Read Online East of the City by Grant Sutherland - Free Book Online

Life , the racing form, and told me to keep my mind on the job. Later on I tore out the article about Sebastian and kept it. I’m not sure why I did that, maybe because Sebastian had this air about him, sophisticated, he wasn’t like anyone else I knew. Down at the Gallon he seemed like a visitor from another world.
    ‘If we find he’s involved somehow,’ I told Tubs now, ‘we don’t pay out.'
    ‘You don’t pay out nothin’?’
    ‘Not a penny.’
    ‘He’s down the gurgler for eight million?’
    ‘Maybe. But I need to get to the bottom of this fast.’
    ‘How fast?’
    ‘Hours.’
    Tubs snorted.
    ‘Okay, days, but it can’t drag on.’
    Tubs stuck out his bottom lip. I could see it appealed to him, the idea of upsetting Sebastian’s apple cart. ‘I’ll be wastin’ my time,’ he said, ‘but if that’s what you want.'
    Before I could thank him, someone came over from another table. He was completely bald, his face was like a skull, and it wasn’t till he spoke that I recognized him. ‘Ian,’ he said, offering me his hand. ‘Been a while.’ It was Nev Logan; I tried to hide the shock. His grip when we shook was almost nothing, like a ghost.
    ‘Nev,’ I said, trying to look him in the eye.
    ‘Just wanted to say sorry I couldn’t make the funeral. Terrible bloody thing,' he said. ‘Terrible. How’s the sister?’
    ‘She’s staying with me.'
    ‘Good. Stick together. Good people, your Mum and Dad. Good people.’ He rested a hand on my shoulder and I felt the most desperate urge to get out of there. At last he smiled; it made him look even worse, and his hand fell away. ‘Come and see us sometimes, ay?’ Turning gingerly he shuiiled back to the bar.
    ‘Jesus Christ.'
    ‘Yeah. Looks shockin’,’ Tubs remarked. From his tone he could have been sizing up a dog at the track. ‘He’s' not normally that bad. Must be the treatment or somethin’. Cancer. They told him six months ago.’
    ‘You never told me.’
    ‘Would you’ve been interested?'
    This. Again. Tubs always thought I’d betrayed Dad somehow when I went and joined Lloyd’s. And not just Dad, but all of them, like I thought I’d become too good for dog people once I started to wear a suit. There was no point arguing the point now, I had real problems to deal with, so I stood and put my card on the table.
    ‘I really need your help, Tubs.’
    ‘Okay,’ he said raising his hands. ‘Okay.’
    As I went up the stairs I looked over to the bar. Nev was leaning against it, the barman pouring his drink, they were laughing. Nev Logan the joker, the man who used to fill my head with tall stories, he was old suddenly, and dying, and no-one had thought to tell me. The Gallon Club. Nev Logan, slowly dying. But I had other worries. I hurried up the last stairs and out the green door, into the bright glare of the street.

Chapter 9
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    'S o you’re it,’ Bill said, leading me into the surveillance room upstairs. ‘The fall guy.’
    I’d just finished explaining what Allen had asked me to do.
    ‘He thinks it might help.’
    ‘Oh, it’ll help,’ Bill said smiling. ‘You find whoever’s got Ward, you’ll get your fuckin' head blown off.’ He propped himself against the table. ‘Big help.’
    Green lights bobbed up and down on the surveillance gear, the needles on the dials bouncing to and fro. The soundman had his headphones on lopsided, just one ear covered.
    ‘We’ve got monitors on the direct lines into the senior WardSure people,’ Bill said indicating the sound gear. ‘Another one on their switchboard, Max Ward’s home-line, and his mobile.’
    ‘Anything?’
    ‘Dick shit. Tell me again who that security guy was?’
    I took him through it a second time, explaining what Eddie Pike used to do for Sebastian. When I added that I already had someone digging round, Bill frowned. You could see he didn’t think much of our chances in that direction. ‘What about the Name?’ he asked. I gave him the note from the