The Rising

The Rising by Brian McGilloway Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: The Rising by Brian McGilloway Read Free Book Online
Authors: Brian McGilloway
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective
earlier nudged me. He pointed to our far left, towards a group of men standing distributing leaflets.
    ‘That’s the crowd you were looking for,’ he said. ‘Irvine’s not there though.’
    ‘Thanks,’ I said, palming him twenty euros.
    I made my way over to where the men stood. Some of those they had given leaflets to passed me, dropping the green flyers on the ground as they went. I stopped and lifted a copy.
    Under the heading, ‘Taking Back Our Community’, the flyer boasted a photograph of a man, tarred and feathered, tied to a lamp post. Around his neck hung a sign, though the reproduction quality was too poor to be able to read clearly what was written on it. Under the picture was a lengthy piece of text about the rising drugs problem and the lack of response to it from the police and politicians. It called for ‘a new Rising to reclaim our streets’.
    As I approached the group, the older man – Armstrong, Hendry had called him – stepped forward, a leaflet held towards me.
    ‘I’ve seen more than enough already.’
    ‘We’re just saying what needs to be said. Someone has to take a stand against the dealers poisoning our children.’
    ‘Fascinating,’ I said. ‘I’d like to speak with Mr Irvine.’
    ‘He’s not here.’
    ‘Where is he then?’ I asked.
    ‘Fuck business is that of yours?’ Armstrong asked with sudden aggression.
    ‘Someone murdered Martin Kielty. I’ve been told that your outfit are likely to blame.’
    ‘Then you’ve been told wrong. We’d nothing to do with Kielty. We’re a legitimate, peaceful community organization.’
    ‘Distributing images of fascist street justice?’
    ‘Still justice though, innit?’ Armstrong leaned slightly forward on the balls of his feet as if trying to emphasize his point.
    ‘Tell Jimmy Irvine we’d like to speak to him when he has a chance. He can find me at Lifford Garda station any time he feels like talking.’
    ‘We’re holding a rally in Letterkenny on Thursday night,’ Armstrong sneered. ‘You want to hear Jimmy talk, you can come along to that, same as everyone else.’
    The conversation reached an abrupt conclusion with the arrival of Harry Patterson accompanied by a handful of Guards in fluorescent vests. He had clearly been shown the flyers.
    ‘What’s this bullshit?’ Harry barked as he approached us.
    ‘Here we go, lads,’ Armstrong said, smirking to the others. He underestimated Harry Patterson if he believed he could intimidate him.
    Harry squared up to Armstrong, their faces inches apart.
    ‘Take this crap and clear off back over the border. If I see this bollocks around here again, I’ll lock the lot of you up.’
    ‘On what?’
    ‘A whim,’ Patterson said quietly, his forehead almost touching Armstrong’s.
    Armstrong lingered for a few seconds, as if to show his men that he was unafraid of Patterson, though perhaps he also recognized that Patterson was just the type of Guard who would have them held for the night on a whim, for he gathered his flyers, dropped them into a bag that had lain at his feet and began to move away. The others followed, their recalcitrance intended to imply that they weren’t obeying Patterson’s command.
    ‘Prick,’ Patterson said. ‘What the hell does he think he’s at, handing out this shit here?’
    ‘Jim Hendry told me the Drugs Squad in the North thought this crowd were responsible for attacks on dealers over the border. He suggested we look at their head man, Jimmy Irvine, for Kielty.’
    ‘I’ll follow it up and see what I hear,’ he said. ‘Ask around. If yer man shows his face on this side again, lift him. The same for this character Irvine too.’
    He moved back into the crowd again. ‘Let’s move back, men. Make sure there’s no trouble on the way out.’
    Over the course of the next twenty minutes, more pockets of people broke away from the crowd and wandered back down from Hutton’s house. Some of them looked a little bemused by the whole activity, some

Similar Books

Beloved Bodyguard

Bonnie Dee

Bought for Revenge

Sarah Mallory

Ordinary Wolves

Seth Kantner

Sussex Drive: A Novel

Linda Svendsen

Crystal Doors #1

Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta

Devil's Thumb

S. M. Schmitz

Holiday in Stone Creek

Linda Lael Miller

Her Majesty

Robert Hardman