The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 28
“Hatton Garden robbery? Piece of cake! If I’d still been inthe Met, we’d have had that cleared up in a couple of days. Back in my day weused to foil villains like that every day of the week.”
“Bollocks, did you,” said a scruffy, denim-clad, middle-agedman at the bar, who Josh recognised as Andy Green, a local drunk who was alwayshanging around the pubs in the old days. “You were crap, that’s why theyshipped you up here where nothing ever happens.”
“What about those murders the Christmas before last?” askedKent. “I’d hardly call those nothing.”
“Yeah, but they’d kicked you out by then,” retorted Andy.“That stuck-up cow who replaced you got all the credit for that. You couldn’tsolve a crossword puzzle.”
“Excuse me,” said Ryan, timidly, attempting to get Kent’sattention. “Could I have eight pints of lager, please?”
He couldn’t have looked or sounded more like an underagedrinker without donning his school uniform, which Kent picked up onimmediately.
“That rather depends, sonny. Got any ID, have you? That goesfor all of you, come to that.” Kent eyed the youthful drinkers suspiciously,noticing Charlie for the first time.
“As for you, lad, you’ve got a cheek coming in here afterall the trouble you’ve caused me in the past.”
“What trouble was that exactly?” asked Charlie. “Do you meanwhen you wrongfully arrested me and then accused me of murdering someone whowasn’t even dead?”
“Ha ha, was that one of them murders you solved, then?”interjected Andy, swaying slightly on his bar stool.
“Quiet, you,” snapped Kent, ignoring Charlie’s ratherawkward question. “As for you lot, I want ID and proper stuff, too – drivinglicences or passports, none of these fake student cards.”
The lads were quite used to this routine, and produced thenecessary documents, which Kent made a big show of perusing ridiculouslycarefully, even producing a magnifying glass from behind the bar to examine thesmall print.
“Is that to help you find your cock?” asked Andy.
“I won’t tell you again,” said Kent. “One more remark likethat and you’re out.” Finally satisfied with the boys’ documents, he handedthem back and began pouring their pints.
Much as Charlie disliked being anywhere near Kent, he hadbeen thoroughly amused by the banter he had just witnessed. Although Andyhimself was an annoying pain in the arse, watching him winding up Kent had beencomedy gold.
“Do you think he ever was any good at policing, or was healways useless?” he asked Josh.
“I’ve no idea,” said Josh. “But it would be interesting tofind out, wouldn’t it? I guess everyone’s got a backstory.”
“I suppose we’ll never know,” replied Charlie, as he tookdelivery of two pints being passed back from the bar.
Maybe we will, thought Josh. It would be rather interestingto dig into some of these people’s pasts, and he had the means to do it.
“Try not to spill any, Josh,” remarked Dan, already suppingfrom his pint. “I want to see you drink it all.”
“Let’s go and find a table,” suggested Josh, thinking hemight manage better if he sat down. He led the others towards two large tablesby the windows at the front of the pub. One was free, full of empty glassesfrom a crowd that had just left, but the other was jam-packed with a group ofgirls.
Josh got a brief flash of déjà vu, a feeling he was morethan accustomed to as a time traveller. This was where he had fallen overbefore. He had tripped and blundered into the girls’ table, sending drinkseverywhere, including all over the girls’ clothes. Kent had seen it and kickedhim out.
Mindful of the situation, he slowed right down, making hisfootsteps steady and deliberate. He looked around quickly to see where Charliewas, hoping to get him to take the lead, but instead he found Dan right behindhim, leg outstretched, which would have tripped him up if he had taken anotherstep.
“So, it was you all along,” exclaimed Josh, realising thetruth. “You were about to trip me up.”
“Prove it,” challenged Dan.
“Saying prove it is proof enough,” said Josh. “That’sexactly what a guilty person would say. You would have denied it otherwise.”
Josh was so annoyed, both at Dan’s subterfuge and at his ownstupidity at having fallen for it all those years before, that he could havequite happily landed one on him there and then. But that would achieve nothingother than to get him thrown out of the pub which would lead to the sameresult. He wouldn’t complete the crawl.
“Cool it, guys,” said Charlie, who had witnessed this littleexchange. He now pushed forward past both of them, heading for the spare table.“Come and sit down.”
Josh made it safely to the table without mishap, but hewould have to try and keep his lager-sodden wits about him for the rest of thenight in case Dan tried anything else.
Seated around the large, round table, he was safe for thetime being. He just hoped he would be able to get back up again.
Thankfully, the rest of their time in The Red Lion passedwithout incident which left just one pub to go – the slightly seedy Mario’s barat the end of the street that also doubled as the town’s only nightclub.
Mario’s had a distinctly sordid reputation, and rightly so.It had hosted everything from cage dancers to strippers over the years, andeven when there wasn’t adult entertainment on offer there was no shortage ofdesperate locals attempting to secure some of their own.
It was one of a chain of about half a dozen similar clubs intowns across the area, all owned and named after Mario himself. He was anItalian businessman who was rumoured to have connections to the mafia, thoughthis was almost certainly just an urban myth based purely on him being fromSicily.
The real reason Mario had so much money wasn’t anythingshady. He had simply given people in small towns what they wanted, which wassomewhere to have a late drink