Chapter 34
‘Big Jakey Eriksson? No,’ says Tommy Griffin. ‘Don’t especially know the guy. Keeps to himself. I would too. Are you eating that steak?’
‘This steak?’ says Amy, pointing at her plate. ‘The steak that just arrived?’
‘I know it just arrived,’ says Tommy. ‘I got eyes, huh? Two of them. But sometimes people don’t eat steak.’
‘I ordered it,’ says Amy. ‘So I might eat it.’
‘You’ll struggle with it,’ says Tommy. ‘Let me know when you do. How’d you like The Viceroy?’
They are eating dinner in an oak-panelled dining room that would pass for the grand hall of a baronial English mansion, unless you’d actually been in the hall of a baronial English mansion. Great steak though.
‘Nice place,’ says Steve.
‘You like it?’ says Tommy. ‘It’s English, right?’
‘Sort of,’ says Steve, trying to be encouraging.
‘Jakob Eriksson keeps himself to himself,’ says Rosie. ‘You were saying?’
‘Wouldn’t you?’ says Tommy. ‘You want him in a clown suit on a unicycle? Where’s your food?’
‘I pretty much gave up eating in the 1980s,’ says Rosie, sipping her French 75. ‘Why the need for secrecy?’
‘Plenty of people would want to kill him,’ says Tommy. ‘He makes a lot of money that we could be making instead.’
‘And he kills people,’ says Steve.
Tommy points a piece of steak on a fork in Steve’s direction. ‘He kills people is right. Addicted to it. You kill people, people wanna kill you, stands to reason, don’t even argue.’
‘I wasn’t going to argue,’ says Steve.
‘Damn right you weren’t,’ says Tommy. ‘Got more sense.’
‘Have you ever met him?’ Rosie asks.
‘Sure,’ says Tommy. ‘We met up in Vegas, the whole lot of us one time.’
‘Six of you, right?’ asks Amy.
‘The guys, yeah,’ says Tommy. ‘The big six. All in the same business. Thought we should come to an understanding. I take North America, Mika takes Scandinavia, Jakob Eriksson takes Western Europe and North Africa, you know the sort of thing.’
Rosie pushes an airport photo of Jakob Eriksson across the table.
‘This is him?’
‘That’s him,’ says Tommy. ‘Funny-looking dude, but who’s judging? Some people might say I look funny, you know. You think I look funny?’
‘I think you look very average,’ says Rosie.
‘Average is right,’ says Tommy. ‘Not too this, not too that. Everybody’s gotta stand out these days. Pink hair, clown pants. Knock it off.’
‘What was he like?’ Steve asks. ‘Jakob Eriksson?’
‘Quiet,’ says Tommy.
‘I bet a lot of people are quiet when you’re around,’ says Rosie.
‘Not you, it seems,’ says Tommy. ‘Didn’t say as much as fifteen, twenty words all day, lot of nodding. But I liked him.’
‘You liked him?’ asks Amy.
‘Sure,’ says Tommy. ‘Nice vibe to the guy. I take people as I find ’em.’
‘So you carved everything up between you?’ says Rosie. ‘The six of you?’
‘Agreed to stay out of each other’s way,’ says Tommy. ‘We were all making money, no need to rock the bus, eh?’
‘And how has that worked out?’ Amy asks.
‘How’s it worked out?’ laughs Tommy. ‘Oh, badly. Very badly. Of the six people in that room, only three are still alive.’
‘You?’ says Steve.
‘Last time I checked,’ agrees Tommy.
Rosie holds up her cocktail glass, and a waiter gets the message. ‘Jakob Eriksson?’
‘Unless you know different,’ says Tommy. ‘You make sure and tell me if you do, huh? You keep me in that loop, I hate to be out of a loop, it drives me crazy.’
‘And Vern Blackwood makes three,’ says Steve.
‘Your pal Blackwood, right,’ says Tommy. ‘He doesn’t do the exact same thing as the rest of us, doesn’t have the brass balls for it, but close enough that he has an interest. And he was a useful go-between. Everyone there hated someone, but no one hated Vern.’
‘That’s why he’s still alive?’ says Steve.
‘You’d guess,’ says Tommy.
Amy continues to work on her steak and thinks back to her conversation with Ernesto.
It wasn’t quite right, she’s sure of that.
Automatic lights? Nope, Amy had checked.
But Ernesto would have no reason to lie.
And anyway, Steve and Rosie are both in love with Ernesto, so she’ll keep it to herself for now.
Rosie accepts her next drink and waves it at Tommy. ‘So three dead and three still alive.’
‘Congratulations on adding up, maybe I can get you a medal,’ says Tommy. ‘One killed in Bratislava, I think, one in Helsinki. The other one I couldn’t say.’
‘Minsk,’ says Amy.
‘Could be,’ says Tommy. ‘Good a place as any to get killed.’
‘All three killed by Jakob Eriksson,’ says Steve.
‘You don’t say,’ says Tommy. ‘You like stating the obvious, huh? That’s your thing?
Here’s a table, here’s a plate. We used to have a thing in this country called critical thinking.
Now you got kids at college and what are they learning?
They’re tearing down statues, these kids, couldn’t tell you the date of the Gettysburg Address half of them. ’
‘Are you finished?’ Rosie asks. ‘Or do we need to listen to more of this?’
‘Ignore me,’ says Tommy. ‘I’m enjoying myself.’
‘What was the date of the Gettysburg Address?’ Amy asks.
Tommy pulls a face and waves this away. ‘You think I give two tin hoots about the Gettysburg Address? Come on, the world’s on fire and you’re asking me about the Gettysburg Address.’
‘Now, Mr Griffin, I hope you don’t mind,’ says Rosie. ‘I wonder if I might propose a little thought experiment?’
‘I don’t go a whole hog on thinking,’ says Tommy. ‘Or experiments. But sure, you’re my guests.’
‘There were six men in the room,’ says Rosie.
‘In the room. And also when we all went to see Celine Dion after,’ says Tommy.
‘Only three of you are still alive,’ says Rosie.
‘Do I love her music? No,’ says Tommy. ‘But she put on a hell of a show.’
‘There’s Jakob Eriksson,’ says Rosie. ‘There’s Vern, who has just been threatened by Jakob Eriksson, and then there’s you? The only one who seems to have been left alone?’
‘I guess I’m lucky,’ says Tommy. ‘Always have been.’
‘You’re not worried?’ says Steve. ‘We heard a suggestion you might be expanding your operations into Europe?’
‘No law against it,’ says Tommy.
‘I mean, there are lots of laws against it,’ says Steve. ‘But, more importantly, you don’t think Eriksson will have something to say about it?’
‘Stevie,’ says Tommy. ‘I’ve been alive for seventy years, right? And I ain’t died yet. That can’t be a coincidence?’
‘I think that’s just how life works,’ says Amy. ‘No one dies until they die.’
‘All I know is what I know,’ says Tommy. ‘Hundred per cent record of not dying. I buck the trend. You wanna argue with numbers, go ahead, see if the numbers give a monkey’s thumb about it.’
Amy tries again. ‘And when you were in Europe, you didn’t take a little trip over to Italy to threaten Vern Blackwood?’
‘Threatening Vern Blackwood would be like shouting at a mouse,’ says Tommy.
‘So you didn’t threaten Vern, and you’re not scared of Eriksson?’ Rosie asks. ‘That’s your story?’
‘Honestly,’ says Tommy. ‘I think I bonded with Jakey Boy.’
‘Where would we find him?’ Rosie asks. ‘Do you have any idea?’
‘Yeah, I got an idea.’ Tommy sits back in his chair and undoes his belt a couple of notches. ‘Any of you guys in the market for some Viagra?’
‘No, thanks,’ says Steve.
‘I’ll take forty,’ says Rosie.
Amy looks at the steak on Tommy’s plate. ‘Are you eating the rest of that?’
Tommy roars with laughter. ‘All yours. I love that.’
‘You’ve got an idea,’ says Steve. ‘About where we might find Jakob Eriksson?’
‘Yeah,’ says Tommy. ‘As I say, I liked the dude. Found him calming. But …’
‘But?’ asks Amy.
‘But he sure as shoeshine ain’t Swedish.’
‘You’re certain?’ Steve asks. Amy looks at Rosie. First Sara Lindstrat, and now this.
‘He’d didn’t say much,’ says Tommy. ‘And whatever he said he kinda mumbled. But I spoke to him more than the others did, and I’ll tell you this: that dude was English. I’d bet my left ball.’
‘English?’ says Steve.
‘English, I guarantee it. So, if you don’t mind me saying,’ finishes Tommy, ‘it sounds like you don’t have the first clue who Jakob Eriksson is.’