Heavy Duty Trouble (The Brethren Trilogy) by Iain Parke Read Free Book Online Page A

the name. ‘ The Hangmen? ’ I asked , making the mental connection.
    ‘ That’s them. They did it. ’
    ‘ But why? ’
    I could see why he wouldn’t want to have used his own guys. Whoever came to that little party was running a huge risk of arrest and some serious jail time, not to mention the chance of actually getting shot, so if you could get some other mugs to take the rap and save your own guys’ arses then why wouldn’t you do it?
    But what was in it for the Hangmen that would mean they were willing to stick their necks out like that for the club? But even as I asked myself the question I realized that there was only likely to be one answer to that.
    Something that, with his next breath, Wibble confirmed.
    ‘They’re looking to patch over.’
    And then of course it made perfect sense. If The Hangmen were looking to earn themselves club patches, then they would be at the beck and call of the club and would have had no option but to step up to the plate the moment Wibble or Charlie told them to.
    But if they had a willing band of fall guys, why had Wibble and Charlie taken the risk of going to the airport themselves ?
    ‘So what were you there for, you and Charlie,’ I asked, ‘if it wasn’t for the ruck?’
    ‘We were there to hand them back their patches,’ he said simply , as if it explained everything, which of course, for him it did. ‘They’re Brethren club property, so they had to be returned.’
    And I knew he wasn’t bullshitting. After all I had seen the images, first the stills in the paper, and then the jerky video imagery from the security cameras, as, while the m ê l é e began to subside, but before enough police had arrived to regain control of the scene, he and Charlie had calmly walked together towards the place where one of the Americans lay dying, and without ceremony, had dumped the black bag on his chest , before turning and walking away.
    That would have been job done as far as they were concerned. The full UK clubs ’ set of Brethren MC patches and top and bottom rockers, returned to the mother club on exit.
    ‘ But if that’s all they wanted, why the fight? ’ I asked, ‘why not just hand them over?’
    ‘Well, it wasn’t just going to be about collecting property really was it? ’ he said, ‘Not w hen you’re gett ing a visit from Evil…’
    ‘Woah there just a minute,’ I protested, ‘A visit from evil? What the hell does that mean?’
    He laughed, he was enjoying this. I guess prison would be pretty boring , so the chance to shoot the breeze with someone f r om outside for a while probably counted as reasonable entertainment.
    But e vil in Wibble’s world wasn’t some kind of abstract concept, but an all too physical reality.
    Evil , it turned out , was the nickname of Bubba’s right hand guy in the States, the sergeant at arms for the mother chapter and so both de facto worldwide head of security for the whole club and , by all accounts, one right dangerous bastard. Evil by name. Evil by nature.
    ‘Sounds like it was a good handle for him . ’
    ‘Oh it was all right . He was an absolute cunt. So when we upped sticks and left, he was the obvious guy to lead the Yank s’ charge over here to come and sort us all out. And when Evil and his nutting squad come to town to take care of business, you know there’s only one thing they ’ re here to do.’
    ‘So spotting when they were coming wasn’t all that difficult then? Not if you knew who to look for?’
    ‘Shit no,’ he said, ‘we’ve got supporters, contacts, you name it , in the airlines. It’s just good business sense to be able to know that sort of s tuff . So all we had to do was have someone keep an eye out for a booking from him and Bob’s your uncle, when he turns up, there we were , waiting for him.
    ‘What’s more, we even gave him what he came for.’
    ‘Not that it did him much good.’ Evil was one of the casualties. ‘He got his at the airport. Pod sliced him up good and proper