Painkillers Read Online Free Page A

returned to the kitchen. If they wanted to say something to me, they were going to have to say it. I didn't have time for their Joe Pesci impressions. It didn't take them long to start fucking the place about again. When Hannah came in to tell me, she gripped the door-jamb like it was the only thing keeping her upright.
    'Get him another coffee,' I told her. 'Sponge him off and calm him down.'
    'He wants to complain.'
    'So let him.'
    'To you.'
    I followed her out of the kitchen in time to see a blue Mondeo pull away from the kerb.
    'Hey, we're sorry, man,' Eddie said.
    The other customers looked like the only reason they were still here was Brian had nailed them to their seats.
    'It was an accident, Mr Wyatt,' Brian glowered.
    'No problem,' I said.
    Hannah meanwhile had fetched a cloth, and she began to mop up the table where Brian had backed into it. Then she knelt and ran the cloth over the floor. Brian had a good long look at her arse.
    'That's enough,' I said.
    Brian looked at me like I was the one with the problem.
    Eddie played diplomat.
    'Do you have ten minutes?' he said.
    We walked down Stoney Street, past the Clink to the river. The sky was clear, and there were pockets of warmth wherever the sun found a way through to ground level.
    Eddie said, 'They listened to Hamley yesterday.'
    'Was I mentioned?'
    'Oh yes.'
    He hadn't wasted any time. I said, 'What's going to happen to me?'
    Eddie shrugged. 'Frank knows a little bit. It's nothing Top Luck's lawyers can't chip to shit.'
    'He said I knew about the money?'
    'He said you turned a blind eye to certain things.'
    The road led under Cannon Street railway bridge and slewed right, to meet the embankment. The Thames was still black and gelid, like it had bubbled up from an ice cave. A Japanese family were hesitating outside the Anchor, intimidated by the pub's authentic interior: a warren of gloomy snugs. The pub is set back from the river. 'Trading In The British Tradition', runs the sign above the door; sadly, it doesn't say what it's trading it in for. There's a raised, paved seating area looking over the river, and sometimes on summer evenings I sat out there, watching St Paul's mellow out in the dying light, while around me the Germans and Japanese tucked into 'Good 'Ole Fish & Chips' and 'Dr Boswell's Lamb & Mint Pie'. I picked us a table in the shadow of the rail bridge.
    I insisted on going in and buying; that way Eddie wouldn't be there to see me pouring one double into another. A thin stream of Coke filed off the pungency of the rum. While Brian and Eddie's lagers were pouring, I drank off a finger's-worth and added some ice.
    'Mum wants your help,' said Eddie, when I got back.
    'Oh yes?'
    Money. Great name, scary woman. I liked her, as much as you can like someone you don't trust.
    'She wants you to come round for dinner.'
    'I can't see what use I can be to her,' I said.
    'Don't worry about that,' said Eddie. 'Think what use she can be to you.'
    I thought about Jimmy Yau's promises to me, and I thought about Macau. I thought about Frank Hamley in Hong Kong, telling tales.
    'I'll try and make it,' I said. 'Things are busy right now.'
    'She's doing eels and bitter melon,' said Eddie. Like this would tempt me. I wondered if their sister would be there. 'When?' I said.
    'Next Thursday.'
    I shook my head.
    'You can make time for it,' Brian said.
    'It's Justin's birthday,' I told him.
    Brian blinked, like, So what? But Eddie was all heart. 'Hey, man, we didn't know. How old is he, anyway?'
    We walked back to the cafe. I thought they were just going to get back in their car, but Brian whispered something in his brother's ear, and after a short conference, conducted out of my hearing, they followed me in.
    There was a queue waiting to pay stretching almost to the glass partition, and Hannah had given the till a nervous breakdown. Eddie and Brian waited patiently while I sorted her out and helped her get through the line. When the counter was free, Eddie and Brian came