The previous night Stone had rested well; he was not sure why, but it left him feeling more positive than he had done for a while. He had taken a large dose of diamorphine and the pain in his right hip was subsiding. As he was pouring his first whisky of the day, he was interrupted by a long ring on the front doorbell. Swearing loudly, he walked into the hallway.
In the video to the front door, he saw Xavier’s heavy. The same thug with a large face, wispy grey beard and wide shoulders who was always lurking around Marine House as if he had nowhere else to go. Just the sight of this gangster made Stone wary; it raised his hackles – he immediately became irritable. He called into the speaker.
‘Clear right off, right out of my sight, before I call the cops.’
‘I got a message for you, Harry. Can I come in?’
‘No. You stay right there where I can see you.’
‘Listen then. You owe Mr Xavier money. Big money. And to start you gotta find £25,000 in notes, like quick. That’s to show you want to be friends. And I’m here; I’ve come to collect it. So where is it?’
‘You tell that thug he’s getting no money from me, so get off my steps.’
‘Now just think hard, Harry, before someone gets right up close when you’re not watching. One of the boys on the street will visit with sharp knives, meat choppers, and they’ll work on you so that you don’t forget the money you owe. So just twenty-five grand is what I need to start it running, and I want it now. So which way, Harry?’
‘I don’t listen to crass threats,’ Stone said.
‘One day soon this bit of wood that is a door won’t separate us; we’ll both be close together and you won’t like that – you’d prefer a picnic in the sun over on the beachside of the road.’
‘Clear off back to your squat.’
There was a pause as Stone heard the minder laugh.
‘Well listen to this, matey. I’ve got another important message for you from the man himself. Xavier wants to see you. He needs to talk to you, privately, says it’s urgent.’
‘Has he been let out?’
‘Not yet, but soon. His phone’s been taken away again.’
‘So, where does he think we’re going to meet?’
‘Belmarsh.’
‘Me visit Belmarsh? Do you think I’m going there? That’s a sinkhole I’ll keep clear of,’ Stone replied.
‘Harry, you need to go to see him. Don’t argue – do it.’
‘No. What’s he after?’ Stone asked.
‘The time is fixed. 10.30 in the morning. That’s next Wednesday.’
‘Tell him, no. Visiting that place is too dangerous. I’ve never been in a jail, and I’m not going to find out the smell of it any time now.’
‘Let me remind you how it is. The quarter million you owe is now getting too hot, and twenty-five grand in notes to show us you’re not running away from your debt, will keep you safe. Just for a few quiet days. And you won’t forget Xavier needs some personal words with you, like looking right up close into your face. Nobody else to hear. And before I forget, there’s a bonus for you, Harry. He says to tell you one last big deal coming soon. But you don’t get in on it unless you cough up twenty-five grand and then sit right in front of him. Belmarsh next Wednesday.’
The noise was sharp – it was a heavy kick at the front door of Marine House. Stone stood back and then watched through the video link as Xavier’s minder glared closely, silently, into the camera for half a minute. Stone saw the squint from his forehead and the whites of his eyes; he closed the camera and heard the clatter as he quickly walked back down the steps.
Inside the walls of a prison was a space Stone had never seen before – he had never been taken into one; he had never dealt that far on the edge. Stone had always kept his distance from the physical, raw stuff of enforcers, and he had no doubt that Xavier would be just as lethal when he came out in three years’ time as the day he was taken in.
Slouching back into the sitting room, Stone did his usual thing when confronted with something he immediately did not know how to deal with. He poured another whisky from a carafe and sank into a deep sofa facing the balcony windows.
There was £25,000 to collect from Sol. Stone was realistic that it would never clear these thugs away, but would it buy him the secrets of another big insider deal? There was, though, the nasty thought of penetrating inside the high walls of HMP Belmarsh to get at it. It made his heart beat quicker.