Rise and Fall Read online

  Chapter 2

  Shay drummed his fingers loudly on the dash-board, his agitation getting the better of him. They had been watching this house for hours, and his patience was beginning to wear thin.

  This was the swankiest road Shay had ever been to. It was a private lane in the middle of Oxshott in Surrey, and it had the most luxurious-looking houses he had ever set eyes on. Each house was immaculate, from the pristine manicured lawns to the gleam of the sparkling windows: there was not as much as a leaf out of place around here. As for the cars: well, they were in a whole other league. Porches, Range Rovers and Audis were parked in most of the driveways. These people must be swimming in money, Shay thought. It was a far cry from what he had to call home back in Lambeth; the only things that lined his street were fag packets and overflowing bin bags and plenty of them at that.

  Normally their jobs were quite straightforward, but this one was proving more difficult. When they had followed this bird back to her gaff earlier, they hadn’t anticipated the extent of the wealth in the neighbourhood nor the tall, wrought-iron gates standing in their way.

  They would have to take their time before they made their move. The fact that they were squished into a crappy little blue Ford Escort that had seen better days, probably wasn’t aiding them much in their plan of keeping a low profile. The car stood out like a sore thumb, and it stunk, or rather Gavin’s arse stunk.

  “Ah, man; has a fucking rat crawled up your arse and died, or what?” Shay’s words were muffled as his hand was clasped over his mouth and nose trying to block out the stench.

  “Sorry, mate, I think it was that doner kebab I had last night.” Gavin had the good grace to look shame-faced, as Shay wound down the window for about the tenth time that morning.

  Shay couldn’t help but notice that when Gavin spoke his breath actually smelt worse than his arse; feeling queasy, Shay turned his head in order to avoid the smell.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the blonde woman finally come out of the house they had been watching just across the road. He watched as she tottered down the long driveway towards the brand new Range Rover that, a few hours ago, they had followed back to this street.

  “Okay, here we go.” Shay sat bolt upright to get a better view. He was relieved that they could hopefully get moving, as they had already wasted enough time today. He had been bored shitless waiting, and he wanted to get out of here before someone noticed them.

  Shay watched the girl walk to her car. She was hot, he’d give her that, blondes were his weakness when it came to women, and this one was something else: a real stunner.

  Nudging Gavin to get his arse into gear, Shay’s mind went back to the task in hand; no matter how hot the bird was, the Range Rover that she was about to get into was hotter and that was their main priority right now.

  Turning on the ignition, Gavin knew what they had to do; there was a secluded lay-by at the entrance of the lane, lined with hedges. It was going to be much easier to do it there, they had figured, much less chance of being spotted. All the houses seemed to be gathered in one cluster at this end of the lane.

  Driving on ahead, they had a few minutes to gather their thoughts and get themselves motivated for the task ahead.

  ***

  Looking into her rear-view mirror, Saskia Frost reapplied her lipstick, rubbing a pink smudge from her teeth with her finger. Then, she checked around her eyes for crows’ feet.

  She was only twenty-four, but in the harsh light of day and without her usual thick layer of foundation, she was sure that she could see the start of one or two little lines forming at the outside edges of her eyes and between her brows. She might book herself in to see that Botox doctor some of her girlfriends went to, Doctor Nutley-Rowe. His prices were probably high end, but his reputation preceded him, unlike some of the syringe cowboys she had heard horror stories about. The girls had told her that this doctor was so good that he had a list of celebrity clientele longer than her legs.

  Making a mental note to call one of her friends to get the doctor’s phone number, Saskia started the engine, trying to put the depressing thought of her newly found wrinkles out of her mind. She pulled off down the lane. Turning up the radio, she had just started to relax as she hummed along to a new dance track, when a blue Ford Escort pulled out in front of her, blocking the lane forcing her to brake suddenly.

  “What the fu…?” Her head flung forward, as her car screeched to a halt.

  She barely had time to clock what was going on when a man wearing a balaclava jumped out of the car and leapt in through her car’s passenger door, opening it with such force he almost pulled it off the hinges.

  “Get out of the fucking car,” he bellowed.

  Saskia couldn’t think straight, her ears were ringing and she felt like she was going to pass out. She stared at the man in the balaclava, as if in a trance. She could see his lips moving, but she couldn’t hear any words, there was just a dull ringing in her ears as she tried to make sense of what was going on.

  “I said get out of the fucking car: now.” The man pointed a gun straight at her.

  Everything seemed to be in slow motion. This can’t be happening, Saskia thought.

  Seeing the daft bitch’s blank expression, Shay realised she was going into shock; he yanked off her seatbelt, leant over her and opened the driver’s door then pushed her out onto the road.

  As she landed with a thump on the road, thick dust flew up into Saskia’s eyes; seconds later, the tyres screeched as the two vehicles pulled off at full speed. Saskia heard someone scream; dazed and confused as she was, it took her a few moments to realise that the sound was in fact coming from her mouth. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she watched both the cars disappear from sight as they left the lane.

  “Are you okay?” a man asked. Saskia recognised him as a busy-body from up the lane; he had obviously come out to see what was going on. “Have they just stolen your car?” he asked, shocked, as things like this just didn’t happen where he lived. This was a sought-after area. They had Neighbourhood Watch.

  Saskia glared at the nosey neighbour, the shock of her beautiful car being stolen now turning into pure anger, talk about stating the fucking obvious!

  Chapter 3

  The blue escort pulled into West’s Garage forty minutes later. It was closely followed by the gleaming black Range Rover.

  “Ah mate, that was a fucking heavy one.” A sweaty Shay jumped out of the four-by-four, relieved that they had finally completed the job.

  Jamie walked over to inspect the car that he had spent the morning waiting for. It was perfect. They needed to get this out pronto; their client had been in a hurry with this order, and they were way behind.

  “Fucking bird wouldn’t get out of the motor, would she?” Shay’s pulse was racing as he told Jamie what had happened.

  Stealing cars used to be child’s play for them; motors could be broken into and hotwired in seconds, but the contract they were handling now was for luxury cars and their main client insisted on having the keys for every motor he ordered, otherwise the cars weren’t worth shit as far as he was concerned, and that always made their jobs of stealing the cars tricky. They now had to make sure that they nicked the keys as well as the motors, which doubled the chances of them getting caught. They would have to break into homes and steal the keys or like today, they would have to spend hours waiting for an opportunity to get the occupant out of the motor so that they could get in, which was even more tricky. The risks were much higher now.

  Shay had felt a second of panic earlier when the blonde bird hadn’t got out of the motor when he had first told her to. People could go either way when they were dealing with their instincts in circumstances like that, especially if they went in shock mode, like she had, there was no telling how some people would react. Luckily Shay hadn’t encountered anyone brave enough to argue with him in the heat of the moment, especially when he had a loaded piece pointed in their direction. His adrenaline had been pumping today, but thankfully it had all gone to plan and the motor had been delivered in one piece. Satisfied with the boys’ job, Jamie told Shay and Gavin to go for lunch.

  Ignoring Jamie lording it around the garage like he was the boss, just because the boys had managed to bring in another motor for him, Les Patterson couldn’t disguise the fact that once again his nose was firmly out of joint. He inspected every inch of the motor himself too. It had taken most of the morning to get it here, yet Jamie seemed to have once again come up trumps; it was immaculate.

  Les had worked at West’s Garage for nearly thirteen years, and he loved his job. The location, a small side road in the centre of Lambeth, just off the high street, was spot on.

  Under the boss Gary’s strict orders, they only ever took on as much work as they needed to from real punters, so the books would tally up at the end of each month. They needed to make sure they were keeping up appearances should anyone get suspicious that the garage was being used for anything dodgy and demanded to see paperwork. It was a great front and worked a treat as a cover for the dodgy motors that passed through the rusty garage doors. To anyone on the outside, they looked like another small-time garage.

  Les knew that there was nothing small time about his boss, Gary West, though. Gary was the brains of the outfit. He had managed to set up a big contract with some Ugandans that had turned out to be a nice little earner for them all. All they had to do was supply to order and shift top-end motors out of the country. Gary had so many customs officials in his pockets that he barely had room in there for loose change, so that was actually the easy bit.

  Most days Les loved his job, but today wasn’t one of them; today, his patience was being tested to the limit. He glared at Jamie. He couldn’t stand the bloke, his attitude stank and
he had a knack of rubbing Les up the wrong way. How they had managed to work together for the past ten years without killing each other remained a mystery, but on Gary’s request Les put up with Jamie.

  “Wonder what Gary will make of this little beauty, huh? Should put a smile back on the miserable git’s mush.” Jamie noticed that the comments he had been making all morning about Gary were doing the trick and winding up Les nicely. Les was never happy with anything Jamie said or did, so he enjoyed adding fuel to the fire and riling Les.

  Les, loyal to Gary, didn’t want to listen to him being cut down by Jamie. He ignored him and got to work, glad to get his teeth into sorting out the Range Rover. He loved keeping busy, especially if it meant he didn’t have to listen to Jamie spouting anymore of his shit. Les climbed into the driver’s seat to take a closer look at the interior, thinking that if it had been up to him, they would never have taken on Jamie. Les had always thought that Jamie was trouble, but Gary had taken an instant liking to the kid and had taken a chance on him by letting him into the firm. Gary was normally a shrewd man who made the right choices and they had certainly raked in a nice amount of cash over the years, but Les had never been able to get his head around why Gary had taken on the little scroat; and as the years had passed, Les’s dislike for Jamie had grown.

  Yes, Jamie was good at stealing motors, Les would give him his due: he had a way of finding the top-end motors they needed, and he was smoother than butter when it came to hotwiring them and getting them back to the garage in record time. But Gary had made a massive gamble in taking him on, ignoring Les’ reservations about the boy. Jamie had only been fifteen when he had walked in and brazenly asked for a job. Les couldn’t believe the balls of the kid, nor could he believe it when Gary had seemed impressed at the young boy’s confidence. Walking in as a complete unknown and being given an ‘in’: it was unheard of. Of course Jamie had only walked into what he thought was a legit car garage back then, but he had seemed clued up on who Gary was and what he would be getting himself involved in. The way that Jamie had handled the situation had made a good impression on their boss.

  The boy was strong and had youth on his side, but Les had experience and he had been at the garage since day one, and as the years had gone on he had been incensed as he watched the kid get all the kudos. It really irked Les that Gary seemed to be acting all proud of Jamie, like Jamie was his main man, when it was Les who had worked at the garage the longest. The whole situation left a sour taste in Les’ mouth.

  Whatever Les thought of Jamie, though, from the start he had been made to swallow it. Whatever Gary said, went, and after all these years of working for him, Les didn’t need that explained twice. Trying his hardest not to cause a fuss, especially seeing as Gary seemed adamant about his decision Les had swallowed his pride and just let things be.

  When things started really taking off for the firm, a few years back, they had taken on Shay and Gavin. They had been mainly employed as runners, helping Jamie to get the motors in, and also as an extra bit of muscle when they were needed, but Les never really had an opinion on either of them. They were a pair of Muppets as far as he was concerned; he never saw them as a threat the way he did Jamie.

  It was fair to say that Les had never been the brainiest, and he knew it too. Jamie got the motors in and Les worked his magic on changing the chassis numbers and matching up the paperwork they had collected from their contacts. Then the cars were out of their hands, which generally meant they were loaded straight onto a container and shipped to Uganda. It was an easy setup, which had made them all a small fortune.

  “What do you think then, Les; this one got what it takes to make Gary happy?”

  Jamie’s question was innocent enough, but it still had an unmistakably shitty tone to it, and Les was barely able to keep his patience with the boy’s sarcasm as he demanded: “What's your problem, Jamie? Gary does nothing but sing your fucking praises. All bloody week you’ve done nothing but bad mouth him, and I’m getting sick of listening to it.”

  “Me bad mouthing Gary? I wonder why… You can’t bloody tell me that you haven’t noticed that there’s something going on, Les. Gary seems to be going soft; look at the state of him, the man’s a right mess. I’ve never seen him look so frigging miserable. What, am I not allowed to state the fucking obvious?” Jamie threw back his remark, frustrated that Les wasn’t able to see what he so clearly could.

  Jamie was entitled to his opinion and if Les couldn’t see what was staring them both in the face, he was even more stupid than he looked. Jamie couldn’t help the way he felt; Gary was going down in his estimation after the events of the last week, and the more Jamie mulled the situation over the more pissed off he felt about it all. Les was right about one thing though; Gary did think that the sun shone out of Jamie’s backside. The man had taken him under his wing, so to speak, and had taught him everything he knew. That didn’t make him any the less pissed off about things, though.

  Over the years, Gary had even helped Jamie through his driving test by footing up the money for his lessons and had sorted him out with his own sporty little Volkswagen Golf. Jamie was also paid a good wage, which had enabled him to be able to afford his own flat over-looking the river. He had been living the dream thanks to the opportunity his boss had given him, and he was grateful for all of it. Gary had gone above and beyond over the years, teaching Jamie everything there was to know about the business. He could practically run the show if he needed to, which was what Jamie had a sneaky suspicion Gary had wanted all along.

  Jamie knew that he was being out of order talking disrespectfully about Gary, but he was so angry about the way that Gary was acting; it was a side of him that he hadn’t seen before. Gary had always been such a strong bloke and to see him weak and vulnerable had really thrown Jamie. Jamie had never had a father figure in his life, but he was guessing from the way that Gary acted towards him, that he was more or less treated like a son. They had so much in common and spent hours chatting about all kinds of things, and Gary often commented that Jamie was a chip off the old block, like a younger and fierier version of himself, and Jamie had happily noted the pride in the man’s voice when he had said it.

  Jamie liked the thought of having someone like Gary watching his back, it made him feel secure. Using the break that he had been given, wanting to prove that he was worthy of it and to make Gary proud, Jamie had slowly worked his way up over the years. He had worked hard and learnt every part of the trade. Gary had hinted on several occasions that one day, when he was too old for all this, he would need someone to take over. Of course that was all way off in the future, so the comments had been subtle and left to hang in the air, but the intention had been there all the same. Having someone who watched out for him was something Jamie had never experienced. He often thought of his younger brother, Kevin. He would be twelve now: how time had flown. He regretted that Kevin would probably now no longer know, or else no longer care, who Jamie was; he had left it too long now to go back for him. Jamie hadn’t realised, when he walked out on his vile mother all those years ago, that he would never be going back, he really hadn’t thought that far ahead. Ten years had flown by, and he had a new life. The Jamie he had once been was better left in the past.

  Jamie’s thoughts returned to the present when he caught Les smirking at him. He could almost see the cogs turning in the man’s transparent head as he realised how Gary would react, once Les informed him of all the shit Jamie had been spouting about him. Jamie tried to control his rising temper. Les was a prick. He had made it very clear that he didn’t like Jamie, and for the most part Jamie ignored him. Jamie couldn’t be arsed to give the bloke any reason to go running back to Gary, complaining about him. Besides, the more Les showed his apparent one-sided hatred towards Jamie, the more Les confirmed to everyone that he was the one with the issue and not Jamie.

  “Look, Les, I know you don’t like me, you’ve made that more than clear over the years, and to tell you the truth, I don’t really give a flying shit that there’s no love lost between the two of us. I ain’t here to be your mate; I’m here to earn a living. But come on, even you must be able to see that Gary’s losing it lately. Look at the deal we did last week: we’re a fucking laughing stock,” Jamie persisted.