Chapter 18: 267 Vauxhall Bridge Road

The road from the river up towards Victoria Station was, like so many major London streets, set up for women-only pedestrians on one side and mixed sex pedestrian traffic on the other. They were all right. It was the ones that didn’t allow men at all that caused problems. It seemed to Norm as though there were many more “women only” streets than since the last time he’d been into town and he’d had to take some longer than planned diversions to get to his destination. Number 267 was a tattoo parlour. The shop front painted in bright red and black appeared, from the various promotional photographs in the window to cater purely for women. In the window, dramatic Maori designs tempted the adventurous, delicate floral ones appealed to those a little less extrovert. On the door, signs showed both men and women were welcomed. Inky Skin, the shop called itself. Norm went inside.

“Can I help you?” a middle-aged woman with a face that looked like she had a fondness for sucking lemons asked from behind the counter. Her expression made Norm think she hoped vehemently that the answer to her question was ‘no’. “I’ve got no men’s appointments today.”

“That’s OK, I’m due to make a delivery.”

“Can you hang on a moment.” She turned to a girl with short, dark, shaggy hair who was sitting in the reception area. “Jinx is ready for you now in Room 3.”

Norm found himself speculating about what sort of design the girl might be looking for. She didn’t look like the hearts and flowers type. He looked down at the table where she had been sitting. She had been browsing through a pattern book. It was open to show various versions of the New Order logo. That seemed to indicate any aspirations he had were likely to be a waste of time, Norm told himself.

“Thanks,” the girl said. She threw an old canvas knapsack over her shoulder and followed the receptionist’s pointing finger into a corridor that led towards the back of the shop.

With the girl gone, Norm tried again. “I’m looking for Gerry.”

“Uhuh,” the woman seemed unwilling to help unless it was absolutely unavoidable.

“I need to give him something. Personally. Is he here?”

“Maybe. Who are you?”

“Danny sent me.”

“Curious name, Danny Sentme.”

“Yeah, that’s what all the girls say. Is he here or not?”

“I’ll have a look. Oh, and by the way, we don’t use ‘girls’ these days. Don’t they give you an approved vocabulary book with your airline ticket these days?”

“No ma’am.” Norm didn’t bother to disguise his sarcasm.

The woman buzzed through on an intercom. There was a short exchange. “Seems like Jinx wants to see you in room 3 as well. He’s a busy boy today.”

Norm followed the same routes as the girl with the knapsack. When he got into room three he found a well equipped tattoo parlour. The girl with the knapsack was on a couch while a white coated ginger-haired man was working with ink and needles on her right shoulder.

Two other men were in the room. “I’ve got something for Gerry,” Norm said. “From Danny.”

“That’ll be me. You don’t need to worry about these,” he nodded at the others in the room, “they’re on-side. Jack here is a new boy but trying hard, Jinx works here and helps out when he can. And the young lady is...”

“Daisy,” Jack interjected. “She’s with me.”

“His and hers tattoos?” Norm was surprised by something that sounded so traditional. “An old fashioned relationship?”

“Don’t be too sure,” called the girl on the couch, with a smile.

Gerry was keen to pull things back to the business in hand. “Let’s have a look at what you’ve got.”

Norm put his bag up on a desk and opened it. Five thick bundles of plastic cards sat inside. Gerry peeled one off from the bundle and looked at it closely. He got another similar card out of his wallet and compared the two.

“Not bad. I think we can cause quite a bit of mischief with these.”

“They’re electrically good too. They’ll return a valid but unrecognisable ident when it’s read. Should just look like there’s an error on the database or something. You can prise the film cover off and put in a photo or actually just print on the face. Most times no one looks closely at them by all accounts.”

“I don’t think you’d say that if you lived here,” Gerry responded. “But I think they’ll be all right.”

Jinx seemed to have finished his work on Daisy’s shoulder. She was now sporting three intertwined letter R’s in green, red, and purple. Jinx covered up the results with cling film to stop any risk of infection.

“Thanks,” the girl said. “I’ll let you get back to your meeting.” She took herself off to a couch and sat down, curling her legs up under her, and started rummaging in her bag.

“Are you sure you’ll find a home for all these?” Norm looked at the pile of cards.

“Oh, yes. You can tell Danny they’ll be put to good use. Here, let me show you.” Gerry reached for his own case and took out a thick file of documents. “These guys need to know what’s going on now, as well.”

Jack sat watching as Gerry laid out the documents on the table. Daisy was sitting on the far side of the room, listening to something on her iPhone. She didn’t seem to be taking any interest in proceedings, her earphones blotting out what was going on around her.