The Annie Carter Series Books 1–4. Jessie Keane

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      Jimmy nodded. He had already cased the store; Jonjo’s insider had pointed out a room marked Staff Only that the security guy never bothered to check on, where they could hide away before the store closed. All they had to do was wait until the appointed hour and then get inside the frame room.

      ‘Once I’m in there, I go to the records and find the alarm’s DP on the cards.’

      ‘Meaning?’ asked Max.

      ‘The distribution point, the line the alarm’s on.’

      ‘Then what?’

      ‘It’s simple. I bare the wires here and here.’ He did a little drawing on a notepad. ‘Then I put on two crocodile clips to the bare surfaces with a diverter wire attached. The circuit’s still complete but the alarm’s inactive.’

      Max nodded. ‘That’s good. We come in the back entrance. The alarm’s out. Then it’s over to you, Jack.’

      Jack was the gelly man. He was sandy-haired with a red moustache. He had the look of an airline pilot or a submarine commander – icy cool under fire. Jesus, thought Jonjo, when you were handling gelignite you had to be bloody cool, or you were in trouble. No good getting all hot and sticky. That stuff sweated like a bastard as it was.

      ‘No problem,’ said Jack, and placed a packet of three condoms on the table. ‘I use these.’

      ‘You’re having a fucking laugh,’ said Steven.

      ‘French letters or balloons,’ said Jack. ‘They’re the best things for keeping your gelly in.’

      There was a surge of laughter from around the table.

      ‘I’ve heard it all now,’ said Gary.

      Jack went on to explain how he intended to crack the department store safe wide open, so they could pocket the thirty grand that should be inside it. Not a bad night’s work, and it sounded easy enough. Made you wonder why more people weren’t out on the rob, really.

      The meeting broke up after midnight and, as the other boys filed out, Jimmy took Max to one side.

      ‘Kath asked me to tell you that Ruthie’s not answering the phone,’ he said.

      ‘Oh?’ Max was pulling on his coat.

      ‘Kath rings Ruthie on Monday at seven in the evening, then Ruthie rings her on Tuesday, and so on all through the week. Only Kath’s been ringing and getting no answer, and Ruthie hasn’t called her either.’

      Fuck it. Bloody Ruthie was a liability. She was probably on the piss again, laid out on the sofa and drunk as a lord.

      ‘I’ll give Miss Arnott a call.’ Then Max remembered that they’d already let Miss Arnott go. Damn. Ruthie was on her own down there apart from his boy, and he wasn’t exactly the brain of Britain. If he heard the house phone ringing off the hook, he wouldn’t trouble himself to wonder why.

      ‘I thought I’d better mention it,’ said Jimmy apologetically.

      ‘Yeah. Thanks.’

      With everyone else gone, Max went downstairs to the hall and phoned the Surrey place. No bloody answer. He rang Dave’s number, but no answer from there either. He flung the phone back on the cradle. Fuck that raving drunk. He ought to just let her stew. But … there was something else he could do. He dialled again.

      ‘Hello?’ One of the Limehouse tarts had picked up.

      ‘Put Annie on, will you?’ he asked.

      ‘Who shall I say?’

      ‘Max.’

      There was a pause.

      ‘This is Dolly,’ said the woman. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Carter. Annie’s told me she don’t want to talk to you.’

      ‘Put her the fuck on this phone,’ said Max. ‘It’s about her sister.’

      Yeah, revenge was sweet. Annie was so concerned about Ruthie, was she? She couldn’t go on doing Max behind her sister’s back? Fair enough. So let her look after her fucking sister, if they were so tight together.

      ‘Hello?’

      It was Annie. Sounded like she’d been dragged out of bed. Well, good. Fuck her.

      ‘Ruthie’s not answering her phone. Kath’s been trying to reach her, and she can’t. I haven’t the time. You can go down and see what she’s up to,’ he said.

      ‘Me?’ Annie sounded aghast. ‘It’s after bloody midnight.’

      ‘Yeah, you. Didn’t you say you were concerned for your sister? Prove it. Put your money where your fucking mouth is. I’ll send the car round and the key.’

      ‘Wait! Just a bloody minute.’ Annie clutched her head and tried to think. Ruthie would be passed out drunk again, that was all. Max was just playing silly buggers, winding her up deliberately. ‘Okay. I’ll go in the morning. Send the car at ten. All right?’

      ‘Deal.’ Max threw the phone back into the cradle. Women! They were a pain in the arse, a bloody torment. Jonjo was right. And why, when he had everything he wanted out of life – money, prestige, respect, all that shit, and he could have any woman in the world he wanted – why then did he only want that one, that fucking Annie Bailey?

      It was a mystery.

      It was beyond him.

       42

      At ten on the dot on Friday morning one of Max’s boys pulled up outside the house. Annie had been watching from the window, waiting. She hadn’t slept a wink all night. As she lay awake in bed she started to think, what if Ruthie wasn’t just arsing about drinking herself into a stupor? What if she was in trouble and needed help? Maybe she should have gone down there last night, or maybe she was just panicking over nothing.

      God, she wasn’t looking forward to this.

      Ruthie hated her, and it hurt like fuck.

      At lunchtime Dolly put one of her favourites on the radiogram in the front room. Brian the barman was lining up bottles and polishing glasses, setting out the food the girls had prepared this morning. Dolly hummed and twirled along to Andy Williams. Smiling, she looked around; the whole room gleamed, the food looked good. Brian poured her a voddy and black, she liked that. Everything was going well.

      She was happy. She was in control.

      ‘Hey, babe, got one of those for me?’ asked Aretha, coming in wearing black PVC thigh boots and a white plastic bikini.

      Brian poured her a shot.

      ‘Everything ready?’ Aretha asked Dolly.

      ‘Yep.’

      ‘What СКАЧАТЬ