Part 2 (1/2)

He stopped in his tracks. Sarah took this as a good sign.

'I don't think you realise it but Morgan is playing you for a fool. You don't want to look like a fool, Mr Ramsey, do you?'

Tommy swivelled around and walked over to Sarah, his fists clenching and unclenching. 'n.o.body calls me a fool and survives to brag about it. You've got exactly one minute to explain yourself or else that pretty face of yours won't be pretty much longer.'

'Don't listen to her, Mr Ramsey, she's just a ' Morgan tried to interject.

Tommy silenced him with a gesture while keeping his gaze locked on Sarah.

'Start talking.'

The war had been over for seven years, but parts of the East End were still just bombsites. Derelict buildings that had once been homes for families now played house to vermin and weeds.

Ironmonger Row behind St Luke's had been particularly badly hit by German bombs. Only one of the original buildings was still standing, and that had been declared unsafe. But that didn't stop it being used by those without homes.

Two teenagers tended a fire in the grate of the last house on Ironmonger Row. They were brothers, both on the run from National Service. The pair had gravitated back to their native East End but couldn't go home the military police would be waiting for them. The brothers had adopted new names to disguise their ident.i.ties, calling themselves Billy and Charlie. For the past month they had been scratching a living from thieving and illegal bare knuckle boxing matches, until they met Callum.

He was like n.o.body they had known, wild and fearless.

Callum seemed to rejoice in causing mayhem and chaos. He was only of average build but his black eyes betrayed a wanton streak that terrified ordinary people. His skin was white, almost translucent, in stark contrast to his jet black hair. He had a charisma about him that made others want to follow his lead.

The two brothers soon found themselves happily joining Callum in whatever crazed enterprise entered his head.

Within weeks of appearing in the area, Callum had formed his own gang. The members were young men, between sixteen and twenty, all frustrated by a society that would not acknowledge them as adults until their twenty-first birthdays.

Their fathers and older brothers had gone to war before they were twenty-one, why should this new generation have to wait?

Callum harnessed that frustration, turning them into a formidable force on the streets. Billy and Charlie felt they had found their place at last, something they could belong to and be proud of. They were part of a gang and that meant power and strength. The brothers both liked that.

They were still tending the fire when Callum appeared at the door. 'Boys, our time is nearly upon us!' He held up his right hand. It was covered in blood.

Arthur 'Brick' Baldwin stood in the doorway of the Red Room, watching as Tommy confronted the new barmaid. Brick liked the look of her and hoped she knew what she was doing. Tommy had few qualms about using his fists on anybody, or about ordering his bodyguard to deliver the beating for him. Brick hated hitting anyone. His size turned any fight into a drubbing and he would rather die than hurt a woman, especially one as pretty as her.

Sarah swallowed hard before replying to Tommy. 'Morgan is skimming money from the Red Room's profits. That book he showed you is a fake. There's a second set of accounts hidden in a safe under his desk. The combination is seven right, twelve left, five right.'

Brick noted Tommy staring into the barmaid's eyes. She held Tommy's gaze steadily. The bodyguard thought she looked nervous, but sure of herself. She seemed to believe what she was saying.

The blood had drained from Morgan's face. 'You can't believe that. I would never, never...'

Tommy walked to the manager's office.

Tommy grabbed the desk in the office and flung it over in the air. Revealed beneath was a safe. He crouched down to twist the dial through its combination, then pulled open the door. A second ledger book was inside. He opened the pages and quickly confirmed the truth of Sarah's allegation. Tommy closed the book, stood up and strode back into the main room.

'Please, Tommy, I can explain...' Morgan whimpered.

'It's Mr Ramsey, especially to thieving sc.u.m like you,'

Tommy replied. He motioned for Sarah to follow him out of the Red Room. She hurriedly grabbed her coat. 'Brick, make sure Morgan doesn't leave, will you?'

'Yes, Tommy.' When they had gone, Brick stepped into the doorway and folded his arms across his mighty chest. The only exit had disappeared.

Once outside, Tommy looked up and down Brunswick Place while he talked to Sarah. 'Why?'

'I want to work for you. I can help you. I understand you reward loyalty well. Morgan was ripping you off so '

'So you gra.s.s on Morgan to gain my trust is that it?'

'Telling the boss the truth, no matter how painful, isn't being a gra.s.s. It's being honest.' Sarah held Tommy's gaze, trying to keep her terror hidden. What she said now could mean the difference between life and death for herself and the repulsive, reptilian Max Morgan. 'I thought you would place a value on that too.' 'How do I know you didn't set Morgan up?'

'You don't. But I didn't. He put his own head in the noose.'

Tommy lit a cigarette and sucked greedily at it. 'Never did trust him too s.h.i.+fty by half.'

'So, do I get a job?' Sarah asked.

Callum stood opposite the fire as he watched his gang. The light from the flames threw dark shadows around his face. About twenty youths were gathered in the condemned building, dividing the spoils of the day. The gang was becoming more brazen by the day as the expected retaliation never came. Why bother picking pockets when you could demand people emptied their pockets for you? Callum was always urging them to take more risks.

Now he looked down at them, a motley collection of misfits and fugitives. Callum sneered with contempt. 'This is pathetic!

Skulking in a bombed-out building, counting out coins hardly rich pickings!'

The elder of the two brothers, Charlie, spoke up for the rest of the group. 'We done good today, it's our best haul yet.'

Callum shook his head in disgust. 'It's pocket change! You have no ambition, you're too scared of your own shadows.

There's a power vacuum on the streets of London those who came back from the war are getting old, past it. This is our opportunity, a chance to take control. The streets are ours for the taking, if you only have the courage to s.n.a.t.c.h them away from the likes of Tommy Ramsey and his men.'

Billy stood beside his brother. 'Like Charlie said, we done good today. Why stir things up? Why cause trouble?'

Callum grinned, 'I like trouble. Anyway, we don't have any choice. See this?' He held up his b.l.o.o.d.y hand for all to see.

'Know how I got this? From one of our own this is what Tommy Ramsey thinks of us!'

Callum stepped out of the room. Billy and Charlie looked around the others, but n.o.body knew what their leader was talking about. Callum came back in, dragging Jamie's b.l.o.o.d.y body. Callum dumped him in the midst of the gang.

Tommy stared deep into Sarah's eyes. If she had been a man, he would have wondered whether she was an undercover policeman, trying to infiltrate the firm. But Tommy knew the old bill would never send a woman to do such a dangerous job.

Perhaps that sc.u.mbag MacMa.n.u.s was trying to plant an informant inside the Ramsey Mob? Tommy dismissed that possibility as well. There was something different about Sarah.

She could not disguise her quiet terror but there was an implacability about her that Tommy admired.

'Well?' Sarah asked impatiently.

'You've got some bra.s.sneck, I'll give you that,' Tommy replied. 'You take the rest of the day off. Come to the house tomorrow Tabernacle Street. Know where it is?'

'I'll find it,' Sarah replied. 'What about Morgan?'