Iversson
‘Kidnapping, Max? It’ll never work, and it’s too fucking dangerous.’
We were in the lounge of Elaine’s apartment, just the two of us, beers in hand. Elaine had gone out to give us the privacy to talk things through.
‘It will work, Joe, if we do it properly. Elaine says that-’
‘Is this her idea?’
‘Course it isn’t. It’s a product of a lot of thinking I’ve been doing. Now, all I want you to do is hear me out. If after I’ve said my piece you still don’t want to know, then fair enough, all you have to do is walk out of here and forget we ever had this conversation.’
Joe took a slug from his beer. ‘Go on, then,’ he said suspiciously.
‘Krys Holtz likes to go to a little gentleman’s club called Heavenly Girls which is down round here, not far from Farringdon Road. It’s a nice town-house in a posh street, which is mainly offices, and basically it’s full of top-drawer and top-price totty. Krys is meant to keep his movements unpredictable to stop any of his many enemies taking potshots at him, but word is that he tends to go to the clubseveral nights a week, and usually most Friday nights if he hasn’t pulled anywhere else. And sometimes even if he has.’
‘And where’s this information coming from?’
‘Elaine. She knows some of the girls down there. Apparently Roy Fowler used to manage it as well as the club.’ Joe pulled a face but didn’t say anything. ‘We might have one or two false starts but we should be able to survey the place all right without arousing suspicion.’
‘What about you? You’re a wanted man.’
‘I won’t have shaved for a few days, I’ll be wearing glasses, and anyway the street’s not particularly well lit or well used after dark, so I don’t think we’ll have a problem there. When Krys arrives all we do is wait for him to go in — apparently he usually travels with a couple of associates — then one of us goes to the door and gains entry.’
‘How does the person gain entry in the first place? Presumably they don’t let in any Tom, Dick or Harry.’
‘Someone’ll have to do a dummy run first to get an idea of the place. Whoever does it’ll use the name of one of the regulars, say that the bloke’s recommended it to him. Then once he’s been once, he shouldn’t have any problem going back a second time. So when he gets in the second time-’
‘If he gets in.’
‘He goes upstairs to reception, which is supposedly fairly quiet, and when he’s satisfied that everything’s all right, he pulls a gun, takes control of the reception area, and gets the receptionist to let the rest of us in. Then, when we’re up the stairs, we find out the room where Krys is doing his thing, and grab him.’
‘What about the men with him? What’ll they be doing all this time?’
‘They usually tend to be with their own women. They certainly don’t hang about guarding Krys. The beauty of it is that they’ll be really easy pickings. Caught with their trousers down, so to speak. We tie them up, disarm them, and then we’re out of there. By this time, we’ve hired a nice little place out in the country on a short let, and we keep him there until the ransom’s sorted out.’
‘And how the hell are we going to collect the ransom without getting ourselves killed in the process?’
I paused, not sure whether I still needed to convince myself of this bit. ‘We get his dad to deliver it.’
‘Who? Stefan?’ I nodded. ‘Max, we’re talking about a man who’s a virtual recluse. How are you going to get him out running errands?’
‘Because Krys is his son. One of his boys is in prison, and now he risks losing another one. From what I hear, they’re a close-knit family, and Krys, even though he’s meant to be one mean fucking bastard, is also the apple of his mother’s eye.’
‘Where are you getting all this information from?’
‘A lot of it’s common knowledge, Joe. You know that. The Holtzes might try to be secretive but everyone knows about them. I think that if we play this right, then we’re going to be able to get his old man to come. And, obviously, if we can do that, then the chances of anyone trying to fuck us over are minimal. They won’t dare do anything that’ll risk hurting the big boss. Then we take the money, give Krys a nice kicking so he knows what it’s like to be on the wrong end of a beating for once, and we’re out of there.’
‘And that’s it?’
‘That’s it. If we make a straight ransom demand of half a million in cash, that’ll be enough to make up for the risks we’re going to have to take, and give everyone involved the opportunity to take off elsewhere until things either calm down or they don’t. Either way there’ll be a nice little nest egg, and it’s not a sum that people like the Holtzes are going to have any trouble raising. Not with their money. The whole thing’ll take a few days and then, bingo, you’ll be a whole lot richer than you are today.’
‘If we get away with it.’
‘It’s a risky venture, I know that. I’m asking for your involvement because you’re my mate, and you know I’ve got to do something to sort out this situation. Plus, I think the money outweighs the risks. Think about it. We spent months at a time fighting people who make the Holtzes look like pussycats, and all for five hundred quid a week tax free. This might be dangerous, but it’s no more dangerous than anything else we’ve ever done, and this time we can all take a nice long holiday at the end of it.’
Joe took another slug of the beer. ‘Have you spoken to anyone else about this?’
‘Apart from Elaine, no.’
‘And what does she think, this woman you’ve known for all of one weekend?’
‘I think she’d prefer it if we just got out of London and forgot the whole thing, but now that she knows I’m committed to doing it, she’s right behind me.’
‘How do you know she’s not going to go and blurt the whole thing out to one of her mates?’
‘Because she’s no fool, Joe. Plus, she owes Krys Holtz after what he did to her last night. She won’t let us down.’
Joe sat back in his seat and lit a cigarette, still not back in the habit of offering me one, so I pulled out one of my own. ‘The police came to see me again this morning,’ he said eventually.
‘Oh yeah? How come?’
‘Eric’s missus. She’s reported him missing. This detective came round asking questions. Had we seen him? How long’s he worked with us? That sort of thing.’
‘Did he mention anything about me?’
‘No, it was a different bloke to the ones who came round Saturday. I got the impression that this one didn’t know anything about you. God knows why. You’d have thought they’d have co-ordinated things a bit better.’
‘That’s the Old Bill for you. Do you think he suspects anything?’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t think so. He sounded like the whole thing was routine, but we really don’t need the attention, not with everything else. And you’ve got to think, they’re going to be able to put two and two together eventually, aren’t they?’
‘That’s another reason to go ahead with this. If we’ve got money in our pockets, big money, we’re not going to have to worry about it.’
He sighed. ‘I don’t think they can prove much anyway, not without a body, but it’s a worry. You know, it’s amazing how everything can change just like that. This time last week everything was hunky dory. Now look at it.’ He sat in silence for a few moments and I watched him closely, knowing that if he didn’t bite I might as well forget the whole thing now. ‘This sort of operation’s going to need at least four people involved, maybe even five,’ he said after a while.
‘Yeah, I know. I thought we’d use Johnny Hexham as the driver. He’s always available for work, and we don’t have to tell him what we’re doing. Not until it’s too late for him to do anything about it anyway. I can even get him to nick the vehicles we’ll use for the snatch. Any ideas who else? Anyone we’ve worked with in the past? I was thinking of ex-squaddies who are looking for a bit of extra cash.’
‘Not many are going to want to get involved in something like this. Too many things could go wrong.’
‘With half a million to play with, we could make it worth their while.’
‘What split are you suggesting?’
‘Equal shares for everyone who has to carry a gun, fifty grand for the driver, and thirty to Elaine for her part in setting it up. Does that sound fair?’
