Gangs of the Black County - Original Writing

Gangs of the Black County - Original Writing

"Get ya' bananas, ten for a pound! How about you love? Fancy some

bananas?"

These words could be heard shouted through the rustle and bustle of

Dudley Town Market on the High Street. It was a typical market town,

it had the smells and some sights, a Norman Castle perched upon a hill

overlooked the town, but one could tell that not that long ago this

town was something more important than it was today. Dudley was in the

heart of the Black Country, it was the key town during the Industrial

revolution, supplying iron ore to large companies. Believe it or not

underneath the littered ground there are hundreds of man made mines,

which have scarred the landscape of the Black Country. The High Street

is one long road with shops parallel to each other, but it lacked many

'designer' high street shops; it had a few, but not enough. Since a

nearby shopping complex had opened no one wanted to go to Dudley

anymore. So this lonely town was left with many pound and discount

shops. Mr Arjun Singh, a renowned businessman who had a small chain of

discount stores around the Black Country, owned one of these shops. He

had three sons, Abdul, Arjun Jr and Sanjit. Mr Singh's wife had passed

away a year before, the victim of a tragic car accident. Abdul, the

eldest of the three sons, was still emotionally tormented by his

mother's death. Recent CCTV footage had shown that Mrs Singh had been

a victim of an organised hit and run ordeal. The blame had recently

been laid onto another local businessman, Jason Barley. One of his

'upmarket' stores was right next to Mr Singh's discount shop. It was

thought Mr Barley had gang connections all over the Black Country,

however not enough evidence was available to point an accusing finger

at Jason Barley to the murder of Mrs Singh.

Monday was an important day for Mr Singh and his three sons because Mr

Singh had yet again cut all the prices on his stock.