Crushed

“I’m on my way. I’ll be there in ten to fifteen minutes. Make sure the men are finished and gone for the night.” Paddy hung up on his brother.

It was years since he’d operated the crusher. Jesus, he hoped he could remember what to do. There was no chance Michael would be of any use; the closest he’d ever come to crushing anything was a bag of walnuts at Christmas, and even that posed problems.

Paddy couldn’t get the poor lad out of his head. By all accounts he was a proper little fucker, but loveable with it. Certainly their Errol was taking it bad. There had been a heart-wrenching appeal by his mother on television only last night. The distraught woman had pleaded for the return of her son, or for any information concerning his whereabouts. The police were still investigating a black 4 x 4 seen in the area at the time of Billy’s disappearance and appealed for the driver to come forward so he could be eliminated from their enquiries. It was absolutely imperative that Michael not be associated with the crime. And they would deal with Sean in good time.

The scrapyard looked deserted, but Paddy knew his brother was around somewhere. He parked his car on the other side of the cabin, away from prying eyes, walked back to the gates and secured them from the inside. No chance of some nosey bugger gaining access. He was dreading the job ahead, but he knew it had to be done.

“You’re here, let’s get on.” Paddy knew fine that Michael would be dreading this even more than him, but, like his brother, knew there was no other way. “What the fuck . . .?”

He couldn’t believe his eyes. There was Michael with his mother’s bottle of holy water, liberally sprinkling it over the vehicle.

“Say what you like, but this young fella didn’t deserve to die and certainly not like this. So shut the fuck up and let me finish.” Michael took a rosary and a bible and placed them on the passenger side of the car. “Okay, let’s finish this.”

The sound of the powerful crusher starting up filled the air and several tenement windows flew open to investigate the racket. Every onlooker, without exception, realising the noise was coming from the yard, slammed their windows shut again immediately. The few windows still open were no threat to Paddy and Michael, being the homes of members of the Coyle clan.

“Need a hand there, boss?” called one.

“Naw, you’re fine, son. Just a health and safety check,” Paddy called back. “Away in and finish your tea, it’s nothing we can’t handle.”

It was impossible to reach the vehicle with the grab crane from its position in bay two and neither brother relished the thought of entering the car, never mind driving it.

“Give me the keys, Paddy. I’ll do it.”

Without hesitation he relinquished the job to his brother.

“Oh, shit,” gagged Michael. He’d never smelled anything like it. He rolled down the window and drove the car to the crusher. Thankfully it was only a few yards away.

It took some time to reduce the immaculate, shiny black car to a heap of scrap metal. Paddy, being unused to the machinations of the crusher, twice got the gears jammed and the screech of metal on metal was deafening.

“Fuck! We’re going to get a visit any minute,” wailed Michael.

“Just shut the fuck up or you’ll be in alongside him,” snapped Paddy.

Finally the job was done and they loaded the remains of Michael’s pride and joy onto the truck.

The two men drove most of the way in silence until they arrived at an old, disused quarry. With a great deal of heaving and shoving they managed to position the truck and its contents over the quarry’s edge. Paddy opened the tailgate and the mangled vehicle dropped into the lake of slurry below, quickly sinking below the surface.

Paddy heaved a great sigh of relief. “I’m sorry, mate. This one got to me. He was only a kid. We’ll need to sort the mother out, but not just yet. Let the dust settle bit.”

“What are we going to do about Sean, Paddy? Even though I’ve seen it with my own eyes I still can’t believe it.”

“You know he was the one punting the gear all this time?”

“I had my suspicions,” admitted Michael. “But I didn’t really know for sure.”

“Oh, it’s for sure alright, but let’s wait to see how he recovers first. This could be payback for the cunt. He murders a child and ends up one himself. My Erin calls it karma.”

Yes, it could well be payback, thought Paddy as the two men made their way back to town.