Signal Red Part 12

Bruce took in the scene from the edge of the pandemonium, outside the entrance to the market hall, his etiolated form positioned under a street-light as he waited to be noticed. He was wearing a thick Aquascutum overcoat and a Hermes scarf, but still felt the bitter early-morning chill. The place, of course, also stank. It was a fish market, after all.

Alf Flowers was busy instructing his lads when he caught sight of Bruce. Like Charlie, who had a stake in a Covent Garden firm, Alf had a history - was 'known to the police', as they said. He had been up the steps a few times, although after the last stretch he had sworn to the missus that the only fishy business he would do was at the market. Which was mostly true. Except his chosen business now was not blowing peters but trading information and contacts. For half the villains in London, Alf was like dialling Directory Enquiries. One advantage of using Alf's services was you could get a nice Dungerness crab or two while you were at it. You never got that from the GPO.

'All right, Bruce? Sparrowfart's a bit early for you, isn't it?'

Bruce stifled a yawn. 'h.e.l.lo, Alf.'

'Got some lovely halibut if you're interested.'

'Fancy a drink?'

Alf knew full well this wasn't about that night's supper. 'Rum and coffee over at the Wheatsheaf?' he asked, throwing a thumb to indicate across the river towards Borough Market. The pub opened at six, serving the porters from the local vicinity. Billingsgate had its own early licensed boozers, but Alf clearly wanted to do business away from under the gaze of his co-workers. Very wise.

'Perfect.'

'See you in thirty?'

'Fine.'

Alf lowered his voice. 'Give me an idea what you after?'

'A copper.'

The fishmonger didn't seem surprised by this. It couldn't have been any old bogey though, because he knew Bruce was on nodding terms with a few of them down at the Marlborough in Chelsea. But then, Bruce was clever enough not to s.h.i.+t on his own doorstep. 'What kind of copper?'

'The kind who likes a flutter at Crockford's or the Pair of Shoes. Preferably one from AD.'

Alf smiled, as if certain this was unlikely to be a taxing a.s.signment. 'I'll see you over there. Order me the FEB.'

'One Full English Breakfast coming up.'

It was Roy and Buster who made the drop. Buster chose Postman's Park, the churchyard of St Botolph's-Without- Aldersgate, famous for its monument to ordinary men and women who turned out to be heroes and heroines. The tiny s.p.a.ce was just behind St Bart's Hospital, next to the GPO Headquarters.

There was snow in the air, small flurries presaging a full shower to come. While Roy paced back and forth in front of the park's narrow entrance, looking for suspicious activity and trying to keep warm, Buster put down the Derry & Tom's bag and read the glazed porcelain plaques in the little cloister.

He stopped before a plaque that commemorated a brave cozzer.

George Stephen FUNNELL Police Constable December 22nd, 1899.

In a fire at the Elephant and Castle, Wick Road, Hackney Wick, after rescuing 2 lives, went back into the flames, saving a barmaid at the risk of his own life.

Good man, thought Buster. He knew a few barmaids he'd like to save. Not that he would run into a burning pub for them - although doubtless this one was very grateful to Constable Funnel. He wondered if the Elephant and Castle public house was still there.

A piercing whistle from Roy reached him and he turned around. A figure was heading towards him - a man in his thirties, with thinning blond hair, trailing clouds of cigarette smoke as if he was steam-powered. Buster waited for him to approach then turned back to the plaques.

'Look at this,' he said, reading from one of the other commemorations. '"Frederick Mills, A. Rutter, Robert Durrant and F.D. Jones who lost their lives in bravely striving to save a comrade who had fallen into the sewage pumping works. East Ham, July the eighteenth, 1895".'

The detective kept mute.

'Now that's what I call being in the s.h.i.+t,' Buster growled. 'Know what I mean?'

The policeman looked down at the carrier bag. 'That it?'

Buster indicated it was. He looked for Roy, but he had gone. Fetching the car, he hoped. 'You know what to do?'

'You want to go over it again?' the copper asked.

Buster suddenly felt nervous. 'No, I f.u.c.kin' don't.' He seized the man's overcoat and started pulling it open.

'Hey, hey, what the f.u.c.k-'

Buster grabbed the man's face, squeezing the cheeks together. He had little respect for coppers anyway, zero for bent ones. 'What's your game?' Buster hissed.

'Relax. Jesus, I was just winding you up. I know what to do.'

Buster let him go and the man readjusted his clothing. Buster felt a sour taste rise in his mouth as he said, 'It's all in there - the item and the money. If it goes right...'

'Look, I've got no say in that.'

'If it goes right, there's a bonus, as agreed. Now f.u.c.k off and p.i.s.s it away at some spieler.'

Buster turned and strode off, hands in pockets, head down, alert for any lurking strangers. He reached the ornate gates and Roy pulled up in front of him, leaned over and opened the door of the Mini. Buster jumped in, banging his head as he did so. Roy gunned the little engine, releasing a satisfyingly deep note from the stainless-steel sports exhaust and they pulled away. Roy navigated them down to Fleet Street, past the Black Lubyanka - the Daily Express building - and onto the Strand, heading west and keeping one eye on the mirror.

He took a last-minute, tyre-squealing left turn onto Waterloo Bridge, towards the Festival Hall and the remnants of the Festival of Britain, now being reworked into some concrete monstrosity. Once on the bridge, he checked the wing mirrors. At the far end, he took the roundabout and drove back north again. n.o.body followed. 'Where to?' he asked.

'The Marlborough,' Buster said, needing a drink and knowing Bruce would be there. He banged the dashboard of the diminutive machine. 'And don't spare the f.u.c.kin' ponies.'

Twenty-two.

From The Times, 26 March 1963 For his part in the 62,599 wages robbery at London Airport last November, Michael John Ball, aged 26, credit agent, of Lambrook Terrace, Fulham, S.W., was sentenced at the Criminal Crown Court yesterday to five years' imprisonment.

Ball had changed his plea from Not Guilty to Guilty of robbing Arthur Henry Gray and John Anthony Doyle of boxes containing 62,500, the property of BOAC, while armed with offensive weapons.

The jury was unable to agree on their verdict in the case of Douglas Gordon Goody, aged 32, hairdresser, of Commondale, Putney, S.W., who had pleaded Not Guilty to the same charge. After the foreman had said there was no prospect of reaching a decision so far as Goody was concerned, Sir Anthony Hawke, the Recorder, discharged the jury from giving a verdict. Goody was then released on 15,000 bail pending a retrial.

Twenty-three.

Old Bailey, London, April 1963 Sir Donald Harris, the prosecution counsel, approached the witness, one of the men who had transferred the strongboxes at the airport. A fresh trial needed a fresh approach. But the security guard who had seen Goody, who had originally picked him out in an ident.i.ty parade, was now wavering even more than the last time. Sir Donald wondered if he had been n.o.bbled.

'So, is the man who coshed you the man in this court or not?'

'I think so.'

'You think so?' He let a sneer play around the word 'think'.

'I can't be sure, sir.'

'Can't be sure?' Sir Donald barked.

The security guard swallowed hard. 'No, sir.'

'Yet you were sure in an ident.i.ty parade.'

'They had hats on then, sir.'

'Hats?' asked the judge. 'What kind of hats?'

The witness looked over and addressed the judge directly. ' Bowler hats, like they wore in the robbery, Your Honour.'

'I see,' came the reply.

'It so happens we have a bowler hat recovered from Mr Goody's premises,' Sir Donald said affably. 'A steel hat, no less. Is this the type of hat he was wearing?'

'I believe so.'

The heavy metal bowler was pa.s.sed to the witness, then the judge, and finally displayed to the jury. 'And if you saw him in this hat, do you think your memory might suddenly improve?'

'Objection!'

Sir Donald inclined his head and rephrased. 'Excuse me, do you think it might aid in identification?'

'I am sure it would, sir.'

'Very well. If the defence has no objection, I would like to invite Mr Goody to place this bowler hat on his head.'

'No objection, m'lud.'

Gordon Goody leaned over and took the bowler by the brim, spinning it round and round, as if selecting the correct alignment.

He stared over at the witness, an accommodating smile on his face, while he raised his arms above his head. He brought the hat down to the crown and hesitated, as if pausing for effect. When he let go, the oversized bowler - at least three hat-sizes too large - fell down around his ears, swallowing them and covering his eyes. 'Hold on,' he said. 'The lights have gone out. Someone got a s.h.i.+lling for the meter?'

The courtroom dissolved into laughter and Sir Donald's jowly face sagged further. He could hear the verdict already: Not Guilty.

'Did you see that c.o.c.ky c.u.n.t?' Len Haslam spat beer and phlegm across the bar of Ye Olde Ches.h.i.+re Cheese pub in Fleet Street.

'You win some, you lose some,' said Billy. 'You know that.'

Len shook his head. 'Not like that. Not like it's some b.l.o.o.d.y variety show and he's Max b.l.o.o.d.y Miller.' He thumped the wooden bar top. 'Someone was got at.'

Len was in such an agitated state that the majority of the other early-evening customers - mostly journalists - were giving him a wide berth. He stank of trouble.

He was taking the Not Guilty worse than most, but Billy, too, was disappointed. Not only that, they had missed a trick. Once the verdict had come in, Gordy had walked across to where the chain and lock from the airport gate were sitting and pulled at it. A phony link had given way, showing how the robbers had opened the gate so quickly. He must have rejoined it at the scene and none of the so-called experts who had examined it had spotted that. All had a.s.sumed a key had been used, and the clasp reclosed.

'We got one for it though, didn't we?'

'Mickey Ball? Yeah, right. We lose Wilson then Goody and we're left with him? Nose-pickings.'

Len downed his pint and signalled for another, the anger still twisting his features. 'Let me tell you this, Billy boy.' He tapped the rim of the empty pint pot against the young man's chest. 'One day, I'm going to have that Douglas Gordon Goody by the short and curlies, whatever it takes.'

Twenty four London, March 1963 The celebrations kicked off with champagne c.o.c.ktails at the Ritz. They cost a whopping eleven bob each, but Bruce insisted that they were the best in town and well worth every penny.

'A lump of sugar in the bottom of the gla.s.s, one drop of Angostura bitters-'

'Anger what?' asked Buster.

Bruce ignored him. 'A dash of brandy, not too much or you kill the champagne stone f.u.c.kin' dead, ice-cold bubbly and an orange peel. Lovely.'

Buster sipped his drink. 'Very nice.' He winked at Bruce. 'If a little poncy.'

The small group, all but one suited and booted, sat in a corner of the bar. Roy thought its green and gold decor could do with refres.h.i.+ng, but then he was drinking orange juice. Judging from his friends' reactions, the c.o.c.ktails packed quite a kick; you wouldn't worry about the state of the wallpaper after two of them.

They were celebrating first Charlie and then Gordy getting off. The steel bowler had been replaced by the larger one that Buster had slipped the bent bogey in Postman's Park. Somehow, he had switched them in the evidence room at Cannon Row.

Roy watched as Gordy and Charlie toasted each other. Brian, taking his due for his machinations behind the scenes, was there as well as Bruce, Buster and, looking dangerously glamorous next to the Colonel, Janie Riley in a black sheath dress.

'One more and we'll have dinner at Madame Prunier's and a drink at the A and R club. Then maybe catch the Blue Flames at the Flamingo. All on the emergency fund.'

The cash from the robbery had been divvied up so each of the princ.i.p.als got around seven grand each, and what was left was split into two pots, the emergency fund, for things like bail, and the investment fund. A few drinks and a slap- up French meal on St James's plus a few rounds at boxer Freddie Mills' club and watching Georgie Fame would empty out the emergency fund. That left ten thousand in the investment pot. And that had to kick-start the next job.

Td like to make a toast,' said Roy. 'Gentlemen?'

The others fell silent.

'A toast to Gordy and Charlie, of course.'

There were some grunts, but n.o.body raised their gla.s.ses. There was more to come.

'And Brian. Nice one.'

Nodding heads all round.

'But we shouldn't forget we lost a soldier.' Roy looked at Bruce, who clearly approved of the military a.n.a.logy. 'Tonight, we are a man down. Gentlemen, I give you Mickey Ball.'

'Mickey Ball,' the others said in unison, before drinking, all of them thinking of the five years he had pulled down. It was on the high side because he refused to name any accomplices.

Bruce came over and sat down next to Roy. 'You know we'll see him all right, don't you?'