Substantial Threat Read Online Free PDF Page A

breath and the dank flat beyond: sweat, cannabis, spermicidal lubricant. ‘Listen, you cunt,’ he said evenly, ‘if you don’t open up, we’ll kick this door down and then I’ll get really annoyed with you. I’ll smack your face in, just for fun . . . and I don’t have any axe to grind with you, love. It’s JJ I want.’
    Carrie desperately fought for time so that JJ could get out of the window, shin down the drainpipe, along windowledges, drop to the ground and leg it, even though it was four floors up. He was an agile guy and had done it before when the cops came calling.
    â€˜I said he’s not here. You deaf or summat?’ she stalled brazenly. ‘Now piss off.’
    Ray moved back quickly and with a flick of his head towards the door said, ‘Crazy, Marty.’ He leaned against the wall and folded his arms.
    The two had been waiting for the moment with keen anticipation. Marty went first, going for the gap in the door. His hand shot through it and reached for Carrie’s face, or whatever he could grab. Crazy, just behind, shouldered the door with all his weight.
    Carrie was expecting the move. She slammed the door on Marty’s wrist.
    He howled like a demon in pain and rage, but it didn’t really matter because it meant the door was still open and Crazy, who had stepped back, braced himself and flat-footed the door. It flew open on the second whack, releasing Marty’s trapped limb and sending Carrie stumbling and screaming backwards as the badly fitted security chain snapped and splintered off the door frame.
    And they were in.
    â€˜You cow,’ Marty yelled. He went straight for Carrie’s cowering form, enraged by having his wrist trapped. He powered into the hall and kicked her in the face with as much force as he could, breaking her jaw. She rolled away, blood pouring out of her mouth, trying to protect herself. Marty continued to lay into her, overcome by anger, as Ray and Crazy strode past, their minds focused on catching JJ.
    JJ heard the crash, the scream, the shouts as the front door was booted in.
    He had to move now.
    He lifted his body and sat astride the windowledge before twisting round and lowering his feet blindly until his toes touched the ledge which jutted out from the wall about three inches, several feet below.
    This was the position in which Ray and Crazy found him as they burst into the living room.
    JJ panicked as Crazy strode across the room towards him, a menacing look on his countenance, Ray Cragg behind him. JJ reached out his right hand for the soil pipe, which he knew he could shimmy down if he could just get to it. But before he could even touch it, Crazy grabbed the front of his T-shirt in his fists and pushed him outwards away from the wall. JJ screamed. His arms flailed like a demented windmill but he managed to grab the window frame, though his fingers slipped as Crazy threatened to push him away again.
    The two men were focused on each other’s faces, both with determined expressions. Crazy’s look was one of sheer glee at what he was doing; JJ’s, by total contrast, was a look of terror. The thought of hitting the ground headfirst reeled through his mind, the prospect of his skull splintering through his brain.
    â€˜This is gonna hurt you.’ Crazy grinned twistedly.
    JJ’s fingers slipped even more on the window frame. He knew that all Crazy had to do was push and let go of his T-shirt and he would go plummeting down.
    â€˜Your head’ll smash like a tomato. What d’you think, Ray?’ Crazy looked back over his shoulder. ‘Push the thieving fuck or what?’
    â€˜It’s a tempter.’ Ray leaned out of the window, judging the distance to the ground below. ‘Pull him in,’ he said. Crazy looked disappointed. Then with a shrug he hauled JJ back into the flat.
    â€˜I need words,’ Ray Cragg said to JJ.
    The murdered girl’s flat was on the sort of