Chapter 8: Glamours

I travelled to Brisbane as myself.

I got in just after 6 pm and caught the train to the city. I found a cheaper hotel near the city centre and booked in. Being Thursday night, I knew the shops in the Valley, a side suburb, would be open. The Inner City did late night shopping on Fridays.

I placed two of the boxes in my daypack and caught a bus to Fortitude Valley. I walked past the two establishments I was thinking of using that was on Brunswick Street. I checked out what they sold in the windows and knew that I wouldn’t use one of them.

I also past a Vinnies Clothing Emporium. They sold second-hand clothes and other bric-a-brac. I went in and found a black suit that fitted me well enough. I changed to one of my glamours. Pleased, I asked if I could leave wearing the suit. The old woman lifted her eyes from her book, shrugged and took my money.

I noticed an old briefcase and brought it too. I put a ‘no see’ spell on my daypack and put the jewellery boxes in the briefcase. I now looked like a middle-aged businessman. Mind you, I didn’t like having a potbelly, so I looked in good condition even if thicker around the middle than I usually did and a little taller.

I put a ‘repair’ spell on the suit, so it didn’t look aged, fit better and looked a better quality. I was wearing my black loafers, so I placed a glamour spell on them, to make them look like dress shoes with black socks. Set, I walked into the pawnbroker’s shop I had selected.

I explained to the man behind the counter that my grandmother had died, and my wife didn’t like her jewellery. I wanted to sell it, so I could take her shopping for something she did like. I played the long-suffering husband, and he chuckled.

I handed him a box with just a necklace in it. He turned on a light and put a magnifying piece in his eye to look at it. “Sir, she is one fussy woman. This is a beautiful piece, are you sure you want to sell it?” he asked.

I could see he liked it and wanted it. “She doesn’t like emeralds; I have no idea why. I thought all women liked them,” I said as if I was dumbfounded as well.

He shook his head, “Look, I would love to take it off your hands, but to be honest with you; this is beyond my price range.”

“Oh! Why? What do you think it is worth?” I asked with interest.

“At least twenty-five G’s, the emeralds are worth that alone,” he told me.

I can assure you; my shock was genuine. Mutely, I handed him the box with the earrings and the ring that I thought would look nice with the necklace. He removed them from the box and looked them over. He lay then on a white cloth and looked at them together as a complete set.

He looked at me and picked up his phone. I tensed as he dialled a number. “Jacque, are you feeling rich?” he said and smiled at me wickedly. I relaxed a little and listened. “I have some of the most beautiful emeralds you have ever seen. They are even presented in a very stylish set of a necklace, a ring and earrings. I think your friend would love them.”

We waited for the reply, and then he said, “The gentleman and I have haggled, and he wouldn’t accept a cent less than fifty for them.” He pulled the phone from his ear and grinned at me.

He put it back to his ear and listened some more while I stood stupefied in front of him. Then he placed the phone against his chest, “If he likes them, he may have a buyer. He asks if you happen to have any rubies?” He shrugged at me.

I swallowed and answered, “I do have another set that is similar to that one, but it has rubies and pink sapphires. The wife hates pink. She kept the blue set with the diamonds, go figure,” I said and shrugged back at him.

His eyes lit up. “Can you come back in the morning?” he asked. I looked at the watch on my wrist. I’d changed it to look like a gold watch, so it looked more expensive.

“We are flying out at ten thirty it would have to be early, plus I would prefer cash,” I said. I winked at him. No one loves the tax man, and I didn’t need a bill of sale. He nodded and spoke to Jacque again, and we all agreed to be here at eight.

I thanked the proprietor for his help and shook his hand.

I caught the train back to the city centre.

I wandered around for a bit, found a bar and ordered a drink. I was a bit stunned. If I could get a hundred grand for the two sets, then I’d be set for a while. I could start looking for a place to set up my business.

I thought about how I would get the stuff I wanted to keep, off the island, I’d need a boat for sure. I could land in the cove and transport the items down to it. A Tuesday would be the best day, I decided. The problem was that I couldn’t sail a boat, not in deep ocean waters anyway.

I was racking my brain trying to think of whom I could get to help me when I felt the briefcase move at my feet. I looked down from my musings as the man wiped it out from between my feet and then he legged it, out of there.

Fuck! Just what I needed. I ran after him yelling, but he was a fast-little bugger. I followed him across two streets before he disappeared into a crowd. I leant against a wall puffing. I stepped further into a shadowed area. I put out my hand and then evoked the return spell.

I was surprised that the boxes came too. I grinned and then laughed out loud. The prick was in for a surprise when he found it was an empty, ratty old briefcase. I looked around and then told my daypack to appear.

I quickly stripped off the suit and changed back to me. Happy, I headed back to the hotel and stopped for some takeaway to take to the hotel with me. I read my books for a while I ate, and then got some sleep. I knew it was going to be a busy day ahead of me.

The next morning, I made sure I had everything in my pack. I also added a ‘return’ spell to it. If the backpack got more than 10m from me, it would return to me. When I got back to Airlie, I’d remove. I dressed in a T-shirt and shorts under the suit and stopped for an early breakfast at a cafe on the way to the pawnbrokers.

I headed back to the Valley and put on a glamour once alone. I now looked fat with a bigger gut and bald. The suit looked rattier and bulged in all the right places. I told the pack to disappear. I strolled down the street and stopped to look into the pawnbrokers.

Two men were sitting inside, leaning on a counter and drinking coffee. I walked around the block and checked for any sign of the police. I opened my senses and felt for anyone acting suspiciously. I found a couple of people, but I seriously doubted they were cops.

I checked the back of the shop. There were two cars in the back carpark, one was probably worth about ten times the value of the other. I didn’t think my guess of whose car was whose, was wrong. I checked my watch. It was two minutes past eight.

I changed my appearance, so I looked like the man I had imitated the evening before. I had tucked the boxes of what I was prepared to show the men in the pockets of the coat. I walked back around to the front and sent my senses out again; nothing. Feeling safe, I knocked on the door, and the smaller man hurried to it, and he unlocked the door.

He smiled at me as he let me in, and then locked the door behind me. I scanned him. I had learned this new trick last night. He was excited, but he wasn’t particularly worried about things going wrong with this meeting.

I then scanned the other man. He was relaxed on the surface; however, he was more worried. I detected that he was hoping the other man was correct about what I had. He had a couple of commissions he’d had difficulty filling, and his clients were losing patience.

The smaller man introduced himself as Hasid and then he introduced me to Jacque. I shook both men’s hands, and again, I didn’t feel anything bad from them. They were both shrewd businessmen, and they both honoured their deals. I surmised that this was very important to them. Their good names were why they were still in business.

I introduced myself as Mark Sinclair. Hasid indicated the coffee, and I accepted. For Jacque’s benefit, I repeated the story I had told Hasid. I removed the boxes I had shown Hasid and handed them to Jacque.

Jacque removed the bling, placed it on the bright white cloth and examined each item carefully. He shone a torch with a narrow beam through the gems. I knew that he was looking for flaws. He turned to me, “Do you know from where they came from?” he asked.

I decided a little truth wouldn’t hurt, “I believe they came from Greece originally, but they needed some repairs which I did. I don’t know how long they have been in the family. I wasn’t close to my grandmother, so I was surprised I had inherited anything from her as I wouldn’t have been her first choice.”

The grandmother I was referring to was my mother’s mother. She hadn’t liked my father or us boys. I couldn’t work out why I had been named in her will or why she had wanted me to have hers’ and granddad’s wedding rings.