Dick Francis - Crossfire

I decided that the restaurant was the better of the two, not only because it was in such a good position but because there was a curtain hanging from a brass bar halfway down the window, behind which I could easily hide while keeping watch through the gap in the middle. All I needed was to secure the correct table. A notice hanging on the restaurant door told me that it opened for lunch at noon. Until then I would have to make do with the coffee shop, which began serving in half an hour, at eight o'clock.

I wanted to be well in place before the mailbox shop opened. I had no idea at what time the post was delivered, but if I'd been the blackmailer, I wouldn't have left the package lying about for long, not with that much money in it.

I went around the corner and onto Market Street and found a bank with an ATM. I drew out two hundred pounds and used some of it to buy a newspaper at the newsagent's on the corner. It wasn't that I needed something to read-doing that might cause me to miss seeing the collector-but I did need something to hide behind while sitting in the large windows of the coffee shop.

At eight-thirty sharp, I watched from behind my newspaper as a man and a woman arrived, unlocked the front door of the mailbox shop and went in. From my vantage point I could just about see box number 116, but the reflection from the window didn't make it very easy. As far as I could tell, neither of the two arrivals opened that box, or any other, for that matter, but as they were the shop staff, they wouldn't have had to. They would have had access to all the boxes from behind.

I drank cups of coffee and glasses of orange juice and hoped that I looked to all the world like a man idling away the morning, reading his newspaper. On two occasions one of the coffee-shop staff came over and asked me if I needed refills, and both times I accepted. I didn't want them asking me to move on, but I was becoming worried about my level of liquid intake, and the inevitable consequences. I could hardly ask one of the staff to watch the mailbox for me while I nipped to the loo.

By ten o'clock, I had drunk nearly three large cups of coffee, as well as three orange juices, and I was becoming desperate. It reminded me of the agony I'd suffered in the stable, but on this occasion I wasn't chained to a wall. I left my newspaper and coffee cup on the table by the window to save my place, and rushed to the gents.

Nothing outside appeared to have changed in the short time I was away. The street had become gradually busier as the morning wore on, but so far, I'd not recognized anyone. I quickly rescanned the faces in front of me so as not to miss a familiar one, but there were none.

At ten to eleven I did spot someone coming slowly down the street that I recognized. I didn't know the man himself, but I did know his business. It was the postman. He was pushing a small four-wheeled bright red trolley, and he was stopping at each shop and doorway to make his deliveries. He went into the mailbox shop with a huge armful of mail held together by rubber bands. From the distance I was away, I couldn't tell whether my stepfather's package had been amongst it or not, but I suspected it had. And the blackmailer would surely assume so.

"Are you staying all day?" A young female staff member from the coffee shop was standing at my elbow.

"Sorry?" I asked.

"Are you staying all day?" she asked again.

"Is there a law against it?" I asked. "I've ordered lots of coffee, three orange juices and a Danish pastry."

"But my friend and I think you're up to something," she said. I turned in my chair and looked at her friend, who was watching me from behind the relative safety of the chest-high counter. I turned back and checked the street outside.

"Now, why is that?" I asked.

"You're not reading that newspaper," she said accusingly.

"And why do you think that?"

"You've been on the same page for at least the past hour," she said. "We've been watching. No one reads a paper that slowly."

"So what do you think I'm doing?" I asked her, still keeping my eyes on the mailbox shop.

"We think you're keeping watch for bank robbers." She smiled. "You're a cop, aren't you?"

I put a finger to my lips. "Shhh," I said, with a wink.

The girl scuttled back to her friend, and when I looked at them a minute or two later, they both put fingers to their lips and collapsed in fits of giggles.

I had half an hour to go before the Taj Mahal opened, but I reckoned I couldn't stay here any longer. I wasn't keen on the attention I was now receiving from just about all the coffee-shop staff, as well as from some of the customers.

I beckoned the girl back over to me.

"I've got to go now," I said quietly, paying my bill. "My shift is over. But remember"-I put my finger to my lips again-"shhh. No telling."

"No, of course not," she said, all seriously.

I stood up, collected my unread newspaper and walked out. I thought that by lunchtime she would have told all her friends of the encounter, and half of their friends' friends would probably know by this evening.

I walked away down the street, certain that my every move was being watched by the girl, her friend and most of the other coffee-shop staff. I couldn't just hang around outside, so I went into the shop right next door to the Indian restaurant. It sold computers and all things electronic.

"Can I help you, sir?" asked a young man, approaching me.

"No thanks," I said. "I'm just looking."

Looking through the window.

"Just call if you want anything," he said, and he returned to where he was fiddling with the insides of a stripped-down computer.

"I will," I assured him.

I stood by a display case at the window and went on watching the shop across the road through the glass. I glanced at the display case. It was full of cameras.

"I'd like to buy a camera," I said, without turning around.

"Certainly, sir," said the young man. "Any particular one?"

"I want one I can use straightaway," I said. "And one with a good zoom."

"How about the new Panasonic?" he said."That has an eighteen-times optical zoom and a Leica lens."

"Is that good?" I asked, still not turning around to him.

"The best," he said.

"OK, I'll have one," I said. "But it will work straightaway?"

"It should do," he said. "You'll have to charge the battery pretty soon, but they usually come with a little bit of charge in them."

"Can you make sure?" I asked.

"Of course."

"And can you set it up so it's ready to shoot immediately?"

"Certainly, sir," said the young man. "This one records direct to a memory card. Would you like me to include one?"

"Yes please," I said, keeping my eyes on the mailbox shop.

"Two-gigabyte?" he asked.

"Fine."

I went on watching the street as the young man fiddled with the camera, checking the battery and installing the memory card.

"Shall I put it back in the box?" he asked.

"No," I said. "Leave it out."

I handed him my credit card and looked down briefly to enter my PIN, and also to check that I wasn't spending a fortune.

"And please leave the camera switched on."

"The battery won't last if I do that," he said. "But it's dead easy to turn on when you need it. You just push this here." He pointed. "Then you just aim and shoot with this." He pointed to another button. "The camera does the rest."

"And the zoom?"

"Here," he said. He showed me how to zoom in and out.

"Great. Thanks."

He held out a plastic bag. "The charger, the instructions and the warranty are in the box."

"Thanks," I said again, taking the bag.

I went swiftly out of the camera shop and into the adjacent Taj Mahal Indian restaurant just as a waiter turned the CLOSED sign to OPEN on the door.

"I'd like that table there, please," I said, pointing.