Scrap 35

SCRAP 35
Danny Casey is pleased with himself, having got his feet firmly under the table at the scrap yard he has wasted no time installing tens of thousands of pounds worth of the latest equipment. The difference has been astounding. Instead of having half a dozen visitors most days there is now a steady rate of trucks in and out, delivering metals of all kinds and taking away blocks of crushed vehicles for melting down.
It seems that Danny can do no wrong in his business ventures, a fact which has greatly impressed Bill’s grieving widow but not his son, who feels he is becoming surplus to requirements. Jason is uneasy about the amount of time Danny spends on the phone to his shady contacts in Ireland, Liverpool and London. He disappears for days at a time and nobody knows where or why. Rosa is also suspicious but powerless to intervene. In her mother’s eyes, young Danny can do no wrong and anyway, Rosa has been seeing rather a lot of Frank lately and not merely for cosy chats over a pint.
Jason is taking out his frustration on the crane grab machine. He lowers the claw, sets it above an innocent looking mini cooper and closes it to crash through the windows and grip the trembling little car. He raises the claw, watching as the mini swings up and over the trough then loosens the grip to let it drop with a frightened thud.
Danny sets the crushing machine in motion and they both watch in satisfied silence as the rams close in. The metal screeches and bangs as the mini is mangled, screaming out in its death throes until it is consumed and reduced to a small block, which is then lifted into the back of a waiting truck.
Jason despises his cousin and every time he does this job he imagines the car being sacrificed is Danny. This always gives him a feeling of immense satisfaction. If only Danny knew the reason for Jason’s good humour.
They are alerted by the dogs that a Mark 10 Jaguar has just been driven into the yard at speed. Two men leap from the vehicle, rush to the boot and take out four heavy-looking holdalls. Danny jumps down from his perch at the machine controls and ushers them up the wooden stairs to his new office. Seconds later he returns and orders Jason to get the car into the crusher right away.
The Jaguar is hastily dispatched and the evidence loaded into the truck, only just in time as four police cars race down the track towards them, stopping in a cloud of dust outside the now closed gates.
Soon the place is swarming with uniformed officers, turning over bits of rubbish, charging through the house and ransacking the buildings. ‘Where are they?’ yells DS Roberts, ‘we know they came this way.’ But Danny denies all knowledge and Jason says nothing. He wonders where the men are hiding and is just as keen to know as are the cops.
Danny asks what all the commotion is about but the policemen will not tell him, only that they are looking for four men believed to be armed and dangerous and that he should ring the police immediately if they should be seen. Or if their car is spotted, it’s a black Mark 10 Jaguar.
After a thorough search of the premises, the policemen give up and drive away. ‘Phew, that was close,’ says Danny, breaking out into a laughing fit. ‘Right lads, you can come out now.’
The two men crawl out from the depths of the dog kennels, brush down their clothes and rub their limbs back to life. ‘You were cutting it fine there Sean,’ says Danny, ‘you need to lose a few pounds and get in shape.’
Danny introduces the men as Sean and Peter from Kilburn, then helps them drag the bags from the dog kennels and brush them off. He takes them into the office and Jason is left to guess at the rest.
He continues with his work, adding another couple of victim’s names to the cars as they go through the machine one by one.
The truck is loaded and Rosa calls Jason in for lunch. She ignores the men in the office, knowing well enough to keep out of Danny’s affairs.
‘Do you want to keep me company on this trip?’ asks Rosa. Jason says he would be glad to get out of the yard for the rest of the day and at 1.30pm they secure the load with nets and drive away.
Rosa has to admit that the Ford D1000 is much nicer to drive than the old Atkinson and they rumble along happily listening to the radio, a luxury which would have been wasted in the old truck as you couldn’t hear yourself think for the roar of the engine. The Ford is quiet and has a double passenger seat for Jason to sprawl on. He has another 18months to wait until he is old enough to learn how to drive the truck and envies his sister her relative freedom. She in turn envies the men who simply because of their age are getting their HGV licences without having to take a test.
Danny has finished his dealings with Sean and Peter. They have selected an old Hillman Minx from the stock of wrecks to get them home. It still has a valid tax disc so will not draw attention and they can pick up their two mates where they dropped them earlier to stash their share of the loot. Danny has been generously paid for his part and he smiles as the men drive off in a cloud of blue smoke back to the smoke. The old Hillman’s knackered engine should get them far enough away from the island. Anyway, there is nothing to link him to any of it.