Being by Kevin Brooks

Author:Kevin Brooks [Brooks, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: URN|ISBN|978-0-14-191057-4
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2007-04-18T23:00:00+00:00

16

Just before we got to Gillespie Heights, Eddi turned right into a grim little back street and pulled up at the side of the road. The street was grey and empty – parked cars, low-rise flats, cracked pavements, black railings. A dead-looking place.

Eddi picked up her mobile phone, hit a speed-dial button and put the phone to her ear. ‘Bean?’ she said. ‘It’s me. Is everything OK?’ She paused, listening. ‘All right, listen. Get round to the garages and wait for me. I’ll be there in a minute. I’m in a grey Civic. Got that?’ She listened again, then closed the connection and put the phone in her pocket.

‘Who was that?’ I asked her.

‘Bean.’

‘Who’s Bean?’

‘Who’s been what?’

She smiled at me, then put the car into gear and got going.

Bean, it turned out, was a skinny little twelve-year-old black kid. Dressed in a zipped-up hoodie, an over-sized basketball shirt and the baggiest pants I’d ever seen, he was waiting for us at a row of lock-up garages at the back of Eddi’s tower block. When Eddi drove up and stopped the car, he looked round, jerked his neck, then ambled over towards us.

Eddi grinned at me as I watched him.

‘It’s all right,’ she told me, ‘he knows what he’s doing.’

‘What is he doing?’

She smiled at me again, then opened the car door and got out, leaving the engine running. Bean walked up to her and they started talking. I watched them for a moment, then I reached over to the back seat, picked up my bag and stepped out of the car to join them.

‘This is John,’ Eddi told Bean as I walked up beside them. ‘You haven’t seen him – OK?’

Bean nodded, barely even looking at me. ‘You got keys for that?’ he asked Eddi, nodding at the Civic.

She shook her head. ‘It’s wired. I want you to get rid of it, but not round here – all right?’

‘How much you want for it?’

‘Nothing, just make sure it doesn’t come back to me. And don’t do anything till I’ve gone. I’ve got another job for you.’ Eddi glanced over at the Civic, then turned back to Bean. ‘I’ll be about an hour or two. Put the Civic somewhere safe till then. I’ll call you when I’m ready.’

Bean nodded.

‘I’ll be in my flat,’ Eddi told him. ‘Keep your eyes open. If you see anyone you don’t know, call me.’

‘The police looking for you?’ Bean said.

‘Something like that.’

They smiled at each other for a moment, then Bean nodded his head again and started loping off towards the Civic.

Eddi looked at me. ‘All right?’

I shrugged, watching Bean. ‘Do you trust him?’

‘I pay him.’

I looked at her.

She smiled at me. ‘I don’t trust anyone.’

‘Not even me?’

‘Especially not you.’

As soon as we were back in her flat, Eddi asked me for Ryan’s wallet.

‘I used one of his credit cards,’ I told her, handing over the wallet.

‘When?’

‘I don’t know… what day is it now?’

‘Wednesday.’

‘And when did I get here?’

‘Yesterday,’ she sighed. ‘Tuesday.’

‘Right… it was Tuesday then. I bought a train ticket to Edinburgh with Ryan’s Visa card.

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