Read The Drop for Free Online Page B

into his old VW. I’d hung back a bit, playing it safe, in case anyone spotted us.
    Sharp was just north of thirty but he looked older, mainly because he was the only man I knew who still thought a moustache was a sensible choice. We drove out of the city for a while, not saying much until he pulled up in a tiny industrial estate, which was totally empty as it was Saturday morning.
    ‘So,’ he said, ‘must be pretty serious for me to risk picking you up in broad daylight in the city on a match day.’ He seemed a bit narked but I wasn’t going to allow that.
    ‘You get paid enough to justify a bit of weekend work.’
    He spread his palms, ‘I’m not complaining. What can I do for you boss?’
    ‘I have a problem,’ I said, ‘a missing person,’ and I told him about Cartwright going AWOL, though I left out the bit about the Drop going missing with him. The fewer people that knew about that the better.
    ‘You want me to find him for you?’
    ‘It’s what you’re good at it isn’t it?’
    He nodded, ‘that and other things,’ he thought for a moment, ‘and when I find him? Call you or deal with it?’
    ‘Call me. I need to talk to him before any decision is made on the man’s future.’
    ‘Okay.’
    I spent the next fifteen minutes telling him everything I knew about Cartwright that might help him to track the man down. ‘I’ll be looking for him as well, so if you hear about someone asking after Cartwright it’s probably me.’ That bit was true but that morning I’d also phoned Palmer and set him on the task as well and I didn’t want Sharp and him getting in each other’s way.
    ‘You’re out on the streets for this one?’ he seemed genuinely surprised, ‘what’s he done?’ I didn’t say anything. ‘Hey, it’s none of my business but you must want him bad, that’s all.’
    ‘We do.’
    ‘And you sure you don’t want me to just… ’
    ‘Not until I’ve spoken to him,’ I told him sharply, ‘did you not just hear me?’
    ‘Hey, no problem, it’s cool.’
    I must be slipping, because I didn’t see the uniformed bobby who came walking up to the car from behind and tapped on the window.
    Sharp let the electric window wind down and the uniform said, all sarcastic like, ‘would you two lover boys like to tell me what you’re doing out here?’ and he nodded at the empty office opposite, ‘casing the joint are we gents? Well you can forget about that now.’
    Sharp raised his hand to the window and showed the uniform his warrant card, ‘DS Sharp,’ he said firmly, ‘you just compromised a confidential meeting with a major criminal source,’ which even I found amusing but I didn’t crack a smile.
    ‘I’m really sorry Detective Sergeant,’ and the uniform didn’t look so smug all of a sudden, ‘but I had no way of knowing… ’
    ‘Fuck off,’ Sharp interrupted him, ‘go on, fuck off, now.’ And he did, sharpish.
    ‘Fucking uniforms,’ said Sharp, ‘really piss me off,’
    ‘You were one too,’ I reminded him, ‘once.’
    ‘Not for long,’ he said quietly, ‘I knew the real money was in plain clothes.’
    ‘I’m curious,’ I told him, ‘were you always bent, or did you only cross over to the dark side when you realised how far a policeman’s pay goes?’
    He chuckled but didn’t really answer the question, ‘well, I do have a wife and kids… and a mistress… a girlfriend… and a couple or three floozies when the mistress and girlfriend are busy.’
    ‘Expensive.’
    ‘Yeah, all of them. Believe me.’
    ‘Well, let’s make sure we don’t kill the golden goose then, shall we? Find Cartwright for me and find him quick.’
    ‘I’ll do my best,’ he assured me, ‘there is one other thing you should know.’
    ‘Yeah?’
    ‘My new boss,’ he told me, ‘he’s got a hard-on for Bobby.’
    ‘Really?’
    He nodded, ‘He’s a careerist, my new DI he knows the quickest way to the top is a high profile bust. There’d be nobody bigger round here than