SSC (2001) The Dog Catcher Read Online Free Page B

that he’d
never get his poxy Mini back. But Tony did return. When he got back, after a
few days, he told Sue what his plan was. ‘See all the cocaine in dis country
comes in through Galicia, they’ve got great contact with South America for
obvious reasons, funny it’s the women who control the trade as well, once the
Guardia put all their husbands in jail. The dope, the blow, that comes through
here, the south of Spain, after all it’s only half an hour from Algeciras to
Africa by fast launch. Scag though, heroin, they ain’t got any of that, cos they
ain’t got any contacts with Turkey, Afghanistan, any of them places. Except now
on the costa there’s Russians and they’re looking to shift what they know,
scag, up here into the valleys and the mountains. Now I have an opportunity to
get a load at good prices and I reckon the kids up here would take to heroin
real well.’
    Sue had
a question. ‘Have you got the money to do it?’
    ‘I got
some, that’s why I’m talking to you, though. I need more, as much as I can get.’
    ‘You’re
not worried about the locals?’
    ‘They’re
fucking divvies these people,’ said Tony. ‘They deserve to get fucking took. We
know that they don’t like the Guardia, so what the fuck are they going to do
about it? Even if they figure it’s me that’s dealing the gear. So you in or
what?’
    Sue
gave him the money that she had saved up, plus she stole a watch from Laurence.
A Rolex with a gold strap that Tony got a thousand dollars for in Almunecar. He
wouldn’t miss it, a person could only wear one watch at a time after all (apart
from her DJ boyfriend who’d worn six) and she’d never seen him wearing this one
so he deserved to lose it really when you thought about it.
    Pretty
soon all over the valley the Spanish kids were doing heroin. With drink they
had been brought up to understand its properties and its dangers but with scag
there was no bargain that could be made, no truce. Scag would not talk to the
hostage negotiator. The boy in the bakery who’d once been chatty and smiling
now stood for hours at a time, white-faced and spotty, with his arms buried up
to the elbows in a bowl of dough. In the next village the bar owner had to lock
the doors to keep out a rampaging gang, and in the orange groves a young boy
was found shot dead with his father’s hunting rifle.
    Tony
gave Sue her savings back plus a big bonus after six weeks and then he went
into Granada and bought a convertible BMW from the big dealership on the ring
road.
    One
morning in July before the sun had begun to scour the white-painted alleys, Sue
and Nige were walking back from Anna’s shop, they each had a carrier bag in
both hands. It had taken them an hour and a half to buy their groceries, which
was pretty good going given the lethargic pace of things during the hot months.
As Nige talked her two dogs came running round the corner, tongues lolling from
their mouths, pursued a few seconds later by a cloud of the other hounds with
The Dog, at the centre of things, seeming to be directing operations. The whole
furry storm shot past and disappeared down Calle Iglesias on their way to the
church. ‘That’s the first time I’ve seen my dogs in three days,’ said Nige. ‘That
big one seems to have taken over the pack with its big city sophisticated ways.
    ‘Nobody’s
taken it in though,’ said Sue.
    ‘No,
and they won’t now, it’s too wild and flea-bitten.’
    ‘So what’ll
happen to it?’
    ‘The
usual Spanish thing. They’ll let it run round for the summer then one day,
after the hot months are over, The Dog Catcher comes … and deals with it.’
    ‘Takes
it to a dogs’ home?’
    ‘Silly
girl. Shoots it.
    ‘No!’
    ‘They
reckon they’re being kind, letting it have its summer. By their standards they
are.’ Then, appearing to change the subject. ‘Sue, tell me something. How did
you travel here, to Spain, in the first place?’
    ‘Plane.
Scallyjet from Liverpool airport to