Getting it Straight Part 4

Back at his flat Katerina was fast asleep on his double bed. She looked so peaceful, so beautiful. Vinny crept into bed beside her and shut his eyes. His body was tired and he needed to sleep but his mind had other ideas. Three female faces came to him whenever he closed his eyes, Georgina, Eleanora and Mila, all beautiful, all different, one dead, one would be dead if he ever found her and he was pretty sure he’d just signed the death warrant of the other. He sorted it through his head. What did he know? Georgina had stabbed him but her brothers had saved him, so this was a warning not an execution.

Someone had killed Eleanora because she had gone digging on his behalf, the MO was the same as his attack so he presumed it was Georgina or her brothers. Maybe that was meant to be a warning too but the good Samaritans had turned up too late. He’d ask Pieter who found the body. Father Christmas was head of the Romanian clan, he was a man not to be messed with, but why did he think Vinny or his boss was messing with him? So they’d been short changing them a little on the bootleg alcohol and cigarettes, they’d maybe over cut the coke they traded but nothing major; nothing worth murder. No, it made no sense. 

In all the time he’d been working for his boss he’d always known him to be straight with everyone. He was a hard man but basically fair. Vinny’s boss had fingers in many pies. But diamonds were his thing; genuine, fake, kosher, blood, the boss dealt them all. But he also had an import export business that most would die for. Booze, fags, drugs, CDs Vinny’s boss was behind every great party in the land. Then there were the girls, shipped in from Eastern Europe to work in the club and on the streets.

Vinny had started life as a football hooligan, one of the best. Vinny didn’t know fear. It was that reputation that led him to be recruited as a doorman for the boss’s strip club.

He was a natural, just the right balance of courtesy and menace. He knew how to be discreet, he'd take no nonsense from the punters and the girls felt safe with him. The boss liked him too, liked his ruthless streak, he'd watched with admiration as Vinny handled punters who had stepped out of line. Soon Vinny was being asked to deal with other little irritants, a task he relished. People would end up in hospital for exactly the amount of time his boss had requested, once or twice people just disappeared without a trace. When instructed for a job Vinny showed no emotion, he asked no questions; he just nodded his head and a few days later the job was done. It was doing one of these ‘jobs’ that got Vinny his first diamond and paid for the dental work too.   Doing security at the club was how he got to know Eleanora and the other girls. Vinny was a hard man but he had a soft spot for girls and they seemed to like him too. But his boss took a dim view of his fascination with the staff. He didn’t like his best girls being distracted by his best doorman, they were giving away something that they could charge for. But more importantly he didn’t like his security being distracted by matters of the flesh. So the boss’s solution was to promote Vinny to be one of his drivers. The boss had 3 drivers; it was a strange set up that Vinny never quite understood. They sat round the office all day like whores in a brothel waiting to be picked. The boss seemed to pick them on a whim, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason.  Vinny never spoke to the other two, he’d been instructed not to. They nodded heads in recognition but never exchanged a word. Vinny guessed this whole set-up was a scheme to protect the boss's safety; if the drivers didn't know who was working and when, then they couldn't compromise his security. Despite the vagaries of the job Vinny liked it, it was more advisor than driver. He was a trusted man, a confidant, a bodyguard; part of the inner circle.  So he was disappointed when the boss decided to move him on. It was dressed up as a promotion but while Vinny had hoped he'd be a ‘go to’ man he had in fact become more of a ‘go for’ man. He did the odd jobs; collecting money from the pimps and dealing with trusted customers like the Romanians, arranging rendezvous and handovers, escorting diamonds to far away places and coming back with girls for the club. It was more responsibility, more independence, higher salary but he felt out of the loop. He used to deal with the boss everyday, he had his ear, had direct contact but now he saw him once a week at best, and more often than not had to go through other people to get to him. The boss told him to be patient but that was easier said than done.

Vinny rubbed his eyes, he was losing focus. Katerina was snoring gently beside  him. There was a couple more things that puzzled him.

Eleanora, was she seen talking to him in the Admiral or did her questions to the Romanian girls get her into trouble or was she just targeted because she was a known moll of Vinny’s?

Then, if they were telling him not to mess with Father Christmas, then why wouldn’t they tell him who Father Christmas was? Why were they protecting his identity? How did he know who not to mess with? It was a woman’s logic.

Vinny got up and lit a cigarette. He went over to the window blowing out his first lungful of smoke. The city was bathed in streetlight orange; still but sinister. He finished his smoke and pulled on his trousers. He wasn't going to find the answers in this flat; he needed to get out. He drove around aimlessly not sure where to start. Eleanora's pitch was obviously empty; she was dead, Katerina was in his bed and Anna, well Anna was always a law unto herself. He drove over to see if Mila was still on her corner but even the Romanian girls had gone to bed. There were no lights on in her flat either. He parked outside for a while smoking a cigarette. He hoped she was still alive but if the pimp had found the extra cash or seen her leave in his car then Georgina would have dealt with her by now.

He called Pieter and arranged a meeting down by the river. He parked up the car in the side streets near the water and walked the last 100 metres, hoping the fresh air might clear his mind; it didn’t. He lit another cigarette and waited for the policeman to show up. Vinny hated waiting.

Soon enough he saw the hulking frame of Pieter come into view. A 45 years old heart attack candidate, Pieter was fundamentally a good cop; he just supplemented his earnings by letting Vinny know things that Vinny wanted to know.

'You liked her didn't you?'

Vinny nodded slowly, inhaling deeply and blowing out smoke.

'I got nothing new to say Vinny, her pals told us it was her first pick up of the night so if it was a sexual assault we'll know, she had a load of cash on her though. Bit odd that.'

'I gave her that.' Vinny's voice was barely audible.

'Can I ask why?'

Vinny gave Pieter a look that told him he most certainly could not.

'Who found her?'

‘Two lads on the way home from the pub, their story checks out.’

Dawn was beginning to break around them, the few birds left in the city were starting their morning chorus. Vinny stubbed out his fag and leant in close to the big copper.

'I want them Pieter. I want them. If you find them then you give them to me.'

Pieter shivered, he knew Vinny was a bad 'un but that hint of menace in his voice was enough to scare the dead.

'One last question, Pieter.' Vinny was still whispering. 'Who the fuck is Father Christmas?'

Pieter shrugged his shoulders and turned to walk away. But he knew and Vinny knew that he knew.