want me to spy on The Brethren for you? I’m a journalist not a grass, you know I can’t do that.’
‘So tell us what’s going on then,’ he’d insisted, ‘Give us some background, whatever you can. We’ve got a fucking murder case on here now you know. The chiefs are screaming to know what's going on and where it’s going to end and I’ve got fuck all to tell them at the moment. So help me out here. What do you know? What are they thinking?’
So I told him.
Some, not all.
That I’d seen Wibble.
That he seemed to know somehow that it was Capricorn and The Dead Men Riding.
‘It’s like their coming out event he says.’
‘Coming out event? What do you mean?’ Bob asked.
‘They’ve joined forces and patched over.’
‘Patched over?’ he demanded, ‘patched over to what?’
I gave him the one word answer.
‘Mohawks.’
It was all I needed to say. There was a moment’s silence on the other end of the line. Somehow I felt I had to fill it so I repeated myself.
‘He said they’ve gone over to the Mohawks.’
‘I heard,’ he said.
It was just about the ‘Oh shit’ reaction I had been expecting.
‘Mohawks?’ he checked, ‘you’re sure he said Mohawks?’
‘Oh sorry, my mistake,’ I said sarcastically, ‘I’m only a journalist so I’m not used to listening to what people tell me, you’ve just reminded me, actually he said the brownies. Of course I’m sure.’
‘OK, OK! Keep your hair on. It’s just it’s quite a bit of news to take in…’
‘Problem?’ I asked. ‘What do you think? Is this as big a problem as I think it is?’
‘Oh no problem,’ he replied, ‘it’s not what you’d call a problem as such. Just more like all out fucking war, that’s all.’
It’s what I had thought too, but now I was hearing it from the police. ‘That serious?’
‘Yes it’s that serious. The Mohawks have had a Manx chapter for a while now, but them having some bods stuck out on the Isle of Man was something the other senior clubs might not like but could tolerate.’
‘Why there?’ I asked.
‘There was an available club to patch over and besides, it’s a useful place to have a base.’
I was about to ask what the hell for since I didn’t see that The Mohawks would be interested in fishing, tourism and the TT, when Bob filled me in anyway.
‘It’s an international banking centre, lots of offshore financing and money management.’
On the face of it the idea that an ambitious up and coming outlaw biker gang would have a great interest in international bankers seemed funny at the outset, but then given recent financial history you might think they probably had more in common than at first appeared. And of course The Mohawks’ interest in international banking would be a purely business one in terms of what it could do for them when it came to moving and laundering money. As I’d found from talking to Damage, the bikers could be quite sophisticated when it came to the intricacies of dummy companies, offshore trusts and the attractiveness of bearer bonds; all a long way from the popular image of having no interests other than stripping down and rebuilding a knucklehead while drinking crates of booze, eating handfuls of pills and looking forward to the next shag or fight, whichever came first.
But Bob was still talking. ‘Patching over a couple of serious regional firms like Dead Men Riding and Capricorn to give them a mainland presence and territory, now that’s something different. That lobs a huge fucking rock into the local pool and all sorts of shit is going to wash up as a result.’
‘Does it make so much of a difference if these two have the same patch now?’
‘Of course it does. Listen, The Brethren and The Rebels have had their slots for years now, and since your bloody pax Damage they’ve been getting on with business with territories sorted out. They may not be best buddies still but they’ve had an increasingly good working relationship for years.
My pax
‘So tell us what’s going on then,’ he’d insisted, ‘Give us some background, whatever you can. We’ve got a fucking murder case on here now you know. The chiefs are screaming to know what's going on and where it’s going to end and I’ve got fuck all to tell them at the moment. So help me out here. What do you know? What are they thinking?’
So I told him.
Some, not all.
That I’d seen Wibble.
That he seemed to know somehow that it was Capricorn and The Dead Men Riding.
‘It’s like their coming out event he says.’
‘Coming out event? What do you mean?’ Bob asked.
‘They’ve joined forces and patched over.’
‘Patched over?’ he demanded, ‘patched over to what?’
I gave him the one word answer.
‘Mohawks.’
It was all I needed to say. There was a moment’s silence on the other end of the line. Somehow I felt I had to fill it so I repeated myself.
‘He said they’ve gone over to the Mohawks.’
‘I heard,’ he said.
It was just about the ‘Oh shit’ reaction I had been expecting.
‘Mohawks?’ he checked, ‘you’re sure he said Mohawks?’
‘Oh sorry, my mistake,’ I said sarcastically, ‘I’m only a journalist so I’m not used to listening to what people tell me, you’ve just reminded me, actually he said the brownies. Of course I’m sure.’
‘OK, OK! Keep your hair on. It’s just it’s quite a bit of news to take in…’
‘Problem?’ I asked. ‘What do you think? Is this as big a problem as I think it is?’
‘Oh no problem,’ he replied, ‘it’s not what you’d call a problem as such. Just more like all out fucking war, that’s all.’
It’s what I had thought too, but now I was hearing it from the police. ‘That serious?’
‘Yes it’s that serious. The Mohawks have had a Manx chapter for a while now, but them having some bods stuck out on the Isle of Man was something the other senior clubs might not like but could tolerate.’
‘Why there?’ I asked.
‘There was an available club to patch over and besides, it’s a useful place to have a base.’
I was about to ask what the hell for since I didn’t see that The Mohawks would be interested in fishing, tourism and the TT, when Bob filled me in anyway.
‘It’s an international banking centre, lots of offshore financing and money management.’
On the face of it the idea that an ambitious up and coming outlaw biker gang would have a great interest in international bankers seemed funny at the outset, but then given recent financial history you might think they probably had more in common than at first appeared. And of course The Mohawks’ interest in international banking would be a purely business one in terms of what it could do for them when it came to moving and laundering money. As I’d found from talking to Damage, the bikers could be quite sophisticated when it came to the intricacies of dummy companies, offshore trusts and the attractiveness of bearer bonds; all a long way from the popular image of having no interests other than stripping down and rebuilding a knucklehead while drinking crates of booze, eating handfuls of pills and looking forward to the next shag or fight, whichever came first.
But Bob was still talking. ‘Patching over a couple of serious regional firms like Dead Men Riding and Capricorn to give them a mainland presence and territory, now that’s something different. That lobs a huge fucking rock into the local pool and all sorts of shit is going to wash up as a result.’
‘Does it make so much of a difference if these two have the same patch now?’
‘Of course it does. Listen, The Brethren and The Rebels have had their slots for years now, and since your bloody pax Damage they’ve been getting on with business with territories sorted out. They may not be best buddies still but they’ve had an increasingly good working relationship for years.
My pax
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