Substantial Threat Read Online Free PDF

grubby street where Henry Christie had done so much of his police work in the past. Same old story, same old people, he thought jadedly as he gazed out of the car window up at the five-storey terraced block of flats, each one probably inhabited by a dolie or a junkie or a loser. Henry prodded himself mentally for forgetting that there were also many good people caught up in it as well. It just seemed that he did not meet them that often.
    The house was structurally solid, having stood the test of time on the outside. It was its innards and inhabitants that had changed.
    He climbed out of the Vectra and made sure it was locked before leaving it unattended.
    He wanted to get a feel for the scene of the murder. He walked up to the front of the house and stood at the bottom of the steps leading to the main door. To his left was the flight of steps which descended to the basement flat.
    He looked around. The street was pretty quiet. A couple walked down the other side. A car waited at the junction to pull out. He could easily have stepped down to the flat without being seen . . . or could he?
    If nothing else, Henry’s experience as a detective had taught him that very few crimes are committed without witnesses. Somebody always sees something. The trick was to find that somebody and bleed them white. In the nicest possible way, of course.
    Henry stood where he was and rotated slowly on his heels, allowing his eyes to rove, to try and spot someone watching him. He saw no one.
    It was very tempting to go down to the girl’s flat, but he wanted to keep that experience for later. First things first. He would check out the owner of the property who, he remembered from the file, lived in Lytham, in a very desirable location.
    He got back into the Vectra and thought seriously about going into the property rental business.
    JJ made himself a roll-up. Though his hands were shaking, he put the cigarette together expertly.
    Ray Cragg leaned forward eagerly with a lighted match and a smile. ‘Calm down,’ he said as JJ chased the flame with the end of his cigarette. ‘There’s no need to worry.’
    â€˜No need to worry? How d’you work that one out?’ JJ retorted, inspecting the lighted end of his cigarette and blowing gently on it. He put the thin stick between his lips and drew deeply on it. Almost one half of it disappeared with the drag. ‘You’re gonna kick my head in and you tell me not to worry?’
    JJ’s narrow eyes darted nervously around the room, taking in each face, then, looking at Carrie, his face creased in pain. She was huddled in one corner, whimpering pathetically, cradling her busted face in the palms of her hands, nursing her shattered jaw.
    â€˜She needs a hospital, Ray,’ JJ wheezed through a cloud of smoke.
    Cragg shrugged. ‘As and when.’
    JJ tried to hold his eyes to Ray Cragg’s, but they flinched fearfully away from the confrontation.
    â€˜So what do you want?’ JJ asked.
    â€˜I think that’s fairly fuckin’ obvious, don’t you?’ Cragg grinned. ‘Otherwise, why try and leg it?’
    JJ shrugged his thin shoulders, looked down between his knees and flicked ash on the carpet. He took another drag on the cigarette and blew smoke out through his nose. It was all but gone now. Sitting there, head bowed, eyes blinking at the floor, his jaw rotating, JJ did not see the blow coming.
    Cragg put almost all he had into it and really JJ should have expected it because he had witnessed Ray do it several times before. It was his trademark, a long, powerful, open-handed smack across the side of the face, the palm of his hand cupping over the ear. It lifted JJ off the seat and dumped him in a sprawl on the carpet. The pain in his ear was so severe, he wondered if the drum had burst. The butt of his cigarette rolled away underneath the settee.
    Before JJ could react or even scream, Marty and Crazy dragged him off the floor and flung