Sheriff (The Police Trilogy, #3) Read Online Free Page B

another door being smashed in, knowing who would be coming through.
    The warehouse was small and damp.
    It was mostly empty too.
    A gantry along the back wall was their only problem, and it was the only source of light. A small room up there suddenly erupted with action, its door opening, and three armed gang members storming out to investigate the noise.
    Brandon moved sideways and to the right, Hemp went the other way, each aiming their guns up at the gantry.
    Hemp fired a shot, and a goon was knocked from his feet, landing on the metal with a heavy clang, blood everywhere. Brandon squeezed off a shot, hitting one of them in the leg with his secretly switched out rubber bullets. It was enough to bring him down, clutching his calf in pain, his gun long forgotten as it tumbled from his grasp and fell to the floor several feet below.
    The remaining goon had his gun aimed now, directly at Hemp, when he was hit from the side and thrown to the floor below. Brandon looked to Kane, the barrel of his gun smoking.
    Conrad hadn’t fired a single shot.
    Probably on purpose.
    Rat bastard; he was willing to leave all the dirty work to his team, maybe even let them all take the fall.
    Up on the gantry the surviving goon groaned in pain, and rolled onto his side.
    Kane fired again.
    He was silent now.
    Brandon didn’t know how to feel about those deaths.
    And so he felt nothing; at least for the time being.
    Conrad was laughing, and he turned to see the others slowly walking towards a table stacked high with bags of cocaine.
    It was the biggest haul Brandon had ever seen in person or on TV.
    “Shit,” he heard himself exclaim.
    “Looks like a million dollars,” Conrad was beaming.
    Hemp was already moving towards a sack truck, which he quickly wheeled to the table, and Kane joined him in loading it up.
    “Time’s ticking,” Conrad said, a little more nervous now as he checked his watch.
    Hemp checked that the little trolley would still easily roll under the weight, and was happy to find that it did.
    “How are we going to unload this?” Brandon asked, not for the first time.
    “We’re going to sell it back to them, fifty cents on the dollar.”
    Brandon nodded with appreciation; it was a pretty good idea. He’d much rather they got these drugs off the street though – which was the next job.
    He examined the button on his jacket, making sure the microphone hidden in it was in tact, and he had a surreptitious look around the rafters to make sure the cameras that had secretly been placed up there yesterday were still there, unfound by the gang.
    They were.
    The whole thing had been captured for prosperity.
    And talking of capturing ...
    “Everyone got their alibi?” Conrad asked.
    “I was with you boss,” Kane said.
    “Me too,” Hemp grunted, just as he started to wheel the truck towards the door.
    Conrad didn’t look at Brandon wanting an answer.
    Another nail in the patsy’s coffin.
    Brandon had another look up at the rafters, and when he looked back, he saw Conrad staring at him.
    He gave the other man a weak smile.
    Conrad’s brow knotted and he stepped closer to Brandon, looking up into the rafters with narrow eyes.
    “Something up there son?”
    “Nope.”
    The moment he said it, he knew it was the wrong answer. He should have said he thought he saw a pigeon, something at least, otherwise why look?
    Conrad slowly bought his gaze back to Brandon’s face.
    Then he headbutted him.
    Brandon recoiled, staggering on his feet as one hand came to the centre of the pain, clutching it, yelping in agony. He kept a grip on his gun though, and steadied himself.
    “What the fuck?”
    “Thought maybe a bit of DNA might flavour the scene,” Conrad shrugged.
    So, he wasn’t even gonna be subtle about it now.
    Brandon lifted his gun, but felt his arms squashed into his sides, and he realised Hemp had him in a hold.
    Kane came up to them and wrestled the gun from Brandon’s reluctant grip, before slamming the butt into his