The Drop

looked like they drove in and parked up, flashed their lights in the normal secret way they are s’posed to; you know, one flash and you can watch, two you can join in, three you can take us both up the bum-hole, whatever. We have one witness who must have been even fatter and slower than your average dogger because by the time he comes out of the trees, the window was already coming down and he sees a big shaven-headed bloke step out of a car that’s pulled in behind Jerry Lemon’s.’ It had to be one of the guys who’d gone steaming in on Barry and his lads at the bar. ‘This bloke walks right up to the opened window but instead of pulling his cock out he brings a gun up and blows Jerry’s head off at point blank range. His missus started screaming apparently, as you would when you get a different kind of facial from the one you were expecting, so he pops her as well.’
    ‘Christ almighty. This witness, can we get to him? He might tell Finney a bit more than he’s telling your lot.’
    He shook his head, ‘Anonymous. He called it in, left a description of what he had seen but wouldn’t cooperate further and didn’t leave his name,’ he shrugged, ‘who would?’
    Sharp puffed away at his cigarette for a while, as if he was reflecting on the fate of Jerry Lemon. We watched as the kids walked down the mud track in front of us. They tried to fly their kite but the wind kept swooping it up high then smashing it straight back down into the ground again. Eventually Sharp said, ‘I’m serious about what I was saying before. It’s grim. I’m worried, really worried,’ then he turned to look at me, ‘you would look after me, wouldn’t you? If I got sent down because of stuff we’d done together?’
    ‘Yeah, sure. I’ll send you a cake with a file in it.’
    ‘Will you stop pissing about for five minutes? I mean it. I need to know you’ll look after me, like you would if I was a proper member of the firm. You know what I’m saying.’
    ‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘I know what you’re saying. You’re implying I’d better look after you or you’ll make a deal and bring me and Bobby down with you in exchange for a lighter sentence.’
    ‘Now hang on a minute, I wasn’t… ’
    ‘Yes you were and I would do the same in your shoes but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. You’ll be looked after if it all goes tits-up but remember there’s a flip-side to that generosity. If Bobby Mahoney thinks someone is going to betray him he doesn’t mess about. Know how easy it would be to have a bent detective stabbed while he’s on remand? There’s people inside who would do it just for fun. Throw in a couple of grand and they’d be queuing up, a couple more would make a prison officer look the other way, they get paid even less than Detective Sergeants and we both know what people are prepared to do for money. There’d be no witnesses and about a thousand suspects. Villains in the nick don’t like coppers, especially bent ones. So you better keep your lip buttoned and take what’s coming to you. Getting caught and being sent down comes with the turf for dodgy detectives, but that’s the least of your worries.’
    Sharp had gone pale, ‘I never meant anything by it, honest.’
    ‘My guess is you’re worrying about nothing. Your DI probably lamped a suspect in a past life and they put in a complaint, so stop shitting yourself and start acting like a man.’
    ‘Yeah, yeah, that’ll be it. You’re right. I’m sorry.’
    ‘You get any leads on who killed Jerry Lemon you ring me first,’ I left him watching the kids, still struggling to get their kite off the ground.
    I walked back to my car. Up ahead of me I could see the high rise blocks of flats from the estate nearby. They were a monument to a different kind of Tyneside. Politicians were always talking about rejuvenating the areas around Newcastle but I reckoned they were kidding us and themselves. Around the turn of a new and hopeful millennium, a housing association in North Benwell had to sell off houses for fifty pence because nobody would pay any more than that to live there. They were on a hiding to nothing.

TWENTY-EIGHT
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    I knew Bobby would want to hear this kind of news right away. I went straight round to his house.
    ‘First Geordie Cartwright now Jerry Lemon,’ he said in disbelief. He walked over to the drinks trolley, picked up the bottle and poured himself several fingers of