Crime Always Pays by Declan Burke Read Free Book Online

that had fallen from half a mill to two hundred grand to one-six-five in a little under fourteen hours. This before Madge got her cut, eighty-two and change. Karen having her very own Black Friday.
              'Money,' she said. 'Check.'
              'So that's everything.'
              'Well,' Karen said, 'I'm down the cell phone Rossi swiped up at the lake. And then there's the whole wardrobe I'm leaving behind, all my personal shit, y'know, photos of my dead mother. But other than that, yeah, we're cool.'
              'Doyle knows where you live, Kar.'
              'I  know . I'm just saying.'
              'You want to risk it?'
              'Nope.'
              'You're sure?'
              'Don't tempt me, Ray.' Karen wondering, Christ, when does it end? Like, first her father beats her mother to death, taking a slow fourteen years to do it. Then she gets tangled up with Rossi, who was in more than he was out in the ten years Karen knew him. She'd done it, though. Survived her father, got the bastard put away, then got past Rossi, put an actual life together. A life that included, okay, once in a while sticking up gas stations and post offices for chump change, using Rossi's Ducati, his .44. All this to keep Anna in kennels, the wolf-husky combo tagged a dangerous breed. A life, sure, that couldn't last.
    But Karen would've come up with something else when the time came. Karen, she'd learned to duck when she had to, dive when she could. Except she'd have done it her own way. This? Hightailing it out of town, one step ahead of the posse …
              'I can understand,' Ray said, 'you're concerned, starting again somewhere strange. But take Anna. I mean, she came all the way from Siberia. Talk about not being able to speak the language …' When Karen didn't smile he said, 'Anna's doing okay, isn't she? Found someone to look after her, she wasn't even looking. Didn't even know how to look.'
              'She lost an eye,' Karen said. 'Got a bullet in the head that could've killed her.'
              'Except it didn't. She's alive and kicking. Or rather,' Ray said, 'alive and doped to the eyeballs in the back of a van. But she's making out.'
              'Just about.'
              They drove in silence until he turned off the M50, heading south for the ferry port. 'Hey,' Ray said, 'how about Terry and Madge? Who'd a thunk it, huh?'
              'The girl's a free agent, she's still kicking it. Why not?'
              'I hear you. You and her weren't friends, y'know, I'd be … Hey, I'm kidding.' When she still didn't smile he said, 'So how do you think the twins'll take to Terry Swipes?'
    'The twins, they make it through the next time they see Madge, they'll like whoever she tells them to like. She's gone up through the gears since they seen her last.'
              'How d'you mean?'
              'Frank was supposed to pay for the twins' trip to Aspen, their flights, the works. Except Frank being Frank, he left them in the lurch, five grand's worth. So the twins maxed out Madge's credit card.'
              'Ouch.'
              'She only found out trying to book the flights to Athens. I don't think I've ever seen her so crazy. Well,' a watery half-grin, 'apart from when she shot Frank.'
              'She didn't get to book the flights, huh?'
              'Nope. And then had a screaming match down the phone with this bitch telling her --'
              'How about the cruise? She get to book that?'
              'Sure. She booked that first, then went looking for flights. Why, what's wrong?'
              'You think the cops, with Madge missing, won't check her credit card to see if they can't track her that way?'
              'Maybe they'll think,' Karen said slowly, 'she's gone to Aspen.'
              'They won't think it for