Read Online Only the Brave by Mel Sherratt - Free Book Online

night – I’ve been seeing a bit of stuff over in Regina Street so I left it at her place, got a taxi there and back from Flynn’s. That’s where I was until it was time to do the job. After that, I took the money and the bat back to my car and hid them in the boot. Then I legged it in the back way.’
    ‘I thought there was only one entrance to Harrison House, at the front.’
    ‘There is. I’m still nimble enough to climb up a floor from the outside, though.’ Craig felt the grip on him release.
    ‘But Jordan shouldn’t have died!’
    ‘I heard on the news that he’d been stabbed. Someone must have got to him after me.’
    Steve snorted. ‘Like everyone is hanging around the flats at that time of the morning.’
    ‘I’m telling you it wasn’t me. You need to start thinking who it could have been.’
    Steve let him go, moved around to the other side of the desk.
    ‘Have you any ideas?’ said Craig.
    Steve stacked up the bundles of money. ‘No, but they’ll wish they’d never got involved when I get my hands on them. Wait a minute.’ He counted the bundles again, frowned after a moment. ‘Ryder said thirty-five grand.’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘There’s only twenty-five grand in here.’
    Craig shuffled forward, looked inside the bag as if more would miraculously appear, and then at the bundles of notes. A film of sweat began to develop on his forehead. ‘That’s all I collected, I swear!’
    ‘Don’t take me for a fucking mug.’ Steve made fists of his hands and leaned on the desk. ‘Where’s the rest of it?’
    ‘That’s all there was!’
    ‘You expect me to believe that?’
    ‘I haven’t been in the bag! I wouldn’t do that. I know the risks – plus you paid me good money to collect it.’
    ‘Money I want back. You fucked up on the job. You don’t deserve payment. I want my five grand, too.’
    ‘No, I –’
    ‘You must be on a death wish stealing from Ryder.’
    ‘Do you think I’d be stupid enough to do anything like that right outside my own front door?’ Craig tried to pacify him. ‘I’d be prime fucking suspect with my record.’
    ‘It seems more than a little convenient that you live close by and some of the money goes missing.’
    Steve still didn’t drop his eyes. Craig felt his life depended on a little grovelling.
    ‘When I left, he was breathing, I swear. A beating, you told me: face, body and legs. I know when to stop.’
    ‘What about the flats? You think anyone from there is stupid enough to take it?’
    ‘I don’t know.’ Craig felt the sweat begin to pool at the middle of his back. His right eye twitched, the pressure to stop it increasing every second. He wanted to be any place but here in this office, stifled by the threat of violence.
    ‘You know why he was there? Why we chose that meeting place?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘He’s knocking off a bird in Harrison House. Maybe you could start by finding out who she is. She might know something.’
    Craig nodded.
    ‘I want it back by this evening, Elliott.’ Steve glared at him. ‘Nine p.m. – no later.’
    ‘But there are police everywhere around the flats!’ Craig stepped forward, a pained expression on his face, ‘I can’t just –’
    ‘Just fucking find it!’ Steve came round the desk and grabbed the collar of Craig’s jacket. He slung him in the direction of the door so hard that he fell to the floor. He kicked him in the stomach. ‘If you don’t have it by this evening, it’s not my feet that I’ll be using on you the next time I see you. You got that?’

9.20 A.M.
    Craig clutched an arm to his stomach as he sat waiting for the traffic lights to change at Limekiln Bank. All he’d had to do was give Jordan a good beating, Steve had said. Make it enough to put him in hospital for a week or so, off his feet for a few more. He’d wanted to make a quick buck. And fighting for him was easy money. Everyone knew he was a thug. But he wasn’t a killer.
    His car had been given a quick once-over while