Bernie and I finished our shift on the street at twelve o’clock. As soon as we got into the house I learnt more about the young couple Gordon had fetched from Kingston. The whole gang was talking about them.
The man appeared to be known as Cod-Eye and the woman as the Razor Queen. They were the joint leaders of one of Glasgow’s most feared street gangs, the Kingston Kings, who terrorized the poorer parts of the city south of the river.
Cod-eye and the Razor Queen were now with Moira, having a meeting in her office.
“Why on earth does Moira want anything to do with low life like that?” I heard Flintheart muttering.
“We’ll find out soon enough,” Skinflint said in a worried voice.
He was right. An hour or so later Cod-Eye and the Razor Queen left the house, and no sooner had they gone than 360Gordon came and told all the gang to gather in the office. Moira had important information for them.
The curtains were closed and the air in the big room was stuffy. There was a feeling of tension, and Moira seemed to be particularly on edge.
“All of you know what happened last night,” she began, only to be interrupted by Kevin, who was waving the newspaper he’d taken from me.
“Look at this!” he yelled. “Simmons survived! Here it is in the paper! Carl and me will go and find him. Then we’ll deal with that squealer once and for all! But we need to get a move on.”
The look Moira gave him stopped him in his tracks.
“Shut your mouth now, Kevin, and listen,” she said through gritted teeth. “That’ll have to wait. We’ve got more important things to deal with.”
Kevin fell silent.
Moira gathered her thoughts before continuing. “After what happened last night, Tommy Tarantello will be thinking he’s defeated me. He’ll be reckoning on me giving up and letting him have what he wants.”
She paused for a moment before slapping her hand down hard on the desk.
“But that’s not going to happen!” she roared. “Not today! Not tomorrow! Not the day after tomorrow! Not ever!” 361
I noticed Skinflint and Flintheart exchanging worried looks. This was not what they had been hoping to hear.
“I’m going to turn this to our own advantage instead,” Moira continued. “The last thing Tarantello will be expecting is for us to go on the attack. Against him. So that is precisely what we shall do!”
Moira’s gaze moved round every member of the gang before she carried on speaking:
“We’re going to show the world that Tommy Tarantello is not as powerful and dangerous as people seem to think! And when that’s done, Cohen, Duffy and Turnbull will see the error of their ways. They’ll recognize that I was right from the start. And then they will join our side… against Tarantello!”
An uncomfortable silence followed.
Skinflint was the one to risk asking the first question. “But how are we to take on Tarantello? Just us, on our own?”
The hint of a smile showed on Moira’s lips.
“Tarantello lives on the money he makes from his protection rackets,” she said. “Remove that income and he is… nothing! So we’re going to burn down all the pubs, all the dance halls, all the pawnshops and all the bookmakers premises he sells protection to! That will be a catastrophe for his business!”
Moira leant back in her chair with a satisfied look. She smiled at the wide-eyed, open-mouthed faces in front of her. 362
“But what about his gunmen?” Kevin wondered. “What are we going to do about them?”
“You don’t need to be concerned about them,” Moira snorted. “We’ll strike fast and hard and several places at once. By the time Tarantello and his men realize what’s happening, we’ll be safely back here in the house.”
There were disconsolate mutterings from the gang.
“How on earth are we supposed to strike several places at the same time? There aren’t enough of us to do that,” Carl said.
“And Tarantello will be out for revenge, won’t he?” Flintheart croaked. “And then we’ll be dead—the whole lot of us!”
Moira’s face darkened and her eyes fixed.
“What do you take me for?” she said through clenched teeth. “Do you imagine I haven’t thought about that?”
Her manic smile returned.
“Of course Tarantello will try to get back at us. That’s why I’ve made a pact with the Kingston Kings! There’s nearly forty of them. And they know how to fight! With reinforcements like that, we should be able to mount the arson attacks and defend ourselves.”
None of the gang could find anything to say. They didn’t really know what to think of Moira’s plan. She herself, however, was eager to get started.
Her eyes fixed in a glassy stare and there was a slight tremor 363in her voice as she said, “Tomorrow night, my friends, tomorrow night… Glasgow will burn!”
A couple of hours later, the Kingston Kings came pouring in through the gate to the backyard. And what a crowd of thugs they were, with scarred faces and shrill, over-confident voices.
Gordon split them into two shifts, ready to take turns at guarding the house. The off-duty group were allowed to hang around down in Lucky Lucy’s. The club had been silent and empty since the police raid, but now it came alive with a bang. The Kingston thugs began shouting for beer and starting fights to pass the time.
The Kingston Kings terrified me and I sincerely hoped not to need to get involved with them. Especially not with the Razor Queen.