I’ve been trying to think of how to get around to this bit of my story, as Dan calls it. Story! Makes it sound like some kind of fairy tale, but as we know it’s a long way from that.
I’ve been dreading it, knowing it was coming, but I get that it has to be done. I mean, I could always say fuck it and move on, the way I usually do, but that’s not making me feel too good. I guess it’s talking to Dan that’s got me seeing things differently. He says I’m starting to see myself differently, but I’m not sure he’s right about that.
Anyway, here goes with the first part of how our paths came to cross. I just want you to know that I’m not in the business of naming names. That’s not going to happen. I have to think about my ma and what might be done to her if I put someone in the frame over this. Hope you understand.
So, it kicked off when BJ turns up one day and says he’s got a job for me. It’s not him who wants it done (it never is), it’s his bosses, obvs. One of the PCs has solicited their assistance with a certain situation and they’ve called in their man, BJ, who passes it to me because it’s in my neck of the woods.
It turns out to be a spot of breaking and entering and they’re paying well. The PC and his reps want a briefcase thought to be in a house on Westleigh Heights. I’m no expert when it comes to that sort of job, but it turns out to be easy enough. I scoped the place for a couple of nights, getting an idea of who was in when, and times it was most likely to be empty, and on the third night I went in through a back window.
I poked around for over an hour, keeping alert for anyone returning. No one did, but the longer I was there the greater the risk so I left—minus a briefcase.
I went in again the next night but still couldn’t find it, and I spent even longer looking, always careful to put stuff back where it belonged and even waiting till I got outside to pee.
I presumed the bosses—or the PC—would accept it just wasn’t there, because that was my conclusion, but I turned out to be wrong. The job had changed now and as soon as I found out how I told BJ I wasn’t his man. He doesn’t make with the threats or anything, which is what I’m expecting, he goes on more about how much we’re going to make and all the kudos we’re going to earn with those who matter if I pull it off. Earning kudos with the bosses means a lot to him, and I have to admit I’d rather be on the right side of them than not.
Anyways, I still wasn’t keen, having never done anything like it before, but then BJ starts going on and on about the money and what a difference it was going to make for my ma if she had some cash behind her. She wanted to fix up the house as best she could, get some glass put in the boarded-up windows, replace old carpets, and put in a washing machine. It might even make it possible for me to do a proper apprenticeship as a car mechanic, or a builder, or something to help me turn respectable. I got that was probably never going to happen, not when I knew they’d come back for me anytime they felt like it.
So, I ended up telling him that before I did anything I had to talk to someone with experience of that sort to get some wisdom. The only person I knew was doing a stretch, so I got a train to Durham and by the time I came home again I was ready to roll.
I got everything together, borrowed a van, and drove up to the Heights. I’d seen you and your family a few times when I was scoping the place for break-in, but I know you’d never seen me. I was very careful about that as I watched you come and go. With it being dark and having so much wilderness to hide out in, it wasn’t hard.