The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter (Glasgow Trilogy) by Malcolm Mackay Page B

Some people will drink heavily. Some will party, get a woman. Those are ways of relieving tension. Others shut themselves
off from the world. They need to focus on the job, have no distractions at all. For Calum, the best preparation is to live life as he always does. Don’t treat it like it’s anything
other than a job. Just another job. Some people get up and go and sit in an office all day. Some people build things. Other people drive around all day. That’s their job. They don’t
think about it, they just do it. For Calum, it’s killing people. He will prepare for the job. On the day of the job, he will carry it out. Then, afterwards, he will go through the same
process that he always does. Nothing clever, nothing special.
    There are still things to do. He needs weapons. Plural. One for him, one for George. George won’t use his, if he can possibly avoid it. He still needs a usable piece. You plan for the
worst-case scenario. Calum needs something as well. Something very usable. Something reliable. He’ll certainly be using his, no matter what. He’s committed to the job and that means
completing it, no matter how badly it goes along the way. Getting the guns is a nervous matter. Getting them can be as dangerous as using them. There are plenty of places to buy, very few that can
be trusted. A lot of people in the business of selling weapons are people on the fringes, people not fully involved in the industry. They have access, and that makes them useful. Doesn’t make
them popular. Doesn’t make them insiders.
    Some runners get their guns from legitimate sources. You find people who own them legally, and you buy them. Most do not. For most, the guns are acquired either through theft or from unseemly
sources. You find people who own guns legally and you rob them. That happens. You find someone working with guns and you bribe them. That happens more often. Soldiers are a source. Guns go missing
from an army barracks. There’s a lot of guns there; it’s easy for one or two to walk. Handguns always. Only an idiot or a show-off buys something more than that. You can get bigger
guns. You can get automatics. But why? You won’t need an automatic or a shotgun in a gangland environment, unless you expect a pitched battle. You certainly won’t be in a good position
to hide the thing, and dispose of it afterwards.
    The most common source remains reusage. A runner will buy a gun from someone who’s used it on a job. Then they sell it to someone else. Then they buy more guns secondhand, sell them on
again. Many guns will go round in endless circles. Many are used on multiple jobs by various people, passing through the hands of several runners in the process. It’s a lucrative market, and
the one Calum most often uses. He uses the same runner because he’s the only one he’s thus far learned to trust. Some will use multiple runners to make sure that no one supplier knows
how often they work, but you only do that if you trust more than one runner. That takes time. So far, always the same one. Reasonable prices, sell the gun back after use. Essentially rental,
although you never know when you might be forced to ditch the weapon mid-job. Usual cost, four or five hundred pounds. That will be more than swallowed up by Jamieson’s payment to Calum.
    There is another source of weapons. Many guns have come across the water from Northern Ireland to supply people. Many people have come across from Northern Ireland to make use of their criminal
skills. Some people like that, welcome them. Others don’t. Jamieson doesn’t, and Calum certainly doesn’t. There are plenty who claim to do his job, although this is a different
environment from the kind of killings they’re more used to. They’re outsiders who think themselves at home. They don’t belong, but haven’t noticed. Too many friends have
welcomed them and allowed them to take root. They have weapons galore to sell, and there are plenty buying. Not