The Study Circle by Haroun Khan

Author:Haroun Khan [Khan, Haroun]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781911585350
Publisher: Dead Ink

13.

A male voice screamed in the night, caroming round the portakabin. A solitary din, that even the odd flight arcing above could not penetrate. The windows fogged up with perspiration, blocking vision, reminding Shams of his isolation.

Charlie looked him up and down once. Then again. ‘I ain’t fuckin’ stupid, I heard you got picked-up the other night. You’ve got some heat on ya, haven’t ya?’

Hands up, palms presented forward, Shams said, ‘Where did you hear that?’

‘I’ve still got friends round your ways. You got stopped in the middle of the High Street, no? Your faces lit up like you were on the X-Factor. Just a day before you came to me. Funny that.’

‘No, that was nothing. Just the Five-O messing about as usual.’

‘So why were you held overnight?’ Charlie placed a clubbed hand towards Shams on the table before them.

‘I wasn’t held overnight, just a few hours. They made a mistake.’

Charlie grunted, rubbing his bald pate. ‘Well, me and you are done. Ain’t nothing happening between us now.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘It means, bonehead, that the deal is off. You can sling your hook, son.’

Shams’ forehead rumpled, looking like it was collapsing in on itself. ‘Look mate…I can’t go back and tell him it’s off. You know him, he’ll go off on one.’

‘Don’t “mate” me. I can handle some piece of estate trash.’ Charlie turned around, picking up a green bomber jacket with an angry tug. The nylon jacket was embellished with a patch exhibiting insignia from the RAF during the Second World War, and an army one from the Great War.

Shams pitted both hands deep into pockets and looked around for help, before he lay eyes on the placards for the protest. ‘Wait. The police. I’ll tell them that you guys are planning on creating trouble at the march. I can bring a lot of eyes down here. The pigs, they’ll be all over.’

Charlie grabbed him by the collar and pushed him against the wall, his body slamming with a hollow thump, the feeble partition feeling like it would give way. Shams could feel the bigger man’s sweaty weight slump against him. His puttied face, all folded jowls, rubbed cheek to cheek. Charlie’s spewing breath stank of cheap alcohol. ‘What did you say, you dumb paki? Did you just threaten me?’ Charlie reached for a crowbar on shelving nearby. Shams felt crisp metal as Charlie traced a slow line on a cheek. ‘Is that what you were in for? Snitching to the police about us. Tell me. Tell me.’

Shams’s tried to turn his nose away from stale breath but felt steel pinch his skin as Charlie applied more pressure. He winced as one of Charlie’s knuckles caught the corner of his mouth, the man’s chalky-white skin highlighting every scrap of dirt collected during the day. ‘No…no…I said nothing. They didn’t ask anything about you or Mujahid. Keep my ear to the ground they said. But I don’t have to say nuthin’ if you just let this one deal through. You won’t see me again after this, I promise.

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