London Calling - James Craig [84]
‘I’m interested in five men specifically. Their names are George Dellal, Ian Blake, Nicholas Hogarth, Harry Allen and Sebastian Lloyd.’ Hewasn’t yet ready to mention Holyrod and the Carltons.
Dom made a show of thinking about that for a few seconds. ‘This is the thing you were on the TV for last week?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Not making much progress, then?’ He grinned. ‘So what do you want to know?’
‘The usual. At least some of them use drugs, cocaine mainly and a bit of ecstasy. Where do they get them from? Who do they like to indulge with? What else do they get up to? Any interesting peccadilloes?’
‘Interesting peccadilloes?’ Dom laughed. ‘We all have some of those.’
‘You get the picture.’
‘Sure. Give Gideon the list and we’ll see what we can find out.’
‘I appreciate it.’ Rummaging through his pocket, Carlyle found a piece of paper, a receipt for a sandwich he’d bought the day before. While he scribbled down the five names, he thought about whether there was anything else he could get from his host. Things needed to be pushed along a bit, so he showed a little more of his hand. ‘Do you ever supply the concierge at the Garden Hotel?’ he asked, without looking up.
Dom glanced at Spanner and turned back to Carlyle. ‘Alex Miles? Yeah, now and again. Only the odd bit of business, though, nothing major. He likes to use different people. He wouldn’t make “my top hundred clients” list.’
‘Blake was the stiff found in his hotel last week.’
Dom made a face to signify: OK … and?
Gideon Spanner meanwhile kept staring blankly into space.
‘Blake was a fairly high-end drug user,’ Carlyle continued, ‘the type of guy who might buy from the likes of you through someone like Miles.’
‘There’s lots of those,’ Dom smiled. ‘Just leave it with us. We’ll doubtless dig up something. We usually do.’
‘I know.’
‘I’ll walk you down the stairs.’
At the front door, Dom followed Carlyle out into the street. ‘How’s the family?’
‘Fine,’ Carlyle said. ‘You?’
‘Good. The eldest two are at secondary school already.’ He grimaced. ‘The fees? Bloody hell!’
‘Tell me about it. Alice is at City in the Barbican now.’
‘That’s an excellent school.’
‘Yes, it is. We’re very pleased.’
‘How can you afford that?’
‘Good question.’
‘If you ever—’
‘No, no,’ Carlyle interrupted quickly. He wasn’t going down that road again. ‘We’re fine. She’ll get a scholarship soon … I hope.’
‘Good luck.’
‘Thanks.’
Would Carlyle ever take Dominic’s cash? It didn’t get any less tempting as the years went by. He’d discussed it with Helen a few times, in a What if? kind of a way. But it was never a serious possibility. They knew that if he ever crossed that line, he could never go back. The bottom line was that it wasn’t worth it, since it would be incredibly stupid to risk everything just for money. Never say never, of course, but things would have to become truly desperate.
Dom moved the conversation quickly on to less choppy waters. ‘We should get the kids together over the summer hols.’
‘Helen would like that. She’s always worried about Alice not having enough company, being an only child.’
‘Excellent.’
Dom wasn’t always this chatty, so Carlyle thought he might as well do a bit more fishing. ‘How’s business? Getting squeezed by the recession?’
‘Nah … well, maybe. Like you, I’ll never be out of work. It might be tough for a while, though, as I’m a discretionary spend.’
‘Sometimes.’
‘Yeah, sometimes,’ Dom laughed. ‘But, I’ll tell you this, we’ve just turned off easy street and on to shit street. The good old days are over. The easy money has run for the hills and the dirty money is getting dirtier. Things could get quite nasty for your average punter.’
‘Sure.’ A sociology lesson from a drug dealer, Carlyle thought. That’s just what I need.
‘You think about it, no more buying a house in London, watching the price going up, and then thinking you’re Warren Buffett. We’re off on a bumpy ride: industrial unrest, unemployment, stagflation – back to the bad old days of the seventies and