Chapter 10
Thursday, April 22nd. 8:31am
As Hartley was bent over to unlock the front door of the shop, a young lad, can’t have been more than about thirteen or fourteen years old, appeared out of nowhere. He put a finger up to his lips whilst raising his eyebrows and nodding in Hartley’s direction, indicating secrecy. He slipped a DVD case into Nicole’s hand. She instantly realised that it must have come from Alf.
The lad continued running.
‘Who was that?’ enquired Hartley as he started to stand upright.
‘I haven’t a clue,’ Nicole replied, ‘he just came out of nowhere, and now he’s disappeared. He must be late for his bus or something.’
Thursday, April 22nd. 8:45am
‘Have you sorted the tills out yet Nicole,’ enquired Hartley as he made his way out of the office, after double checking that the CCTV monitors were working. ‘The girls will be here any minute.’
Why he always referred to the two assistants as girls was anybody’s guess. After all, they were both in their mid thirty’s. Married, and with kids. To Nicole, the term girls, just didn’t seem appropriate.
‘Yes,’ she replied, ‘stop panicking. Everything’s going to be fine.’
‘That’s easy for you to say. You’re not burdened with the responsibility of taking possession of a multi million pound gem. All you’ve got to do is spend your share of the half million I’ll get.’
Trying to remain as nonchalant as she could, Nicole remarked.
‘I know, but that’s going to quite a difficult project. I think I’m going to have to engage a bit of help from Eve.’
Hartley shook his head as he opened the front door for Victoria and Becky.
‘Morning ladies,’ was his greeting, deliberately missing out the word ‘good’. He was a bit too nervous for it to be a ‘good morning’.
All he could think was, ‘I’ll be glad when that diamond is locked up in the safe.’
9:10am
The door buzzer rang.
Hartley anxiously glanced up at the security monitor.
A man, that was about to remove a black crash helmet, was stood at the entrance.
‘It’s here.’ he thought. ‘A tad early though.’
As soon as he’d opened the door, the courier said.
‘I do believe that you’re expecting me. I have a delivery that I need a signature for.’
‘Yes, come in. Don’t be standing out there waiting to get mugged. We can’t take any chances with what’s in that package.’
‘Why, what is it? The crown jewels.’ joked the delivery guy as he finished removing his helmet. So revealing a blonde pony tail, and earrings that some of Hartley’s customers would be pretty envious of.
‘I’m only Mr Chandler’s private courier. I never know what I’m delivering.’ He grinned, ‘it could be a box of chocolates for one of his lady friends, or a briefcase full of bank notes for one of his clients. It could even be…’
‘Can we get on; I don’t like the thought of that parcel not being locked away in the safe.’
‘Yes, there you go.’ The courier sounded a bit put out at being cut short, when all he was doing was trying to be friendly.
He handed over an 8 inch cube, which had been wrapped in brown paper. Hartley grabbed it and went straight to the safe, and locked it up.
‘Hey, what about my signature? If I don’t get that, Mr Chandler will go berserk.’
He handed a small receipt book over to Hartley, who signed on the dotted line, after he’d read what it was that he was accepting.
I ACCEPT DELIVERY OF ONE, SIX INCH CUBED PACKAGE WRAPPED IN BROWN PAPER.
That was all that was on the receipt.
Clearly Mr Chandler didn’t want anyone knowing the contents of the parcel, and Hartley was noticeably relieved that the gem was safely locked away.
Nothing could go wrong now. We’ve done the most difficult part.
Nobody could get at the gem, without going through him.
The courier replaced his crash helmet and left.
‘Everything go alright?’ enquired Nicole.
‘Yes. So far so good.’ he replied.
9:26am
The front door buzzer sounded.
Hartley looked up at the monitor.
Two well dressed men stood waiting at the front door, clearly wanting to gain access.
Both were wearing business like blue pinstriped suits, collar and ties. They looked as though they’d just come from their office.
Victoria opened the door and welcomed them.
‘Hi.’ said the first man as he made his entrance.
He was about 5 - 5 and no more than eleven and a half stone, with dark brown eyes, and sporting a goatee beard. He was a good looking man, in a strange kind of way. The other one stood a good six inches taller, and even though he looked smart enough in the suit he was wearing, had a thick black beard, which ruined any kind of attraction he might have possessed.
‘We’re about to propose to our girls. And, as they’re twin sisters we thought it would be a nice gesture to get matching rings for them. Do you think you could help us out?’
‘Of course we can, sir.’ Victoria had switched into saleswoman mode.
She led them over to one of the display counters.
‘Have you seen anything in the window that appeals to the two of you?’
‘Yes,’ replied the bearded man. His accent giving his London heritage away, ‘err, tray eleven I think it was. Could we take a look at that one, please?’
‘Certainly.’
Victoria was about to open the inside window shutters, when the door buzzer sounded again.
She looked over to the door, and this time it was a casually dressed man. But she could tell instantly that his clothes didn’t come from Primark. They had a noticeably expensive look about them.
Victoria raised her hand in recognition, and the man smiled in return.
Quickly she lifted out tray eleven, and placed it on the display cabinet in front of the two gentlemen she was dealing with.
‘Please, take a look through these; I’ll be back in a second.’
After she’d excused herself, Victoria went over and opened the door.
‘May I help?’
‘My name is Chandler. Mr Granger’s expecting me.’
‘Please come in. I’ll get him for you.’
She turned with the intention of going to the office to inform Mr Granger of his visitor, but didn’t need to. He was stood directly in front of them, clearly expecting the caller.
‘I’ll see to Mr Chandler, Victoria. You continue to look after those other two gentlemen.’
‘Would like to come through to my office.’ remarked Hartley as he surveyed Chandler from top to bottom.
He was wearing dark blue trousers and a checked open neck shirt. A loose fitting beige summer jacket and Nike trainers, and carrying a black briefcase.
Hartley led Chandler through into his office and offered him a seat.
‘I think I’d like to see the package first.’ he remarked.
‘And I’d like to see some ID before we go any further.’ replied Hartley.
‘Of course. I wouldn’t expect it any other way.’ said Chandler.
‘There you go. My Passport and driving licence.’
He handed the documents over to Hartley, who firstly examined the photo in the passport, which was clearly the face of the man sitting in front of him. Then he compared it with the image on the driving licence.
‘You’ve covered your address.’
‘Well, what did you expect? I can’t have every Tom, Dick, Harry, and Hartley Granger knowing where I live, can I.’
There were raised eyebrows from both men.
‘I suppose not.’
Even though everything appeared to be in order, Hartley was a touch reluctant to get the diamond out of the safe, but felt that he had no option with the ID this man had provided.
‘I’ve not opened it.’ he remarked as he passed the parcel over to Chandler.
‘Why not? You must have been curious, and probably had a burning desire to see such a wonderful diamond as this. Especially with you being in the trade for so many years.’
Chandler ripped open the brown wrapping paper, without showing any caution. He knew that the gem would be protectively boxed. Once the paper was discarded it revealed a plain cardboard box. And after peeling off the celotape that the top was sealed with, he lifted out a ball of bubble wrap.
Carefully he unwrapped it, revealing a blue coloured cloth which protected the contents from getting scratched or damaged in any way .
Slowly Chandler laid it on the top of the office desk, and uncovered the Appleford.
The two men couldn’t take their eyes off it.
It was a larger and more perfectly cut diamond than either of them had ever seen, with the exception of the Cullinan One.
It really was Crown Jewell worthy.
‘Wow.’ was the only thing Hartley could say. He was dumbstruck.
After a moments silence, Chandler lifted up his briefcase, wrapped the gem back up, and placed it inside. Turning the combination dials to secure it.