Scrap 20

SCRAP 20
Frank is relieved to find that Danny is not at the yard. Jason helps unload the minivan parts and Frank asks how things are without Bill. Jason offers him a cup of tea and Frank follows him into the office, a wooden shed away from the main house.
They settle into the filthy old armchairs which have taken root since their arrival sometime in the fifties and Jason soon has mugs of tea ready. ‘You know that Danny is worming his way into Ma’s affections?’ Frank nods, takes a sip from the scalding hot tea and waits for Jason to continue. ‘Now he has his cap set at my sister.’ Frank guessed as much. ‘And what does Rosa think of that?’ he asks. ‘She doesn’t seem too happy but Ma seems to be steering her in that direction. I’m worried that he wants to take over.’
For a while they sit in silent contemplation. Then Frank tries to reassure the young man. ‘He left you half in his will though, didn’t he?’
Jason looks up and shakes his head. ‘That’s just it, Frank. He never made a will and in Law that means that Ma inherits the lot so it’s up to her what happens next.’
‘But she wouldn’t cut you out,’ assures Frank.
‘I know, but if Danny gets Rosa to marry him and Ma accepts the investment he wants to make then it leaves me in a very awkward position. You know he wants to buy a crusher? Well they cost upwards of £20,000 and we don’t have that kind of money lying about.’
Frank is beginning to see the bigger picture. ‘And Danny does have that kind of cash. I know because he boasts about it enough.’
‘That’s where he is today: meeting the people who can supply him with all the new machinery he says we need. And he’s got the cash to pay for it. So where does that leave me?’
‘Could you strike out on your own?’ Asks Frank. ‘You must have some capital put by and your Ma would surely help you out.’
‘What, set up in competition? You must be joking. No, it looks like I’m stuck for the time being.’
Frank finishes his tea and glances out the window at the yard with its piles of scrap metal, skips and broken down vehicles. ‘You could open up your own sideline,’ he suggests. ‘How about taking in crashed motors for breaking? Not in the way you do already, I mean resurrecting write-offs.’
‘How would that work?’
‘Well, you take in the crashed vehicles and break them up. It’ll be easier with the new crusher. Then we use the log books and identity plates to bring them back to life.’
‘Whoa, that’s risky. We couldn’t do it without Danny knowing.’
‘We can if we use the same method I’ve been using.’ Frank nods towards the empty trailer. ‘Where do you think that lot came from?’
Jason had not considered where all the scrap Frank was always bringing in was coming from. Now it was beginning to add up. ‘So you nick an identical vehicle and ring the changes?’
Frank drains the last of the tea and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘Well, do you want in?’
Jason does not hesitate, ‘When do we start?’
Frank has seen a minivan the same year and colour as the wreck he has just disposed of. It is for sale on a car lot some 20 miles distant.
‘Get yourself smartened up and meet me at Pearl’s caff at two o’clock. We’ll go for a test drive. And don’t tell anyone what you’re doing or who you’re with.’