Read Online The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter (Glasgow Trilogy) by Malcolm Mackay - Free Book Online

Calum. Not ever. Different kind of criminals. Different kind of people.
    He visits his runner in the early evening. No warning. Turn up at his house. He keeps them in the loft, only ever two or three in his possession at a time. If they were found, he would look like
a dangerous small-time operator. Two or three guns found. How many hundreds have passed through his hands in the three decades that he’s been in the business? He’s knowingly supplied
many killers on many occasions. He’s always kept his head down and his mouth shut, and perhaps nothing is more important for a runner. Once you have a name, a public awareness, then you have
nothing. Little is said. He knows why Calum is there. He retrieves the weapons, money changes hands and Calum leaves. Two small handguns. No whistles and bells. No silencers, for example. Not
needed in a job designed to send a message. Expensive, heavy, unnatural. Very few gunmen like them – gives you a harder shot. Job’s hard enough, thank you very much.
    Out on the streets with two guns in your pocket. A nervous time. Calum is driving straight home. He’ll hide the guns, pushed in through an air vent on a blocked-up chimney in his bedroom.
One more thing to do, but that can wait. He has more than twenty-four hours before he does the job. The last thing to do will be done the following morning, and it will involve the help of his
elder brother. A precautionary measure, and he takes a few of those. There is an issue with that, though. There’s an issue with taking too many precautions. You change everything about
yourself and people start to notice. You make radical changes to yourself or your life before every job, and people will notice. Someone will put two and two together. Nothing that draws
attention.
    The following morning he calls his brother William at the garage that William has a share in. His brother, two years older (certainly not two years wiser), must know what he does. He definitely
knows that Calum works in the industry. He must be aware. William has many contacts in the business himself. He played a role in introducing Calum to a lot of people in the business. William now
runs a semi-legit garage in the east end. Small place, small-time. Makes reasonable money, topped up by supplying cars to people in the trade. Help out people you trust, make a bit of money. Keeps
things ticking over nicely. With Calum, it’s a little bit different.
    William always helps Calum, every job. Calum goes to him because he’s his brother, and he can trust him. William would take any punishment rather than allow his little brother to be found
out. He suspects what his brother does, why he needs the cars. Fine: supply him. Don’t talk directly about the work. Warn him to be careful. He worries, though. It’s an industry where
it’s hard not to make a little mistake. Little mistake means big punishment. What would it do to their mother, if her younger son were to find himself locked up for life? So he always helps
Calum, but there’s a growing reluctance. The more jobs his brother does, the more likely he is to be caught. Does William warn him? Does he say something about the business, breaking the
unwritten code of silence that exists between them on the issue? Not yet.
    Calum arrives in his own car, but he won’t leave in it. People take their cars to the garage in all good faith. They hand them over to be fixed or serviced; they’re told to come back
the following day to collect them. They don’t know that the car is going to be used in a criminal job. Once upon a time these defensive efforts weren’t necessary. Now, thanks to CCTV,
they are. Calum doesn’t want his own car being picked up anywhere near Winter’s house. So he uses the car of some poor innocent soul, someone the police wouldn’t even think of
suspecting. Use it, return it. His brother hands it back to the owner the following day – everyone’s happy. There’s a risk. If the police get a bee