A Good Day To Die by Simon Kernick Read Free Book Online Page B

I'd deluded myself that Tomboy's involvement in crime while he'd been an informant of mine back in London had always been on the periphery. I still didn't want to believe that it had been anything more. After all, I liked the guy. He'd helped me out when he could have earned himself a lot of money by turning me in to the Philippine authorities when I first arrived here, and we'd lived cheek by jowl for the three years since. He was a friend. Even so, the doubts that had prickled away all day remained.
    'Why do you want to know all this, Mick?' he asked, picking up his beer bottle. 'What good's itgoing to do? We're thousands of miles away from Pope and London, and you know what they say. Let sleeping dogs lie.'
    'Because,' I said, choosing my words carefully, 'he was responsible for killing someone I liked and respected. If it had been you he'd killed, I'd be asking the same questions.'
    'Keep it down, can you?' he hissed, dragging on his cigarette.
    'It's all right, I locked the front door. We can talk.'
    'Look, I appreciate why you're asking the questions, but what's done is done. You know what I'm saying? It's spilt milk and all that. I'm sorry about Malik - I am - but nothing's going to bring him back, and the man who pulled the trigger ain't no more, so let's just forget about it, eh?'
    'That's easier said than done.'
    He took a swig of beer, banged the bottle down on the table and stood up, craning forward in my direction. When he spoke, his voice was a forced whisper. 'What the fuck are you going to do, Mick? Go back to London and pop Pope? Then get on a plane like nothing's happened and fly back here?' He raised his hands, palms outwards, in a gesture of 'What more can I say?' 'It don't work like that. You're a wanted man in London; chances are you'll be picked up before you even locate him, let alone pull the trigger. And if that happens you ain't ever going to see the outside of a nick again, are you? Not with your record. They'll throw away the key.Are you willing to risk all that just to kill the bloke who had something to do with organizing the hit on someone who you worked with once, but ain't seen in over three years? Because I'm telling you, mate, if that's the case, it ain't worth it. Honestly.'
    He was right, I knew that. And for exactly those reasons. In the end, it was far too risky. I'd built up my life here. I was happy, and even on those days when I got tired of the heat and the sight of palm trees, it was still a vastly preferable alternative to the inside of a cold English prison. Plus, I told myself for maybe the thousandth time in my life, injustices are perpetrated every day by people who will never be brought to book for their crimes. Take most politicians, for a start. I couldn't kill them all. Why tear apart my whole life just to get at one person, when there'd be a dozen more waiting to take his place?
    Because Malik was my friend.
    Because he was a good man.
    Because I was not.
    'Ah, forget it,' I sighed. 'I'm just talking.'
    'I know it's pissed you off. I can't believe it myself, as it happens. Small fucking world.' He stubbed out his cigarette and got back down to business. 'You got the key to Warren's room? I'm sending Joubert over later to clear it out.'
    I fished it out of my pocket and handed it to him, disappointed that his mind was already on other things. It struck me then that I didn't really knowTomboy Darke at all, even after all these years, and it was a thought that depressed me, because it exposed my failings as much as his.
    'Come on,' he said, taking the key and finishing his beer. 'Let's go get you a drink.'
    I followed him back through the dive shop and next door to the bar, where, not for the first time in my life, the booze beckoned invitingly. For the moment, at least, I'd try and forget the ignominious fate of Slippery Billy West and those he'd murdered back in the old country.

7

    But sometimes it's not so easy to forget.
    The days passed and life carried on as usual. It