Fractured Shadows: A Moses and Rock Novel by A. D. Davies

Author:A. D. Davies [Davies, A. D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crater of the North Publishing
Published: 2020-06-26T22:00:00+00:00

Moses considered all the techniques taught him over the years, the subtleties he worked out for himself, the tricks and micro intimidations that often proved the difference between a no-comment and a confession. Despite being out of the game so long, Baines wouldn’t be tricked.

Which left honesty. Sitting at eye level. No bullshit.

“Theo Goodman,” Moses said. “I need to talk about your relationship with him.”

“Theo.” Chuckle. Snort. “He’s nothing more than a supplier for phones and other shit to get into Dovedale. Sometimes, when I’m desperate and they up security here for a time, he passes on messages and instructions.” Baines grinned wide. “Am I prettier since you last saw me, or what?” He’d lost a couple of teeth, his skin was dry, and blue prison tats stained his wrists, likely roaming up his arms. Unclear words had faded on his neck. He’d aged more than Moses expected, grey hair long and thin, streaked with its former black—a slick badger, but meaner. “Theo’ll make a suitable partner. Best of luck with that.”

“I’m not partnering with him. I need to know how much deeper he ran.”

“Deeper?” Baines bent right over to scratch his head in a piss-take of confusion. Sat up. “I trusted you, Moses. You were like a son to me. An illegitimate son, but a son, nonetheless. Or my wife cheated on me with the local pimp. I’m not sure. Sorry, bad simile.”

Moses noted the dig at his ethnicity, but it washed straight off him. Little jokes about black people’s hair, the size of his cock, drug-dealing and pimping were all in a day’s work for the old-school guys. Or it had been. Less-so now. Up-front, anyway.

“How did it work?” Moses asked. “I knew our end, the bits you passed on. I never got deeper. Never saw the mechanics.”

“Why would I tell you? Old time’s sake?”

“Yes.”

Baines licked his lips, moved his shackled hands as if about to rub them over his face. “You know how I live, Moses?”

“I’m sorry, Malc. They knew it all already. You’d have gone down whether I stayed schtum or not.”

“It’s the principle, though. That’s what rankles. After all I did for you. Spoke up for you when the Russians wanted you gone.”

“Because I wouldn’t do what they asked.”

“No.” Baines scowled. “I ended up with that shitty stick, thanks very much.”

Baines set his lips taut and thin, the gesture of a person unwilling to say more.

“Theo Goodman has resurfaced as a person of interest,” Moses said. “I thought they forced him out after you came in here. But I’m wondering if he was hibernating.”

Baines laughed, a single barking breath. “He always lands on his feet, that guy.”

“I’m wondering if he’s the one running it.”

“Running what?”

“Your old protection racket.”

Baines lost his swagger, gaze stuck on Moses. “What makes you say that?”

Moses watched for deception, for manipulation, both skills at which Baines had proved adept. He calculated how much was safe to say, how much the former DCI would have inferred already. “We’ve seen an increase in failed prosecutions.

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