the heady mix of fumes already in the air, and then scraping the phosphorus off with a razor blade before leaving it to dry.
Out back in the single storey lean to kitchen was where it all came together and he did his actual cooking.
Scampi’s recipe was a classic hot cook.
Take two large screw-topped jars, put holes in the lids and connect the lids using surgical tubing, remembering to seal around the connections thoroughly.
Half fill one jar with distilled water, close the lid and place on a hotplate to warm up.
Once it’s beginning to steam, put your mix of pseudo and iodine crystals into the other jar, add a splash of distilled water and put this on a hotplate as well.
Then throw in your phosphorus and quickly screw the lid on tightly as the reaction will start immediately.
Cook for about an hour and a half or until the contents are no longer boiling.
Take off the heat and leave to cool. If you have a strong stench of rotten eggs then congratulations, you have made your dope in that black gunk at the bottom of the jar. Now all you have to do is get it out again.
Pour in some distilled water, screw on a lid without any holes and shake like hell until the gunk has all come off into the water. Filter the contents through into another glass jar, but keep the strainings as this is your phosphorus that you can keep for later reuse.
What you should be left with is a jar of honey yellow-looking liquid.
Top up the jar with pure petroleum spirit, add a couple of tablespoons of caustic soda, leave to sit for five minutes, shake violently to mix and then leave to settle again for about half an hour.
Siphon the petroleum spirit and dope mix into another plastic drinks bottle taking care to leave the sediment behind. Add a small amount of distilled water, and a drop of hydrochloric acid, and again shake well. Turn the bottle upside down and leave to stand so the spirit settles out above the water which will now contain your dope.
Put a clean Pyrex bowl on your hotplate and get it good and hot.
Then, very carefully, holding the drinks bottle as still as you can, loosen the lid until the water starts to dribble out of the bottle and into the bowl, being damn careful not to let any of the petroleum spirit spill into it or it could be Goodnight Vienna.
The water will quickly evaporate in the hot bowl and once it has dried off , pour a small amount of acetone into the bowl. Swirl it around as it sizzles and if you’ve done it right, as it boils off it will leave behind as a reward for all your efforts a circle of crystals of pure meth to depending on your choice, stick up your nose, share with like minded friends, or simply sell for profit.
Easy really.
And they say this stuff can be dangerous?
‘Listen Scampi, ’ Scroat asked, ‘ we need to hole up here for a while, a few days, maybe a week, that OK with you?’
‘Sure guys, you’re my bros ain’t ya?’ he said , ‘ M ake yoursel ves at home .’
H e showed us into a large upstairs room with a selection of mattresses strewn across the floor around a filthy looking rug, ‘You can have the guest room here. Stay as long as you like guys. Be good to have some company.’
*
All told, w e were there as it turned out for about a week. Apart from our jail trips, I never got to leave the house. In fact I never got to leave the room except to go for a shit or a piss. But by turns Bung or Scroat would disappear off to get something organized, or have quiet conversations on their phones, sometimes together, sometimes alone.
Something was up , I knew. This felt as though it was about more than just us lying low for a while; but I knew better than to ask what.
With the news about Loki MC having arrived it looked as though Wibble and Charlie’s crews had decided they needed to bury their increasingly obvious differences and disagreements about the future of the club, or at least work in uneasy alliance, while they met the new threat.
Scroat even felt secure enough with
John le Carré
Charlaine Harris
Ruth Clemens
Lana Axe
Gael Baudino
Kate Forsyth
Alan Russell
Lee Nichols
Unknown
Augusten Burroughs