‘You again? Look, OK, I’ve got what you want, but it’s going to cost you,’ said Gary when Redmond called in unannounced at the Blue Parrot one night.
Gary took Redmond up to the office, away from all the punters and the dancing girls and the noise of the DJ’s decks thrumming out ‘Sledgehammer’ by Peter Gabriel; Gary loved that song.
All right, he hadn’t expected an actual visit from Redmond, and he certainly hadn’t expected that he’d bring along a big shaggy dark-haired sidekick with a look in his eyes that said he’d kill his own granny for a fiver, but he had this sorted, he was the one in charge.
‘This is Mitchell,’ said Redmond. ‘He helps me out.’
Gary gave Mitchell a nod. Mitchell didn’t nod back.
‘Now listen,’ said Redmond, still talking reasonably, sweetly. ‘The time has come for you to stop dicking me about and tell me. What information do you have?’
Gary sat back in his chair behind his desk and pursed his lips. No way was he going to let Delaney rush this. He had the whip hand.
‘It’s very expensive information,’ he said.
‘How expensive?’
Gary thought of the ten grand, and hiked it a bit. Delaney would want to haggle, anyway.
‘Fifteen,’ he said.
‘Fifteen thousand?’ Redmond raised his eyebrows. ‘You can’t be serious.’
‘I’m very serious indeed,’ Gary said, and the track downstairs changed to ‘West End Girls’.
Redmond was shaking his head. He stood up and came around Gary’s desk. Gary didn’t like people doing that, he felt like a king on a throne behind that desk, he didn’t want oiks shoving around behind it.
‘Hey—’ he started, but he didn’t have time to finish.
Redmond grabbed the front of Gary’s bespoke tailored shirt and hauled him to his feet and hissed into his face: ‘You great long streak of piss! You think you’ve got the measure of me, do you?’
‘I—’ started Gary again, wondering where these delicate negotiations had gone wrong. This wasn’t in his plan, not at all.
‘Five grand,’ said Redmond, and to Gary’s horror he whipped out a knife and held it against his throat. ‘That’s what you’ll get, and that’s generous. If I don’t decide to cut you to ribbons instead.’
‘Hey, that’s—’ gulped Gary.
‘Five,’ said Redmond. ‘Right here. Four days’ time. And you tell me the rest of it.’
He let go of Gary’s shirtfront and moved back around the desk. Mitchell opened the door, and they left the room.
Gary sagged in his chair, shaken, aware that his palms were clammy.
Jesus!
That guy was a maniac.
Gary stared at the closed door, and touched a trembling hand to his throat. He’d thought he could handle Redmond Delaney, but looking into that crazy cunt’s eyes? Now he wasn’t so sure.