The Potato Factory

Ha

Ikey's coat was a very elusive target and the more she thought about it the less confident she was that such a scheme could be made to work. But with the knowledge that all the stolen property concealed in her White-chapel home would come into her possession while she was, so to speak, under the protection of the law, Ha

'When will ya let me 'ave the false fi

'Fi

'In the afternoon, if ya please. I needs me beauty sleep!' Ha

Sir Jasper Waterlow's complexion turned a sudden deep purple and his nose began to twitch alarmingly. Avoiding Ha

His expression now somewhat composed, he looked directly at Ha

Ha

Not long after this meeting, Ha

Apart from his initial greeting Bob Marley remained silent, pouring himself a large glass of brandy and helping himself to a couple of the cakes.

'It weren't nice what ya done, Bob Marley,' Ha

Marley, with a mouth full of cake, stopped chewing and rose from his chair as though to leave. 'No, don't go!' Ha

Bob Marley swallowed the cake in his mouth and took a gulp of brandy to wash it down. 'It were you who called me, remember? All I done was take advantage of a situation what was not o' me makin'!' He was still holding the glass and, bringing it up to his lips, paused. 'It would 'ave been unprofessional not to 'ave done what I did. People might 'ave thought I was losin' me grip o' things!'

Ha

'I needs a job done, no questions asked,' Ha

Marley gave her a bemused look. 'There's always questions, lovey.'

'What I means is, I don't want to talk about me motives, I wants ya to accept 'em, no questions asked.'

'No questions costs more money, it means I can't measure the exact amount o' risk involved.'

'No more risk than if ya knew everyfink, you 'ave my word on that.'

Marley waited, saying nothing, and Ha

Marley took a long swig at the brandy in his glass, prolonging his lips on the rim of the glass longer than would have seemed necessary, as though he was thinking carefully on the proposition. Finally he looked up at Ha

Ha

'More? What's ya mean?'

'I wants ya to plant some fake stiff on Ikey.'

Marley brought his palms up in front of his face. 'Hey now, Ha

Ha

Marley whistled. 'I bet ya 'as, lovey.' He sighed and looked directly at Ha

'I'm not askin' ya to take sides! Jus' to plant some fake soft.'

'I'll not shop 'im, Ha

'I didn't ask ya, did I? Just to do a plant, that's all.'

Marley looked up. 'Jus' the plant?' He seemed to think for a moment. 'It'll cost extra.'

Ha

Chapter Ten

Since time out of mind, long before the coming of the great belted engines with their hiss and suck of steam and whirr of wheels and pistons, before the city provided warmongery to the world with its mountains of iron ore, furnaced, hot rolled, steam hammered, pressed, poured and moulded into the fiery spit and spite of small arms, Birmingham had always been the Babylon of baubles. It was here that goldsmiths and silversmiths, in a thousand tiny workshops, made jewellery so wickedly extravagant as to turn many a fine lady into a whore, and many a whore into a fine lady.

As may be expected, where there is gold, silver, plate and wicked little stones with nimble fingers to shape and polish them, there are gentlemen with even lighter fingers to fleece them from their rightful owners into the greedy hands of the unctuous fence.

Ikey arrived in Birmingham at eight o'clock in the morning of his second day out from London, not stopping to pass the night in a comfortable tavern, though several of these establishments existed for this sole purpose – i