Criminally Insane by Conrad Jones Read Free Book Online

doors as the minders reached for the cellar door handle, glancing back just as they twisted the handle and yanked the door open.
    There was a blinding flash as a concussion grenade exploded, blowing Leon and his men backwards off their feet. As the blast knocked Jinx unconscious, he saw four sevens in his mind and darkness closed in.

Chapter Five
The Gecko
    An hour later, the Gecko watched while his accomplice counted the stake money that they had stolen for the third time. Gecko knew there was something very wrong with the man, but by the time he had realised it, he had already been involved with him. He was obsessive-compulsive, always washing his hands and wiping surfaces with a tissue to remove dust. They had eaten together in restaurants, where he constantly wiped his cutlery with his napkin. He was beginning to annoy Gecko immensely. He was becoming a liability. Some of the things he had done in the last few weeks were unfathomable and totally evil. When they had first met, Gecko had found him amusing and they had had a mutual enemy, but as time went by, it had turned out that he was a lunatic. He was obviously a clever man, but there was a distinct lack of common sense to his partner’s actions which Gecko found hard to stomach. Idiots irritated him, but greedy idiots were worse still, and careless idiots worse again. It was becoming obvious that his partner was schizophrenic. Gecko was having serious doubts about the man’s past and his present. His future didn’t worry him too much since he had no intention of being a part of it.
    “That was easier than I thought it would be,” his accomplice bubbled with excitement as he counted the stacks of fifty-pound notes again. He licked his gloved fingers before recounting another bundle. “Easy money, easy money, easy money,” he chuckled to himself as he counted it again. He stopped suddenly and looked at Gecko. It was as if something had suddenly occurred to him. “What will we do with the drugs this time?”
    “You don’t have to worry about that.” Gecko frowned at him. He could hear laughter from the streets below. The rain was pelting on the window and it sounded like tiny bony fingers scraping to get in. Maybe it was the ghosts of those he had hurt in the past, letting him know that they were there, watching. They were there waiting for him to suffer as they had before they had died screaming.
    “What do you mean?” His accomplice stopped counting. His eyes darted from the money to the drugs as if he couldn’t make up his mind which to touch first.
    “You get half the cash. That was the original deal, and it stays that way.” Gecko lit a cigarette and puffed on it. He watched his accomplice closely. His eyes had a glaze to them when he became excited. Gecko had seen it many times before. It was a look mad men had. Evil men had it too but he knew that evil men were not necessarily mad.
    “Yes, I know it was the deal originally, but we didn’t know about the cocaine then. If it wasn’t for me, we wouldn’t have known about the drugs at all. I deserve half at least.” His partner eyed him angrily. “We agreed to split the money, but five kilos of cocaine is worth more than I can earn in years. It seems fair to split everything down the middle.”
    “The drugs are going into the rubbish.” Gecko inhaled smoke and tried to keep calm.
    “I risked everything to get that information,” his accomplice was talking at a million miles an hour, “it was my handiwork that gleaned the information about the drugs and the poker game.”
    “I saw your handiwork, as you call it,” Gecko looked out of the window again. “You’ve lost the plot, Patrick.”
    Patrick wanted the drugs. They were worth enough money to melt away again and reinvent himself somewhere else for a while.
    “You’ve lost the plot!” Patrick mimicked. Gecko was boring him with his suicidal crusade. All he wanted was some fun, his own special kind of fun. At first he had thought Gecko