A Day at the Races (6 page)

I told the manager I had had enough and I quit. All the bouncers just stood there watching and laughing, they did absolutely nothing to help me, they just thought it was hilarious but I can tell it was really serious, I was in fear of my life.

You should see these women, when they are drunk and in a gang, they are far worse than men.

I was billed as Horny Henry all the way from Paris; they said they wanted to see my Eiffel Tower. I tell you it opened my eyes as to what women can really be like, anyway my career change didn’t last long, and I am back hustling in the motor trade, or at least trying to do.”

“Well I have thought about nothing else only Rachel these last few weeks, and I am only considering doing this out of the love of my daughter, because her condition wont improve unless she gets a transplant.”

“I am only doing this, out of the hatred for that bitch of a wife of mine, who has left me flat broke, plus that bastard Miller who fired me and made sure I have no job prospects. He has warned off all the other garages around, because everyone I talked to hinted as much, so now its war, so I would say we both have good reason to do it.”

“We would need a lot of help to pull this off, people like Fisher, Frank and Kenny, Linton and Brian what do you think their reaction would be? Because to do this successfully, we will need about twenty to twenty four people, and they would all have to be completely trustworthy.”

“Look Mike, lets arrange a meeting in the Duke and discuss it with everybody, and if we get a unanimous verdict we will go ahead. If we don’t we will just have to forget about the whole thing, I will have to leave the area to try and find work elsewhere.

But not sure how that leaves you and poor little Rachel, you have a far bigger problem than mine, hers is life threatening, I will survive even if I have to reconsider my stripping career.”

“O.K Moxie I agree that’s the best thing to do. Thursday is fine with me if that’s ok with you, anytime after 7.00 p.m. Can you contact everybody, discretely of course, and I will work on presenting what I feel is a workable plan, and then call me just to confirm when you have arranged everything?”

Moxie nodded his agreement.

Thursday arrived, as Mike headed towards the Old Duke he was nervous, apprehensive, and worried what the reaction would be from his friends. He thought he should just stop and call the whole thing off, before he got involved with anything that was so outrageous. All his life he had been a law-abiding person, he had never had such a thing as a parking ticket, and generally despised people who ignored the rule of the law. Now here he was contemplating committing one of the most serious crimes of all, with massive consequences should it all go wrong?

Then he thought of Rachel coughing up blood, and thought hers was a cause worth taking the risk for.

As Mike entered the rear lounge in the Old Duke that Moxie had booked for the night, the entire regular group were present, and after ordering a round of drinks, he joined them, and Moxie locked the door so they had absolute privacy.

“Hi everybody I suppose Moxie has filled you in on what we are here for.

Brenda and I have been under so much pressure recently, trying to find a solution to help our daughter, and what I am proposing is extremely risky, and at the outset let me advise everyone if we get caught, it will mean a hefty stretch inside.

If any of you are nervous and don’t want to get involved, then I suggest you leave now, there will be no recrimination or bad feeling, I don’t want anyone to feel they are being dragged into, or pressured into something because you didn’t like to say no.”

Nobody moved, this surprised Mike as he had half expected people like Fisher and Frank who were getting on in years, would not even turn up, never mind listen to the briefing.

“Look Mike, said Fisher, “I think that most of us here know why you have to do this, and I think we are all behind you 100% and anything that will help Rachel has to be a good cause, of course there is our destitute friend here, who is in need of financial sustenance.”

“Thanks Fisher I appreciate your concern for Rachel, she is the only reason I am doing this, I only wish there was another way, but unfortunately time is running out.

I have given this a lot of thought, so I will outline what I think is feasible, when I have finished let me know what you think, or if you have some other ideas, then please speak freely.

Firstly, I can produce a fifty-pound note that will pass the most intensive scrutiny. It will be on the right kind of paper, printed with the correct inks with the metallic thread and watermark embedded in the paper. It will be suitably aged, and I have no problem with technically producing this note.

The idea is to hit race meetings on Boxing day, when there is a huge choice of venues, usually about three or four times what there would be on a normal days racing.

This was a suggestion made by Moxie, and I think it holds a lot of merit. We will need at least six teams of three, maybe more, covering meetings in the south like Wincanton, Kempton, and Market Rasen and in the north at Sedgefield and Hereford on the border with Wales and the Northwest of England and also Ayr in Scotland. We can decide who goes where later, but each of you will have to recruit two of your trusted people if we are to pull this off.

What I propose is that each team of three operate in a specific manner, to cause the least amount of suspicion with the bookies. Each of the team will wear a large overcoat with a number of pockets sewn on the inside, not all the same colour though, we don’t want to look like the Jesse James gang.

That will be your job Kenny.”

Kenny Fitten was a master tailor, who worked for Levine’s in Cheatham Hill, in Manchester.

“Should we decide to go ahead with this operation, I want you to measure each of the team for a perfect fitting overcoat, on each side on the inside, you will have ten pockets. I want you to make them in such a way, that the coats won’t look as if they are bulging when the pockets are stuffed with loot. You will have on your left side your supply of duds, and when you get your change back you will place this on the opposite inside pockets. The idea is to keep the kosher money separate, as this will help in speeding up the final count, as all the dud money will have to be separated out and burned, plus we don’t want to be giving good money back to the bookies.

One of the team will place a thirty pound bet on the favourite with every bookie, one will place a twenty pound bet on every horse with as many bookies as possible, one will place a five pound bet with as many as possible. This means that you will receive in change, between twenty and forty five pounds in kosher money; it’s basically a money laundering operation. Plus your winnings, it’s a no lose situation, in addition and time permitting, each of the team will bet on the tote, if an outsider comes in the payout could be huge.

The one drawback is there is going to be a lot of bulky cash, so you may have to get back to your vehicle if possible, to either drop the good stuff, or get fresh counterfeit. Obviously this will take time, so you will have to play this by ear, but you don’t want to be walking around the course looking like the Michelin Men, but a lot will depend on how good a coat Kenny can make.

The last race get rid of everything, and hopefully no one will be any the wiser that we have passed off a huge amount of dud money, although we cant afford to be complacent. The bookies shouldn’t suspect anything, because they will be taking away huge amounts of cash, even though they will payout some large amounts they will probably be in front on the day. What they won’t know is, that most of what they go home with will be forged bank notes.

I am going to need some help with logistics, Linton your expertise gained in the Army will be invaluable in planning this operation.”

Linton nodded his approval.

“Each team will bring the money back to a place to be decided, as this will have to be sorted and checked, against a list of all the dud no’s, so this could take some time.

I estimate each team could be coming home with 100 grand minimum, but it could be a lot more. All I ask is the first 500 grand is put aside for Rachel’s treatment, the rest split amongst you. If you decide to split the money equally with your team that is up to you, but make sure they are people you could trust your life with, because that is what you will be doing.

It is a huge risk but one I am now convinced is worth taking given the state of Rachel’s health, but it’s up to you if we go ahead, because I can’t do this on my own. Any questions?”

Fisher was the first to speak.

“I am impressed Mike, you have presented it well and I am all for it, should we decide to go ahead, you can use Skippers Dairies to count and store the cash. I have a number of secure offices that nobody uses these days, that are off limits to all employees except myself and my two sons Ian and Maurice, who I am sure would be part of the team. You can also use some of our vehicles; we have a number of small transit type vans with storage boxes that we could easily adapt. We also have a large coal fired incinerator, that we use for generating steam for our sterilising plant, that you can use to get rid of whatever you need to do.”

Mike thanked him for his support.

The next to speak was Frank.

“Can you honestly produce a fifty pound note that is that good?”

“They will be so good the banks won’t be able to spot them, not without the proper equipment. I am sure I lot of them, possibly many thousands, will get into the banking system and will never be discovered. They will be printed onto the Bank of England’s own cotton based paper with their own inks, so I am confident I can produce a note that will pass the strictest scrutiny.”

This interested Moxie and he had a broad smile on is face.

“What are you looking so pleased about Moxie, you look like the cat that got the cream?”

“Nothing Mike, you have put on such a convincing presentation and to listen to you makes me feel confident that we can pull this off, so I say lets get on with it without delay.”

One by one they all nodded and agreed their support.

Mike felt a huge sigh of relief.

“Right well if you are all in agreement, we are in the second week of September so that gives us plenty of time to get things ready for Xmas. I suggest we have a meeting once a month to review progress and, discuss anything that might be relevant. Remember keep this to yourselves and don’t recruit all your team until the last minute, we cant take the risk of this getting out.

What I propose is a trial run at a race meeting before the main event on Boxing Day. This will give us the chance to fine-tune everything, plus will give us a good indication of how much money we can realistically place with the bookies and the tote without causing any alarm.

I don’t have anything further to add, except lets have another round of drinks.”

Chapter 6

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The next day Frank Bishop was in his office, when his secretary advised him there was a policeman in reception, who wanted to speak with him.

A cold sweat came over him, thinking somehow the police had been tipped off about the meeting in the Old Duke the previous night.

He asked his secretary to show him in.

“Hello Mr Bishop, I’m Detective Chief Inspector Dave Hilton from the Police Forensic Division in Preston.”

“Hello Chief Inspector nice to meet you, please take a seat…. what can I do for you?”

“Well this is in regard to the fire at the Steel Brick factory last month, when our forensic team spent a number of days down there inspecting the fire. Well they are not happy at all and the reason for my visit is in regard to the events of that fire, and the insurance payout.”

Frank felt a huge sigh of relief as soon as he heard this.

“Well that wont come from me, but from the insurance company direct in due course.”

“Yes we are aware of that, we have contacted them directly ourselves, but this is more in the way of a courtesy call.

At the time when you visited the aftermath of the fire, you spoke with some of our officers involved in collecting forensics. You said that from your experience and the location of the outbreaks that you were not happy it was an accident. Well it would appear that your suspicions were correct, our experts have confirmed this, it appears that the fire was arson, and was started in at least three separate areas.

The general offices had traces of a propellant in them, as did the stores, also the garages that housed a number of vehicles.

The samples were analysed and petrol traces were found in nearly all the samples taken at the time, so the use of this propellant in these locations means, this was by no means an accident.

We also found a large number of documents relating to Central Cars, and their hire division. We also found drug-making paraphernalia, weighing scales plastic bags etc and wondered why they should be in the offices of a brick works.

Then we found the connection, John Miller who is a director of both companies.

It’s too early to speculate yet, but these documents indicate there may have been some sort of drug dealing going on, using cars from Central Cars hire division for distribution, but we are still working on this. Mr Miller has denied any involvement in drugs, so he hasn’t been charged with anything, yet.

We also found that one of the burnt out cars had, what seems to be drugs of some kind hidden in the boot. We are not sure what kind of drugs yet, it has gone to forensics for analysis, but my bet is it is probably cocaine. So this is by no means a straight forward accidental fire, and we have a lot of investigating to do to get to the bottom of it, so I would rather we kept this conversation to ourselves.”

“That’s fine by me I, appreciate you letting me know, Miller has made about three calls to my office chasing his insurance money.”

“We have interviewed Mr Miller on a couple of occasions, each time he has protested his innocence.”

“Do you think he did it?”

“Well strange as it may seem, and if I was betting man I would say he didn’t. Why would you burn down a building, leaving documents and materials of a compromising nature in fire proof filing cabinets that would be found, it just doesn’t make a great deal of sense to me? At this stage we don’t know who did it.”