Putting the Boot In (Duffy Book 3) by Dan Kavanagh

Author:Dan Kavanagh [Kavanagh, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781480467521
Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller
Published: 2014-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

Extra Time

THE FIRST TEN MINUTES of the second half were a bit lively. Both sides were deliberately playing it tight, and both had a victim marked for special attention. After two minutes Maggot, who had been looking a little jumpy since the whistle went, surrendered to his wilder instincts and tried to sandbag one of the pub team’s midfield. Oooff, went Duffy, as the midfielder seemed to forget about the ball and just drove through Maggot, one knee right on line for the wedding tackle. Oooff. Then, a minute or so later, in clear retribution, the speedy little ginge was slowed down by a well-contrived sandwich between Barney—bit of elbow there, too, Barney?—and Micky Baker. It almost made you glad to be a keeper, seeing bits of agg like that. But the funny thing was, by the end of the match everyone would be shaking hands and looking forward to next year’s game; being generous in defeat and modest in victory.

Was that what Melvyn Prosser had been doing, a year or so ago in the Athletic boardroom, when he had smiled, and checked that Duffy had enough Slimline, and introduced him to his ‘business partner’ Charlie Magrudo? And if so, which was Prosser being—generous or modest? Was he admitting Duffy had outsmarted him over the Brendan business, or was he, by introducing Magrudo like that, saying, Nice try, you little short fat goalie, but I laid out this game so that whatever happened, I won. Was that it? He tried to remember what Prosser had said to him in the Corniche. Something about throwing a lot of bread on the water and most of it getting soggy and being eaten by seagulls. And then something else, about the important thing in business being to look as if you knew what you were doing, even if you didn’t. Was that how Melvyn was deliberately behaving for Duffy’s benefit?

He must have been right, mustn’t he? It must have been Prosser trying to fuck up the club? Nothing else made sense. The planning permission, the connection between Prosser and Magrudo which they’d both tried to deny, the appointment of Jimmy Lister (that had been a clever move, he had to hand it to Melvyn), the use of Maggie Coleman to fix both Danny and Brendan, the Layton Road lawsuit. Yes, this had been the final bit of confirmation, when Mr Bullivant had winked and told him he’d sold his house a couple of months before. Sold it before the case came to court, in fact. Well, he wouldn’t have bothered, would he?

Proof? That’s what they always said, wasn’t it—where’s your proof? Well, there was proving and knowing, which were two different things in the eyes of the law, but the same thing in the eyes of people who weren’t in the courtroom. For instance, take the spectators at this Reliables game: that middle-aged man and his wife, both swaddled in toning sheepskin jackets of a mid-brown colour. If they had watched the first

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