“We need to go, Frankie. This is getting bad.”
“Shut the hell up, Davie,” said Michelle from Frankie’s side. “You’re such a downer all the time.”
Unusually, Frankie did not jump to his brother’s defence, which Davie took as a bad sign. “Okay,” he said, changing tact. “What now then?”
Frankie smiled at him. “Glad you asked. What we’re going to do now is show Andrew the error of his ways. Man took a chunk out of my forehead then tried to take out Dom and Jordan. I think he needs to pay for that.”
“You already stabbed him,” said Davie.
Frankie nodded. “That was just to detain him. If the police catch you and give you a kicking you still go to court afterwards. They don’t take the beating required to subdue you as the punishment for the crime.”
“Yeah,” said Dom. “He still needs to be put on trial.”
“And so here we are,” said Frankie, gushing with amusement, “to preside over the people versus Mr Andrew…whatever the fuck his name is.”
“What are the charges?” asked Michelle, happily playing along with the charade.
“Kiddie-fiddling, goat-fucking, and the crime of thinking his shit don’t stink.”
“How do you find?” asked Jordan, laughing till he was out of breath.
Frankie held a finger in the air to silence the room. He seemed deep in thought. Suddenly he thrust his finger at the floor and screamed the word, “GUILTY!”
“What is his punishment?” asked Dom gleefully.
Frankie put his hands together and placed the fingertips under his nose as if trying to gain guidance from God himself. “Through the power invested in me by the courts, I sentence this wicked man to a slow and lingering death…by torture.”
Torture – Davie repeated the word in his head three times. Then he threw up.
Chapter Seventeen
“You okay, man?” Frankie had moved over to rub Davie’s back while he continued to be sick.
Davie spat a wad of saliva onto the carpet and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I think so. Just came over me all of a sudden.”
“Must be the concussion,” Frankie suggested. “Don’t worry, though. He’s going to pay for what he did to you.”
Davie shook his head and looked up at his brother. “I just want to go. I feel rough, man. Need to go to bed. This bandage is on my head for a reason.”
Frankie examined him for several seconds then nodded. “Okay, Davie. We’ll get you home to rest.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” Frankie smiled at him warmly. “Just as soon as I’m done here. Let me finish up.”
Davie took some deep breaths and tried to calm his stomach before he spoke. “Finish up?”
Frankie leant closer and whispered in Davie’s ear. “Got to get rid of the witnesses.”
“No way,” said Davie. “You can’t be serious.” He leant forward and lowered his voice so that only Frankie could hear the question he was about to ask. “You’re not really going to kill anybody, are you?”
Frankie looked at Davie and nodded very slowly, very seriously. The cold cubes of ice that were his brother’s eyes chilled Davie to the bone. He finally realised that he no longer knew the person standing in front of him. Something had changed inside of Frankie when he went away – or was it that he came back with something missing?
What the hell happened to you in that young offender’s nick, Frankie? What the hell screwed you up this badly? You were never like this before. You were just my big brother and that was enough.
“I don’t want to kill anybody,” said Davie, tears forming in his eyes.
“You don’t have to, little bro. Leave it all up to me. Haven’t I always looked after you?”
Davie nodded. The urge to vomit was rising up from his guts and he fought hard to contain it.