Daylight Robbery by Virginia McAllister-Evans - HTML preview

NINE  -  BE PREPARED!

On the day before the job, Jim and Deirdre packed a couple of suitcases.  They had carefully packed the clothes and photos.  They followed the same steps that Terry and Shelly, Matt and Trudy were doing. 

Over the weekend beforehand, what bits of furniture the families had decided to keep, they had moved them to storage which Matt had found.  Opening the account in an alias, he found that the locale of it, the rates for the monthly storage was quite a find.  Splitting the costs between the three families, and with the stuff not taking up as much space as they first thought, it was a great start.

“Ms Smith, do you remember me telling you about my family asking if we wanted to go and visit them?”

“Yes dear.  Have they been in touch?”

“Well yes, they want us to go next Tuesday.”

“Oh, that’s going to be nice for you.  I mean, you were thinking of starting your holiday a couple of days later, weren’t you?”

“Yes.  Would you mind if I finished that early?”

“Of course woman!  You must go and stay with them.”

Deirdre was happy that she had had that conversation a couple of days after that conversation about setting the date for the job.  Now she could leave, knowing that the relatives of Ms Smith would be going round and support her.  She wasn’t at all that bothered about Ms Warburton.

She handed her notice in at the agency the same day that they were packing their suitcases.

TEN – DAYLIGHT ROBBERY

“3-Way?  Yes, it’s Jim   .  Look, I don’t think I can make it into work today.  Yes, yes, I know you are busy.  But, I will be spending more time in the gents’ toilets today than going to the banks.  And I was up half the night with this blasted cough …”

Jim’s voice drifted off.  Then, “What do you mean?  I’ve been sacked?  How come?  Why?”

There was natural irritant in his voice.

“Oh, so because I have been working my backside off you, doing all those hours to make the collections, jumped through hoops to make the company look good – because I get sick, now, in a time when most are sick, you sack me.  Well!  Thank you!”

This wasn’t doing his blood pressure any favours.  The ironic thing was, was that he was actually steaming and hurting.  To think that 3-Way could treat him, him!  Like this!  How dare they.

Someone on the other end of the phone was trying to justify why the company takes a dim view of sickness and that he had had a few too many times off on the sick and the company policy was that if an employee had more than a week off sick, then this was a sackable offence, particularly for a rookie in their first year.

And what about if you were in an accident and laid up in hospital with a broken leg?  Or someone knifed you?  This was victimisation.

Stuff you!

He slammed the phone down in disgust.  And justification was made for what he was about to do that day.

“Hello?”  Jim was fervently gesticulating that he wasn’t in.  “Oh, Ms Smith.  Yes, hello.  Yes, of course I can come over and do an hour.  About 10?  All right then, I will see you then.  Bye.”

“Are you going to be all right Jim?  I’m slipping out to do an hour for Ms Smith.”

“Yes, of course honey.  They just really wound me up.”

“Right, well, just calm down.  We are nearly home and dry.  Are you getting ready for the others?”

“Yeah, just going to go and get my uniform on.”

After a quick breakfast and another cup of coffee, Jim left Deirdre to her day.  Matt was on time, and was already parked up outside.  Jim looked back at the front of the house for probably the last time.  The UPVC still needed looking at, and the paint on the front door had seen better days.  As he looked up at the bedroom, he could see Deirdre taking down their curtains and putting up some cheapos she had bought at a charity shop, which had equally seen better days.  The front garden looked as tired as the day when they bought the house.  £34000 was still owing on it, they were welcome to the problem of selling the problem house.

The nets in the neighbour’s house twitched, he smiled at them, knowing only too well that the young woman who lived there would be trying to peek out of them.  He knew her game now – she was worried in case the Social might be sneaking around trying to catch her partner cum lodger, who was coughing up toward the rent, would be caught.  Her full housing benefit would be daily jeopardised.  But he wasn’t going to say a word.  Good luck to you kid.

The van pulled away.  Matt had thoughtfully brought another ‘keep-warm’ mug of coffee that would keep Jim warm when he sat in the back of the van.

“So, first stop is the Bradford on the High Street.  We’ll be normal with them.  Just keep out of sight when we go back into depot Jim, ok?”

“Yep.  Will do.”

“So what did they do when you rang in sick?  Did they sack you?”

“Yes.  I was actually really angry.  Gave them a right blasting.”

“Bastards.”

Matt and Terry collected the first bags which contained a pipsqueak of money which had been deposited overnight in the overnight banking postbox.  Probably would amount to a couple of thousand.  Just enough to keep the boss off their back.

“Morning Angela.”

“Oh hi Matt.  Have you heard what’s happened to Jim?”

“What?”

He got the push, rang in this morning sick. Sounds like he had a right night of it, and he got the sack for having the runs.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No, so we are needing you to do his calls.  Two other drivers called in sick, they got sacked too.”

Matt was truly surprised now.  “Really?  Man.  That is disgusting.  Have they got the clients covered?”

“Well, I’m not sure.  A couple of vans can cover some of it.  How are you fixed for a bit of overtime today just in case?”

“Yeah, of course.  But, we might not be able to keep coming back to depot if we get more pick-ups.  You know what the traffic is like, what with the run up to Christmas, and then the bypass is down to one lane, so there have been more traffic in the town centre.”

“Yeah, I know.  For me, it is ok.  But I better have a talk with Si.  Hang on a moment, I’ll get him.”

Simon is a yuppy-style jumped up bit of a clerk who had or has no idea of logistics and transport timing let alone routes and traffic conditions.  Yet he was a junior Transport Manager, and strutted about with the relevant airs and ego that he reckoned came with the job.  He has a lot to learn, and cannot handle customer services as good as his contemporaries.  And he was certainly niggling the nerves of some of his more older colleagues who had seen it all, done it all but didn’t, for some reason, have the t-shirt.  No, Si has the t-shirt.

Matt had to smile at himself when he knew he was dealing with the dead beat.

Si pondered, clasped his hands for a moment, scratched at some niggle on his crown for a moment, wrung his hands once they got back together, thinking all the time.

Angela feverishly looked from Matt to Si, and from Si to Matt.  Matt wondered if she might be in training for Centre Court at Wimbledon next summer. 

“So what are we to do Si?” Matt was asking.

“Um…”

“I’ll tell you what, I can take on the collects.  I’ll phone in each time to give you an update, like the cash has been collected and what the traffic is like.  There’s me and Terry on the crew today, and you know what Terry is like – he is built like an outhouse.  Nobody will mess with him.  And we will be back before you know it.”

“Right, yes, do that.  We can’t afford to loose the customers today.  There is talk of a new courier company opening in the new year, so we need to keep our customers happy.  Yes, keep in touch, but do as many on this list as you can.  Is there any on there you cannot do?”

Matt had a look.  There were a couple which, under normal circumstances, he would have told Si were too far out of their ‘patch’ but actually, now, they could be in favour.  Two of them were restaurants which were very rural, out on country roads which were so desolate, that suddenly, everything had been handed to the drivers!  What could go wrong?

“Right, well keep in touch.  Try to get back in to depot as much as you can though Matt.”

“No worries Si.”

With that, armed with a list with half a dozen other collection points, Matt left the driver’s office, with yet another couple of cups of coffee and a coffee in a keep-warm mug (for later, so he explained to the confused Si), and rejoined Terry.

Ms Smith had, as usual, left the front door off the latch.  Deirdre said her customary ‘hello’ as she popped her head around the corner of the door.

Ms Smith was there in her favourite chair, with a rug over her legs.  The house seemed chilly.

“Oh Deirdre, hello.  There you are.”

“What’s happened to the heating?  Are you all right?”

“Oh yes dear.  Yes.  Our Pat is coming to collect me later today and taking me to their home for the Christmas break.”

“Oh, how lovely is that.  What a lovely idea.”

“Yes, it came right out of the blue the other night.  I thought it would be nice.  So she is coming to collect me after lunch.  I thought I might just ask you to come over for an hour, just a quick hoover and wash the pots.”

“Of course I will.”

Deirdre chatted with Ms Smith about the plans and things in store for Ms Smith while she visited her cousin in the Cotswolds.  Christmas in the Cotswolds, how lovely.  Ms Smith was twinkling. 

The hour was very soon up.  Deirdre wanted to stay for a while longer and won the argument with Ms Smith.  They shared another cup of tea and biscuits, chatting away.  And the clock struck 12.

“I have to be going now Ms Smith.  I have to go to Mrs W’s this afternoon.”

“Oh, that woman.  Well make sure you only do what you have to do or what you normally do.  She goes through helpers at this time of the year like don’t know whats.  She really makes them earn their wages about now.”

“So, I’ve been told.  I won’t let her push me about Ms Smith.  Well, I must love you and leave you.  Merry Christmas.”  Deirdre bent over and gave the lovely lady she was saying goodbye to for the last time, a truly loving kiss on her brown wrinkled cheek.

“Merry Christmas Deirdre.” 

Ms Smith pushed something into Deirdre’s pocket which Deirdre didn’t feel.

With a tear, Deirdre left.

Shelly called around at Deirdre’s home ready to drive her up to Mrs Warburton’s. 

It was no different from any other time.  Deirdre had to wipe her feet on the porch mat, rang the doorbell which sounded posh and rich but was just bought from the local DIY shop.  Mrs W answered the door.  After saying hello to Deirdre, she looked at Shelly in a quizzical manner.

“Haven’t we met?”

“Yes, Mrs Warburton.  I was here a couple of times a few years ago.  An agency sent me because the normal cleaner you had, had gone on holiday, and they needed a temporary cleaner to fill in.”

“Oh right.  Have you been CRB’d?”

“Yes, well I was at the time.  I have had a recent CRB for a carer’s job I have had.”

“Have you got it?”

“Yes, actually I have.  I always carry it about.”  Shelly produced a piece of paper which told Mrs W that she had, indeed, had had a criminal check done against her name and date of birth, and that she was squeaky clean.

“Right, well that’s all right then.  Right, Deirdre, I want you to dust and polish all the rooms today, and then I have some silver cutlery I need cleaning ready for a dinner party I am throwing tonight.  Can you do it in the time you usually have, or do you need an extra hour?”

Deirdre looked at Shelly.   “Well, I think that I might need the extra hour.  Would you mind if Shelly helps?”

“Not at all.  Mind you, I am only going to pay £6,50 per hour to her, I expect you to make up the rest.  Well, if Shelly here is helping.  You can mop the kitchen and bathrooms – after all, they will want to powder their noses what they?  What!  Ha ha!!  And I would like all the kitchen work surfaces disinfecting also.  I cannot make my crepes on them right now!  What ho!!”

“Of course.”

“Right, now, I will be slipping out at half past two for a hair appointment.  Just leave when you are done.  I might be back before you go, I might not.  Mildred is coming in tonight to start the dinner, so I might stay and have my nails done for tonight.”

“Right Mrs Warburton.  Are you having many?”

“Yes, we have invited eight.  I am looking forward to it as Mr Warburton’s manager is coming for the first time.”

“That would be lovely.”

Mrs W went off to another part of the house as the two housekeepers got busy dusting and polishing the rooms that normally got dusted and polished.  From the lounge, both cleaned and buffed the ornamental tables made from ebony, dusted the lampshades, cleaned the mirror over the chimney breast.  Next the dining room, they worked on the long mahogany dinner table bringing a lovely shine up.  The bedrooms and the conservatory received equal treatment, which, although as vigorous as usual, took an air of ‘couldn’t careless’ today.  I wonder why.

True to form, Mrs W left Deirdre and Shelly alone at half past two.  It would be another two hours before Mildred would be coming.  By then, the bathrooms would glisten and the work surfaces in the kitchen would be cleaned impeccably.  Deirdre wanted to leave Mrs W in an impeccably presented home.  Minus goodies.

It was now midway through the day for Matt and Terry also.  They had managed to collect from the first bank.

“Si?  Yes, it’s me, Terry.  Yeah mate, traffic is bedlam.  We’ve just collected from Wentworth’s.  What’s that?  Yeah, we got two sacks and receipt for £6,500.  Right, yeah, we’re going on to number two.  Yeah, we’ll call you.”

With a sack safely stashed in the back of the van from Wentworth’s, now was the time for Jim to come out of his hiding place to go into his usual first call on a Thursday morning, and it was a biggy.  The Chepstow was one of half a dozen high street banks, who would normally see Jim about this time of the day.  Their takings had been quite fruitful overnight and during the morning.  Their clients being largely local restaurants and wine bars, they had enjoyed a busy morning taking the receipts from the night before.  The restaurants were happy from their Christmas do’s which had been booked by local companies.  The bars and wine bars were equally happy with party goers filling their tills.  All in all, a good night was had by all.  Even the punters had a good time. 

Jim summised this as he got out of the back of the van and nearly trod in the remnants of someone’s appreciation of last night’s curry that they wanted to share it with passers-by rather than keeping it to themselves.  He nearly stepped in it.

The girl at The Chepstow said a kindly hello to Jim and handed over just short of £65,000 in a number of hessian bags.  Jim gave her the receipt he had given to her every week, and she smiled demurely.  She really had a thing about him.  Good-bye!

Terry rang into the office to let them know the collection had been made.  And the traffic was getting busy.

The next call was the first of two calls to a local large supermarket who was locked in a price challenge with another supermarket which sat on the outskirts of the town in one of those shopping outlet villages.  Matt and Terry both entered into the supermarket.  The Assistant Manager was only too happy to relieve himself of the takings from yesterday evening and that morning.  Another £39,650 had been bagged.

Again, the phone call to 3-Way. Si was asking if they could possibly get back in to depot.

“Let me see if we can mate,” Terry told him.  Terry turned to Matt, raising his arms in a gesture asking ‘What shall we do?’

“Give us the phone in about 8 minutes.”

Eight or so minutes later, Matt pulled over onto the hard shoulder of a dual carriageway, en route to the next stop.

“Angela?  Yeah, me Matt.  Is Si there?  Oh, right.  Well, tell him when he gets back off lunch that we are running late, and just on our way to the next stop.  We are due there at 2, and if we come into base, it will put us back to at least half past when we get here.  Yeah, it’s Muldoons’.  Yeah, I know what you mean, they are sticklers for being on time.  So, what shall I do?  Yeah … yeah.  Right, gotcha.  Well tell our lord and master will you?  Right, thanks Angela.”

Matt turned to Terry with a huge grin on his face.  Angela hadn’t even asked them what the delay was.  This meant that the excuse of the accident can be used later that afternoon.

At Muldoons’ Matt and Jim got out of the van.  The young man at Muldoons’ said a hearty hello to Jim.  Jim had to explain that he couldn’t stand and talk about the weekend’s football match that afternoon because they were running so late.   Another £15,075 was handed over.

At Mrs Warburton’s home, Deirdre and Shelly had just sat down for a well earned Earl Grey.  They looked around at the cleaned kitchen.  It had been the last room to clean on the list.  The surfaces gleamed.  All they had to do now was to clean the silver.

“Is it real?”

“What?  The stuff we are cleaning?  Some of it is, Mrs W will use it for her more important guests tonight.  Some of them will the nickel etched stuff she uses for Sunday dinners.”

“When are we going to do the rest?”

“Well, let me see, it’s three.  It will only take about half an hour to do the silver.  Mildred is due at half four.  We can easily pop round the house after we have done the silver.”

“Mildred has a key, so we don’t have to be here to let her in.”

“Yes.  I think, if we do a decent job on the silver, nobody will notice anything until we are well gone.  Like I said before, we have to do as much a normal and decent job as we can, so that nothing will be noticed.”

“Right, I’ll just get the cutlery and the polish.”

“I’ll make us another cuppa!”

Deirdre and Shelly spent a nice half hour polishing the silver and then left it on the fake silver tray Mrs W had left out for it.  It looked pretty on the mahogany sideboard.   Then the fun began. 

The jade set in 22 carat gold chain necklace was the first to be liberated from the jewellery box in the master bedroom.  This was followed by the diamond bracelet and matching necklace and earring set; a pearl choker and necklace set with vintage and rare pearls; the beautiful watch Mrs W had bought to compliment the gold chain necklace.  More gold and silver trinkets were added.  Then gold cufflinks and tie pin, with a gold pocket watch were amongst the different men’s jewellery. 

“That’s not all of it, is it?” Deirdre was asking Shelly.

“Are you kidding?  Have you seen the safe?”

“Yes, but I don’t know the combination.”

“Yeah, but did you have one of these?”

“What on earth?  What is that?”

“It’s going to help me crack the safe.  It’s called a safe cracking amplifier.  Neat eh?  Right, I’ll just put the headphones on.”

Turning the dial this way and that, Shelly was able to distinctly hear the clicks without any problems.  After five turns, the door came free.  And inside, the diamond collection, the stunning diamond choker and five string diamond necklace put the others to shame.  There was the 150 year old watch carefully stored in its velvet lined box.  All this, and the spare cash that was held in there.  Another £45000 to the total.

Shelly opened her black velvet bag she had especially brought, out of respect, and it all went inside.

“Right.  That’s it.  We are done!”

Giddy as school children, Deirdre and Shelly left the house.  Everything was locked up and secure, apart from a window. 

“Why are we leaving the box window open?”

“Well, it got stuffy didn’t it?  So we left it open a little to let a bit of air in.  And any burglar.  I have left Mrs W a note to explain.”

With that, the two women left the house.  Deirdre looked behind her, not at all sorry for leaving Mrs W.  Tonight, she would be more pre-occupied with her dinner party.

On the other side of town, Terry and Matt had made two more collections.  The sacks in the back of the van were falling over one another, and Jim was regularly picking them up off the floor of the van.

“How ya doing in there Jim lad?”

“Ok.  How many more are there to do?”

“Just another bank and then the supermarket at the village.”

“Wow, are we that far on?”

“Yep.  Right, you ok in there?  We just need to go into Farmers’ Bank.”

Farmers were happy to give their several bags of money which local businesses and individual customers had deposited with them.  Just over a hundred thousand was in those bags.

The bleeper went again in the van.  It was Si wondering if they were all right.  He had a couple of drivers back at the yard who had finished their collections and could come out to bring in some of their takings.

“Yeah, Si?  Yeah, I know what you mean.  Look, we just have the supermarket out at the village to do, and then we will be done.  What?  Who?  Oh, tell them we’re ok.  Yeah, no problems at all.  Yeah, we should be done by 5 or quarter past.  Yeah, I know.  There has been an accident on the A road.  Nothing nasty, but it just cost us five minutes.  Yeah, just ring the supermarket up will you.  Tell them we will be with them for quarter to five.  What’s that?  Smith’s the Jewellers?  I’ve heard of them, do you mean the ones on the High Street?  Oh, the one at the village?  Yeah, sure.  Tell them we’ll be with them just after 5.  Yeah.  Good one.  Yeah, I’ll give them the treatment.  Well, we don’t want Courier Express to get this contract.  We’ll give them the works!  Right, gotta go.  I’ll see you later.”

“Can you believe that Terry?  We have a jewellers to pick up from!  Their courier can’t make it because of the rush hour traffic!  Talk about on a roll!”

“You’re kidding!  What do you think we will end up with?”

“Cash definitely!  Maybe we will get to collect some jewellery that needs to go into storage!”

“My goodness!”

“Have you heard this Jim?”

“Wow.  That is amazing!  I wonder how Deirdre and Shelly are getting along.”

“We’ll soon know.  Right next stop the village and then freedom!”

The two collections at the end of the day could not have gone sweeter.  The supermarket handed over their takings for the day.  It had been a very productive day being that many pensioners had received double pensions that day and so, equally, had a lot of people on the benefits.  Everyone had the same idea – get to the store, buy the food and crackers for Christmas, get the booze.  Some local companies had made use of the 3 for 2 prices on the wine and spirits which they bought for their customers.  Others had gone in to buy presents, groceries and what nots.  Generally speaking, it had been one of the best days before the last couple of shopping days to Christmas.  And didn’t the bags of cash testify to it! 

Then Smith’s Jewellers, newly opened in the village precinct since the summer was a popular attraction for the shoppers who visited the village.  They had enjoyed good sales since their introduction of discounted jewellery.  And it was so convenient to call there, simply because everything was there that shoppers wanted.  From DIY and carpet retailers to crafts and general supermarket goods, the village catered for it all.  Today, there had been good takings.  Not as good as hoped for, but who knows what next week would bring.

Smith’s gave Matt their two bags of takings totalling some £24000.  But more importantly, they had asked that a bag containing several boxes of expensive jewellery be taken to storage ready for taking to the High Street store which had more interest at the moment.

Of course they would take very great care of the goods.

And that was that.  Matt and Terry reassured the young manager at Smith’s that their goods would be taken to the High Street first thing, and said goodbye to him.

They drove the van without hurry, and the time was just after five past five.  The work was complete.  The bags and the loot was safely in the back of the van.  Jim accepted the new additions.

They drove southbound on the A road.  Away from the clients, away from the town centre and away from the 3-Way depot offices. 

All they have to do is to keep a clear head, drive two miles to a lay-by where the van they bought had been driven to.  Deirdre and Shelly were already there, waiting in the lay-by.

And now, Si was bleeping them.

“Yeah, yeah.  We’ve just collected and just got in the van.  Yeah, we’ll be setting off in a moment.  Err, well, we could.  Just give us the address.  Yeah, got that.  Right, tell them it might be about twenty minutes.  Yeah, ok.”

“I can’t believe it.  Another bank!”

“What do you wanna do?”

“Right, well it’s just at the top end of town.  I can slip in, pick up their bags.  I’ll park the van in a side street.  Can one of you follow me in one of the cars?”

“I’ll follow you.”

“That’s great Shell.  Right, ok then.  Let’s get all this out.  How did you two do?”

Shelly and Deirdre showed the lads what they managed to get from the Warburton’s.

Thirty minutes later, the 3-Way van stashed in a dark, narrow side street and would not be found until a sensitive traffic warden finds it parked on the double yellows sometime, Shelly drove away to the hotel they had booked.

Between them, they had amassed more than £75000 each with the value of the jewellery yet to add.  It would take the lads about 9 years to earn that kind of money.

“A Christmas in the Cotswolds,” Deirdre was saying as she dreamily chatted with Jim and the others over a nice glass of ginger wine in the bar that night.

“Yeah, why not.”

“Be serious.”

“Yes, Matt, I like that idea.  Let’s go there tomorrow.  Are we all up for it?”

Heads nodded.  And a comfy Christmas in the Cotswolds followed.  It was a very homely one and a half weeks.  They saw the New Year in, and booked flights to Miami for the 2nd of January.

And The Bahamas beckoned.