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FROM THE DIAMOND TALISMAN

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It was turning out to be a sweltering day and Kate and Amanda began to feel hot and sticky as they wandered around looking at all the different animals, each kind in their own enclosure, landscaped to match as closely as possible the animal’s native background. The girls laughed with delight as they watched the cocky penguins strutting up and down with their peculiar waddle and then diving into the water to swim with grace and beauty. They managed to be on time to see the sea lions being fed with fish from a bucket by their keeper.  They also spent a long time looking at the elephants although the elephants now had such a big new enclosure you could hardly see some of them. There were still the odd ones though, who had decided it was their duty to entertain their admirers and they put on quite a display of trying to squirt water with their trunks over the fence and security ditch at the visitors.

“Oh, let’s sit down for a while and have an ice cream,” said Amanda as they neared the Ostrich pen, as she had seen an ice-cream cart just outside the fence.

“Good idea,” agreed Kate.  “You get them and I’ll bag this seat over here.”

Having bought two very large ice creams, the girls settled down on the seat to enjoy them.  Not too far away there was another seat on which sat two men talking to a third who had a foot on the end of the bench and was leaning towards them, talking excitedly.

“Mandy,” said Kate, “see that ostrich over there standing by himself – he is quite different from the rest of them. Look, he’s a lovely golden colour instead of dark brown and black and he’s got such an elegant neck.  And look at those huge soft brown eyes!”

“I wonder why he is so different,” replied Amanda. “He’s even smaller than the rest and he isn’t standing with them – look, he’s by himself.  Do you know something, Kate, I think he is looking at us.”  The two girls were curious and even more so because they noticed that the people who passed the enclosure didn’t seem to notice the difference in the colour and size of the ostrich they were looking at compared to the plain black, brown and white of the rest of the birds.

As they sat there in silence enjoying their ice creams and studying the golden ostrich, bits and pieces of the conversation between the men on the next bench were reaching their ears. At first the girls did not take much notice but it gradually dawned on them that this was not a normal conversation.  

In fact, sitting on the bench near to them were none other than Fingers and The Cat.  Instead of the streamlined and rather odd image they presented in the leotards, hoods and tight-fitting gloves they wore when working, they were now dressed in jeans and sports shirts just like a couple of tourists enjoying a day out at the zoo.  However, their presence had nothing whatsoever to do with any interest in the zoo. It was simply a convenience.  They knew that in such an open place with so many children about, they would be unlikely to be seen by anyone they knew or who knew them.  Some of the characters they mixed with in their line of work probably wouldn’t even know what a zoo was!  The last thing they wanted was for Roger Corr to know where they were. 

This meeting was with their fence, Freddie Bendell, who was negotiating with third parties interested in buying what Fingers and The Cat had on offer after their visit to Ryerdale Hall.  This was work that Freddie really enjoyed.  Not for him the dangers of robbery and murder – there were better ways to make money!  He would get a very substantial cut from all of this, provided he could keep Fingers on an even keel and persuade The Cat to do what was best for all three of them.  Also dressed in jeans and sports shirt, which covered several tattoos, Freddie was quite a handsome guy.  Moderately tall, he had a golden tan and an enviable, muscular build.  His face was like granite – he never gave anything away and his blue eyes were cold and steely enough to stare down any negotiator.  He was good at what he did and charged a lot for doing it, but Fingers and The Cat were prepared to pay for the best.  They wanted to deal with Freddie because he was the one fence they knew who had never done business with Roger Corr.

Looking back, the pair of them couldn’t believe that they had pulled the job off so successfully.  Roger was bound to be hunting for them by now, but once the arrangements for the disposal of the diamond and the other jewellery were made and the money was in their hands, they would be out of the country, quite confident that Corr would not find them. 

“… and this man was on the sofa – all horribly twisted,” said Fingers,  “horrible it was – dead bodies make me feel all creepy!”

“Oh shut up, Fingers,” said Freddie, leaning further over the end of the bench towards Fingers and prodding his shoulder.  “We’ve heard all that before and there’s nothing we can do about it. Besides, he’ll have been found and the matter reported to the police by now.  Look at it this way, the police will be so busy trying to find out what happened to him that they may not be too careful in looking for evidence of a robbery.”

“I suppose so, I never thought of that,” said Fingers.

“Well think about it now,” said Freddie. “Now, back to the sparklers. I’ve got somebody interested and he’ll give about eight million, if that catches your fancy?”

“Not so fast, Freddie,” interrupted a serious and thoughtful Cat.  “There’s much more at stake here.  The whole heist is worth ten times that amount.”

“Oh yes,” replied Freddie, “and how do you think you’re going to get rid of the Mirendah?  Word of a diamond that size is bound to spread like wildfire and make it too hot to handle.”

The Cat looked at him with a smirk creeping over his face.  “That may be so, but there’s not been any talk about it in recent years and after it has been polished and cut, no one is going to know where it came from, and as for the Bearer Bonds we ”

Suddenly the men went into more of a huddle and the girls could no longer hear what they were saying, although they were desperately trying.

“Oh Kate, that’s awful,” whispered Amanda, all colour draining from her face as she looked at her friend.

Kate, forever the practical one, said quietly,  “Listen, Amanda, I think it would be a good idea if you went to look for one of the zoo security guards.  We have to report this.”  Both of them seemed totally unaware of the danger they had put themselves in by overhearing the conversation. 

“O.K.,” replied Amanda.  “Will you be alright here? You won’t move, will you?”  

“Oh, don’t be daft,” whispered Kate. “I am quite happy to watch the ostrich, and I’ll also keep my ears open for anything that might tell us where the murder took place.  If the men move I will try and follow them.  I’ll keep an eye open for you coming back at the same time, but you must hurry!”  She grinned to encourage her friend, who looked anything but happy about the situation.

After Amanda had gone rather reluctantly, Kate went on watching the golden ostrich.  He was still standing on his own, a good way from the rest of the birds and looking directly at her.  Kate really didn’t know why the bird  was studying her, but he was, with a gentle, piercing stare.  At the same time, she was also keeping her ears open, hoping to catch some more scraps of conversation coming from the nearby bench.  The three men seemed to be furiously talking, but she could not hear what they were saying because they had huddled together and faced away from her so the sound of their voices was being carried the other way.

As Kate watched the ostrich it slowly made its way over to the fence that enclosed the compound.  Forgetting all about the men on the bench, she found herself getting up from the seat and being irresistibly drawn towards the fence which formed a barrier between the public and the enclosure.  Kate was completely mesmerized by the ostrich’s big brown eyes and she felt rooted to the spot, quite incapable of moving.

Want to read more. Buy The Diamond Talisman.