Kimberley Chambers 3-Book Collection: The Schemer, The Trap, Payback. Kimberley Chambers

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      Stopping at a red traffic light, Wayne checked out his hair in the interior mirror. He’d got showered and changed at the gym, and even though he was only venturing to some shit-hole boozer in Dagenham, he had opted to wear his best clobber. Barry had always had style himself and Wayne certainly wasn’t going to mug himself off by turning up like a tramp. As the lights turned to green, Wayne continued his journey. He didn’t think he was nervous about meeting up with Barry again, so he put his palpitations down to excitement, although couldn’t help feeling that Barry’s choice of venue had been chosen just to make him feel awkward. Why else would Barry want to meet him in the Church Elm pub if it wasn’t to bring home to him his wrongdoings of the past?

      Barry Franklin was sitting in the Church Elm pub at a table near the window. He had quite enjoyed sipping a couple of bottles of beer, while watching the traffic and shoppers go by. The Heathway had changed in the ten years since he had left Dagenham. There was a much bigger ethnic community and the shops now all looked tatty and extremely old fashioned. As Wayne Jackman bowled across the road, Barry spotted him immediately. With his suntan and designer clothes, he stood out like a sore thumb in Dagenham Heathway. Since moving to Spain, Barry had kept tracks on Wayne’s life. Wayne thought that Martin Gowing was his pal, but he wasn’t really. Gowing hated Wayne with a passion for stealing Steph off him, and he had only pretended to be friendly with Wayne as a favour to Barry. ‘I wanna know everything that cunt Jacko does, ’cause one day, when the time’s right, I’m gonna get me own back,’ Barry had explained to Gowing many moons ago.

      Barry smirked as Wayne approached him with an outstretched right hand. He could sense that Wayne was dubious over the welcome he would receive. Ever the gentleman, Barry stood up to greet his old friend.

      ‘It’s been a fucking long time, ain’t it, Bazza?’ Wayne said, with more than a hint of anxiety in his voice.

      Staring at Wayne’s slighty quivering right hand, Barry smirked, then shook it. ‘It’s been far too long.’

      Stephanie was a bag of nerves when she set off to pick Dannielle up from an after-school birthday party. Waiting for the phone to ring when something important was at stake was the worst feeling in the world, and she had spent half the day staring at the plastic object.

      ‘Swee, Ma, swee,’ Tyler said, poking his mother in the arm.

      Steph was more than used to her son’s unconventional language and managed to understand his every want or need quite clearly. ‘We’ll stop for some sweeties in a bit, darling. But first we must pick Dannielle up from her party, else we’ll be late, OK?’

      Tyler grinned in approval. Even at his tender age, he knew that if his mum made a promise, she would deliver. His father was a different kettle of fish entirely.

      ‘Pass Mummy her phone,’ Stephanie asked, pointing to the object that was ringing on top of her handbag in the footwell. Tyler always sat in the front of the car with her, because he would kick off if she forced him to sit in the back.

      As her son bent down and handed her a hairbrush, Stephanie wanted to scream with frustration, but chose not to. ‘No, the phone Tyler, the phone,’ she said, as calmly as she possibly could.

      When Tyler looked at her blankly, Stephanie bumped the car onto the kerb and picked up the phone herself. She punched in her mother’s number. ‘Did you just ring me, Mum?’

      ‘Yes. I rang to tell you that me and Cath have been glued to the window for the past three hours and there’s been no sign of Wayne. The old slapper came home, then went out again, but that’s about all I’ve got to report.’

      ‘What about Barry? Have you seen him go in or out at all?’ Stephanie asked.

      ‘Nope. Not seen hide nor hair of him. Chantelle’s there though. She’s just ordered a pizza and paid the man at the door.’

      Thanking her mother for keeping look-out, Stephanie ended the call and punched in Wayne’s number. She had rung him six times in the past couple of hours but he hadn’t answered any of her calls. ‘Bollocks,’ she mumbled, as the phone rang and rang once again. She felt desperately inadequate. Say Barry had done something awful to Wayne? If he had it would be all her fault. She was the one who had forced both men to become part of a sordid love triangle in the first place.

      ‘La you, Mummy,’ Tyler uttered softly, as the tears rolled down Stephanie’s cheeks.

      Stephanie held her son close to her chest. ‘I love you too, boy. Let’s just both pray that Daddy will be OK, eh?’

      Tyler had no idea what his mother meant by the word pray, but seeing that she seemed so upset, he decided nodding was the best thing to do.

      Stephanie ruffled his hair. Tyler was such a handsome boy. With his blond hair and piercing blue eyes, he would have made a fabulous child model had he been better behaved.

      ‘Da be OK,’ Tyler said, trying to repeat his mother’s words.

      Stephanie smiled. Her son might not know what he was saying, but he was right. Of course his father would be OK. Wayne was no man’s fool and Steph was sure that any mud Barry Franklin chose to throw at him, her big, strapping fiancé was more than capable of slinging back twice as hard.

      Wayne Jackman stared at the paralytic man and woman who were getting louder and louder on the next table. There was so much he wanted to say to Barry and it was only the surroundings that were stopping him from doing so. ‘Are you in a rush to get back to your sister’s, Bazza? You gotta be anywhere later on?’

      ‘Nope. I ain’t gotta be nowhere.’

      ‘Look, tell me to fuck off if you want, but I know a cushti little Indian restaurant over in Chadwell Heath. The geezer who owns it used to train down my gym and I get treated like a king whenever I eat there. Why don’t we go there? We can order a nice curry and a few bottles of bubbly. It’s got to be better than sitting in this dosshouse, eh?’

      ‘Yeah, fuck it, why not?’ Barry replied. Anything was better than going back to the refuge tip his sister called home. Barry downed the rest of his lager in one, urged Wayne to do the same, and then led him to where his car was parked.

      ‘Nice set of wheels, Jacko,’ Barry said, as they approached Wayne’s flash new BMW.

      Wayne nodded. He couldn’t believe how nice Barry was being towards him. He hadn’t really known what to expect, but Barry was acting as though the Steph love triangle had never happened, and Wayne couldn’t help thinking that his old pal’s acceptance of the way he had once betrayed him was slightly too good to be true. Wayne started the engine and drove over Heathway Hill in silence. Barry hadn’t mentioned Stephanie yet, neither had he, but he knew the subject would have to be discussed sooner or later and decided to broach it in the restaurant, rather than in the car. ‘So, tell me about Jake the Snake. I know you told me bits in the pub, but I couldn’t concentrate on what you were saying because of that lairy pair of pissheads next to us.’

      ‘To put it in a nutshell, Jake upset some extremely heavy people. He was involved in a bit of this and that and, apparently, had his hands in the till. I’ve no idea who actually bumped him off, but I keep hearing the rumours why. I think one or two of the lads he was involved with thought he was a snitch an’ all, hence the bullet through his head, I suppose.’

      ‘What was he dealing in? Drugs? Were you involved an’ all?’ Wayne pried.

      ‘Yeah, СКАЧАТЬ