"Guns, bitches and bling were never part of the 4 elements, and never will be..."

From "Thou Shalt Always Kill" : Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip

It serves me right for not paying attention to the local news. Maybe if I'd read the Gazette this week, I wouldn't have fallen for it and I would have saved myself a very embarrassing time. As it was I hadn't heard anything about the robbery at the jewellers in the town and so I wasn't in the least prepared for what happened.

I ought to explain. My name is George Hennessy. I've run an antiques shop in our town for the last fifteen years. I suppose I'm just an average looking sort of bloke. I'm losing a bit of hair now that I'm in my forties and perhaps I'm a bit fatter than I'd like to be. I've always found it easier to say "yes" to food or a glass of good wine than to say "no" and I can't say that I'm that keen on exercise. I never got around to getting married. It's not that I don't like women but somehow the right one never came along. So the shop is what takes up my time.

It has been a great success. I've been able to make a very comfortable living by trading very good pieces. I've never carried a lot of stock, just high class stuff. And I've built up quite a clientele in the surrounding area; people who trust my judgement and know that they can come to me if they are looking for a really special piece. I'm also lucky enough to have a couple of very good assistants. Beth has become quite knowledgeable on porcelain and furniture and Karen is a real expert on coins and antique jewellery. Their understanding of the market is way ahead of what mine was when I was their age, they must be twenty years younger than me. They are really good with the customers too.

Thinking back, I wonder if it didn't all start a couple of days earlier. There was a customer that I didn't recognise in the shop. She was talking to Karen. I was in my office going over some catalogues of forthcoming sales and checking the last set of receipts from the purchases we'd made at a house clearance earlier on in the week.

"Well groomed" was the phrase I would apply to her. She was wearing a pale trench coat with a brightly coloured scarf tucked in at the neck. A pair of sunglasses were perched on her head; her hair precisely cut in a rather severe bob. As she sat on the stool by Karen's counter I could see her slender legs. And, while I might not be married, I've had enough experience of women to know that her hosiery was of the expensive kind, her shoes from a maker that still prized old-fashioned craftsmanship and her handbag from one of those designers that add $300 to the price by the simple measure of hanging their label from it. Karen didn't seem to be getting very far with helping her. She seemed to be showing her all around the shop. In retrospect, maybe that was her idea. When I tried to help I didn't get very far either.

"Is there anything I can help with?" I asked. "Is it something for yourself or perhaps you're looking for a present?

The woman pulled her sunglasses down over her nose, gave a rather cool, emotionless, smile and said, "No, I don't think so. Your young lady here has been most helpful but I don't think there is anything here for me. Thank you all the same." With that she gathered up her bag and left.

Karen was apologetic. "I did try to help her," she said. "But she didn't really seem to know what she wanted. I mean, normally people have a fairly precise idea of what they are looking for but she wanted to look at coins, jewellery, antique silver, even the clocks and watches. Sorry boss. A bit of a waste of time."

"That's all right, Karen," I said. "I'm sure you did what you could." And I was. Karen really did try hard with customers.

I didn't think any more about it. Well, it was hardly the first time someone had come into the shop and not bought anything.

In fact, the only point at which I did think that there might have been something odd was afterwards. But maybe I'm just a bit slow on the uptake.

I didn't even make the connection when the three women came in just before we were due to shut for the evening. Actually they didn't all come in at once. First there was the taller one and then the other two.

My first reaction was, "Excellent! These look like just the sort of clients I would like to have." All three of them were dressed in a way that said they had money and liked spending it. It had been a slow day. Perhaps these customers would make a difference.

I've always encouraged the girls to let customers browse. It's only when they look as though they need help that I think its a good idea to approach them. So, I let them look around. And so did Karen and Beth. Karen was busy tidying a case of coins. Beth was checking marks on some porcelain that we'd bought against her copy of Miller's Guide.

If I'm honest, they actually looked a bit over dressed for shopping in the town. It seemed more like they'd been for lunch at some classy restaurant. Except there isn't one anywhere around here. The taller woman of the three was wearing a well cut suit in a bright pastel pattern; the skirt straight and knee length. She wore a hat, a pill box, perched on her rather anachronistic, bouffant, lacquered hairstyle. Beneath the hat chunky earrings that might just have been gold hung from her ear lobes. Over one shoulder was a capacious, Salvatore Ferragamo, leather bag. I noticed that she was wearing tight kid gloves. It was unusual to see a woman wearing gloves; the pale green leather matched the pastel green in her suit. They'd obviously been carefully chosen. She seemed to be taking an interest in the long case clocks that we have ranged along one wall of the shop.

The other two arrived, as I said, together a few moments later. The first through the door was shorter than the woman in the suit. She was slim, with ash-blonde hair and quite athletic looking. Dressed in a cream linen trouser suit over a butter-cup yellow silk blouse, she was chatting in an animated way with another girl as they came in. The other girl was dark skinned, eastern European or possibly Asian, with straight shoulder length jet black hair. She seemed to be hanging on her companion's every word. In a short, vivid red print, dress that hardly covered her bum, she seemed younger than the blond, but like her friend and the woman in the suit her dress sense was impeccable; her clothes expensive. I was looking forward to a profitable day after all.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

I was standing by the counter when the woman in the suit came over towards me. "How can I help," I said with a smile.

"Well," she said calmly, opening her handbag. "I was wondering what this might be worth." She reached into her bag and came out holding a shotgun; its two, sawn-short, barrels pointing straight at me. "I thought it might be the most valuable thing in the shop right now."

For a moment I thought that she was joking. As she slid back the hammers and grinned maliciously I realised that she wasn't. She pushed the barrels up under my throat. "Now why don't you keep your hands on the counter here and, very, very calmly, call your girls over here?" With her free hand she pulled up the scarf from the neck of her jacket so that she was now masked.

I gulped and hesitated, earning a jab under the chin from the gun. It was a strong enough hint. "Karen, Beth, could you come here a moment?"

As the two of them came towards the counter at the back of the shop, the other two women went into action. With precise movements the blonde shut and locked the front door and turned the sign to "closed" while the darker girl pulled down the blinds behind the windows. The shop was suddenly a lot darker. As they turned towards me I saw that both of them had pulled scarves up over their faces so that they were masked too.

"Hey what's going on," said Karen, spinning around. She found herself staring at a pistol in the hand of the blonde.

"Robbery, the blonde said bluntly. "If you're careful you won't get hurt. Now get over with your boss. You too," she snapped at Beth who was staring in fright at the girl's weapon.

I must confess, though, that I wasn't paying too much thought to what else was going on at that moment. My attention was focused on the two, blued steel barrels that were inches from my head and the pair of dark brown eyes staring unflinchingly at me over the blue and gold scarf that covered the lower half of my captor's face.

Karen and Beth were herded over to where I was standing. The other two women had pulled on scarf masks now. The blonde had a pale yellow scarf that matched her blouse while the dark skinned girl had concealed her face with a silk, Burberry check, scarf. Now of course it was clear that their gloves weren't just a fashion statement.

The woman with the shotgun said, "Right you three, hands up and walk really slowly through to the store room. We'll make you comfortable there.

Somehow I didn't think "comfortable" was really what they had in mind but I didn't see that we had much option. We all did as we we'd been told.

The store room was at the back of the shop. It was quite large - we kept quite a bit of furniture in there and there was one corner that I used as a sort of office. There was an old desk a heavy wooden filing cabinet and, what I guessed our assailants were interested in, the safe.

"Sit on the floor, you three," the woman in the blue and gold mask ordered. "Heads between your knees, hands behind your necks. And keep still — I'm watching you."

I didn't need to be told twice. I could feel the gun pressed against my neck. I'm sitting right beside Karen. I could feel her quaking with fright. "It'll be all right," I said quietly. "Don't worry. They just want the money."

"Shut up!" The woman barked, jabbing the gun against me.

I couldn't really see what was going on with my head down. The only glimpse I got of the woman with the gun was the sight of her ankles and her high heeled shoes as she stepped in front of me at one point. There was plenty of banging and crashing as the others were evidently searching through the shop.

Then there was the voice of one of the others. "I think we're about done. If you get chummy here to open the safe, we'll clear that and we can go."

"Fine," said the woman in the blue and gold mask. "He's been very well behaved up until now, so I'm sure he'll be happy to help. Tie the other two up."

Karen whimpered in response but I kept quiet this time. It didn't make any difference. I got a kick from the woman. "Get up you," she said, prodding the barrels of the shotgun against my ear. "Open the safe and don't get any smart ideas unless you want your two girl friends here to get hurt." She prodded me to my feet and pushed me across towards the safe.

As she pushed me to my knees beside the safe door I heard one of the others order Karen and Beth, "All right you two, on your feet and strip off!"

"Hey what's going on?" I said.

"Nothing you need worry about, fuckwit," the woman threatening me answered. "They're going to get undressed before we tie them up. That way we're sure they don't have anything on them that might help them get loose. And don't worry, you'll be joining them. Now get the fucking safe open."

It took me longer than usual to unlock the safe as my fingers fumbled on the tumbler dial. I did, eventually, get it right and the safe door opened. The woman brought her knee up against my side and knocked me down beside the safe, pushing the heavy safe door against me so that I was trapped against the wall behind it. She laughed as I fell back and set to cleaning out the safe onto the table in the middle of the room.

Once she had finished she pulled the door back and then pointed the gun at me. "OK, now get up."

I got to my feet. Beth and Karen had been stripped of their clothes at the robbers' orders and they'd been tied up. The two of them were wearing only their bras and panties and were sitting, with their wrists behinds their backs, on two heavy oak chairs. A third chair had been placed alongside them.

"Like I said, you're going to join your girlfriends, so get stripped off." There didn't seem to be any point in trying to defy her; she was pointing the shotgun at me with a cool precision. She watched while I stripped off my shoes, sock, shirt and trousers. "That'll do," she said as I was left in my underpants. "You don't look as though you've got anything in those to worry us. Now, hands up and get over there." She waved at me with the shotgun, indicating I should go over to where the empty chair was waiting.

"Over here," the dark skinned girl ordered, picking up a plastic cable tie from her handbag. "And put your hands behind your back." She didn't wait for me to do as I as told, grabbing my arm with unexpected force and twisting it behind me. She looked to be slightly built but her grip said that she was quite able to take care of herself. She jerked the cable tie tightly around my wrists and then forced me towards the chair. "Sit down," she said. "We're nearly finished."

The dark girl pushed me down on the seat. She turned to Karen who was sitting alongside me. "There," she said to her. "We brought your boss over to join you. Isn't that nice?"

"Why don't you leave her alone?" I challenged, knowing that Karen was scared witless.

"Why don't you shut the fuck up?" the girl responded in a conversational tone.

So there we were, all three of us stripped to our underwear and tied up on chairs in the shop's store room. The safe was open and empty, and our three assailants had collected together a selection of choice items on the table in the middle of the room. The short dark girl was carefully packing them all away into three large boxes. The blonde was standing guard over us with her own gun.

The other woman was busy looking around to see if there was anything that they had missed. Whenever they turned their backs on us we tried to work on the ties that held us but we weren't having any success.