Sunshine Meadows

by Pete Rossi

  "So it was you," Caz said. "Thought it was Don who had been on the computer. I've told you before. You need to stop looking at them frigging porn sites or it will fall off." Harvey's face reddened, turning to the colour of beetroot. He got out of the room as quickly as he could, clearly feeling very uncomfortable. Having his half naked big sister in there with his mother and her best mate didn't exactly help matters either. He'd be getting a good lecture for that later. Probably a lot worse than the one Caz had given him when she found a picture of Megan Fox with her bits out in his geography homework book.

  After another quarter hour or so, going purely by the reviews left by many reviewers, the perfect television had been chosen. Fifty two inches of flatscreen Full HD glory, 3D, internet access. It had everything. For only fifteen hundred quid.

  Jen typed in her credit card details and selected next day delivery. Job done. She left and went next door, back home.

  ***

  Early the next day, shortly after Ben had left for school, Jen set off out to the newsagent where she bought her stack of lottery tickets every week. Not the only reason she was going there, though. She needed another five packs of Marlboro Lights and a six pack of Stella to last her through the day.

  Behind the counter was one of Jen's best mates, Kelly.

  "Hiya love," Kel said to Jen. "The usual?"

  "As always. Actually, no. Make it ten packs of Lights, I'm celebrating."

  "You're splashing out."

  "Won the lottery last night. That's why." She handed over the winning ticket. "Can you pay me from your till? How much have I won?"

  "Let me see," Kelly said, tapping away in to the till. "You have five numbers. Not bad, hon. And you've won £795."

  "Seven hundred and ninety five pounds. Is that it? For five balls. Are you sure? Are you quite sure?" Jen shook her head in disbelief. "I've got a four hundred quid tab from last night in the pub, and I've just ordered a TV that costs fifteen hundred quid for Ben's birthday."

  "That's it, I'm afraid, love. We get a lot of that from people coming in here. If you had the bonus ball as well, you would have won sixty grand."

  "Sixty grand. And I've won seven nine five, you say?"

  "Yes. And I can't even pay you. It's too much. You need to go into town, to the Post Office and they will give you the money."

  Jen rushed out of the shop and made her way home as quickly as she could. She had never run as fast since she had been in school doing the dreaded cross country running. Her abiding memory of school sports was the day that the boys had burst through their changing room wall as the girls were showering, causing chaos. The wall had never been properly replaced, and only planks of wood now divided the boys and girls changing rooms.

  She hammered on Caz's front door until it was answered by her daughter Beth who had just woken up after a long and raucous night out the previous day, arriving back home after dawn.

  "I've only won a few hundred quid Beth," she blurted out, breathing hard from the unexpected exertion. "Got to cancel that TV order."

  The girls rushed upstairs and into the bedroom, Don still lounging half asleep in the bed, beer belly on show. They logged back in to the Amazon account and Jen hit the "Cancel Order" button. Breathed a sigh of relief.

  "What are you going to do for Ben's birthday now?" enquired Beth.

  "I don't know. He knows I've won the lottery so he's going to expect something. And it's too late to order anything else now."

  "Don't know if you're up for it, but I know something you could do," Beth told her.

  "What?"

  "If you really want to get him a new TV, I can help you out. Come along with me to the pub, I'm meeting a few friends there in an hour. Come and see what you think."

  ***

  Half an hour after that, Beth and Jen were walking through the estate together. Both were dressed in red tracksuits and tops, supporting the local underachieving football team. Beth and Jen could easily pass as mother and daughter. A fake tattoo of a rose had been applied to both Beth and Jen's arms. As they walked, they moved away from the centre of the estate. Leaving behind the scruffy terraces, they crossed over a main dual carriageway, cars speeding by well over the posted speed limit, and were back in to private housing. At one time, these houses had been in a prime location, looking over the unspoilt meadows, and had been very desirable, but as the council estate grew ever further outwards, they became less and less attractive. Now it was just a single road that divided the two estates.

  The girls crossed through a car park, no glass and litter here, and entered the local leisure centre.

  They paid for two tickets to the swimming pool and entered the ladies changing room to get undressed. Apart from Beth and Jen, the only other person present in the changing room was a female technician who was working with the locker doors.

  "We've been having some trouble with the lockers, girls," she said. "When you put your smart card in to open them, it hasn't been working right. They don’t open. But of course, you know that!"

  "Sure, honey," Beth said, and to Jen, "she's one of us. There is nothing wrong with the lockers at all. All part of the plan. If you see someone in a uniform who looks as though they should be there, you'll believe nearly anything they say."

  To the fake technician she said, "You'll let us know when you see some likely candidates coming won't you."

  "Course I will. Liz on reception is in on it as well. When you hear her make a loudspeaker announcement asking Mrs Rose to come to reception, that's your cue. Get back in here as fast as you can."

  Now changed in to swimming costumes, the girls left the changing room and headed for the pool. Beth, her tanned body barely fitting in to a tiny white bikini top drew appreciative glances from the men she passed, and annoyed grimaces from most of the women, jealous of her figure.

  Beth headed off to do length after length of the pool, while Jen messed about in the shallow end. Beth was still enjoying the attention, men turning their heads to stare at her figure through the shimmering water, when only a short time later, Jen heard the announcement being made.

  On Beth's next pass by, Jen got her attention by poking her in the ribs, and the two women left the pool, all of the men watching with eyes focussed on Beth's bikini bottoms as she climbed the metal steps out of the pool. She ran her hands through her sodden hair as the two walked back to the changing room.

  Once back inside, the two ladies quickly stripped naked and headed in to the showers. "Don't understand why we have to get naked."

  "It makes them feel more in control of the situation, Jen, makes us look vulnerable," Beth told her. "You'll see."

  "Now," shouted the technician as the door handle turned.

  Two young women, looking well to do with perfect hair and designer clothes, entered the changing room as Beth and Jen left the showers and walked naked back over to their towels and clothes.

  "Ladies," said the technician to the women who had just entered. "The lockers are broken. There are only two working at the moment, so I'd hang on for a few minutes until these other two women have got dressed and finished with them. You don't want to leave your valuables unlocked in here, anyone could take them."

  "But we've got a court booked at two for an hour, and it's two minutes to now."

  Being clothed, the two ladies felt they had an advantage over the two naked women, so when the younger voluptuous one said, "we'll be dressed in five minutes, we can lock your bags away for you. Just take your smart cards with you," the two were only too glad to accept her generous offer. They changed and left with their squash rackets, chattering away about an upcoming garden party.

  "And just how easy was that," Beth said, fishing through one of the handbags and coming out with some car keys and a driving licence. "Bingo! They'll be gone for an hour, and we'll be long finished with their car by then."

  Jen, already feeling guilty, said "I don't know if I'm going to be able to go through all the way with this."

  "You'll be fine,
honey, don't sweat."

  With that, they dried off, dressed, put the handbag, minus keys and purse, into the locker, and slammed the locker door shut, jamming a towel into the gap as it closed. "That will hold them up even longer." They left and walked out of the leisure centre. The technician pulled a baseball cap over her blonde hair to hide her face and followed a few minutes later.

  ***

  "What next?" asked Jen. She was seated in the passenger seat alongside Beth, who was driving through the quiet weekday streets. They were in a top of the range black Vectra, one that shouldn't be missed for at least an hour.

  "To the rendezvous at the warehouse."

  "Can we get rid of these fake tattoo's now?"

  "Yes. They just scrape off. When those ladies contact the police, they are the first thing they will remember about us."

  "What's going to happen in the warehouse?"

  "First, new registration plates are going to go on this car, while we change our appearance."

  "I'm still not that comfortable doing this," Jen said.

  "I know, but it's going to be okay."

  "What about the car?"

  "It will get dumped somewhere and burnt out, probably."

  Jen grimaced. "I thought that we said that it was a company that was going to be targeted, not just a normal member of the public."

  "Well, yes, but our finger prints are all over this car now. What did you think we were going to do with it?"

  "Just dump it somewhere."

  "No, we can't do that. If we did, it might come back to bite us later."

  "I want out. I can't do this." Jen was starting to panic about what was going to come next.

  "Too late for that now. You know what we're doing. You know who is involved. You know it's not legal. The best way to buy your silence is to implicate you in as much of this as possible, so if you do go to the police, you'll be going down for a long stretch with us as well."

  "I don't think I'll be able to pull it off. I've never done anything like this before."

  "You have to. If you screw this up, you could pull us all down."

  The girls drove on in silence for a while.

  "Have you done this before Beth?" Jen asked.

  "Once or twice," she admitted. "Where do you think the iMac came from? And the TV. And the stereo."

  They drove in to a quiet industrial estate. Most of the buildings appeared empty, many hadn't been occupied for years, and little traffic was about. Beth turned left, right, then left again, and in to a cul-de-sac. As they approached a warehouse, the rusty metal roller door rolled up and Beth drove through. The door creaked its way down again, clanging loudly when the bottom reached bare concrete again, as soon as they were inside.

  "How did it go girls?" a man inside asked them as Beth braked to a halt. The man was the landlord of the Duke of York, and the brains behind the day's operation.

  "Like clockwork, Dexter," Beth answered.

  "Well done, ladies," he replied. "Go and get changed for the next part of the operation."

  Dexter delved in to a plastic Tesco carrier bag and came out with a screwdriver. Carefully, he undid the screws on the rear number plate and took it off, and then did the same to the front plate. Put them both in his carrier bag. Then he pulled out another set of plates and started to screw them on to the car. Once this was done, he got in and checked the glove compartment. Inside was an MOT certificate and an insurance cover letter. These were pocketed. Also, there were some mints and CD's. Michael Buble. These were safe to stay.

  Back out of the car again, he walked over to the boot. Opened it up and searched through. Nothing of consequence in there. An umbrella, some walking shoes. Nothing to show who the car really belonged to.

  He headed to the back of the warehouse, and the small toilet room where the girls were changing. Hoping to catch a glimpse as they were getting ready. No such luck though, Beth opening the door as he was about to quietly nudge it open and take a peek inside.

  "Ah," he said. "Do you have the driving licence?"

  "Yes I do," Beth replied and gave him the purse.

  Beth was now dressed in a very short black skirt, and her hair which was naturally brown was now covered by a long blonde wig. Blue contact lenses changed her natural hazel eye colour. The rose tattoo had been removed. High heels added another few inches to her height.

  "If I didn't recognise those big tits, Beth," Dexter said. "I'd never know it was you."

  "I feel such a fool wearing this," Jen said emerging from the toilet in similar apparel.

  "We have to look like waitresses from the Crown. All part of the plan."

  Dexter took the driving licence over to a table. It was an old style paper licence without a photograph on, which was just as well. "Love these old paper licences," he said. "We don't even need to go to the bother of getting a photo that looks like you. We're good to go with this, as is." He handed the licence back to Beth, but not before he had rifled through the purse, pocketing the cash and credit cards that were in there."

  "Hang on. I need some money in there," Beth said. "It's going to look weird if there is none in and I need to go in it for some reason."

  "Okay," Dexter grimaced, and handed her back a twenty.

  "Knock 'em dead, ladies. You've got fifteen minutes to get in position. I'll give you a ring when I need you to move."

  ***

  Ten minutes later, the girls were in position, a short distance away from the local retail park. "This is the most crucial part of the whole day," Beth instructed Jen. "You let me do all the talking, and just act the way we agreed, okay?"

  "If I have to."

  "You do have to. You're in too deep now."

  "Is everything going to work out okay?" Jen grumbled.

  "I don't see why not. Always has before. It's always quiet around the back of the shops. Delivery trucks are about the only thing that drives through here during the day, apart from the shop staff. They park round the back as well."

  Waiting was not one of Jen's strong points. She fidgeted, ran her fingers through her hair, or rather the wig that was covering her hair. Glanced in the rear mirror. Fidgeted some more. She was starting to annoy Beth.

  They waited. Barely another five minutes later, Beth's mobile rang. One ring. Then it stopped. "That's the signal," she said.

  Beth accelerated away, leaving tyre marks on the road. Timing was critical. She sped up and reached a T junction between two of the larger stores. She looked right. Didn't look left.

  Jen knew what was going to happen next. She tensed in preparation for the upcoming impact, trying to stifle a small scream.

  Beth shot out of the T junction, right in to the path of an oncoming Comet delivery truck. The main target of the whole operation. The passenger side of the car took the main impact. Airbags deployed. The side window came through. A horrible crunching metal sound could be heard as the van hit the car, pushing it for twenty feet, thirty, fifty. The van driver hardly reacted at all. With no time to slam on his brakes, the initial hit was hard. The impact was much larger, much more violent than both women were expecting. Even Beth let out a startled yelp, following by a string of swear words.

  "He's half asleep," Beth said, breathing in deeply. "Hope the car is okay. That was a much bigger impact than before. We need to drive it away."

  Jen was silent. Beth spoke to her again. No reaction. She tapped her on the shoulder, and Jen jumped, a surprised scream coming from her.

  "You okay?" Beth asked. Still no reply. Must be in shock, she thought.

  The van driver too was sat at the wheel of his cab, just looking ahead. The car, side on, had been pushed a long way by his truck. The front bumper had managed to wedge itself under the side of the car. Thankfully, it hadn't rolled over.

  After another thirty seconds, Jen had composed herself slightly more. Her face was still pale. Her hands were still shaking. She looked as though she was going to throw up. She had a few small cuts to the side of her face, but no injuries oth
er than that. Finally she spoke. "God, that was awful," was all she said.

  Beth could see an ambulance approaching in her mirror. A St John ambulance. These ambulances are staffed by volunteers and can usually be found at major events throughout the UK, such as football matches, air shows and concerts where a large crowd is expected. A good bit of luck that one was so close by, or was it?

  Two medics got out as the ambulance braked to a halt, and rushed over to the damaged Vectra.

  "Hi Beth," one said. "You two okay?"

  "Jen has some cuts, and I think she's in shock, but I'm fine."

  "Yeah, she doesn't look good does she. Silly cow. Think I'll have to get her in the back of the ambulance."

  "Don't do that! She might say something she shouldn't when you've got the delivery driver in there," Beth argued back.

  "It'll look weird if she's not in the ambulance though."

  "Oh, go on then, just don't let her say anything." Beth scowled as she realised he was trying to look down her top.

  "Okay, we'll stick as close to the plan as we can. I'll get the driver in to the back of the ambulance, you see if you can get the car unstuck from the front of the truck. Be ready to go on the signal."

  Beth opened the driver side door, that side of the vehicle being totally undamaged. Jen's door was directly against the front of the truck, so Jen was helped over the front seat so she could get out of the drivers side door as well.

  One medic walked Jen over to the back of the ambulance, reassuring her as they went, as the other went over to the truck. He tapped on the window with his knuckles. Got no response from the driver. The medic tried the door handle and opened the door.

  He spoke to the driver. "Are you okay sir?"

  "I, er, I don't know what happened," he replied back, stammering, still looking blankly out of his windscreen. "I was just driving along, and the next thing I know, I was pushing this car along. Don't know where the hell it came from." He shook his head.

  The medic gave the driver a brief examination, asking if there was any pain or if he suffered from any medical conditions. He determined that the driver was okay to be moved. No pain in his neck or back. Getting the driver in to the ambulance was crucial. Even if he did have pain in his back he would have moved him.