Taking the Town Read online

  Still, despite all this Finn drifted in and out of the conversation as his attention kept straying to the table with the green-eyed beauty, the girl he’d come here for. All through lunch, she remained the sole occupant of the table even though most of the other tables eventually ended up virtually overflowing with occupants. He also noticed that nobody greeted her, spoke to her or even acknowledged her presence in any way. She just sat there alone and ate in silence, eyes down but with a certain pride and defiance in her demeanor.

  He couldn’t fathom why she was by herself. Eventually he couldn’t hold his curiosity in anymore and asked, “What’s with that table over there? Why is that girl all alone when every other table has more occupants than it was built for?”

  His lunch companions went silent for a moment before someone replied, “It’s not allowed. We can’t sit with her.”

  Surely he hadn’t heard right. “What do you mean it’s not allowed? Not allowed by whom? Who gets to make that decision?” Finn looked at each one in turn.

  When no response came, he tried again. “What? Is it a state secret or something?”

  Laura whispered to him, “Not here. I’ll tell you later when we’re alone.”

  Finn could scarcely believe this. “Seriously?” Finn shook his head. “Okay. I can’t wait to hear this.”

  Once they back to the office, Laura looked at him apologetically. “I’m sorry. I should have warned you about this in advance. It’s just such a distressing story that I don’t like to talk about it.”

  Finn frowned. “How bad can it be?”

  “Very bad. But you need to know. So here goes.” But she didn’t say anything. She took a deep breath. “Okay, here goes,” she repeated. “This is not a pleasant story and, to be honest, it’s embarrassing—and it should be. Of everyone involved, the only person with any decency is the victim. The bad guys and those of us standing on the sidelines doing nothing, not so much.”

  She took another deep breath. This was clearly difficult for her.

  “It may not look like it on the surface, Laura said, “but Lissadown is essentially under the control of a criminal gang comprised of three families who are all related to each other and who live close to each other in a virtual no-go compound. They and their henchmen rule the roost over Lissadown with a virtual iron fist and are allowed to operate unimpeded and untouched by the law. These criminals have made life so miserable for many people the past few years. They have blackmailed businesses, they control the drug trade and have even been responsible for several murders, not to mention the disappearance of at least four people who dared to stand up to them. That girl at the table in the canteen, Julia Davis, had a brother, Brian. He is one of those gone missing.”

  Finn said nothing. He just sat there and listened with his eyes never once straying from Laura’s face. He knew part of the story—it’s why he came to Lissadown—but he needed the details.

  Laura sighed heavily and continued her story. “Brian Davis intervened when gang members started to beat up a friend of his over the late payment of a debt. Ordinarily, Brian would have received a severe beating himself for this intervention and that would have been the end of it. Apparently, however, one of the gang members had pulled a knife on him and as they and he had wrestled for it, the gang member ended up getting stabbed with his own knife—apparently because of his own clumsiness. Brian didn’t have anything to do with it but that didn’t satisfy the gang member and his crew who then became hell bent on revenge. A week later, Brian Davis went missing. That was almost eighteen months ago, in fact just a few weeks after Julia herself had arrived in Lissadown. There has been no sign of him since.”

  Laura sat back in her chair and wiped a tear from her eye then blew her nose before continuing. “Julia became frantic after he had been missing for two days. She knew what happened with the gang member and she feared the worst for her brother. She initially pestered the police to try to find out what had happened to him but to be honest they were too afraid to intervene. The cops in this town also have family members who have been targeted by the gang and in fact several of them have moved relatives out of the country for protection.” Her tone was almost apologetic.

  So that explained the distinct lack of police involvement.

  “Days turned into weeks and still no sign of Brian, and then weeks into months. As time passed, Julia became even more determined in her efforts to find out what happened and where her brother was. All by herself, she would confront every gang member she could find and get right in their faces.” Laura shook her head. “I tell you, Finn, this girl has courage. She even went as far as to stand outside their houses with a placard calling them murderers and demanding justice. People tried to get her to stop but it seemed the more they tried the more aggressive her tactics became. As I said she is one brave lady.

  This didn’t surprise him at all. Julia would jump in with both fists flying.

  “Lots of men have just put their heads down and not engaged with these thugs in any way but not Julia. She was like a force of nature. She even took to following the gang leaders in the street and calling them cowards and low life scum. Really crazy stuff. It’s almost like she was daring them to react. Well of course they did. One night she was grabbed just as she was about to enter her front door. Apparently, there were six of them and they drove her out to the bog where they all raped her…repeatedly.” Laura’s voice trailed off and she looked away, remaining silent for a moment.

  This was much worse than he expected and it turned his stomach. But he had to hear it all. “What happened then?” Finn prodded.

  “By the time they were finished she was almost dead. They just left her there…in the bog…alone.” Laura swiped at another errant tear. “Most people figure they thought she was dead or soon would be. They aren’t known for leaving living victims. But the funny thing is, against all odds, Julia somehow managed to make her way to the nearest house—almost two miles away. The people who found her said it looked as if she had crawled most of the way. But she did it. She remained conscious until the ambulance arrived. Then she was out of it for days. For the first three days it was touch and go as to whether she would survive and, if she did, what condition she would be in. To the doctors’ immense surprise—they had written her off by then—she began to pull though. I’ve heard people say that no one believed she’d ever fully recover. It was miraculous that she survived at all. But incredibly, after six weeks Julia was well enough to return to work.”

  Laura stopped talking and looked at Finn. “Do you want to hear more or has it all been too sordid for you?”

  He didn’t want to hear another word. He didn’t want to imagine the horror of it. But he had to know. “It hasn’t been easy to hear all of this, but I need to know how it ends.”

  Laura nodded and continued. “Even after all that, those bastards couldn’t let her be. It’s not like she hadn’t suffered enough by then. Her brother was missing, presumably dead, and she herself had been raped and beaten almost to her own death. No, that wasn’t enough. So when Julia came back to work, the gang put the word out—no one at Roan was to have anything to do with her. Other than what is required for work, no one was allowed to talk to her, sit with her, eat with her or travel to and from work with her. I’m not sure if you know but there are six known gang members working at Roan and they keep everyone else in line. No one is willing to stand up to them and disobey their orders. That only compounds the tragedy. As I said, the only decent people in this whole story are the victims. The rest of us, myself included, we should be ashamed of ourselves for our cowardice. There are times when I hate myself over this.”

  “But didn’t the police do anything at all? Surely they’d have to act on such a vicious crime.”

  Laura shook her head. “No, they didn’t. Just like the rest of us cowards, they just buried their heads in the sand and got on with their own lives. This whole town is such a shit-hole for allowing this to happen and continuing to let it go on every day.”r />
  “Just when did all this occur?” Finn asked.

  Laura responded, “I think Julia has now been back at work for about eight months.”

  Finn was incredulous. “You mean to say that for the last eight months, not one person in this company has spoken to her at all?”

  Laura’s face burned with intense shame. “Yes. What they did…it fucking worked. It put the town on warning. Effectively saying, this is what happens when you cross us. Everyone is terrified. I know I am.”

  Finn frowned. “But this can’t be allowed to go on.”

  She stared intently at him, the tone of her voice deadly serious. “I’m telling you, you have no idea what these people are like. They’re complete animals. If you want my advice, as pathetic as it is, stay away from them. Don’t interfere. Don’t even let them know you exist and you’ll survive. It’s what we all do.” She shook her head, disgustedly. “God, I’ve got to get out of here.” With that she practically ran out of the office leaving Finn sitting there contemplating the enormity of the story she had just told him. It was exponentially worse than he’d expected.

  That night as he worked out, his head was full of thoughts of Julia Davis and her beautiful green eyes. His fury began to build thinking of the savages who had taken Brian and who had brought her to the brink of her own death. The fact that they held the entire town in their evil grip was unexpected news that only fueled the fire in him. As his fists crashed into the punching bag, his mind became set.

  Chapter Two

  Tuesday, June 24, 1986

  Week One: Day Two

  Finn was up early that morning after a fitful night. At five-thirty he went for a ten mile run with his heavily weighted back pack tight against his shoulders. He followed this up with a punishing weights and abs session before arriving to work at eight-thirty.

  The morning drifted by in a series of meetings until lunch time arrived. Once again, he and Laura headed for the canteen.

  As they looked at the selections, he wrinkled his nose. “Starting next week, I’m going to pack my own lunch. I’m just a little afraid of the long term consequences of a daily dose of this swill.”

  When he’d selected the lesser of several evils, he started to follow Laura to where they’d eaten yesterday. But just before he got there, he turned suddenly and walked directly to the table that was occupied by the solitary figure of Julia Davis.

  “Hi, I’m Finn.” He stuck out his hand. “Finn Lane. I’m new. Yesterday was my first day.”

  Julia just stared, first at his outstretched hand then into his eyes as a look of sheer terror spread across her face. She glanced around nervously before quietly saying, “You can’t sit here.” When he made no move to leave, she added, “It’s not allowed.”

  Meanwhile, a deathly silence had engulfed the entire room and all eyes were trained on their table.

  “Please,” she pleaded almost in a whisper but with a palpable urgency. “Please leave now. It’s not safe.”

  Finn looked at her steadily. “What’s not safe? The food? You?”

  “Just go, please before it’s too late. They’re watching,” Julia begged.

  “I just want to sit and have lunch with you.” He flashed her a grin. “Come on, is that such an unpleasant prospect for you? I promise, I do have reasonably acceptable table manners.”

  Before she could answer, he heard people in the room gasp and felt a presence behind him.

  “You can’t sit at that table.”

  Finn turned around. Three men stood there, staring menacingly.

  Finn kept his tone casual. “I don’t understand. There’s plenty room at this table and this girl was all alone so I thought I’d sit with her. What’s wrong with that?”

  “You’re not allowed to sit there. It’s the rule. Nobody sits at the table with her.” The man leaned closer, clearly attempting to intimidate Finn. The other two continued to stare at him with murderous looks in their eyes.

  Finn held their gaze for a few seconds then shrugged and in a quiet voice said, “I’m sorry. I’m new. I didn’t know. It won’t happen again.”

  “It had better not. See that it doesn’t.”

  As the trio walked walked out of the canteen, the room seemed to heave a collective sigh of relief and conversation began again, quietly at first then gradually increasing in volume.

  Finn turned back to Julia and took the seat opposite her. “Nice guys those three. I think I like them.”

  Julia’s green eyes flashed angrily at him. “Do you think this is funny? I can tell you it’s not. Are you trying to be a hero or are you just completely fucking stupid? This is not a game.”

  “Whoa.” Finn put up a hand. “Steady. I didn’t mean to upset you. I shouldn’t have made light of the situation. Can we start over?” He glanced around. “They’re gone. I guess we get to have lunch after all now.”

  She glared at him for a few more seconds then heaved a sigh. “I’m Julia Davis but I guess you know that already. And I’m sure you’ve heard by now the details of my sordid story. So Dr. Finn Lane from Cork with the death wish, I’m all ears. Tell me your story.”

  “Ignoring the whole death wish thing, how did you know I’m Dr. Finn Lane from Cork?”

  “I saw the notice on the new hire board announcing that you’d been hired. But aside from that, there are no secrets around Roan.”

  They chatted as they ate and he was more and more drawn to her. Their lunch break was nearly over, but he wanted more time with her. “Hey, what do you do at night? Do you go to the pub, the movies or go for walks? What?”

  Her eyes clouded over. “I sit at home alone most nights. Sometimes, I go for long drives, find somewhere to park, then walk awhile. Not often though because it’s dangerous trying to get back into my house at night and…”

  “And what? Bad memories?”

  Julia nodded. “Horrific memories. Whatever you heard, trust me it was far, far worse than anyone can imagine.”

  “I could drop by and keep you company sometime.” Finn smiled. “I could do with a friend in this God forsaken town also.”

  “Thanks.” She shook her head. “But that would not be a good idea.” She glanced at her watch. “Look, I’ve got to get back to work.” She stood and started to walk away, but stopped after a few steps and turned around. “It was nice having someone to talk to. I appreciate it, but don’t do it again.”

  When he got back to the office, that warning was echoed by a steady stream of people who dropped by to tell him how dangerous a stunt he had pulled and that he was now a marked man.

  His boss and his boss’s boss each summoned him separately to their offices to deliver the same message. “This is very serious. People have disappeared and have died. Do not cross these thugs. You will suffer badly if you do.”

  After Finn assured everyone that it was a once off event, he spent the rest of the afternoon trying to concentrate on his work. He found he couldn’t though as his mind was drawn time and time again to those vivid green eyes, the black curly hair and the perfectly formed mouth of Julia Davis’ beautiful face. Shit. I’m falling for her. That was fast.

  That night after he had completed another workout session, he walked through town. Although it was almost ten o’clock, it was still light and the breeze was warm. Everyone he met seemed to keep their heads down, avoiding eye contact as they walked hurriedly by him.

  This is such a sad place…so little joy…so much unhappiness.

  He continued his stroll and found himself wandering down the street where he knew Julia lived. There was no question as to which house was hers. It was easily identifiable by the graffiti scrawled all over the walls and door. The words whore, cunt and assfuck, featured prominently along with drawings of men doing all sorts of nasty things to a woman he supposed was meant to depict Julia.

  “Poor girl.” Finn sighed. “She’s suffered enough.”

  As he continued walking down the street, a group of four young men approached, stopping in front of him.
“Looking for something?” one of the little shits asked.

  Finn shook his head. “No. Just out for a stroll on this fine night. I assume you boys don’t have a problem with that. Right?” He looked from one set of eyes to the next. Although his tone of voice was mild, he made certain the look he gave each of them said, “Don’t mess with me. You won’t like the outcome.”

  “You looking for trouble, you fucking prick?” asked another one, “because you found it.”

  “Have I?” Finn stared hard at him for a moment. His eyes narrowed, but his tone was mild. “Your move. I’m waiting.”

  And wait he did. He simply stood there, totally relaxed until the four thugs seemed to realize they were outgunned, lost their nerve and walked away.

  “Next time, motherfucker. You’ll get yours,” shouted one after they were a safe distance away.”

  Finn chuckled softly. Not from you, you little asswipe. As he began to walk away, he turned his head and caught a brief movement in an upstairs window of Julia’s house.

  “You see,” he said to the now empty window. “There is no need to live in constant fear. Consider this a small, first step. Now you sleep well. I don’t think they’ll bother you anymore tonight.”

  Finn walked home in the dark with a smile on his face. Who knows? I might get to like it here after all.

  ~ * ~

  Later, Julia Davis sat alone in her living room nursing a glass of wine. For a while, after she had recovered from the attack, she had wanted to leave Lissadown, but the gang blocked every attempt. Her savings were tied up in the house so she tried to put it on the market. Oddly, no estate agent would take it. She made an attempt at selling it herself. A few people came to see it who initially seemed interested but every one of them backed out.