The long knives, p.32
The Long Knives, page 32
To: ADrummond@policescot.co.uk; DGillman@policescot.co.uk
From: RLennox@policescot.co.uk
Subject: Chocolate
There’s a little present winding its way to you both. One for each of you. Putting them together, a big mystery will unravel. You each get to make a huge discovery. This will make you stars. But you’ll need to work together and get your story straight.
This could be the start of a beautiful friendship. Play nice, you two.
Much love,
Raymond
You’ve just stopped Drummond from ever being able to sack Gillman. Of course, that cunt will never thank you.
Outside, with a sense of accomplishment, he looks in a shop window, checking out the rough growth on his face. He has run out of razors, but the last time he went to buy some, he came back with a six-pack of Stella and a half-bottle of Smirnoff.
Behind him, the incessant toot of a car horn.
These cunts get on your nerves …
Worse, it’s somebody in a parked BMW. Lennox doesn’t know what to do: the person seems to be tooting him. There’s nobody else in the street. Then the driver puts him out of his misery by exiting the car.
George Marsden pulls off his light-reactive glasses. — Of course, you do know that you need to listen to a friend sometimes. Get in the car.
— Where are we going?
— South coast.
Lennox smiles, shields his eyes from the weak autumn sun.
— I’m serious, George says. — Come and check it out. If you like it, work with me. Or alternatively, stay here and drink yourself to death.
— What makes you think I won’t drink myself to death down south?
— Oh, you most certainly will, George smirks, opening the front passenger door, — but hopefully you’ll just do it a little more slowly!
Ray Lennox throws back his head and laughs. It might be nice to slow down his death wish.
He gets in the car.
The End
Acknowledgements
Thanks to:
Graham Bell, Emma Currie, Katherine Fry, Emer Martin, Afshin Partovi and Michal Shavit specifically – immense contributions and inspiration from them. To everyone in Edinburgh, London, Miami, Chicago and Barcelona particularly, but in general all my pals and readers everywhere who kept my chin up and a smile on my face through all the bullshit of the last couple of years.
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First published by Jonathan Cape in 2022
Copyright © Irvine Welsh, 2022
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Cover photograph from images © Getty Images
Cover design by Matt Broughton
Author photograph © Jeffrey Delannoy
ISBN: 978-1-529-19371-8
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Irvine Welsh, The Long Knives
