Read Online To Fight For by Phillip Hunter - Free Book Online Page A

said.
    â€˜But you are guilty, Joe,’ Compton said. ‘Don’t you remember?’
    They were doing their tag-team thing, taking me for some mug who’d been caught shoplifting. I pulled at the binds.
    â€˜You’re not going anywhere, son,’ Compton said.
    â€˜Guilty of what?’
    â€˜Oh, just about everything, I reckon. Murder, armed robbery, assault, obstruction of the law etc. etc. and so on ad infinitum.’
    â€˜That means forever,’ Bradley said. ‘Like your prison term’s gonna be.’
    â€˜You’ll have trouble proving it.’
    â€˜Fuck proof. We make our own proof. You’ve been around. You know how it works.’
    I knew. If they’d wanted to arrest me, they’d have done it already. Which meant they wanted something. I said to Compton, ‘This place has been searched. Was it you lot?’
    â€˜Maybe.’
    â€˜What were you looking for?’
    â€˜Same as you, I expect; anything that’ll lead us to Glazer. Anything that’ll help convict him. Anything that’ll help us find him.’
    â€˜You don’t know where he is?’
    They glanced at each other.
    â€˜He’s fucked off,’ Bradley said. ‘Gone to ground. And that’s your fucking fault.’
    â€˜Officially, he’s on leave,’ Compton said. ‘No one’s seen him for a couple of weeks. He’s supposed to be back in a few days. I don’t think he will be. He hasn’t been to his home, nobody’s heard from him. We could do with your help there.’
    Now it was Hayward’s turn. He said, ‘Come on, Joe. We all want the same thing. In different ways, maybe, but the same result: Glazer has to pay.’
    He was putting a lot of emotion into his voice.
    â€˜You know about Operation Elena; the whole point of that was to target the immigrant sex industry, to help women, children. That’s what you want too, isn’t it? To help the victims.’
    Now he was looking concerned, gazing at me as if to say ‘I know how much you’ve suffered.’
    â€˜And you know they gave the job to Glazer, right? They put him in charge of the operation, and what did he do? He sold the information to the very bastards he should’ve been catching. That’s why we’re investigating it now. We aren’t your enemies, Joe.’
    Sure, Hayward was a decent bloke. He was on my side. He was my fucking friend.
    â€˜He’s got to pay, Joe. Let us make him pay.’
    I stared at him while he sympathized with me.
    They’d worked out who was playing which part. Hayward drew the good guy straw.
    Well, I could play their fucking game.
    â€˜You’re right. I’m tryna find him.’
    â€˜Well …’ Compton said, making like he was working out a plan. ‘Glazer’s not likely to surface, is he? I mean, Paget’s dead, Marriot’s dead, and Glazer knows we’re after him. No, he’ll keep his head down. So we need something else, another way to get him.’
    â€˜So what do we do?’ I said, still playing along.
    Compton wiped a hand over his moustache.
    â€˜There’s more than one way to skin a cat,’ he said. ‘If we could find something on him, some kind of physical evidence, say, then we could cut off his avenues of retreat. His friends would soon start turning their backs on him. Once he’s out in the cold, we could get him.’
    â€˜Meanwhile, we could give you protection,’ Hayward said. ‘From Dunham, Glazer.’
    Protection? They’d give me protection? Shit.
    â€˜So? Do you have anything?’ Bradley said.
    â€˜If I did, I wouldn’t be here, would I?’
    â€˜Anything, Joe,’ Hayward said. ‘Or if there’s anything you know could lead us to finding evidence.’
    I tried to stand, just to see if they’d let me. They did. In fact, they helped me. Fucking coppers.
    â€˜Such as?’ I said.
    Now they