Free The Count of Eleven by Ramsey Campbell

see my wife urgently. Money trouble.”
    She pushed her peaked cap higher on her lined forehead with her pen. “Your private life is no concern of mine, sir. I’ll be back this way in five minutes.”
    Jack sprinted into the building in time to hear Lynne saying loudly to Julia “I wouldn’t let any husband of mine talk that way to me. It’s at least as much your money as his.” She gazed at Jack as though she hoped he’d overheard, but he didn’t care what she or the traffic warden thought of him so long as everything was right with him and Julia. It wasn’t until Julia looked up from rooting in her handbag that his confidence shook.
    “I haven’t got my card. I don’t know where it can be. I know I put it in my bag on Saturday after I paid for the shopping.” She screwed up her face as if that would help her think, and he thought she was about to weep. Then a look of understanding emerged onto her face, and it was worse than weeping. “Those boys at the fire,” she said.

SEVEN
    By Monday morning Laura was still blaming herself. “I saw those boys running away from the fire. I should have taken more notice of them, I should have seen what they looked like. If I’d told you, you could have told the police.”
    “It’s no more your fault than your mother’s. If it’s anyone’s fault it’s mine, and we’re not going to let it matter, are we? I bet soon you’ll be thinking of it as a cautionary tale to tell your friends.”
    “I hate those boys. I wish they’d been in the fire. How could they spend all our money like that?”
    “It sounds as if they weren’t the ones who spent it. The lady at the hi-fi shop thinks it was a man about my age. The police think he uses the boys to lift credit cards for him and then spends all he can before the victims notice they’ve been robbed. Apparently we’re not the only case.”
    “Why didn’t the shops see he wasn’t Mummy? I would have.”
    “It’s my fault for only putting my initial on the card,” Julia said.
    “Not a bit of it, Julia. Ten to one he sends a woman to use cards that have a woman’s name on them. These are people who know what they’re doing.”
    “Nobody needs to buy all those things,” Laura cried.
    “Five expensive cameras are pushing it, you mean. Especially when it was the same one from five different shops. Maybe our man is in consumer research.” She only bit her lip at that, and so he told her the truth. “According to the police they’re resold the same day to people who order them in advance.”
    Laura clenched her fists and asked the question she must have been preparing all weekend. “How much of our money did they steal?”
    “A lot more than we’re supposed to spend, and the stupidest part is that they won’t have made anything like that amount by selling what they bought. It’ll all go on heroin anyway, the police think.” He took hold of her fists and tried gently to open them. “Don’t worry, we aren’t ruined yet. That’s what the bank’s for.”
    She gave him an unsteady smile. “To ruin us?”
    “That’s more like it. Where would we be if we couldn’t laugh, eh? This may even have done us some good in the long run. I should be able to buy all the videos in the auction up the road a lot cheaper than I would have paid at the wholesalers, and it’s a better selection than the wholesalers had.”
    “You’re sure the bank’s going to lend you the money?”
    “If the manager hears what the lucky clown tells him he’s bound to,” Jack said, and waggled the grinning head on the ring at her. “Come to life now, princess, or you’ll be late for school.”
    Julia made certain that she had her lunchbox and the books she needed, and waved to her from the front door, and returned to Jack. “You really think …”
    “If the clown doesn’t work I’ll turn on the fatal Orchard charm. It worked on you, as I remember.”
    “Seriously, Jack.”
    “Seriously, we don’t have to be serious yet, do we?