Gallowglass by Gordon Ferris

Author:Gordon Ferris [Ferris, Gordon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: _NB_fixed, _rt_yes, Crime, Mystery & Crime, tpl, Historical, Post WWII, Crime Reporter
ISBN: 9781782390787
Amazon: 1782390782
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Published: 2014-06-02T04:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-FOUR

I stared at him. I knew when men were trying it on. This was no bluff.

‘Leave it to me,’ I said with more hope than knowledge. I jogged up the stairs, level by level, until I was breathing heavily on the top landing. I looked up at the open skylight. The rectangle was now grey and would be lightening fast. I could slip out and leave Airchie to face the music. What would another stretch of five years matter to him? Then I thought of his medal hopes and what this work meant to him. A last chance.

I jumped on the ladder and stepped smartly up to the open skylight. I reached out – sorely tempted to climb out and away – and hauled the heavy glass box closed. I all but slid down the ladder and back on to the landing. With my foot on its bottom rung I had to pull it back and unhook it. It was a two-man job. Slowly it came up, but in the process it caught on the long steel arm of the catch that held down the skylight. It clunked, clattered and dangled. Bugger! I stared at the swinging arm. To hell with it. I wasn’t going back up there. I hauled the ladder down and on to the landing. I manoeuvred it over to the wall and flung it up in its proper place. I looked up at the errant catch. Who would notice? And when? There was no time to worry about it. If anyone saw it they’d think it had just come loose.

I cast about. There were cupboards and doors running off the landing. I started to go through them. Surely if there was a ladder, there would be other equipment. I found mops and brooms, buckets and a sink. But hanging behind one door was what I was looking for. I grabbed them and a box of tools and headed down the stairs. Airchie was just sliding the last ledger in place.

‘Here. Put these on.’

I held out a pair of dungarees, blue cotton and well worn. They came with a matching cap. For the first time in hours, Airchie smiled. I slipped my own pair on and did up the bib and braces. I jammed the flat blue cap on and picked up my gas-mask case. We stowed our notes in it and inspected ourselves. Airchie’s dungarees fell over his shoes. We rolled up the cuffs. Mine were halfway up my ankles. I undid the braces as far as possible and pushed them down. We wouldn’t pass inspection by a real maintenance crew, especially wearing their gear. But it was the best we could do. The rest was going to be down to brass neck and timing. We sat clutching our bag and toolbox, waiting for the first noises of the day. We had five minutes.

At six o’clock on the dot I heard bolts and chains being unlocked out in the banking hall. Then voices. We stared at the double door that led from the back office along a short corridor to the cash desks.

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