Liverpool Loyalty

Chapter Seven

Craig Johnson sat at his usual table in The Grapes, sipping his pint and waiting for two of his brothers, Ged and Scott, to meet him. Since their eldest brother Bradley had disappeared four months earlier, things hadn’t been going very well for the Johnson brothers. Craig had once worshipped the ground that Bradley walked on, but now he realised that his former hero was a coward and a backstabbing cunt. Not only had Bradley left them all in the shit and disappeared with over two hundred grand of Alastair McGrath’s money, but his big mouth had also ended up getting their younger brother Billy killed. Bradley had been stupid enough to insinuate that they had been responsible for Paul Carter’s murder, and poor Billy had paid the ultimate price. Craig took a swig of his pint and continued watching the door for Ged and Scott. He had to give his older brother, Ged, credit – he’d always known that Bradley was a bad apple, but Craig and the rest of the family had put it down to Ged having a massive chip on his shoulder because he wasn’t the oldest and therefore hadn’t become the head of the family when their father died. Now, Craig knew that Ged’s instincts had been spot on all along. For the moment, at least, Ged seemed to be happy to look to Craig to tell him what to do next.

It was Craig who’d scored them the contract with Alastair McGrath. Alastair was a Scot who had married into a well-connected Essex family and was now one of the biggest gangsters in England. Alastair had trusted Craig to start growing his business up north and the plan was for the Johnson brothers to finally become a firm to be reckoned with. But for some reason Craig still couldn’t fathom, Bradley had fucked them all over and done a runner with all of Alastair’s money. Since then, it had been a constant game of cat and mouse, trying to convince Alastair that nothing was wrong, while sending him dribs and drabs of money in an attempt to cover the fact that they had lost a shitload of his cash. But there was only so long that someone like Alastair could be fobbed off before he stopped asking questions and instead started dismembering limbs and burying people in deep, unmarked graves.

Craig was about to order himself another pint when he noticed his two brothers walking through the door. They came straight over to him and took seats at the table.

‘How’s things, bro?’ Ged asked.

‘Not good,’ Craig replied with a shake of his head. ‘Alastair’s goons are still breathing down my neck. I’m not sure how much longer I can hold them off for. If we don’t get Alastair his money soon, we’re fucking toast, lads.’

‘What are we gonna do then?’ Ged asked.

‘We need to pull off a big job,’ Craig replied.

‘What? Like nicking someone’s drugs?’ Ged asked.

Craig shook his head. ‘There’s no time for that, now. We need to nick the money from somewhere – or someone.’

‘Do you have any ideas where we could get our hands on that kind of money?’ Ged said.

Craig nodded and leaned forward so only his brothers could hear him when he answered quietly, ‘Nipper Jackson.’

Even Ged, who was usually game for anything, flinched at the name. ‘You mean Jake Conlon and Connor Carter’s counter?’ Ged whispered. ‘Are you mental, Craig? You want to steal their money? After everything that’s happened?’

‘I don’t see what other choice we have, lads,’ Craig replied. ‘I know it’s a risk, but so is Alastair McGrath finding out we’ve lost two hundred grand of his money. Besides, we owe those pair of bastards after what they did to Billy.’

Scott shook his head while Ged stared at Craig in disbelief.

‘Look, I’ve got a plan. And there’s every chance that if we do things right, Carter and Conlon will never have an inkling that we had anything to do with it.’ Craig said.

‘They might have their hands full with other things by then anyway,’ Scott, who had been completely silent until this point, piped up.

‘What are you on about?’ Craig scowled at him.

‘I’ve sorted it. Jake and Connor will be out of the way for a long time,’ Scott replied with a smile.

‘What have you done, Scott?’ Ged snapped.

‘They were arrested for Billy’s murder yesterday afternoon,’ Scott answered.

‘What? How did that happen?’ Craig said.

Scott sat back in his chair with a smug grin on his face and Craig resisted the urge to shake him. ‘What the fuck did you do, Scott?’ he hissed.

‘I told the police what they did to Billy,’ he replied.

‘You stupid fucking bastard!’ Ged said before Craig had a chance to.

‘What?’ Scott asked as he looked between his two older brothers. ‘They’ve been arrested. I told the police I saw them do it.’

‘But you didn’t!’ Ged said.

‘So? We know they did it,’ Scott replied with a shrug.

‘That’s the least of our fucking worries, to be honest,’ Craig snapped. ‘You’ve gone and signed your own death warrant, Scott.’

Scott stared at them both as the colour slowly started to drain from his face and Craig was reminded how young and naïve his baby brother was. He’d been coddled by their mother all of his young life and it showed.

‘What do you mean? I told you they’ve been arrested,’ he stammered.

‘And you think they’re not going to walk out of that police station today? If they haven’t already.’

‘But I told the police I saw them do it. I spoke to the DI from the organised crime task force and she told me that she’d make sure they went down.’

Ged started to laugh and Craig shot him a withering look, causing him to stop.

‘You know, for someone with an IQ worthy of Mensa, you’re as thick as pig-shit sometimes, Scott. Do you have any idea of the connections that Jake Conlon and the Carters have? They have half of the fucking city on their payroll. Not to mention a fucking shit hot legal team. They will be walking out of that police station without so much as a parking fine and they will find out that it was you who fingered them for murder.’

Scott shook his head. ‘They won’t. They’re not going to find out it was me. That DI said—’

‘Never mind what she said. She’d tell you the sky was green if she thought it would help her put those two away. You’re living in cloud cuckoo land. That’s not how the real world works, lad. I’m off to get some fucking drinks,’ Ged said as he stood up and stomped towards the bar.

‘Do you really think they’ll walk?’ Scott asked Craig once Ged had left the table.

‘Yes, mate,’ he said with a nod. ‘I really do.’

‘But they were arrested,’ Scott persisted.

‘Scott! We’re not talking about your average Joe here. You have grassed on the two most powerful men in Liverpool.’

‘Well, you wanted to nick their money,’ Scott offered in protest.

‘Yeah. Because we’re fucking desperate and there was a chance we could pull it off and not get caught. But what you’ve done is completely different.’

‘But why?’

‘Where do I even start? Firstly, you do not grass people up to the filth. That is the surest way of making sure you’ll either end up dead or at the very least you’ll never make any half decent money ever again. And if that wasn’t bad enough, you fucking lied about what you saw, and we all know you don’t do well under pressure. If it ever did get to trial, which I highly fucking doubt, you’d fall to fucking pieces. But all of that doesn’t mean shit really when you consider that you have just tried to stitch up two men who have the means, and quite probably the inclination, to wipe you, me and our Ged off the face of the earth and not lose a wink of sleep about it.’

Scott stared at his older brother, his bright blue eyes blinking as beads of perspiration started to form on his forehead. ‘They won’t know it was me though, will they?’ he repeated.

Craig considered his younger brother and felt a twinge of sympathy. Scott was as green as freshly laid AstroTurf and he had never been cut out for the family business. Bradley should have let him fuck off to university like he’d wanted to, but instead their eldest brother had insisted Scott follow in his older brothers’ footsteps. Scott was a fucking liability – but he was also his baby brother. ‘Maybe not,’ Craig lied, knowing full well that Grace Carter alone had the means to find out anything she wanted to. ‘But you just keep your head down from now on.’

Scott nodded. ‘I’ll go and speak to that DI, and ask her to put me in witness protection or something. They haven’t got a case without me.’

Craig almost spat out the mouthful of lager he’d just gulped. ‘What?’ he snapped. ‘And just leave me and Ged to take the fall instead?’

‘Maybe they’d put us all in witness protection?’ Scott offered, confirming to Craig that he just didn’t get it at all.

‘I’d rather take my chances with Conlon and the Carters than collude with the filth, you stupid little prick!’ Craig snarled. ‘You stay the fuck away from the police. Next time that DI comes sniffing around you, tell her to fucking do one. And if you dare disappear and leave me and Ged to deal with this on our own, then I’ll find come and find you my fucking self.’ Then, shaking his head in disgust, he stomped off towards the bar to stand with Ged.

Scott watched at his older brother walked away from him with a face like thunder and sipped his pint as he tried to ease the queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach and mulled over their recent exchange. He knew Craig and Ged didn’t like the police, but he hadn’t expected that kind of response from them. If they could only see past their hatred of coppers, then they would recognise that what he was doing was right. So what, he hadn’t actually seen Jake Conlon and Connor Carter murder Billy? He was sure that they were guilty and the only way Scott knew to make them pay for what they did was for them to be sentenced for Billy’s murder. Craig and Ged, however, seemed unwilling to do anything about the fact that the two men who had beaten their brother to death were carrying on with their lives as though nothing had happened. And if Craig and Ged wouldn’t do something to rectify that, then he would.

Scott was starting to feel a little better. Surely Craig was exaggerating – trying to scare him off? Scott knew that his brothers thought he was stupid, but he was far from it, and there was no way that he was going to let the men responsible for Billy’s murder get away with it.

Craig walked over to the bar and stood next to Ged, who was drinking his pint.

‘That stupid little bastard is gonna get us all killed,’ Ged said as he placed his glass on the bar.

‘I’ve told him to fuck that DI off if she comes asking again. Hopefully we can undo any damage before this goes too far.’

‘You think?’ Ged scoffed.

‘Yes, I do think, Ged,’ Craig snapped. ‘Which is more than I can say for you or knobhead over there.’

‘And what the fuck’s that supposed to mean?’ Ged shouted.

‘It means that I don’t see either of you trying to sort out the situation with Alastair. You’re either out on the pull or just pissed. And Scott – well, the least said about him, the better.’

Ged turned to Craig with a scowl on his face. ‘You’re a cheeky fucker, Craig. So, you think you’re the boss now, do you? Think you’re clever, eh?’

‘Well, I think you’ve proven that you’re not up to the job!’

‘Really? I was the only one who saw through your precious Bradley though, wasn’t I?’

‘Oh, fuck off. You couldn’t see through a window, you thick bastard. You just hated the fact that you were always second to him,’ Craig snapped. He knew that wasn’t true but he was angry and he needed to take it out on someone.

Ged frowned. ‘And now I’m supposed to play second to you too, am I? I’m the oldest after Brad. That means I’m in charge.’

Craig placed a hand on Ged’s shoulder. ‘Tell that to Alastair McGrath, or any other face round here. You’re not a leader, Ged. You’re the muscle. You always have been. So, you just do what you do best and leave the thinking to me.’

‘Fuck you,’ Ged growled before turning back to his pint.

Craig ordered himself a drink from the blonde barmaid who was his Friday night bit on the side. Ged was understandably pissed off, but deep down he had to know that Craig was right. Craig was the boss now, and their brief but loaded exchange meant that Ged had finally accepted that.

Craig sat on the bar stool and ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. Bradley had well and truly left them all in the shit. Alastair McGrath was breathing down their necks for his money and there was only so much longer that Craig could keep fobbing him off. While Craig understood Scott’s desire for revenge – he was devastated by Billy’s death too – there was a time and a place for everything. But now Scott had gone rogue, making the Johnson brothers an even bigger enemy of the Carters than they already were. Who in their right mind would want to be responsible for leading this shower of fuck-nuggets? Picking up the whisky chaser he’d ordered and downing it in one, Craig realised with despair that he was the only man for the job.

Chapter Eight

DI Leigh Moss watched as her sergeant, Nick Bryce, strode across her living room with a plate of curry in his outstretched hand.

‘Lamb Rogan Josh, Ma’am,’ he said as he handed her the plate.

She took the plate from him before picking up the cushion beside her and throwing it at him. ‘Don’t be a smart-arse,’ she said with a laugh.

Nick ducked and the cushion missed him. ‘Smart-arse? Me?’ he replied with a grin as he walked back out into the kitchen. He returned a few seconds later, shirtless this time, and with his own plate of curry in his hand. Leigh raised an eyebrow at him and he looked down at his naked chest. ‘What? I didn’t want to get curry on my T-shirt.’

‘Yeah, right,’ she said before tucking into her dinner.

Nick sat on the sofa beside her and they fell into their usual evening routine of eating dinner in her lounge before chatting about their day and watching a film – usually a cheesy superhero one that Nick chose.

Leigh and Nick had been good mates and on-and-off lovers for the past four years. They had made a promise that they would never get too serious about each other, which had suited them both down to the ground. They were both too committed to their work to commit to another person as well. But despite that, they had been spending more and more time together over the past few months, and although neither of them was prepared to admit it, they were a couple in every sense of the word. Leigh looked across at him. Nick kept himself fit. He was good-looking in an understated way. But, more importantly, he was funny, and kind, and he was a man of principle. She knew that the more time they spent together, the harder it would be to stop whatever this thing was they had going on. She loved him. But was love enough? She thought about the ribbing he would get from the other lads at the station if they found out. Most of them thought she was a dragon. A jobsworth with a stick up her arse was how she’d overheard one of the constables describe her once. Not that she cared what other people thought of her. Leigh was comfortable in her own skin and happy with the person she had chosen to be. But she did worry about Nick. The job was his life too, but in a different way. His colleagues were his family, and like family, he cared more than he should about what they thought of him.

Leigh’s thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of her mobile phone. Picking it up, she saw Scott Johnson’s name flashing across the screen and her heart started pounding. This couldn’t possibly be a good development, could it?

‘Hi, Scott,’ she answered, trying to sound as casual as possible.

‘DI Moss,’ he answered breathlessly, as though he’d been running. ‘How likely is it that Jake Conlon and Connor Carter are going to find out that I’m the key witness in this investigation?’

Leigh swallowed. ‘Well, they won’t find that out from me or my team, I promise you that,’ she replied.

‘That really doesn’t answer my question though, does it? Will they find out some other way?’

Leigh looked across at Nick, hoping illogically for some help, despite knowing that he could only hear her side of the conversation. ‘I suppose they might put two and two together and think it was you. You did live with Billy after all.’

‘Shit!’

‘If you’re worried about that then let me bring you in. We can offer you witness protection—’

‘No, I can’t do that,’ he interrupted her. ‘Who knows when or if I’d ever be able to come back to Liverpool, and I can’t just leave my brothers in the lurch like that. I’ve already lost two brothers, I couldn’t handle the possibility of never seeing Craig and Ged again too. Besides, you said they wouldn’t find out,’ he said and Leigh could hear the edge of desperation creeping into his voice.

‘I have never told you that, Scott.’

‘Okay, but you implied it. You would have said anything to get my testimony though, wouldn’t you?’

‘That’s not true,’ Leigh said, trying to maintain her temper and speak calmly. ‘I have never lied to you about the possible implications. But it’s true that we have no case without you, Scott. Without your testimony, the men who murdered your brother will never see the inside of a courtroom, let alone a prison.’

‘I know.’

‘Let us protect you,’ she insisted.

‘No! Look, I know they’ll figure out it was me if they haven’t already. But they’d be stupid to take out the key witness, wouldn’t they? Surely that would prove their guilt?’

‘Perhaps,’ Leigh answered, thinking that Scott had watched far too many cop dramas on television.

‘Then I’m going to go and stay with an old friend of mine from school for a bit. No one knows where she lives, or knows we’ve stayed in touch. She lives in Widnes, and I’ll be safe there. I’m going to ditch my phone, but I’ll text you my new number as soon as I get it.’

‘Okay. And if you see anything suspicious, or feel like you’re in any danger at all, phone 999 before you call me. Okay?’

‘Okay. I will. I’ll speak to you in a few days.’

‘Bye, Scott.’

Leigh put her phone down on the coffee table and sat back with a sigh.

‘What was that about?’ Nick asked.

‘Scott Johnson getting twitchy about the investigation.’

‘Understandable,’ Nick replied, putting his plate down on the floor beside him. ‘You think he’s going to back out?’

‘No. He’s scared, but he still seems determined to go ahead with it. I’d feel better if he agreed to go into witness protection though. At least then, we could keep an eye on him for the duration of the investigation.’

‘I do too, but we’ve had that conversation with him before, and it didn’t seem like he was willing to budge.’

Leigh nodded in agreement. ‘I know. He’s going to stay with a friend of his in Widnes for a while. Apparently no one knows about her. But I don’t think he appreciates the reach the Carters have.’

‘I know what you mean. He’s a bright lad, seems quite clever actually, but no common sense at all. Can you imagine him growing up with the rest of the Johnson lot? He must have stuck out like a sore thumb.’

Leigh smiled. ‘Would you really want to blend in with them though?’

Nick laughed. ‘Suppose not.’

‘The best thing we can do for Scott is arrest Jake and Connor as soon as possible. I’m going to speak to the CPS tomorrow and see if there’s any progress on being able to proceed with a charge.’

‘Let’s hope Forensics come back with something.’

‘I know,’ Leigh replied with a frown. ‘Even a fingerprint or a shred of DNA would give us something to tie them to the scene. Without that all we have is Scott’s testimony.’

Nick winced. ‘And even that is iffy. He saw them going in, but didn’t see the murder. Faye Donovan will tear him to shreds on the stand.’

Leigh nodded. ‘I know. But we’ll just have to prep him to hold his nerve. I believe he’s telling the truth, and I just hope that a jury would be able to see that too.’

‘The truth? Whoever cared about the truth? Grace Carter and her bloody family walk around this city believing they’re invincible. But one day we will have them banged to rights, and I for one can’t wait.’

Leigh nodded at him again. ‘Me too,’ she said although with less conviction.

Nick held up his arm and Leigh leaned against him on the sofa, inhaling the clean, soapy smell of his freshly showered body. Nick was right, of course, and she wanted the streets of Liverpool to be safe again as much as he did. Bringing down the Carter family would be an epic feat and one that would cement her career in the police force. But that would mean bringing down Grace too, and although she was prepared to do that, it wouldn’t be as easy for her.

‘What do you fancy watching?’ Nick asked.

‘You choose,’ she replied and she watched as Nick flicked through the channels. She thought about Grace Carter: the women they had both become, and the women they had once been.

Leigh Moss had been nineteen years old when she’d applied for a job as a barmaid at The Blue Rooms. She’d been studying law at Liverpool University and had wanted a decent-paying job to help her keep on top of her bills. She had been raised in one of the roughest and poorest neighbourhoods in Manchester and her parents didn’t have any spare cash to help her out if she was ever in a jam. In fact, they’d been pretty annoyed that she’d decided to ‘flounce’ off to university instead of getting a job in the local supermarket or claiming the dole so she could start finally bringing some money into the house. She could still hear her mother’s words now – If it was good enough for me and your father, why do you think you’re any better than the rest of us round ’ere?