Chapter 7

"What am I to do with you, Mister Dempsey?" sighed Harry, an hour or so later, as she buttoned up her silk blouse.

"Why, whatever do you mean, me' darlin'?" replied Dempsey, faking an Irish accent as he pulled up his jeans.

"We should have been working the 'phones and talking to contacts, not rolling around in the hay!" she replied, with an expression on her still flushed face that said the exact opposite!

"Regrets?" he asked, playfully, noting her glowing cheeks, his eyes smiling under eyebrows raised.

"As if!" she replied, leaning into him and looking up into his brown eyes, then pulling his head lower so she could kiss his mouth.

She let go of him and looked up into his face once more.

."What are we going to do if Juliano isn't caught today?"

"We bounce our plan off Spikings anyway and see what he says." Dempsey replied.

"That's not like you Dempsey." said Harry,"since when have you ever gone along with anything Spikings wants?"

"Because if you're gonna be the bait, I wanna know we've got every single one of the team on board to nail that sonofabitch Tortini, before he gets anywhere near you! You ain't gonna risk your life any more than you need to, honey!"

She put her arms round his neck.

"Looks like my knights got his mojo back." she said, smiling.

"Damned right, angel!" confirmed Dempsey."we're gonna pin this bozo to the wall or get him extradicted back to the US. Either way, he's goin' down, baby."

As the afternoon rolled by, so Dempsey grew more impatient.

They'd been on the 'phone for several hours contacting various narks, finks and blabbermouths, taking it in turns to ring but hadn't got anywhere.

There had been little point in Dempsey de-camping to his room, they needed to be together to discuss anything that the other may discover.

But no-one claimed to have heard even the slightest whisper.

"I ain't surprised." he said. "these squealers need incentives to start singin' like canaries and they ain't gonna snitch unless we're face to face with 'em."

And Harry knew his "incentives" of old - if a snout didn't start talking, Dempsey's "face to face" meant he'd have him stretched on his toes up against a wall with one hand round his throat and the other with his Magnum in his ear!

"You know honey?" he said. "if Spikings doesn't come through on Juliano soon, we may have to think about those disguises after all."

As per usual, Harry was tuned into his wavelength and knew instantly what he meant.

"Yes, I know." she agreed. "me acting as bait for Tortini we can handle, but it'd be more than doubly dangerous with that big monster loose."

"And another thing." he said, as he started pacing round the room. "they've had that Cellini creep banged up all day. Has no-one put the heat on that guy? He knows where the others are hidin' out. I tell you Harry, if somethin' don't happen soon I'm gonna go nuts!"

In the early hours of that morning Bobby and Mikey had taken the Mini out specifically to dump it and steal another car.

Although they had an A-Z of London, with Mikey "navigating" it wasn't long before they were lost.

They ended up in Kensington and not the cleverest of places to be driving about in a stolen car, given the usual high police presence in the heart of Englands capital city.

Bobby knew exactly what they needed though, so when he saw a sad looking Ford Cortina, parked half on the road, half on the pavement, down a quiet side street he stopped the Mini and strolled over to it.

Looking over the car, the first thing he noticed were its number plates.

They were different to the ones on the Mini and all the other plates he'd seen on British cars.

It had seen better days too.

Painted in faded, sun damaged red, the roof colour, in particular, looking decidely pinkish under the neon lamp it was parked beneath and pretty much every panel was either scratched or dented.

What sealed it for Bobby though, was it's steering wheel.

It was on the left, just like the cars at home! This was a result!

The car belonged to a German lad, who'd recently landed a job with a major London BMW dealership as a trainee accountant.

There was no way he was going to pull up outside the premises in his knackered old Ford!

Anyway he'd been told he'd have the use of a BMW demonstrator so the Cortina was now surplus to requirements. Knowing he couldn't sell it, he'd decided to just park it up and leave it.

He doubted the authorities would spend much time, money or effort trying to trace its ownership, so would probably simply tow it away to be scrapped.

So he didn't report it stolen.

Having wiped the Mini's interior as clean as possible, Bobby dropped the keys down a nearby drain, just to be bloody-minded, and broke into the Cortina with ease.

Fusing the two necessary wires under the steering column to start it up, something he'd done a million times in the States, they were soon on their way and, miraculously, found themselves on a familiar road that led back to the pub.

Now, having grabbed some sleep, it was ten o'clock and they were hunched up at their usual table, drinking beer and, in low tones, disgussing Gino.

" Can we spring him?" Mikey was asking.

" 'Course we can't spring him, you clown!" hissed Bobby, stabbing his cigarette out in an already overflowing ashtray. "this is London, meathead! We ain't got any back up over here and no-one's innerested back home in what we're doin'"

"Waddabout the limey what owns this place - er, Charlie?" asked Mikey.

"Waddabout him?"

"Can he help? Yer know, with back up?"

Bobby glared at him, his black eyes getting blacker as his temper began to fizz.

"Doncha think I've already spoke to him!?" he muttered, harshly."Get it through that mush ya call a brain. We're on our own!"

"Ok ok Bobby." said Mikey." I geddit. Stay cool. So wadder we do now?."

"I'm workin' on it, I'm workin' on it." he repeated, snatching up his packet of cigarettes.."there's no point you goin' back to Dempsey's place. The cops'll be all around it. We gotta stick togedder now."

He lit his Marlboro, inhaling the smoke deep into his lungs before blowing it first out of his mouth, then his nose.

"Listen, we filched that old jalopy so we got wheels." he said.

Mikey snorted. "Huh! yeah, some wagon!"

"It won't draw attention!" he hissed, "'an it won't be missed."

"Someone might miss it - like it's owner!" Mikey countered.

"Shaddup!" scowled Bobby." no-one's gonna notice us, that's the thing! Listen, those two mothers 've gotta surface sometime, they can't stay outta sight forever."

"Yeah". agreed Mikey. "so?"

"So, they gotta go home at some point, yeah?" he suggested."ya know what broads are like. Need their stuff don't they, yer know make-up, sprays, all that kinda crap."

"Yeah." agreed Mikey, again. "so?"

Bobby looked at him. "So, you dumbass! we stake our her place again!"

"But won't the cops be watchin'?" asked Mikey.

"We'll just have to be exra careful, huh?" he smiled, lighting another cigarette and taking a long swig of beer.

Of course, it was perhaps natural that Bobby should expect Harry would miss the comforts of home and want to return there soon. Little did he know that, even though she was aristocracy, she could rough it with the best of them.

It was late afternoon, the suns shadows were gradually lengthening as evening approached and Dempsey was at the end of his patience.

He stood next to the bed, grabbed the telephone and dialled SI-10.

Chas answered. "Oh, hi Dempsey, how's things?"

"I'm frustrated as hell!" he said, his tone sharp.

"I'm not surprised," said Chas."I would be too, stuck in a hotel room with Harry Makepeace all day - you know - you can look, but don't touch!"

Huh, little do you know, sucker! thought Dempsey.

"Yeah, very good Chas." he said, his facetious tone not lost the colleague.

Her began firing questions."What's happenin'? You got Juliano yet? An' what the hell you doin' with Cellini? Anyone get any info outta that numpty? And the cars - what's the lowdown on the stolen wheels? Come on Chas, gimme somethin' will ya!"

"I'm sorry, Dempsey." replied Chas." but I can't give you anything right now. No we haven't seen hide nor hair of Juliano since we nabbed Cellini. As for him, he's not speaking until he gets a lawyer and nothings come up on likely cars. Everything stolen has been the expensive stuff. Any luck with your snouts?"

"Nah. Spikings there?" he asked.

"No, not right now. Do you want to speak to him?" asked Chas.

"Well I wouldn't be askin' otherwise, pal, now would I?"

"You are wound up!" chuckled Chas, unperturbed by Dempsey's mood. "I'll tell him you called."

"Yeah, you do that!" said Dempsey and slammed the receiver back on its base.

Harry had been sat on the bed next to him, watching this performance. She'd been expecting Dempsey to blow, a head of steam had been building up all afternoon.

"Happier now, darling?" she cooed, looking up at him.

"Goddam it Harry! don't you start!" he cried, running his hand through his hair."We gotta do somethin'!"

She snatched his hand and pulled him down beside her.

"Look James." she said, softly."I know, all too well, that sitting around isn't your thing. But, right here, right now, we don't have a choice. Not least until we've spoken to Spikings. Let's go and have some dinner. Neither of us have eaten since breakfast and then only a few mouthfuls. What do you say?"

"You know somethin' Harry?" he said, gripping her hand a little tighter."If it weren't for you I'd be out there, gun blazin' away and probably get my head blown off."

"Yes, I know." she said.