Chapter 13
Back to 11:15am.
‘We’ve done it.’ said Alf, sounding rather elated as he sat on the couch in his flat, starring at the diamond on his lap, ‘I do believe that we’ve just got away with robbery and murder in one fell swoop.’
‘That’s great.’ said Nicole, ‘but…’
He didn’t let her finish her statement; being so pleased, he just had to continue.
‘And not only that, we’ve even outdone that bloke they call ‘The King of Diamonds.’
‘Who the hell is he?’ questioned Nicole.
‘In 2007 he masterminded a jewellery heist in Hatton Garden.’ he continued, noticeably feeling full of himself. ‘Took around thirteen million quid’s worth of gems. But they had to steal a considerable amount of jewels in their haul, whereas we’ve only nicked one piece. Plus ours is worth twenty million quid. The so called ‘King of Diamonds’ did carry on to do more jobs, but I think based on a one to one robbery, ours is the biggest.’
‘That’s great.’ repeated Nicole, ‘but, what I was trying to say is. What about Hartley and the girls? Don’t you think that I’m going to be their number one suspect, not to mention what the police might be thinking?’
‘I can’t see them being a problem.’ replied Alf. ‘Don’t forget they’ve got that video of you being fucked by Chandler, which proves that all you was after was a means with which to blackmail him. So even if they do have their doubts, I can’t see it coming to anything. Like I said to your husband on the phone, you’ve simply been kidnapped, as a means of insurance whilst we made our getaway.’
‘But each one of them saw your faces, and so, without any doubt whatsoever, they could identify the two of you.’
‘That’s as maybe.’ he remarked, undeterred by that thought. ‘But in order to do that, the Police need to prove that we were at the scene at the time of the robbery. And considering we’ve had the CCTV system doctored, they can’t do that. They also have to catch us and arrest us, before we can be part of an ID parade.’
‘Aren’t you forgetting something?’ queried Nicole.
‘You both have criminal records, so they will have your mug shots on file.’
‘And how many other guys fit our description. Two men in their mid to late thirty’s, or even forties. One large, the other not so big. One with dark hair, one blonde.’
‘OK.’ she replied, still not totally convinced, but what the hell, she’d got her own agenda to keep to.
‘Have you still got Benny’s lad locked up?’
‘Oh shit,’ Alf coughed, as if a mouthful of coffee went down the wrong way, ‘I forgot about him.’
‘Lazarus. Give Matt a ring and tell him to let the lad go.’ he said with a sense of urgency. ‘He knows what to do. But for fucks sake, remind him to keep his balaclava on, until the lad’s out of sight.’
‘Consider it done.’
‘So when do you get to meet this buyer, and sort the payment and exchange out?’ questioned Nicole.
‘We have to wait a couple of days until things cool down a bit. And when he thinks its time, he’s going to get in touch.’
‘What do I do now?’ she sounded somewhat concerned about how she was going to return home. Knowing that she would be arrested and treated like a suspect the second she was discovered.
‘You might not like this part, but it’ll work.’
‘Pardon,’ Nicole didn’t like the tone Alf was using, ‘what exactly am I not going to like?’
‘I’m going to drive you to within half a mile of the shop, and then Lazarus,’ he coughed, ‘is going to push you out of the car.’
‘I don’t think so.’ she said, not relishing the thought of being thrown out of a moving vehicle. ‘I’ll get covered in cuts and bruises, not to mention getting rather messy. I can’t say that I fancy that one bit.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll pull up first, and let you carefully throw yourself out. You can just roll around on the grass for a bit, so it looks like you’ve been dumped out.’
‘Supposing it does go according to plan, what happens then? You know - once you’ve sold the rock, and collected the cash.’
‘I’ll arrange a meet, and we can divvy up.’ it sounded like he got it all worked out. ‘We’ll disappear for about twelve months or so, and then, I’ve got every intention of coming back and robbing your nearest and dearest again.’ he laughed.
‘And what’s stopping you double crossing me,’ questioned Nicole, ‘you don’t need me anymore. I’m surplus to requirements, now that the jobs done.’
‘Oh no, you’re anything but a surplus.’ Alf grinned, ‘we need you.’
‘What for?’ Nicole wasn’t convinced.
‘Well.’ he said still wearing that silly grin. ‘How are we going to rob Hartley’s shop again, if we don’t have you on board? Plus, I had thought that there was a bit more than just the robbery between us, don’t you.’
Nicole didn’t reply. She simply smiled.
The mention of Alf’s relationship with her seemed to clinch it. He’d somehow, through his sweet talking, managed to persuade her that he wouldn’t do a runner, and leave her stranded.
* * *
Friday, April 23rd. 10:30 am.
As she came out of the loo, Alf said cautiously.
‘Come on then, let’s get it over with.’
The look on Nicole’s face said it all.
And as they made their way down stairs to Alf’s car, she kept muttering, ‘I don’t like this one bit.’
‘It’ll soon be over.’ said Alf trying to console her. ‘I’ve told him to be careful with you, otherwise, well, otherwise he’s in the shit with me, big time.’
Alf climbed into the front. Lazarus and Nicole occupied the back seat.
Conversation was at a minimum. They didn’t have that much to talk about as Alf headed towards Hatton Garden.
‘We’re here.’ remarked Alf as he started to slow down. He then pulled up at the side of the kerb.
‘I’ve picked this spot deliberately because of the grassy verge between the road and the footpath. Lazarus is going to give the impression that he’s pushing you out just in case there’s anybody watching. You fall out onto the grass, and roll over a couple times, and we’ll shoot off.’
Alf was getting a touch anxious; he wanted this part over with ASAP.
Nicole on the other hand, didn’t exactly fancy throwing herself out of the car and rolling over in the grass.
‘Shit Nicole, just get on with it.’ said Alf, a little exasperated at her time wasting.
Reluctantly Nicole grabbed the door handle, pulled it, and before Lazarus could even put his arms out to give the appearance that he was pushing her, she was lying on the grass.
‘Go, Go.’ shouted Lazarus, not wanting to hang around any longer than necessary.
The car did a wheel spin as Alf pulled away, and a number of passers-by glanced in their direction.
Both men kept their faces as concealed as possible, and fortunately, any possible witnesses were more concerned about Nicole, than to be bothered about the fleeing vehicle.
‘Somebody ring the Police.’ shouted a middle aged lady, who was stood in the middle of the by now increasingly curious crowd.
‘Already done.’ said a man who’d only just joined the growing body of on lookers.
After about two minutes a police car arrived. Clearly Alf’s chosen drop off point, only half a mile away from the largest diamond centre in Britain, had been the perfect location for a speedy emergency services response.
Fulfilling his duty as a policeman, the officer walked quickly towards Nicole, trying to asses the situation.
Nicole’s acting skills left a great deal to be desired, but as she grimaced her face to indicate that she was in a lot of pain, the officer frowned, clearly in disbelief. Especially as there weren’t any visible signs of physical injury. It was evident that the lady wasn’t in a life threatening situation.
As he approached her, one of the passers-by, a bit of a busybody who wanted to get noticed, walked alongside and started to tell him what she had seen.
‘The car just pulled up,’ she was sounding rather excitable, ‘and he pushed her out. That poor girl went flying to the ground. It’s lucky she landed on the grass and not the road; otherwise she could have been killed, if another vehicle had been going past.’
‘Thank you.’ remarked the officer, not particularly interested, due to the pushy way she was offering the information. He needed to speak to the injured party first, and get her version of events. Not a load of gobbledegook from someone who just wanted to get herself some attention.
‘Won’t you need me to make a statement; after all, I am an important eyewitness.’
‘Not at this moment, I need to check on the victim.’
‘What actually happened?’ he enquired, as he crouched down to look at Nicole.
The crowd was slowly being dispersed by another group of officers that had turned up.
‘We need to go to the Police Station,’ she replied with a sense of urgency. ‘I don’t want to talk about it out here in the street.’
By this time the ambulance with the paramedics in had arrived.
‘Give me some room.’ said the first one on the scene, carrying a rucksack style medical case. ‘What happened here?’
‘She was pushed out of a moving car,’ said the busybody, ‘it wasn’t half travelling fast. I’m an eye …’
‘Thank you,’ interrupted the officer, ‘I’ll deal with it.’
As everyone moved away, the paramedic began to examine her.
The officer didn’t say anything straight away, because, as Nicole was being examined for cuts and bruises, broken bones and any signs of head or body damage, the paramedic started to look puzzled.
‘What’s the problem?’ questioned the officer.
‘For somebody who was just been pushed out of a moving car, she’s looking pretty good.’ he shook his head.
‘If I didn’t know better, I’d say that all you’ve had, is a bit of a fall, and fortunately landed on the grass.’ he remarked as he looked her in the eye.
‘I think it’s my spine.’ remarked Nicole realising that she had to say something. Knowing that, because she’d said it was her back, even after an x-ray it would be impossible to assess whether or not there would be any lasting damage.
‘We’ll have to take her to the hospital to get that checked out.’
The officer and the paramedic looked at each other, their facial expressions indicating that neither of them was convinced.
Neither of them believed what Nicole wanted them to.
‘My husbands shops been robbed, and I’ve been kidnapped to stop him phoning for the police before the thieves made their getaway. So can you take me to the hospital to get me properly checked out, and then can I go to the station and make a statement.’
She knew she needed to look as though panic was setting in.
‘Come on then.’ she shouted angrily. ‘The longer you piss about, the further away the robbers will be. By this time they could have fled the country and be sunning themselves in the Costa dam fortune.’
‘Let’s get the lady onto the stretcher and into the ambulance.’ said the paramedic as he glanced towards his colleague, having realised that they were on a loser. If there was some kind of injury to her back and they didn’t follow protocol, then they’d be in for the high jump. So all they could do was to go along with the correct procedure.