Chapter 36

Standing outside James MacFadden's small establishment that dealt in gems and valuable metals and was located in the East End of London, jewellery shop assistant come victim of a robbery at her place of employment Laura Fotheringay checked up and down the street for the sixth time. Laura was feeling more nervous than she ever been in all her life. Nothing out of the ordinary was to be seen on the street or in any of the cars parked on it but this failed to put her at ease. The stolen ruby that has been given to her by the criminals after the shop where she worked was robbed as a bribe to make her 'forget' their descriptions to the cops was now nestling safely in her handbag and she knew, being as she was in the trade herself, that James had a reputation for dealing with 'hot' stones. But Laura had never done anything criminal in all her life and her conscience was still busy fighting with her greed. 'After all, ' she thought, 'my employers didn't even give me a day off to recover from the trauma of being attacked, tied up and then dumped on the floor for hours until someone found me. They didn't once ask me if I was alright. They don't give a shit for me and my welfare so why should I care about them? Besides, the ruby would have been taken by the villains if they hadn't given it to me. And, anyway, it'll be insured... and them Jewish bastards I work for will probably inflate their loss when they make their claim. In fact, they're probably going to make more out of this robbery than the criminals did so I think it's only fair that I get a small share of the proceeds.' When she'd telephoned James earlier in the day, he'd seemed more than interested to talk to her further about selling him the gem and they had arranged to meet in his shop to discuss the details. Perhaps all would go well, she tried to convince herself. She knew that she would get nothing like the true value of the stone from him but the ruby was of such size and quality that even at a fraction of what it was worth, it would clear all her debts

Picking up her courage and giving the street one last check over, Laura pushed open the shop door and entered, relieved to see that the establishment was almost deserted with only one other customer there, young black woman who was clearly pregnant and who was looking over a tray of wedding rings. 'Better late than never, I suppose, ' thought Laura to herself with a chuckle. As James looked up and spotted who his new customer was, he smiled at Laura and nodded to the opposite side of the shop. He then excused himself from the lady looking at the rings and sidled around the counter to where Laura was now waiting. "Ms. Fotheringay? How nice to see you."

"Mr. MacFadden," Laura returned quietly. "Is it safe to talk?" she asked gesturing with her head in the direction of the other customer.

"Yes, no problem. She's been looking at those rings for half an hour now and she's no closer to selecting one now than she was when she first came in. Can I see the merchandise now please?"

Without a word, Laura opened her bag and carefully removed a small cardboard box. Taking the lid off, she held the box out towards the jeweller who could clearly see the magnificent ruby there sat nestled inside, cushioned by a wad of cotton wool. Using some tweezers, James lifted the ruby out of its container and, after screwing in his glass, he carefully examined the stone under a powerful light. "Wonderful!" he exclaimed before returning the gem to its box. "Wonderful," he added again turning to the black customer. "It's the real thing, Sergeant Adoga."

Shocked, Laura could only stare as the other woman raised a previously hidden radio to her mouth and yelled, "Go! Go! Go!"

Realising that what happened in the next few moments would shape the rest of her life, Laura rapidly sized up the situation and grabbed the ruby, still in its box, before heading rapidly towards the door just as it burst open and two burly constables charged in. Instantly Laura threw the ruby and its container straight over the two officer's heads so that it sailed out through the door and into the street beyond. The faces of the two male constables, the female sergeant and James all tracked the valuable gem's flight through the air and the jeweller called out a heartfelt denial as the best piece of merchandise he'd had in his establishment for many a month vanished out of sight into the fresh air.

Gathering all her strength, Laura ran for the exit, smashing her weight into the two distracted constables and managing to slip between them as the staggered about, caught momentarily off balance. And then she was off down the street as fast as her slender legs would carry her. Behind her she could hear the woman officer lambasting her two male colleagues and ordering them to get after the thief. But Laura had a head start and she wasn't so unprepared as to not have thought of this possible outcome to her enterprise for, while dressed in a blouse and a skirt that hung below her knees, her shoes were flat and easy to run in... and, besides, she practised her athletics three times a week at the local running club near where she lived so she was fit, fast and had great endurance.

However, the pounding of heavy male feet behind her told Laura that she wasn't the only one who had a good turn of speed for one of the policemen was actually gaining on her. Moving to her back-up plan, Laura dropped her handbag to the pavement as she continued to runand tugged at a fastening on her skirt. Once loosened, the wraparound garment undid and started to fall to the floor. But then things went badly wrong for her and the damned thing fouled around one of her ankles. Beginning to panic now as even her back-up plan, unlike her skirt, started to unravel, Laura stopped and frantically pulled at the garment while all the time keeping half an eye on the rapidly approaching figure of the panting constable. It was touch and go so that, just as Laura finally freed herself from the skirt and started to run again, the man reached out a hand and grabbed hold of Laura's shoulder. Not going to be stopped now, Laura lunged frantically away from the officer and, with a sound of ripping cotton, broke free leaving him holding part of her blouse along with the shoulder strap of her bra. Desperation lending wings to her feet, Laura pounded off up the street leaving the officer, clearly more of a sprinter than a distance runner, bent over with his hands on his knees as he gasped deeply for breath. As Laura turned left round into a side street, she was vaguely aware of the flash of a camera going off but she didn't have time to bother about that at this point in time.

Settling into a rhythm, she pounded along the uneven pavement while behind her sirens started to wail and around her folk stared as a woman dressed only in panties and a torn bra, one breast bouncing free in the open air, flew passed them at breakneck speed. Laura suddenly realised that this was a flaw in her escape plan - how could she vanish when she stood out from the crowd so obviously? Behind her she could hear the sound of a powerful engine rapidly approaching, swiftly followed by a screech of brakes as the car, a modestly sized stretched limousine, skidded to a halt just ahead of her. Forgetting for a moment that the police don't use Mercedes limousines, Laura turned and started to run off at a tangent to the road when the car door opened and a voice yelled, "Get in yer silly bitch!"

Glancing over Laura recognised the face of one of the men who had robbed the store where she had been working, the very man who had given her the ruby in the first place as a bribe to make her forget what he and his co-robber looked like. Laura was not at all sure what he was doing here now, nor did she understand what his motives could possibly be but given that she had far more in common now with the criminal waving her over than with the police who were after her, Laura sprinted over to car and dived head first in. Instantly the door was pulled shut and the car rapidly accelerated up the road.

Laura struggled to regain her composure while simultaneously attempting to catch her breath and to cover her exposed breast with what was left of her bra. Finally, after a few moments, she settled back into her seat and looked about her. The driver of the car was a nondescript thug who, while skilled at his task, seemed as it he didn't have more than a few brain cells to rub together. Sitting opposite from her and smiling in her direction was the crook who had held up her place of work. "Nice ta see yer again, Miss," he grinned at her. "'ope we didn't make yer bum too sore when we stuffed that ruby up yer arsehole!"

Laura blushed as she recalled the incident and assured the man that he hadn't hurt her. "But you did tie those ropes awfully tight," she chastised him playfully.

Now she turned her attention to the third person in the car who, so far, had not said a word. He was a large, powerfully build man and intelligence glowed in his eyes along with something that said not to mess with him. His eyes were running up and down her body, taking in every detail and suddenly Laura felt cold as if she were the prey and he the hunter. "Good afternoon, Ms Fotheringay. My name is Miles Keating. I believe that you've already met my employees?"

"Employees?" Laura echoed, puzzled. "Oh, I see - you're the man behind the robbery."

"Ah, brains as well as beauty, I see."

"Thank you... But I don't understand what you're doing here... ?"

"It's simple really. After the robbery the police started to put pressure on the local fences, our James included, so when you approached him trying to shift the gem, he had to call the cops and tell them about it. But James is also in my pocket, as it were, and so he called me too. Needless to say, I don't want you talking to the police and giving then a description of my boys, so here you are. I was hoping to stop you before you went into the shop but we were delayed and showed up just a little too late to prevent you entering. Lucky for use you managed to get out of there on your own. Quite a little runabout you gave us there. I wasn't planning on that at all. If I had've been, I'd have used something a little more sporty."