Takedown by Heather Atkinson (latest books to read txt) 📕

took me a bit of time to find him,” said Faith, feeling a little guilty when the lie effortlessly tripped off her tongue. She wasn’t sure it was a good thing that she found lying to her family so easy. “I remembered he said he was going for a drink in a pub on the front but I couldn’t remember which one.”

“We’ve been sat here like lemons waiting for you to show,” sniffed Kevin, folding his arms across his thin chest. Unlike his three tall, muscular brothers he was small and skinny as he’d been born prematurely and had barely survived.

“We’re here now,” said Vance. “So, what’s this about?”

“Dillon Enfield,” Caleb told him.

“What about him?”

“Did you see him earlier like we discussed?”

“I did and I sorted him out. He won’t be stealing from us ever again.”

“Too right he won’t because he’s dead.”

“What?” exclaimed Faith.

“Hey, that wasn’t me,” said Vance. “I gave him a good hiding but I didn’t get carried away.”

“He was found in Kingscote Park,” said Caleb. “He’d been stabbed repeatedly.”

Faith winced as memories of Marlow stabbing her replayed through her mind.

“That was nothing to do with me,” said Vance. “I only hit him with a baseball bat. I don’t even carry a knife.”

“Please say you wore gloves,” said Faith.

“Course I did. I’m not an amateur.”

“Thank God,” she breathed. “Let’s just hope they don’t find your DNA on him.”

“They won’t. I only touched him with a baseball bat and gloves.” He frowned and shook his head. “How did this happen? I only saw him a few hours ago.”

“Did he mention where he was going?” Jason asked him.

“Funnily enough, he didn’t like to share his plans for the evening with the man who’d just kicked seven shades of shit out of him.”

“Oh, yeah,” he smiled. “Suppose.”

“I’m amazed he was in a park actually. After what I did to him I assumed he would have gone straight to hospital.”

“Who would want to kill Dillon?” said Faith.

“Apart from us?” said Kevin.

“We didn’t want to kill him. He just needed teaching a lesson not to be a greedy little sod.”

“Maybe he got greedy with someone else?”

“Who else? We’re top of the tree around here.”

“There are other gangs and some of them are proper psychos. There’s a group who work out of a garage near the south shore. They’re big into nicking cars and respraying them. I heard Dillon was involved with them for a while last year.”

“Was he still involved with them?” said Vance.

“I don’t know. We need to speak to someone with their ear to the ground, who knows everything that goes on in this town.”

“That’s us Kev,” said Faith. “We’re the ones who are supposed to know everything that goes on but obviously we’ve been missing something.” She sighed and dragged her hands through her hair. “Our priority is making sure the police don’t find out that Vance kicked the crap out of Dillon right before he died.”

“They won’t find anything of me on him,” replied Vance. “I used to be a copper, I know how to hide the evidence.”

“Good point.” Her worst fear was Vance being sent back to prison. She was quite sure going through that again would finish her off. “Maybe I should call Matthew, see what the police know?”

“Don’t go drawing attention to us,” replied Vance.

“Young works for us,” said Kevin.

“He doesn’t work for us,” said Faith. “He works for the Maguires and he has helped us out in the past.”

“But he’s still a police officer,” countered Vance. “You should bear that in mind more.”

“And he’s your friend,” said Kevin. “Not ours.”

“He’s not a friend, he’s a contact, that’s all,” she said, forcing herself not to look Vance’s way, knowing he got jealous whenever DI Matthew Young was mentioned as she’d slept with him once. She’d only done it to get information but that did little to soothe Vance.

“If we start asking Young questions he might get suspicious,” said Caleb. “Let’s just leave it. Vance knows what he’s doing and he didn’t leave any trace. Plus Dillon can’t tell the police who beat him up.”

“I want to ask around though,” said Faith. “It’s possible Dillon was working for someone else and if he was then we need to know about it.”

“His murder might not be anything to do with business,” said Vance. “It could be a domestic affair like a jealous lover. Or it could have been a mugging gone wrong.”

“You’re right,” said Faith. “We can’t jump to conclusions.”

“Just try and relax. Don’t bring unnecessary attention to us.”

Faith nodded.

“So, just to clarify,” said Jason. “We’re going to do nothing?”

“That’s right,” said Vance.

“It’s good to have a plan,” he muttered.

“What happened to that bloke you had tied up Faith?” grinned Kevin. “Is he still there?”

“Never you mind,” she replied.

“Who was tied up?” said Vance.

When Faith turned to face him, his eyes danced with amusement.

“It was just a date, that’s all,” she said.

“Do you tie up all your dates?”

“Shut up Vance,” she told him, making him chuckle. “Well, if there’s nothing else I’m going home, I’m knackered.”

“I’m not surprised,” said Kevin.

“Can I get a lift back with you?” Vance asked her.

“Yeah, no problem,” she replied.

“Can we get a lift home too?” said Caleb, gesturing from himself to Kevin and Jason.

“Where are your cars?”

“We left them at home because we were at the pub when we heard about Dillon.”

“Fine,” she sighed.

Faith dropped Jason and Kevin off at the family home first.

“Are you all coming in for a brew?” Kevin asked them.

“No thanks,” replied Faith. “I just want to get home.”

“It’s not even eight o’clock. You’ve got time for a quick brew. You haven’t been round in