“With good reason.” He looks at me with alarm. “Don’t look at me like that, Mick, you saw the state I was in, so I can hardly stand here and pretend that everything will be OK if you end up being dragged into it. Let’s get a pint and go and sit in the corner.”
I take a mouthful of beer and savour the taste. Despite being a hole, the place still serves one of the best pints around. I pick at the beer mat trying to think of the best way to handle it all.
“The way I see it, we have two choices, Mick. We can stick to the same story as everyone else and go along with, haven’t heard from her for months, say that I went on holiday and she took off and I haven’t seen her since. I’ll have to get rid of my sim card and phone with the messages on it, but then again, if they come across her phone, that would land me in deep shit. Or, we can own up to being in Germany but I think that will get messy because if they do interview her friends, they will identify you as being the last person that saw her. Then there will be the numerous questions about where she has gone, how you got back to the UK, etc.… so the more I talk out loud, the better I think it would be if we just say nothing and hope for the best. Fuck, to be honest, man, I haven’t a clue what’s best, both stories are dodgy and the truth is, we’re up to our necks in it.”
“You’re not helping ease my anxiety, pal. Think about it, they can’t trace the van because it had dodgy plates, BUT we were both seen in the pub by the German guy and you were asking around if anyone knew her, then I went out drinking with her and her cronies. Jesus, we didn’t think that out very well, did we! We’re fucked because all the police would need to do is show the friends a picture of you, and you’re caught straight away.”
“You’re right.” I pause, taking a minute to think. We can try and keep you out of it. If they do get in touch with me, then I will say that she rang me and asked me to go to Paderborn, there will be a trace of a call that she made to me so it sounds legit. I’ll say that I met up with her and she didn’t want to come back with me so I left. The police don’t know about the debt and, hopefully, neither will any of her friends, so with any luck they’ll just think that it was a relationship that fizzled out. There’ll not be any need to mention you, but, just to be on the safe side, if I were you, I’d shave your hair and dye it another colour so you look nothing like the guy they’re looking for. Maybe get a tattoo on your face as well.”
“You’re joking about the tattoo, right?”“Your call. If you want to remain anonymous and unidentifiable, you might have to take extreme measures. A tattoo is something that would stick in peoples’ minds and could take you out of the frame immediately. You could get it lasered off after it all dies down. What would you rather? A bit of needle-work or a meeting with Pez? Think about it.”
“I’ll book it today.”
“Good man. Make sure to give it a scrub before it has time to heal; that will help fade it and make it look older and more authentic. Give fatz a call, tell him I sent you.”
“Thanks, Luke. So, I wasn’t in Germany?”
“You weren’t in Germany, Mick, you can relax.”
“Thanks, mate, I owe you one.”
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