CHAPTER THIRTEEN
He held the phone up in front of her and the name she saw froze her breath between her teeth.
It read: Sammy the Cunt. When Sammy had first made calls to Travis he had put his name into contacts with a description to make him avoid ever picking up the phone to the most feared man in Darklow and surrounding towns and country. This time, he was more afraid to ignore it than to take it. His hand shook as he swiped the screen. He put the phone to his ear and waited.
"Hello?" The voice oozed Cockney. "Is that Travis the great tattoo artist?" Cockney and sarcasm.
"What do you want you cunt?"
"Now, now Travis, that ain't no way to speak to your old mate Sammy, is it?"
"I want his skin back. I want to know where he is."
"I don't know what you're talking about Travis. I just wanted to call and re-iterate the terms of my offer. We need good men like you. Your artwork is really a cut above. I don't know why you won't just come up the house and do a bit of drawing for me."
"What did you do with Rocco?"
"OK, OK. I'll confess that when you refused that bit of work I offered you that I did take things into my own hands, just as I said I would. You wouldn't do me a copy of that fucking tat your sprog had so I had to take the original, didn't I? You left me no choice son. Now here's what's more. You're only still breathing because you are currently worth more to me alive than dead. You fuckin' got that? Your son, he was worth the price of his skin, his kidneys, his heart and whatever else my team cut out of him. He'll fetch a good price alright and I could use the money because my house needs redoing. Them bloody carpets must be six months old and filthy with all the people I have coming and going."
Travis fought back tears. His throat tightened, threatening to cut off the air to his lungs.
"You alright there Travis? You sound as though you are gagging or something. Listen mate, I didn't want to get nasty with you. Despite what you think of me I actually do respect your art and I am now respectfully asking you one more time to take up our offer. And believe me the only answer is yes. Say no again and it only gets worse. If you ain't working for us then you ain't worth nothing to us except for what you got inked on you, if it's any good, and what you got left inside you. If that's any good. We won't know 'till we get it out of you anyway. And don't you think all that hocus pocus Thai voodoo will help you mate because I've been at this game a lot longer than you have and I understand all that stuff. Your shit is good but it won't stop me getting exactly what I want. Do you understand?"
Travis was frozen.
"How's your daughter doing Travis?"
"Fuck." He hissed and cut the connection.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." Travis beat his arms against the walls, kicked furniture. Ajarn's men came running out and tried to calm him down.
"Travis, please honey, come on, this isn't helping." Betsy pleaded with her son.
"What are we gonna do ma? He knows about Megan."
Betsy's face went a shade paler than its usual battleship grey.
"We've gotta get her out of here."
"I have to go and get this bastard Ma. It's the only way. He's a fucking psycho. He'll never stop otherwise, just keep coming and coming until he has us all fucked up or dead. It'll never, ever stop."
Ajarn stood behind his men.
"I warn you Travis, this not the way to do it. You got to find right guy. You know my shit work, right? You gotta stick to the rules. Always work like that. Don't go crazy big pussy man. Rocco not deserve that."
"Your voodoo shit didn't work for Rocco."
"This not help you Travis. You do whatever you want but don't blame me when they got your heart in a box beside your kidneys."
"Why the fuck didn't it work for Rocco? I did everything. So did he. We didn't eat for a week beforehand, we said the prayers, made the offerings, the whole shebang and now he's somewhere in pieces and his skin is gonna decorate some perverts living-room wall. What kind of fucking Buddha magic is that?"
"Did he lose any fight since he got the piece?"
"He lost the last one."
"Before that. In the ring. You be fucking honest with me Travis coz you gotta believe in this stuff or you know you gonna end up with your balls in a bag."
Travis forced himself to breath. Forced himself to think.
"OK. No. He couldn't be beat. Since the day he got that Yant no-one could take him."
"You fuckin' know it Travis. You better fuckin' believe it."
"So what the hell happened to him. Why is my boy dead? Why isn't he here?"
"That Yant you give him was super powerful No better Yant for ring fighter. Not many people know secret of this Yant."
"So?"
"But it just ring-fight Yant. You know how it works. Every Yant is a lock. Energy lock."
"I know that Ajarn, so what happened to him? Every fight in the world is a ring-fight if you want it to be."
"Someone know more than him unlock the Yant."
"I don't get it?"
"Didn't teacher tell you about unlocking the Yant?"
"You're my fucking teacher Ajarn. Why didn't you tell me?"
"That right knuckle-head," he pushed Travis's craggy forehead back with the heel of his hand, "I your teacher and I fucking tell you already about unlocking the Yant but you didn't have god damn ears, only want to know about how to make Yant more quickly, more powerful, more beautiful. That all good, but when you got a enemy then you need to know how to protect the Yant."
Travis held back tears. He remembered it now. A long conversation that Ajarn had repeatedly had with him but which he had always wriggled out of, selectively ignored or paid the merest lip-service too.
He bowed his head and held it there until Ajarn placed his hand to the back of his neck. For the first time in a long time Travis went all the way down to his knees and touched his forehead to the master’s feet. His stifled tears came flooding out.
"So what do I do now? Ajarn. Teacher. Fuck. Master. Please help me."
"Already told Betsy what to do. Find guy in tattoo. I don't know who he is, but you got to find him. That's what the dream said. Betsy know what he look like. Now I know you all broken up Travis, but you gotta get out of my house now, I got clients coming, you gotta leave. You need any help you call me but now you gotta scram, OK?"
Travis nodded, picked himself up and put his arm around Betsy. Together they limped down the hallway wondering what the hell they should do next.