Diamond Geezers

Echo Freer

Description

A comic thriller to die for! Modesty de Mise is dead set on saving the local cemetery from developers. It's right next to where she lives, above her parents' business - a funeral parlour! And, as if that isn't bad enough, things start to look grave when teen-mobster Harley Spinks turns up to arrange some gangster's funeral after a failed diamond robbery. And she's also in cahoots with the developers! When hunky Oz Appleby turns up again after four years away, Modesty thinks she's found an ally at last - but why would anyone want to go out with an undertaker's daughter? Modesty's got to act fast, or plans to beat the gangsters will go six feet under. But if her parents discover any of this, she'll be dead meat...

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 27 mars 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781783336968
• Langue: English

Extrait

Title Page
DIAMOND GEEZERS
Echo Freer



Publisher Information
This edition published in 2014 by
Acorn Books
www.acornbooks.co.uk
Converted and distributed by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
Copyright © 2005, 2014 Echo Freer
The right of Echo Freer to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication 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.



Acknowledgements
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the following people: Jon Howard of Solitaire Jewellers, Hatton Garden for the countless hours he gave to educating me in various aspects of the diamond trade. Joanna Flitman of Co-operative Funeralcare, Leytonstone and the staff of Co-operative Funeralcare, Manor Park, for their sensitivity and discretion when teaching me about the funeral business. The staff of the City of London Cemetery. Andrew Lawrence for his knowledge of diamonds. Sharon Foster, my lodger, for her support and patience as I was writing Diamond Geezers. My children, Imogen, Verien and Jacob for their proofreading and advice along the way. And my husband, Frank, for his tireless love and support. I would also like to thank my agent, Caroline Montgomery, who painstakingly corrects all the spelling and punctuation errors that Microsoft misses!



Dedication
Dedicated to my stepsons, Justin and Lewis - a pair of diamond geezers!



One
Mickey Bigg was jigging about nervously in the driver’s seat of the stolen Range Rover like a jack-in-a-box on a caffeine spree.
‘Pack it in, Mickey!’ his girlfriend, Harley, snapped at him from the back seat. Harley Spinks was the sixteen-year-old daughter of Harry Spinks, gangland boss and mastermind behind the Spinks Organisation. His firm ran just about every pub, club and boxing venue in east London - not to mention a portfolio of nefarious businesses that the taxman never got to hear about. ‘You got some sort of nervous condition you ain’t told me about, or you actually tryin ’ to attract the attention of every goon in spittin’ distance?’
‘Sorry, Harl.’
‘Yeah, you will be if they come over ‘ere.’ Harley indicated two security men in great coats on the other side of the road. Their heads moved continuously, scanning Hatton Garden, the diamond centre of London, for anything that was remotely out of the ordinary.
‘They’ve bleedin’ well clocked us now, you pilchard!’ she said, seeing one of the men raise his walkie-talkie to his lips.
‘Calm down, calm down.’ Mickey’s father, Archie Bigg, was sitting in the passenger seat. He raised his eyes skyward and sighed deeply. ‘Just play it cool, you two.’
Archie was Harry Spinks’ right-hand man. He loved his son but why, out of all the girls in east London, Mickey had to choose Harry Spinks’ girl to go out with, was beyond Archie: she made Cruella De Vil seem like Florence Nightingale by comparison. Turning round, he spoke to his boss’s daughter with a smile that would have soured milk.
‘Darlin’... I know your old man’s keen for you to learn the ropes an’ all that, but let’s not forget who’s running this blag, shall we?’
‘You got a problem with me being ‘ere, Archie?’ Harley challenged.
‘No, darlin’ - no problem at all,’ Archie replied, through gritted teeth. He turned forwards again and gave Mickey a reassuring pat on the thigh. ‘ ‘Ang on to your bottle, son. You’re doin’ fine. They’re checkin’ out that motorbike, not us - see?’ Archie sucked in air through thinly parted lips and shook his head. ‘Bleedin’ terrorists! There’s so much flamin’ security these days, I don’t know ‘ow anyone expects an honest villain to make a livin’.’
Mickey drummed his fingers on the dashboard and peered anxiously at the bustle of people ahead. He hoped that girl in the pub last night hadn’t been winding him up. He didn’t want to waste everybody’s time.
‘So where d’you work?’ he’d asked her, more to kill time while his mate had gone to the loo than because of any genuine interest. Mickey and Harley had only been going out a couple of months and he still thought he was the luckiest bloke around.
‘In my dad’s shop,’ the girl had replied. ‘Down Hatton Garden.’
Mickey’s ears had pricked up. ‘A jeweller’s? Wow! Bet that’s excitin’.’
‘Neh, not really.’ And over the course of the next hour, she’d divulged all the information Mickey had needed to take home to his father and earn himself the accolade of being made getaway driver on his first robbery.
But now he was beginning to have misgivings.
‘D’you think we could’ve missed him, Dad?’
‘I thought she told you the punter was a Saudi sheik and they was bringing the diamond down from the Bourse at half four.’
‘She did.’
‘Well, it’s only just half four, ain’t it?’
‘She? Who’s she ?’ Harley asked. ‘You didn’t tell me it was a girl what gave you the info.’
‘It ain’t a big deal, Harl. I didn’t say nothing ‘cos I didn’t want you gettin’ jealous and that.’
‘Whoa!’ The fourth member of the gang, Flash Finlayter, sat forward on the back seat. ‘The Bourse?’ There was annoyance in his tone and Archie grimaced. ‘Arch - why am I getting the impression you ain’t been entirely honest with me?’
‘What’s the Bourse, when it’s at ‘ome?’ Harley Spinks asked.
‘The Bourse is the suite of offices where a load of diamond brokers ‘ang out. Legit diamond brokers!’ Flash said, pointedly.
Archie cleared his throat. ‘Er - we’ll talk about this later, Flash, all right?’
‘No, Arch, it ain’t all right. I come out of retirement for this blag on account of you tellin’ me it was for a good cause.’
‘It is for a good cause,’ Archie protested. ‘It’s gonna get me sorted out financially, get ‘Arry out of gaol and your share’ll buy you and Opal that plot of land you want in Jamaica.’
‘Dad, Dad!’ Mickey pointed along the road to where a sleek black limousine had pulled up. They all watched as the chauffeur opened the rear door allowing a tall man in Arabian attire, complete with ghutra, to emerge. If, as the girl in the pub had intimated, this was the punter, then a broker from the Bourse would be coming along any minute with a ten point six flawless intense pink diamond for inspection. Mickey bit his bottom lip nervously. He knew his dad had a lot hinging on the success of this robbery.
Last summer, while Archie had been in America negotiating a buyer for some seriously hot antiques (which, by virtue of the BBC’s Crimewatch programme, could no longer be disposed of in this country), Harry and half the Spinks firm had gone down for a bank robbery they didn’t commit. Unfortunately for Archie, his timely transatlantic trip had made him the number one suspect as snake in the grass. Harry was not a happy man, and it didn’t do to upset Harry Spinks. On top of that, Archie’s own business, Bigg Builders, was foundering financially.
Mickey knew that his father saw this diamond heist as his last chance to win back Harry’s trust and, if everything went according to plan, it would also make enough money to finance an extremely lucrative building contract to get his own firm out of difficulties and pay for Harry’s escape from Belmarsh Prison.
Flash pushed his head between the father and son in the front seats. ‘Them ain’t good causes, Arch - them’s desires,’ he said, earnestly.
Mickey had grown up hearing about Flash. In his day, ‘Flash’ Gordon Finlayter had been a top man. The speed of his hand could deceive the eye of the sharpest eagle and his skill as a confidence trickster, pickpocket and gentleman thief was legendary. But, according to Archie, Flash had never been the same since they’d tried to pull that scam down at the Buddhist Centre.
‘If it weren’t for the fact that everyone else is banged up, I never would’ve brought Flash in,’ Archie had explained to his son. ‘But we need someone what’s quick and we need someone what knows the ropes.’
But now, Flash’s newfound conscience was proving more of a problem than Archie had envisaged.
‘Keep your eye on the punter,’ Archie instructed Mickey as he turned to the back seat. ‘All right, Flash, so maybe I wasn’t totally up front with you. But, bleeding ‘ell, what did you think I meant? ‘Cos, I might be right out of my tree ‘ere but, to me, getting ‘Arry out of gaol, you out of the country and me out of very, very deep manure, are three extremely good causes.’
Flash shook his head. ‘You see, that’s where we differ these days, Arch. ‘Cos, you say to me “good cause” and I’m thinking along the lines of exposing the illegal trade in conflict diamonds.’
‘Bleeding ‘ell, Flash! Do I look like Mother flamin’ Theresa?’ Archie gave the younger man an incredulous stare. ‘When ‘ave you ever known me to expose anything what’s illegal?’
Flash sat back in his seat, uncomfortable with what was about to go down. ‘I’ve changed my mind, Arch. You got me ‘ere under false pretences and I want out.’
Harley Spinks turned to the man sitting next to her. ‘Well, you can’t have out, so that’s all there is to it! You agreed to be in, so you’re in.’
‘I weren’t told the full picture, was I?’ He shrugged. ‘I was an idiot.’
Harley leaned forward. ‘No arguing with that,’ she sneered.
Flash eyeballed Harley and moved even closer. ‘The fool who thinks ‘e is wise, s