Chapter 6

As the meeting ended, we went down to the Inspectors’ office and planned for the two Ascot meetings. I would take Lena in before the next one, at the end of the month, with us both getting the comms. Lena said that she would wear something less girly and that a tiepin microphone would be good. I would be in a similar outfit to last Saturday. For the big meeting next year, I would glam up and wear a hat, so something on that would be all right.

We were close to my flat, so I took Lena there, putting the kettle on when we arrived. When I carried the tray out to the lounge, she was looking at my picture of the Cortina and my bag with its holes.

“Maxine, you really have to tell me how your car got to look like that. What was he using?”

“He had an Uzi, with a big magazine on full auto. He wasn’t aiming, as such, but falling to the ground, taking me with him as he was holding me hostage. He had a bullet in the head from a police marksman. I had his brains in my hair.”

Lena came to me and hugged me for a while.

“You poor dear. It was that case up in Yarmouth, wasn’t it. You weren’t named in any of the news reports.”

“Like you, I wasn’t there, officially. I was with a male friend, a man from Naples who is a paid-up member of the Mafia. The police thought that it would open a can of worms if we were known to be at the arrest. That part of it was a spin-off of the case I had gone there to solve, a missing husband of an old school friend.”

“Did you find the husband?”

“In a parked van, wrapped in black plastic, with a bullet in him.”

“What about this bag?”

“On the back seat of the Cortina. I poke my finger in the bullet hole for luck.”

“You realise that you need me, as much I now need you. You will keep me feeling alive, and I need to teach you things to stop you being dead.”

“Will you be OK doing secretarial stuff?”

“It was what I was doing in the army while we waited for the wheels to turn. I’m a pretty good typist. I haven’t got myself any devices in years. What say we head for the retail park this afternoon to see what we can find. I have my credit card, now topped up since I went to the bank this morning. I’ll need a phone and a laptop that I can use in the office and take home. You’ll need a good laptop with plenty of memory, as well as a couple of good screens we can play FreeCell on without messing our eyes up. Then we’ll need a printer that will take Wi-Fi, you are organising a modem, I hope.”

I nodded.

“I made a list and most of what you say is already on it. We’ll need two sets of keyboards and mice, rubbing your finger on a laptop pad is a pain in the arse. Then we’ll need a spare set, in case anything fails. A good supply of batteries would help, as well as a few good power boards with surge protection.”

That decided, we went out again after I had tidied up the mugs. As it was lunch, we went through a fast-food drive-through and ate chips from a bag as I took us to the retail park. We made one electric salesman very happy, and he helped us take our things out and load up the car. Lena had bought an extra screen that she would use at home. I also priced fridges. We took my things back to Islington, to leave in their boxes until the move happened. I managed to park near her place and helped carry her things up.

She had a small flat, enough for a single person with minimal needs. I met the stall holder, who was diffident, at first, but warmed to me when Lena told him that she would be working with me next year. I gave him a few of my cards, telling him that we would be around the corner, with newer cards printed before we opened up.

I got back to my car as the parking inspector was just up the road, and drove home again, feeling that things were turning some sort of corner. Over the next few weeks, I made more preparations, packed a lot of summer clothes, only leaving the things that would take me to the move. I went to a hardware store and bought some bright paint, then spent several days painting the two offices.

Abdul was good as his word and the services were all connected in the business name, as well as the phone and internet connections installed. The last thing was the security system, with a buzzer from the front door in both offices and the living quarters. Lena came around a few times, took some measurements and turned up one day, with a length of aluminium ‘U’ beam, and a couple of bits of bent steel with lots of holes on one flange.

These went by the main door, and a day later she came back with a power drill and a pack of strong screws. While I painted, I could hear her singing while the power drill whirred. When she had finished, there were two steel brackets that the beam sat in, securely fixed to each side of the door, so making sure I could go to bed without any fear of being broken in to. It looked as if it would take a battering ram to get in.

We got to the week before the last Ascot meeting of the year. I took us to Islington, and we were given our comms for the next day. On the Saturday, I picked Lena up from the Berwick Street corner and we went to Ascot. I didn’t do any betting today, and stayed with the car for ten minutes as Lena went in, after us both testing the comms. We were told that both Stan and Oliver were there.

I stayed well away from everyone, sitting up in the stand, listening to the radio talk. I heard Lena place a mystery bet, which was covering the second, third and fourth race. She put a hundred on it. We spoke to each other as she stood at the rail, it being a dry day, if a little cool. We both had heavy coats on, this time, and I had taken her to the shops to buy warmer underwear. As the fourth was being run, I said that I would be in the car.

I sat there with the car warming up, until I saw her leaving the course with a shopping bag in her hand. That’s when the comms came to life.

“Alert! Oliver has left the stall and is following Len. Do not meet at the car. Len, head for the bus stop. If he goes back inside, you pick Len up there, Maxie.”

I waited as it played out. Lena got on a bus, with Oliver going back inside, I followed the bus and told Lena to get off at the next stop. When the bus slowed, I pulled over and waited for it to get some way ahead before I pulled up next to her. She got in a buckled up and we carried on back to London, turning off the comms, seeing that we weren’t hearing anything. Lena took my phone and speed-dialled the Inspector to tell him that we were clear and away. He told her to bring the comms in on Monday. I looked over at her.

“Three races, did you do well?”

“Thirty-six thousand. That’s why it’s in the shopping bag. I really can’t believe that a bookie would just give away money like this. It’s crazy!”

“Think of the result at Epsom. If all the races are won by favourites, at two to one, a hundred becomes twenty-five thousand or more. If one or more are at longer odds, it will be a lot more. I estimated, from the amounts that were banked afterwards, that most of the victims had won between half a million to a million, unless there were two victims each time, then it would be between a quarter of a million to half a million. Remember, Joe will be taking bets from the internet as well, with punters putting thousands on horses that don’t get placed.”

“When I collected, Joe told me to arrive at his stall about twenty minutes before the first and that Oliver will help me carry my winnings, but not to go for them until fifteen minutes after the clear.”

I took Lena home and left her at the corner. We agreed for me to pick her up on Monday morning, after she had been to her bank, then I left to go home, wondering what I might be walking away with in early May. If the police weren’t now involved, we could both stay away from the Epsom meeting. I knew that I had to see it through.

A week or so later, the removalists turned up and put all my big things in their van. Lena had already opened the place up when we got there, now having a set of keys of her own. My things were carried up to the living area, with me there to point out where things went, and Lena down below to watch the van. We had everything in before ten and I paid the guys with cash and a tip. Tonight, I will be sleeping here, so I had better go and get my linen and suitcases.

It took three trips before I was happy to make up the bed. I had filled the wardrobe, with Lena making comments on my things, especially gushing over the Erminia dresses. I told her that once we had given her a make-over, I would take her to the Chelmsford store and buy her one of her own, so she could look good at Ascot.

“Not Ascot, Maxie. When we leave Epsom, I’m done with horse racing. Without Joe, I would have just lost all my money. It’s a mugs’ game, they say, but it helps when the mug is giving you money.”

“I think I’m with you on that one, Lena. I had never even thought of going to a racecourse, and I won’t lose any sleep if I never see one again.”

The next day I went back to the electrical store and paid for a fridge to be delivered an installed the following day. We finalised the office and flat during December. The security guys came, did their thing, and left us to it. I looked around and saw that it was nothing like the empty place that I had first fallen in love with. Lena and I went to see Janine at the Groovy Salon, with Lena walking out with her face made up and a wig on, looking more feminine. She had an appointment in January for laser treatment, something she could now afford.

We bought each other Christmas presents and booked for a Christmas dinner at Balans. The new business cards were printed, with the new landline, business address and post box details. We were ready to open for business on the first Monday in January. We were sitting with our after Christmas dinner drinks, when Lena told me that she wanted to be called Lena Tsarina, from now on. She certainly looked the name, that night, in a long dress, make-up and a cherry-red wig. We toasted each other and wished each other a Happy New Year.

In the first week of January, we spent a fortune on postage stamps, sending out an information letter on letterhead that Lena had designed, along with a few business cards. Then there was the emails to those that I just had the email addresses for. On the first Saturday, we both went to the Berwick Street market, handing out cards and saying that the office was only a few streets away. We gave Janine some cards on our first visit of the year. Oddly enough, it was her that gave us our first local job.

She gave us a call a few days later and asked us to pop into the Groovy Salon for a talk. She was frightened and it took her a while to be able to tell us what was her problem. She said that there were a couple of thugs wanting her to pay protection money. She had done so, before the holiday, but they had come again and told her that they wanted ten thousand or else they would fire-bomb the salon. She said that she had worked hard to build up the business and would lose the lot if she didn’t pay. She would have to lose the lot if she did pay, because she would have to sell to pay off the loan of the ten thousand.

I asked her when they were coming back, and arranged to be in the salon, in a working smock, when they arrived. They certainly looked scary when they walked in. She told them that she would have the money next week, as I had told her, and they seemed happy with that. As they turned to go, I was ‘accidentally’ in their way and stumbled into one. He grabbed me and gave me a wet kiss, before shoving me out of the way. They left the salon, one of them with a tracker I had slipped into the breast pocket of his jacket.

For the rest of that day, Lena and I tracked them from shop to shop, then to a café for lunch, and then to more shops. At some, they came out smiling, from others with frowns. We finally tracked them to a flat in the north-east of the city. At no time did they look like members of a bigger gang. I went to see a friend at the Soho station, showing him the pictures that we had taken and gave a verbal statement of what we had discovered. He made note of the tracker frequency, thanked me for the information. Two days later, the thugs were arrested coming out of a shop with marked money.

Janine and the locals were happy to have the problem removed. Some gave us loyalty cards to use when we shopped. Janine gave me much more. She showed me the rest of her salon. It went a long way back, with a door to another shop on Romily Street. I asked her if I could use the double access if I wanted to throw off a tail, and we put a locker right at the back, which I filled with outfits that I had picked up at the market.

We spent a lot of time in a gym that Lena knew. I was given exercises to do to limber me up and improve my speed. Then she showed me ways to disable an opponent. I learned how to break an arm or a leg, trying it out on pieces of wood until I could find the correct pressure points without thinking.

She then showed me how to get the drop on someone with a gun. The easiest, she drummed into me, is to drop him before he could pull the gun out. I worked with a punching bag, using straight-arm blows with the heel of the hand, and then with a bare fist, until I could do that without breaking my fingers. Then she trained me in overcoming a gunman with his gun in your back or side. All you had to do was lean back on him, spun around to move the gun to the side, and then hit him as hard as you can, hoping that he didn’t shoot you.

“Remember, Maxie. They don’t shoot the victim. They overpower them, probably with chloroform, so it’s likely that they will not take the safety off.”

We started getting the retail equivalent of the jobs I used to do. Instead of finding lost husbands, we were finding failed payers, using temporary cameras to film shoplifters, and sorting out disputes at the market, with Lena being listened to as one of their own. It was steady work and moved us towards May. If I needed to go anywhere, I called Hassam, and, early on, he took me to a friend of his that looked after his car, the guy giving me what I had paid for the Mercedes. It was a good job, as it was costing almost as much as the office to park it.

In the week before Ascot, I had a package from Dee, with an entry ticket and car pass for the meeting. There was also a list of likely horses. Both Lena and I went to Islington with Hassam, and he waited for us while we got the comms. I told them that I had an entry ticket, and that Lena didn’t. The Inspector got Lena to go down to the stores and get kitted out with a WPC outfit, complete with stab vest.

“Wait on the corner of Berwick Street and I’ll get the boys to pick you up on the way through. You can wander around and look like a normal copper.”

I had seen a nice outfit, suitable for early spring. It was a shirtwaister, with a flip skirt. I wore a long cardigan over it as it wasn’t the warmest day. Lower shoes and the blonde wig, combed to hide the earpiece, five hundred in my bag and I was ready to go. I waited by the door until Hassam picked me up. I had an extra undred, which I gave to him to be at the exit gate a half an hour after the last race. He would go for other customers during the day, but listen to the races on the radio, as he could pick up the track commentary within ten miles of the course.

The meeting was a lot more popular than the last one of the previous year. I didn’t enter the fashion stakes, but went directly to Joe, like a sucker that was hooked. Like Lena, he gave me a mystery bet, this time on the second, fourth and fifth. I took the ticket and wandered off, my earpiece telling me it had been recorded. I was standing at the rails as the horses were heading for the start, when a voice behind me gave me a fright,

“Excuse me, madam. You do know that you need a ticket to stand there.”

I looked around to see Lena in the full WPC outfit. I would never have clocked her as Len, of the colourful suits.

“I’ll come quietly, officer. I do bondage but I draw the line at being pummelled with your baton.”

She laughed and we had a short conversation until we were warned that Stan was coming my way. She moved on, and he joined me at the rails.

“Bit chummy with the fuzz, Debbie.”

“Why not, Stan. I have nothing on my conscience, except for a few bad boys that I shouldn’t have allowed to take liberties. What can I do for you?”

“Joe wants me to tell you that when you arrive at Epsom, you will need to see him five minutes before the first and be at his stand to collect your winnings immediately the clear is given on the last. There’s likely to be a crowd so I wants to make sure you’re all right. How are you getting there?”

“I’ll get an Uber there, and call for one on the way home, why?”

“We just like to make sure that you have secure transport, you might be carrying a lot of money when you leave.”

He walked away, and I heard Lena in my ear.

“That will space the two of us. They want you out of the way first, so that there are the two of them to look after me.”

I had a thought.

“Inspector, can you look at any CCTV from last year. It looks as if they will escort us off the course. There may be some vision from last year, within ten minutes of the last race.”

“I’ll look into it, Maxine. Good thinking. I’ll let you know what we find when you join us for a security inspection. I’ll text you with the pick-up times.”

A couple of minutes later, the Inspector spoke again.

“If we weren’t sure before, we now have certainty. Stan and Oliver have just talked about what they would do with you, Maxie, when they have you in the van. Stan said that it will be worth disobeying orders and dumping you in the quarry instead of over the cliff. He thinks that you would be a good lay.”

“There are some, Inspector, who would back him up on that. I don’t fancy him, though. It will be worth looking at the GPS records when we have them in custody. That is, if their van is new enough.”

“They got a new one two years ago, so last year’s trips should be able to be seen. I’ll get the techie boys onto that. There can’t be too many isolated quarries around.”

I wandered back towards the bookies, and saw that Dumluk was running in the third, with reasonable odds. I put a hundred each way, just for fun. I went up to the stands and sat for a while, watching the crowd. I could see the usual cross section of humanity, from the toffs to the have-nots, all wanting to make a few pounds more than they walked in with. Dumluk ran second, so I went down to get my winnings. It was just over seven hundred.

I had lost the need to bet on anything else. I now had a good bank account, the business had enough to pay the lease and outgoings for another couple of years. We weren’t going to invoice anybody for this job, but it will put us in the good books of several policemen, something money can’t buy. I went to the tearoom and got a pot of tea and some cake. Now, this was the one thing I would miss.

I noted that the winner of the second was just off being a favourite, and wondered what I may end up with. My hundred was now only five hundred. The winner of the fourth was at fifteen to one, so my hundred was now seven and a half thousand. I went back to sit in the stand to wait for the fifth. I had a sudden desire to be out of here and back in my office, helping people. I was really enjoying working with Lena. She now had a vitality that was refreshing if a little tiring.

When the fifth was won and the clear given, my hundred was now thirty thousand. I went down to see Joe, gave him my ticket and he gave me a shopping bag, identical to the one Lena had left with. I phoned Hassam to pick me up where he dropped me off, and he replied that he was ten minutes away. I stood by the side of the road.

“Inspector, are you still on the net?”

“Yes, Maxie. What is it?”

“Did you get a good picture of the bag I was given?”

“We did, why?”

“Because it’s identical to the one that Lena was given at her last meeting. It will pay to look for anyone carrying a bag like this, or two, from the end of last year at Epsom.”

“Thanks for that. We will have a good talk when we meet there. Have a nice trip home.”

Hassam arrived and I got in the car, smelling fresh kebabs. He took me back to Soho and dropped me off. I wasn’t in the mood for sit-down eating, tonight. I spent Sunday in a haze, not able to think very much. I had put the money in my wardrobe. I sat on the sofa, watching silly TV shows until I could take it no longer, the put on my exercise outfit and went for a walk to the Soho Square and ran the perimeter until I was tired. Then I went home again, undressed, showered, moisturised, and put on a nightie to get into bed, sleeping the clock around.

Marianne Gregory © 2024