Eva, December 1934
The pavement at Holborn Circus was chock-full of people doing their Christmas shopping. Children and their parents formed an orderly queue to see Father Christmas, while customers, weighed down with bags and parcels, bustled in and out of the grand shop entrance. Eva peered into the window of Gamages People’s Popular Emporium, which was crammed full of toys for the Christmas bazaar display, and her heart fluttered with the excitement of it all. Then she caught the determined look on Alice Diamond’s face. There was little chance of her getting any free time in the toy department. She was here to work.
Percy, their driver, was already parked up in his motor outside and Alice had several other girls from the Forty Thieves working their way through the shop, with its warren of corridors and staircases. Gamages was a hoister’s delight: dark corners, nooks and crannies and dozy shop assistants who could be sent off to the backroom to look for something in a particular size or colour while the Forty Thieves pilfered for all they were worth.
Maggie Hughes, the most experienced of Alice’s girls – and her unofficial deputy – preferred the West End stores such as Marshall and Snelgrove, and Selfridges, or Derry and Toms over in Kensington for rich pickings, but Alice was counting on the Christmas shopping rush to provide the perfect cover for her gang to clean up. The weather was to play its part too, as a freezing fog hung in the air, already yellowing in the failing light of a London afternoon, thanks to the fumes belched from the factories down by the river. The street lamps would soon be lit and it was not yet three o’clock.
‘Right,’ said Alice, pulling her mink stole tightly around her. ‘It’s going to be a pea-souper. Let’s get on with it.’
They joined a slow-moving throng edging its way through the ground floor, which seemed to have every square inch of space filled with goods. There were gloves, hats and scarves, books, leather wallets and spectacle cases, alongside binoculars, manicure sets and even a shoe-shine kit. The queue for the till was already three deep and the distracted shop assistant was no match for Alice, who insisted she wanted a pair of gloves in the darkest shade of green, rather than what was on show.
In an instant, as the assistant’s back was turned, Maggie was at the display, her vast carpet bag was opened like a hungry mouth, just out of sight beneath the counter, while Eva’s little fingers flicked things into it. At one point, Maggie boldly, and with a sweep of her arm, shoved some of the mountain of leather gloves into it. The shop assistant returned and looked quizzically at her half-empty display but Alice kept her talking and made a great fuss of finding the right change for the moss-green gloves, which she paid for at the till. Eva and Maggie, meanwhile, had made their way through the crush of warm bodies bundled up in their winter coats, to one of the many staircases to go up to ladieswear on the next floor.
They started in the undergarments section, which was so quiet it was like a mausoleum, so Maggie said. No fellas would dare set foot in there and the shop assistants were usually snooty old matrons with tape measures slung around their necks and half-moon glasses.
Eva was getting quite an education in underwear: silk stockings, finest slips and corselettes. These things were nothing like the underwear worn by her mother and sisters but Eva knew all about them because she had helped pinch them. They were what posh ladies wore; well, posh ladies and the Forty Thieves, who dressed like film stars around the Elephant, with nice hair and clothes and make-up. Eva was still dressing like a twelve-year-old schoolgirl, because that is what she was and it was part of her cover as a member of the gang, but the moment she was old enough, Alice had promised she could have some really grown-up clothes of her own. Eva couldn’t wait.
Maggie held up nightdress after nightdress, humming and hah-ing. She laid each one on the counter. There were so many of them, the shop assistant was getting a little impatient.
‘And will madam be buying?’
‘Yes,’ said Maggie. ‘Madam will. I’ll have this, please. She picked up the teensiest silk handkerchief and dumped another armload of nighties at the till.
‘What about a handkerchief for Granny as well?’ said Eva. The assistant turned and pulled out a drawer full of handkerchiefs which she laid reverently on the glass counter top next to the heap of silk clothing. Right on cue, Alice Diamond sidled up and plonked her winter coat on top of the counter. ‘Blooming hot in here,’ she said, mopping her brow. Her mink stole was slung over one shoulder. ‘You are taking ages,’ she said to Maggie. ‘I’ll meet you in the furs department, shall I?’ With that, she picked up her coat, taking with it half of the silk nightwear from the top of the counter before walking off briskly. Those clothes were quickly stuffed into her capacious handbag, which she switched with that of another accomplice in the corridor between the underwear and the fur coats section. Eva knew the routine. That girl would make her way down to Percy, the driver, switch the bag and come back with an empty one. The whole procedure would be repeated several times; Alice and her girls had been known to make quite an afternoon of it before leaving any shop.
‘No, that’s not right,’ said Maggie, just as the assistant was about to ring the handkerchief sale through the till. ‘She only likes spotty hankies! Silly! We forgot, didn’t we?’
The shop assistant scowled. Eva gave her a sweet smile. ‘Thanks so much for your help!’ And the pair of them walked off, towards the furs department.
This was where Alice hoped to make a few bob. The freezing London winter meant every woman coveted a fur coat or a nice stole or a little fur hat. Eva spied a couple more of Alice’s girls trying on the hats and shoving a few in the inside pockets of their voluminous coats. The plan was for Alice and Eva to screen Maggie while she hid a couple of fur coats about her person: down her drawers to be precise. She was wearing her specially made shoplifter’s drawers, to the knee, with tight elastic, to prevent stolen goods from tumbling out onto the floor. Maggie specialized in clouting – rolling up the coats and stuffing them down her underwear.
The department was bustling, full of Christmas shoppers, many of pulling coats off the hangers and trying them on, under the beady eye of several shop assistants. Floor space was at a premium, with rail after rail of coats crammed in next to each other, and that was something Alice and her gang liked to exploit because it made it harder for the assistants to see what they were up to. Some stores, such as Selfridges, had started to employ walkers. They were paid by the shop to go around pretending to be shoppers but they were really on the look-out for thieves. Discussions about how many walkers they had evaded that day usually formed a part of the conversation in Alice’s Scovell Road scullery, with Maggie chipping in, ‘They stick out like a sore thumb, silly cows.’
Alice, Eva and Maggie crowded around some full-length sable coats and in an instant Alice had pulled a coat off and thrown it around her shoulders as she stood behind Maggie. Eva could just see the head of an assistant bobbing closer over the next rail.
‘Ooh,’ she cried, as Maggie lifted her dress, pulled a coat and a hanger off the rail and rolled it with lightning-quick fingers. ‘Ooh, help, I feel a bit faint.’
Maggie had her back turned and was already stuffing the tightly rolled coat into her drawers as Eva half-fell onto the assistant to block her view.
‘Are you all right, miss?’ said the shocked shop girl, catching Eva in her arms.
‘I think I need some fresh air,’ said Eva, standing back up. ‘It’s just so hot in here.’
‘Shouldn’t you be in school?’
Alice, who by now had appropriated the full-length coat around her shoulders as her own, patted the shop girl on the arm. ‘She’s been so sick, she’s been up the ’ospital and everything. Doctor says it’s catching.’
Eva coughed, loudly, and the shop girl withdrew. Maggie, meanwhile, was already waddling her way out of the furs department.
‘Watches next,’ hissed Alice under her breath. ‘Then it’s home for tea.’
The Gamages watch department was quieter than the rest of the store, which made getting away with any theft more of a challenge. Eva felt inside her coat pocket. Yes, the watch Alice had given her was there. It was an expensive make, a Rolex, but it was a dud – it had stopped working ages ago – and the plan was to switch it for a similar one, without the assistant noticing.
Maggie and Eva strolled up to the glass-topped counter and smiled at the assistant. He didn’t smile back. ‘Afternoon,’ said Maggie. ‘We’d like to have a look at some of your lovely watches, please.’
The man peered at them through a pair of little round glasses, his eyes unblinking. ‘What is your budget?’
‘I’ll tell you that when I have seen what you have got on offer,’ said Maggie.
‘Very well.’ He sighed, as if his entire afternoon had been spent dealing with time-wasters. He produced a velvet-lined tray from under the counter and began to lay a selection of half a dozen watches on it.
Maggie picked one up and passed it to Eva. ‘Be careful!’ he said. ‘These items cost more than a month’s wages.’
‘Perhaps for some, but not for us, isn’t that right?’ She gave Eva a conspiratorial little nudge. Eva blushed. That was a silly comment to make and Eva could smell the drink on Maggie’s breath. Maggie liked taking risks but Eva wasn’t experienced enough to want to do that yet. She just needed to get the watch out of her pocket and swapped with one on that tray.
‘I’d like to look at a Rolex, please,’ said Eva. ‘It’s for my mum.’
‘Expensive taste,’ said the assistant, raising an eyebrow. He pulled out another tray of watches, all of them were Rolexes.
Eva felt the edges of the one in her pocket. She had memorized its shape. It was unusual in that it had eight edges to it and she knew it was gold with a brown leather strap. The exact watch was there on the tray before her, except for one detail: the one from the shop had a black leather strap. Alice drifted past them, smiling. She gave Eva a wink. Eva swallowed hard. She had to find a way to swap it.
Alice stood at the other side of the counter. ‘Excuse me!’
The shop assistant ignored her for a few seconds, so she boomed out, ‘What does one have to do to get served around here!’
‘I’m so sorry, madam.’ He grimaced. ‘I am just dealing with customers and I will be with you shortly.’
Alice took out a wodge of pound notes and waved them in the air. ‘I have got the money to buy, chum, but I haven’t got time to waste.’
As he turned and his mouth fell open at the sight of so much ready cash, Eva grabbed the watch from the tray and switched it with the one in her pocket, her heart pounding. He spun back around, his eyes sweeping across the watches on the counter in front of him. The right number were still there.
‘Would you ladies excuse me?’ he said, sweeping the trays away from Maggie’s grasp. ‘I have another customer to attend to.’
Eva and Maggie shrugged their shoulders and meandered back through the store. One thing Alice had taught her was to take her time, never to rush, to look as if she was totally comfortable, with nothing to hide. They sauntered through to the toy department, where children were crowded around a miniature boating lake, gazing at the little boats sailing on it. There was a model railway too, with a station and everything. Her brothers would have loved that. Her hands were clammy with nerves. That watch was the most expensive thing she had ever stolen, maybe even the most expensive thing she’d ever seen, and it was burning a hole in her pocket.
She was just following Maggie towards the exit when she heard a voice shout across the shop floor, ‘Hey, you! Stop!’ She spun around, to see the man from the watch stand, accompanied by another woman, pushing their way through the crowds. Maggie turned briefly and then elbowed a few people out of the way as she headed towards the door. Eva tried to follow, but someone held her back when she was just a few yards from the door, grabbing her arm in a vice-like grip. ‘Oi! You are wanted by that man over there.’
In a moment, they were on her, the watch man and the lady assistant. ‘Turn out your pockets.’
Eva did as he asked but kept the gold watch in its place, tucked into her pocket.
He reached in, felt inside her coat and pulled it out, with a look of triumph on his face.
‘I knew it!’ the watch man said. ‘You stole this!’
‘No, I never,’ she said quietly. ‘It belongs to my dad.’
‘You liar! You switched it with this one.’ He dangled the broken watch in front of her nose.
Alice Diamond appeared. ‘I think there has been a misunderstanding. My daughter, she’s a bit slow.’ She tapped the side of her head. ‘She’s trying to get her father a present, that’s all.’
A few people were listening, open-mouthed. Others pretended not to notice and just bustled past to get on with their shopping.
‘It’s stealing,’ said the watch man. ‘And you pretended not to know her earlier. You are in on this too!’ He turned to the woman beside him. ‘Go and get the manager.’
‘No need for that, surely?’ said Alice. ‘She’s done wrong and I will make sure she gets punished for it when I get her home.’ She delivered a slap to the side of Eva’s head, which hurt like hell. ‘What have I told you about taking things you like? Haven’t I told you it’s wrong?’
Eva started to cry, without too much effort, because Alice’s backhand was enough to knock someone’s block off.
Someone said, ‘Oh, leave her be, she’s simple, you can see that,’ and there were murmurs of approval from the assembled shoppers.
‘A likely story,’ said the watch man. ‘The police will be here—’
But he didn’t get to finish his sentence because Alice made a fist, turned suddenly and smacked him right in the mouth with her row of diamond rings. He staggered backwards and as he did so, Alice snatched the working Rolex back from him. Then she yanked her hatpin out and brandished it at the crowd of onlookers. ‘Anyone else want some?’
There was now a clear foot of space around them. ‘Run!’ she said to Eva. Eva didn’t hesitate; she made a break for it, tumbling through the door into the street. Alice followed, leaping in through the open door of the motor car, which already had its engine going. It all happened so fast. Eva’s legs were carrying her towards the car but the car was already screeching around the corner without her.
The lady shop assistant was through the doors. Their eyes met for an instant. Eva turned on her heel and sprinted, ducking and weaving through the crowds and into the fog, which froze in her lungs as she quickened her pace. She couldn’t see more than twenty yards in each direction now but she didn’t stop running, her little feet pounding the pavement. A bus was pulling away into the road in front of her, heading towards Tottenham Court Road. She leaped onto it, almost squashing the bus conductor, and took her seat, glancing back over her shoulder. The shop assistant had given up the chase but Eva’s heart was still pounding out of her chest with the fear of it all. She hopped off the bus at Holborn Tube Station and lost herself in the maze of backstreets around the Seven Dials in Covent Garden, just to be sure.
From there it was a familiar walk, down Bow Street and back across Waterloo Bridge, where she took the tram down to the Borough, to Alice’s tenement. Eva was more than a little bit worried about what Alice would do to her for giving up that watch. At least Alice had grabbed it back but that was not the point. She was supposed to be one of the Forty Thieves and she’d let Alice down.
As she trudged up the three flights of stairs to Alice’s flat, she could hear raucous laughter from the women in there. She pushed open the front door and Alice greeted her with open arms. ‘And here she is!’ she said, ushering her in to the scullery. ‘Gawd, we gave them a fright, didn’t we?’
‘You’re not angry with me?’ said Eva.
‘No, love, of course I’m not! You did a great job of hoisting that watch! If there’s anyone at fault, it’s Maggie, isn’t that right, Mags?’
Maggie looked up from her tot of rum and scowled.
‘She should have taken it off you when she had the chance, in case someone checked your pockets,’ said Alice. ‘Did they chase you far?’
‘No, only a little way down the road,’ said Eva, brightening. It all seemed such an adventure now she was safely back with the gang in Alice’s flat. ‘I couldn’t get to the car in time.’
‘I know,’ said Alice, pouring her a reviving cuppa. ‘But I knew you’d outrun them. I’d never leave you on a job, you know that, don’t you? I always look after my girls.’
Eva held her gaze for a second, wondering if Alice meant that. Would she really have made sure she was all right, or would she have just left her to fend for herself?
Sensing Eva’s doubt, Alice came over and patted her on the shoulder. ‘In fact, as a reward, I have got a little surprise for you. I know you’ve been wanting to get that songbird sister of yours a piano, haven’t you?’
‘Yes,’ said Eva. She’d hardly managed to save anything; she’d been giving money to her mum instead.
‘Well, a lovely one fell off the back of a lorry down the Elephant the other day. I’ll have it sent round at the weekend. Will that be enough time for you and your ma to get it past your dad?’
‘I expect so,’ said Eva, with a grin. That was brilliant! It was Kathleen’s birthday coming up and the piano would make the best present ever.
Alice reached into a shopping bag and pulled out a frock.
‘And here’s a dress. Your older sister’s a skinny thing ain’t she? Bit taller than you but not much? This will fit her.’
Peggy would be thrilled! It wasn’t exactly like the one she’d been talking about getting but it was lovely, just the thing for a night out with George Harwood.
‘What in the name of God Almighty is that piano doing in this house?’
Her dad was gobsmacked by the arrival of the musical instrument, to say the least, when he got in from a hard day’s work to find it taking pride of place in their tiny living room. Kathleen had been bashing out every tune she could think of ever since its arrival this morning and by teatime half the street was crammed into their house, having a good old sing-song.
‘I saved some money from the housekeeping and Peggy put a few bob aside, didn’t you, Peg?’ said Mum airily.
Peggy shot her a look of disbelief, but then nodded in agreement.
‘That’s all very well but I have been thinking, Maggie, you won’t be needing as much housekeeping in the future, will you? Now Peggy is working, I am going to dock your allowance. If you’ve got enough to buy pianos . . .’
‘But it was a special present!’ said Eva.
‘Don’t give me any of your lip,’ said Dad. Eva stared at the floor.
The party atmosphere was ruined. People slipped back out into the street. Mum sighed. ‘I’ll put the kettle on for some tea.’ They were just spreading some jam on slices of bread to celebrate Kathleen and Jim’s fourteenth birthdays, when Nanny Day came through the front door. She was red in the face from running.
‘It’s Uncle Dennis. He’s had a bad turn with his chest. Grandad’s taken him up the hospital. They are going to see to him but he’s on almoner’s rates. He’s not had a penny to rub together since the four years’ war. I will have to go the parish and ask for help,’ she said, wringing her hands.
‘Don’t worry, Ma,’ Mum said, looking at Eva, ‘it will all be all right, you’ll see.’
Eva understood perfectly. Tomorrow she would go shopping again.