The Magpies A Psychological Thriller - By Mark Edwards Page 0,105

the early hours of the morning, getting Lucy and Chris out of bed. But a few minutes later, any last hopes he might have had were dashed. He saw Lucy and Chris come up from their flat and walk down the front path to their car. They looked animated and happy: as happy as he had ever seen them.

He was so tired. He wanted to lie down and sleep forever.

He tried the nameless men’s number once more. The mobile was still switched off. He doubted if they would ever switch it on again. They had probably bought a new phone out of the £10,000 he had given them.

He pulled the curtains and undressed. He got into bed and tried to sleep.

He barely noticed Sunday morning or afternoon. Then, on Sunday evening, he heard sirens outside. The noise frightened him. He had a horrible fear – a feeling that had been with him all day – that the men had tried to do the job but had got the wrong address. What if that siren was an ambulance, carting away some other poor souls, people who had suffered because of him, because of mistaken identity?

There was a knock at the door. Jamie froze. What if it was the men? Or the police come to arrest him? He imagined “Charlie” being arrested on the way to the job – pulled up by traffic police who ran a check on the vehicle and realised it was stolen (Jamie’s imagination had gone into overdrive) and giving the police Jamie’s name. Maybe the police had been watching the two men, listening in on their calls. Maybe they knew all about it.

He looked out of the front window. There was a fire engine out there, several fire fighters standing beside it.

Jamie went out to the front door. The fireman in charge looked him up and down.

‘Where’s the fire?’ he said.

Jamie said, ‘There isn’t one. I think you’ve been hoaxed.’

The fireman’s eyes flickered with anger. ‘What did you say?’

‘Someone’s hoaxed you. It’s happened before. There’s no fire.’

‘It had better not have been you, pal.’ He sounded incredulous. Another fire fighter came over, who Jamie recognised from the night of the party.

The second fireman said, ‘I thought I knew this address. You’ve done this before, haven’t you? What the hell’s wrong with you? I told you before, it’s an offence to hoax the emergency services.’

‘It wasn’t me,’ Jamie said weakly. He had an inkling of what he must look like to them. He expected he made them feel sick.

The first fireman said, ‘Then who was it?’

Jamie shook his head sadly and closed the door. He went back inside, ignoring the furious knocks. Eventually he heard them go away, not wanting to waste any more time on this loser. For the rest of the day he waited for the police to come, to arrest him for hoaxing the fire brigade. For once, he was pleased that the police round this part of the city never seemed to do anything.

On Monday morning he called his old office and asked to speak to Mike.

The woman who answered the phone asked who it was. He heard her say something – to Mike, he assumed – then she said, ‘He doesn’t want to talk to you.’

Jamie shouted, ‘I have to talk to him. Get me him now!’

The woman gasped, then there was the sound of murmuring, and Mike came on the line. ‘Fuck off, James, I don’t want to talk to you.’

‘They’ve stolen my money.’

‘You deserved it, you twat. And how dare you drop me in it.’

‘Mike, you’ve got to help me.’

‘Go fuck yourself.’

He slammed the phone down, leaving Jamie with the taste of bile in his mouth. That bastard. That fucking…

Who was he trying to kid? He did deserve it. He had broken his promise, he had behaved like a moron. He didn’t blame Mike for not talking to him.

He had to face it: he was never going to see that money again.

He stood up and looked out at the street. He had lost all his money, his job, his best friend, his wife and his baby. All that remained in his possession was this flat. It was the only thing he had left to cling on to. If he moved out of the flat he would have lost absolutely everything. He felt like he’d been playing that board game, Risk, in which each player starts off with a group of countries and has to guard their own countries while trying to