The Dali Deception

by Adam Maxwell

  “Your wages,” he said and slid the cash across the desk. Miss Nicholson caught sight of the amount on the strap.

  Lucas reached in to the bag again and took out another bundle. He hesitated for a moment, staring at the cash before eventually pushing it over the desk as well.

  “Your severance package,” he said and pushed the cash towards her.

  Miss Nicholson stared at it as if he had showed her his internet browsing history.

  Lucas’ hand was still in the bag. He stared at Miss Nicholson and she stared back, actually speechless.

  “Those two men. Beeks. Redford. If you ever see them again they are going to be very angry,” he said, a rare seriousness creeping in to his voice. “I want you to get out of town for a while and when you come back maybe think about retraining. I’ve only known you for eight weeks but I’m pretty sure you’re worth more than this.”

  Miss Nicholson looked like she might burst into tears as Lucas threw another bundle of twenties over the desk.

  And another.

  She picked up the money and stared at him for a moment, then flicked through the bundles, just to be sure. It didn’t take her long to realise that he had just given her four thousand pounds.

  “The woman who was here,” she said. “She told me to give you something. If you paid me.”

  “Wha–?” Lucas’ jaw dropped.

  “She said that if you left without paying me I should rip it up and put it in a bin you didn’t have access to,” she continued. “I’ll admit I nearly did it anyway but then I thought...”

  It was Lucas’ turn to stare in silence. Miss Nicholson leaned over the desk and pressed a small card of some sort into his hand, then quickly planted the lightest of kisses on his cheek.

  “I hoped you would turn out better than you were and, well, I suppose you did.” And with that she turned and left the office.

  Lucas waited for the sound of the outer office door closing and then took the attaché case back out of his bag. There were six numbers scrawled in blue biro on the otherwise empty business card Miss Nicholson had given him. He spun the corresponding tumblers on either side of the handle of the attaché case. It only took a moment and then pop and pop the two catches opened and he was finally granted entry into the case.

  He wasn’t hugely surprised to find that there wasn’t any money in there. Instead, inside was a small business card printed with a single mobile phone number. Lucas turned it over in his hand. The paper was of a heavy stock and the number itself appeared to be embossed upon it.

  No words, he thought, just a number. He hated to admit it but this woman, whoever she was, had his attention. What was he going to do? Walk away and phone it later?

  Hardly.

  The telephone receiver was in his hand and his fingers were dialling.

  And then it rang. Which also wasn’t hugely surprising, given that he had dialled the number a second earlier. And then it rang some more. And then, perhaps to keep him guessing, it kept ringing. Lucas was about to hang up when the answerphone kicked in.

  BEEEEEEP. “Hello Lucas.”

  The hairs on Lucas’ neck stood on end as the woman’s voice said his name.

  “We just met and, if everything went to plan and you aren’t a complete tool, you’ll be listening to this with a bag of cash sitting next to you right now.”

  Lucas’ eyes flashed to the bag, suddenly feeling like the mysterious woman might be able to make things disappear out of thin air.

  “I’m putting together a crew and I could use a man of your talents. If you’re interested meet me at the cafe on the corner of 4th Avenue. It’s opposite the entrance to the park if you know the one I mean.”

  “Oh yeah, I know the one,” Lucas said, and then suddenly felt foolish for talking back to an answerphone message.

  “I’ll be there until half past two. If you don’t show I’ll assume you have bigger fish to fry.”

  There was another beep, this time presumably the one that you were supposed to leave a message after. Lucas hung up. So she was putting a team together. And what happened earlier was, he supposed, some sort of job interview. Right then, time to get sorted out and... Lucas’ train of thought was derailed as he caught sight of his watch. It was twenty past two and the cafe in question was half way across town.

  Grabbing the bag containing the money and shoving attaché case and cards inside he sprinted out of his office, past Miss Nicholson’s now vacant desk and out into the street, slamming the outer door closed and fumbling with the keys to lock the place up. He would come back later in the afternoon and remove all traces of the business because for now he had to catch a –

  “TAXI!” he screamed as two black cabs drove off down the street. Lucas picked one and started tearing after it screaming, “TAXI! TAXI! TAXI!” It was almost as if when you were inside a car you couldn’t actually hear what was being said outside. Fortunately for Lucas, the traffic lights up ahead were on his side and stopped the cab, allowing him to catch up. He tapped as politely as he could on the window and the taxi driver nodded. The lights changed from red to green but the taxi driver didn’t budge.

  Lucas clambered into the back and told the driver the destination. “And please, it’s imperative I arrive before half past two.”

  The driver looked at the clock on the dashboard and shrugged. “I’ll do my best mate, I’ll go as fast as I can.”

  The traffic lights turned from green back to red. The taxi driver scratched at his beard. Lucas closed his eyes and tried not to swear.

  Chapter 13

  Thankfully for Lucas, it wasn’t rush hour. So, after the initial false-start, the cabbie really did start to motor across the city centre. But between traffic lights, speed cameras and the general idiocy of other drivers, progress just wasn’t as fast as he needed it to be.

  The clock on the dashboard read twenty seven minutes past two. The clock on his mobile disagreed and insisted it was twenty eight minutes past two. Either way, he didn’t have time to risk the long road that skirted around the edge of the park. There was only one thing left to do and so, with a grimace, he slid a twenty pound note out of one of the bundles in his bag and handed it to the driver.

  “Keep the change, mate,” Lucas said, the words sour on his lips.

  Slamming the taxi door, Lucas started jogging towards the park gates. He wasn’t exactly what you would call a gym rat, but he did stay in shape. He was pretty sure that if he kept a steady pace he could make it to the other side of the park in time.

  After a half a dozen paces Lucas decided to revise that hypothesis. He certainly could have made it to the other side of the park in time if he hadn’t been wearing a pair of leather loafers. For a moment he considered following the lead of so many Hollywood films where the lady takes off her heels to run in bare feet. But one glance down at the shit that littered the path here in the real world, and he was certain he would rather risk being late.

  *

  Violet took her phone out of her bag and checked the time. It was two thirty one. Well, he’d had his chance. He was good but he wasn’t the only person on the list.

  She clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth absent-mindedly. Something had been playing on her mind since the encounter at Lucas’ office. Something other than pulling a crew together or planning the job. She had recognised at least one of the men Lucas had been conning. And what had he said their boss was called? Terry? There was only one Terry in Kilchester. Big Terry. Interesting.

  “Can I get you another cup of tea, madam?” A waiter slithered from somewhere unseen, apparently summoned by the clicking, and interrupted her train of thought.

  “No, I didn’t want anything, I was just...” she began and then, realising she didn’t need to explain herself to him, stopped herself in her tracks. “The bill?”

  “Customers usually pay at the counter,” he started to say. “But it would be my pleasure to fetch the bill for madam.”

  The outfit was still working, still making
her the centre of attention.

  And that made her uncomfortable.

  The waiter's urgency evaporated the further away from Violet he got. She watched him as he reached the counter. Instead of getting the bill he began flirting with a waitress.

  She could storm out. Except that she'd been there for half an hour. A quick glance around and she could spot three customers who had been here as long as her. And two security cameras.

  She took a deep breath and put all thoughts of leaving without paying out of her head. Three people and two security cameras that could identify her if she was unlucky enough to get pulled. It was too early in the job to do something stupid.

  No, she would wait for the bill and—

  “YES!” A voice echoed around the walls of the small cafe and a man fell through the door. Drenched in sweat and apparently struggling to breathe, he was barefoot but held a suit jacket and a pair of loafers in one hand and a black sports bag in the other. “YOUR LADYSHIP!”

  Lucas lurched forward toward Violet, who didn’t respond other than to smile back at him. Perhaps she wouldn’t tell him her real name. Perhaps he could call her ‘your ladyship’ for the duration of the job.

  The waiter finally gained some momentum, perhaps fearing that the cafe’s latest addition would somehow remove his customer’s ability to tip.

  “I’m sorry, Sir,” he said, putting a palm on Lucas’ chest. “But there’s a two-shoe minimum in this cafe.” The waiter turned to smile at Violet and Lucas took the opportunity to hang his jacket on the waiter’s outstretched hand.

  He stood for a moment, panting, and then, from the inside pocket of the jacket, Lucas took first one and then two socks. Staring the waiter down the whole time he rolled the socks on to his feet and then slipped on the loafers.

  The waiter stood and stared. Apparently in his world this was not the sort of thing that generally happened.

  Lucas finally took his jacket and hung it over the back of the chair opposite Violet. “I’ll have a cappuccino and...” Lucas looked over to Violet, who leaned back in her chair and gave him a little nod. “And the same again for the lady.”

  “There’s no table service,” the waiter sneered.

  Lucas turned away from Violet and whispered something in the waiter’s ear. The waiter ran off into the kitchen.

  Once he was out of sight and the conversations of the other customers had started up again Violet asked quietly, “What did you say to him?”

  “I told him that I was sweating like this because I had just murdered someone across the other side of the park and if he didn’t produce the drinks very quickly indeed that I would tear his arms off and beat him with the wet ends,” said Lucas.

  Violet laughed her staccato laugh.

  “Really?” she said.

  “Well,” Lucas smiled and mopped his brow with a couple of napkins. “Something like that.”

  “As nice as it would be to go on being called your ladyship, I should introduce myself.” Violet held out her right hand. “Violet Winters.”

  Lucas took her hand and shook it warmly. “It’s a pleasure to meet you at last.”

  Violet nodded, “And you. Do I need to explain my background?”

  Lucas shook his head. “No. Well, probably not. Your name – well, I heard about the diamond job.”

  Violet nodded.

  “So…everything that happened…all that...was it a test?” Lucas said sheepishly.

  “It’s always a test, Lucas.”

  Now it was Lucas’ turn to laugh.

  “And the X-rays. They were some nice fakes,” Violet added. “I assume you didn’t go to the trouble of stealing the originals?”

  “Hardly,” Lucas said. “I saw some pictures online and, well... I know people.”

  “Ghost norks though? Really?” Violet raised an eyebrow as the waiter returned and placed the drinks in front of them. Lucas gave him another of his hard-won twenty pound notes and the waiter left.

  “I know,” he said. “It wouldn’t have been my first choice but these guys were desperate for something different. When I first hooked them I had a list of a few things I’d researched. ‘Give me something original’ they kept saying. ‘That’s so obvious’. ‘Don’t they have that in that place in London?’ And in the end I said it, almost as a joke.”

  “And they went for it?”

  “First time.”

  “But it didn’t seem to be going too well when I crashed the party.” Violet lifted the tea pot and poured some tea into her cup.

  “I could have handled it.” Lucas bristled for a moment, then noticed the smile playing at the corners of Violet’s mouth. “You might have... sped things up a bit. Thing is, it’s pretty hard to come by X-rays without robbing a hospital and... well... what if you steal one from somebody who’s really sick?”

  “A conscience?” Violet gasped in mock-surprise.

  “No,” Lucas blurted. “Well, yeah... sometimes. So in the end I bribed someone at the zoo. And then this forger guy I work with, he doctored them for me.”

  “So the X-ray of Marilyn Monroe is actually...”

  “An orang-utan called Betsie. I believe.”

  The waiter returned with Lucas’ change, placing it on the table by his elbow and scampering away.

  Violet looked down at the new cup of tea and her mobile placed carefully alongside.

  “Actually, shall we take a walk in the park instead of staying put?” she asked. “Lots of eyes and ears in here.”

  Lucas nodded and gathered up his belongings.

  Violet led the way, striding forward in the ridiculously high heels she was still wearing, with Lucas skittering along beside her. The cars were moving along slowly on the road outside the park and Violet drew to a halt at the kerbside. She stared into the oncoming traffic, fixing her gaze on the male driver and giving him the full blaze of femme fatale. There was a screeching of brakes and a blaring of horns as the traffic parted for her.

  Kilchester Park was quite sparsely populated at this time of day, the lunchtime crowds having dissipated back to their offices and the parents still waiting in the schoolyards to pick their children up and ruin the tranquillity of the park. A hundred metres into the park and Lucas was checking for eyes and ears. After another dozen or so metres he was satisfied no-one could overhear them.

  “So what’s the job then?” he said softly.

  “I missed this place,” said Violet, absently. “The park I mean. It’s odd isn’t it, the things you miss. It’s not even a very good park in the grand scheme of things, is it?”

  “What? I thought...” began Lucas.

  “I mean, Central Park in New York. Now that’s a park,” Violet went on, increasingly distant. “And London is full of them. Sprawling, brilliant places you could get lost in.”

  “Well, you could get lost here too,” Lucas admitted and Violet looked over at him as if suddenly remembering that he was there. “I did once. But then, I was pissed.”

  Violet laughed. “I like Kilchester. It’s my town. Or it used to be.”

  Lucas walked along with her, swinging his bag.

  “And, I think it will be again.” Violet inhaled the park air. It was part greenery, part squirrel shit and part cars belching their toxins on the other side of the bushes that concealed the railings. “You see, there’s a job.”

  Lucas’ eyes lit up and he ran his spare hand through his hair which, by this time, was never going to be made presentable unless someone hosed him down in a yard with something industrial.

  “I thought there might be,” he said. “Tell me more.”

  “All in good time,” said Violet, taking her phone out of her handbag for a moment and glancing at it. Another hundred metres in front of them was one of the smaller gates out of the park and Violet started to make her way towards it. Lucas realised this was his last chance to get her to spill before the crowds robbed them of what little privacy they had. This was no time for subtlety. Lucas tried not to panic.

 
“Now’s a good time for me,” he blurted, trying to remain as cool as he could. “I mean, I passed the tests, didn’t I?”

  Violet was striding forward, picking up her pace, looking over her shoulder towards the fence on the edge of the park.

  Lucas recommenced his skittering. He was pretty sure that the damned loafers were giving him blisters. Panicking, he blurted, “I gave that girl four grand,” and then, sensing that Violet’s pace and proximity to the edge of the park were a sign that he was being ditched, “Do you want a cut? Is that what this is about?”

  Lucas could hear the traffic now, tearing up and down the small road that ran parallel to this section of the park. Next to the gate he could see flowers tied to the railings.

  Violet stood on the threshold of the park and looked Lucas straight in the eye. “It was never just about the money. Not this job, Lucas. All I want to know is... are you in?”

  And with that she turned and walked straight into the path of a speeding car.

  Chapter 14

  For the second time that day Lucas sprinted towards one of the park gates. He heard the revving of engines. He heard the howl of rubber against road like an angry mechanical monkey. Skidding to a halt at the park gates, he realised that he had screwed his eyes tight shut.

  Daring to open them a crack, he was elated to see the figure of Violet. Not, as his imagination had already painted her, broken and bloodied, but standing, feet apart. Standing tall like a Valkyrie, staring down...

  ...an Aston Martin.

  Lucas darted forward, almost drawing level with the car as Violet moved around it herself. She tapped on the driver’s side window. It slid down to reveal a man in a suit with blue eyes and a shaved head.

  “Barry,” said Violet with a nod.

  “Violet,” said the man in the car.

  “You were supposed to steal the Lamborghini,” Violet pouted. “We set it up especially.”

  “Not really my style,” said Barry, straightening his tie. “A little ostentatious don’t you think?”

  “So you stole this because you thought I wouldn’t be able to predict what you were going to nick?” she said. Lucas was now standing behind Violet, craning to get a view of the interior of the car.