Dirty Game (26 page)

The department store safe was ripe for the taking. Jack the gelly man had his pack of three with him. He was pleased with the way things were going, so far.

So was Jonjo. So was Max, who had the bags at the ready to stow the cash. The telephone chap was sweating up a bit and had taken his hood off. Obvious he’d never done a job before. But he was okay. They were all dressed in gloves and navy boiler suits and thick hoods, in case anyone spotted them. Jimmy had breached the frame-room door for the ex-GPO man to do his bit, and was now outside keeping his eyes peeled. Gary was parked round the corner, ready to go.

It was midnight. Everything was peaceful, just the way it should be.

The ex-engineer found the alarm line, got his tools out and started gently stripping back the wire
in two places. Then he attached the two crocodile clips to the bared wires and had the diverter wire in place in a second. He turned and nodded to Max.

The alarm was inactive. They were going to steal away the thirty thousand as quiet as a mouse’s fart. Jonjo went over to the manager’s office and busted the door wide open. The two others were tearing around the store grabbing fur coats, blankets, rugs, all to mask the noise of the explosion.

The gelly man went over to the safe. It had a steel door built into concrete. He looked it over, then knelt down and unpacked his pack of three and his other bits and pieces. You had to keep gelignite cool and dry. Once it started to run in the heat, you were in trouble.

‘I should stand back a bit,’ he said.

Max, Jonjo and the telephone man moved out of the room. Jonjo went off to pick up whatever he could carry in gemstones and watches. The telephone man took his hood off and mopped his brow. Max watched what the gelly man was doing through the open door.

Jack had already snipped the ends off the condoms. Now he started to pipe the stuff all around the door, squeezing it into the gap with gentle precision. Then he turned to the lock, the safe’s weakest point, and used up the last of the gelly. Then he got out a spatula and a block
of kiddies’ Plasticine and slowly covered the gelignite with it.

Max looked at his watch. Nearly twelve thirty.

Jack finished with the Plasticine and started setting up the detonator, a simple battery with a wire attached. All he had to do now was close the circuit and the safe would be cracked open like a crushed nut.

‘We’ll pack it now,’ he said.

Max and the telephone man started passing in the rugs and the coats and the sheets and blankets. The gelly man packed them around the safe until it looked like an igloo.

‘That’s fine,’ he said, and moved out of the room with the detonator, the cable unravelling between the battery and the safe.

Jonjo came back with pockets like Squirrel Nutkin. He was beaming from ear to ear, mask still off. Sloppy, thought Max, displeased.

‘Everyone ready?’ asked Jack.

Cool bugger, thought Max as he nodded. He could have been leading a Sunday School prayer meeting for all the concern he registered. They got down out of the way.

‘Put your hoods on,’ Max told Jonjo and the telephone man.

‘It’s too fucking hot,’ said the ex-engineer while Jonjo complied.

‘Put it on, you pineapple.’

The gelly man closed the circuit. The explosion was nothing more than a soft crack, but the floor shook beneath their feet. All the covers fell off the safe and the door lolled open. There was a heavy cordite smell in the air and a little smoke, but Max was pleased. No one outside the building could have heard that. Not even Jimmy, and he had ears like a bat.

‘Come on,’ said Jack, and started throwing all the covers back out the door of the manager’s office. He then neatly packed away his stuff.

Then Max got to the open safe and saw the huge stash of cash inside. He shook out the bags and started piling it inside and handing it back to Jonjo. God bless the January sales. Where the fuck was Jonjo? This was no time to be off on the rob around the shop.

‘Hey!’ someone said from behind him.

Jonjo was grappling with a man near the door.

‘Who the fuck are you?’ Jonjo demanded.

Max looked at the telephone engineer. His mask still off. The bloke had clocked him. Not good news.

‘Get off me!’ The man was squirming in Jonjo’s iron grip.

‘Who are you, pal?’ asked Jonjo again.

‘I’m the manager,’ the man gasped. ‘I came back for some papers.’

Now
the engineer pulled his hood back on.
About a lifetime too bloody late. Max was seriously annoyed. He was going to have words with Jimmy over this. What was he doing out there, having a wank? He wasn’t keeping watch, that was for sure. This bastard must have come right past him.

‘Fuck it,’ said Jonjo.

‘Take him into the storage room. Tie him up,’ said Max.

‘But he’s seen my …’ yelled the engineer.

Max gave him and slap and caught the front of his boiler suit.

‘Shut it, you.’

The man fell silent. Christ, spare me from bloody amateurs, thought Max. God knew what this idiot had been about to say. He could have roared one of their names out loud, he was that rattled.

‘He saw my face,’ moaned the man.

Max gave him a little shake.

‘So? I hear Scotland’s nice this time of year. Take yourself off up there. Go tonight. And keep it buttoned, my friend, or I might get upset with you.’

‘But what if he identifies me?’

‘You’ve got no record. No wife. No kids. He’d have to be fucking clever to do that, wouldn’t he? But take no chances. Clear off out of it.’

‘My cut! What about my cut?’

‘Send a postcard in three months’ time to Eric
at The Grapes. I’ll see you right. So long as you remember you say nothing to nobody about this. You get careless, I get upset. Remember that. I hear anything about you mouthing off, I’ll find you. And you’ll be sorry.’

The man nodded. Max started piling the cash into the bags. A good night’s work, all in all. And on Delaney turf, too – that made it twice as sweet.

 ‘So how was Cliveden this weekend?’ asked Annie absently as she thumbed through one of the copies of
The Times
newspaper she bought in for the clients. Not much to see, really. The odd scandal. The odd robbery, too. A massive thirty thousand quid had gone walkabout from a department store on the Delaney manor. Ronnie and Reggie Kray had been remanded in custody, charged with demanding money with menaces. Adam Faith had cancelled concerts in Johannesburg after refusing to play to all-white audiences.

Mira, Jennifer and Thelma were in an ecstatic pre-party huddle on one of the big Chesterfields. Mira, beaming with happiness, tossing her blonde mane, looked up at Annie who was standing over them with an indulgent smile.

‘I was just telling Jen and Thelma about it. It was so wonderful. We had one of the suites
overlooking the Thames. The view was stunning. I met Joe Louis.’

‘Who’s Joe Louis?’

‘The
boxer
, silly. And I was introduced to Lord and Lady Astor. And I met Harold Macmillan. And Tony Bennett the singer, he was lovely. William was very attentive. It was
fabulous
.’

Annie didn’t doubt that William had been attentive. William was Sir William Farquarson. Unfortunately his wife, Lady Fenella, was horse-faced and not keen on sex. Fortunately, she was often at their country house with her dogs, which left Billy free to entertain more glamorous companions up in town whenever he chose.

‘What’s he like then, Sir William?’ asked Thelma, who was sleek and red-haired with a haughty manner that certain men found appealing.

‘In bed?’ Mira wrinkled her exquisite nose. ‘He likes kinky boots. Nothing else. You have to be naked. No suspenders, no bra, no pants. Just the high-heeled boots – with dress spurs.’

‘What, during sex?’ laughed Jennifer, an elegant toffee-brown girl with an open, approachable demeanour.

‘Oh God yes,’ said Mira. ‘First he likes to be ridden around the bedroom on all fours, then when he gets down to it he likes you to dig the spurs into his back so that he yelps with pain.’

‘Men are very strange,’ sighed Jennifer. ‘My
bank manager likes me to wear five bras and do a strip for him. He likes to shout out: “First bra off!” and so on, until I remove the last one. Then he tosses himself off. Pretty odd, wouldn’t you say?’

‘I can go one better,’ said Thelma. ‘One of my older clients doesn’t want sex, he just wants to lick me all over. And he has to take his teeth out first or they rattle all over the place. I tell you, I was getting serious bite marks. So I told him. No teeth out, no licky. So he takes them out. Last time he was here he got so overexcited he picked up his hankie from the side table and flushed it down the toilet with his dentures wrapped inside. Good job he’s widowed. How the hell would you explain
that
to your wife, I wonder?’

Annie smiled. ‘Thank God men are weird, or we’d all be out of work. Come on, girls. Ten minutes to party time.’

Annie was pleased with her little operation now. It had taken a while, but with Redmond’s cash input and some lively suggestions from her Limehouse colleagues she had come up with a very comprehensive programme of fun for her clients.

A seventy-five-pound charge on the door ensured that every client was entitled to as much food and drink as he liked, a floor show from the lady of his choice, a sexy film from a small selection, plenty of fine music and laughter and cigars,
the day’s best papers to read, and – of course – as many fucks as he felt able to accomplish. Ten or none, it didn’t matter. So long as he went away happy and came back in a hurry.

It seemed to work well. She had a barman called Joshua – a Delaney man through and through – who was as smooth as silk. Joshua knew how to mix all the latest cocktails, he was non-judgemental and very discreet. He served food on silver platters to their elite clients with all the cool charm of a Savoy veteran.

No doorman, though. Annie hadn’t considered that, in such a select area. She took the money at the door and Joshua stood there with her and gave every guest a welcoming glass of the best champagne. By half past midday she had ten gentlemen happily ensconced in the apartment and busy with her lovely girls. Then Kieron showed up and Annie wished she did have a doorman, after all.

‘Kieron,’ she said, ‘what are you doing here?’

‘I’ve come to talk to you,’ said Kieron, all floppy blond hair and pleading eyes.

‘It’s not convenient,’ said Annie. ‘As you can see, this is a private party.’

‘Oh sure. I can see people are paying you money to come in. Hardly a party, is it? More an orgy, really.’

God, she was getting fed up with this.

Joshua was looking nervous. He wasn’t up to
any rough stuff. Joshua was gay, skinny and unaccustomed to dealing with trouble. Annie gave him a reassuring glance.

‘It’s okay, Josh, I’ll deal with this. You carry on here, take the cash, dole out the champagne, I’ll be back in two ticks.’

Annie gave Kieron an angry look and led the way into her own bedroom, the only place unoccupied at present. She closed the doors behind them.

‘All right,’ she said. ‘You want to talk, so talk. I’m listening.’

‘Don’t talk to me as if I’m a naughty schoolboy,’ snapped Kieron.

‘Then why are you behaving like one?’ Annie hissed back. ‘Why won’t you take in what I’ve told you? I’m not interested in any sort of relationship with you.’

‘But you are with Max Carter.’

‘Look, what fucking business is that of yours? Anyway – that’s over.’

‘Sure it is. That’s why you left my exhibition to which you came as
my
guest, with that bastard.’

‘When are you going to let that drop?’ Annie asked. ‘I was protecting you from yourself, Kieron. Believe me, you do not want to upset Max.’

‘I don’t care whether I upset him or not,’ said Kieron passionately. ‘It’s you I want.’

‘Kieron, don’t be fucking stupid,’ sighed Annie.

‘What’s stupid about this?’ asked Kieron, grabbing her and kissing her hard.

‘For God’s sake,’ muttered Annie, pushing him away and wiping irritably at her mouth.

‘You know you want me too,’ said Kieron, storming in again and slipping his hand inside her dress to squeeze her breast.

Annie recoiled, amazed and outraged at the same time.

‘For fuck’s
sake
, Kieron!’

‘I know I was stupid and I didn’t make a play for you when I should have,’ said Kieron in a rush, trying to get his hand back in there. ‘But I want you, Annie. I want you now.’

He pressed himself to her frontage and Annie knew he wasn’t telling a lie. To her horror she felt him reaching down between them to unzip himself. This was getting beyond a joke.

She hauled back and brought her knee up, but he had turned to the side and it didn’t connect where it should. She opened her mouth to speak, but his mouth quickly covered hers again. The feel of it disgusted her. To her alarm she realized that he was stronger than she had thought. She tried to get free, managed to get one arm away. She clawed at his face.

‘Bitch,’ Kieron cursed her, angry scratch marks emerging on his cheek. Then his hand was on her throat and she had
really
had enough.

She brought her free arm round and punched him straight on the jaw. He reeled back, clutching his chin, his eyes registering almost comical surprise. Annie stood there glaring at him, panting, hands on hips.

‘Now listen to me, you little fucker,’ she hissed. ‘You and me are never going to happen. Get that through your thick skull.’

‘Yeah, because of that bastard Carter,’ yelled Kieron.

‘
Keep your fucking voice down!
’ said Annie. She didn’t want a public ruck, not with punters in.

‘Oh, you don’t want to hear the truth? Because it is, isn’t it. It’s only that fucking Max Carter standing in our way.’ Kieron straightened, wincing. There was blood at the side of his mouth where she’d struck him. ‘It’s me you really want, but you’re afraid of what he’d do if you gave in to it.’

‘You’re deluded, Kieron,’ said Annie coldly. She went to the door and opened it. ‘Just get the hell out of here, will you?’

Josh came over instantly. ‘Is everything all right, Annie?’

He glanced anxiously between the two of them, seeing Annie’s agitation and the blood streaming down Kieron’s chin.

‘Ah, you can tell your lapdog I’m off,’ sneered Kieron with an angry look at her and a sneer for Josh.

‘Piss off, Kieron,’ said Annie tiredly. She was sick of the sight of him now.

‘You really okay?’ asked Josh when Kieron had pushed past him and gone, slamming the door behind him.

‘Fine,’ said Annie, feeling suddenly shaky. ‘Take over for a little while, will you Josh?’

Annie went back into her bedroom, closing the door behind her. Trembling, she sat down on the bed and put her head in her hands and knew that the bad blood between the Carters and the Delaneys was far from over. And here she was again – stuck unwillingly between the two. Stuck exactly where she didn’t want to be.