The Annie Carter Series Books 1–4. Jessie Keane

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СКАЧАТЬ would ever be blasé about such things. As a child, Annie got the knocks – Ruthie got the presents. Funny how she still half-expected it to be that way.

      She unwrapped the long slender package and found a ladies’ gold Rolex watch inside. She looked up at Mira.

      ‘That’s bloody lovely,’ she said. ‘Thanks, Mira.’ She looked over at Jen and Thelma, seated on the Chesterfield, watching with beaming smiles. ‘Thanks, Jen, Thelma. It’s gorgeous.’

      ‘It’s engraved,’ said Mira. ‘Have a look.’

      Annie took out the beautiful thing and turned over the dial.

      From the girls to Annie with love.

      ‘Some of the old boys call you the Mayfair Madam,’ said Jen. ‘We thought about having that put on it, but “Annie” seemed better.’

      ‘Help me put it on,’ said Annie, delighted, and Mira did so.

      ‘Okay girls – let’s get ready now,’ said Annie, moving over to the door where Joshua was ready with pink champagne for the drinkers or pink grapefruit juice for the teetotallers.

      The bell rang.

      The party was on.

      ‘Any movement?’ asked the sergeant as he joined his young constable outside in the rainy street. Talk about April showers. What a fucking job! He envied the toffs inside having a bloody good time. A fucking sight better than standing out here with the rain dripping off your arse.

      ‘Fifteen gents gone in there so far,’ said the constable. ‘Look, there goes another one. Looks busier than normal.’

      For weeks they had been keeping Annie’s apartment block under surveillance – ever since that weird bloke had come into the station and told them about what was really going on in there. Sergeant McKellan and his three constables had taken it in shifts to watch and record every arrival and departure. They’d noted what time the mail was delivered, when the rubbish was emptied and when the milkman came. They’d noted – with some surprise – that there were people going into the block who seemed of good standing in the community.

      As the weeks went past, a pattern had emerged. There was a major shindig once a month, and individual visits during weekdays. Over seven weeks, he and his men had clocked over a hundred men and a regular selection of between three and ten high-class trollops coming and going.

      They’d checked the rubbish over and found an awful lot of empty bottles. Malt whisky, champagne, fine wines, exquisite brandies, had all been consumed on the premises. Annie Bailey was running a well-stocked bar up there.

      Selling liquor without a licence, thought Sergeant McKellan, shivering in the chilly downpour. Bloody good liquor too. These people were supposing to be setting a good example, not having a fucking good time at a high-class knocking shop.

      Jesus, they’d even seen a Cabinet Minister going in there, but they’d have to keep quiet about that. The sergeant curled his lip in disgust. These people were supposed to be his betters. And they behaved like this.

      Monitoring the rubbish had turned up a surprising quantity of used condoms and tissues, too. Sergeant McKellan thought that there was no limit to the depravity of the upper classes. He felt badly let down by them.

      As the wet, dismal weeks went by, his grievance against the toffs became more intense. He already had a warrant to search the premises because of the illegal liquor sales, but he wanted more than that. He wanted to stop this operation in its tracks, and that meant waiting and watching out in the cold and the wet. They’d gone inside once or twice and questioned Annie Bailey’s neighbours. There had been music and voices, that was all they’d say. Nothing to complain about, really, although one regal old Dame in the apartment underneath Annie Bailey’s select knocking shop had clutched her Pekinese dog to her scrawny chest and said in plummy tones that she suspected something was ‘going on’ up there. Something nasty.

      ‘There goes another one,’ said the constable as a distinguished silver-haired gentleman entered the block.

      A taxi swerved into the kerb and decanted a blonde woman, a big black woman, a small dark-haired woman, and an obvious queer.

      ‘Fuck, this is turning into a bloody orgy,’ said Sergeant McKellan.

      ‘Yeah,’ said the constable wistfully.

      The constable sneezed and fished out his handkerchief. Loitering around this corner, they were constantly frozen to the marrow. His trousers were wet six inches up the leg. He felt he’d never again get warm. Inside, there would be drinks, food, lovely women … heaven on fucking earth, he thought. He fumbled out his Vicks inhaler and took a snort up each sore, red nostril. His sergeant watched him.

      ‘You want to put some Vaseline on that nose, Constable,’ he said.

      ‘Yes Sarge,’ said the constable gloomily. He nodded across the road. ‘Look. Two more.’

      Sure enough, two more gents entered. Looked decent types, too. One was swaggering along, his expression arrogant, looked like a barrister. The other one …

      ‘Fucking hell,’ said Sergeant McKellan. ‘That bugger’s wearing a dog collar. He’s a man of the sodding cloth!’

      What was the world coming to? A regular orgy of depravity, thought Sergeant McKellan with pious disgust. He’d soon sort out this little lot. Oh yes. A Black Maria pulled into the kerb beside them and three more officers piled out from the back of it. Time to get on with it, he thought with relish.

      ‘Come on, lads,’ he said, and led the way across the road.

      Annie opened the door with a smile on her face and found Sergeant McKellan standing there. Her smile dropped. She slammed the door shut.

      A heavy hand thumped upon it.

      ‘Open up! Police!’

      Fucking hell, thought Annie.

      Behind her, there was a scene of pandemonium as lords and tarts scattered in all directions. Dolly, to her credit, stepped up and said: ‘What the fuck’s going on?’

      Annie had gone pale. Joshua dropped his tray of glasses and pink champagne spread in a sticky ooze over the costly Aubusson rug. He legged it over to his bar and started cramming bottles into boxes.

      Dolly went to the door. ‘What do you want?’ she shouted.

      ‘I am an officer of the law,’ said Sergeant McKellan. ‘I have a warrant to enter these premises.’

      ‘We’re going to have to let them in,’ said Dolly to a stricken Annie, ‘or they’re going to break the bloody door down.’

      Annie straightened herself up and nodded. The game was up. She put her bag aside – crammed full of notes from all the punters – and opened the door.

      ‘Thank you, miss,’ said the sergeant, and showed her the warrant. ‘Are you Miss Annie Bailey?’

      Annie nodded. She felt pole-axed with the shock of it.

      ‘Miss Bailey, we have reason to believe that you СКАЧАТЬ