Stealth

by Stan Mason

  Hingler nodded. He filled the briefcase with the money, gathered up the documents and turned to Waverley. ‘I’ll return your briefcase shortly, sir,’ he told him before leaving the office.

  ‘Welcome to the Swiss Bank of London, Mr. De Vries,’ greeted Messler calmly. We shall check your credentials of course but you’ll receive an account number before you leave with a receipt for the money deposited today. Please keep the details safely. If there is anything you need to know, contact me.’ He took a business card from a wooden box on his desk and handed it to Waverley.

  The banker stared at the card and nodded. ‘I certainly will,’ he responded, his heart thumping in his chest with nervousness even though this part of the plan was over. However he knew that he would only find relief after he had left the bank.

  A short while later, Hingler returned with the empty briefcase. Waverley shook hands with Messler who walked with him to the front door of the bank. Waverley walked slowly down the street until he reached the corner, then he leaned against a wall to catch his breath. He was an Assistant Branch Manager at Prescot Bank. The nefarious activities he was undertaking were way out of his ambit. He needed to have more nerve to carry out his part of the operation or give it up altogether. However it was far too late to back out now. He had stolen money from his bank and deposited it elsewhere under a name with which no one could ever connect him. There was one more thing to worry about... the checking of the documents and the passport. If something went wrong with any of them, he would be stuck between a rock and a hard place. After all, he was totally reliant on Paula Stratton to get things right. If for some reason, she failed on any single aspect of the plan there was no way back!

  ***

  It was a very dull morning with rain sweeping in from the west. The weather forecast was predicted to get worse but Paula Stratton had no time to think about it. She was racing towards the East End of London in her Ford Fiesta, ploughing through the traffic which seemed to be thicker than usual while every red traffic light seemed to be against her. Subsequently, she left the main road and made her way through a number of side roads in order to make up time. In due course, she arrived at her destination and knocked on the front door of the Everett house. It was old, decrepit and grimy but as far as the occupants were concerned it was their home.

  Old man Everett answered the call, leaning heavily on a walking stick in his left hand.

  ‘It’s Paula, uncle,’ she greeted,

  The old man stared at her closely before nodding. ‘You’re just like your mother,’ he uttered in a shrill voice. ‘You’re lucky I’m on my feet today or I wouldn’t have been able to open the door. I’ve been pretty much an invalid over this past three months. But today I feel much better. You’d better come in. To what do I owe this visit?’

  Paula entered the hallway and closed the front door behind her.

  ‘I remember the days when you had a rope hanging through this letter-box which opened the latch when pulled from the outside.’

  ‘Huh!’ he laughed moving to the lounge. ‘Those were the days! You could leave money on the table then and no one would touch it. Nowadays they’ll steal your socks while you’re still wearing them. Take a seat.’

  She went to the mantelshelf to look at the photographs resting there. ‘This is a lovely one of Auntie Renee,’ she told him.

  ‘Yes,’ he returned. ‘It’s nearly ten years since she passed away. I miss her a lot.’

  ‘Ten years,’ she echoed glumly. ‘Is it really that long? How time flies!’

  ‘Sit down, Paula,’ he repeated. ‘It’s really good to see you. I can’t remember how long it is since your last visit. I phoned you a few times but you were always out. Leading a reckless life, no doubt,’ he laughed jokingly. ‘How’s your folks?’

  ‘They’re both dead. Don’t you remember, They were killed in that plane crash when returning from Spain.’

  He tried to think back about the incident but before his brain could function properly, he began to cough so heaving that Paula became concerned when he seemed unable to catch his breath.

  ‘She was some woman, was your mother,’ he managed to say haltingly as he recovered. ‘She took life by the horns and shook it, that’s for sure.‘. He paused to take a closer look at his niece’s face. ‘You’ve obviously come for something so you’d best get it off your chest.’

  ‘In your day, uncle,’ she began, hoping that he would be able to help her, ‘you were connected with the Underworld... the gangs of the East End. You had quite a reputation.’

  ‘Huh!,’ he laughed pitifully. ‘Look at me now. An old useless man.’

  She shrugged off his self-pity and proceeded with her request. ‘I want you to point me in the right direction.’

  ‘I was a bad boy,’ he went on, reminiscing in the past. ‘But that’s all over now. I tell the joke about an elderly couple where the woman says: “Why don’t we go upstairs and have sex?’ And her husband says: “Hold on, I can’t do both!” He burst into laughter which brought on another serious bout of coughing.

  ‘You should have that cough seen to,’ she advised curtly.

  ‘What good will that do... extend my life by another few months. It’s not worth the hassle. What is it you want from me?’

  ‘I’m looking for someone to rob a bank.’

  He stared at her in disbelief. It was the last request he ever expected to hear from his niece. ‘Wow!’ he uttered loudly. ‘Hold the phone! What’s this all about?’

  ‘All I can say is that I need a gang of robbers. Let me explain. The keys and the codes to the bank safe will be made available. The money can be taken up in a lift to the banking hall on a trolley. It will be quick and easy. No one will get hurt. It’s a done deal.’

  Her uncle stared at her with a contemptuous expression on his face. ‘A done deal robbing a bank!’ he uttered. ‘That’s hard to believe. How can you get hold of the keys and the codes?’

  ‘It’s all been arranged,’ she told him. ‘Someone in the know will have to talk to the robbers to advise them of all the details.’

  He looked at her with an element of suspicion. ‘Is this for real because it sounds like you’re winding me up.‘

  ‘I assure you it’s for real, uncle, she returned sincerely.

  He stared at her with his old bleary eyes. ‘Are you looking for professionals or will anyone do?’

  ‘As it’s all so simple, anyone will do,’ she said blandly.

  He shook his head as a smile broke out on his face. ‘You make me wish I was back in action again’

  ‘It’ll be quick and effective... in and out like a shot. All I need is a team of robbers.’

  ‘What do you want out of it?’

  ‘Nothing,’ she replied casually. ‘The robbers can keep all they get.’

  He shook his head sadly. ‘No, no, no! There’s something fishy here. Cut the crap, Paula! What’s it all about,? You can tell me.’

  ‘It’s all about revenge, uncle. Someone wants to get his own back on the bank.’

  ‘Horse shit!’ he snapped rudely. ‘Don’t try and fool me! No one robs a bank and gives away all the money. What’s going on?’

  ‘It’s not for you to concern yourself with, uncle,’ she went on. ‘Yours is not to reason why. Yours is just to do or die.’

  ‘But I am concerned. I’m not happy about this,’ he responded with an element of anger in his voice. ‘It doesn’t sit right.’

  ‘Trust me! I need that gang urgently. Put me in touch with them,’ she pleaded.

  He scratched his chin and hammered the stick a few times on the floor as he thought further on the matter. ‘I don’t know.‘ he muttered almost to himself with uncertainty. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘This is a great deal, uncle. Everything’s laid on...’

  ‘How?’ he interrup
ted sharply. ‘How can anyone get hold of the safe keys and the codes of a bank to do a robbery? No... it’s not on!’

  ‘You just have to believe me when I tell you it’s so,’ she insisted. ‘It’s all lined up ready to go.’

  ‘The whole thing’s too smooth... too easy. It just doesn’t ring true!’

  ‘I’m your niece,’ she pressed believing that she was losing the battle. ‘I ask you... would I do something to prejudice you?’

  ‘That I’ll accept but to do a bank robbery with all the keys and codes to hand is a fairy tale. It’s not possible.’

  ‘And I’m telling you that through my contact I’ve achieved it.’

  ‘They usually change the codes every week and there’s two people with separate keys and codes for the safe. How could you get both sets?’

  ‘That’s for me to know and for you to guess.’

  ‘Don’t get sassy with me!’ he challenged with an element of anger in his voice. ‘There’s a lot involved here. Men could be sent to jail for a long time if it went wrong.’

  ‘Don’t you think I know that?’ she riposted with anger in her tone. ‘I wouldn’t let that happen to anyone.’

  He paused to think about her request and then capitulated. ‘Well,’ he said eventually. ‘Sam, your cousin’s in with Fred Wilson. He’s just robbed a bank. He’s not very good at it but if it’s a done deal he should be okay. He’s been involved in two bank robberies and ended up with zilch both times. Are you a hundred per cent sure about this?’

  ‘Definitely,’ she retorted solidly even though she knew that there was a possibility that something could go wrong. For example, the fax identifying the codes to the safe might be delayed on Monday morning so that Waverley could not find out the changes. It would place the whole plan in jeopardy but she knew that if that happened there would be only a very short time to contact the gang to cancel the robbery. Additionally, the gang might decided to ignore her advice with regard to the date or the timing of the bank robbery which would be equally damaging.

  ‘Okay,’ he returned. ‘I’ll put out a feeler and see what happens. Mind you, I can’t promise anything. If anyone’s interested, I’ll get in touch with you. Give me your phone number. In the meantime, how about a nice cup of tea? I want you to tell me what happened to your folks. Both dead in a plane crash. That’s terrible. No one told me about it.’

  He left the room to put on the kettle leaving Paula alone with her thoughts. She remembered telling him about the death of her parents but the old man was probably suffering from mental deficiency in old age. The main objective was for Fred Wilson... whoever he was... to contact her within the next few days so that the plan could come into full effect. She knew that she could always rely on East Enders to find a solution to any nefarious activities in the criminal world and she was certain that her uncle would crack the problem for her!

  Chapter Twelve

  On his second day of robbing the bank, Waverley moved the trolley towards the lift. He looked across to Johnson and nodded for him to go down the stairs. Then he opened the lift gate and pushed the trolley inside with his briefcase on the top. Strangely enough, although he was truly concerned with stealing money from the safe, one of the problems which plagued his mind was how to hide his briefcase. If he took it with him down to the safe every day, it would probably come to the attention of Johnson who, within a very short time, would question why Waverley always took it down there with him. There had to be a way of hiding it but he had no idea at that particular time how to do it. Hopefully, the plan would have come to fruition before any suspicion came to light.

  When the lift arrived at the bottom, he opened the gate and pushed the trolley out. The operation continued to work in the same vein as the day before except that Johnson suddenly appeared at the safe causing Waverley to panic, believing that he had been discovered.

  ‘Haven’t you forgotten something?’ asked Johnson, staring at the newspapers in the bank wrappers which had been removed from the briefcase, although he didn’t know that they were newspaper cuttings and not real banknotes.

  Waverley turned to face him almost putting his hands up in the air to surrender. ‘What have I forgotten?’ he managed to say, trying to hide the briefcase under the wads of notes.

  ‘We haven’t rehearsed the factor of a bank robbery,’ declared the subordinate.

  ‘What?’

  ‘We need to rehearse the time I shout out ‘Robbers’ and you close the internal gate and the safe door. We always time it to make sure we’re on the ball.‘

  Waverley breathed a sigh of relief at the comment. He had truly believed that his theft had been discovered. ‘Oh,‘’ he uttered with grat relief. ‘Last time it was twenty seconds.’

  ‘Too long,’ countered Johnson. ‘We need to do it faster.’

  ‘Okay,’ came the response. ‘Let’s do it tomorrow.’

  Johnson looked disappointed but he nodded and returned to his position at the foot of the stairs allowing Waverley to continue with his task. He undid the large plastic box, removed the real banknotes and replaced them with the wrappers containing newspaper cuttings. Then he placed the real banknotes in the briefcase and secured the buckle. ‘Two down and three to go,’ he thought, hating himself for becoming involved in such a criminal activity. After all the years of studying to be successful in his banking examinations, and for the hard work he had given to the bank, it went very much against the grain to become involved in deceiving them in this way However, he had agreed to participate in the plan and he was now part of it. As long as he could keep Johnson at bay he knew that he would be able to escape scot free. He thought about Murphy’s Law which identified that if anything could go wrong, it would go wrong. He hoped and prayed that Paula had thought of everything and that she had got it absolutely right. After all, he had no idea how she would get hold of a gang of bank robbers to carry out the final deed.

  He followed the same process as he had the day before and at lunchtime he left the branch and started to walk towards the Swiss Bank. Every twenty yards, he slowed down and stared behind him to check that no one was following him but on that point he seemed to be in the clear. Each time after he was satisfied, he continued his journey until arriving at his destination. He approached the Receptionist who greeted him amiably.

  ‘Mr. De Vries to see Mr. Messler,’ he told her.

  ‘Please take a seat,’ she said in her customary manner.

  Shortly the manager arrived and invited him into his office.

  ‘I’ve another deposit to make,’ said Waverley. ‘I told you that there would be a number of them this week.’

  ‘How much is it this time?’ asked Messler calmly.

  ‘A hundred-and-sixty thousand pounds in sterling,’ came the reply.

  The manager nodded his head but he was mainly concerned not to become involved in an issue that related to money laundering which was against the law, especially as the credentials of Jan de Vries had not yet been verified. Nonetheless, to a Swiss Bank, money was money and he called Hingler to take the briefcase down to the safe and return with a receipt. As far as Waverley was concerned, his account now showed a balance of over three hundred thousand pounds in a period of two days and, with the balance of the proceeds of the sale of his house at the end of the week, he would have over half a million pounds sterling. And there were three days of bank theft to be carried out before then.

  He returned to his house at five-thirty on Thursday evening. No longer had he just sat down with a glass of martini in his hand when the doorbell rang. He rose to answer the call to find Paula at the front door with his mother.

  ‘I met your friend in the street outside,’ began his mother sharply.

  ‘Come in!’ he invited, warily at seeing the two of them together. ‘I’ll fix you both a drink.’

  ‘Don’t bother about me,’ returned
his mother. ‘I’m on my way to see a friend. I can’t stay.’ They went into the lounge and Paula sat down on the settee. ‘So you’re the one who stayed a week with him in Spain,’ advanced Mrs. Waverley in a caustic tone.

  ‘That was me,’ responded Paula without shame.

  ‘He tells me that your relationship is platonic,’ she went on nosily.

  ‘It is at the moment for obvious reasons but we have a whole life ahead of us.’

  ‘What do you expect to get out of it?’ demanded his mother, testing the younger woman, trying to find out the true reason.

  ‘Now there’s a leading question,’ came the response. ‘I want to make him richer than many people in this world, I’m in love with him and I adore him. He’s really a wonderful person. I admired him when I first came to the amateur operatic rehearsal but he was married then. Well he still is but soon he’s going to be free. It’ll take some time getting to know each other and we’ll live abroad.’

  The expression on his mother’s face was a sight to see. Firstly she was being out-gunned by her son’s new friend who was clearly going to stand for no nonsense. Secondly she was shocked at the revelation. ‘Abroad,’ she managed to say with surprise.

  ‘You’re always welcome to come and stay with us for as long as you like, Neil would like you to do that... and so would I.‘’

  Mrs. Waverley looked at the young woman closely. ‘I must say I’m very impressed,’ she told her. ‘You’re so different to Elizabeth. She was a...’

  ‘Mother!’ cut in the banker for he knew exactly what the woman was about to say.

  Yes... well he knows my views about her only too well. But you... you’re completely different. I have to say I’m impressed by you. I think you’ll be good for him. I’m not sure about you living abroad, but you’re both old enough to know your own minds. There’s one thing I will say. You have a strong personality whereby he’s somewhat week. I ask you not to dominate him too much. He’ll resent it if you do.’ She paused for a moment to look at her wristwatch. ‘I must go. Time flies by so quickly.’ She moved towards her son and kissed him gently on the cheek. ‘Take care. Both of you!’