Booze and Burn
Page 25
I got the placcy bags out. Ten of em there were, stuffed down the lining of me leather. I poured the sweets out onto the wooden box I used to put me feet on. White ones and blue ones and yeller ones. Couple o’ pinks and all. I knew what they was now. Them sweets we used to get in Doug’s shop when we was younguns, weren’t they?
What the fuck had Nick Wossname been doing with em?
‘Oh, and Blakey? That other man rang for you. You know—wossname from that little pub you goes to. Nathaniel, is it? He says don’t worry about settlin’ yer debt to him just now, but he may call it in later. That about a bar tab, is it, Blakey? You’ll have to stop all that now, what with the babby. I dunno…you’re such a naughty boy, you. An’ you knows what I does to naughty boys…Blakey? Blakey?’
I got up and put summat on the vid. When I sat down again Clint were riding his horse and I couldn’t hear Sal no more, which were all right. I took a big handful of them sweets and put em in me gob.
I started chewing.
END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charlie Williams was born in Worcester, England, in 1971, where he still lives with his wife and two children. His novels include Deadfolk, King of the Road, One Dead Hen, and Stairway to Hell, and have been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, and Russian.
Table of Contents
1: ONE NIGHT, FIVE BURGLARIES
2: OLD LADY MUGGED
3: CRIME WAVE CONTINUES
4: DRINK MORE, SEE MORE
5: TWO HELD FOR CRIMES
6: SWEETS DEFY SCIENTISTS
7: A MOTHER SPEAKS
8: INTO THE LION’S DEN
9: WHAT IS WRONG WITH MANGEL YOUTH?
: SWEET TEST INCONCLUSIVE
11: HOPPERS: AXIS OF EVIL?
12: READERS RESPOND
13: LOOKING FOR JOEY: PART ONE
14: LOOKING FOR JOEY: PART TWO
15: HOPPERS DOORMAN SLAUGHTERED
16: INFORMER REPORTER BUTCHERED
17: DRUGS AND CRIME: THE CHIEF SPEAKS
18: THE OUTSIDER WITHIN
19: MANGEL’S WAYWARD SON
20: DOWIE KILLER CAUGHT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR