One Night (7 page)

Part Two

Night

Joel knew he only had a second to decide what to do, that everything came down to this moment. Eve was at his side silent, scared out of her wits probably. In front of him the three men were climbing out of the van. The two with the bats were holding them at waist height, ready to use them if they had to. He could hear the men from the car getting closer behind him, one of them panting from the exertion of running.

Eve squeezed his hand but didn’t say a word. He squeezed back.

Joel knew he had nothing in his favour except desperation. If this had been London and he’d been alone he would have been okay. There were a thousand places he could run to and on his own he was fast on his feet. But it was Southend, which he didn’t know from Timbuktu, and he had the weight of the bag to slow him down. That and Eve. It was his fault she was here, caught up in all this, and so there was no way he could leave her.

None of the men looked fast except for the lanky one, they were all too thick round the middle. Big lads sure but either past their prime or too heavily muscled for speed. Co
uld Eve run, he asked himself, really run? She’d said she went to the gym but what did that really mean, he knew people who went five times a week but never left the steam room.

“How fast can you run?” he said quietly.

“Faster than you.” she said back and he found himself falling for her a little bit more.

He turned back towards the restaurant with a smile on his face. If she was telling the truth this might work.

“Sago!” he shouted and ran.

Eve went with him, launching herself forward with a speed that surprised him. As she did it she laughed, she actually laughed.

“Fuck!” shouted one of the men from the van and Joel heard three pairs of feet chasing after them. The footfalls were heavy but the pace was slow, slower than his anyway, and definitely slower than Eve’s. I’ve got the bag to slow me down, Joel told himself, but she had such a speed to her he knew she would have beaten him even if he was unencumbered.

Up ahead the big man from the car looked up in surprise from where he’d stopped to catch his breath. His skinny partner was still running, the distance between him and Joel narrowing by the second. Joel ran straight at him, swinging the bag on his shoulder round at the last
moment. It slammed into the thin man’s face and he went down, his nose bleeding.

Eve was pulling further ahead of him now, the big man straightened and spread his arms trying to block her way. She neatly sidestepped and dodged around him. As he clumsily grabbed for her Joel passed him on the other side, swinging the bag again. It struck the man on his back and he stumbled forward into a shop window. His face collided with the glass and he fell to the ground.

Joel and Eve ran on. One after another they passed the restaurant they had eaten in. The waitress inside stared out at them, enjoying the free show. Joel could see the look of excitement on her face. He wondered if the Romans at the Coliseum had worn similar expressions.

Eve couldn't decide if she was excited or terrified. Her blood was pumping, her lungs
sucking in the cold sea air. Every one of her senses felt like it was running on overdrive.

She looked behind her and saw that Joel was falling back. His right shoulder was slumped slightly from the weight of the bag and his face showed the strain of carrying it. Behind him she could see the three men from the van charging along the street. They had to get away from them, she knew, lose them completely. No matter how fit Joel was that bag was going to slow him down. Eventually they would catch up to him and when they did she hated to think what damage those baseball bats would do. She looked ahead again, her eyes searching for anything that could help them. The street was empty. She wondered if it had been that way a minute ago or if the people who had been going about their business there had scattered when the car and van had jumped the pavement. 

She looked back. The van was reversing onto the road, the driver swinging it around to point at her. The men were closing on Joel, she could see the sweat on his face now despite the cold.

Fuck it this was her town, there must be a way out,
she just had to think what it was. She looked forward to check that her path was clear and then back again. The van was pulling off, accelerating towards them. Her brain had been clouded by wine and lust when she’d left the restaurant but it was clear now. Something clicked in it and she realised how easy the van was to deal with.

“Left,” she shouted over her shoulder and ran across the road. Ten yards up there was an alleyway, a cut through that led to the parallel road. From there
ran another, and another after that. Narrow paths linking three streets together. Too narrow for the van. She looked back again and saw that Joel had found a reserve of energy. He was following in her path, starting to pull away from the thugs again.

Eve entered the alley, the high walls on either side of her made it feel like she was running even faster. She thanked God for all the hours she’d put in on the treadmill and the cross
trainer. Up ahead was a cluster of bins. She pulled herself to a stop just past them, taking a moment to catch her breath. The alley stank of rotting vegetables and piss but at least she was safe from the van.

Joel knew he’d pushed himself almost to the limit. His chest was aching and his breath was coming in ragged gasps. The bag was a dead weight on his shoulder, banging painfully against his back with each stride. Up ahead he saw Eve disappear into the alleyway. God she was something special. He just hoped she wouldn’t run a mile from him if they ever got out of this mess.

He heard the roar of the van’s engine behind him, he’d been waiting for that. Its headlights lit him up, casting his shadow long on the road in front of him. He looked back and saw it, twenty feet back now. The three men who’d jumped out of it were silhouetted in the headlights. The driver sounded his horn and they scattered, parting to let the van through. Joel looked forward again. The alley was so close. He focussed on it, letting it fill his vision. Nothing else mattered but the alley and the woman who’d just run into it.

The driver of the van gunned his engine,
his foot down hard now that his path was clear. The vehicle shot forward, two metric tonnes of steel powering straight at the man in its headlights.

In the alley Eve felt her heart rise into her throat as she heard the van accelerate. Everything else was blotted out as the sound of its engine echoed off the walls and filled the narrow space.

Reynolds was gone from the doorstep when Danny and Joel got back to the house. That much was a relief but Joel knew he’d be waiting inside, smiling that smug smile of his. He didn’t know if he’d made the right decision but now he had he would stick to it. He’d do the job for Danny, help him out of his hole, and then never work with Reynolds again.

Danny led him down a hallway and into the house’s living room. There were three people in it and they stopped talking when Joel walked in. Joel registered Reynolds out of the corner of his eye and ignored him. He recognised the two other men. One was a Scot named Paterson who was almost as good behind the wheel as the Swede Johansson. Paterson was ex-army and handy in a fight as well being an expert driver. Johansson, on the other hand, only worked as a wheelman. That told Joel something about what they were going to be doing, he just wasn't sure what yet.

The other man was Fuller. He was a planner, the brains behind the job. His role would be to give them the minute by minute breakdown of what needed to be done when. His presence in the room gave Joel confidence. He'd worked a couple of Fuller's jobs before and knew that he was meticulous in his planning. No element was ever missed, no eventuality left unanticipated.

The man came across as a bag of nerves but Joel knew this was only because he was constantly fretting over every detail. Fuller knew that the lives of the men executing his plans depended on them being absolutely correct. He took that responsibility very seriously.

Fuller wouldn't go along for the job which meant it was a three man operation. Joel, Reynolds and Paterson. It could have been better but it could also have been a lot worse. As long as the boxer didn't lose it again of course.

He nodded to Paterson and Fuller and sat on one of a couple of dining chairs that someone had placed next to the wall. Danny sat next to him.

Fuller pulled himself out of the threadbare armchair he was sitting in and started to talk.

He laid out the plan in detail over the course of about half an hour. As Joel saw it the headlines were simple.

They were targeting Matt Parker, a drug dealer who had the West End market pretty much sewn up and was doing very nicely out of it. The proceeds of his crimes had bought him a huge house out of the city in the Hertfordshire countryside. That was their target. The house had on-site security, a rolling shift that meant there were always a guard around. The guards were supplied by a security firm made up of ex-military guys so they weren't the belly scratching old men or tattooed and muscled losers you saw in your local supermarket.

Fuller had obtained an engineer code which would disable the house's security systems. Once they were
and the guard was restrained, Reynolds would deal with the house's owner and his wife. They had a kid but he was away at boarding school so wouldn't be there to get in the way. Joel's job was to crack and empty the dealer's safe. A source had told the anonymous backer of the job that the dealer was about to make a million pound deal and that the funds for it would be sitting there for the taking.

“Definitely just the one guard?” said Joel when Fuller had finished. “If it was
me and I had that much cash laying around the house I’d want a bit of extra security.”

Fuller shook his head. “The deal is very hush hush. Parker thinks no-one knows about it but you don’t get to be as successful as he is without a healthy dose of paranoia. This is the biggest score he’s ever made and he is terrified that someone is going to find out about it. The last thing he wants to do is draw attention to himself and blow the deal. He isn’t going to do a single thing that changes his routine.”

“Okay,” said Joel. “I just don’t want us to roll up there and find he’s got his own army waiting for us.”

“Don’t worry,” said Fuller. “I have a contact in the security firm. If anything changes they’ll tip me off. Information is everything. That
’s the basis of all good jobs, a few discreet pieces of information put together to create something much bigger than you’d expect. Besides, even if there is another guard the four of you should be enough to handle things.”

“Four?” said Joel.

Danny smiled. "I'll be coming too."

"You?" Joel was shocked. It was a very long time since Danny had got his hands dirty. In his day Joel knew he'd been involved in some impressive jobs
but that was years in the past.

"Someone's got to keep an eye on you two jokers," the older man said, indicating Joel and Reynolds. "Best behaviour boys. There's a lot of cash for the taking here and I don't want you two fucking it up. And not a word of this to anyone until it’s done. Not to your mates, not to your birds. If you talk in your sleep then you s
leep alone until we have the money. This one is absolutely under wraps. That’s why we’re doing this here rather than somewhere more public. The last thing we want is one of Parker’s dealers seeing us and him putting two and two together."

Joel left not long after that. He walked back
the way he’d come.and got the Tube home.

Danny called him that evening. They met in the same bar. The s
ecretaries weren’t there when Joel arrived which was kind of a shame. Danny was, and that was a surprise. He was rarely on time for anything so the fact that he had managed it twice in one day was kind of a miracle. Joel got a pint and joined Danny at a table in the corner.

“I wanted to make it up to you,” Danny said.

Joel nodded, “Don’t worry about it, I didn’t realise things were bad for you.”

“They are mate, very bad. This will sort things out though. Hopefully for good.”

“Okay, then it’s worth it,” said Joel.

“I know how hard this is for you.”

Joel looked at Danny. Without him he’d still be breaking into taxi offices and pawn shops. Danny had seen the potential in him when they’d first met and had helped him achieve it. He knew how much he owed him. Danny had done alright out of Joel for sure, he always got his cut after all, but Joel knew how much he owed him. He’d never had a father figure, the string of men in the foster homes he’d been in hadn’t even come close. Danny might just be the nearest thing he’d ever had to a dad. Not all the way there maybe, not that he really had a yardstick for it, but Joel looked up to him more than he ever had anyone else. Respected him. Hell, he loved him.

“I still think of that guy. Of what Reynolds did to him.”

Danny leaned forward. “It’ll just be this once, Joel. I promise. A quick and easy job to set us both up for a while and then Reynolds will be nothing more than a memory. Trust me.”

Joel looked into Danny’s eyes and knew that he did. There weren’t many people he’d say it for, in fact the man in front of him might be the only one, but he’d trust Danny with his life.