Not surprising, the dealers abandoned their base after Alf was rescued. They believed the general break-in had occurred long before the rescue. In short, they had been spied on.
It was easy for Max to find them again at Montgomery Close, with the permanent tracker fitted to the car. So far, Max and Star had isolated five drop sites for the money, the most frequent being lockers at a train station.
They took turns systematically taking impressions of all the keys, so Max could cast the tumbler profile onto a special key blank using epoxy resin.
According to the dealers’ schedule, the bus station locker was the target that morning. The usual courier, one of the known dealers from the base, put the large sports bag of cash in a randomly chosen locker. He looked around and circled the station for a while. Finally, satisfied there was nothing suspicious to worry about, he vanished.
He had to deliver the key to the intermediary who would pass it on to another to collect the cash. Next, the dealer would receive a phone call giving him a pick-up point for the key and drugs.
With Star watching out for known couriers or any other suspicious people, Max hastily removed the bag of cash, left the station, and caught a cab. Star followed at a distance on the scooter, ready to warn Max in case evasive action became necessary.
Back at the bedsit, they counted the money in used notes of all denominations, totaling £350,000. After this strike, the procedure for money drop off would change; they would have to start surveillance and mapping out all over again.
The drug dealers put the word out for information about the perpetrators. Their first suspicions focused on Alf and his rescuer. After beating the crap out of suspects, which led nowhere, things returned to normal. The thief had probably got away with it for now.
At first, Max and Star found it difficult to figure out the dealers’ new procedure. They split up the money into small packets and made ten different drops. This was very time-consuming for dealers and suppliers; the drug collection was split in the same way. Buying the smaller quantities was also more expensive.
The financial return against risk was now so poor that the duo decided to delay any further thefts, in case the drug gang developed some other strategy that they could not beat.
The passage of time saw a return to the old system of large cash deposits. It took several weeks for Max to recognize the change and when he did, he was very suspicious. It looked like a trap to lure the thieves into making another strike.