Dangerous Games

by Gillian Godden

  Jake hadn’t moved back in with Sharon, yet. They had agreed that it was best to leave it a while before they were reconciled. That meant the police left Sharon alone. Sharon was a good woman; she not only stood by Jake, she stood by Tony, as well.

  Jake was making a coffee in Tony’s apartment when he spotted the invitation from the restaurant. ‘What’s this, mate?’ he said.

  Tony shrugged. ‘Some promotion for a restaurant, buy one get one free, I think. Why?’

  Jake read the invitation. ‘If that’s the case, how come it’s got your name on it? Do you usually get menus through the door with your name on?’ He looked up at Tony.

  Tony looked at the invitation again. On the face of it, it was just another restaurant leaflet promoting their offers. He took a closer look; it did have his name on it. It had been posted to him, personally. Who would post him an invitation to a restaurant he had never even heard of? It all seemed very peculiar.

  ‘Only one way to find out; why don’t we go tonight?’ said Jake. ‘Free food, if nothing else.’

  ‘I don’t know. What if it’s got something to do with the police?’ There were all kinds of things going on. Tony wasn’t sure what was going to happen next. He wasn’t sure what had happened to the diamonds; Miriam had never contacted him, or even thanked him for the chocolate truffles – minus one.

  ‘Since when did the police give out free meal invitations? Come on, Tony, you’re getting paranoid now. I’m going to work. We’ll meet at the restaurant about six, okay?’ Jake put down his coffee cup and left. Tony sat on a chair, holding the restaurant invitation; it was a real puzzle.

  It was on his mind all day, and in the end, he agreed with Jake. It was better to go and find out who had sent the invitation, rather than sit around wondering who it was.

  ***

  Jake was already there when Tony got to the restaurant. It was a fairly standard Italian trattoria – small round tables with red and white checked cloths and candles in the centre. The staff were friendly and efficient, and they were soon seated and tucking into plates of spaghetti.

  ‘Pretty busy, isn’t it?’ said Jake, looking round. The place was buzzing and there were people sitting at the bar having a drink while they waited for a table to become free. ‘I wonder how many people got invitations like the one you got?’

  ‘Might have just been a random promotion and I got lucky, I suppose,’ said Tony. ‘If it was, then it paid off for them.’

  They finished their meal. They had expected whoever sent the invitation to come over or ask for Tony, but no one did. Apart from the excellent food, it had been a wasted evening. They called over the waiter and asked for the bill.

  ‘Time to go, mate, this was all a waste of time.’ Tony put some cash down on the table and smiled at the waiter.

  ‘On the house, Mr Lambrianu, no charge. Did you enjoy the wine?’ the waiter said, in accented English.

  Jake and Tony looked at each other curiously, then turned to look at the waiter. How did this waiter know Tony’s name?

  ‘Mr Lambrianu! Mr Lambrianu!’ A man dressed in chef’s whites was shouting over to him from the back of the restaurant.

  Tony and Jake were stunned. They had never been there before, why the hell was the chef shouting to Tony? It was all weird, including the fact that the waiter wouldn’t let them pay the bill.

  The chef hurried over; he was holding a bottle of wine. ‘You enjoy your own wine so much, you should take a bottle home. Here, take this one.’ The chef pushed the bottle into Tony’s chest. ‘Don’t forget to decant it, it will still have sediment from the grape. Remember: open, decant, breathe, drink. Enjoy, my boy.’

  The large fat, Italian chef put his arms around Tony’s shoulders and hugged him, then kissed him on both cheeks.

  Tony was blushing, and doing his best to push the chef away without being insulting. He looked across at Jake and could see that cheeky smile spreading across his face.

  ‘Thank you,’ was all Tony could say. He smiled at the chef, and started to walk away.

  ‘You speak Italian, Mr Lambrianu?’ said the chef.

  Tony turned back, and thanked him in Italian.

  ‘Good,’ said the chef. ‘I migliori saluti, nonna.’ With that, he waved Tony off.

  ‘What the hell was that all about?’ asked Jake. ‘Are you telling me that invitation was from your grandmother?’

  ‘Seems like it. You know what he said, don’t you?’ asked Tony.

  Jake nodded. ‘Best regards, grandmother. Why would she bring you here?’

  They went home. It had been a very strange evening, especially the chef carrying on like he had. How did he know Miriam was my grandmother? Tony wondered. He felt he had enough to deal with and playing happy families wasn’t on the agenda at the moment.

  ‘It’s free, we might as well drink it,’ Jake said. He opened the bottle of wine. He was mimicking the large, fat chef, and putting on a bad Italian accent. He started pouring it out.

  ‘Wait,’ said Tony, also mimicking the chef, ‘mama mia, Jake, you must decant it first.’

  They had both already had too much to drink, but they couldn’t stop laughing at the way the chef had instructed them to drink the wine. It felt good to have something to laugh about, for once.

  Jake handed a glass of wine to Tony, and took a sip himself.

  ‘Not bad, you lot produce a nice bottle of wine, I have to say,’ he said. They worked their way through the wine, and when they were coming to the end of it, and Jake was pouring the last of it into the glasses, he heard a ‘chink’ from the bottle.

  ‘What was that?’ Jake stopped pouring and looked at Tony. Tony sat up from his lounging position on the sofa, and watched Jake tip the wine bottle upside down and hit the bottom. A thick grape sediment came pouring out, and with it came thirty diamonds.

  Their jaws dropped as they watched all the diamonds slide into the half-empty glass. They both punched the air and grinned, then stood up and hugged each other.

  ‘Nice one, Grandma,’ shouted Jake, punching his arm in the air.

  ***

  Miriam had received the chocolate truffles and, when she opened them, saw immediately that one was missing. She had broken one in half and found nothing, so she tried another one, and saw the sparkling stone buried inside the chocolate. One by one, she had opened them all. Thank goodness Antonias had listened to an old woman ranting on.

  She had waited until her next shipment of wine was going to England and instructed that a small black dot was to be put on the label of one of the vineyard’s special clarets. She had instructed a case of free wine be sent to a restaurant owner she knew in England, on the condition that he gave her grandson, the blonde Italian, a free meal and this very special bottle of wine. That was how she had done it.

  ***

  ‘You’re not seriously handing the diamonds over to the bossman! Are you crazy?’ Jake couldn’t believe his ears.

  ‘Yes. I’ll clean them up and take them to the club. We’re not keeping them, Jake, they’re too hot. We’re going to hand them over, as we were supposed to do. That was the bargain.’

  ***

  Tony and Jake walked into the club and through to the bossman’s office. The bossman looked up; he was surprised to see Tony, and even more surprised when Tony laid down thirty uncut diamonds before him.

  Tony and Jake watched the bossman examine the gems. He picked one up and let it roll around in the palm of his hand. ‘Beautiful,’ he said, watching it spark in the light. He was licking his lips in greedy anticipation of their worth.

  He pushed two diamonds each towards Tony and Jake, and took the lion’s share for himself. He put his diamonds into a small container and locked it in his safe.

  Tony and Jake left. Their business was now concluded.

  Tony walked around the corner to a public telephone box. He rang the police and asked for the investigating officer in charge of the diamond robbery. Once he said he had information, he was put straight through
.

  Using a fake accent, Tony told the detective where to find the diamonds, and put the telephone down.

  He and Jake went in to a small café, opposite the club, and ordered two coffees, then they sat in a window seat and waited.

  The police started to arrive very soon after the call was made, their cars lining the street outside the club. An unmarked Jaguar pulled up and they saw the detective leading the case get out. Other police were surrounding the club and running inside.

  ***

  Inside the club, the police started searching the office. The bossman couldn’t believe what was happening, he was shouting at them to get out. He realised Tony had set him up, and he knew that the police knew the diamonds were in the safe.

  The detective from New Scotland Yard walked through the bossman’s office door. He was smirking, he had got his man and his reputation was intact. His superiors and the press would be satisfied.

  ‘Open the safe,’ he said, and waited for the bossman to produce the keys. His hands were shaking so much he couldn’t hold them properly. The detective motioned for one of the police officers to take the keys from him and open the safe. They all watched as the officer took out the container holding the twenty-six diamonds.

  Tony and Jake watched as the bossman was brought out of the club in handcuffs, and put into the back of one of the police cars. It was over.

  ***

  Later that day, Tony, Jake, Sharon and Elle watched the television news. The chief superintendent was giving a short speech, informing people that they had a man in custody and he was to be charged with masterminding the Amsterdam robbery.

  ***

  In a large mansion house, near Berkshire, Ralph Gold sat watching the news reports with his wife, Julie. They were in the lounge and the maid was pouring them champagne.

  Apparently, the police had had a really good day. The bossman had given them the names of all the men that he knew were involved, and they had all been arrested.

  The case was closed, apart from the missing diamonds. The police had recovered twenty-six, but many more had been stolen. They were eager to know where the rest were, but the bossman insisted he didn’t know.

  He was blaming everyone but himself, and yet the other men on the job were totally ignorant of the facts. They had trusted the bossman, he had been their only contact, but now, one by one, he had given their names to the police in an attempt to reduce his own sentence.

  The police thought it was only a matter of time before the diamonds turned up. The main thing was, they had the gang.

  Apparently, on the day the robbery had taken place, the thieves had flown back to London from Amsterdam, then gone to their planned hide out.

  A young well-dressed blonde woman with a Liverpool accent was waiting for them when they got there. She had taken the diamonds off the thieves, given them the promised thirty and put fifty thousand pounds on the table, in a tatty old suitcase.

  ‘The bossman has got the rest of your money. Stay put and he’ll be in touch,’ she had said, and left.

  Ralph Gold and Don Carlos had already sold the diamonds before the robbery. Julie Gold, who had picked the diamonds and other valuable stones up from the gang, had passed them directly on to an Arabian man whose yacht was moored at the marina in Canary Wharf.

  The gems were already in Saudi Arabia, somewhere, while the British and Dutch police were still scratching their heads over the robbery.

  ‘Cheers, Julie.’ Ralph Gold raised his glass to his wife, and smiled. This had been a job well done.

  When Don Carlos had first approached Ralph Gold about the diamonds, they had needed a fall guy, someone to organize things in London, using their own contacts, who neither knew nor had met either Ralph Gold or Don Carlos.

  Both Ralph and Julie Gold agreed that the bossman, as he liked to be known, would be only too eager to be involved in something so big. He was flattered that Ralph Gold had even heard of him.

  The bossman was unambitious; he had stayed the same for years, employing young men to threaten the landlords of local pubs for what was, in Ralph’s view, not a lot of money. He drank too much and wouldn’t be able to stop himself boasting about being more superior than he was, to impress people. He was just what they needed.

  Ralph had made the introductions, as he was a member of a Masonic Lodge and was attending the Masonic Ladies’ Evening being held at the hotel, and then he had left.

  The police hadn’t given out the full amount of money the diamonds were worth. They couldn’t; it was too embarrassing.

  Don Carlos and Ralph Gold had made twenty million pounds out of the whole deal and they hadn’t got their hands dirty.

  ‘Do you know anything about this Tony Lambrianu, who was put in the frame, Julie?’ asked Ralph.

  ‘Not a lot, but I’ll find out what I can. He seems ambitious, and Don Carlos thinks he can be trusted.’

  ***

  Tony took out the two uncut diamonds the bossman had given him; he held them in his hand and watched them sparkle. The bossman had been right; they were beautiful.

  ‘I don’t know about you, Tony, but I need a holiday,’ said Jake. ‘I need to get away from here for a while after everything we’ve been through, it’s been hell.’

  Tony nodded. ‘You’re right, I think we could all do with a break after all this.’

  ‘Any suggestions? Personally, I need some sun. Let’s get away from this rain and go and relax for a while.’

  Tony continued looking at the diamonds in his hand. Vengeance was sweet, indeed. The bossman had been more than prepared to let Tony take all the blame and serve twenty to thirty years in prison. He wondered just how long the bossman would survive, inside, once word got out that he had been a police informer and he had put all his associates in the robbery behind bars. Not long, he guessed.

  ‘What about Italy?’ said Tony. Maybe it was time to face his demons, to see the vineyard and visit Miriam. She had covered his back well; a visit from him was the very least she should expect.

  ‘Yeah, I’d be up for that.’

  ‘I have something I need to do first, and then we’ll go. Say, about two weeks?’ He looked at Jake for approval and saw him nod his head.

  ***

  Tony had got to know a pawnbroker, Solomon Cohen, while working for the bossman. Everyone knew he was a fence for stolen goods. He had started out as a jeweller, however, and still had some skill in that regard.

  Tony went to see him and was ushered through to the back room. The man sat at a small table, with a cup and saucer at his elbow. He was looking at some silverware through a magnifying glass, using the light from a little desk lamp to help him check the hallmark.

  Solomon was a small, balding man, with round rimless glasses. He looked up when Tony walked in, and put down the magnifying glass and the silverware.

  ‘What can I do for you?’ he said.

  Tony handed him the two diamonds and saw Solomon’s face light up. He sat back in his wooden chair, waiting for Tony to speak.

  ‘I want these made into a pair of stud earrings, can you do that?’

  The man nodded. ‘Yes, I can do that.’

  ‘Don’t try and rip me off with your zircon, mind, or I’ll slit your weasel throat.’ Tony handed Solomon a thousand pounds. ‘This is for your trouble.’

  The look in Solomon’s eye meant he knew exactly where Tony had got them, but he couldn’t help marvelling at the beautiful, uncut diamonds.

  Solomon was very calm as he examined the stones. ‘Very nice,’ he said. He looked at Tony. ‘There’s a newspaper on the chair behind you. Pass it here.’

  Tony did as he was told.

  ‘Now, look.’ Solomon put the diamond on the paper.

  ‘What am I looking at?’

  ‘You see the print on the paper?’

  ‘No, not through the stone.’

  ‘Good.’ He opened a drawer and took out a gem. He held it up for Tony to see. ‘This is glass,’ he said. ‘Looks the same, yes?’<
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  ‘Yes,’ said Tony.

  Solomon put it on the newspaper.

  ‘Don’t mix them up!’ said Tony.

  ‘Look,’ said Solomon.

  ‘I can see the print through the glass stone.’

  ‘But not through the diamond. You see?’

  Tony nodded; he’d be able to tell if the stones were switched.

  ‘You would easily know if I tried to double-cross you, Tony; you can check when you come back. In a week?’ Solomon looked at Tony for approval. This was a job he needed to do himself.

  ***

  When Jake found out what Tony had done, he thought he was crazy.

  ‘Don’t tell me you fancy some woman enough to give her real diamonds! They can be traced, you know.’

  ‘Yes, I know. And they’re not just for some woman I’m trying to impress. None of the women I know are worth real diamonds.’

  ‘Here,’ said Jake, after Tony had explained, ‘take one of mine, and then we’re even, okay?’

  A week later, Tony went back to see Solomon, as arranged. Tony waited while Solomon put the ‘closed’ sign up at his shop, and followed him into the back room.

  Solomon held out a box containing two gold stud earrings, each with a diamond mounted in the middle. He looked very pleased with himself.

  ‘Put them on the newspaper,’ Solomon said.

  Tony did; they were diamonds.

  ‘These are beautiful,’ Tony said, as he admired the earrings. ‘You’ve done an excellent job.’

  ‘Mr Tony,’ said Solomon, ‘we both know those diamonds are priceless, but they are also worthless, aren’t they?’

  Tony knew he was right. Who on earth would want to buy them? They were far too hot. You would have to wait a couple of decades to put them on the market without them being recognized.

  ‘Here,’ said Tony, ‘I want you to do something else with this one.’ He handed over the uncut diamond Jake had given him. ‘No tricks, now, this is the last of them, got it?’ Tony gave Solomon his instructions, and handed over another one thousand pounds.

  It wasn’t a lot of money, considering if he was found with them, Solomon would go to prison, but Solomon felt the cash was easier than trying to sell the diamonds. They weren’t worth the trouble.