Tick Tick Tick by G. M. Clark Read Free Book Online Page A

away.
    The usual cordons are set up; a few neighbours have pitched up to see what’s going on, but not the normal masses – not yet. Mack and I saunter slowly towards the building; he pulls out another cigarette and lights it from the glowing embers of the last one, then flicks that away and stomps on it with his great bear of a foot. I look at him as he sucks in a few more lungfuls.
    ‘You feel better for that?’
    He eyes me back. ‘Yep.’
    ‘Cancer sticks, they’re gonna kill you.’
    He takes another long drag and blows the smoke my way.
    ‘So? Everyone’s gotta go sometime.’
    ‘You’re not getting any younger, old man,’ I tease, but he doesn’t seem in the mood.
    ‘Spare me the sodding details, if you want a younger partner just say so.’ He spits the words out.
    ‘Maybe I will.’ Jesus, testy this morning ain’t you , I think.
    He continues to blow smoke at me – I continue to ignore him. Finally he crunches it out on the ground.
    ‘Hey, you remember Jake Pearce?’
    I shake my head as I try to recall the face.
    ‘You know the novice we had way back, nice kid – went to the Met for the Specialist Firearms Command ’
    ‘Oh yeah I remember – Junior.’ His face finally flickers into my head.
    Mack smiles that lazy way. ‘Yeah, that’s him. I bumped into his old pal Ricky at the pub last night.’
    I give him one of my looks.
    ‘What? I was only there an hour.’
    Yeah right, that normally means two or three. ‘What about him?’
    Mack reaches for another cigarette and lights it, ignoring the frown on my face.
    ‘Seems the kid got blown to pieces last week. Some bastard shot him in the head, splattered his brains everywhere.’
    My jaw drops. I can recall Junior’s face when he finally made it in for the firearms unit. It was like he had won the golden ticket to Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory – jumping about all hyped up, ready to run with the big guns. Hell, I just can’t take it in.
    ‘Jesus, Junior? Shit – I really liked that kid. Did they get the bastard?’
    Mack shakes his head, his shoulders slumping.
    ‘Nope not yet, though they think it’s connected to the Tim Fash drug network. You work this fuckin’ job every day with these wankers in this city, then you go to the big smoke for your training and on a day off – you get your brains blown out.’
    Mack grinds out his cigarette butt with the venom of a man in pain. I knew was taking it badly; he’d got along with the kid really well.
    I glance at him. ‘Goddamn it Mack, I’m really sorry pal.’ He nods and put his head down; I could swear I see tears in his eyes. I didn’t say any more.
     

CHAPTER 5
     
    Eyeing the flat, we pass more coppers, move past the outer cordon and start upstairs. I can hear a family yelling, screaming at each other. Although I can’t make out the actual words, it didn’t sound good – obviously not a couple in the first flush of love then. We ignore it and carry on. It’s dark, really dark; I can smell the must on the walls, it infuses in my brain. The paint is peeling with dirty green patches of slime and mould, the fungus putrid blue and green. I spot a drunk nearby clutching a bottle in a crumpled brown paper bag – he clenches it in his sleep as though his life depended on it, and God only knows what’s inside it. A rumpled bag of threadbare clothes is under his head forming a lumpy pillow of sorts. A small flea-bitten dog with a lopsided ear, his ribs protruding against his flesh, stands guard over his master’s belongings. The lips curl and snap at me, so I decide to keep on walking.
    At the door, we once again don our protective suits, Mack turns his back so that I don’t see him struggle with the zipper. Jesus, don’t tell me he’s starting to get vain in his old age.
    ‘Careful,’ I say.
    Mack stares at me.
    ‘No FME yet, no coppers have been all the way inside – keep your taser handy and your wits on fire.’
    We both unzip and take out our tasers, ready for