She looked at her watch; she had been here for almost half an hour and Jay would be about to kick off the first part of their plan by making an anonymous call to the police. It was a fool-proof plan, Tanya’s handiwork. Jay would say that there was an armed gunman in the club and that he was about to open fire; any minute now, the club would be in complete and utter mayhem. Perfect.
Looking around, Tanya could see the security guys, all eyeing the bag that Paul Goldie had placed down carefully by the DJ booth as instructed. Glugging down the last mouthful of her drink for Dutch courage, she whispered to herself that it was now or never. Reaching under her very short skirt, she pulled out two very well-concealed smoke bombs that Jay had managed to get hold of from some dodgy ex-soldier he knew. Pulling off the tops, she threw them onto the floor in front of the stage. The smoke poured out within seconds and people started swinging their arms and coughing. A few of Paul’s security men looked at each other in alarm before making their way over amongst the coughing people and the now giant smoke cloud that had formed around them all. Tanya quickly threw herself down and crouched on the floor; crawling on her hands and knees to get a better view of the bag, she grabbed it with both hands then quickly made her move to the ladies’ toilets before the smoke started to clear. Taking her opportunity as she ran through the cloud Tanya screamed, as loudly as she possibly could,
“Oh my God, he’s got a gun, he’s going to fucking shoot us all”.
It had the desired effect, people too pissed to think straight started panicking all around her, screaming and pushing to get away from the smoky dance floor in terror at the thought of a gunman amongst them. Everyone started running in all directions; there was chaos everywhere.
Hearing the commotion and seeing the smoke and panicked faces, the security moved in and was making their way through the haze to the booth. They thought that Jay might be there; maybe he was the one with the gun. They knew their orders: they had to get a visual and keep him in sight, but they couldn’t see anyone matching Jay’s description.
People were fleeting in utter panic, as they rushed about trying to get away. Paul and Billy had seen the commotion on the screens and had made it down there in seconds, desperately trying to see Jay. How had he got in without them seeing him, and armed too: it just didn’t make sense. Shouting to try and calm everybody down, Paul took charge of the situation.
“It’s okay, people, it’s a false alarm, there’s no need to panic: everyone is perfectly safe.” He hoped what he was saying was true, he hadn’t seen anyone with a gun, and as far as he knew none of his security men had either.
Just when Paul thought he was starting to gain control again, the front doors swung open and dozens of armed police officers stormed the club, charging in fully kitted out in riot armour.
“Everybody stay where you are; get down on the floor with your hands on your heads.” Bodies dived to the floor, the music had stopped playing and the harsh main lights had been turned on, most people were starting to sober up.
Billy and Paul were side by side on the floor; Paul put his arm up and shouted to the officer who had commanded them to get down that he was the club’s owner, and the officer let him get to his feet but told everyone else to stay where they were. Looking around the officer could see that there was no trouble here. When they had first arrived to all the running screaming people they had thought they were going to enter a massacre scene from a horror movie, but it turned out no one was hurt. Nobody knew who had initially seen the gunman either. After checking the club and making sure that no one had been hurt or threatened they decided that it had probably been a hoax call.
People started getting up, dusting themselves off and slowly filtering out of the club. The drama had ended what had been a good night out for most. The officers started filing out too. There was no sign of Jay, and as he looked towards the DJ booth Billy shook with anger when he saw there was no sign of the bag of cash anymore either.
47
“We are laughing all the way to the bank, babes.” Jay picked Tanya up and swung her around in the tiny cottage lounge, which in itself was a hard task as you couldn’t so much as swing a kitten. Tanya lapped up his praise and tilted her head back playfully.
“I can’t believe you did it, you’re fucking amazing, Tan… did I ever tell you that?”
Kissing her hard on the lips, he put her down, feeling dizzy with excitement. They had done it: they had really done it. Oh, the look on Billy’s face right now would be priceless: they had just taken a quarter of a million pounds from the bloke, he must be sick as a fucking parrot.
Jay’s adrenaline had been pumping all night long, he had been so worried that someone might have recognised Tanya and fucked the whole thing up for them. This was the biggest job he had ever pulled off, and with the enemies he had now made it had been the riskiest, but even he wouldn’t admit out loud how he had been shitting himself tonight. Tanya, once again, had come up trumps. Jay had led them to believe that this was his plan; that it was all his doing, and that they were dealing with him alone. He shook his head in wonderment, Billy had taken it as read and not realised that Tanya was involved at alclass="underline" let alone the main instigator.
“I know, I know; I’m a fucking genius!” Tanya was also pleased as punch with herself. She couldn’t keep the grin from her face. She had walked into the club and swanned around amongst them all, in disguise, and fleeced them for everything they had: well, everything Billy had. Men were pitiful. They had been so busy looking for Jay and searching all the men who went into the club, they hadn’t considered that they should have been looking out for a woman. Billy wouldn’t have thought for a minute that it would have been her coming for the money, but then he probably hadn’t given her a moment’s thought since he had thrown her out. It proved what a stupid little man he was. He didn’t have high expectations of her. She was unwilling to let that thought get to her, however; he had underestimated her and that would be to his own cost; nothing was spoiling this high for her tonight.
“How the hell did you manage to get out of the club in one piece with that bag in tow?” Jay nodded at the holdall Tanya had smuggled out of the club, which was now sitting in the middle of the coffee table, full of fifty pound notes. Tanya explained while she poured them both nice big glasses of cold Sauvignon, that she had lowered the bag out of the toilet window into the little passageway at the side of the club and then she had made a dash for the main door, along with the hundreds of other screaming people who were trying to get out of the club. There were people everywhere, running about trying to get to the main doors, in fear of an imaginary gunman; she had slipped out unnoticed. Just as she had got out and reached the passageway, the police had turned up with sirens blaring and all lights blazing. Unbeknown to Tanya, Billy’s lookout, Jonny, had been so consumed with the drama of the clubbers running out looking terrified and the police turning up he hadn’t spotted Tanya running with the bag of cash and getting into the Golf that was sitting a little further down the street. She had got away with it: easy money.