Read Long Way Down (A Gus Dury crime thriller) for Free Online Page A

...' said Barry.
    I was leaning over Weasel now, tucking an arm under his
oxter, 'Give me a hand with this piece of shit.'
    Barry descended the stairs and got round the other side
of Weasel; for a moment, as he stood at the open door, I wondered if he might
bolt. He looked me up and down and seemed to clamp on to his emotions, reached
for Weasel.
    I was still holding the gun in my other hand. 'Right,
lift away.'
    We got Weasel up the stairs, he was pathetically light.
Nothing but skin and bone — you'd see more meat on a butcher's pencil. In the
front room we dropped him on a filthy sleeping bag that I wouldn't have let a
dog lie on. But this was Weasel we were talking about; it was likely too good
for him. As I straightened my back, gripped hold of the shooter again, I
spotted the Gola bag from Katrina's on the other side of the room.
    Weasel rolled over and groaned. I saw he was coming
round, thought about delivering him another whack but Barry caught my
attention. He was collecting a pack of Club from what would have passed for the
windowsill, if the windows weren't boarded up. I offered my lighter and sparked
up as well.
    'So, what's the craic?' said Barry.
    I huffed. 'There's been precious little fucking craic,
mate ... unless you include the one down the middle of Danny Murray's head they're
seeing to over at the Royal.'
    'What?' He looked perplexed, if he was acting he was a
Gielgud.
    I drew deep on my cig. 'Are you shitting me? Because if
you are, I can walk out on you now and leave you to Boaby Stevens' pugs if you
like.'
    He leaned against the wall, started to scratch his brow.
'This is fucked.'
    'You're telling me?'
    He looked up, eyes darting beyond me to Weasel who was
groaning again.
    I paced towards Barry. 'Look, mate, Danny sent me after
you, I'm guessing because Shakey wanted the rundown on the job you're about to
pull with some of the Emerald Isle's finest.'
    He shook his head. 'It was bloody, Kat ... you know
that.'
    I walked away, didn't want to record his look when he
started to kick off about that woman. She'd done him enough damage and if the
truth be told, I didn't need a reminder of my own sorry loss on that front. If
the roles were reversed Barry could have been Debs talking about how I'd
screwed her life up on a colossal scale.
    'She told me she was clean, you know that?'
    I shook my head in disbelief. 'And you went for that?'
    'No. Well, I hoped you know. We were making plans, for
when I got out.'
    How you made plans with a junkie whose only ambition was
the next fix on the horizon, I'd no clue. 'And what went wrong?'
    'She had a house full of crack-heads when I got home. I
had to turf a mob of them on to the street. But she has a mouth you know, it
runs away with her, the junkies were all trying to butter me up about some big
job I was on, she'd fucking blabbed.'
    You didn't need to join the dots to see how Shakey got
hold of the information. 'So what then?'
    'I just split. Didn't even take my gear, sent Weasel
round for that. I'm finished with her, Gus ... truly.'
    I looked over my shoulder towards Weasel; his hair was
stuck to his forehead where I'd flattened him against the wall.
    'And this job?' I said.
    He shrugged, looked away.
    I fronted up. 'Barry ... the job?'
    He still couldn't look at me. 'Well, y'know, I'm
committed now.'
    He fucking needed to be committed. 'They're Irish, power
lunatics you do know that?'
    'Of course I do, why do you think I'm going ahead with
it? Once you're in they're worse than the Foreign Legion, I'd get my head in a
poke if I backed out.'
    I felt my adrenalin spike. Fight or flight, whatever. I
wasn't taking any chances with my chosen course of action. 'Oh, you're backing
out, Barry ...'
    Now he fronted up, squared shoulders and put the bead on
me. 'Oh, aye, who says?
    I poked the shooter in his chest, 'In the words of
Napoleon Dynamite — a frickin' twelve-gauge!'
    He stepped back. 'Gus, now wait a minute, you don't
understand who you're dealing with here.'
    I