Music Love Drugs War by Geraldine Quigley

Author:Geraldine Quigley
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241354148
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2018-09-25T16:00:00+00:00

18

‘I didn’t know you could drive.’

Kevin was sitting in the passenger seat of an old Escort. Jim sat in the driver’s seat. They were parked in a housing-estate car park, waiting for Brendan Rafferty to make an appearance.

‘Why would you?’ said Jim. He adjusted the car seat to give himself more legroom.

‘Liz – Elizabeth – she never mentioned it, that’s all.’

They had arrived under a bright sky to a street full of kids kicking a football around the square. Now it was getting dark. The street lights had started to come on. Kevin watched them through a gap in the houses; orange lights stuttered to life, creeping towards them. When the smaller boys and girls had been called in to bed, the older ones remained, hanging around a garage door opposite, smoking cigarettes and watching the car.

It was Jim who had suggested talking to Brendan, after Kevin hinted that he might know someone. He had exhausted all other options. Of the limited number of people he remembered, or who remembered him, some were still inside; the rest were not involved and knew as much, or as little, as he did himself. And he had to keep it low-key. Asking too many questions was risky.

‘Someone’s going to look at us sitting here and think we’re Special Branch,’ said Jim.

‘Or gay,’ said Kevin, regretting it immediately when Jim turned to look at him.

‘Don’t say that,’ he said.

‘Well, it’s hardly worse than them thinking we’re cops, is it?’ said Kevin. They lapsed into silence again, each staring out of their own window.

‘Where does Mrs McLaughlin think you are?’ Kevin said eventually. He had the impression that Liz’s mother kept her husband on a tight leash.

‘At a wake up the country – with the brother,’ said Jim.

This wasn’t a total lie. At that moment, in a farmhouse somewhere outside Raphoe, their father’s cousin was laid out. He had died, in his eighties, the previous day. Under normal circumstances, Jim would have been driving up there to represent their end of the family. As it was, he would still have to go the following night. But it was the perfect cover, since Bernie hadn’t known the man and was more than happy that she wasn’t expected to attend.

The last light faded, and Kevin considered calling it a night. He wasn’t even sure that Brendan Rafferty lived on this street.

‘So how do you know this boy?’ Jim asked.

‘I was a friend of his brother’s years ago,’ replied Kevin.

‘Really – why could you not ask him, then?’

Kevin was silent for a minute before replying. ‘He’s not involved in anything like this any more.’

‘He was the one with the good sense, then – getting away from it, I mean. Is he still in Derry?’

‘No, he’s not,’ said Kevin.

Jim sighed, and Kevin knew he wanted to talk about it.

‘So did he go to England? You should have had the sense he had and gone with him.’

‘I don’t know about sense, seeing as he’s dead.’

Jim turned around in the seat to face him.

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