by Roger Hurn
‘Do you have the letter of authentication, DK?’ Maureen slipped this question into the air like an assassin with a stiletto.
DK looked a bit bemused, but he kept on smiling. ‘What letter of authentication are you referring to Maureen my dear?’
Maureen shrugged. ‘Why the letter Eugenie wrote to Minnie when she gave her the necklace of course.’
DK’s smile evaporated. ‘No, I don’t,’ he growled. ‘But surely you’re not doubting my word that the necklace is genuine?’ Despite the roaring fire, we all felt the temperature drop. ‘Because, if you are, I shall have to teach you the error of your ways and that will be a painful lesson I can promise you.’ In a heartbeat, the charming, if slightly eccentric relic from the Raj had vanished and, in his place, stood a thoroughly nasty gangster. But Maureen wasn’t fazed.
‘Oh don’t be so melodramatic DK. Of course I believe you. I am merely pointing out that without the letter proving its provenance, the necklace is worth considerably less than you may be hoping to get for it.’
Van den Bruel sat up straight. ‘Ms Berry makes a valid point, DK. So, can you lay your hands on this letter?’
DK shook his head. ‘No, but I believe I know a man who can.’ He fixed me with a basilisk-like stare. ‘Presumably your client still has it, Ryan. Contact them and tell them we wish to negotiate a price for it.’
I held up my hands and shook my head. ‘Whoa, hold on a minute, here. I have absolutely no idea if my client has the letter or not. It was never mentioned. All they hired me to do was to track down the necklace – which I was trying to do when DK’s boy, Alonzo, beat me to it.’
‘Of course they’ll have it!’ Maureen’s voice was as cutting as razor wire. ‘But its only value now is what we are prepared to offer for it. So, take my advice, Mr Kyd and call your client while they’ve still got something to trade.’
‘Or tell me who and where they are and by the time I’ve finished with them they’ll be begging me to take the letter from them.’
DK’s voice was as chilly as the arctic ocean in midwinter and I didn’t doubt that he and his boys would make a bloody mess of Rachel if they ever got their sadistic paws on her. But that was never going to happen on my watch.
‘Calm down, DK. I don’t know where my client is based, I’ve only got a mobile number for them but I’m ringing it now.’
Needless to say, my call went straight to voicemail so I left a message saying to call me urgently, but obviously I didn’t use Rachel’s name. Then I stood up and started to take my leave.
‘And where the bloody hell do you think you’re going, Ryan?’
I gave DK a hard stare. ‘Look, no one’s going to be doing any bidding until we can locate that letter so why don’t you guys sit around and admire the necklace while I go and see if I can’t run my client to ground?’
‘So you do have an idea of where they may be, do you Ryan? Perhaps I should ask Christophe if he would mind his man keeping you company?’
I shook my head. ‘You know I work alone, DK and anyway it may well be a wild goose chase, but it’s got to be better than me sitting on my hands here.’
Shadows were dancing in DK’s eyes as he said, ‘Don’t even try to do anything clever, Ryan. It would not be good for your health.’
‘Oh for goodness sake, DK,’ snapped Maureen. ‘The guy’s up shit creek as it is. His client’s not going to thank him for losing the chance to buy back the necklace and they are certainly not going to be happy about being forced to make the best of a bad job with the letter. All Mr Kyd can hope for is that you get the letter and so get off his back and that his client actually pays him his fee – though I wouldn’t hold my breath about ever seeing any money from this case if I were him.’
I was grateful to her for her intercession, but I don’t know why she did it. Maybe she was as pissed off with the situation and with DK as I was. Anyway, DK just shrugged and went and poured himself another slug of brandy. He glanced back over his shoulder and said, ‘You’ve got till midnight on Boxing Day at the latest to be back here with the letter, Ryan old chum. And if you can’t manage that then you’d better reconsider your current profession because no one wants to hire a private eye with two smashed kneecaps.’
I didn’t bother to point out the unfairness of his promise – with DK it’s never a threat but always a promise – because I’d have been wasting my breath so I nodded to Maureen, blanked Van den Bruel and his boy and headed for the door. As I did so I heard DK switch back from psychopath to Raj relic and invite his guests to come and feast their eyes on “The Emperor Napoleon’s amber love token”. If my stomach hadn’t been churning so badly I would have smirked at the ‘Carry On’ style crassness of the phrase. As it was I had to find Rachel and fast.
Chapter 12
Being Christmas night there was hardly any traffic on the road between Chislehurst and Eltham so I burned rubber. I screeched to a halt outside my house just as my mobile started ringing. I snatched it up, but it was only my missus. She’d obviously been hammering the booze because she was tearful and wanted to know why I hadn’t called her to wish her a Merry Christmas. I could hear her sister slurring away in the background telling Sarah that I wasn’t worth it. Then Sarah launched into a drunken and very maudlin monologue about the two of us and why we should try and make a go of our marriage when she came home. For a moment I was almost tempted, but then I knew she’d be sober again in the morning and nothing would have changed. So I wished her a Merry Christmas, told her I had to go and then hung up. I slumped forward with my forehead on the windscreen. I had two women depending on me and I’d let them both down. I hadn’t meant to, but since when has having good intentions been a “get out of jail free” option? I comforted myself with the thought that things could hardly get any worse than they already were but, naturally, I was completely wrong about that.
I had been hoping against hope to find Rachel waiting outside my house, but she wasn’t. I sat in my front room and tried umpteen times to reach her on her mobile, but all I kept getting was the answerphone. I was desperate to reach her, though not because I wanted her to give the letter to DK, but because I’d figured out a plan to get her off the hook she’d impaled herself on. It wasn’t exactly a win-win, but it was the best I could come up with and, although I knew I’d almost certainly wind up getting a kicking down a dark alleyway as a result, it would save Rachel from a jail sentence and the wrath of DK Kapoor.
Put simply it was this: I was going to advise Rachel to go to her boss and confess everything. I would accompany her and offer to broker a deal with DK. I reckoned the Auction House wouldn’t want the theft becoming public knowledge as it would torpedo their reputation big-time so, in return for them allowing Rachel to resign without a stain on her character, I was going to go to DK and give him Rachel’s five grand in return for the necklace. This way Millibrand’s wouldn’t be out of pocket, Rachel would, and DK would be in no position to refuse the deal because, without the letter, no collector would give him anything like that much dosh for it. And what’s more, if he did get arsey then the auction house would have no choice but to go to the police and he’d end up with no money and the law all over him like a rash. I examined the scheme from all angles and I couldn’t see a flaw in it. And maybe there wasn’t. I don’t know because I never got to put it into action. Instead, just as I was about to try Rachel’s number for the ninety-ninth time, someone kicked my front door open and all hell broke loose.
Chapter 13
I jumped to my feet just as two heavies burst into my front room. One guy kept on coming and made to grab me. I dropped my shoulder and sold him a dummy the way I used to do to unwary fullbacks when I was playing football for the All Nations. While he was off balance I came up on the balls of my feet, lashed out with my right foot and kicked him viciously just under his knee cap. He squealed like a stuck pig and his leg shot out from under him. I kicked him again as he went down, only this time hard on the point of his chin. I thought I’d brok
en my toe, but it was worth it to put his lights out.
With goon number one out of the equation, I pivoted ready to take on the other bloke. But instead of taking a swing at me the guy just stood there. That would have been fine if only he hadn’t been pointing a gun at my head. His hand was as steady as the Rock of Gibraltar. That didn’t surprise me because I knew the guy. It was Tomasz, DK’s bodyguard. But I could tell by the blankness in his eyes that he would blow my brains out without giving it a second thought. I unclenched my fists and held up my hands palms out. ‘Hey, Tomasz,’ I said. ‘Look mate, can we please sort whatever this is about without any more rough stuff?’
By way of an answer, Tomasz took two swift steps towards me and jabbed me hard in the guts. Even using his left hand, he whacked me with such force that I swear I felt his fist hit my backbone. And, as if that wasn’t enough, the bastard simultaneously whipped his gun across the side of my head. I saw stars and threw up DK’s brandy plus a whole bunch of stuff I didn’t remember eating. Then he pistol whipped me again. This time I didn’t just see stars, I saw whole constellations. And, while I was reeling, I heard DK Kapoor’s voice coming from the far side of the solar system saying, ‘That’s enough Tomasz. I need Mr Kyd to answer some questions and he can hardly do that if he’s unconscious.’
Suddenly Tomasz switched from Mr Hyde to Dr Jekyll. He slipped the gun into his pocket, put a muscular arm round my shoulders and helped me sit down in an armchair. I guess it was his way of saying there were no hard feelings.
‘Don’t make him too comfortable,’ growled DK. ‘He’s not my favourite person at the moment.’
My head was ringing and my brains felt like scrambled eggs, but I knew I had to at least try and keep my wits about me if I was going to throw DK off Rachel’s scent.
DK strode across the room and loomed above me. ‘Tell me the name and the whereabouts of your client Ryan, then we can forget this unfortunate unpleasantness and everything will be tickety-boo between us again. But please do not attempt to try my patience with any of your procrastinations or prevarications. There will be much weeping and wailing if you do.’
I didn’t for a moment doubt it, but I needed to find out why DK had descended on me with all the ferocity of a Rottweiler with its balls in a vice.
‘Look, DK, the last I knew I had twenty four hours to sort things so why the bloody hell have you and your boys burst into my gaff like the frigging SAS on steroids?’
DK slapped me across the face. It rattled my teeth and made me regret asking, but what he said next hit me even harder.
‘The necklace has been stolen from my house. I went to retrieve it from my bedroom to show it to my guests and it was gone. Does this come as a surprise to you?’
He stared at me trying to gauge my reaction. I didn’t have to fake shock because I was stunned – and not just by the beatings everyone seemed so intent on giving me. I couldn’t believe how I’d underestimated Rachel’s desperation. She’d obviously had no faith in my ability to negotiate a successful outcome with DK so, when I’d told her where DK lived she must have decided to take matters into her own hands. She’d been lucky that DK’s defences were down when she broke in, and my already mashed guts knotted at the thought of what would’ve happened if she’d been caught red handed. But thankfully she hadn’t been and now she’d got the necklace back I reckoned she’d already be on her way to put it back in Millibrand’s safe before anyone was any the wiser.
Rach had done the hard part and I figured I owed it to her to do my bit. I looked up at DK with my mouth hanging open like I was still trying to take in what he’d told me.
Clearly irritated by my gormlessness, he jabbed his finger at me. ‘Only one other person knew the whereabouts of the necklace and that was your client. So while you were drinking my brandy your accomplice was invading my home.’
I opened my eyes wide and threw up my hands. I was going for the “I’m completely gobsmacked” look. ‘DK, I know you too well to even think of being a party to a stunt like that. I’m no Einstein, but I don’t have shit for brains either!’
He glowered at me, but I could see a shadow of doubt creeping into his eyes. ‘I’m telling you, Ryan, if you truly knew nothing of this scheme then your client has jolly well sold you down shit creek river without a paddle.’
I shook my head. ‘Believe me, DK, I had absolutely no idea they would pull a stroke like that. I mean no one in their right mind robs from you – and certainly not from your gaff.’
DK gave a bitter little laugh. ‘That’s exactly what I told myself, Ryan. There’s no need to hide the necklace away, DK, I said, after all, who would dare to break into your home and purloin anything?’ He paused then his voice was like a whip. ‘But it seems I underestimated the stupidity of your client. So, no more shilly shallying, Ryan. Tell all.’
I nodded like one of those stupid dogs you see in the back of people’s cars and when I answered I sounded as righteously indignant as a TV Evangelist denouncing the sins of the flesh. ‘You got it, DK, by pulling a bloody fast one on you and then dropping me right in it they’ve put themselves beyond the pale as far as I’m concerned. And I really don’t need to be splattered by the shit storm that’s coming their way.’ DK smiled approvingly so I continued to feed him what he wanted to hear. ‘The client’s name is Tamara Lynch – or at least that’s what she told me when she turned up in my office late on Christmas Eve claiming to have been mugged outside in the street.’
DK held up his hand. ‘Forgive me, Ryan, but what were you doing in your office so late on Christmas Eve?’
I shrugged dismissively. ‘Drowning my sorrows. I’d had a row with my missus that morning and she’d buggered off up north to her sister’s so I was facing the prospect of spending Christmas on my own. Truth to tell, DK, I just didn’t fancy going home to an empty house.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Hmm … that’s a sad tale Ryan, but it doesn’t tell me what I need to know.’
‘She told me she had an apartment in St John’s Wood in one of those blocks near Lords Cricket Ground and that I was to contact her on this mobile number.’ I reeled off an old number of mine that I knew was out of service. ‘Though if she’s got the letter and the necklace you can bet she’s dumped the phone by now.’
He scowled. ‘Why did you see fit to confide in this Tamara that I was in possession of the necklace? A private eye worth his salt would have known I should have remained anonymous. And I have always found you to be worth your salt, Ryan, so why didn’t you keep you big trap shut and respect my confidentiality until after an agreement had been brokered?’
I shrugged again. ‘Yeah, sorry, DK but I had to let her know I was making progress on the case. She also needed to know she wasn’t dealing with just anybody and that you were a serious player.’
This shameless stroke of his ego seemed to mollify him slightly. ‘Indeed I am a very serious player, Ryan. In that respect you are correct. So did she vouchsafe to you what was she doing in Deptford High Street with an extremely valuable antique – or indeed how it came to be in her possession in the first place?’
‘She said that she’d been visiting her mother who lives in those new riverside apartments on Creek Road and that the necklace was a family heirloom her mother had just given her for Christmas.’
DK gave an incredulous bark of laughter. ‘And you swallowed such a cock and bull story hook, line and sinker did you?’
I pulled a face. ‘I was half pissed, DK and she was a pretty woman who was offering me a nice wedge to track down a local mugger I recognised from her description. It seemed a piece of cake, plus it took my mind off my own troubles by giving me something to do that wasn’t drinking myself into a complete stupor. So yes, I did swallow it, but then what did I care if she was telling me the whole truth or not?’
DK put his arms behind his back and rocked back and forth on his heels while he considered what to do. Time passed and my chest hurt. I realised I was holding my breath. Then he reached a decision.
‘Consider yourself off the case Ryan. Tomasz and Bogdan, if he is sufficiently recovered, will take over from here.’
He turned on his heel and marched imperiously out of the room. Tomasz and Bogdan followed – though Bogdan paused briefly to spit in my face. I let him get away with it. I figured that, all things considered, I’d got off lightly. Of course, DK wasn’t going to be too happy when he learned the truth, but he wouldn’t want it known that a slip of a girl from an auction house had put one over on DK Kapoor, the Deptford Godfather, so I figured he’d let it drop without making a fuss. I was ever the optimist.
Chapter 14
I was on my way upstairs to the bathroom to get myself a handful of paracetamol when I heard someone push open my broken front door. I was hoping it was Rachel, but it wasn’t. It was Ms Maureen Berry.
Her eyes swept over my battered and bruised face, but all she said was: ‘We need to have a serious talk – now.’
I decided the pills could wait and followed her into my living room. She sniffed disdainfully at my second hand chairs, but deigned to perch on one. I sat opposite her. I didn’t say a word. I figured if she was so hot to chat then she could set the ball rolling.
‘DK told you the necklace has been stolen.’ It was a statement of fact not a question, but I nodded anyway. ‘I’m assuming it was taken by your client and, judging by the fact that you’re here and not in the hospital, that DK is satisfied you had nothing to do with the theft.’
