The sharp noise of the shattering glass woke Stone. He jolted alert from his early afternoon nap in a comfortable chair in the sitting room of Marine House. Almost at his feet, there was a large brick lying amongst the splinters of glass on the carpet. He felt his heartbeat suddenly rise in his neck.
Almost in one move, he left his chair and was at the balcony doors. But the sudden jolt tore at the pain in his hip. And, yes, the man with the wispy beard was there staring at him from the pavement by the side of the road. Stone stepped back to the sitting room and picked the brick from the carpet. His impulse was to hurl it back with force against the face leering at him from below. But he stopped as the pain seared across his lower back. He sat slowly again into the chair.
It left him breathing heavily for a minute, uncertain what to do with the persistence of Xavier and his crooks surrounding Marine House. Perhaps it was time to call the cops or even arrange his own security. He knew enough people who would find great pleasure in working around such a place and dealing with the cocky arms reaching out from an inmate of HMP Belmarsh.
Heavy thuds suddenly filled the room from the front door. Stone’s fury was rising. He stalked into the hall, flicked on the video camera and looked into the thin, sinister face of the man with a wispy beard staring back.
‘Give me the twenty-five grand that we agreed. Where is it, Harry?’
‘If you’re not gone in two minutes, I get the police down. You’re getting nothing from me.’
‘This don’t look good for you. You don’t pay the debts what you owe. And the gentle tap on your window is to remind you Mr Xavier’s expecting you to call on him. In his new home. Tomorrow. The time is fixed: 10.30 in the morning. For a friendly chat.’
‘Tell him loud and clear I’m going nowhere near him.’
‘Harsh words, Harry.’
Stone started to walk back down the hallway. His anger was rising.
‘Yeah, and I hope he rots away behind those high walls,’ Stone shouted over his shoulder.
‘You remember the top-secret stuff, stuff he’s been squeezing out for you. Stuff that could make you rich. Stuff to buy an even bigger pad than this one. What about that then, Harry?’
In the hallway, Stone reached into a cupboard and grabbed a thick cudgel that he had kept just in case somebody like Xavier with a slobbering dog got into Marine House again. But he was not up to the physical stuff. These hoodlums were younger, perhaps half his age, and fitter. He swore as the pain in his back stopped him.
Within a few seconds a heavy banging started again, noisier than last time. Stone carried the cudgel with him as he walked to the front door.
‘Last chance, Harry.’
Stone heard the words just as if the door was not there.
‘If you don’t visit Xavier tomorrow like a good friend would then I’ll be back, Harry. That’s every day until you do. And I need my £100 from you for this week.’
Stone took his wallet from a back pocket and grabbed five £20 notes. He looked through the intercom at the man with the wispy beard sitting on the top step with what looked like a cigarette in his mouth. He shoved the notes through the letterbox, unsure why he was doing this, but he liked to think it would make him less vulnerable to the physical hits that would surely come.
He peered into the video camera and saw the wide back of the visitor slouch off down the front steps and across the road, carrying a sledgehammer with a long handle. A minute later, Stone opened the front door. There were deep marks where the wood had been split and on one side the frame had been badly damaged.
His rage at the intimidation from these racketeers simmered as he slumped back into a chair in the sitting room and closed his eyes. Half an hour later, with a glass of whisky in his hand, Stone gradually calmed down.
Stone was not going to let Marine House slip away from him. He was short of £80,000 and there was still the lure out there towards another money-making deal with secret information, seeping like a calm stream, flowing from HMP Belmarsh. He sipped his whisky, and he could feel his heartbeat quicken at what he might one day find if he ever went inside the high walls of HMP Belmarsh.