"Close?" h
e replied, playing the innocent.
"You heard what he said happened at the
Hover port. Don't you think we should be worried?"
"Dodge only said that the cashier had checked his reference book before changing the che
ques, that's all. Relax. We've got all the time in the world." He calmed her down as best he could, but couldn't blame her for worrying.
"What if they've raised the alarm?" Sam continued.
"If they'd raised it on Saturday afternoon, we'd be in jail by now. For Christ's sake, stop worrying, they've got nothing but the slightest of suspicions. The cashier was just doing his job. I would have done the same.” Sam’s nerves were beginning to show.
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because Sam, I know the system. Look, the counter clerk didn't recognize the cheques so what does he do... he refers to his bible - that's a book full of the circulars containing examples of all the cheques that have been issued."
"But he wouldn't have found ours there, would he?"
"Of course not. It’s not in the ‘bible’ but we did notify his head office."
"So
... "
"So he can't check anything any further until Tuesday, when his head office staff start work again and when he che
ques with them, someone will pull our circular out of the file and tell him that everything is all right."
"So there's nothing to worry about?"
"Right. Nothing can happen until Tuesday at the earliest and we shall be out of here by mid-day, Tuesday at the latest."
"And if someone goes to the police before then?"
"Don't start that again, darling. Why the hell should they?"
"But what if they did? Humo
r me?"
"Well within an hour or two of a complaint, Scotland Yard's finest would interview the plaintiff and take a statement. That would be reviewed by senior officers back at the station, who would start making their enquiries. They'd contact the clearing banks at the earliest opportunity, which won’t be until tomorrow morning at 9.30 and the clearing banks would confirm that the che
ques were alright and everything would return to normal, with a report being filed. So stop worrying!"
"That's what I wanted to hear." Sam moved close to him, wrapping her arms around him.
"Satisfied?" he asked.
"Just hold me, Tom
…" Pascoe kissed her gently, his anger subsiding. He hoped he had calmed her down, but could still feel her quivering. She seemed genuinely afraid.
By lunch-time, another 18 clients had visited the office and the count stood at a total of £439,000. By afternoon that figure had doubled. Temptation grew by the hour, to cut and run.
The rush of people that afternoon had stopped them wondering about the Dodges encounter with Thomas Cook. Their problems were becoming of a more practical nature. With nearly £1,000,000 taken so far in bank-notes, they were fast running out of space in the safe.
"I think we'd better take som
e of this money with us tonight," said Pascoe. "We're just about out of space in the safe and we'll have the 'temps' in tomorrow."
"How shall we do it?" Sam inquired.
"We'll pack as much as we can into the briefcases and leave the balance in the safe." Pascoe emptied the contents of one briefcase onto the desk as he spoke.
They took the money from the safe and crammed it into the empty case. Although, there were notes of different denominations and size, they fitted about £125,000 in each case, which still left more than half the money in the safe.
"We'll take this tonight, darling and the rest in the morning."
Sam closed her two cases and set them down on the floor, surprised at the weight of the money. She wouldn't walk very far carrying that sort of weight!
"Fit and ready?" asked Sam.
"No, I think we'd better get prepared for tomorrow."
"What's to prepare?"
"How many peop
le have sold all their cheques?" Pascoe asked her.
"I don't know."
"Well try looking at the file..,"he snapped.
"We'd better take the file cards of everyone who has cashed all their che
ques and not taken the extra ones... and make out fresh cards for the people who are selling the extra cheques." He instructed her. "That will cut the size of the file down considerably."
"Why bother? "
"It will help conceal the size of the operation from prying eyes."
"Like who?"
"Like the temps tomorrow and the police later on; the less information we leave around for them, the better."
Time to leave
By nine o'clock the number
of who were still due to check-in had been reduced from one hundred and thirty seven to thirty-four, twelve of whom had never visited the office. If each of the remaining clients turned up and paid their money over, it would bring them another £250,000.., the icing on the cake, but only time would tell. Pascoe felt sure that the Tuesday morning would see them past the £1,000,000 mark and that was the figure he had counted on. From then on it would just depend on how fast the rest of the money came in and on how fast the authorities moved.
"We'd better not risk public transport tonight, with all this money." Pascoe remarked. "I'll go and find us a cab." He found one without too much trouble.
"Where to guv?" asked the cabbie.
"I need to go to King's Cross Station in about ten minutes time
. Can you pick me up on the corner of Bishopsgate and Leadenhall Street. There'll be two of us with some luggage." Pascoe showed the driver a £5 note as he made his request. "Take five now and there'll be another five in it for you at King's Cross."
"Anything you say guv." The thought of a 'tenner' for a half-hour's work brought a smile to the cabby's face. It had been a slow shift.
Sam was waiting outside the office with the cases when Pascoe got back. Together, they found the taxi waiting for them on the corner as arranged.
“Are we still go
ing to King's Cross, guv?" the cabby asked.
"But I thought
..," said Sam, wondering why they should go to the wrong station.
"Change of plans darling, thought it would be a surprise
."
"But?"
To stop her giving away too much, he smothered her mouth with a kiss. At first, taken by surprise, she resisted, but the longer the embrace continued, the more she enjoyed the experience. The cab turned into Pentonville Road and Pascoe pulled himself and Sam into an upright, more respectable position. He hoped that the cab driver would remember them for their back-seat romance rather than the brief-cases they carried. He paid the driver off and ushered Sam onto the station concourse.
"Let's find another cab."
"But we've only just arrived..," Sam commented, a little confused.
"I didn't want to leave any leads from the office or to the hotel. In the end, the police will question the taxi drivers and a fare from the Change Alley office with details of where they dropped us off, will help them no end. It's better this way."
"I see.., just more of your devious little tricks."
"Darling, how could you
? Is that what you think of me?" he asked ingenuously.
"You know damn well it's one of the few worthwhile qualities you have
. At least it keeps me guessing."
The second cab took them back to Liverpool Street station.
"We'd better split the luggage now Sam, before we get to the hotel."
"Why?"
"Better odds.., not having all our eggs in one basket."
"Well at least that makes sense."
They checked two of the briefcases into the left-luggage office before going up to their room.
"Is there anything you've got planned for tonight, Tom?"
"I was thinking that in many ways it will might be our last night of complete freedom, darling, so I thought we'd have a shower, then something to eat in the room and then... "
"And then?"
Pascoe smiled, knowingly, "It may be the last time after all."
"I wish you wouldn't talk like that."
"About making love to you or about it being the last time."
"You know damn well
."
"From tomorrow, the only thing we can count on is that everyone will be looking for us."
"Well we'd better make the most of tonight." Sam flashed him a wicked smile, full of promise.
"That's exactly what I had in mind." Pascoe muttered under his breath.
Pascoe was woken on the Tuesday morning, a few minutes after 6 a.m. by the alarm call he had requested from the hotel’s reception. He forced himself out of bed, quickly showered and shaved before attempting to rouse Sam.
"Come on
.., time to wake up," he said, shaking her shoulder.
"Leave me alone
." Sam complained, tucking herself into a fetal position further underneath the bed-clothes. Knowing that she wouldn't stir if left to her own devices, Pascoe flung open the bedroom window, stripped all the bed-clothes off and left her exposed to the draught from the window.
"You're a bastard
.., I hate you!" She swung her legs on to the floor, stumbled towards the bathroom, her eyes nearly closed, her right hand entangled in her tousled hair, rubbing her head. The bathroom door slammed shut. Seconds later, Pascoe heard a muffled stream of abuse being directed at him from within the bathroom.
She emerged from the bathroom half an hour later, her mood unchanged. When she had dressed, they breakfasted in silence until well after seven, before she spoke.
"That was a rotten trick this morning, waking me up like that. I haven't forgiven you..."
"I know darling, but we've got to make an early start this morning
.., it will be the toughest day so far and from now on, things will become a little more dangerous for both of us."
"All right, what do we have to do?"
"The first thing is to buy some more luggage, to take the rest of the money from the office."
"And where are we going to put all this luggage with the money?"
"That, my darling is what I shall be doing this morning, while you're running the office."
"So, when things start getting dangerous you're going to leave me on my own!"
"Can't be helped.., but don't worry, I'll have you out of there by this afternoon."
"I thought you said mid-day at the latest?" queried Sam.
"I did and if everything runs to plan and you hurry up and finish your breakfast, it still will be mid-day."
"Trust me to get the blame for it
..."
"Nobody's blaming you
.., it's just the sooner we get under way, the lesser the risk later."
Even so, it was nearly eight o'clock when they left the hotel. They bought the necessary luggage at a shop on the station concourse, each acquiring a pair of nylon bags. On the concourse they sat down on a bench and unwrapped their purchases. The bags served a dual purpose - they could be carried by a very strong handle as a small travelling wardrobe, or by unzipping a compartment on the back of the bag, you could extract a full set of shoulder straps and waist belt and convert the bag to a rucksack. They were made of strong quality nylon and weighed next to nothing. Carefully, Pascoe folded each of three rucksacks in turn and placed them inside the
fourth; lessening the bulk they had to carry.
Back at the office, while Sam made coffee, Pascoe emptied the rest of the money out of the safe and into the first of the rucksacks. He left a thousand pounds in the safe for contingency purposes. Each bag's capacity was vastly superior to that of the briefcases and he managed to pack the whole half-million pounds into one bag. He finished by placing a folded empty bag into each of the briefcases.
"All done, darling," he called out, "I'll just finish my coffee and then I'll be on my way."
"You're not running out on me I hope?"
"You still don't trust me? I can't say I blame you, but if it'll make you feel happier, why don't you hold onto the receipts."
"What for?"
"They're for the left luggage office at Liverpool Street Station.., the other two briefcases.., if anything should happen to me, there's £250,000 in them. Take them - just in case."
Contrary to his expectations, Sam took him at his word. He couldn't really blame her for doing so
.., in her place, he would probably have done the same." You'd better have the car keys as well.., you remember where I left it?"
"In the station car-park at Bromley South?"
"Good girl."
"One other thing
.., try and give me a signal if anything happens while I’m out."
"Like what?"
"Keep the Venetian blinds open unless there's trouble just so that I'll know."
"O.K."
"Right, I'm off then.., I should be back for noon. If I can't make it by then I'll phone and if you hear nothing from me by two o'clock, it will mean you're on your own. By the way, if there's any trouble when I call, use another name for me. Clear?"
She nodded. Pascoe embraced her and held her tight for a few seconds and kissed her lightly on the forehead.
"I've got to go." He picked up a cab in Cornhill and made his way straight to the hotel room where he re-packed the briefcase with cash. He took the opportunity of making a series of telephone calls while he was there. The first call was to the Mark Street employment agency.
"Yes,
Sir. Can I help you?"
"I hope so
.., I need a couple of temporary secretary/cashiers rather urgently..."
"What do you need them to do,
Sir?"
"I run a small banking operation in the city and I will need them to greet and receive clients and take payments from them and issue receipts for the money involved. One cashier and one secretary would suffice."
"I don't see any problem, Sir, could you give me some details?"
“Certainly."
"When would you want them to start, Sir?"
"Right away, I'm afraid. That's the problem
.., two of my staff have called in sick, so I need two people to help staff the office until they get back."
"Very good
Sir. I'll make the arrangements and get straight back to you." She returned his call a few minutes later.
"Hello, Mr. Guyton
... Mark Street Bureau... we will be able to help you, but it will be necessary to call at our offices beforehand. Can you tell me how long you will want our personnel for?"
"One week should suffice."
"We do have a two week minimum Mr. Guyton."
"Very well, two weeks it is."
"Because of the short notice of this engagement and the quality and reliability of the staff you seem to need, our fees will be £300 per person per week and you may add our commission fee of 10% to that figure."
"Certainly. I shall see you shortly."
Pascoe was at the Mark Street office within half an hour. "May I have the names of the ladies concerned, please, so I may notify my office security?"
"Miss Hardcastle and Miss Napier."
"Thank you Ms. Marks. I believe I owe you £1320 if I remember correctly." Pascoe paid cash, using £50's and £20's.
"Thank
you Mr. Guyton. I shall make sure the ladies are there for one o'clock."
Pascoe left the bureau and stopped at a nearby telephone box. From there he rang Sam.
"Good morning, Dallasbank."
"Good morning, Miss Fairbrother, everything all right?"
"Yes, everything's fine here. We've had another three customers, that's all."
"Good. I take it you're on your own."
"Yes."
"I've engaged a couple of temps from the Mark Street Bureau; their names are Napier and Hardcastle,"
"Sounds like a firm of solicitors to me."
"Yes, they do rather. Never mind. When they arrive, show them the ropes about taking the money and using the files, but don't tell them anything about the banking. Leave that to me when I see them
... and don't forget to introduce them to the security men."
"Al
right."
I told the agency that we have two staff sick. So if they ask, just stick to that. Before they arrive, pack any money in the safe into the last briefcase
... leave about £1000 for contingency purposes. O.K?"
"Fine,
where are you going to now?"
"I have an appointment at the bank
... something to do with our credit ratings... See you later." Sam heard him chuckle to himself as she hung up the phone.
It was past ten and his next appointment was at ten-thirty in the City. Hurriedly, he took another cab.
"Provincial Bank, Gresham Street, please", he directed the driver.
The bank turned out to be one of the older, more traditional London banks and carried an air of solidity around its portals. It was ideal for Pascoe's purposes, being less than a mile from the Change Alley office. The doorman ushered him inside and he went forward to the enquiry-section of the counter, where he rang the buzzer for attention. A clerk in his late twenties appeared behind the counter screen and asked if he could help.
"I have an appointment with your Mr. Bristow at ten-thirty I believe... my name is Guyton."
"Yes Mr. Guyton, I'll tell him you're here." The clerk disappeared from view and returned after a minute or so.