Stone paid off the taxi outside the sandwich shop next door to Sol’s office in Hatton Garden. As Sol greeted Stone with a double handshake, he looked into Stone’s face as if he was detecting that his friend was not a well man.
‘How are you today?’ Sol asked.
‘I’m seeing my way forward. But the doctors keep telling me what I don’t want to hear.’
There was silence between the two men and Sol again examined Stone’s face.
‘I need a few things in place to buy a big property. Like, I now need some big cash urgently for the diamonds.’
‘Well, I’ll give you some good news that might help you with that, Harry. We’ve checked out that big stone you brought to me. Heavy, beautifully cut and polished, you get me the official laboratory certificates and we then owe you some serious cash,’ Sol said.
‘How much?’ Stone almost rasped back.
‘Allow me a little commission on it, and I can give you eighty grand. It’s that good.’
Stone was sitting heavily in his chair, and he let his head drop in mock surprise.
‘You really do bring me good news. I’m dealing with the right man.’
‘I’ve got a contact coming in next week. A man over from St Petersburg doing a bit of Harrods shopping. He’s seen a picture and he’s very interested from what I’ve told him.’
Stone passed to Sol the details of his five accounts in different banks around London.
‘Spread the money around and keep it secret; you understand how the world is these days.’
Sol did know what the world was like – a lot of his business was done that way, and people from the Russian city, like his client, were as up with it as the rest. He put the bank details from Stone in his pocket as if to shield it even in his own office.
Stone sat more upright in his chair to help the stabbing pain in his back.
‘I trust you, Sol. I’ve got two more big diamonds coming out of Nevis. But the doctor’s telling me I’m not too good, so I’ll need to take my time to go and get ’em.’
‘If you bring me more diamonds like the first one, Harry, I’m sure they will be very valuable. I can find a good home for them. My Russian client will be very happy. But, Harry, you take care of yourself.’
‘Yeah, I’m doing that.’
‘Do you want to stay for a while and have a drink?’ Sol asked.
Stone followed Sol into his private sitting room on the top floor. He needed the company of a man like Sol, and they drank whisky for the next two hours. Sol never asked again how Stone was, but he did look at him as he got into a taxi. And he wondered if he would ever see his old friend again.
Half an hour later, Stone was back in Claridge’s sitting on a deep sofa in his suite. He was still tasting the whisky shared with Sol and he poured himself another glass. Today was a big step to get the cash for Marine House and, spurred on by his excitement that diamonds were worth real money, he opened his laptop on a low table.
The Goldnight page had a glossy picture of a nightclub in the seedier parts of Soho, and for a few minutes, he stared at the screen. Just the name had a certain lure to it, but what was Goldnight all about? He did not know. The only casino he had ever been into was in Monte Carlo. A mate came out with a couple of thousand euros, his winnings on the blackjack table, and Stone had just watched him play in the dimly lit room.
With the whisky, he started to mellow. He keyed into his new stockbroker account. Sprawling more deeply into the sofa, he scrolled through the screen for five minutes, not really seeing it.
Casinos, nightclubs? No, they were never his type of place, but what did that matter if there was money hidden right inside that name, Goldnight? And now was not a time to hold back – Electric Motors had come good, and he had stupidly missed it. And alone, sipping from his glass, suddenly he felt the excitement of a quick deal. Satisfied, he pressed the button on his laptop and £150,000 worth of shares in Goldnight were his.
But he stopped and stared at the screen. His money had gone into a glitzy business based only on a tip that had come from a sinister criminal serving a three-year prison sentence. The same man who had sent his goon to threaten and intimidate, to collect from him a quarter of a million pounds he was never going to pay.
Stone’s hunch was that, this time, everything was going to be very different. He was certain of that.