by KERRY BARNES
‘I know you’re all wondering what I’m doing here, but, the truth is, I feel safer with all of you. There’s a traitor in my camp. Yesterday at the funeral, I was being watched. It was either that or I’m getting paranoid.’ She looked at each of the men in turn. ‘I’ve got a big deal going on. The Lanigans.’ She stopped and waited for a reaction but there was none.
‘When Izzy handed over the firearms deal to Mike, he did it to rebuild a relationship with this Irish firm, as he had bigger business on the table. Well, my dad left the details with me. He warned it was risky and dangerous if anything were to go wrong. The fact is, there’s a load of money in it for us. I say “us” because I want you to come in with me.’
Staffie grinned, his eyes darting from Lou to Willie.
‘What kind of work is it?’ asked Lou, as he glanced over at his friends. They were as intrigued as he was by this development.
Zara’s face lit up and she gave them a conspiratorial grin. ‘Pharmaceutical drugs.’
Willie laughed. ‘You can’t be serious? Surely, there’s more money in cocaine and methamphetamines than paracetamol?’
‘Yes, there is, but I’m not talking about paracetamol. I’m looking at morphine and this new slimming tablet.’
Willie screwed his nose up. ‘Surely that won’t make a bundle on the black market?’
Again, she grinned as if she was holding on to a dark secret. ‘Let me explain.’ She held her hands up. ‘I’m sorry, that sounded so patronizing, but the problem we have is that importing cocaine is risky, and the punishment if we were to get captured is harsh. This is an easy job, but it needs careful planning. Before I go on, are you in?’
Lou, with his lawyer-speak voice, said, ‘It’s not that simple, Zara. Firstly, what’s in it for us? And secondly, who else is involved?’
‘Okay, Lou, I will be open and honest with you from today. So, the Irish firm are paying me five million.’ She paused and waited for the figures to fix in their mind.
Expecting them to be wide-eyed and excited, she was surprised when Lou just lowered his bottom lip and slowly nodded. ‘Again, what do we get?’
‘A fair and acceptable cut.’ Her voice was firm and demanding. She was morphing into her father.
‘What do you need us to do?’ asked Lou, his hands clasped together.
‘Izzy had information from his men, who he had plotted up inside the company, that one of their main filling plants, a bit like a factory, is closing down. They have a warehouse, but you can’t just break into it, and if you did, you wouldn’t be able to get a van inside, it’s so secure. However, when they close, which is in three weeks, they’ll be shipping the drugs to a drop-off point in Dartford, Kent, their old laboratory set-up. From there, it’ll be moved to Hertfordshire and held in a secure building. We only have one go at this because the stopover move is all kept hush-hush. They think they can leave the drugs there overnight with just six security guards. Now, I would have hijacked the two trucks on the way to the temporary site, but these will have a police escort, all unmarked cars. Once the cargo arrives at the warehouse, though, it’s left to these dopy guards to oversee. So, my friends, it’s ours for the taking. I’ve got three refrigerated vans organized and we’ll have two hours to load up and then move them to the hangar.’
‘So, what’s our part in all this?’ asked Lou, swirling the remains of the coffee in his cup.
‘The guards need to be kept quiet. And when I meet Mr Lanigan in Ireland, I want all three of you there. Izzy had his concerns. The Lanigans are ruthless bastards by all accounts, and so the handover could prove to be an issue. Izzy had this thought out a long time ago because the plan to close the site was in place well before Mike was arrested. Now he’s in prison, I need trustworthy men onside …’ Her words tailed off as she thought about Mike.
Staffie piped up, ‘Well, since Mike can’t help, we can, can’t we lads?’
Willie was fidgeting. He needed some nicotine. ‘Would you excuse me, Zara? I’m going outside for a fag.’
Zara frowned at Staffie. ‘Can’t we smoke inside?’
‘What? Yes, of course, you can. Lou, fetch the ashtray, will ya?’
Willie felt more relaxed and disappeared, only to return with a bottle of brandy and four glasses.
‘’Ere we go, girl. Get ya laughing gear around that.’ He chuckled, and then he turned to face Staffie. ‘It’s Staffie’s best bottle. There’s no use saving it, Staff, eh?’
Staffie glared, aware that Willie knew he wouldn’t say no – not in front of Zara.
‘I think we can do the handover. You won’t even need to show your pretty face,’ said Lou, who was too arrogant for Zara’s liking.
‘No, let me get something straight, Lou. No disrespect, but the Irish will need to see my face. They have to know who’s behind it and who to fucking worry about.’
Without thinking, Lou butted in. ‘Yeah, but you’re a woman. They’ll think they can walk all over you, whereas—’ He’d no sooner got the words out of his mouth than she shut him down.
‘Don’t take my niceness in front of you to mean I am weak. I’m not. The last man who tried that, I caved his face in with a metal bat. What do you think a man can do that I can’t, except fuck with a cock?’ Her cold words hit home. Lou sat up straighter. She was right. Her sweet ways were who she may be, but there was another side to her, and he felt a cold shiver run up his spine.
‘Lou, I want you guys there because I know you’re good at your jobs. Ya take no shit, you’re afraid of no one, and you’ll have my back. Strong I might be, but if it means I’m fronting the Irish boss and his mob, then I need some hard-core blokes backing me. Don’t get me wrong, Lou. I’ve got men, but I need more than that for this work. I want a force who can bulldoze a small army, if needed, and who know enough sneaky moves to be able to have my back. So, do we have a deal?’
‘Deal,’ said Willie, unexpectedly, followed by agreement from Staffie and Lou. They clinked glasses and began working out the finer details.
After two hours had passed and more bacon sandwiches and expensive brandy had been consumed, Willie sighed. ‘It’s like old times, eh, except Mikey and Eric aren’t here.’
Zara nodded. ‘I’m just keeping Mikey’s seat warm.’
Staffie felt choked up. ‘Nah, Zara. When he’s out, if we ain’t too old by then, we’ll pull up another chair.’
Tilting her head down and looking up through her eyelashes, she gave a sorrowful smile.
Willie being Willie, and with no decorum, asked, ‘So what happened, then, Zara? Why did ya fuck off?’
Her eyes widened. She had offered to be open, but this question was so close to her heart, it was hard to spit the words out. ‘I didn’t fuck off. I was sent away for my own safety. Izzy wanted me out of the way to sort out some mess. Sadly, it was to do with me.’
‘What did ya do?’ asked Willie, eager to hear the details.
She shook her head. ‘I was the only girl born into the Ezra family. We don’t have arranged marriages, but, in my case, it was proposed that I would marry Benjamin Segal, to join the two families together. It was a silly pact my father and Guy Segal made when I was a baby. But I threw a spanner in the works and flatly refused. I was brought up to be tough and fight for what I wanted, and that certainly wasn’t to marry some Jewish man with a ginger beard and rat-like eyes.’
Willie spat out his drink and laughed. ‘Not a match for Mikey, then?’
‘Yeah, and so I went to live in France for a while, with no contact with the UK. The feud ended, and the Segals returned to Israel. Apologies were accepted on both sides and that was the end of it. I hoped that once I returned to England, Mike would be waiting for me and he would understand, but he wasn’t there for me, and he …’ Her voice cracked. ‘Anyway, c’est la vie.’
Lou mulled over her words. ‘So, this Segal bloke and ya dad fought because you were seeing Mike when you should have been marrying this ginger prick, then?’
Zara raised he
r eyebrow. ‘No!… Mike and I kept our relationship a secret. I suppose it was part of the excitement. But, no, it wasn’t because it was Mike. It could have been any man. The fact was I stood my ground in our Jewish community, so I guess I was viewed as a rebel.’
Staffie was going over the conversation in his mind. He saw it as a genuine heartbreaking love story. He was aware of how Mike had adored the woman, secretly, before he had met Jackie; and he knew his friend was nursing a broken heart. But whereas many men would have crumbled, Mike hadn’t. However, the experience had changed him. He became harder, more insular. But every cloud has a silver lining, and in Mike’s case it was his boy. No one stood a chance of getting Mike’s attention if Ricky was around. He doted on him: in fact, he worshipped the ground the boy walked on. Staffie could see why, though; Ricky was such a sweet kid, so who wouldn’t have loved him?
Chapter 16
Three weeks later
The lookouts called Willie to inform him that the two trucks carrying the pharmaceuticals were on their way, along with the unmarked police escort. It confirmed that Zara’s information had been correct.
Arnie Sheffield, the inside man on the job, was already stationed at the warehouse. Willie and Lou watched him as he entered the site.
‘Cor, you would have thought this was just a disused factory. I’d never ’ave thought that in among those old buildings was a proper lock-up. Even the drug companies are sly ol’ bastards,’ marvelled Willie.
‘Well, of course, they are. They’re crafty. I bet ’alf the drugs are placebos. They are the biggest money earners, after oil,’ replied Lou, who was feeling rather proud of his knowledge.
‘I wonder what used to go on inside those labs?’
Lou chuckled. ‘Didn’t ya muvver tell ya? That’s where she got you from. You’re one of the rejects, you ugly git.’
Willie gagged on his fizzy drink and the contents shot out of his nose. ‘You cunt! Now look what you’ve made me do.’
Lou laughed along. ‘See what I mean, ya mutant?’
Staffie got the all-clear to lead the vans to the pick-up point. In each van, drivers were armed with weapons and they had ropes to tie up the guards. So, once the heist was in place, they would have enough muscle to bring down the guards and load the cargo.
The trucks arrived and the gates were opened. Willie then sent an emoji of a smiley face to Zara’s phone. As soon as the last police car left, Willie drove down the driveway and through an opening in the rusty old fence. What had once been a highly attractive entrance, with a huge water feature and grounds that would have won the Garden of the Year award, was now an overgrown mess. The place was blighted by old rusty signs, cracked concrete driveways, and buildings that were secured by metal shutters. The place would have been ideal for a ghost film. The warehouse was behind the first block, and it was hidden from the public. One security guard patrolled the site alone – not because there was anything of value left, but because it was dangerous for kids and ideal for criminals to hide all kinds of things.
Willie parked just out of view of the warehouse. He snorted a quick line of cocaine and leaped from the car. He was followed by Lou. They had studied the plans and knew they could get in through the loading bay at the back. Inside the warehouse was row upon row of shelving, similar to a DIY superstore. There was also a partitioned area kept at four degrees Celsius, for all those medicines that needed to be stored in the fridge. On the right-hand side was another partitioned area – the office.
Their job was to creep in through the back, make their way to the front, and then press the button to open the main steel shutters.
Arnie had assured Zara that as soon as the trucks were inside, he would have the back door unlocked and would gather the security guards inside the office to give them a briefing. That would provide Willie and Lou with enough time to get in and open up the front.
All was going to plan, but just as they were creeping past the office, an old security guard stepped out of the toilet next to the button that opened the front. Willie froze, but Lou, with an air of officialdom, calmly approached the stunned man. ‘I’m Dr Baker. I have to check the temperature of the cold store for our records.’
The guard studied Willie; the man couldn’t have looked less like a professional, looking more like a patient from a mental hospital. Certainly, there was nothing about him that would indicate he was there in any official capacity.
‘Er, sorry, do you have any ID or, er—’ The guard was utterly taken aback and unsure whether or not to call the others or radio for help.
‘Oh, yes, of course. Hold on a sec. I’ll just collect it from my car.’
Willie kept quiet; he knew Lou had this under control. In his suit, and with his softer-looking face and an ability to speak in a more refined manner, Lou was used to passing himself off as an official when the need arose. Willie then guessed that Lou needed him to distract the guard, so he spoke up.
‘Could you point me in the direction of the tacho readings?’
The older man then realized that they knew exactly what they were talking about and assumed they genuinely were officials from the labs.
‘Yes, of course. You’ll find them in that cabinet next to the door to the cold store.’ He stepped forward, pointing in the direction, distracted enough for Lou to press the button. As soon as the shutters began to open, the guard spun around. ‘Hey … what are you doing?’
Lou gave an exaggerated frown. ‘Fetching my ID.’
‘Er … no, you can’t open that.’
Willie lunged forward, placed his hand over the guard’s mouth, and dragged him into the toilet, where he pulled from his back pocket some self-locking plastic cable ties. The older man was not fit to fight or even to put up a decent struggle. He didn’t resist as Willie gently forced him to the floor.
‘Jesus, I’m too fucking old for this. Listen, son, don’t cut me circulation off, there’s a good lad.’
Willie wanted to laugh; this was too easy. ‘Nah, mate, ya gonna keep schtum, yeah?’
The old boy looked pale and a little breathless. ‘Get me puffer out, will ya, and give us a couple of squirts.’
Willie loosened the man’s black tie and felt in his pockets for the inhaler. After placing it to the guard’s mouth, he pressed twice and then popped it back into the man’s jacket pocket.
‘Good lad.’
As soon as Willie opened the toilet door, he saw Zara’s men, along with Staffie and Lou, creeping their way towards the office. Arnie had been true to his word, keeping the guards inside for an impromptu briefing. The men working for Zara quickly burst into the office, and luckily for them the guards were all old has-beens who surrendered willingly – which was a good thing because some of Zara’s men were a little slow on the uptake and didn’t look like they were up to the job. Bound and gagged, the guards were left comfortable, with no need for any serious violence.
Then the work began. Before Willie helped to load the boxes, he checked on the old man and removed his gag. ‘You all right, pop? D’ya need another puff?’
‘No, I’m fine, boy. Christ, I don’t get paid enough for this shit.’
Willie sighed and asked for his address.
The guard’s eyes widened. ‘Oh, leave off. There’s no need to hurt me family, boy!’
Willie chuckled. ‘I was gonna drop off a bit of dosh, that’s all. For your trouble.’
The old man’s eyes suddenly came alive and he instantly reeled off his address. ‘Nice one, lad.’
Once the drugs were all loaded, they had enough time to get away, before the next lot of guards took over and alerted the police.
As soon as they arrived at the hangar, Zara had the vans redressed with toyshop adverts made from vinyl sheeting plastered over their sides. The number plates were changed back to their originals. The set-up was complete. All she needed to do was to cross the border to Ireland and meet Lanigan’s firm.
Staffie and Willie leaned against one van. The crates of drugs had b
een placed into large cardboard boxes that had stickers of plastic Wendy houses all over them. Willie watched as the last of the vinyl was sealed onto the vans. Zara rubbed her hands together and she smiled with flushed cheeks. ‘Nearly there, guys. Now for the last part.’
‘Er … yeah, about that,’ said Staffie, as he looked to see if any of her men were within earshot. ‘Ya men, Zara. To be frank, love, they’re as much use as a fucking chocolate teapot. If you need muscle for the handover, then these bunch of pricks ain’t fit for the job, trust me.’
She looked at Willie, who nodded in agreement. ‘I gotta say, though, Zara, both the detail and organization were shit-hot. Ya did good, girl, but ya firm are weak. Those guards weren’t even ex-Army. They were all old men. And that fuckwit over there’ – he pointed to the man who was slumped over, looking exhausted and sipping a mug of tea – ‘he couldn’t fight his way out of a paper bag. If we’d faced young, fit, and feisty men, this heist would have been scuppered big time. We would all have been banged up.’
She sighed and gave a resigned nod. ‘I know, but they were the best I had, since Izzy’s main men seem to have all suddenly retired …’
Chewing her lip in thought, she wondered if Guy Segal had had anything to do with that. But none of her men had mentioned his name since the funeral. It was as if a ghost had passed through, attempting to put the wind up her. She shook the idea from her mind. Besides, Guy wasn’t rich; as far as she was aware, the only Jew with clout was her father. Guy was a nobody.
Willie openly pulled out his pouch and snorted a line of charlie. It had been a long night, and he needed a livener. ‘Right, girl, if you need heavy-duty muscle, then we’ll fucking find ya them. It’ll cost ya, though.’
Her eyes lit up. ‘I’ll have to invest to grow my business. So you find me good men, and we can carve the business up, eighty-twenty.’
Lou stepped in. ‘seventy-thirty.’
She laughed. ‘You fell for that, Lou. I would have gone higher on your side, but it’s a deal.’
