Page 14 of We Chase Shadows

Tommy has already made his mind up, he’s going to do business with the Irish. He kinda has to now, surely? Given his current situation?

Eriksson will have to get used to it. There’s Vern Blackwood in Europe too, but Blackwood is a joke. He does all the baby stuff. He’s the little kid you bully. Won’t take much to keep him at arm’s length.

But, yeah, these Irish pills are going to sell.

Whenever Tommy Griffin gets a new batch of blue pills, he always takes one. It’s just quality control. Every now and again he’ll take one that has no effect, and Tommy will send a guy to Spokane with a gun and get a new batch for free.

The captain has lowered the steps at the front of the plane and is talking to a short blonde woman. She is looking over towards him and nodding. Tommy doesn’t care. He’s not going to stand up any time soon.

The blonde woman is walking towards him.

‘Sir, my name is Ruth Kirkland, I’m with US Customs and Border Protection. I have to ask you to get off the plane.’

Finally, someone who doesn’t say ‘disembark’. Was that really so difficult?

‘I just need a moment,’ says Tommy.

The Irish guy gave him a batch of their blue pills and Tommy swallowed one before they took off.

‘If I may be frank,’ says Ruth Kirkland, ‘I couldn’t care less what you need, and US Customs and Border Protection couldn’t care less what you need. Either I escort you from the plane right now, or I plant some heroin in your hand luggage. Let’s go, cowboy.’

Fair play to the Irish. Not only do their pills work, but they seem to have come up with the most powerful Viagra Tommy has ever consumed. It’s been nine hours since he took that pill and it’s still going strong.

‘I do need to explain something,’ says Tommy. ‘Before I stand up.’

Ruth Kirkland shakes her head. ‘If I don’t see you on your feet in three seconds, then you can do your explaining to a judge.’

‘As you wish,’ says Tommy.

He stands up. With some difficulty. All eyes are drawn to him, then all eyes move downwards. Tommy gives an apologetic shrug.

Ruth Kirkland assesses the situation. ‘Make this man a coffee, I’ll be back in half an hour.’

Tommy sits back down. These European pills are either going to make him a lot of money, or they’re going to get him killed.

That’s a gamble he’s taken many times before, and one he’s very happy to take again.

9

‘So this guy Jakob Eriksson has killed three of his rivals,’ says Amy. ‘But Vern Blackwood is refusing to believe that he might be next on the list. Doesn’t even want us to investigate the man? Sends us after Griffin and the ex-wife instead.’

Amy, Rosie and Steve have travelled down from the villa to the city of Lucca to discuss exactly where they stand.

‘I’m sure he has his reasons,’ says Rosie. ‘And I’m sure we’ll have some fun finding out what they are.’

Lucca is filled with tiny cafés, tiny Fiats and tiny piazzas, all dotted at perfect intervals, so you can stop every five minutes for a coffee or an Aperol Spritz. You wonder why the travellers of ancient times didn’t come back from towns like Lucca and say, ‘Rip this all up and just make it look like Italy.’

Whoever designed Amy’s hometown of Watford, for example, could usefully have taken notes.

‘You’re happy to stay?’ Rosie asks, as they turn yet another picturesque corner into another picturesque cobbled alleyway.

‘I can think of worse places,’ says Amy, reaching down to stroke a cat on a moped.

Amy likes Lucca. It would be impossible not to. This maze of narrow streets, circled by wide city walls, which must at some point have protected something from someone, but now carry cyclists, rollerbladers and young lovers.

‘Do you trust him?’ says Rosie. ‘Vern Blackwood? Something’s off about him, don’t you think?’

‘Of course something’s off about him,’ says Amy. ‘If something wasn’t off he’d just go to the police, wouldn’t he? We’re not going to get a lot of cases where something isn’t off about someone.’