You Don't Know Me

I turn to look behind me. A couple of people start to make their way down the side street behind us. Young men both of them. They are half running, and we can hear them as they get closer to us. They are obviously excited by whatever they think has happened in the club but they are trying to stay casual. The usual thing. Little boys wanting to be big mans. I glance around careful to keep my face hidden to check where they are and what they are doing. They are looking back to the front of the club, for the ruckus that they do not know we caused.

We slow up a little waiting to let them pass us. It’s better that we can see them than they can see us. In a few moments they have overtaken us. They are just two boys really. Skinny. Happy. Laughing. Innocent. Up ahead I see one of them nearing a car and making it bleep. Its indicators flash to life. MK3 Golf GTI, de-badged, Pico exhaust, Recaro seats, I think, even then after all that has happened I can’t help it. The boy opens it and gets in. The other stays put until the car leaves and then gets out his phone.

Curt nudges me. This is bad. We do not need this boy to be stopping in the middle of the street. We need him ahead of us. Facing away from us. Not facing us. We cannot be seen. There is still stuff to do. We need to pick up the bag from the skip and we still need to dump the nine mil. We slow to almost a standstill but we cannot avoid passing the boy. He is directly in our path. There is no choice though. We have to keep moving. We get close enough that we can almost hear his conversation on the phone. Even in this light, there is no doubt but that he will be able give to a half-decent ID of us if the Feds ask him. We have to keep our faces down. We keep walking, our heads pointed to the tarmac. All we can see are our feet.

This is why it isn’t till we were less than fifty feet away that I realize how bad this is.

‘Fuck. Curt you see what I’m seeing?’ I say when I am sure.

He raises his head a fraction and peers out from his hood. ‘Shit. Jamil! What the fuck is he doing here?’

Seeing him there is a shock. Why is he there? Of course looking back it’s not that much of a surprise. He must have been with Face or going to see him. He obviously doesn’t know that Face is dead, though, judging by the easy way he is chatting on his phone.

But what happens next is just some bare weird shit I can’t even explain.

Break: 15:05

37

15:15

It happens in a split second, before I even have time to think. Jamil is right up ahead of us and we can’t even avoid him now, he is too close. I reckon if we turned around now it would have just been too obvious and he would have seen us and – maybe not then but later – put two and two together, and lined us up. Truth be told though I’m not sure that I was even thinking that at the time. All I knew is that we were walking in one direction and he was there.

We carry on walking. I remember I have got my head down still and my hood pulled low. I can see Curt, huge beside me, walking his big bear walk. Ki is right behind us just a step or two away. Jamil is getting closer. Maybe thirty feet away at most. I give Curt a nudge with my elbow to see whether he has any ideas but he says nothing. From the looks of it, his idea is to style it out and just carry on walking. This is madness though because that boy if he sees us or even if he thinks he has seen us is going to be running his mouth about having seen us there. And Ki. Shit, he’s not going to miss her, is he? Even in joggers.

Then just as I am about to suggest turning back, even though that would be walking straight back to the club, Ki pushes past me and Curt. I look up and suddenly she has broken into a run. At first I think she is running away because she has seen JC and I almost call after her. Now this? I was thinking. Now she’s running away? Is she stupid? That is all we need, JC to look up, clock her and that’s it. And fuck, the CCTV! We don’t want CCTV to see anyone running right about now. What the fuck’s she playing at? I nearly call after her but that was just going to worsen it.

Then I see that I have got it all wrong. She is not just running along the road that he happens to be on. No, she is running straight at Jamil. Nothing in that picture fits. It just don’t make no sense to me.

I can only watch as she flies towards him. His face changing as he realizes he knows her. He is putting it together. It almost seems as if he is going to stop her and chat to her. Then he looks behind her and sees us. His face changes. By then though, it’s too late. The next thing he knows is the pavement. Ki is standing over him with a gun in her stretched arms. She has shot him. I am stunned. Curt’s jaw drops open.