River of sin

1. There's no out this time

Jacob walked determinedly down the dark cobbled streets, his angry strides matched his sour mood. He wiped his bloodied knuckles in his handkerchief roughly before taking a cigarette from his suite pocket, striking a match. When he reached the Black swan, he forcefully shoved the doors open, making his presence known. With an authoritative Out!, bodies began to scramble out through the doors he'd just barged through. He knew he didn't have long. Finally tonight was the night it all ended. He helped himself to a whiskey from behind the bar, letting the warm liquid flow down his throat knowing it was probably going to be his last, he poured another.

"Jacob?" His eldest sister asked, looking over his injuries "what's happened? Who did this? Boys...."
"He's been dealt with. Permanently." He shook his head, downing another glass "Rachel....I'm gonna need a watertight alibi."
"Then we can't use the boys. They've all been out on the lash tonight. Been seen. I've been here with Lenard. Bobbies came in and saw me, I served one."
"What about Gran?" Lenard asked
"Leave her out of this." Jacob looked up at the sound of the police outside
"Jacob what have you done?" Rachel asked worriedly, she could tell by the look on the face of her usually confident and unshakable brother that it was serious. Their family were no strangers to violence, they had police on the payroll. They were protected and feared this side of the river. "Should I talk to detective Brent?"
"No" Jacob sighed, pouring one last drink "nobody says nought to nobody!" He warned as his brother barged through the back door.

"Jacob, they're looking for you, out back let's go!" Danny panted out
"Not this time. They got witnesses. I lost control, I snapped. There's no out this time. You take care of the family you hear me, Danny! Make sure Betty's alright. Tell her I love her and I'm sorry."
"We'll sort this Jacob" Rachel hugged her brother "who?" She asked softly "who did you do in?"
"Gabriel Barnes"
The room fell deadly silent, they all knew how serious this was. The Barnes family were the only family more feared than their own, more powerful, far more wealthy, their rivals, a long standing family history of hatred between the families.
"They won't turn a blind eye to this, Barnes won't let them, so unless you find me a watertight alibi, a damn good one that can trump witness statements as being no more than mistaken identity. Then this is it. Tell Gran...I had no choice, it was him or me."
"On our turf or theirs?" Danny asked
"Ours. Keep your wits about ya, troubles coming. The Barnes' won't let this slide without retribution even if he was on our turf."

Jacob held his hands in the air in surrender when the police barged in, being carted off to the cells. "I can't help you this time, Jacob lad" Detective Brent whispered in his ear before locking the cell. Jacob gave him a nod of understanding. He was once one of them, a childhood friend of his fathers turned straight or semi straight. He was in their pocket, turned a blind eye, always helped the Evans family out if he could. Jacob sat in the cold cell, listening to the fellow inmates, the beatings, the noise of unrest outside, eventually drifting to sleep. Hoping sleep would clear his head so that he was ready to face his fate, to calm his racing mind of the trouble he was leaving behind, the people that depended on him that he felt like he'd let down.

To his surprise the next evening Detective Brent unlocked his cell announcing he was free to go, apologising for the mistake. A water tight alibi had been produced, placing him elsewhere at the time of death, not only elsewhere but elsewhere doing something that would carry favour with the father of the man whose blood he'd spilt on Fenton Bridge.

Jacob straightened himself up ready to walk out boldly, realising the reason he hadn't had a more harsher beating was the alibi coming forward in the early hours of that morning, asking for mercy on him. The Evans' ran this side of the river, locally known as the river of sin. The Evans always presented themselves smartly, despite coming from the slums. Feared by most and loved by many, they were bad men but they were their bad men, keeping them safe as long as they fell in line. He walked confidently back to the Black swan where he was greeted with shock and surprise.

"I don't know how you did it Rach but thank you" he whispered in the ear of his sister who had a death grip on him.
"Did What?"
"The alibi? It wasn't you?"
"No, I was still working on it. Why? Who came forward? Detective Brent said it would need to be someone influential, an upstanding citizen, not a kid, they are hard find these days. They are all on our pay in some way. He said it had to be someone that they couldn't connect back to us. He came by last night to tell us we needed to hurry and he'd try and stall for time."
"Aye. Gabriel Barnes is a ruddy big fish, Rachel. Leave it for now. Let's celebrate! Drinks are on me!" He announced to cheers

"Danny, expect visitors" Jacob warned, walking to the back room with his family to drink in privacy.
"Already am, put extra men on look out."
"Gran" Jacob smiled at the old bird, the matriarch of the family.
"You're are draft fool, Jacob. There will be consequences to this."
"I am well aware. Let us hope this alibi sticks, now hand over my little Betty." He grinned taking the baby from his Grans arms. "There's my girl. You miss me? Love you, I'm sorry. I'll be more careful my little sweet-pea."