Read Online Crooked by Camilla Nelson - Free Book Online Page B

wasn’t nobody bothered about what sort of business they did. Glory was happy and thought Johnny was happy too – then all of a sudden Tommy walks in and Johnny is sweeping everything aside, saying he wasn’t spending the rest of his life struggling in a backwater when the Cross was the place where the real money was, and he’d be damned if any bloke could make him lay off.
    â€˜Forget about it,’ she told him. But no matter how much money they made from SP it was like Johnny had got this idea into his mind, and that’s it. They’d argued about it for days and days but she just couldn’t stop. She was fearful, the way Johnny was talking, that he’d get himself knocked, and she’d come home to find a copper on the doorstep, with his shiny copper’s buttons winking through the fisheye. Johnny told her that she was being a ’fraidy cat when she ought to have been thinking about the future, about giving Kimberley all the advantages they’d never had – that she was asking him to be a bum when he was going to be the best that there was … Johnny, he’d always had his tin can wired up to the moon.
    Glory pulled some cotton wool from the roll and took off her cold cream with three savage wipes. Johnny put his face beside hers in the mirror, their cheeks pressed together.
    â€˜Bugger off.’ Glory gave him a shove.
    Johnny stumbled until the backs of his knees struck the edge of the bed. He sat down, running his fingers through his hair. ‘I reckon it’s Reilly you ought to be getting worked up about. He shouldn’t get away with the stuff that he does. Not after he’s ransacked our club, beaten up Tommy, and shot Ducky as well.’
    â€˜How do you know Reilly killed Ducky? Because Tommy says so?’
    â€˜It stands to reason. Ducky was probably doing a bit of his own thing round the Cross, just like we were. Maybe he was starting to get a hold on things, and Reilly wouldn’t cop something like that.’
    â€˜Yeah, and maybe Ducky went crazy with a gun just like the coppers said.’
    Johnny looked hurt. ‘He was aiming for a break.’
    â€˜Yeah, but it still could’ve been like it says in the papers.’
    â€˜What about the coppers wiping the prints off the guns?’ Johnny insisted. ‘Reilly’s the only bloke could arrange something like that.’
    But Glory wasn’t about to be put off. ‘Moylan thinks I’m right. He says it could’ve been exactly like it says in the papers.’
    â€˜Mick’s an idiot. He dunno a thing,’ said Johnny, looking sulkier than before.
    â€˜I reckon you’re being a bit harsh after what Moylan’s done.’ Glory sat next to Johnny on the bed. She touched him on the arm. ‘What’s wrong with Moylan?’
    â€˜I seen the way he looks at you.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜I seen it, the way he goes on.’
    Glory sprang up off the bed and walked across the room, standing as far away from Johnny as possible. ‘I reckon you’re imagining things.’
    â€˜No, I’m not,’ said Johnny. ‘I reckon I’ve hit it right on the head.’
    â€˜Are you saying you don’t trust me, Johnny Warren?’
    Johnny sat there, irresolute on the bed. ‘Hell, no,’ he said, and stared down at his toes. ‘I do trust you, Glory. Moylan’s the one I don’t trust.’
    It was only half an apology, but Glory accepted it, and sat down beside Johnny again. After a while, she put her head on his shoulder. Johnny stroked her hair, and Glory burrowed a little deeper into his chest.
    Johnny said, ‘I’ve been doing some thinking. I reckon I’ve got to knock off Dick Reilly. I reckon there’d be somebody willing to give good money to a bloke who could do something like that.’
    At first Glory was too startled to say anything at all. Then she said, ‘But think, Johnny. Think.