Saturday 20 October, 4 p.m.
Chi and Jubilee were having a huge quarrel. Jubilee was fearful. ‘I wish I’d never involved you.’
‘Well, it was your idea to nick the bloody thing in the first place and turn it into cash.’
‘Which I could have done without you.’
‘Who was it who told you about that antique dealer?’
‘And a lot of good it’s done. Where is she now?’
It hadn’t helped that Ms Sutcliffe had so far failed to phone. Right on cue, Chi’s ringtone played a Caribbean calypso, ‘Island in the Sun’. It wasn’t quite Harry Belafonte but still …
Chi read the number and winked at Jubilee, ignoring the fact that her friend was wafting her hand away in a dismissive gesture.
‘Hi.’
Diana Sutcliffe was very guarded in her response. ‘I’m really not too sure about this,’ she said.
‘Oh?’
‘Well, first of all you have no absolute proof of ownership.’
The wisest thing was to say nothing.
‘And you want cash for it,’ Ms Sutcliffe went on. ‘Which then puts me in a very difficult position if and when I sell it.’
‘Would it help if I signed something guaranteeing it was mine to sell?’
‘Not really. But I do have contacts, particularly in the States, who would be interested in your teddy and not too worried about the lack of provenance.’
Chi knew then that greed was about to win over morals. Yay!
She was proved right. ‘I can’t get the money now until Monday.’
Chi held her breath.
‘But having checked over the little bear, I’m convinced he is an authentic Steiff Titanic bear. I can give you £20,000. Cash.’
Chi waited, schooling herself. She must not seem too eager. Finally she managed a casual, ‘OK. We can meet up. Monday?’
‘Ye-es. Not that coffee bar, though. Somewhere a little more private. Secluded.’
Which worried Chi. Was she about to be mugged for the bear?
‘How about The Roaches? Just at the foot of The Winking Man? There’s a layby. Say midday?’
And the deal was clinched. Or was it, Chi wondered as she ended the call. Was she about to be double-crossed?
Jubilee was still glaring at her.
The best form of defence is … ‘Twenty grand,’ she said. ‘So how would you have got the money?’
The ringtone playing again worried them both. What if Diana Sutcliffe was changing her mind?
But it wasn’t. It was Kath. ‘I want to meet your mate. Bring her over here so we can finalize plans.’
As Chi had anticipated, Jubilee took an instant dislike to Kath. And Kath, in turn, regarded her with suspicion and a certain amount of distaste. True to form, Kath Whalley mistrusted anyone black. They tried staring each other out but neither backed down. Chi, who was watching without moving or even saying anything, regarded the standoff without contribution. But give Kath her due – she knew how to pull strings. With a sharp tug. She did try. It just didn’t work with Jubilee.
‘So you’re the famous Jubilee Watkins, newest friend of my best mate Chi.’ Her words sounded like a taunt and Jubilee stared back with the briefest of nods, still regarding her warily.
‘That’s right.’ Chi admired the way Jubilee responded with such confidence. Jubilee wasn’t frightened of Kath. But that was only because she didn’t know Kath like she did. She hadn’t seen her happy face when putting the boot in, hadn’t witnessed her sheer love of inflicting pain. Chi stayed silent in the background. This was between Kath and Jubilee.
Kath kicked off with, ‘I need the old man. I have a purpose for him. You can have his fucking teddy bear. I’m not bothered about that. But I need him.’
‘What for? For what can you possibly want a confused old gent? He doesn’t even know what day it is, what year it is.’
‘Never you mind. You’re committing a theft anyway. Pinching from the poor old geezer. I just want you to bring him along. I’ll look after him.’
Chi flinched. She knew Kath’s looking after. She tried to console herself with the fact that he was an old man with limited mental faculties and was probably on his way out anyway. He wouldn’t understand what was going on, please God. Her thoughts moved on. The real object of Kath’s exercise was DI Piercy. Not Mr Foster. He was just the goat.
Jubilee didn’t respond for a moment but continued to study Kath. Chi could almost see her thought processes move along.
‘When are you planning for?’ And Chi could tell that Jubilee was trying to work this one out. Was there any chance she could get the money and scarper before Kath pounced?
Kath was stony-faced. ‘Soon,’ she said. ‘Very soon. Maybe even tomorrow. When I say I need him, you just get him out of there. OK? You and Chi here can have your little toy.’
Chi didn’t believe that one for a minute. Kath, turn down the chance of money? She was stringing them both along. But they only had to stall until Monday. She tried to convey some sort of message to Jubilee by moving her eyes to the side without Kath realizing.
But the next bit was true. ‘I want the old man. I need the old man. He’s going to help me do something.’
‘What?’
That was when Kath got snappy. ‘That’s my business. Nothing to do with you.’
Jubilee gave Chi a helpless glance. They were both equally powerless. But Kath would expect Chi to prove her loyalty by persuading her friend to fall in with her plans and to her shame she spoke up. ‘It’s the only way we have any chance, Jubilee. She’ll split otherwise.’ Chi touched Jubilee’s arm and spoke right into her ear. ‘And you don’t know what she’s like when she’s crossed.’
Kath heard and looked pleased at that. Jubilee scratched her head and looked accusingly at Chi. ‘You fall in with some mighty peculiar people, my friend.’ But she nodded. Kath looked triumphant, Chi fearful. Again she tried to Morse out a message with her eyebrows and, she thought, this time Jubilee picked up.
We need to get the money, get the tickets, get out of here before all hell breaks loose.
Chi tried to justify her stance. It had been such a little crime. Taking candy from a baby. And she hadn’t even done that. She hadn’t done anything wrong except act as a fence. Jubilee had assured her that no one would notice except him. And he would soon forget. That was the way his mind worked now. She’d banked on it without realizing that this toy represented a memory buried so deep it predated his dementia. All Jubilee worked on was that Mr Foster forgot whether he’d had his tablets or his lunch or his cup of tea. He forgot which was his room or the way downstairs to the day room. Who would take any notice of him when he reported something everyone regarded as worthless was missing? He didn’t really count.
Kath was rubbing the stump of her tooth. ‘Are you working tomorrow, Jubilee?’
Jubilee nodded.
‘What shift?’ Kath asked smoothly.
‘The evening one.’
Kath smiled. ‘Lovely. Perfect.’
Then she turned to Chi. ‘I hope you’re not plotting to double-cross me. Get the thing, take the money and run. All the way to God knows where?’
Chi shook her head.
‘And you really think someone’s going to give you some money for an old toy that’s over one hundred years old?’
Chi simply shrugged without even looking at Jubilee. She felt her face freeze. Their goal was so near and yet still out of reach.
Kath had the intuition of a medium. She knew this was a race.
‘Get out, all of you,’ she said. ‘I want to speak to Missee Jubilee on her own.’
They piled out of the house, all grumbling. Leek has a microclimate all of its own. Cold, damp rain sweeps in from the moors and chills. On the blast of wind comes the scent of lost sheep, heather, marsh and peat. And riding on that come the screams of birds of prey or fallen climbers: they all sound the same.
Minutes later the door opened and Jubilee came out.
Jubilee’s colour was almost yellow. She stumbled through the door, her eyes wide with shock or horror. She clutched Chi’s arm. ‘You gotta get that money. And soon.’ Chi was silent. She hated what she was doing and only diluted that hatred by telling herself that this had initially been Jubilee’s idea. Steal the old man’s teddy bear, she’d said. It will set us up for life. No more than taking candy from a baby.
But this was a different ball game. Peering over the precipice, foreseeing events as they would unravel, she felt sick.
One thing had simply led to another. She and Jubilee stared at each other. Jubilee spoke first, in a whisper. ‘Make that call. Please?’
‘OK, as soon as we’re out of …’
Jubilee’s grip on her arm tightened.
Chi already knew that Diana Sutcliffe would stick to the planned meeting on Monday. If she tried to force the meeting earlier it would simply make the dealer more suspicious and the sale would be lost. And along with that, all their plans.
So she stood still, shaking her head. ‘It’s not the right thing to do. We should stick to Monday. If she thinks we’re desperate we might not get the money at all.’ Chi knew there was no way Diana Sutcliffe was going to come up with the money before Monday. Slowly she shook her head and watched as a single fat tear rolled down Jubilee’s face. ‘I don’t want to do this.’
‘We don’t have much choice. It’s only a couple of days.’
Jubilee stared at her. ‘You don’t know what she wants me to do.’
‘I can guess.’
‘Really?’ After giving her a hard stare, Jubilee then turned and walked slowly back down the road, towards the town, shoulders bent. Her attitude was one of abject despair.
Chi watched. Who could have known that their clever, neat and tidy plan would become infected by Kath Whalley?
As soon as Debs and Fifi had filed back in, Kath made her first mistake when she’d shared her plan a little too graphically. To be fair she had no option. She needed Debs to drive, the only one who could and had access to a car – her mother’s which she ‘borrowed’ fairly frequently. And Kath had a role for Fifi too. Someone had to be around for the old guy. Keep an eye on him.
The trouble was she also shared another part of the plan, the bit about making sure Piercy came without her almost ever-present bodyguard. And the little trail of ‘breadcrumbs’ she planned to scatter along the way to distract any officers accompanying her prey. She knew Piercy was tenacious and she knew also that she was impatient. Lost in her plans, Kath failed to pick up on the doubtful glances exchanged by two of her foot soldiers.
Missing out on this vital clue she ploughed on, issuing instructions like a general going into battle. ‘So, this is what we’re going to do. All right?’
Debs started to speak, something about money. She’d picked up on whispered phone conversations between Jubilee and her one-time mate, Chi. And there had been mention of money. Debs was a greedy sort. And, like all her friends, in constant need of cash.
But she was shouted down by Kath, who had ideas and plans of her own. She grinned cheerfully and steamrollered across the subject, dishing out one of her mantras, ‘In for a penny, in for a pound. That’s what I say.’
Chi needed to know everything Kath was planning and immediately picked up on Fifi and Debs’s reservation.
Perhaps Kath did too because she started yelling. ‘I want him, tethered like a goat. And she’ll come running.’
‘Yeah,’ Chi said, dipping her toe in, trying to suss out what exactly Kath’s plans were, ‘with that big detective sergeant who never leaves her side.’
Kath pinned her with a look. ‘Let me worry about him.’
Chi glanced at the other two. Were they picking up on this? She wasn’t sure. But both looked slightly shell-shocked. Maybe they already had?
Kath was away with the fairies now, spinning out her yarn. ‘And what better place to catch our little lady than somewhere where a bloke had his head chopped off?’
Chi flicked her eyes from person to person. They knew a lot more than she did. ‘It’s just legend,’ Debs put in, her own eyes flickering between Kath, Chi and Fifi, unsure who was going to come out of this least scathed. Fifi sniffed. She’d recently had a nose ring put in. It had got infected, maybe because she’d had a cold at the time but had insisted the guy proceed. But the pain, swelling and constant streaming nose had made her even more tetchy than usual. It didn’t exactly enhance her looks either. What with that and the haircut she was bordering on repulsive.
As soon as she could, Chi slipped away.