A Good Day To Die Read Online Free PDF Page B

out than the one you used for your little job.'
    'You want me to lie in the dirt and have chicken blood splashed all over me while you do a David Bailey?'
    'That's about the size of it.'
    'It doesn't seem like I've got much choice, does it?'
    'No,' I said. 'I don't think it does.'
    He emitted a loud sound of consent that sounded like someone impersonating a fart.
    'I'll take that as a yes, shall I?'
    'All right,' he grunted. 'Let's do it.'

4

    A mile short of the resort of White Beach, there's a left turning that leads up to the Ponderosa, Mindoro's only golf course, a truly terrible collection of nine holes built high up on the side of a steep, forested mountain, where the wind whipping across the greens makes hitting a decent shot next to impossible, but where plenty of the expats try on the basis that there's nowhere else for them. I've never liked golf so I've not given it a go myself, although they do have some spectacular views over Puerta Galera and the islands beyond. Some say that on a clear day you can even see Manila eighty miles to the north, although I never have and wouldn't particularly want to either.
    The road starts smoothly enough, which is useful as it's so steep, but quickly degenerates into a dusty, potholed and winding track, like so many of northern Mindoro's roads. The money's been made available more than once to pay for resurfacingthem, but it always seems to disappear into someone's pocket before a square foot of tarmac's been put down.
    On the way up, while Slippery was complaining about the road's state after banging his head on the roof for the second or third time, I asked him how he knew Pope.
    He responded by asking how I knew him, which I recalled as another irritating habit of his from old. Answering a question with a question.
    'I don't,' I said. 'A friend of mine here does.'
    'He's a solicitor - a bent one. I was up on some charges and he represented me.'
    'And got you off, no doubt.'
    He nodded evenly. 'He did, yeah, and we kept in contact after that.'
    I thought about this for a moment. I hadn't figured Pope as a solicitor. I had him down more as some sort of gangland Mr Big, since he obviously had such influential friends. It surprised me that they might include someone from within the team investigating the two murders that Slippery had committed. Defence lawyers and coppers rarely mix well, not when you consider that the former are always trying to fuck things up for the latter, and making far more money in the process.
    'And when Pope, your brief, asked you to commit murder for him, you weren't a bit shocked?' I asked.
    'No,' he said simply, reaching into his shirt pocket for the cigarettes. 'I wasn't.'
    'Don't light up now,' I told him. 'We're almost there. You can have a celebratory smoke afterwards. To usher in your new life.'
    He grunted irritably, but put the pack back in his pocket. 'Don't try anything, Dennis. And I mean that. I'm no fucking pushover.'
    'I have no doubt about it, Billy. You were always the hardest, and dare I say it, the slipperiest target I ever chased. I'm not going to try anything.'
    I slowed down as the road flattened out just before it came to a blind bend, still a good mile from the golf club. There was a slight grassy incline on the right where I could pull up without blocking anyone else coming either way, not that there was much chance of that. On the way up we hadn't run into anybody and the Ponderosa's not the busiest of places, especially on a weekday.
    I managed to get right up onto the verge and cut the engine. 'We'll do it down there,' I said, pointing to a path that led into bushes.
    'Why there?'
    'Because it needs to be a place where no one's going to disturb us, so they don't wonder what on earth we're doing. Believe it or not, there's hardly any places on this island where you can go without running into someone.'
    'I'm watching you,' he said, all semblance of his earlier good humour now gone.
    'You're getting paranoid,' I told him and