The Madeiran Double Cross

by Sally Spencer

  “Why?”

  “Because for the plan to work, the Seaspray had to go down – and Nigel with it.”

  “The plan? What plan?”

  “Frank! Look!” Susan said nervously.

  Mason followed the direction of her gaze. Just sitting down, at a table a few up from theirs, was a hard-looking man in his sixties, flanked by two equally hard – though much younger – men.

  “I didn’t know this was one of Ted Sims’ watering holes,” he said. He leant across the table and kissed Susan lightly on the cheek. “Don’t worry, darlin’.”

  “You're taking a bit of a chance, doing that in front of Ted, aren’t you?” Tony asked.

  Frank grinned. “Elsie left me, remember. And Ted’s a big enough man to recognize that what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Anyway, where was I?”

  “Three,” Susan said.

  “Oh yes. Three: Nigel pulls a gun and makes Jack and the other lads get into the tender. Is that sensible? Why would any man in his right mind abandon his crew in the middle of a storm?”

  “Because he didn’t want them to see who was coming out in the boat to collect the money!” Tony said. “He didn’t want them to know it was Linda, instead of you!”

  “You’re half right,” Frank said, “but no more than half. There was a third boat waiting on the coast that night.”

  “Are you saying …?”

  “That’s right.”

  “But we heard Nigel on the radio, when the boat was going down.’

  ‘No, we didn’t. We heard Nigel on the radio saying the boat was going down – and that’s not the same thing at all. My guess would be that when he made that broadcast, he was already sitting in Elsie’s car, with a glass of whisky in his hand.”

  “The money was washed up on the shore.”

  “A few hundred quid of the money was washed up,” Frank said dismissively. “Even if they’d sacrificed a few thousand, it wouldn’t have mattered. When you think about much money there was altogether, it was only a drop in the ocean.” He chuckled at his own unintentional joke.

  “So why didn’t she shop you to her dad, once she’d got what she wanted?” Tony asked. “That way, she could have been sure you wouldn’t cause any trouble when she took you for everything you had.”

  “I’ve been puzzling over that myself,” Frank admitted, “and I’ve come to the conclusion that while she’s not exactly my biggest fan, she wouldn’t wish me any actual harm.”

  “Ha!” Susan said disbelievingly.

  “Then again, maybe she thought that if Ted knew I was behind the job, he’d start to wonder where the money was – and expect a slice of the action himself.”

  “That’s more like it,” Susan said.

  “Anyway,” Frank continued, “she had something else that she could use stop me causing her any grief, didn’t she?”

  “The photographs Nigel took outside the bed-sit?”

  “Exactly. Using her dad as a blunt instrument would only prove that – by an accident of birth – she was well connected. And we already knew that. Using the photographs, on the other hand, was much more fun, because that showed just how smart she was – and Elsie never could resist the opportunity to show she was brainier then me. Of course, once I found out how long she’d known about the robbery, I could see – knowing her as I do – just what kind of a scam she was pulling.”

  “Wait a minute!” Tony said. “Are you seriously telling me that you knew all about the final double-cross – and you still let her get away with it?”

  Frank grinned again. “Well, why not? I had two reasons for pulling the Madeira job. The first was to prove to myself that I could do it, and the second was because, if I pulled it off, I’d be able to get rid of Elsie. So who am I to complain when everything works out – even if it didn't go exactly like I planned it."

  “Big tough Frank Mason – the softest touch around.” Susan said affectionately. “You should thank your lucky stars that you’ve got me to look after you, you know.”

  “I do know, darlin’,” Frank agreed. “I really do.”

  The waiter arrived with the drinks, but when Frank reached into his pocket he said, “They’ve already been taken care of by that gentleman over there, sir.”

  Frank raised his pint glass in Ted Sims’ direction.

  “Cheers. Ted,” he mouthed. He turned back to Tony. “Where’s Madeira from here?”

  Horton shrugged. “A bit to your right, I think.”

  Frank swung round in his seat and raised his glass again. “I’d like to make another toast,” he said. “Since you’re the only man I can think of who would ever have faked his own death to take Elsie off my hands, here’s to you, Nigel.”

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