He bent closer to Willie and said: "Can you hear me, mate?"
Willie's face twisted, but he was unable to speak.
Jesse knelt on Willie's other side. "We got to get him to hospital," he said.
Jacko was ahead of him. "I need a hot car," he said. He pointed to a blue Volvo parked nearby. "Whose is that?"
"It belongs to the owner of the yard," Jesse said.
"Perfect. Help me get Willie in there."
Jacko took his shoulders and Jesse his legs. They carried him to the car, whimpering, and put him on the backseat. The keys were in the ignition.
One of the men called from the currency truck: "All done, Jacko."
Jacko would have struck the man for using his name, but he was preoccupied. He said to Jesse: "Know where you're going?"
"Yes, but you're supposed to come with me."
"Never mind. I'll get Willie to hospital somehow, and meet you at the farm. Tell Tony what happened. Now, drive slow, don't shoot the lights, pull up at zebra crossings, do it like it was a bleeding driving test, okay?"
"Yes," Jesse said. He ran back to the getaway van and tested the rear doors. They were locked. He stripped the brown paper off the license plates-its purpose had been to stop the guards getting the number; Tony Cox thought of everything-and got behind the wheel.
Jacko started the Volvo. Someone opened the yard gate. The rest of the men were already getting into their own cars and peeling off their gloves and masks. Jesse pulled out in the van and turned right. Jacko followed him out and went the opposite way.
As he accelerated down the street, he glanced at his watch: ten twenty-seven. The whole thing had taken eleven minutes. Tony was right: he had said they would be away and clear in the time it takes a squad car to get from Vine Street nick to the Isle of Dogs. It had been a beautiful job, except for poor Deaf Willie. Jacko hoped he would live to spend his share.
He was approaching the hospital. He had figured out the way he would play it, but he needed Willie to be out of sight. He said: "Will? Can you get on the floor?" There was no response. Jacko glanced back. Willie's eyes were such a mess that words like
"open" and "shut" no longer applied. But the poor sod must be unconscious. Jacko reached behind and pulled the body off the seat onto the floor. It fell with a painful bump.
He steered into the hospital grounds and parked in the car park. He got out of the car and followed signs for Casualty. Just inside the entrance he found a pay phone. He opened the directory and found the number of the hospital.
He dialed, thumbed a coin into the slot, and asked for Casualty. A phone on a desk near where he stood buzzed twice, and the sister picked it up.
She said: "One moment, please," and laid the receiver on the desk. She was a plump woman in her forties wearing a crisply starched uniform and a harassed air. She wrote a few words in a book, then picked the phone up again.
"Casualty, can I help you?"
Jacko spoke quietly, watching the sister's face. "There is a man with shotgun wounds in the back of a blue Volvo car in your car park."
The portly nurse paled. "You mean here?"
Jacko was angry. "Yes, you dozy old cow, in your own hospital. Now get off your bum and go and get him!" He was tempted to slam the phone down, but he stopped himself and pressed the cradle instead: if he could see the sister, then she could see him. He held the dead phone to his ear while she put hers down, got to her feet, summoned a nurse, and went out into the car park.
Jacko went farther into the hospital and left by another exit. He looked across from the main gate and saw a stretcher being carried across the car park. He had done all he could for Willie.
Now he needed another car.
15
Felix Laski liked the office of Nathaniel Fett. It was a comfortable room with unobtrusive decor, a good place in which to do business. It had none of the gimmicks Laski used in his own office to give him advantage, like a desk by the window so that his own face was in shadow, or the low, unsteady visitors' chairs, or the priceless bone china coffee cups, which people were terrified of dropping. Fett's office had the atmosphere of a club for company chairmen: no doubt it was deliberate. Laski noticed two things as he shook Fett's long, narrow hand: first, that there was a large, apparently little-used desk; and second, that Fett wore a club tie. The tie was a curious choice for a Jew, he reflected; then, on second thought, he decided it was not curious at all. Fett wore it for the same reason Laski wore a beautifully tailored Savile Row pinstriped suit: as a badge which said I, too, am an Englishman. So, Laski thought, even after six generations of banking Fetts, Nathaniel is still a little insecure. It was a piece of information which could be used.
Fett said: "Sit down, Laski. Would you like coffee?"
"I drink coffee all day. It's bad for the heart. No, thank you."
"A drink?"
Laski shook his head. Refusing hospitality was one of his ways of putting a host at a disadvantage. He said: "I knew your father quite well, until he retired. His death was a loss. This is said of so many people, but in his case it is true."
"Thank you." Fett sat back in a club chair opposite Laski and crossed his legs. His eyes were inscrutable behind the thick glasses. "It was ten years ago," he added.
"So long? He was much older than I, of course, but he knew that, like his ancestors, I came from Warsaw."
Fett nodded. "The first Nathaniel Fett crossed Europe with a bag of gold and a donkey."
"I did the same journey on a stolen Nazi motorcycle and a suitcase full of worthless reichsmarks."
"Yet your rise was so much more meteoric."
It was a put-down, Laski realized: Fett was saying We may be jumped-up Polish Jews, but we're not half as jumped-up as you. The stockbroker was Laski's match at this game; and with those spectacles to hide his expression he did not need the light behind him. Laski smiled. "You're like your father. One never knew what he was thinking."
"You haven't yet given me anything to think about."
"Ah." So the small talk is over, Laski thought. "I'm sorry my phone call was a little mysterious. It was good of you to see me at short notice."
"You said you had a seven-figure proposal to put to one of my clients: how could I not see you? Would you like a cigar?" Fett got up and proffered a box from a side table.
Laski said: "Thank you." He lingered a little too long over his choice; then, as his hand descended to take a cigar, he said: "I want to buy Hamilton Holdings from Derek Hamilton."
The timing was perfect, but Fett showed no flicker of surprise. Laski had hoped he might drop the box. But, of course, Fett had known Laski would choose that moment to drop the bombshell, had created the moment for just that purpose.
He closed the box and gave Laski a light without speaking. He sat down again and crossed his legs. "Hamilton Holdings, for seven figures."
"Exactly one million pounds. When a man sells his life's work, he is entitled to a nice round figure."
"Oh, I see the psychology of your approach," Fett said lightly. "This is not entirely unexpected."
"What?"
"I don't mean we expected you. We expected somebody. The time is ripe."
"The bid is substantially more than the value of the shares at current prices."
"The margin is about right," Fett said.
Laski spread his hands, palms upward, in a gesture of appeal. "Let's not fence," he said. "It's a high offer."