Free Dead Men by Stephen Leather

as my son would say. What we’re saying is that if you murder a drug-dealer you’ll spend twenty years plus behind bars. Kill a copper or a soldier and they’ll let you out early.’
    ‘You won’t hear any arguments from me on that score,’ said Button. She took a photograph from the file and laid it over the head-and-shoulders picture of McFee. It was from a crime scene, an almost exact match of the first. ‘McFee was shot last week.’
    She paused to make sure she had his undivided attention. ‘Both men, McFee and Dunne, were shot with the same gun. Robbie Carter’s service revolver.’
    Shepherd quirked an eyebrow. ‘Open and shut, then?’
    ‘If it was, they wouldn’t have called us in,’ said Button. ‘Carter’s gun was never found. His wife said she had no idea where it was and there was a suggestion that the killers took it with them.’
    ‘Is that possible?’
    Button shrugged. ‘Elaine Carter didn’t mention the gun being taken at the time but she was pretty forthcoming with other details. In fact, it was her recollections that helped put the execution squad behind bars. So we’re assuming that the gun wasn’t taken at the time. The rifling on the bullets used in both killings is an exact match to those on record for Carter’s gun. A Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum.’
    ‘Nice gun,’said Shepherd. ‘Not regular police issue,though. Back in the nineties the RUC were using the nine-millimetre Smith & Wesson 5904.’
    ‘Back then Special Branch were allowed a degree of flexibility in their choice of handgun,’ said Button. ‘The Magnum would be a man-stopper, I gather.’
    ‘It would do a lot of damage, that’s for sure,’ said Shepherd.
    ‘All guns issued to officers are test-fired at the PSNI’s Weapons and Explosives Research Centre and they keep a ballistic report on file along with a sample casing and an expended round,’ said Button. ‘WERC gave our technical people their samples and the report and, as I said, the bullets are a match. So, now we’ve got two of Carter’s killers dead, and three still alive. For the time being, at least.’ She pointed at the photograph in the middle. ‘This is Gerry Lynn. A hard man, is Mr Lynn. He’s the one who shot Carter in the legs. They went in to kill Carter, so the shots to the knee seem to have been nothing more than badness on Lynn’s part. Ballistics showed that his wasn’t a killing shot. He was released after serving three years, again under the Good Friday Agreement.’ Shepherd looked expectantly at the file, but Button shook her head. ‘Mr Lynn is very much alive, but is obviously a little jittery.’
    ‘Under police protection?’
    Button chuckled. ‘Far too macho to let the police take care of him,’ she said. ‘The IRA have him under wraps. He’s been their golden boy since the Northern Bank robbery in December two thousand and four.’
    It had been Ireland’s biggest ever raid. A group of men had kidnapped bank employees and got away with twenty-six million pounds, which, by all accounts, had swelled the coffers of the IRA. ‘Lynn was involved in that?’
    ‘That’s the intel the RUC had, but it was never proved.’
    ‘They never found the bulk of the money, either,’ said Shepherd.
    ‘It’s been laundered by now,’ said Button. ‘And if Lynn kept any, it’s well hidden.’ She tapped the photograph second from the right. ‘The driver, Willie McEvoy, was the first to be caught and was sentenced to life. Released six years ago under the Good Friday Agreement. Now he’s a drug-dealer in East Belfast. Heroin, cocaine, cannabis, you name it, Mr McEvoy can supply it. He’s been refusing police protection, no doubt because he’s afraid it’ll cramp his style.’
    Shepherd picked up the fifth photograph. ‘This one I know, of course,’ he said.
    ‘Ah, yes, he’s quite the celebrity,’ said Button. ‘Noel Kinsella. He fired one shot in the Carter house, which missed. Bullet ricocheted off the floor and