The man crouched. For the first time, Zac noticed he was masked, like the two behind him. “Yes, you did. My guvnor said the little poof in this flat stole a kilo of skag from his car, and I don’t see anyone else here, do you?”
Zac glanced at the bed. It was empty. Somehow, Jamie had vanished into thin air. “It wasn’t me.”
The masked man punched him hard in the chest, jarring the ribs that already felt broken. “Yes, it was.”
“No, it wasn’t. I haven’t lived here long. Must’ve been the tenant before me. Or you’ve got the wrong place.”
“Nice try.” The man seized Zac’s hair and jerked his head up, forcing Zac to meet his gaze. “Do you think I haven’t heard all this shit before? Do you think my mates didn’t hear it when they came looking for you last week?”
“Ask them. They’ll tell you it wasn’t me.”
“Suit yerself.” The man let Zac go and stood, then strode to the open doorway. “Oi! Get down here and tell this jammy bender what you told him before. Then I can kick his head in for telling porkies.”
Another masked man appeared. He peered into the room, fixed his gaze on Zac, then shook his head. “Weren’t him. I told you. It was that skinny kid from the corner.”
Skinny kid. Jamie. Of course it fucking was. And that solved the mystery of how he’d acquired enough heroin to sustain a small army of junkies. “Told you it wasn’t me.”
“Shut it.” The masked man came back from the door and stamped on Zac’s leg. “You talk when I say you talk.”
Zac gasped, steeling himself for more blows as the man crouched in front of him again, but they never came. Instead, the man pulled a knife from his sleeve and trailed it down Zac’s bare chest.
“So you’re not the scroat we came for, but I reckon he’s a pal of yours, am I right?”
Zac shuddered, forcing himself not to look at the empty bed. The man, whose accent betrayed him as a Scot, grinned, showing Zac a set of blackened teeth, and pushed the knife in a little harder.
“You can’t protect him, you know. I’ll find him eventually. At least if you tell me how to find your pal, I won’t be quite as vexed when I get my hands on him.”
“I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
“Liar.”
“I don’t. I told you, I haven’t lived here long.”
“Have it your way.”
The man pounced, lifting Zac from the floor before he could blink and tossing him on the bed like a rag doll. The impact jolted Zac’s already battered body and he retched, rolling to one side, dry-heaving, until the man pulled him onto his back.
“You’re not going to convince me you don’t know the wee prick who owes my guvnor twenty grand, so you can give him a message for me. That all right with you?”
Despite the pain, Zac fought the man’s hold on him. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
“Aye, you do. I know it, you know it, so you just lie still and let me do the talking, eh?” The masked man drew the knife slowly and deliberately down Zac’s forearm, slicing the skin from his elbow to his hand.
Zac screamed. The man sneered and wiped the knife on the carpet. “You’re going to bleed from your artery now, so if your friend makes it home before you snuff it, you tell him from me there’s a lot worse waiting for him if he doesn’t bring me the money by tomorrow.”
Rosa folded her arms across her chest and glared at Liam in a way that made him feel nine years old again, like he had the morning after their mother died when Rosa’d turned to him and told him she wasn’t going to let him treat her like a little girl anymore, even if he was eight minutes older than her. “You can’t pay for everything, Liam. It’s too much. Let me and Mike pay half.”
Liam shut his chequebook with a heavy sigh. “Paying for stuff is what I’m good at. Least I can do when you set all this up. Besides, this is only the down payment. There’ll be plenty of bills to settle for however long . . .” His voice fell away. He didn’t need to remind Rosa that whatever happened, they wouldn’t be paying Len’s care home bills forever. “Leave it to me, okay? We’ve got it— I’ve got it covered.”
Rosa frowned. Clearly, it had been a long while since Liam had last referred to himself as more than the pathetic loner he was. “Listen, I know this is hard, but we’ve done the right thing.”
Liam sighed again. “I know. It’s just so fucking unfair. He’d do his nut if he really knew what we’d done. He always told us to shoot him if he lost his marbles.”
“Doesn’t mean he expected us to actually do it.” Rosa took the cheque Liam had written and tucked it in the ever-expanding folder of paperwork that chronicled Len’s move into a residential care home. “Now eat your dinner, or I’ll get you more salad.”
Liam knew better than to argue. He cleared his plate of lentil stew and took it to the sink, following the house rules of washing it, drying it, and putting it away.
He was staring at a drawer of clean tea towels when Rosa came up behind him and pushed it shut. “What on earth is going on with you? And don’t say ‘nothing,’ because I’ll bloody deck you. I know you’ve got Mike in your pocket.”
