Unexpected Ch. 02

"I understand, John, but if they can in anyway help me find Anna then I would like to be there."

John picked me up in his car that evening. Barry wanted to come along but John said it was not clever to take too many people.

Confusingly for me we went to a pub in East London where John, leaving me in the bar, went behind the scenes to meet with a man he (and everyone else it appeared) called The Boss. I didn't ask any questions about him, especially when John returned with two Neanderthals who he introduced to me as Marko and Bernie. Jesus, you wouldn't want to meet those two on a dark night although when they spoke they appeared very pleasant.

All four of us got into a big Mercedes and we drove over to West London where the car stopped outside a not very salubrious looking snooker club. On the drive across town Marko and Bernie were talking to John like they were old friends. This did go some way to calm the unease that I felt in my stomach. Later I realised that Marko and Bernie were our bodyguards or minders for the evening.

Marko went up to the door of the club and spoke to the old man who was sitting just inside, a kind of doorman I suppose. The old guy disappeared for a couple of minutes, then when he reappeared, Marko signalled us to join him.

I must say the club wasn't as seedy looking inside. Although it was mainly lit by the lights over the snooker tables of which there must have been at least ten. I noted that there were no pool tables in the club, although I think that a couple of people we walked past were playing billiards. The general darkness in the place I did find disconcerting.

I saw both Marko and Bernie shake hands with several people as we passed them heading towards the back of the club where we finally were introduced to the Hennessey Brothers. Well, Jerry Hennessey anyway. Bobby, his brother - who Jerry informed us that we needed to speak too because he was handling "the problem", which I took to mean Paul Nielson - was in the middle of a frame of snooker. Jerry told us he would be with us as soon as he finished.

In the meantime the four of us sat in the next booth; two quite striking looking young women appeared from somewhere and served us drinks, apparently on the Hennesseys' because I didn't see a bill.

"Arsehole threw the bloody frame," Bobby Hennessey said when he finally joined us. "What is it with these bleeding wimps? It ain't like I'm a bad loser or nothing. Damn, I miss Johnny Callen. He always gave me a run for my money."

Apparently Marko and Bernie knew who Bobby was talking about, as there followed a discussion about him that neither John Carpenter nor I could follow.

"Right, your man Nielson." Bobby said turning his attention to John and me. I've got him and his girls out the back for you to talk to. He's been a pain in our arse for sometime now, so when you're done with the little bugger, we'll probably see him off," Bobby said, downing his pint in one; I think it was to say to us that he was ready to take us to Nielson.

We followed Bobby out of the back door of the club and into a warehouse the other side of the narrow service road that ran behind. Inside we found a couple of gorillas apparently guarding some guy who I was soon to learn was Nielson and three very frightened looking young women. All four of them were sitting on the floor with their backs against a wall.

"You, shit-face, on your feet and come with us!" Bobby said in a very quiet, but threatening tone of voice.

Neilson hesitantly got to his feet and followed Bobby into a room that led off of the main warehouse. The four of us followed.

"We're looking for someone and my friends here think that you might know something about why we can't find her," Bobby said.

Then he turned and looked at John Carpenter, obviously inviting him to continue the questioning.

"Sarah Sharp!" John said, "What can you tell us about her?"

"Sarah? I haven't seen the slut for a couple of years. The little bitch ran off with my money!" Neilson replied.

"Tell me more." John demanded when Nielson didn't enlarge.

"Ah, the little bitch worked for me for a while, then she got sick and went into hospital; when she came out she did a runner. I found out later the bitch had been holding out on me and stashing away some of my money," Neilson replied, in what I took to be an arrogant tone.

Bobby obviously took exception to Nielson's tone of voice and landed a punch in his stomach. Nielson doubled up and fell to the floor.

Wha'd-ya do that for?" Nielson gasped out.

"Because I don't like you or your kind!" Bobby replied. "It's arseholes like you who give the business a bad name. Now what else do you know about this girl?"

"Noffink. I told you, she done a runner on me and I ain't seen or 'eard of her since."

"Tell us about her," I asked. "How long have you known her?"

"Ah, I picked her up in Luton, some years back. She weren't a bad looker for her age and as green as grass so, well, I put her to work. She was an earner for a while, but nothing spectacular. I had her do some running for me on the side. Real innocent looking bitch, the Bill left her alone most of the time. Then she gets all stroppy on me and I had to teach her a lesson or two. The next thing I know she's disappeared and I ain't seen the bitch since."

"So was it you who put her in hospital?" Bobby asked.

"Well, yeah, you got to show them who's the boss, ain't ya!" Neilson replied somewhat hesitantly again.

He was right to have been hesitant. Bobby Hennessey landed several kicks into his stomach and ribs in quick succession.

"Now look, arsehole, we need to know where the bitch is. It's kind of important. We don't want her talking to the cops, unless we've talked to her first. Do you understand me? So if you know where we can lay our hands on her.... Or her body come to that, you'd be doing yourself a big favour by telling in the long term," Bobby said to him.

At first I was a bit confused when Bobby Hennessey said that. But then I realised that if Neilson had by any chance been responsible for Anna/Sarah's disappearance the way Bobby put the question was more likely to get the desired response from Nielson. Let's face it; Nielson wasn't going to admit he'd done her some harm, if he thought we were looking for her out of friendship.

"I told yah, I ain't seen her since she ran out on me. Honest, Mr Hennessey!" Nielson pleaded.

"You fucking arsehole, I never could stomach a man who'd strike a woman!" Bobby said. "You heard enough?" He directed at John carpenter and myself.

"I think so. The girls might know something," John replied to him.

Then Bobby walked over to a door on the other side of the room; opening it so we could all see the canal outside.

"Hey, shit-face, get the fuck out of town, today. If I or any of my boys ever see you again after midnight tonight, I'll fucking bury you in the mud at the bottom of that effing canal, you got that?" Bobby ordered.

Nielson nodded.

"And if I hear that you're running girls anywhere else in the fucking country, I'll come fucking looking for you! You get me?"

I don't think I've ever seen anyone look as frightened as Neilson did at that moment. He just nodded his head again.

"Get the fuck out of here before I change my mind!" Bobby bellowed at him. "No, better than that, get your fucking arse on the Eurostar tonight and never come back, or you're a goner.

Neilson slowly got up from the floor.

"Hang on, just a minute?" Bobby ordered. Then he grabbed Nielson and went through his pockets, throwing the switchblade knife that he found in one of them out the door into the canal. In another pocket he found Nielson's wallet, which he took all the cash out of. He found another roll of notes in the same pocket as the knife had been in. Bobby pocketed all of the cash. "Go!" he boomed.

With some difficulty Nielson staggered towards the door that led into the warehouse.

"Not that way arsehole, by the bleeding towpath. You ain't making any of those birds go with you!" Bobby said.

Neilson disappeared out into the darkness of the canals towpath.

"Scum of the fucking earth, I'd drown all of the little shits if I had my way," Bobby said as he led us back into the main warehouse, where we found the three women - still looking very frightened - but sitting on packing cases by then, drinking coffee from steaming mugs.

"Don't panic, girls, no one here is going to harm you," Bobby said to them.

"Where's Paul?" one of them asked tentatively.

"Don't worry about him, babe, he's decided to leave town, permanently," Bobby replied. "Now we need to know, what can any of you girls tell us about Sarah Sharp?"

The girls obviously recognised the name, but did not reply.

Apparently Bobby didn't expect them to. I noted that he was counting through the money he'd taken from Nielson. Having counted it, I watched him as he added some more cash from his own wallet and divided it into three bundles.

"Here, girls, there's monkey each for you. You probably gave him the bloody dough in the first place, anyway. That should help to get by until you can sort yourselves out. But if you like I'll make you an offer, that's if you want to stay in the business. What you do in the future is your choice now. If any of you fancy working for the firm, we've got a couple of nice houses that you can work in. We've got good security, so the punters won't dare get cheeky with you and we aren't greedy about our cut of your take, either," Bobby told them. "Oh, and if you're wondering, no one, and I do mean no one knocks any of my girls around, and that includes me. A man ain't a man if he raises his hand to a lady. What do you say?"

All three girls looked gob-smacked at Bobby's suggestion. I found myself feeling uncomfortable at Bobby Hennessey recruiting the girls as prostitutes to work in his brothels in my presence, as well.

"Think on it, girls, but you'll need to see our doc first just to make sure that you're clean; we can sort all that shit out later. Oh, yeah, if you want off the game we got a couple of legit companies that we might be able to find a place for you in. But anyway, now my associates here are friends of Sarah's. This man here is actually her husband and she's disappeared on him. Can any of you come up with any idea where she might have gone and why?"

If the three girls were surprised at Bobby giving them the money and his offer to take them under his wing, they were even more surprised at hearing that Sarah was my wife.

"I don't believe you!" Crystal - the girl who asked what had happened to Nielson and obviously the bravest and most vocal of the three -- said.

John Carpenter was obviously one step ahead by then, I suppose he expected that the girls would be suspicious and might not believe why we were looking to Sarah. He'd produced some pictures I'd given to Helen from his inside pocket.

"Here, look, the blushing bride with her handsome husband here," John said handing the pictures to Crystal.

The girls passed the photos between each other and even Bobby had a look at them as well.

"She's a fine looking lass. No wonder you're so set on tracking her down," Bobby commented.

"Why did she go?" Crystal asked.

"I don't know. I thought that maybe Neilson had shown up and scared her away," I replied.

I noticed that one of the other girls -- I was later to find out that her name was Saffie - had a thoughtful look on her face. She finally got up the courage to speak "I don't now whether there's any connection, but there is this regular customer of Paul's. You know him, Chrissie - Little big man!"

"What? The creep who knocked Michelle about?" Crystal asked.

"Yeah, that's him. Anyway...." The girl stopped speaking and looked right into my eyes. "Can I ask you, did you know that Sarah had been on the game, when you married her?"

"No, I didn't, I knew she had something in her past that she didn't want to talk about. Not that it would have made any difference to the way I felt about her. That must be obvious or I wouldn't be here looking for her now, would I?"

"I think Sarah couldn't have known how lucky she was!" Saffie commented and then went on. "Anyway this guy said something strange when I did him a few months ago. I can't remember exactly, but it's something that's been going around in my head ever since. He said something like it not being long before he wouldn't need Paul anymore, as he'd found himself his own private whore. She'd have to do whatever he wanted or her new hubby would find out what kind of woman he'd married. Well, he didn't use those exact words, but that was the gist of what he said.

"I was wondering whether he'd run into Sarah somewhere and recognised her. He's the kind of arsehole who would stoop to just about anything to get laid. I doubt any woman would want his little prick in her if she wasn't being paid for it." The girl stood watching me with a questioning look on her face.

"Any idea whereabouts this guy lives?" John Carpenter asked.

"Not the foggiest," Crystal replied. "The punters are just faces and cocks to us. But Paul might have some information on him back at his flat. He's got his little black book he keeps there, with info about some of his regulars or people he might be able to put the screws on."

Bobby had a mobile phone in his hand before Crystal had finished speaking and started pushing buttons.

"Where is he now?" Bobby almost shouted into it. "Right. When he gets in there, don't let him touch anything. Keep him there; I've got someone coming over to pick up a book of his. Once they have got it, then you put him on the bloody Eurostar yourself and tell him never to come back."

Bobby closed the connection then turned back to Crystal. "Do you know where he keeps that book?"

"I do!" The third girl replied. Her name turned out to be Debra, but everyone called her Debbie.

Bobby looked at one of his henchmen. "Take Debbie with you and bring that book back here. Marko, do you want to go with them?"

Marko didn't reply, he just nodded and followed Debbie and the Hennessey guy out of the warehouse. Bobby led the rest of us back into the snooker club where we ensconced ourselves into the empty booth next to Jerry Hennessey's. The two waitresses -- if that's what they were - arrived and served all of us with another drink.

"Do you play?" Bobby asked me, having obviously seen me looking at the tables.

"Not for a long time and I'm not very clever either," I replied.

"Come on then, let's have a knock about. At least you won't be pulling your punches. Most of these wankers are too frightened of me to make it worth my time." Bobby said standing up and handing me a cue.

I noted that Bobby led us to a table away from where the others were sitting. Having set up, he took the break.

"I saw that look on your face when I offered the girls a job, Peter," he said. "What you've got to realise is that some of these girls, once they get into the business for a while, haven't got any idea of any other way to earn a living. We just took their pimp away from them and if they don't come work for me, then some other sick little shit will be knocking them around and taking their money off of them by next week.

"Look, my brother and I aren't proud of what we do; we were bastards ourselves in the past. But nowadays, any girl who works for us does so because she chooses too. She don't get knocked about and no bugger takes her earnings off of her either, after she's paid our commission, of course. It costs money to run a nice safe clean house. And the other point is that if and when a girl wants out, Jerry and me will do all we can to help her. We'll even give them jobs in one of our legit businesses if we can."

"Bobby, I didn't...."

"I didn't say you were criticising. You live in a different world to these girls, Pete. I've got two sisters and a daughter of my own. I wouldn't like to see any of them working on the streets. Nowadays Jerry and I will help any girl who wants out of the business if we can. But for the ones who want to keep working, we'll watch their backs as well as we can. Yeah, we make money out of it, but if you ain't got any dough, well...." His voice trailed off again. "Anyway let's hope we can find your woman for you and soon. I'd hate to see anyone who's got out of the game fall back in."

I'm not sure whether Bobby was trying to make out that he was some kind of Robin Hood character or not. But he sounded quite sincere to me.

I knocked balls around the table, whilst Bobby potted them for the next half hour or so, until Marko and Debbie returned. The Hennessey muscle man didn't return with them. Crystal flipped through the book until she came to an entry labelled "Little big man."

"There, that's him," Crystal said, "little dick, big head. He beat up Michelle because she unfortunately laughed at him when she saw the size of his pecker. Cut her up so bad she couldn't get any clients anymore."

John Carpenter studied the name and address in the book and then he turned it so that I could read it. "Calvin Talbot" the name instantly rang a bell in my mind. I was damned sure that I'd heard it somewhere before and the address wasn't all that far from my home either.

"Recognise the name?" John asked.

"Looks familiar to me, but I can't place him," I replied.

"Me too," John said. "I've got a list of names that Frank Stevens thought could be of interest. Pardon the pun but Frank thought this Talbot guy wasn't being as frank as he could be with him. He's a manager in that place where Sarah worked! He's refused to talk to Bert as well; I guess we know why now. I suppose that he must have recognised her.

"The strange thing is, Crystal, I'm assuming that these initials are the girls and dates are when he availed himself of their services?" John asked.

"Yeah, if you don't mind, we won't go into what the other letters after that are; they're his sexual preferences. He's a bit of a weirdo, that one!" Crystal replied.

"I've been around, Crystal, I can hazard a guess. But the point is, Sarah's initials aren't on the list," John pointed out.

"No way. Paul was sweet on Sarah, no matter how he treated her or what he said. He wouldn't let that weirdo anywhere near her. But the guy would have seen her with Paul plenty of times, and I know he asked Paul if he could have her more than once."

"So that's why she ran. He must have approached her," I said. "He must have approached her at the office. But surely she must have recognised him when she went to work there?"

"Maybe not," John said. "Different surroundings and if he dressed up smart for work, she might not have recognised him until it was too late. I think we'd better have a word with our Mr Talbot!"

"Do you need any muscle?" Bobby asked.

"Thanks, Bobby, you and Jerry have done enough. We've got Marko and Bernie here if I need any expertise," John replied.

"Well, when you've found Sarah, give us a call and I'll send a couple of guys up to make sure the tosspot doesn't lean on anyone else, permanently. No one will ever tie it to you guys," Bobby offered.

We thanked Bobby and Jerry for their help then and left the club.

"Just one thing to bear in mind, fellas," Bernie said, as we drove away. "When the Hennesseys' say permanent, they mean forever. We were in a situation with them about a year or so ago. Two guys who the Hennesseys' got upset with finished up in the bottom of a fen in East Anglia somewhere. It went down as a car accident, but the last anyone saw of those two they were with some of Hennessey's team."

Neither John I replied to Bernie's statement.

As we drove home that night I thought to myself, "Yeah, we had probably discovered why Sarah had left, but we were no closer to discovering where she has actually gone."

End of part Two