Time To Play by KA Richardson (best book club books of all time TXT) 📗

far up in the clouds.’ Then he’d leant in, become threatening. ‘People who fly so high have to watch the sun doesn’t burn their feathers. I’d hate to see all this come crashing down around you, lad. Just think how awful it would be for Marie to have to leave uni if I couldn’t pay her way, or for your dad and your mum to end up on the streets so close to their retirement. This mortgage is like a noose at times. Sometimes I wonder if I can afford to keep it up. Information helps of course. The last thing I need is the cops treading their big size nines all over my crops, if you get my meaning.’

And Connor had sat there, just taking it. Like he always did. Within seconds he’d been spilling his guts about a raid to a cannabis farm he’d heard about on the rumour mill. A big one by all accounts. As always, he didn’t say when it was happening, or at what address, but he gave his uncle the area of the raid and that was enough.

Until next time, anyway.

His uncle had been becoming more persistent, asking for information more frequently, keen to use the information to improve his reputation.

When it was found out, Connor would be well and truly screwed over. And it would be found out. This sort of thing had a habit of coming out at inopportune times. There was no getting away from the fact that he was leaking information that made him a dirty cop. You could dress it up anyway you wanted, but it still amounted to the same thing. He’d end up getting kicked out of the force, his name in disgrace. And that was the best-case scenario. At worst it would mean criminal charges.

Connor sighed again. He had no idea what to do.

Glancing up as a shadow appeared at his table, he realised Marlo was standing in front of him. ‘Hey. What’re you doing here?’ he asked.

‘Ordering Mexican food. You gunna nurse that beer all night or come and sit with us?’

‘Actually, I’ve already eaten,’ he lied, guilt nibbling at him even as he said the words. ‘I was just gunna finish this then head off home. My girlfriend got called back to work. She was on call,’ he embellished, feeling the need to explain.

‘OK, no problems, just thought I’d ask. See you tomorrow.’ Marlo turned and made her way back to her friend who was waiting at one of the window tables.

Wish I could tell her. Maybe she could help.

But he knew he wouldn’t tell her. Instead, he left some money on the table to cover the drink and left.

 

Chapter Eleven

Unit 12b, Sunderland Enterprise Park – 6 November

D anny knew he was in trouble. No one got taken to the business unit unless it was bad. The search for the girl hadn’t even finished when he’d been shoved into the back of a white van and whisked away. It was like they knew he had helped her escape. So far, he’d pleaded and begged his innocence, but he knew they didn’t believe him. They thought he’d slept with her, after all.

And that’s your own doing. Why couldn’t I be more like Gaz and just crack on with the job at hand? Why did I feel like I had to help her?

Berating himself didn’t help though. It hadn’t stopped him being tied to a concrete post last night, and it hadn’t stopped them leaving him there all day today. Chains bound his hands and wrapped around his chest, and he had a rag in his mouth that pulled so tight across his cheeks that the top of his face actually felt numb. He’d wet himself at some point during the night, unable to hold it in any more, and the initial relief of the release now churned in his stomach as the smell of the stale urine crept into his nose to taunt him.

Why the fuck did I help her? I should just tell them she’s in the car and be done with it. She won’t have moved: she was too scared. It’ll be a miracle if they haven’t found her already.

Suddenly the unit door opened, and Rocko stepped inside with Gaz. Both of them looked serious, their faces drawn in determination. Oh God. They haven’t found her. They’re gunna kill me. Fuck. I don’t do pain. Please, just release this gag and I’ll talk I swear. Please don’t hurt me.

He tried to speak through the gag, tell them that he would help them find her if she wasn’t in the car, but it came out as a muffled, strangled grunt.

He saw Gaz shake his head, look at him with evident disdain. Pleading, he shook his head and grunted again.

I’ll tell you! I swear to God I’ll tell you anything you want to know. Please, just let me take this rag out of my mouth and I promise you’ll know as much as I do.

Rocko advanced first, a knuckleduster glinting in the dull light of the unit. It had been a talking point a couple of years before when he’d leased the unit for a pittance. A serial killer had been loose in Sunderland and had used the unit to kill someone, which had decreased the rental as no one wanted it. It had been empty for ages before Rocko had happened on it. Danny still remembered the grin on the man’s face as he’d told them of the new business place.

Usually, it was used for conducting meetings, the kind that needed to be conducted away from prying eyes. But it easily doubled for the dirty jobs too.

Danny winced as the knuckleduster glanced the side of his jaw, his whole face erupting into stabbing pain that travelled around his head to the back of his neck. Trying desperately to make