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

with a samurai sword.’
    I knew which one Evil had to be now. I’d seen his body on the floor in the CCTV footage. The one with Wibble and Charlie dumping the bag of colours on it.
    *
    ‘So why not cop a plea, you and Charlie?’ I asked out of curiosity . ‘I mean , if I hear you right, neither of you are on video anywhere as actually being involved in the punch up, and the plod and the CPS know it . T hey’ll know as well as you that it’s not going to stick. S o surely you could walk quite easily if you wanted to? Why not just cough to a lesser charge and get out on time served? ’
    ‘We can’t ,’ he said simply.
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘You know the rules,’ he said, ‘it’s like talking to outsiders, no one in the club says anything or ever admits anything to anyone, not without getting the club’s permission first.’
    ‘So?’ I asked, thinking surely if anyone in the club could get permission it would be these two.
    ‘So , well , the only way you make that rule stick when it comes to pleading guilty is that the guys at the top…’
    ‘The ones who’d give permission?’
    He nodded, ‘Y eah, us, well we can’t go round telling other guys to hang out and then not stay strong ourselves can we? So the moment we cop a plea, what authority do we have to tell other guys not to when it’s their turn to take some heat?’
    He shook his head, ‘nah, it just doesn’t work.’
    ‘It’s the price you pay?’
    ‘For being an officer? It’s part of it for sure.’
    ‘But it’s one thing I’ve never really understood, ’ I said, ‘Why pleading guilty to get a lesser sentence is such a big deal I mean ? What’s so wrong with the idea?’
    He shrugged, ‘Well sometimes it isn’t, but then you’ve got the cops on y our case all the time, looking to make a case against the club, so it’s about protecting the club. The cops’ll always say it’s the club , right, any business? It’s not about individuals doing whatever the fuck they do, it’s a lways got to be some great club- based conspiracy cos we’re some fucking new international mafia or something.’
    ‘So no one says anything…’
    ‘Anything that the cops could use to claim some conspiracy , or that any business was club business, sure. ’
    It made sense when he put it like that. In the States the authorities had used the RICO act, originally intended to target the real Mafia, extensively against t he bike clubs ever since the 70 s . They’d attempt ed to prove by linking a number of criminal acts to members of the same club, that the club was a so called racketeering and criminal influenced organization; and in recent years other jurisdictions such as Canada and Australia had brought in a range of laws targeting the clubs, often with similar provisions.
    ‘ Besides which, ’ he continued, ‘ you never really know what the cops have until they have to use it in Court . It’s amazing what shit they have to tell you about what they’ve been doing when they want to bring a case. ’
    Anyway, our brief’s organized another bail hearing that’ll be coming up . We’ll walk soon enough . ’
    ‘ S o it’s just a matter of being patient then? ’
    ‘ Patience? Yeah , I suppose so ,’ he smiled, ‘ That’s that thing you have when there’s too many witnesses about isn’t it? ’
    It was one of Bung’s.
    ‘So was it w orth it then? The fight?’
    ‘We did what we had to do.’
    ‘But where does it get you?’
    ‘It gets us to right where we want to be. Left alone to get on with it.’
    I couldn’t keep the tone of surprise out of my voice. ‘What ? Y ou think one ruck at the airport is going to do that for you?’
    ‘Yep, it was all we needed.’
    ‘But surely one punch up isn’t going to put the Yank s off returning for more is it? O r come to that , the rest of The Brethren worldwide piling over to get some as well? ’
    ‘Ah but that’s the clever part ,’ he smiled, ‘ It doesn’t have to , now does it?’
    ‘Why