One Night (3 page)

They talked for a while about nothing much. The easy chatter of two people who like each other but don’t really know each other yet.

A few more customers came into the pub but not many. By half past six Eve and Joel were on their second drinks and the place was about a quarter full. Eve was starting to think they should move on to somewhere that did food when her phone rang then from inside in her bag.

She pulled it out and looked at the screen, her eyebrows rising when she saw the name. Alex. Fuck you, she thought, and rejected the call.

It rang again almost immediately. “You can answer it if you want,” Joel said.

She shook her head and rejected the call again. “It’s not important.”

“They obviously think it is,” he countered, smiling.

“Yeah, but I don’t.” She paused and then spoke again. “Look, there’s something I haven’t told you.”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “There’s lots of things I haven’t told you.” He saw the look of pain on her face and regretted his flippancy. “Sorry. Tell me, if you want to.”

“I was supposed to be o
ut on a date tonight. It was...” She stopped. He didn’t need to know any of this but something about him made her feel like opening up to him. She thought she could trust him and maybe sharing things with him was a way to test that. Either way it felt right.

“It was supposed to be a special night. Or at least I was thinking it would be. I’ve not had a date for a long time.”

“So, what happened?”

“He blew me out. Cancelled it this morning.”

The phone rang again and Joel reached for it, picking it up from where she’d placed it on the table. He answered it and lifted it to his ear, not saying a word, just listening. He smiled at her as he did it and she grinned back. It felt risky, edgy, all the things that were missing from her life. The kind of dangerous fun that she’d enjoyed as a kid but which had been wiped away by duty.

Joel listened to the man speaking at the other end. “Eve, I’m sorry. I made a mistake. Can we still do this?”

Joel kept his eyes on Eve’s as he replied. “Too late mate. She got a better offer. Much better.”

Eve laughed as he hung up. “There’s that modesty again.”

“Yep, hopefully you agree though.”

“You know what,” she smiled. “I think I do.”

When the phone rang again ten minutes later Eve thought it was Alex again. She was ready to answer it and give him an earful, actually quite liked the idea of telling him what a dick
he’d been. The short time she’d spent with Joel had already made her feel that she’d rather be here with him than with Alex. He had made her feel more alive than she had for a long time. But when she saw the name on the display all of that fled from her and her heart sank.

“Oh, bollocks,” she said. “Shit, Joel I’m really sorry, I have to take this.”

She jumped up and ran off with her bag, answering the phone and bringing it up to her ear as she headed for the door.

Joel took a sip of his beer as he watched her go. He hadn’t seen the name on the phone but he knew from her reaction that it wasn’t her ex-date again. Whoever it was he hoped the call didn’t mean she was going to have to leave. He didn’t want that. Sitting with her, talking with her, flirting with her, he almost felt normal again. The stress of the last two days had melted away under the light of her smile.

He shifted his feet under the table and one of them hit the bag. He realised he hadn’t thought about it once in the past hour. The fucking bag. He couldn’t decide how he felt about it. Sometimes he thought it was a solution to a problem. Other times it felt like a noose around his neck. He was sure it was going to be death of him.

He drank some more beer and tried to forget about it.

When Eve came back she looked flustered. He asked her if she was okay.

“It was my Mum,” she said. “Sorry, I had to speak to her. She gets confused sometimes.”

He could tell she was upset so he didn’t push it. Just left it for her to tell him as much as she wanted to.

Eve felt the words clogging up in her throat like a blockage, like a piece of food she might choke on. God she felt awful. The happiness she’d felt for the last hour or so was fading away, replaced by that terrible sense of responsibility. It had been there in the background ever since her Dad had died, nagging at her. And worse in the last few years. So much worse.

“She has dementia,” she said and the release she felt as the words sprang free from her mouth was wonderful. “She’s okay most of the time but every so often she gets upset, starts freaking out about stupid little things. She’s like a child almost, when it happens.”

“I’m sorry,” Joel said. He reached forward and took her hand. “Do you need to go?”

Eve looked back at him; she could feel the tears pricking at her eyes. His hand felt so good on hers, warm and strong and comforting, like it belonged there. In her mind she could still hear the distress in her Mum’s voice. She had been trying to play back a programme Eve had set to record on her Sky box and couldn’t make it work. Something so simple had reduced her to tears of frustration. By the end of the conversation she’d been okay, Eve told herself, back to her normal happy self.

She took a deep breath. “No. Tonight is my time. She’ll be fine. I’ll call her again in a little while, make sure she’s okay. If that’s alright?”

They talked some more and then finished their drinks. Eve made the call, turning away from him slightly and keeping her voice low. Joel watched her, hoping for some kind of tell on her face that would let him know which way it was going. She looked happy he thought and that buoyed him. He enjoyed looking at her, the simple act of watching, taking in her subtle feminine beauty. The warmth in her eyes, the way her hair lay on her shoulder, the curve of her neck.

She hung up and smiled at him. “Looks like you’re stuck with me for a bit longer.”

He grinned, “Let’s eat then. Where shall we go?”

“There’s a Thai place not far away.”

“Sounds great.
I’m starving.” He didn’t have much cash left in his wallet but it would be enough to cover tonight. He’d worry about tomorrow later.

He helped her into her jacket and then put his own on. She watched him as he pulled the bag out from under the table and slung it over his shoulder. He knew she was wondering what was in it. Could see it in her eyes. They followed the bag as he got it comfortable and only broke away from it when he caught them with his own.

She led the way and he followed. They stepped out into the cold, their breath clouding in front of them as they walked up the street. Both of them were smiling, the night wasn’t over yet.

In the pub the barman moved to the end of the bar and picked up the phone there. He pulled a piece of paper from the pocket of his trousers and dialled the number written on it.

“Hello,” said the voice at the end of the line. The barman had placed a call to it earlier in the evening and spoken to the same person. He didn’t know who they were, didn’t want to.

“It’s me again,” he said, “from the Market Inn. He’s just left.

Danny called Joel a couple of days later as agreed and told him where he needed to go.

“You know the score,” he said and Joel could hear that salesman’s smile in his voice. “Meet the other members of the team. Press the flesh. Make sure everyone has nailed what they need to do.” He made it sound like they were organising some sort of corporate away day not a robbery.

Joel had done jobs as part of a team before and they always made him nervous, especially if he didn't know the other people involved. The more people that were involved the more things could go wrong. Loose talk, clashing egos, psychos tipping over the edge when things got tense. Each different personality you threw at a job increased the chance that everything would go to shit
.
That was why Joel preferred to work alone.

He needed the money though. The numbers Danny had thrown at him in the pub weren't massive but they weren't bad either. Definitely worth getting out of bed for.

Danny called himself a fixer but that was just a name he’d stolen off some American TV show because he thought it sounded cool. What he really did was work as a recruitment consultant. Crooks with a plan but without the bodies to put it into action would go to him and if Danny liked the sound of it he’d help them find the right guys to assist. For a cut of the proceeds obviously. He made a nice living at it by all accounts and never had to get his hands dirty. Nowadays that was what robbing was all about. You still got the opportunist wankers of course. And the junkies breaking and entering or mugging grannies. But the real money was in properly planned and thought out crimes. It was a bit like the movies, that’s what Danny said anyway, you needed a concept. Some new angle on things that swung the risk and reward ratio so far in your favour that the job was worth doing. Joel wasn’t one to come up with concepts, his brain just didn’t work that way. Give him a well thought out plan though and he’d execute it perfectly.

Danny knew that. He respected the fact that Joel only went for jobs that had been polished
until they shone before he’d set foot out the door. Joel had two other rules. He only stole from people who could afford to lose it and he’d never hurt someone who didn’t deserve it.

Danny had quizzed him on the rules the first time they met. Joel thought they
were pretty self-explanatory but he’d laid it all out plainly for the other man.

“Rule one,” he’d said, “works like this. If someone’s got two cars I’ll leave them with one. If they wear a Rolex I’ll take it, if it’s a Timex I won’t. I’ll never take the money people need to pay
their bills or buy food or put presents under the tree at Christmas but if it’s sitting there in a safe gathering dust I’ll have it.”

Danny had nodded. “And rule two?”

“I’ll never hurt a woman or a kid. Ever. No compromise.”

“Good, and the men?”

“If it’s a normal civilian and I need to give him a scare to get the job done so be it. If he’s on our side of the fence I’ll rough him up a bit too if it’s necessary. If he’s a scumbag then that’s his lookout.”

“Sounds fair enough. What about the police?”

“I try and leave them be if I can, they’re just doing their job. Not their fault we’re on different teams. Besides, it’s not worth the grief.”

It had been a long time since that first meeting and Danny had gotten him a lot of work over the last couple of years, some simple jobs and some tougher ones. The last two had been easy, low paying affairs and they’d gone well enough. This one had a bit more meat to it. 

The address Danny had given was in a residential area which surprised him. He expected it to be another pub or maybe an office but as he walked from the Tube he realised it was going to be someone's house. He didn't know why that bothered him but it did. Maybe it was because talking about what they were going to do in a family home seemed wrong. Not that it would have been out of place in some of the places he'd lived in growing up. It certainly wasn't the way these things normally went down though. Most people in the business and everyone he had any respect for believed in keeping a strong separation between work and home.

Joel was starting to feel edgy b
ut then his work often made him uncomfortable. It wasn't because he was worried about his own safety. What woke him up in the middle of the night before every job was the fear that some innocent civilian would be hurt and it would be his fault.

It was all he had though, this life, he was too far into it to walk away now.
All he could do was do it well. He owed it to himself to do that. Owed it to any people his work might touch as well. That was why he had his rules and that was why when he was on a job he made sure it went right. Quick and clean. Over and done with before anyone even realised there was any trouble.

He looked at his watch. Ten minutes
until the meet was scheduled which meant he had enough time to give the area a quick recce before he went in. He started walking faster, legs and arms pumping, breath coming out of his breath in clouds in the frigid winter air.

When he neared the house he started checking out the cars parked on either side of the street. Just a quick glance at each one to see if there was anyone inside and a check for extra
aerials. Nothing. He reached the address and kept walking, carrying on for fifty feet or so to make sure those cars were clean too. When he was comfortable that they were he crossed the road so his U-turn wouldn't be quite so obvious and headed back the way he'd come.

He'd checked out the place on his first pass and it looked like a totally normal terraced house. He kept his eyes on it on his way back, checking the upper floor and the homes on either side as well. Nothing set off any alarm bells so when he got to it he walked up the three steps and pressed the doorbell.

As he waited his fingers went to the scar on his cheek as they often did when he was nervous. He remembered the day he got it. The weight of the body on top of him pinning him down. The cold feeling of the blade slicing into his flesh. The pain of the cut had been nothing compared to the anger he'd felt. An all-consuming rage at his attacker and at himself for letting this happen. And the shame at his weakness, his inability to fight back and the fact that he allowed himself to trust someone enough that they could betray him. All of it amplified by the circle of laughing, jeering onlookers. The hurt had welled up inside him like the hot blood that had run down his face.

As much as he tried to forget it he knew that day had shaped him. Taught him that he had to stand up and take what he wanted. And that he should never trust anyone until they earned that trust. Earned it and proved it again and again.

He pushed the memory back down like he always did when it surfaced. It was times like this when it came back, when it was quiet and he was worried about something. Most of the time he managed to blot it out by filling his life with distractions. Girls and parties and beer. Anything to keep his brain occupied or numb it.

The door opened, the motion catching his eye and pulling him out of his daydream.

“Hello, Joel,” said the man standing in the doorway.

Joel didn’t say anything. His jaw dropped and he felt the hairs on his arms stand up. His right fist clenched
involuntarily at his side, the skin stretched taut over his knuckles. Before he knew it he’d taken step forward and swung it at the smugly grinning face in front of him.