by Stan Mason
Waverley picks up his cup to sip his tea, reflecting on the thought. His mother was right but whatever happened to his wife now was no longer of any concern to him. Once the house was sold and the divorce was sanctioned and ran its course, she would be completely out of his life... for ever! He could hardly wait for it to happen!
Chapter Ten
At seven-thirty on a cold wet Wednesday morning, Paula Stratton arrived at the Waverley house and rang the doorbell. She waited a short while before pressing it again impatiently. After a short while, the door was opened by Waverley who wore a dressing gown over his clothes to make certain they were kept clean while making his breakfast. He stared at her in surprise before speaking.
‘Can’t you sleep these days?’ he muttered stifling a yawn.
‘Important business to discuss,’ she told him brusquely, pushing past him to go to the lounge before he could close the door.
‘Would you like a cup of coffee?’ he asked after following her inside. She nodded briefly and he went into the kitchen returning shortly with a coffee pot and an extra cup. ‘What‘s it all about?’ he enquired, blinking his eyes to ensure that he was awake before sitting opposite her.
She stared at him with a serious expression on her face and then went into the dialogue that she had rehearsed so many times in her mind over the past few days. ‘It’s about the bank job,’ she told him directly. ‘Before you protest that you’re not going to do it, let me explain the plan. You may be impressed or surprised at the detail but I think it’s important that you see the whole picture before you make a decision.‘
‘Why?’ he asked tersely, sipping his coffee.
‘Because it’s an opportunity for you to retire early with a great deal of money. Whether you do it or not is a matter for you to decide. All I can do is to relate the details to you.’
‘You know it’s only just gone seven-thirty,’ he said, changing the subject not wishing to hear anything about the plan.
‘That’s why I came,’ she explained. ‘No interruptions at this time of day.’
‘I’d like to remind you that while you think it’s the most important thing on your agenda, it’s not the most important thing on mine.’ She paused to stare at him for a moment. ‘Okay,’ he went on. ‘You’re determined to get it off your chest so you may as well tell me the whole plan in detail. I’m all ears.’
She hesitated for a moment before speaking hoping to impress him with the opening dialogue. ‘It’s so simple yet it’s very complex in nature,’ she began earnestly.
‘That’s quite philosophical but not very helpful,’ he cut in feeling somewhat amused by her weak efforts to influence him.
‘It involves three separate activities, each of which is integral to the whole plan.’
‘Three!’ he cut in with an element of amusement in his voice.
‘The first relates to the sale of this house,’ she went on ignoring his negative attitude. I know that you want to sell it...’
He held up his hand to stop her in her flow. ‘I’m ahead of you there already,’ he informed her. ‘The estate agent came here yesterday and he was very impressed with the place. He fell in love with it instantly. I told him I needed to sell it quickly and, surprisingly, he made me an offer to buy it for himself. Mind you, it was way below the price I would have asked normally but needs must when the Devil drives and he was a willing buyer with the cash. I told him I would sell it to him on two conditions. The first was that he would waive all the searches related to the property. The second was that the completion date would be by Friday of next week. It would mean that I would have to move out on the Saturday. It wouldn’t cause any problem because I could stay at a hotel while I look for another property.’
‘Excellent!’ she volleyed with delight. ‘It accelerates the plan considerably.’
‘How so?’ he asked. ‘What’s my selling this house to do with your plan?’
‘Because that’s the first element. It’ll all become clear to you when I explain it to you.‘
‘Okay,’ he uttered, somewhat confused by her answer. ‘What’s the second one?’
‘I haven’t finished the first one yet,’ she countered quickly. ‘I want the buyer to make out two cheques. One to the bank for your mortgage repayment in full. The second to a name I’ll give you later on.‘’
Suspicion grew in his mind at a rate of knots. ‘Why should I ask him to do that?’ he questioned, bridling at the idea that the balance of the money from the sale of the property would go to another person.
’I can see that you’re worried but you don’t need to be,’ she told him. ‘The second element is to disguise yourself so that you won’t be recognised.’
Suddenly the plan began to figure as a piece of pure fiction. ‘Just hold it there for a second,’ he returned resentfully. ‘Is this some kind of a wind-up, Paula, or have you gone completely off your rocker? I believe that you’re poking fun at me in a very mischievous way?’
‘No I’m serious!’ she insisted firmly. ‘I told you it was complex in nature. What I want you to do is to meet the bank robbers and inform them of the codes designed to open the safe and pass on copies of the safe keys to them,’
‘Oh, come on, Paula!’ he rattled angrily. ‘I can’t do that! You know I can’t do that!’
‘They have to be able to rob the bank quickly and successfully. To do that, you’ll need to help them.’
‘Well there won’t be much left in the safe if I’m to rob it day by day, will there?’ he scoffed.
‘That’s the whole point,’ she told him flatly.
‘No... sorry... I don’t get it,’ he responded slowly, completely perplexed by the plan.
‘All you need to concern yourself at the outset is to take newspaper cuttings to the bank each day and take out as much as you can in your briefcase. Within five or six days, you’ll have three quarters of a million pounds. What with the proceeds of the house, we’ll have over a million.’
‘I see... it’s back to ‘we’ again, is it?’
’I’m doing my bit as well, you know. I’ve got to get two passports in the names of Vivienne Splendour and Adam Maloney. In the meantime, your next duty will be to open an account with a Swiss Bank in the centre of London to deposit the money. You’ll do so under the name of Jan de Vries.’
‘What happens then in this wonderful plan?’ he asked with an amused tone in his voice, ‘only it’s beginning to become complicated.’
‘The robbers rob the bank successfully.’
‘You know this is beginning to sound like a Hans Andersen fairy tale,’ he uttered sipping at his coffee again.
‘Don’t you see!’ she chided. ‘The robbers get away with oodles of money only to discover that it’s comprised of newspaper cuttings wrapped up in the bank’s plastic wrappers. When the bank’s Inspectors investigate the robbery, all the newspaper cuttings you took in place of the banknotes will have gone. No one will know that anything untoward happened except that there was a bank raid and the robbers got away with all the money.’
He suddenly twigged the cleverness of the plan and looked at her admiringly. ‘That’s really smart!’ he said brightly. ‘It’s a very clever plan. I take all the money from the safe over a short period of time and the robbers raid the bank and steal all the newspaper cuttings believing that the packages they’ve stolen contains banknotes. Ultimately, the bank Inspectors believe that the robbers got away with all the money in the safe but all they stole were newspaper cuttings. I get away scot free with no one realising that I’m the one with all the money.’
‘Ah,’ she returned. ‘I’m getting through to you at last. After that, we take a train to Manchester Airport, just in case something goes wrong. If it does, the police will be looking out for you at Gatwick or Heathrow Airports while we catch a plane to somewhere in the Caribbean from Manc
hester. We’ll be Vivienne Splendour and Adam Maloney able to . draw money from the Swiss Bank whenever we need it.’
‘All very interesting,’ he told her standing up, ‘and very commendable. In the meantime, I’ll need to look for another place to live.’
‘Why don’t you stay with me?’ she proposed readily. ‘It’s not as grand as this but it’s cosy. After all, it’s only a temporary measure until the robbery takes place and we leave the country.’
‘And what happens when the bank finds out I’m missing?’ he challenged.
‘The police will be on the lookout for a while but they’ll soon give up. They have lots of serious crimes to deal with rather than to search for you on a worldwide scale. I mean to say, no one will report you missing or press the authorities for an enquiry, will they? No one’s interested in you except for your employer. You can actually leave at letter at the bank to say that you’re so overcome by the your wife’s infidelity and departure with her lover that you’re going to a clinic in Switzerland for rehabilitation and you’ll be there for about six months. They’ll soon forget all about you.’
‘What about my mother?’ he added.
‘Oh yes, your mother. But there’s no one else. We can ring her before she reports you’re missing to solve that problem.‘
‘Let me get this straight,’ he cut in sharply. ‘All that the bank robbers get is newspaper cuttings. Is that right?’
‘That’s right,’ she repeated blandly. ‘We’ll have all the money. And, remember, the bank’s going to make a lot of people redundant. I want you to keep thinking about that.’
He sat back on the settee again in bewilderment. He had woken up that morning and reluctantly looked at his horoscope in the daily newspaper. It stated that changes were in store for him and that he would benefit financially in monetary terms. It appeared that, if he agreed to take part in this folly, the prediction could be correct. What he would give to own a crystal ball to determine the outcome. If it went wrong, he would end up without a job with a jail sentence of about eight years in prison. It was a serious risk that he did not wish to take.
‘So now you know the outline of the plan what do you say? she asked impertinently, cutting into his thoughts.
‘I have to say it’s rather ingenious but I’m not sure I want to go with it,’ he rendered wimpishly.
‘You’re all alone in the world now, Neil,’ she pressed. ‘It’s time for you to man-up and take an opportunity like this.’
‘It’s going to be awkward if I go to live with you at your place’ he admitted sadly.
‘We did it in Spain,’ she told him point-blank. ‘And, as I said, it’ll only be temporary. We’ll still sleep in separate bedrooms.’
He seemed to be comforted by her comment and nodded his head slowly. ‘Except that I‘m not keen on going through with your plan. In that case, it means I’ll be living with you permanently.’
‘Are you saying that’s such a bad thing!’ she reproached, causing him to lean back in his armchair with an element of concern.
‘Don’t get me wrong...’ he began before she interrupted him rudely.
‘I don’t get you at all, Neil. You’re on your own, with nowhere to live, facing possible redundancy... and yet you’re backing away from a very sound opportunity. Where’s your spirit of adventure?’
‘What if someone finds out that I’m taking money home from the bank every day?’ he bleated weakly.
‘Oh... for Heaven’s sake!’ she blurted angrily. ‘Do have some backbone!’
‘I’ll think it over,’ he told her, although she knew from the tone in his voice that he was unwilling to agree. ‘I have to admit it’s an ingenious plan. Did you make it up yourself or did you see it in a fantasy film on television?’
‘It’s my own,’ she snapped as though he had insulted her. ‘It all fell into place when I learned that you were a banker with control of the money in the bank’s safe. But the whole thing’s pointless if you won’t do it.’
He leaned towards her smiling. ‘Well, let’s face it, I have a good job which pays me well. There’s a pension building up year by year. Why should I want to spoil it by taking a big risk like stealing money from my employer.’
‘There’s two things which ought to make you change your mind. Firstly, you’re twenty-seven years old. Your pension won’t be paid to you for another thirty-eight years. Secondly, the bank’s winding down the number of staff. Who knows how long it will be before they get round to you. And then what will you do? Become a clerk in an investment company ... become a shelf-stacker in a supermarket... I don’t think so!’
He weighed up the pros and cons before replying. ’This is all so sudden... with Liz walking out on me and now the plan to rob the bank. What’s just as worrying is what I’ll do sitting on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean? My mind’s not adjusted to such an early retirement. I’m sure I’d soon get bored and regret what I’d done.’
‘Not if we bought a small yacht you wouldn‘t,’ she riposted. ‘We could sail the high seas whenever we wanted, Now there’s a thought.’
He stared at her in disbelief. ‘You’re already way ahead of me as if I’d agreed to participate in this crazy scheme!’ he said perceptively. ‘’Don’t pin your hopes too high. Paula It’s more than likely we’ll just meet up at rehearsals with you being bitterly disappointed because I turned you down.’
‘All I ask is that you think about it. If you decide against it... well I’ll roll with the punches.’ She paused to look at her wristwatch and stood up. ‘I think we’d better move on or we’ll both be late for work.’
He accompanied her to the door with sadness in his heart. She was so enthusiastic about her plan for him to rob the bank but, in his mind, that’s as far as it would go and no further. Despite all that had happened, he had to decide whether to live in her house or find a place of his own. Robbing the bank in the way she had planned was simply madness. Nonetheless, he decided to do a trial run without any newspaper cuttings or any intention of taking banknotes from the safe for his own benefit on the following day just to try it out.
At ten forty, he went out and called the Accountant, David Johnson, to go downstairs to the safe with him. Johnson walked down the stairs while Waverley entered the lift at the end of the banking hall with his executive briefcase in his hand and placed it on the trolley which he wheeled into the elevator. Once it had arrived at the lower floor, he pushed it out into the narrow landing where the Accountant was standing.
’Okay, Johnson,’ he muttered. ’You can put your key in the safe and enter your code.
The other man obeyed and then went to the foot of the stairs nearby to guard it in case any robbers ran down them in an attempt to commit a robbery, It was a very feeble exercise but one that was set out in the banking rules. If any bandits had raced down the stairs, Johnson would yell ‘Bandits’ leaving Waverley extremely little time to close the steel gate and the heavy safe door in front of it. However rules were rules and the bank insisted that they be followed to the letter. Waverley then placed his key into the lock and entered his code and, after turning the great wheel in the door, he opened the safe and the steel gate behind it. After pushing the trolley inside with his briefcase on top he turned around nervously to check that he was alone. This was only a dummy run... he couldn’t imagine how he would feel if he was actually stealing real money. There was well over a million pounds in square plastic boxes in the safe and he would have ample time to remove the money from one of the large plastic boxes, transferring the real banknotes with the newspaper cuttings from his briefcase. He would then lift up the large plastic boxes to place the one with the newspaper cuttings at the very bottom of the pile where the switch would not be noticed. He would then fill his briefcase with the real banknotes he intended to steal before going up in the lift to the banking hall. He then returned to his office with his
briefcase after Johnson came up from downstairs and pushed the trolley to the Chief Cashier who placed the remainder of the banknotes in a drawer underneath his cash register. Waverley, who had undertaken that specific job so many times before, was surprised that it was so simple to carry out.
He returned to his office, throwing the briefcase on the desk and stared at it solemnly, ‘What the hell am I doing?’ he thought to himself. ‘Surely you’re not going to let a woman with a crazy plan destroy your life or persuade you to do something so irrational!’ It was implausible that he would throw caution to the winds with such folly. ‘I must be out of my mind. What are you doing to me, Paula? What are you doing to me? You said you’d be my Guardian Angel but you’re leading me on the road to hell!’
He shook his head slowly. He would tell her that evening when he met her that he had decided not to become involved. It might be that he would have to wait for thirty-eight years before he received his pension but at least he wouldn’t have to wear prison clothing after the ignominy of being caught in the act. No... he was definite! He would make a number of excuses but, in the end, she would learn his decision. Without doubt, he knew that she would be very disappointed at his refusal, but there was no alternative. That was the way the cookie crumbled. If she didn’t like it, then it was tough. In her own words, she had to roll with the punches!
*** *
The atmosphere at the police station was electric. One of the bank robbers had been caught and that was tantamount to obtaining a great deal of information about the other robbers even though no money had been stolen. Will Hunter, by himself, was of no particular interest to Marley. His main aim was to arrest Fred Wilson. Nothing else mattered to him. Suddenly, out of the blue, he had found an edge and he intended to make the most of it... even though he soon learned that the bank robber he had caught was apparently deaf. He switched on the tape-recorder to record the conversation as it took place and sat down expectantly facing the bandit. He was determined for Will Hunter to admit that Wilson was the leader of the gang of robbers and had actually led them into the bank to undertake the robbery. If that happened, he would put Wilson away for a very long time after arresting him.