told me to put on a shirt and tie. She’d stitched me up with an interview at yet another private school. It was right in the middle of nowhere, with all these kids playing rugby and countryside all around it. God it was a toilet…’
‘You’re not going are you?’ James said anxiously. ‘I’m on the waiting list at this school. If you leave, I might have to start getting educated again.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Junior grinned. ‘I didn’t want my ma getting upset, so I played along during the interview and stuff, but this idiot deputy headmaster kept going on about the cadet force and how they liked to mould young boys like me, as if I was Blu Tack or something. Then he started talking about the Inter-House Cup, which was like why do I give a shit? The thing was, I never actually thought they’d accept me, but this place must have been in serious need of pupils because they offered to take me for a trial period.’
‘Oh crap!’ James gasped.
‘I totally freaked,’ Junior continued. ‘I mean, I didn’t mind playing along when I didn’t think they’d take me, but once I realised that I was like millimetres from going back to boarding school I went nuts. I started making really loud chicken noises and there were some little kids outside the window and I leaned up to the glass and yelled do any of you fags want to buy cocaine?’
James laughed uneasily. ‘You’re a nutter.’ He was worried about the way Junior was going off the rails.
‘It got me out of the school, but it wasn’t really funny ’cos my mum was bawling her eyes out,’ Junior said. ‘I mean, I know she cares about me, James, but I wish she’d leave me alone. I’m never gonna be the little lawyer that she wants me to be. I ended up promising that I was going to knuckle down at school and try getting my GCSEs.’
‘So she was OK after that?’
‘She was better, but she’s not a Muppet. Just because I’m in school today doesn’t mean that I’ll be in school tomorrow … And you know what I was talking about the other night?’
‘What?’ James said, though he knew and he’d been dreading it.
‘I’ve got a job,’ Junior said. ‘There’s a kid in my tutor group called Alom. His parents run some chicken-shit travel agency in town. They’ve got a bureau de change in there as well and there’s always cash in the safe because they do money transfers. You know, like people sending money home to their relatives abroad and that?’
‘And what do you know about cracking safes?’ James asked cynically.
‘Not a sausage, but I do know how to stick a gun to someone’s temple and say, Open the safe or I’m gonna decorate the wall with your brains.’
As Junior said this he unzipped his school pack, revealing a gun. James eyed the rough metal seams, and noticed that the handle was made out of shiny plastic instead of wood.
‘That’s so fake,’ James said. ‘It looks like an Airfix kit.’
‘It’s a blank firing replica,’ Junior said. ‘But it’s been drilled out to fire real ammunition.’
Britain has some of the tightest gun controls in the world. These crudely converted weapons were common, but James wasn’t impressed.
‘I wouldn’t touch one of those,’ he warned. ‘You pull the trigger and it’s as likely to explode in your hand as fire a bullet.’
‘But the dude’s not gonna know that when I stick it in his face, is he? And besides, you’ve got that little gun. That’s a quality piece.’
‘When are you gonna do it?’ James asked, as they walked past a huge crowd of kids at a bus stop.
‘I cased the joint last night. They open early and shut late.’
James shook his head. ‘Junior, you don’t case a joint in one night. Me and Bruce spent three weeks looking at that hard front before Sasha moved on it.’
‘It’s one old Indian dude,’ Junior said, sounding narked. ‘He carries the key to the safe with a big bunch of other keys on his belt. We get up early tomorrow morning. We grab him just as he opens, he pulls out the money and we’re out with five grand in under five minutes.’
‘Sorry mate, but I don’t like it,’ James said.
‘What!’ Junior gasped. ‘This is a sweet job, James. I’ve had my eye on it for a while.’
‘Sasha won’t—’
Junior cut him off. ‘Don’t mention that man’s name, OK? Maybe you’re raking it in, but I’ve