head two days ago when he finally kicked me out.
I’ve blagged some space on Ronnie the concierge’s floor for a week, but his missus is far from happy. I can think of a hundred people that either owe me a favour or I could strong arm but, if Dupree’s goons are out there, they might get the wrong impression and think I was going back into business.
I’ll have to work out alternative accommodation soon.
Chapter 45
Friday June the 27 th 2008
Sometimes you just need to wait and a good thing comes along. Ronnie’s missus threw me out — I was two days past our agreed time and she caught me raiding the fridge for a can of lager. I had just put in an eighteen hour shift and felt entitled. She didn’t see my end of the argument and my bag and coat left the third floor window of the flat. I had to sprint down the stairs before my stuff became road kill.
I wandered up to the hostel but they blanked me. I had a job and they knew it. I grabbed a bus to Martin’s and was surprised that he let me in.
I had to pay up front rent but it’s a quarter what I would pay outside. I’ve to leave his booze alone and keep the house pristine. I would also have agreed to blow off his dad if he had asked.
Martin is running hot and cold and I can’t figure him from Adam at the moment.
The countdown to the trip is on but I need to get my head in gear. I need to plan my time in Mallorca. I have one week on the island and then I’m home.
I also need to call Charlie Wiggs.
Gordon Brown
59 Minutes
Wednesday July the 2 ^nd 2008
Charlie has arranged for me to meet his friend in Mallorca. I get the impression that the friend is a bit on the shady side and this is good news. I may need some help and an honest, upright citizen could be a dead weight.
I have the addresses of the two relevant Mallorca Security shops and my hotel is only a few streets from the shop in Inca. I’ve bought a map of the island and street maps for Inca and Palma. I’ve also entered the world of mobile communication with a ‘Pay As you Go’.
My tool kit will need to be split up and put in my hold luggage. Anyone knowing what to look for could put two and two together, but I’m counting on the hold bag getting through with no checks. It’s a risk I need to take. Breaking and entering is definitely on the cards and I’ve no guarantee I could put together a tool kit in the week that I’m in Spain.
I’ll give notice that I am quitting the job next week. Hopefully they will let me work four weeks and then it’s off to Espanya.
Chapter 46
Tuesday July the 15 th 2008
Something strange happened last night.
Earlier in the day I had bought a cheap, but sturdy suitcase from TJ Hughes in town and picked up a few travel essentials along with some additional clothing. I packed the clothes with the tool kit and toiletries into the new case to make sure it all fitted. I needn’t have worried — I could have fitted it in twice over.
I dropped it on the floor, set up a new code on the lock and pushed it under the bed. I’ll get by on the stuff I have left and I want to make sure that I can move quickly should the goons show up. I have no reason to think they will, but the closer to the flight date I get, the more I fear that something will stop me.
I went to work and came back around eight. I grabbed a glass of milk on the way up to my room and met Martin on the stairs. He looked slightly flushed and embarrassed. I asked what was up but he just shook his head, muttered something about paying your debts and squeezed past me.
I was up to date on the rent but I knew I was still a grand in the hole with him for other stuff and my promise to pay it all back within the month had been well off the mark. I entered my room, put the glass on the bedside table and slumped on the bed.
I lay for five minutes before sitting up and swinging my feet over the other side of the bed and reaching for the milk. My feet clipped the suitcase and I leaned over to push it back in. I froze.
The case had been well and truly pushed under the bed when I left. There was no doubt.
I reached down, pulled it out, placed it on the bed and checked the lock. The tell tale scratches from a knife or something sharp were scattered around the lock mechanism. I was too long in the tooth not to know when someone had been at a lock and the only person it could have been was Martin.
I dialled up the code, popped the lid and looked inside. Things looked much like I had left them. I took everything out and laid it on the bed but nothing seemed amiss. I double checked and then re-packed.
If Martin had been in the case he hadn’t taken anything. But why would he want to see inside? He knew I had nothing. I thought about confronting him but if he denied it, all I could call him was a liar and that would be me back on the street.
Let sleeping dogs lie was the order of the day.
Chapter 47
Thursday July the 24 ^th 2008
I quit the hotel early. Too much like hard work and my mind is firmly on Spain. My boss surprised me by pulling me to one side and asking if I fancied the role as his number two. I was a slightly at a loss for words. He told me he needed someone that had both smarts and was a grafter. His current number two was retiring in three months.
I declined but I think it is the first time I’ve been offered a legitimate job since my days on the factory floor. I was quite touched.
I now have an outline plan of action for Spain, but it is hard to pin down exactly what I’ll be doing. For a start I have three or four ideas as to how to get into the safety deposit box but I’m not even sure that there is a box — or, even if it exists that it contains anything — or if it does exist and does contain something that I will be able to get at it — or — or — or — or — you see the problem.
There is also no sign of the goons. Not even a whiff. That could be good or bad news. The good would be that Dupree considers me such a low level threat that he has reassigned his resources to better usage. The bad news is that I may now mean so little he could decide that getting rid of me might prevent a problem in the future.
I remember a lesson at school where we were discussing the Coliseum in Rome. Our teacher made the mistake of telling us that, although Nero had planned the building he had never given the famous ‘thumbs down’ sign in it because he died before it was completed. This opened the floodgates — ‘thumbs down’ — what did that mean. As soon as we found out it was a signal for the victor to kill the defeated, we were over it like a rash.
Playtime was spent ‘thumbing-down’ everyone in sight. That day I learned a small but valuable lesson. Even at playtime ‘thumbing-down’ a friend or someone you respected was far harder than ‘thumbing-down’ a nonentity. In fact the game showed quite a few people who their real friends were, as ‘thumbing-down’ often resulted in some painful punishment.
Dupree would think nothing of ‘thumbing-down’ me and I knew it and he probably knew that I knew and we probably both had the Kursal Flyers single ‘Little Does She Know’.
