With a glass of whisky in his hand, at midday, Stone looked along the road from the sitting room balcony of Marine House. He searched for the shadow of Xavier’s heavies, but he saw nothing, and he angrily fingered the bruise on his aching neck from the iron bar smashing his shoulder. Leaving the balcony doors wide open, letting in refreshing air, he sat on a chaise longue, now his favourite place to be.
Medication, for a short moment, was easing the pain which was now throbbing across the whole of his back. Carefully, he unfolded the fresh sheet of paper that he had screwed tightly into a ball on the train. With a tinge of excitement at what it might lead him to, he smoothed it on a low table. He held it up to the light, scanned the scribble on the paper quickly, but it meant nothing to him. He threw it back on the table and called Roger.
‘How’re you feeling, Harry?’
‘Okay at the moment, but this illness is not going away.’
‘You must know I’ll do everything to help you. Are you still buying that big property in Brighton?’
‘Yeah, I’m fighting to get it; it’ll be my last fling. But there’s something that’s come up that’ll help me on my way. You might be interested too.’
‘You shouldn’t be fighting anyone the way you are now. What are you up to?’
‘I’ve had another tip, strong one this time, it’ll make a lot of cash. What do you know of Circus Inc?’ Stone asked. He had a grin on his face, the first time for many weeks.
‘What’s going on, Harry?’
‘I might buy some of Circus Inc’s shares on the stock market. That’s it. So, what do you know about them?’
‘Another one of the leaks? Harry? Don’t take that stuff seriously – you might run into a load of trouble. There’s been a lot in the news this past week or two; somebody inside Circus Inc has been fiddling. They’ve walked off with a lot of cash in their pocket; it’s a big fraud, money plundered from right in the middle of the business. Which all means Circus Inc is not as valuable as it used to be.’
‘You forget too quickly. All the leaked deals I’ve had have been winners. Just put money up for a few days and you’ll double it. So, take it from me, Circus Inc won’t be any different.’
‘It’s your call, but this one does sound way off and for all the wrong reasons.’
‘I’m going to have one last push. My lease runs out next week. But I’m never leaving Marine House. Not even to the local hospice that my doctor is trying to arrange for me.’ Stone spoke quickly; he knew his position exactly.
‘I hope you haven’t given Josh the hundred grand he was asking for. He would take it and run, and I doubt you’d ever see it again.’
‘Yeh, he’s a thief that one, but you don’t need to know any more. I’m working on ’em, and I’ll tell you when I’ve bought the property.’
‘I thought you might say that.’ Roger laughed.
For a few moments, talking about making money, Stone began to feel his usual self. But he wanted to finish the call. He could never tell Roger of just a few days ago, lying senseless on his back doorstep and then walking out of hospital in the middle of the night.
And, as usual with what Roger said, Stone would ignore it if it was not what he wanted to hear. He opened his laptop and unlocked his stockbroker account. He was going to take a big bet. Circus Inc. The name had a ring to it; it was different; and this time, whatever Roger said, he just knew it would be a big win. Satisfied with what he was doing, he sipped his whisky.
Within a few minutes, he placed an order for £50,000 of shares in Circus Inc. He was oblivious to being caught out by any busybody authority in doing these secret, illegal insider deals. Who could link him to fraudsters in prison throwing very secret, plundered information around?
Mesmerised by what he had done Stone, for a while, stared at the screen. When the price of Circus Inc doubled, and he knew it would, he would have cleared another £50,000. Even after losing £25,000 from a flashing blade in the East End, there were still bundles of notes scrambled in his safe, and it left him with just £35,000 to find. And there was a big diamond still out there with Josh that would easily fill that gap. Stone paused his thought. He was nearly there.
He poured another large measure of his favourite malt whisky. Sitting deeply into the chaise longue, he was satisfied. But he did not know that Claire was about to call on him, this time not to talk about the Jackson family.