CHAPTER THIRTEEN
It was a sweltering hot night, and although the window,
overlooking Eagle Street, was wide open and the curtains
pulled back, the room seemed like an oven. I lay sleepless. At my side Ann slept quietly.
It wasn’t only the heat that kept me awake. My mind was
darting about like a rat in a trap, as I tried to think of the best way out of my predicament.
At first I decided to tell Joe about the vacuum flask so he could consult Dix, but on second thoughts I realized they wouldn’t put off the hold-up, and they were certain to blame me for being so stupidly careless.
I then wondered if it would be possible to go to the
sorting-office after dark and try to recover the flask, but I gave up that idea as soon as it entered my head. Joe would be
watching the place and he would see me. I might just as well
tell him and be done with it.
It was only after I had lain in the semi-darkness in a fever
of anxiety for over an hour that I began to get my nerve back.
It was possible that the guard, the driver, or the man who
handled the mail bags might think one of them owned the flask and say nothing about it. I might be working myself into a panic for nothing.
But even with this thought to comfort me, I couldn’t
sleep. I was afraid to move in case I woke Ann. There was
nothing for me to do but to lie in the half-darkness and wait for the dawn.
Somewhere around three o’clock, I heard Joe moving about in the garage. He must have gone over to the Jaguar for I heard a car door shut.
Then at twenty minutes to four I heard another sound
that made me stiffen and set my heart racing.
Across the way, a car engine started up.
I moved aside the sheet that covered me, silently swung
my legs off the bed and very cautiously stood up. I looked at Ann but the car engine hadn’t disturbed her and she slept on.
I crept over to the window and looked down into Eagle
Street.
Lights showed in the sorting-office. A postman was
standing by the entrance talking to Harris. I could hear the van engine ticking over.
The postman walked back into the garage and disappeared from view. Harris continued to stand in the doorway.
After a few minutes I heard the van door slam, and the
engine accelerate. The van appeared out of the darkness and pulled up beside Harris.
I was looking down on top of it. I couldn’t see who was in
the van. Harris spoke to the driver, consulted his watch, then waved the van on.
As it drove into the street, I saw it was Bill’s van. I hadn’t
any doubt now that the consignment of diamonds Dix had
planned to grab was in the van, and at this very moment, Joe
was phoning a message to Dix to tell him the van was on its
way. Probably Dix was waiting with Louis and Berry in a side
street on the route the van would take. Within a few minutes the hold-up would take place.
The van moved swiftly down Eagle Street towards
Oxford Street. I leaned oat of the window and watched its red
tail light disappear around the corner, heading towards Marble
Arch.
I looked over my shoulder at Ami. She was still sleeping.
I crept across the room, eased open the door and went silently
downstairs.
In the dark garage I could hear Joe moving about. I
stood just inside the office doorway and watched.
He came out of the partitioned room, a flashlight in his
hand and went over to the Jaguar. He put the flashlight on the car roof so the beam fell directly on the door of the partitioned room, then he went back and came out again, staggering under the weight of a big suit-case. This he put in the boot of the car.
I walked down the garage towards him.
“What are you doing?”
He swung round.
“Clearing out Come and give me a hand.”
“You’re not leaving now? There’s a fellow standing in th doorway across the street. He’ll see you if you take the car out.”
“Who said I was going to take the car? Do you think I’m
that dumb? I’m leaving the car. Gloria will fetch it first thing tomorrow.”
So Gloria was coming here!
“Come and give me a hand,” Joe went on impatiently.
“Has it started yet?”
He grinned at me in the light of the torch.
“You bet it’s started. They’re waiting for them in
Shepherd’s Bush.”
I followed him into the partitioned room. Together we
carried the second suit-case to the car and put it alongside the other in the boot.
“What the h.ell have you got in these two cases?” I
asked.
“That’s Ed’s cockeyed idea. He’s too damned thorough,
that’s his trouble. They’re full of television parts, just in case you shot your mouth off and the busies got curious.
“That stuff’s hot too. Louis knocked it off from a factory, and then there’s the telephone Louis knocked that off too.”
“You’re not leaving this stuff here for tonight? Suppose
the police find it? They could trace it, couldn’t they?”
“You bet they could trace it, but don’t get windy. The
cops aren’t coming here until tomorrow. By that time Gloria will have shifted the car. Well, I’m shoving. Keep your trap shut
and remain healthy.”
In spite of this assumed nonchalance, I could see he was
jumpy and his heavy battered face was glistening with sweat.
“Open up. I want to get out of here.”
As I slid back the bolt and opened one of the double
doors, I said, “I don’t like that stuff being here. The police would pin it on me if they found it.”
“That’d be just too bad, wouldn’t it?” he sneered, pushed past me and peered up and down the street. “So long. Keep your nose clean. If you don’t it’ll be just too bad for you.”
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