Read Online Collusion by Stuart Neville - Free Book Online Page A

foreigners. Let the taigs have them for neighbours if they want, but keep them off my streets.’
    Too late, Lennon tried to hide his anger at the word. It had been a while since anyone had called him ‘taig’ to his face.
    Rankin paused, registering the offence. ‘What, you’re the other side of the house, are you?’
    ‘That’s neither here nor there,’ Lennon said.
    ‘Best cop I ever knew was a taig,’ Rankin said. ‘Put away a lot of people, that boy, including me. Twice.’
    Lennon ignored Rankin’s clumsy attempt at prettying up his bigotry. ‘You were telling me about Crozier and the Lithuanians.’
    ‘Aye, right. Rodney Crozier wasn’t just doing a bit of trading with the Liths, he was getting into bed with them in a big way. See, when Michael McKenna got his brains blown out a few months back, that left a big gap.’ Rankin stopped talking and tilted his head. ‘What?’
    Lennon’s jaw had tightened at McKenna’s name. ‘Nothing,’ he said.
    Rankin studied him for a moment before continuing. ‘Anyway, the Liths started moving in to his old places on the Lower Falls, the apartments he’d been running girls out of, but they needed muscle on the street.’
    ‘Not Republican muscle?’
    ‘No, see, McKenna’s higher-ups wouldn’t let their boys take up the slack. They’re too busy pretending to be politicians these days, they don’t want to get their hands dirty. They don’t want any of McKenna’s old shit sticking to them when it’s election time, you understand?’
    Lennon nodded. ‘I understand.’
    ‘Now, the Liths can’t go too deep into that part of Belfast, but those places around Broadway are wide open for them. So they’ve got Crozier’s boys doing the donkey work, and he’s getting a big slice for his trouble. He’s raking it in, and I’m left swinging.’
    ‘Surely there’s plenty to go around,’ Lennon said.
    ‘But he’s getting all the traffic off the motorway. All the punters from Lisburn, Craigavon, Lurgan, Dungannon, they just turn off at the roundabout and they’ve got all the action they want.’
    ‘So what was the meet with Crozier about?’
    ‘To see if I could talk sense to him,’ Rankin said. ‘Fuck knows why I thought he’d listen. He always was a thick cunt. All mouth, the big man so long as he had his boys to back him up. I thought if I got him on his own, just the two of us, we could be reasonable about it.’
    ‘Didn’t work out that way,’ Lennon said.
    Rankin clucked, smiled, and raised his hands. ‘Didn’t, did it? I had to try something, though. I even went to my handlers a while back to see if you lot would do something. I told them I’d do anything they wanted to get Crozier shut down, give them any dirt on him I could find. They said no, there wasn’t enough men or money to go after him like that. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Rodney Crozier was touting as well.’ Rankin fixed Lennon with a long hard stare. ‘Is he?’ he asked.
    ‘I wouldn’t know,’ Lennon said. ‘You know as well as I do C3 tell us sweet fuck all.’
    ‘C3? That’s a fucking stupid name. Makes them sound like a car. They’re still Special Branch, same as before. So if you can’t tell me about Rodney Crozier, then tell me something else.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Why’d you flinch when I said Michael McKenna’s name?’
    ‘I didn’t.’
    A smile crawled along Rankin’s lips. ‘Yes you did. Don’t bullshit a bullshitter, son.’
    Lennon stood. ‘I think that’s all for now.’
    ‘Hang on,’ Rankin said, raising a finger at Lennon, his eyes narrowing. ‘You’re the cop that took up with McKenna’s niece, aren’t you? She had a child to you, didn’t she? That fairly stirred the shit among his boys. I heard they were ready for doing her, only McKenna wouldn’t have it.’
    Lennon leaned over Rankin until he could smell the stale remains of his aftershave. ‘Keep your mouth off that,’ he said.
    ‘I wasn’t surprised when I heard she