Trouble Is Our Business by Declan Burke

Author:Declan Burke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Island Books
Published: 2016-08-03T04:00:00+00:00

It was there when he woke. A day like any other, but it was as if he was seeing it through a filter that changed everything. Getting up, stepping into the shower, waiting in the kitchen for the kettle to boil, the humdrum stuff tick-tocking by, same as always but different.

First time that happened was one evening about ten years back, he was early twenties, on a rooftop in Camden Street, two heavies coming after him. They were security thugs, came into an office just as Richie was taking a cashbox out of the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet. When they told him, hey scumbag, don’t even fucking think of resisting, he put up his hands and said please, look, no problem, don’t hit me, please. They relaxed. On the stairs he took one of them by the back of the head, slammed his face against a wall and reared back as the other one reached for his arm, turned, was halfway up a flight of stairs before they sorted themselves out.

When he got to the roof there was no obvious route to safety and after half a minute the thugs appeared, one of them his nose bloody. They’d now taken out extendable batons and they were brandishing them like they were soldiering for Darth Vader, waving their fucking lightsabres.

By the time Richie made it to the side of the roof he knew the choice was jumping or taking a serious beating, followed by a stretch in the Joy.

The gap to the next roof was maybe six foot. A safe enough jump across a narrow laneway, if it wasn’t for the sixty-foot drop.

That was the instant in which he first felt the filter drop and everything getting sharper, more intense, knowing that he was into something that would decide how the rest of his life went – or if there was a rest of his life. What he had to do was well within his limits, but if something went wrong the consequences could be drastic.

It was fear, but it was more than that – it was a thrill, an anticipation, a relief at a decision made, the turning of a high stakes card, a higher stage of life.

He took a short run and made the jump, then he turned and stood there on the other side, smiling at the stormtroopers. They could easily make the jump same as him, but the stakes weren’t the same for them.

So, they waved their lightsabres some more and one of them shouted he’d remember Richie’s face.

He’d had that buzz in the run up to every serious job since, that sharper thing that kicked in when the pressure was on. Like before long he was going to step out onto a high, tight wire. It was with him this morning, that buzz, even as he opened the door and Greta appeared with the twins.

His sister worked mornings at a hairdressers in Ashfield. This time of morning, she’d normally be leaving the kids into St Finbar’s.

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