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“No, I just came to sort out some stuff.”
“I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages.”
“I’m fine,” I mutter distractedly. “Is Brian in? I need to speak with him.”
“Sorry, he isn’t here. He went to Makro to stock up on supplies. He won’t be back for an hour and has left me in charge, can you believe? It’s nice that he trusts me enough not to burn the place down. So right now, it’s just me and Katie.” She dries her hands on a tea towel. “Why? What’s up?”
Rummaging through my bag, I pull out a small white envelope and hand it to her. “When he gets back, please can you give him this?”
“What is it?”
“My letter of resignation.”
“What, are you leaving us?” Amina looks genuinely disappointed. I notice her black liner is a little smudged, giving her the appearance of having a black eye, but her new nose stud more than makes up for it. “No fucking way! I loved working with you, Jess. Why the hell are you resigning?”
I shrug my shoulders. “It’s just time to move on, that’s all. For what it’s worth, I’m going to miss working with you too, hun. But we’ll keep in touch obviously. You have my number, so we can go for a drink sometime.”
“Is it because of all that stuff that happened here on Monday night?”
“I guess you heard about that, then.”
“Yeah, Brian told me all about it. And on that subject…” Amina’s voice lowers to a conspiratorial whisper. “I need to talk with you in private. I’ve got some juicy gossip to tell you.” Discreetly, she jerks her head towards the kitchen, and I follow her to the back, my heart thumping wildly. I have a feeling I’m about to hear some news I’m not sure I’m going to like.
Once she’s confident Katie is out of earshot, Amina resumes excitedly: “You won’t believe this but something crazy went down on Monday night after those tossers left here. All I’ll say is, karma is a bitch.”
“Why, what happened?” I ask, feeling slightly nauseous. For a second, images from the dark alley flash up in my mind again. Writhing tentacles. A severed finger on the pavement. The deep gushing wound in Jack’s crotch area where his penis used to be…
No, it’s just too terrible to think about.
“Apparently, they were attacked just around the corner from here,” she continues. “After they left Sloppy Joe’s, Jack Parker and four of his mates got jumped by some gang and had the living crap beaten out of them. And when I say beaten up, I’m talking seriously fucked up, here. I’m talkingScarfacelevel shit, ‘say hello to my little friend’ and then some.”
I swallow hard and lick my lips. “Wow, that’s mad. Are they…are they okay? I mean, they’re going to live though, right?”
“How should I know? Apparently, it’s touch and go with some of them because they’ve had some serious injuries inflicted on them.”
“Do you know what sort of injuries?”
“You really want all the gory details?”
“Well, no,” I stammer. “I guess I was just wondering…”
“I don’t know all the ins and outs, but my sources hint that it was something seriously fucked up. Like…” She pulls me in close and hisses in my ear: “They had their willies cut off.”
My mouth gapes in horror. “No way!”
“Yes, way. See, I told you it was fucked up. Hey, but don’t go telling anyone about it, as it could just be a rumour, but if it is true, how sick is that? Guess that’s what happens when you mix yourself up in a turf war.
“Turf war? Do the police think that’s what it was about?”
“Definitely got to be gang-related,” Amina says with conviction, picking lint off her sleeve. “Although to be fair, I never had Jack pegged as the type of boy to get mixed up in that sort of thing, but I guess you never can tell with anyone, can you? And one of the guys that was with him, someone called Taser, has definite links to some gangs in Peckham so it’s sort of obvious that’s what this was about.”
Grotesque memories from Monday night return once more to haunt me. Hot bile rises in my throat and this time, I really am going to be sick. Bolting out the kitchen, I race into the ladies and throw open one of the cubicles just in time to vomit down the toilet bowl. A minute later, Amina appears in the doorway, her voice laced with concern.
“Geez, are you okay? Was this because of my colourful language?”
“No, it must be something I ate,” I gasp, wiping fluid from my mouth. “I’m all right now. I’ve got it all out of my system.” Slowly, I get to my feet and stagger over to the basins to wash up.
Amina places a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Are you definitely sure you’re okay?”
