Cold Killers by Lee Weeks Read Free Book Online Page A

Della’s way, and
then he reached forward towards Debbie and slid his hand beneath her shorts.
    She giggled, embarrassed, as she tried to push his hand away.
    ‘I have to get on with things, Tony. We have everyone arriving here in a few hours.’
    He tilted his head Della’s way: ‘She’s back.’
    ‘Yes, I know.’ Debbie turned to her. ‘I heard you left the wake early,’ she said.
    Della wasn’t surprised. She knew the family, mother Sandra, Debbie, they always had it in for her.
    ‘People started getting too drunk. I was exhausted. I’d done my duty.’
    ‘Course you had. Course you bloody well had,’ Tony said, waving Debbie away. ‘And you can get on with your duties. I’m going to talk to Della here, our princess.’
He slapped Debbie hard on the bottom as she turned to walk away. She rubbed her smarting backside and glared at Della, defying her to smirk.
    Tony’s jaw started sliding as he talked. His foot tapped incessantly. The sound of phlegm and cocaine chugged at the back of his nose and throat. ‘I paid enough for it all –
thousands that cost me. What the fuck went wrong, was this just a fucking joke?’
    She shook her head. ‘It went okay, Tony. It was always going to be risky putting on such a display.’
    ‘Don’t call it a display. Don’t say that. It was the kind of funeral for statesmen. I’ll fucking kill the kid who threw that firework.’
    ‘It wasn’t what Eddie would have wanted.’
    ‘What wasn’t?’
    ‘He wanted to be buried here in Spain, in the olive grove, at the back of the villa. Something simple.’
    Tony laughed, too loud, too long.
    ‘Did he? Really?’ Tony composed himself and grinned away as he went back to chopping coke. ‘I think he said that just to keep you happy. He said that to make sure you opened
your legs every day. Hey, princess?’
    She stared at him. She couldn’t help feeling that Tony was getting madder every day. She couldn’t wait to leave, but, at the same time, there was something morbidly fascinating
watching Tony. She wasn’t going to be scared of him.
    ‘I saw it was pissing with rain,’ Tony continued, watching her closely. ‘I thought, Can you fucking believe it? But you know what? Then, I thought it added something regal to
the whole thing; what do you think, princess?’
    He sidled to the edge of the sofa and reached over and laid his hand on her leg. She stared at it. It wasn’t the first time, but certainly it was the most blatant. He never would have
dared in front of Eddie. ‘Hey, princess?’ He patted her leg before removing his hand slowly. ‘I want you to move into one of our houses on this estate.’
    ‘Why would I do that? I’m all right where I am, in my own place. What did you want to see me about, Tony? I’m very tired right now.’
    ‘We’re all fucking tired,’ he snapped. ‘Okay. Okay.’ He sat back in his chair. ‘You’re tired, I understand. But I want you to come to dinner tonight;
Mum will be back. She’s going to need us all around. After all, she had to bury her son yesterday, not something any parent should have to do. Laurence and Harold are bringing her over and I
want us all to be together this evening. We need to talk, as a family. There are things to be discussed.’
    ‘Like what?’
    ‘Like the future and what Eddie would have wanted.’ Tony took a gulp of his drink and wiped his mouth. ‘Is Marco over at yours? Did he run you up here?’
    ‘Where else would he be? You sent him over to spy on me.’
    ‘Now, why would I do that? I put him over there to protect you. It’s what Eddie would want me to do. Now, more than ever, you need to be careful.’
    ‘Eddie was a legitimate businessman who was murdered. What has that got to do with me? The police will find who did it.’
    ‘The British police? Really? Do you think they’re not laughing themselves sick with all this that’s happening to us? It’s all their Christmases come at once. They must
think it couldn’t have