CHAPTER 8

Darkness finally closed in around the country house. Two of the men arrived back with the cars that had been arranged. The atmosphere had turned very serious. This was no laughing matter anymore. It was deep into the night by the time the cars left the driveway, leaving Lindy and Brenda stood tentatively in the front room together. They were both on tenterhooks, both thinking about the fate of the same tall handsome man.

The cars pulled up in darkness around the back of the bank as had been mapped out by Tommy in the plan. They silently filed out of the cars and rolled them down the wide alley to directly behind the back doors of the bank. Johnny Maguire and Seamus Lee brandished their provisions: bolt cutters for the door and chloroform for the guard. Albert began to execute the first part of the plan. He made his way to the front doors of the bank and tapped on the main doors. Just loud enough for the guard inside to hear. There was quite a delayed wait as a surprised looking man of about 50 spoke through the door.

"Who is it? What do ya want at this time of night? Be off with ya!"

Albert replied,

"Please Sir, I've been hurt real bad. I don't wanna meet mi last days in this here street!"

The night guard wasn't opening the door for anyone at this time of night, that was a fact. Luckily, Albert had kept him distracted for just long enough. Johnny and Seamus had broken off the lock of the back door. Like a rather large panther in the night, Johnny snuck up behind the guard in the dark and stuck a chloroform filled cloth over his face. He struggled for no more than a minute until his body went limp and collapsed to the floor. With no time to waste Tommy entered the code of the vault. Anybody could be bought for a price it would seem.

The vault opened with ease and the men felt they were on the home run when they started loading up the cars with cash. They were down to the last few bags when a female voice called from up the stairs,

"Georgie baby, what's going on?"

The men froze and glanced round at each other in complete shock. There was only supposed to be one person in the bank that night, and that was the guard!

"He must've brought a woman in here with him!", Arthur exclaimed.

"Fuck!", the men seemed to chime in unison. No sooner had they realised they were not alone in the bank, the figure of a scantily clad woman appeared at the top of the stairs.

She let out an almighty scream that rang out through the empty streets. Within seconds dogs were barking, windows were opening and the silent street began to wake up to the screech of a petrified woman. If Tommy and the men couldn't escape this, they would never see daylight again.

"Do you want tea?", Glenda asked Lindy. "Its times like this we women need to put our differences aside. I do a lovely tea, extra sweet."

Lindy knew that Glenda was far from enamoured by her. She just couldn't work out why she had been so icy before. Well, she thought, after the events of earlier that day, she could fully understand why Glenda might be pissed off. She and Tommy had been quite disrespectful to do what she they did so obviously in this woman's house. But Glenda hadn't liked her from the start, and for what reason? she thought. She decided that Glenda must just be a wry old bitch who hadn't got her leg over in years.

"Tea' d be lovely ta", she smiled. She was well aware of the notion of keeping your enemies close.

The women drank tea from intricately designed china cups and a beautiful tea pot, just how Lindy had always imagined the aristocrats did 'afternoon tea'. The only difference being it was now about 4 o'clock in the morning, and they were women waiting for their criminal lovers to arrive back from robbing a bank. 'Slight difference', Lindy thought to herself. 'Oh well, fuck those posh bastards' she countered in her own mind, as she lifted her pinky finger and swigged back the last part of the tea.

The women talked into the early hours of the morning. Lindy told Glenda all about Tommy and how amazing he was, Glenda listened and smiled affectionate smiles. In fact, Lindy had come to the conclusion that Glenda was actually alright, even if she was a bit of a posh bird.

Not long after they'd finished drinking the tea, Lindy started to feel the tiredness really kick-in.

"I think I'm gonna go n' get some sleep Glenda", Lindy started. "In fact this tiredness is making me feel a bit woozy".

"Yes you go on up my darling. You'll need your rest if you're going to keep up with a man like Tommy".

Glenda smirked an accomplished smile as Lindy staggered up the stairs. As she reached the doorway to the bedroom, she grabbed at her stomach in pain. What was going on? She felt horrendous. Before she had even made it to the edge of the bed everything began to feel very disorientated. Suddenly Lindy's consciousness turned to nothing but black.