to him. He might seem soft on the outside, but there’s a switch in there somewhere. That Mark, the lover, he flicked that switch. If I didn’t have footage of what happened that night, no one would even know Mark was dead.’
Eddie swallowed hard as he watched Cole drink more and more whisky and set up a few lines before snorting them quickly. It was loosening his tongue and Eddie had so many questions he wanted to ask but couldn’t risk raising Cole’s suspicions. He was easing into a comfort zone with Cole, who was beginning to trust that he could talk around Eddie.
As Cole sat back, Eddie filled up their glasses, but decided to stick to the one beer he had been nursing since his arrival. He needed as clear a head as possible to deal with this.
‘You know, Ed…’ Cole slurred slightly, cleared his throat and shifted position on the sofa. ‘I’ve been in this business a long time. You know, drugs, stolen goods. That kind of thing. It never gets boring. You’ll come to learn that with each job, there’s a new excitement. My brother always used to say…’ He paused, took another gulp from his glass, ‘… that if you want to live a luxurious life, then you have to take risks. Do things that take you right out of your comfort zone.’
Eddie watched as Cole moved his hand in a swift motion through the air as he spoke and noted how his expression, albeit pissed, was sad. It was the first time he’d seen any real emotion from the man.
‘Your brother?’ Eddie pressed.
‘Aye. Had a brother. He was five years older than me. Fucked off on a working holiday and I never saw him again. He told me he’d come back and get me when I was older, take me away to sunnier climates. But he never did.’ Cole clicked his fingers. ‘Just disappeared like that, not a word from him. Said bye to him at the front door when he left for the airport and I never saw or heard from him again.’
The sadness in Cole’s eyes hardened then and Eddie wasn’t surprised that the emotion didn’t last long.
‘What happened to him? Did he just go off and start a new life?’
Cole shrugged. ‘Nah mate, he’s dead for sure. He’d never have abandoned me like that. Someone took him from me. And it won’t have been an accident either. You die in accidental circumstances or with natural causes and your body shows up sooner or later. My brother’s been missing for two fucking decades. You don’t just disappear into the black hole unless someone puts you there.’
Eddie nodded, he agreed with that. Accidental deaths were just that, accidental. Hit by a bus, fall off a ladder, heart attack, someone finds you.
‘So, you think someone killed your brother? Where? Why?’
‘I don’t fucking know, Ed. But I’ll tell you this, I am on the verge of finding out. The money from this job, I’ll be putting it to a private investigator. I’ve already spoken to him and he thinks there might be something to work with.’
Eddie nodded again, wondering how he would feel if someone in his family went missing without a trace, with no answers after all this time. When Arabella was in prison, he’d felt like he was going insane, so much so that he’d ended up having an affair with Scarlett which was one of the biggest mistakes he’d ever made. He didn’t want to think about it, or what he’d done to her.
He turned his attention back to Cole, who had sat forward and already poured another whisky. His eyes were bloodshot, his skin flushed.
‘You think this guy will find out what happened to him?’
‘Should bloody think so, I’ll be paying him enough. I’ve got plenty pictures of him and I’ve dug out the information of where he was going. I don’t even know if he made it to his destination. He could be lying dead somewhere back home for all I know.’
Cole reached for his phone and tapped on the screen, turned it around and offered it across the table to Eddie. He took it in his hand and stared down at the screen.
‘That’s him. It’s the most recent picture I have of him, taken just a week before he left.’
Eddie was shocked to see how much Cole looked like his brother and realised that it was the same image on the screen saver.
‘What’s his name?’ Eddie said, careful not to refer to him in the past tense in case it upset Cole. Or angered him.
‘Brian. He was in the building trade, just done his apprenticeship. Was going to take me out on site when he got back, get me off the streets and away from the gangs. Mum told him to do it but to be honest, I idolised my brother, so I’d have gone with him anyway.’
Eddie wondered if Cole would be the way he was today if his brother hadn’t gone missing. The hardened exterior, the fact that he was blackmailing Jake, was it all just Cole’s way of coping with not knowing what had happened to the only person he’d had to look up to when he was a teenager?
‘Anyway,’ Cole got up. ‘That whisky’s gone straight through me.’
He headed out of the room and Eddie heard the bathroom door close. He quickly pulled his own phone out, took a picture of the screen and set Cole’s phone back down on the table.
It didn’t matter that the story of Brian Woods meant nothing to Eddie, or the case he was informing on. It was a starting point of trust and in order to get his own job done, Eddie absolutely needed Cole’s trust. And he’d been told that any information he had was to go straight to Billy. Anything at all.
Turning to face the hall, Eddie wondered what would happen when Billy and his team came knocking. Would Cole know who had grassed him up to the police? It could be anyone really, punters, an ex-girlfriend, maybe even Jake. There was bad blood between them, so maybe Cole would think it was a possibility.
Getting to his feet, he peered out of the window and down to the main road and that was when he saw the CCTV camera sitting in the corner, pointed out towards the street. His stomach flipped. If Cole had CCTV, then he would be able to anticipate an incoming raid.
‘Looking for someone?’ Cole said, his sudden presence in the room startling Eddie.
‘Nah,’ Eddie replied, playing it cool. ‘But if I was, I’m sure your CCTV would tell me they were here before they knocked on the door.’
‘Ha,’ Cole said, sitting down on the sofa and lighting a cigarette. ‘It’s a good kit, that is. Cost me enough. It’s to keep an eye out for punters, some of my dealers and that. Also good if the cops come knocking, you know?’
Eddie nodded. Yes, he thought, he did know. If the cops did come knocking, Eddie would have to put his acting skills to the test.
‘We’ll need to get the CCTV in the salon linked up to this kit, right enough. Need to be able to warn Roxanne of any trouble coming her way.’
Eddie stopped, turned and stared at Cole. ‘What are you on about?’
‘The salon. Roxanne’s using it as a second hub for the girls she’s got operating out of it. You know, the pregnancy suits?’
Cole looked on expectantly at Eddie, as if he should know what he was on about. Again, Eddie had to put on an act.
‘Oh aye,’ he said. ‘Good idea. You don’t want anyone getting caught out, might lead them back to this place, you know?’
Cole nodded and picked up his phone again, stared down at the screen and seemed to gaze off into a far-off memory, leaving Eddie to wonder what in the fuck Arabella had agreed to.
Eddie finished off the beer and placed the bottle down on the table. ‘Look mate, sorry about this but I’ve had a text from Arabella, she’s not feeling well. I’ll need to get back and see how she’s doing.’
‘Ah, women. They’re always dragging us back to the nest.’
Eddie smiled. ‘Yeah.’
Whatever the fuck Arabella was doing, Eddie was going to get to the bottom of it.