by Conrad Jones
Chapter Eighty-Three
Alec
Alec awoke from a shallow sleep. He looked at his watch through bleary eyes and cursed the ringing phone. “What, what, what,” he muttered. “Ramsay,” his voice sounded rough and thick with sleep.
“Sorry to call you so early, Guv,” Smithy apologised. “There’s been a shooting on the river.”
“What time is it?” Alec fumbled for his wristwatch.
“It’s six.” The detective sounded nervous. “I thought you’d want to know straightaway.”
“Don’t worry, if it’s important.” Alec sat up and switched on the light. The other side of the bed was unruffled. He still slept on his side of the bed, as if Gail was snoozing next to him. His mouth was like sandpaper. He rubbed his eyes as he spoke. “What’s happened?”
“There’s been a shooting on the prom, Guv,” Smithy explained. “Get this, Zamir Oguzhan, his minder Sami Ahmed, Gus Rickman and a meathead called Darren Howes were blown away about forty minutes ago.”
“Where?” Alec swung his legs out of bed and scratched his testicles with his free hand. He caught his reflection in the mirror. It reminded him of a chimpanzee at the zoo. It was no wonder Gail had fallen into the arms of a younger man. He suddenly felt very old and lonely. Fifty-two wasn’t ancient these days, but he felt older, much older. His reflection backed up his feelings.
“On the promenade near the coach park, uniform found their cars a few hundred yards away parked up near the kerbs.”
“Can we tell what happened, have they shot each other?” Alec thought aloud.
“Doesn’t look that way, Guv.” Smithy sounded certain. “It looks like they’ve been sprayed with at least one machinegun from across the road. They found the bodies in a group next to the railings. Ahmed was in the mud over the wall. Rickman was armed, but his gun was still holstered, Guv.”
“Sounds like someone caught them with their pants down?”
“Definitely.” Smithy sounded nervous again.
“Well, my money is on Nate Bradley, have you spoken to his observation team?” Alec stood up and climbed into a pair of worn black underpants. His legs looked pale in the mirror. His potbelly protruded over the elastic. He sucked it in and turned sideways. Alec felt the anticipation of closing a case inside his stomach. He wanted Smithy to tell him that they had caught Bradley red-handed with the smoking gun in his hand.
“As soon as we identified the victims, we sent them in to Bradley’s house, Guv.” Smithy paused. “Bradley was unconscious in the armchair with two empty bottles of whisky next to him. They’re adamant he hasn’t moved all night, Guv.”
“Are they positive?” Alec was amazed and disappointed at the same time. “Could he be faking it?”
“They’re sure, but they thought the same and breathalysed him just in case. He’s five times over the limit, Guv,” Smithy stuttered a little nervously. “They found a copy of Oguzhan’s police file on the coffee table, too.”
“What?” Alec frowned. “How the bloody hell has he got a copy of that?” Alec opened the wardrobe and fumbled for a clean shirt. His dirty ones were building up into a pile on the floor waiting for the tidy fairy to arrive. They would be waiting a long time. She was dead. “I don’t think we can charge him with that. That man is either incredibly good or incredibly lucky.”
“Maybe a bit of both, Guv,” Smithy said ironically. “At least that bastard Oguzhan is dead. That’s payback time.”
“Yes, I suppose it is, Smithy,” Alec said quietly. He looked at a photograph of Gail he kept next to his bed. She was smiling and happy. “I guess what goes around comes around, eh?” Alec thought that he should feel a sense of satisfaction, but he didn’t. Gail was gone and he missed her terribly.
Chapter Eighty-Four
Epilogue
“Hey Deano, great news about the kids.” The sun was shining and the view across the river was breathtaking. The view from the balcony was the reason he had bought the flat. It overlooked the water and a yacht marina, and on a sunny day, it was a little piece of paradise on the edge of the big bad city.
“Yes, they pulled through, man.” Dean Hines sounded tired. “I’ve never prayed so hard in my life.”
“I am made up for you.”
“Okay, thanks.” Dean sounded cautious. “That’s all the bullshit out of the way, what do you want?”
“I’m letting you know that when your kids are better, there is a job with me for you. Leon got greedy, Dean, and teaming up with the Turks would have ended up in a bloodbath eventually.”
“Leon was an arsehole,” Dean grunted. “I heard the Turks got whacked with Gus Rickman.”
“Yes, I heard that too. Rumours are that Gus was going to jump into bed with the Turks. He was a two-faced bastard, no one trusted him. If he’d done a deal with them, the other gangs would have turned on him and each other, fighting over the scraps.”
“He would have been massive with the Turks behind him,” Dean said. “Now that would have ended with tears.”
“Blood and tears, Deano, greed always ends that way. That’s why you should work for me.”
“Why would I want to work for you?”
“What are you going to do, Deano? How are you going to feed your kids and pay the mortgage?”
“I need to get away from all that shit, man.” Dean wasn’t convinced.
“You know me. I have fuck all to do with drugs, Dean. I know the kids want to get high, that’s fine, but I didn’t like the way Leon was force-feeding the weak ones who couldn’t pay for it, you know what I mean?”
“Yes, I know. Let me think about it.” Dean sounded keen. “I’ve got your number. I’ll call you.”
“Make sure you do.” The line went dead. A yacht drifted silently below the balcony, hoisting its mainsail as it headed out to the river. The water was calm today. Jinx Cotton reached down and picked up a bundle of rags from the decking. He tossed the bundle over the balcony into the river. There was a dull splash and the concentric ripples appeared to move with the fast moving water. The tide had turned, allowing the fresh water to flow at speed into the Irish Sea. The rags sunk quickly, weighed down by the Mach-10 machinegun hidden inside them. “Greed kills them all eventually.” Jinx raised his face to the sun and let its warmth soak through him. Today was the start of new era, and he felt good inside.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Thank you for reading my book. If you enjoyed this book, it is in the Detective Alec Ramsay Series. The sequel is http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=detective+alec+ramsay+series+conrad+jones&rh=n%3A341677031%2Ck%3Adetective+alec+ramsay+series+conrad+jones
And the sixth novel, which features ‘Tank’ in the Soft Target series. http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=soft%20target%20series%20conrad%20jones
If you could take two minutes to review this book, it would help the author very much.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Child-Taker-Book-Detective-Ramsay-ebook/dp/B0045OUOIA
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Don’t forget to read, Slow Burn, Frozen Betrayal, Desolate Sands and Concrete Evidence.
MORE HORROR FROM CONRAD JONES
http://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Angels-Diaries-ebook/dp/B00GZ0TH7G/ref=la_B002BOBGRE_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402581462&sr=1-5
Review from Amazon Vine Voice; From the very first chapter there's a real old school feeling about this novel. Think of the great horror writers of latter part of the last century (Masterton, Saul, Herbert) and Jones' style would feel at home. From the first few pages there a great sense of wrongness, which later allows Jones to grow the menace so sought after by the better writers in the genre.
http://www.amazon.com/Child-Devil-Hunting-Angels-Diaries-ebook/dp/B009OIVDZK/ref=la_B002BOBGRE_1_11?s=books&i
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THE BOOK OF ABOMINATIONS
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Abominations-horror-collection-ebook/dp/B00K1GBP2U/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402581917&sr=1-2&keywords=THE+BOOK+OF+ABOMINATIONS