A Dish Best Served Cold: An 'Archer' Novel by Steve Lumsden

Author:Steve Lumsden [Lumsden, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-05T22:00:00+00:00

Part 4

Chapter 1. ‘And the villains always blink their eyes’

34 years ago….

18th November 1985

Robert Whitehead was fundamentally a low level crook, dealing in petty theft and extortion on a fairly small scale. He worked the streets in and around the west end of Newcastle, the area he grew up in, and rarely strayed far. He was never going to win awards for intelligence, having failed at anything academic when in school. The only thing he was any good at involved physical effort, and he particularly enjoyed boxing, although the rules never really meant much to him. He enjoyed the idea of beating the crap out of the other guy, and if that included the odd low blow then so be it, not his problem! He was only interested in winning, at any cost. He was an attractive young man and he always had money, so was never short of a date, although they tended to not stick around for long after they tasted his temper, which was notoriously short. He had no problem with using the same right hook on a woman as well as a man, if he thought she deserved it.

Then one day, through a massive amount of good fortune, he found himself in a position of power and influence within the local villain’s hierarchy. He had been working the streets since he was a kid and had learned early in life that the best tactic for getting what you wanted was by using as much force as possible. To that end he surrounded himself with young, strong and mostly dumb henchmen, which allowed him to flex his muscle whenever he felt it appropriate, which for Robert was pretty much most of the time. He ran his small crew with ruthless efficiency, anyone who missed a payment were dealt with swiftly and brutally, if you stepped out of line you knew that a beating was heading your way, even being in the wrong place at the wrong time could result in some serious Grievous Bodily Harm. One day he got very lucky, he was in the process of trying to steal from a warehouse in the west end of Newcastle when he stumbled across the local boss, a man called Harry Ord, getting jumped by a rival gang. Robert had no time for politics or turf wars and so had no idea who the two factions were, only that it was a fight and he had muscle. He joined in, choosing a side at random and inadvertently helped Harry and his men to defeat his enemies from south of the river. Robert was rewarded by being adopted as Harry’s personal guard, and soon after began his life within the firm, the firm that he now runs with that same ruthless efficiency only on a much bigger scale.

For Robert being the boss had many perks, he could indulge himself in any of his many vices to his heart’s content, without fearing any consequences or repercussions. He ran his firm

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