Part 25 (1/2)

'Your mouth's full of s.h.i.+te, Moses,' Tanya replied, c.o.c.king her head towards me. 'She's a lawyer; she'll not let you near me. They've got rules.'

I reached over and grabbed her T-s.h.i.+rt.

I could feel the bones of her chest against my fingertips. I stood up and picked her up with one hand she only weighed about six and a half stone but the action still stretched me.

'My bosses in the Law Society keep telling me that there are rules to follow as well, Tanya. I don't listen to them either. I'm facing at least fifteen years for stuff I didn't do, I can take a bit extra for roughing you up. Now look at me and listen.'

With my free hand I pushed her face in front of mine so that she was forced to look into my eyes. Addicts hate to look you in the eye because their confidence has gone. I pointed to Moses without looking at him. 'I'm his witness that you struck the first blow and he thought you had a knife. Now answer his questions and be quick about it.'

The Leither was coming out in me now that my back was against the wall. After days of being at the mercy of others, it felt great, even if I was picking on the weakest in the pack.

'Tell me about these boats,' I said.

'They're fis.h.i.+ng boats.'

'Where from?'

'Peterhead.'

'What are they bringing in?'

'What do you think? It's not f.a.gs.'

'Tell me the types of drugs they're hauling.' I resisted slapping her as I said it.

'Heroin from Pakistan.'

'Nothing else?'

Tanya shook her head emphatically. Maybe she thought that if she dramatically denied everything, we would believe her. Moses looked perplexed. He didn't supply heroin or crack cocaine on moral grounds. So whoever was muscling in on his supply chain got their recreational drugs from somewhere else.

'Who's the Mr Big, Tanya?'

Tanya laughed so hard at Moses that she fell off her chair. The drama-queen act was wearing thin.

'Oh, you crack me up, you do. What's with the lingo, Moses? Been watching too many cop shows? And are you expecting me to do your job for you now? Work everything out for poor wee Moses? I'd heard you'd gone soft. I never believed it until now.'

The overacting victim turned in a second and spat at him. A greenish glob of mucus left a snail-like trail down his face. Moses took a paper handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped it away. He didn't retaliate, which made a s.h.i.+ver run through me. The last time he had seemed to be calm in the face of insults, he had moved on to slicing a man's eyes out I wondered whether this silence was more than him just losing his bottle? It would be hard either way. If Moses had lost his guts then what would I do?

Suddenly, I remembered the guru who ran this place and the 7.99 piece of advice he'd given me.

WE ARE ALL ALWAYS AFRAID.

BUT SOME HAVE THE COURAGE TO ACT.

I picked Tanya up by the scruff of the neck and threw her against the wall. It didn't really hurt her but it was theatrical to watch I've had years of being a drama queen, just ask Joe, and I wasn't prepared to give up my t.i.tle yet.

'He might have lost the lead out of his pencil, Tanya, but I'm just getting mine.'

I thought about throwing in a 'b.i.t.c.h' to sound suitably tough, but even though my mind was working fast with all the adrenalin, I wasn't quite quick enough to get my dialogue perfect.

Tanya's face was squashed against the wall. I hissed into her ear.

'Who is the Mr Big, then, Tanya, if you don't mind the cheesy terminology?'

Obviously, she did, because she didn't reply.

I leaned my shoulder against her we were close enough for me to smell her last cigarette.

'You'd better start talking, Tanya,' I warned her, 'or you'll be out of here so fast your a.r.s.e won't have time to hit the pavement before you're back in Cornton Vale.'

I leaned against her again. The good thing about her completely ignoring me was that I couldn't be that heavy, otherwise she would be capitulating and screaming in pain. Even then I was thinking of diets how b.l.o.o.d.y pathetic was that?

'Okay, I'll tell you. Just get off me, you fat b.i.t.c.h.'

She'd found my weak spot. So I leaned in once more, just for good measure.

'You've got it all wrong both of you,' she hissed, moving away from the wall and smoothing herself down. She looked no worse than if she'd had an uncomfortable night's sleep. I would make a pathetic bouncer.

We stood shamefaced on the thick-piled carpet as she circled around us, the playground bully, taunting us for our stupidity.

”'Who's the Mr Big? Who's the Mr Big?” a.r.s.eholes.'

This was her moment, and we had to let her have it. Although it had to be said that we were kind of at a loss for words.

'There is no Mr Big.'

Moses and I could forget being Butch and Sundance, we couldn't even make it to Thelma and Louise.

'Okay,' interrupted Moses. 'We get it you're so smart and we're so dumb. Just tell me who it is before I break your irritating scraggy junkie neck.'

She stared him out.

'I've seen your sort before, Moses Tierney,' she finally said.

I doubted it, but said nothing.

'You're pathetic. You know nothing about me, about my life.'

Again, she was wrong she couldn't imagine in her worst nightmares what Moses had been through. Neither could I, even though I knew some of the story.

'And you know nothing about what I know. So, I'll give you a free bit of help I don't know who Mr Big is. Now, can you p.i.s.s off and leave me alone?'