The First Novels: Pay Off, the Fireman by Stephen Leather Read Free Book Online Page A

weren’t enough and she was getting to see him every couple of days, but he wouldn’t be right until he was back in a house with me, knowing that I’d be home every night and there to read to him before he fell asleep.
            ‘Come on, David,’ I said. ‘Let’s go for a walk. Shona has to see the sister.’
            ‘Man talk,’ he giggled and released Shona’s hand. As we walked down the drive and over the close-cropped lawn he kept turning back to look at her like a spaniel being taken away from his owner, but the tight grip on my hand showed that he was glad to be with me.
            The lawns sloped down to a string of trees, an oak, a sprinkling of silver birch and a line of conifers marking the path of a stream that meandered across the estate.
            David sat with his back against the oak, scratching like a cat while I lay on the ground beside him, picking tufts of grass and shredding them, staining my fingers bright green. It was a fresh, clean day, the sort of day for a picnic, a day for playing football or for just lying by a stream tickling trout. ‘Shoes off,’ I yelled and helped him pull off his big black boots and roll up his trouser legs. I followed suit and we were soon up to our knees in the cold, sparkling water.
            David stomped and splashed and got us both so wet we were in line for a row from the sister when we got back. He soon tired me out and I dragged him over to a large, dry rock in the middle of the stream and we sat there with our feet dangling in the water.
            He draped his arm across my shoulders and rested the top of his head against my neck, breathing deeply as if he were fast asleep. His legs were swinging gently, making slow whirlpools in the stream and he was humming quietly to himself, a tuneless tune with no structure, no pattern. I began talking, he loved to be talked to, following the rhythm of speech even when he couldn’t always grasp the meaning. Empathy rather than understanding.
            ‘I’ve run into a problem, David,’ I said. ‘I found Get-Up McKinley easily enough – I told you I would. It took me a couple of weeks to track him down and make friends with him but now he’s on the payroll part-time. Sometimes he drives me about and sometimes I use him as a minder. It’s his first steady job in a long time. Oh, and I found out why he’s called Get-Up.’
            I told him the story of how the unfortunate McKinley got lumbered with his nickname and he giggled, kicking water over me.
            ‘I’ve found a good man with a gun, too. His name’s Iwanek and he’s one of the paratroopers who fought in the Falklands but now he’s out of the army and he’s been working as a bodyguard. I’m going to have to be very careful with him, he’s very clever and very fit, if he decides to turn against me or to go it alone then I really will have problems.’
            David looked worried and his grip tightened so I added quickly, ‘Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing, you know how carefully I’ve planned all this. Nothing can or will go wrong.’ He relaxed again. ‘Iwanek is providing his own gun and I’m going to give him a call when everything’s set up.
            ‘The car thief was easy, too. His name’s Dinah, that’s short for Dyna-Mo, and he’s the strangest looking young man you could imagine. Remember those punks we saw when we went shopping in Princess Street before Christmas?’ He nodded excitedly. ‘Well, he wears clothes like them, a black leather jacket with shiny chains and scruffy jeans with holes and tears. And his hair is purple and spikey and he’s got three gold earrings in one ear, like a pirate. But he’s bright and there’s nothing he doesn’t know about cars and let’s face it, who’d believe that a purple-haired punk was a top car thief?’
            ‘Not me,’ he laughed. ‘He sounds fun.’
            ‘Funny he is, but I’m not so sure about him