The Falling Man

Chapter 26

Tommy POV

It was a couple days after me and my brothers visit to London. With my return to Birmingham I had been beaten and nearly killed by Sabini and his men. I now lay in a hospital bed, doped up on morphine. "Ready for a visitor, Mr. Shelby?" The nurse opens the door and asks me. "No." I respond barely able to open my eyes.

"I am here on Roberts orders. I'm afraid I must insist." I hear Ray say as he walks into the room. "Ah! You paid extra for daylight, eh? Guess that's a positive with the business booming." He chuckles as he approaches my bed. He stands at the end of it, "I'm glad I was there in time to save your life." It's true, I owed Ethel's ex lover for saving my life last night. He had returned to Birmingham to work closely with us on the London expansion plan, as Robert and Fred had other business to deal with. How he happened to be there with some of the younger peaky boys when he was, I wasn't too sure but I was thankful. Though I would never tell him that. Ray is a good man but I have taken a disliking towards him, purely out of jealously. I couldn't stand to see his face and wasn't happy about him being in Birmingham.

I look at the man, before pointing to my cigarettes on the table. "Pass my cigarettes?" I ask him. He walks over to them, "Three nights ago, at the cooperative stables in Montague Street...there was a murder. A man named Duggan. The Oxfordshire constabulary found his body in a shallow grave." Ray tells me the information I have no idea how he knows, before putting my cigarettes on my chest along with a matchbox. "I need to piss." I tell the man beginning to attempt to rise out of my bed. "Nurse?!" Ray shouts at the door before putting a hand on my chest to force me to lie back down.

I glare at him as he removes his hand. "Robert and Fred might not know. But I know it was you who carried out the murder of Mr. Duggan." He says to me as he goes to sit in the seat next to my bed. I take a cigarette out of the pack before turning to him and saying, "Oh. By the way...Ethel, she left the club with me the other night. We went to a park...and sat and drank together. She has feelings for me." I tell the man, wanting to get under his skin, while lighting my cigarette before throwing the match. He stares me down, glaring at me. "My moneys on her eventually meeting some banker, who's very rich and who will make her very happy...I have been under your microscope for some weeks now. You've been observing every move I make. And that is why I was on hand to save your life. To show, you can trust me, Mr. Shelby. " He tells me as I blow smoke out.

"I imagine being turned down by a woman you love hurts the same as being shot by a man. A bit shameful that...You know, Ray, when I met Ethel I was in a hospital bed in France...Yeah....No more of her by your bedside I bet." I tell him. He slams his hand down on his thigh, standing up from his seat seemingly infuriated. "Mr. Shelby, my visit to Birmingham...is to take part in a very carefully worked out plan. I will be in this city for some time..." he says to me coming to stand over me, before I interrupt him. "Every time you close your eyes, I bet you see her face." I say as we glare at eachother. "And as a result of the information of your unapproved murder in my possession...I could choose to tell the Switzers at any time while providing impeccable details which will lead you either to death for your betrayal or your plans for expansion failing. But I will choose not to do that, so again, you can learn to trust me. I work for you, Mr. Shelby. But from this moment forward...she belongs to me." He says to me growling in my face. "Get well quickly. I will be in touch the moment I hear you can piss standing up. And then we can continue our plans." He announces as he goes to leave the room. I sigh to myself, I thought him smarter than to blackmail me. I couldn't kill him though as he was a treasured member of The Squad and that would also end up in me dead. He says I can trust him so that is what I will do.

The harder part would be staying away from Ethel. Sure we agreed to be friends but now his words of "she belongs to me" ring through my mind and infuriate me. I push the thoughts away and start to think of a plan on how to get out of this damn hospital.