Stealth

Stan Mason

Description

NEIL WAVERLEY returns home one evening from the major bank branch in the centre of London bank where he works, to discover that his wife has left him. She leaves a note to say that she is leaving him after having had an affair with another man for the last six months. He is absolutely devastated and very angry at her deceit and he cannot get over the fact that his life is in ruins. He finds solace in the company of PAULA STRATTON, a woman who has just joined the amateur dramatic society that Waverley has belonged to for some years. When she discovers that he is a senior bank manager, she starts to formulate a foolproof plan by which he can steal the best part of a million pounds in sterling and get away with it. At first, he considers the idea to be crazy but she tells him that she loves him and her main aim is to help him get over the hurdle of grieving for his wife who has gone to live with her lover in New York. She induces Waverley to go to Spain with her for a week, in separate rooms, to get over his depression and she tries to explain the plan but he is not receptive to the idea. Whilst there, he reads an English newspaper which stresses that his bank is going to make 20,000 staff redundant, so he reflects on Paula's plan and eventually decided to go through with it. ERNEST CROZIER, another manager at the bank, searches for any means to bring Waverley down so that he may gain promotion and he uses his subordinate, Abbott, to do the research. Abbott is enthusiastic because it could mean his promotion, so together they keep tracking Waverley's movements and activities with great suspicion on everything he does. .FRED WILSON, a itinerant burglar, is the bete-noire of MARLEY, the Chief Inspector of a small police station. Marley has an obsession about the burglar who has upgraded his activities to robbing banks and he has sleepless nights thinking about capturing the criminal , willing to do anything to achieve that aim.After two failures in robbing banks, Marley eventually catches Wilson with the goods in his possession. However Paula's plan proves to be perfect. She and Waverley fly to the Argentine to live with a million pounds in sterling while Wilson gets away with blue murder but no money.An intriguingly clever plot on how a bank manager could get away with a million pounds whereby no one would ever suspect him as being the thief.

Sujets

• Thriller

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 27 octobre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785380228
• Langue: English

Extrait

Title Page
STEALTH
by
Stan Mason



Publisher Information
Published in 2014 by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
The right of Stan Mason to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998
Copyright © 2014 Stan Mason
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.



Chapter One
It wasn’t unusual for him to work late at night. In his effort to climb to the next rung of the ladder in the bank, it was necessary for him to do so occasionally. He had recently been promoted and sat behind his desk with a smug expression on his face. It had been a long haul to get to a position as the Assistant Manager of a major branch of the bank but he had done so by sheer hard work and perseverance, completely unlike many of the other members of staff at his last branch. They had focussed their minds and actions on the pleasures of life... drinking, going to clubs at night, flirting with women, uncaring for the exigencies required of them to reach senior positions in the bank. Seemingly they were satisfied with their activities without being seriously concerned about future promotion. Conversely, he had studied hard, sacrificing much of his private life to study for the banking examinations which he managed to pass successfully.
He fiddled with the few items that lay on his desk and turned his nameplate around to stare at it proudly. “Neil Waverley - Assistant Manager.’ He was particularly excited because he was now in a very large bank directly in the centre of the City of London. His future looked extremely bright because, after a few years passed by, it was extremely likely that he would either be promoted to senior manager of the bank or moved to a department at Head Office to control a very important division in retail banking, international development or in derivatives. He had read his horoscope in the newspaper on that very morning whereby the astrologer had predicted that, with the moon in Scorpio, personal money matters would run on an even keel but there would be serious problems with his relationship. Naturally, although it was impulsive reading for him each day, he took it all with a pinch of sale, considering that whatever Fate held in store for him could hardly affect him seriously.
After checking that everything was secure, he moved out of his office, bade farewell to the security officer, and left the bank to go home. His wife, Elizabeth, would be waiting there to greet him warmly and to serve the dinner she had cooked for them both. He considered that they might go out later that evening to the local cinema to watch a film that he particularly wanted to see. He climbed into his car and drove home directly. However as he parked in the driveway, an uneasy feeling ran down his spine. The house was in total darkness... not a single light could be seen shining from the windows of any of the rooms. He presumed there was a possibility that an electrical fault had occurred and that his wife was sitting in the dining room at the back of the house, with a lighted candle on the table, waiting for him to come home to fix a fuse. However as he looked around, he could see that the lights were on in all the neighbour’s houses which caused him an element of alarm. He alighted from the vehicle and moved to the front door. Unlocking it, he entered quickly, his hand moving to the light switch. To his utter surprise, the light came on immediately. He moved to the stairs and called out at the top of his voice.
‘Liz? Is everything all right? Are you there, Liz? What’s happened?’
There was no reply so he entered the lounge turning on the light to find that she wasn’t there either. Intrepidly, he climbed the stairs to the main bedroom and looked inside, wondering if his wife had been taken ill and had gone to bed, but it was empty and the bed was neatly made and undisturbed.
’Where are you, darling?’ he shouted loudly. ’Is this some sort of game you’re playing?’
There was no reply so he came down the stairs to investigate further, going into the dining room, but she was nowhere to be found. He continued into the kitchen to check without success before returning to the hall. Resting by the side of the hat-rack stood a single suitcase. He went over and lifted it to find that it was full and he put it down heavily with a surprised expression on his face. It was only then that he noticed an envelope resting on the telephone table with his name on the front. He opened it to read the following:
Neil,
We were very young when we married and I don’t regret a moment of it but over the past six months my feelings towards you have changed. I have now met someone else with whom I intend to live with so I suppose I’m telling you that our life together is over. I don’t love you any more. I’m sorry if this upsets you but it’s been on the cards for a while. I hope you have a good life.
Liz
He stared at the letter in disbelief before reading through it a second time more carefully. It then dawned on him that his wife must have been having an affair with another man. Without doubt, his attention had been on banking matters over the past year in order to succeed in the banking examinations so that he could secure a higher position, but clearly he had failed to realise that he had been neglecting her. Nonetheless, for her to participate in an austere measure, such as infidelity, was beyond the pale... especially as she had never spoken to him about her dissatisfaction about their relationship. And now she had taken the final heartbreaking step to leave him without any warning. He hadn’t realised that relationships could be so delicate. Life was terribly unfair! He was just about ready to enjoy a wonderful future with her but he realised that it was never going to happen now that she had gone.
Disconsolately he entered the lounge and poured himself a glass of neat vodka from the cocktail cabinet. He swallowed it in one gulp and poured himself another before settling himself on the settee to reflect the situation. At first, he had been stunned by the fact that his wife was not at home. Then came the first wave of shock which struck him like a devastating earthquake as he realised that she had left him for good and was never going to come back. At that moment, all his senses froze and the blood drained from his brain as he assessed his plight, recalling the most sensuous and exciting moments they had spent together during their marriage... the nights when they went to bed early to make love to each other, caressing their bodies erotically to reach the ultimate desired effect. Those times were so wonderful in every way especially on Sundays when they could stay in bed together all day, kissing each other and making full-blown passionate love which they had both enjoyed beyond reason. Those were the times that brought back nostalgia! However, over the past six months he had to admit that most of the loving had seemingly gone astray. Subsequently, they kissed rarely, hardly ever caressed each other, and made love even less times than ever before... hardly at all over during that period of time. Faced with the present situation, he blamed himself for allowing their sexual activities to fade so quickly into obscurity. He had presumed that it was simply a matter of the marriage settling down to a less exciting relationship which was commonplace with most couples through familiarity. It was a well-known fact that the passion between a married couple generally began to fade further as time went on. Before he had wed Elizabeth, a friend asked him how he would react after the honeymoon was over as most people who were deeply in love often failed to look very far into the future. Waverley had thought about the question but he didn’t really understand it because he was in love with Elizabeth and nothing else seemed to matter... certainly not the future... so he let the question slide. Who knew what was going to happen six months, a year, or even a while longer, after the honeymoon was over? He didn’t have a crystal ball! Presumably life would carry on as normal. What more did any couple in love desire? Well the honeymoon was well and truly over and after six years of marriage he considered that sexual activities by their past regularity were bound to became humdrum and old-hat, eventually fading away in desire to a substantial degree. However a new handsome lover, with charm, style adeptness and ability would no doubt rekindle the passion in a woman. Clearly, his wife had found new sexual excitement in the arms of another man and had allowed herself to change her life according to her whim. To someone who had fallen out of love with her husband, it was not difficult to find love and passion with another man. He recalled the party at which they had both gone to just under a year ago. It was a Christmas party at the legal firm for which Elizabeth worked as a secretary. She had spent a great deal of time talking to one of the young lawyers and had even danced with him to the music which played in the background. Waverley had looked on jealously of her attention to her dancing companion and he noticed the strange look in her eyes as she stared at the man which caused him an element of concern. He learned later on t