Chapter 21
Monday, April 26th. 7:15 am.
Hartley’s alarm clock went off.
‘It’s not that time already is it?’ he said whilst stretching his arms out and yawning.
‘I’m afraid so.’ replied Nicole.
‘And unfortunately for you, there’s no breakfast in bed today.’
He just sighed. He didn’t think that a reply was necessary.
The usual tea and toast was consumed in relative silence, downstairs at the kitchen table, while Hartley scoured the financial pages of the Times, as was the case every working day.
Nicole was flicking through a copy of Vogue which she’d had for a week or so. Seemingly trying to find a particular dress that had taken her fancy when the magazine had first arrived. But with everything that was going on, she couldn’t really concentrate.
As they were both finishing their coffees, Hartley asked.
‘Will you be coming into the shop this morning, or have you got something else planned.’
‘Apart from meeting Eve at twelve, for coffee, I’ve nothing else in mind.’ she replied. ‘So, yes I’ll be coming into town with you. I’ll leave my car here, there’s no point in taking two of them. I can always come back home with you.’
Monday, April 26th. 9:15 am.
Victoria and Becky were busying themselves rearranging the jewellery in the front window, and the display cabinets. This was a regular Monday morning ritual. Hartley had always insisted that, if the display looks different every week, customers naturally think that new stock could have arrived, and so take an even longer look at the redesigned window.
Nicole was busy going through the mail, while Hartley was double checking the banking from the previous week.
The security buzzer sounded.
With being preoccupied in the office, neither Hartley nor Nicole bothered to glance at the security monitor.
But the second Becky glanced at the door she said, with her voice raised somewhat.
‘It’s the police.’
Without any hesitation, both Hartley and Nicole quickly made their way into the front of the shop. As soon as the two of them entered the sales area, they recognised that it was Inspector Cunningham, the officer in charge of investigating the robbery.
‘Good morning. Have there been any developments?’ enquired Hartley.
‘Just the CCTV footage and mug shots,’ replied the inspector, ‘I’d like you all to take a look at them, and see if you recognise any of the men.’
‘Do you not have a DVD with the footage on, I could play it back on the system in the office?’ confirmed Hartley.
‘Not necessary,’ remarked Cunningham. ‘I’ve had the relevant images enlarged and printed out. All you have to do is take a look at these hard copies.’
Cunningham spread the CCTV printouts and the mug shots side by side on top of one of the display cabinets, and the four of them started glancing over at them.
Nicole started feeling extremely uncomfortable.
Even though the photos from the street cameras were a touch on the blurred side, the mug shots were very clear.
It ran through her head, that if they did manage someway or other to get hold of the memory stick that Benny had, there would be not doubt whatsoever who the perpetrators were. This would in turn, guarantee a stretch in prison for Alf. Obviously with Lazarus and Matt both dead, Nicole didn’t think it would take long, before he would open his mouth and implicate her. This meant that she would have to make sure that Benny was kept sweet.
Nicole also had to do her best to try and confuse the issue.
‘They do look a bit like the thieves who stole the Appleford, but I don’t think that I could swear in a court of law that they were definitely the same men.’ she said, getting her two pennyworths in first.
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ chirped in Victoria, ‘I think they do look like they could be the robbers.’
‘Shit.’ thought Nicole. ‘I hope that Hartley and Becky have their doubts, or else.’
‘I’m not sure,’ said Becky, ‘like Nicole, I don’t think that I could swear that they are the same. The photos are so blurred. And I wouldn’t like to get innocent men convicted of something they didn’t do.’
‘Thank fuck for that.’ ran through Nicole’s mind.
Then Hartley threw his hat into the ring.
‘Do you know, I don’t think I would be confident enough to say that they are the same men? Like Becky, I wouldn’t like to say they were the same, and consign innocent people to prison. Nobody deserves to get convicted of a crime they didn’t commit.’
‘I personally thought that it was pretty clear that they were the same men, in both the mug shots and the camera photos. Plus they’ve both served time for similar offences.’ commented Cunningham, ‘but if you’d not be prepared to swear to it in court, then I’m back to square one.’
He was just about to leave the shop, when his mobile rang.
‘Cunningham.’ was all he said after pressing the accept button.
He listened for about a minute or so, and although he had his head turned away slightly, to prevent anyone else overhearing what was being said, Nicole thought that she’d seen a glimmer of a smile.
‘Well that’s something.’ he remarked.
‘What’s that,’ questioned Nicole, ‘another breakthrough?’
‘Maybe.’ Cunningham replied.
‘I’m going to have to interview that CCTV engineer again.’ he continued. ‘The forensic guys have found evidence that a USB pen drive may have been plugged into the CCTV recorder, and subsequently removed sometime within the last few days.’
‘Oh bugger.’ thought Nicole, ‘I hope Benny’s got a good explanation for using that slot.’
‘And what would that prove?’ queried Hartley. Nicole felt relief that the question hadn’t come from her. ‘Isn’t it possible that the slot could have been caught somehow during its transit from here to the station?’
‘I suppose so,’ answered Cunningham, ‘but forensics are normal extremely careful and vigilant when dealing with potential criminal evidence.’
‘Yes, but,’ Nicole had to chirp in, ‘accidents can happen even in the most observant and attentive situations.’
‘Like I said,’ continued Cunningham, ‘I’ll have to interview that engineer again, and see what forensics have to say about what they’ve discovered, when I get back there.’
Monday, April 26th. 10:12 am.
No sooner had the inspector left the premises, than Hartley and his assistants continued where they’d left off. Nicole made an excuse to nip out for some milk.
‘But I brought a bottle in with me this morning.’ mentioned Becky.
‘Sorry, I know,’ said Nicole apologetically, in the knowledge that she’d deliberately poured it down the sink, ‘I knocked it over and spilt it all, but it won’t take me more than a couple of minutes to go and get some.’
She quickly left the shop, and immediately rang Benny to inform him about his impending visitor.
‘What excuse are you going to give,’ she asked, ‘because the police are going to want to hear something feasible?’
‘It’s not a problem,’ replied Benny confidently, ‘I’ll just say that I’d put a memory stick in to see if it would record and play back. Then once I could see that it was working, I deleted the footage which had been recorded.’
‘Has Alf been in touch, and told you that Chan Lee is prepared to do a bank transfer?’
‘Yes. So I’m just waiting for another call to let me know what’s next.’
They both hung up.
Nicole quickly made her way back to the shop once she’d purchased a fresh bottle of milk, and straight away made everyone a cuppa, so giving the appearance of normality.
During the short time that she’d been away from the shop, a number of customers had arrived and were being dealt with. Monday morning was never usually very busy, but custom at any time was always welcome.
Nicole was hoping that once eleven forty-five arrived, that things would start to quiet down a bit. Otherwise Hartley would no doubt ask her to cancel her coffee date with Eve. And she felt the need for a bit of R and R with so much going on. Fortunately, normal service was resumed, and Monday morning returned to its normally slow pace.
At five to eleven Nicole grabbed her coat and handbag, and the second the clock struck 12, she said her goodbye’s and headed off down Hatton Garden.
Monday, April 26th. 12:12 pm.
Eve hadn’t arrived when Nicole got to their usual coffee shop. So she went straight in and ordered two large latte’s and two jam and cream scones, it was their regular order.
She sat there pondering over the situation.
Was it really conceivable that Chan Lee would stick to his word and do the transfer? After all, twenty million pounds is a hell of a lot of money to part with. She was well aware that he couldn’t actually cancel the transaction once it had gone through. But they weren’t dealing with the average criminal. He would without doubt have some computer geeks or financial wizards at his disposal, who may know of a way to scupper things.
Her mind was awash with so many different scenarios.
‘Hello. Anybody in there?’ said Eve as she sat down opposite Nicole.
This made her jump, and as she looked over she suddenly remembered where she was.
‘Fuckin’ hell. You didn’t half put the shits up me.’ remarked Nicole. ‘I was miles away.’
‘More like a couple of thousands miles away.’ replied Eve. ‘I’ve said Hello three times.’
‘Sorry, I’ve got a lot going on at the moment.’
‘You must be joking,’ Eve replied, ‘the only thing you’ve got to occupy your mind with, is when and where you want to spend all that money, or who you’re going to jump into bed with next.’
‘If only you knew.’ thought Nicole.
They sat enjoying their coffee and cakes, having a good old fashioned chat about fashion and holidays for the next forty-five minutes. And then parted company.