by sibelhodge
‘I don’t get it.’ I scrunched up my face. ‘Why would any fighter agree to having the same manager and promoter if there’s such a conflict?’
‘OK, let’s take boxing, since we’re talking about Levi here.’ Brad leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. ‘When a boxer is just starting his career and is hungry to be the next champion of the world, I would imagine he’s prepared to take the risk. There’s a lot of politics in boxing, and some of the top promoters can put obstacles in the way to stop or delay fighters getting a title shot.’
‘Hmm. A few years ago, when I was working on the special operations squad, there was a big investigation into Vinnie’s involvement in illegal sports betting. There were allegations that Vinnie was responsible for football match fixing, as well as rigging various fights. I wasn’t involved in it, though, so I don’t know what happened – only that they couldn’t get any solid evidence against him. Guess who was running that investigation?’
‘Who?’
‘Janice Skipper.’ I mimed poking my fingers down my throat and throwing up. Janice and I had history and it wasn’t pretty. ‘Considering she couldn’t investigate her way out of her front door without help, it’s not surprising that they never found anything to stick to Vinnie.’
Janice Skipper was my ex-Detective Chief Inspector and my arch-enemy. She was also the reason I left the police force. Correction – she had me thrown off the force before I got my job back and quit. I seemed to be collecting exes of all varieties. She was also the one I’d accidentally shot in the ass. Who knew I was such a good shot? She deserved it, though. Big time.
‘It’s also possible that the witnesses were too scared to implicate Vinnie in anything,’ Brad said. ‘Rumour has it he’s eliminated a few rivals or people who’ve tried to stand in his way in the past. But Vinnie is involved in it up to his eyeballs, aided and abetted by Lee, who runs a betting shop,’
That sounded about right. If you looked up the definition of a psychopath in the dictionary, I’m pretty sure you’d find Vinnie’s name. ‘What a great family business. I bet their parents are really pleased. What do you do for a living, son? Oh, I kill and torture people who get in my way. Good work, son. I’m really proud of your career choice.’ I snorted.
Brad pressed the start button on the remote control, and this time I wasn’t watching the actual fight, I was concentrating on what was going on outside it.
I saw Carl Thomas stride down the aisle in between the crowd, towards the ring, stopping inches away from where Vinnie sat. Engrossed in the match, Vinnie unwrapped a toffee and popped it in his mouth, chewing slowly. He discarded the wrapper on the floor. When Carl started shouting and pointing at Levi, that got Vinnie’s attention pretty quick. Vinnie’s jaw hung open, his cheeks puffed out and burned red like his head was stuck in a pressure cooker, and he glared at Carl with all the venom of a funnel-web spider. If looks could kill, Carl would’ve been boiled alive, decapitated, and stabbed with a thousand knives simultaneously.
The next minute, Levi was on the floor, clutching his eye, and security guards were wrestling Carl away from the ring and back up the aisle towards the exit. Vinnie whispered something to a huge thuggy looking guy with a bald head sitting next to him, and Thuggy disappeared up the aisle as well.
‘It looks like Vinnie understood exactly what Carl was shouting at Levi,’ I said.
‘Yes, but what was so important to make Levi lose his concentration and risk injury?’
‘I don’t know.’ I tucked my legs underneath me on the sofa, making myself comfortable. ‘But, anyway, you said yourself that Levi’s medical insurance payout would be negligible, so why the big interest in this?’
‘Like I said – I’ve got a personal interest in this. I had a call from Levi’s dad tonight. EJ says something’s going on with Levi and he’s worried.’ Brad glanced down at the ground, his eyes focusing on something I couldn’t see. ‘EJ was in my unit in the SAS. He’s a good guy, and I owe him a favour. I promised I’d do anything I could to help, and I always keep my promises.’
I locked my eyes on his and took a deep breath. The air felt cool on my lips. ‘Not always.’ I immediately regretted saying it the moment it flew out of my mouth. That’s the trouble with me: sometimes my mouth is a hundred miles ahead of my brain.
Brad opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off before this conversation headed somewhere I didn’t want it to go. There was no point going around in circles. Been there. Done that. I was so not doing it again.
‘Well, what does Levi’s dad think is going on?’ I asked.
‘EJ said Levi’s wife, Letitia, told him that Levi’s been acting jumpy and nervous lately and making rash decisions about things, which is apparently not like him. EJ’s tried to talk to Levi, in case he’s in some sort of trouble, but Levi wasn’t giving anything away. Levi and EJ don’t have a particularly good relationship anymore.’
‘I see.’ My mind whirred away, working overtime. ‘So you have a boxer, a banker, and a boxing promoter. The boxer gets injured – which may or may not have been staged – the banker has his bank robbed, then suddenly turns up at Levi’s fight; the promoter is involved in illegal sports betting, and about a squillion other criminal activities; and his cousin was done for armed robbery fifteen years ago. Interesting.’ I tapped my lips. ‘The question is: what do they all have to do with each other?’
‘That’s what I need you to find out, Foxy.’
From the same author on Feedbooks
* * *
Summer Book Club (2011) Summer Book Club
The nine authors in this anthology are all indie writers who took their destiny into their own hands and self-published. All enjoy considerable success, selling many thousands of copies and pulling in great reviews.
In this book you will find exclusive short stories and articles from these authors along with first chapters from each of the eight books specially selected for the Club. If you like what you read, all the books are available now.
This anthology is only the beginning. Connect with other readers and talk about the books with the authors on our summerbookclub on Facebook.
Each week during the summer of 2011, the Club will feature a different book from one of the participating authors, from a range of genres to suit all tastes from thriller to romance to paranormal.
We will donate any royalties (where the book is for sale) to a fund supporting members of staff at the Joplin Public Library and also encourage our readers to support the fund with their own donations. Featured are:
The Shop, J. Carson Black. In this pulse-pounding US bestseller, the murder of a celebrity in Aspen sets the table for an orgy of death, destruction and infamy, revealing a shadowy conspiracy going to the very heart of the United States government.
Sugar and Spice, Saffina Desforges. Would you trust a convicted sex offender to help you find your daughter's killer? The groundbreaking debut UK crime novel that dares to tackle the last taboo - now recreated for the US.
Killing Cupid, Mark Edwards & Louise Voss. Alex is obsessed with his writing tutor, Siobhan. He stalks her, breaks into her house, hides in her wardrobe...But when he loses interest Siobhan decides to take revenge. By the UK No.1 authors of Catch Your Death.
Be Careful What You Wish For, Sibel Hodge. Armed with cool sarcasm and uncontrollable hair, feisty insurance investigator Amber Fox is back in a new mystery combining murder and mayhem with romance and chicklit…
Not What She Seems, Victorine Lieske. Steven Ashton, a billionaire from New York, and Emily Grant, on the run from the law...and when they meet he can’t help falling for her. What he doesn’t know is that interfering in her life will put his own life in danger.
To Kill a Warlock, H.P. Mallory. Dulcie O’Neil is a fairy. When a warlock is murdered and Dulcie was the last person to see him alive, she must uncover the truth. First in the new urban fantasy series from the bestselling author of Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble.
Disintegration, Scot
t Nicholson. When a fire destroys his home and kills his daughter, Jacob Wells enters a downward spiral that draws him ever closer to the past he thought was dead and buried. A shocking psychological thriller from the author of Liquid Fear.
Life Is But A Dream, Cheryl Shireman. A story about the power of love, the devastating consequences of depression, and the strength of the human spirit. A woman goes alone to a secluded cabin to rethink her life in the stunning debut novel from a talented new writer.
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