Free Elephants can't hide forever by Peter Plenge Page B

everyone knew he would effectively be facing a life sentence if found guilty and under those circumstances, who wouldn’t.
    Ironically the two Petermen were the first to crack; they figured Mouse would be away for such a long stretch that he was effectively rendered harmless, and in any case would have more on his
mind coping with the rest of his life in the shovel than to worry about his gold. They both knew many villains who they figured would take the gold for cash; they could then disappear back into the
world at large never to be heard of again. So within three days of Mouse’s capture, a white Hertz rental van pulled off the highway between The Wake Arms and Theydon Bois, an area known as
Epping Forest, and the two safebreakers entered the forest, went to the spot where their entrusted cargo was buried, dug it up, loaded the van and hit the road north to Scotland.
    Twenty hours later in a derelict warehouse in Glasgow’s East End, the exchange took place. The scene could have been taken from a hundred gangster movies, with the two Petermen in one
corner and the Glasgow Mafia, totalling six men and all heavily tooled up in another. Whilst the Englishmen were extremely vulnerable, they had worked with these Glaswegian hoodlums in the past, so
were fairly confident they wouldn’t get rolled over. As it happened they had nothing to fear; the transaction completed, they left Glasgow 800k richer and the boys from Barlinnie returned to
their haunts with a thousand gold bars valued by Johnson Matthey at 3.8 million pounds. All happy then, apart of course from prisoner 134859 Illes of her Majesties Prison Parkhurst.
    It took just two weeks for word of the betrayal to reach A wing. John Illes was being turned over by those he trusted and if he didn’t send a message out very quickly he knew the empire
would collapse and there would be nothing left of the loot within six months, let alone when he got out.
    Mouse realised he had to get out of jail sooner rather than later, no matter what the cost. He acted with as much haste as the judicial system would allow, and within twenty four hours he was
sitting in the Governor’s office facing Chief Superintendant Frank Carter.
    “Well, here I am, John” said the Sweeney boss. “What is you want?” he asked, pretty sure he had already guessed,
    Mouse gritted his teeth. “I want to turn Queen’s” he said “I’ll give you everyone, but I want out, I want out now, and I need £100,000 grand to get
lost.”
    Frank Carter stared at Mouse, and shook his head slowly.
    “Honour amongst thieves is it then, John?” he smirked. “Let me tell you” he continued, “the return of Jesus Christ is more likely to happen than you getting out of
here. You knock off twenty six million quid and then think you can grass up a few mates and get off the hook! I don’t think so. Listen, your assets are about to be seized, you are soon going
back to the Bailey to be ordered to pay back the twenty six million, that’s with a capital M. Should you ever be released, or if you try to contact me again. I won’t come. Warden, take
this trash back to his cell.”
    The door slammed shut leaving Mouse stunned and very alone.
    Word soon started to filter through the underworld that John Illes had been ripped off, and that the gold was being held by at least a dozen crooks, and the heat was intense. Danny Gallagher had
been raided twice, nothing found, but the old bill had got their message across: the heat wouldn’t stop until the gold was found and the remaining robbers reunited with Mouse.
    Oddly enough, just like the two safecrackers but without knowing it, Danny had also buried his stash in Epping Forest. If future generations ever dug up the Forest they would assume it was some
ancient burial ground, what with all the bodies from gangland wars deposited there, and the hidden booty from blags where the villains for one reason or another never got back to claim their
ill-gotten gains.