mates are the normal ones, Junior. They go to school, they do their homework and have a laugh at the weekend. No snorting coke, no robbery and nobody getting locked up for six months …’
‘Stiffs,’ Junior snorted. Then he mocked his sister’s voice: ‘Yeah, and Sharon only got sixty-two per cent in her French and it served her right ’cos she totally sucks up to Miss LeFromage. I really hope Matt’s at the party on Saturday because he makes my knickers wet every time he walks in the room. OOOOOOOH!’
April tutted. ‘Can’t you shut up? I’m revising.’
‘It’s only a mock.’
April looked up from her books and eyed her brother closely. ‘What’s going on, Junior?’
He feigned innocence. ‘What makes you think I’m up to anything?’
‘Twin telepathy,’ April said. ‘You’re fidgeting, your head’s all sweaty and you’ve started on me for no reason. Tell us where you’re going.’
‘Nowhere … well, except school.’
‘You should stop hanging around with that idiot James Beckett,’ April said. ‘He’s bad news.’
‘He’s a mate,’ Junior shrugged.
‘He’s a complete tosser.’
‘You’re only saying that because you had a big thing for him and he dumped you.’
April shook her head. ‘That was three years ago. I had a crush, but I was twelve and now I’m totally over it. Can’t you settle down? Don’t you think that you’ve put Mum through enough already?’
Junior’s toast popped up and he sauntered off to butter it without answering the question.
‘I’ve gotta catch my bus,’ April said, checking her watch as she gathered her books into her backpack. ‘I wish you’d sort yourself out. You drive me up the pole, but you’re still my twin and I care about you.’
‘I care about you too,’ Junior said, as he bit the first corner off his toast. ‘Don’t worry about me, I’ll see you tonight.’
Junior watched as April went out the garden door and crunched across the gravel to the street. The twins were past the age where they needed help getting ready for school, and unless Julie Moore had an early tennis lesson she usually stayed in bed until they were out of the way.
After he’d finished his toast, Junior walked into the hall and checked that his mum was watching GMTV upstairs before cutting into the living-room. He didn’t want to risk bumping into his sister at the bus stop, so he called the mini-cab office at the end of the road and arranged to be picked up on the corner in ten minutes’ time. Then he ripped off his school tie and started changing into his tracksuit and trainers.
*
Indian Sun was a thriving business in a side street a couple of hundred metres from Luton’s main shopping area. The lettering in the windows offered package tours to Goa from £499, but the shop mainly served the area’s large Asian population, with everything from cheap calling cards to money transfers and airline tickets.
Junior thought Indian Sun was a good target because of two things he’d learned from the Mad Dogs. Firstly, places that exchange and transfer money usually have larger sums of cash on hand than banks, but are often family businesses with much lower levels of security. Secondly, for a variety of religious and cultural reasons people from Asian backgrounds are less likely to use credit cards and often purchase large items with cash. This trait means businesses with lots of Asian customers are targeted by armed robbers.
Junior didn’t want his driver to identify him after the robbery, so he got the cab to drop him a couple of kilometres from Indian Sun. He walked the rest of the way, heading down the high street in sunglasses and a baseball cap, keeping his head down to avoid being picked up by security cameras. It was still before nine and all the shops had their shutters down.
He was shaking as he turned into the side street, surprised that it was quite lively. Four women with too much make-up on stood huddled in the staff entrance of a department store. The newsagents had a stream of customers, as did the Bagel Basket directly opposite Indian Sun.
The travel agency was also open, its metal sign with a list of exchange rates standing on the pavement, but only one of its three white shutters had been opened. A shudder ripped through Junior as soon as he eyed the target. He patted his hand against his body for a reassuring feel of the gun strapped to his side.
Junior’s mind was going at warp speed and he kept thinking about