Peter Lovesey - Diamond Dust

'Why?'

'He's the key to everything.'

'The peterman?'

'The what?'

'Safe-breaker. The fellow who liberates the rocks.'

Zahir's face was a study in distaste. 'We're not proposing to break into a safe, Mr Tattersall.'

'How else are you going to lay hands on them?'

Rhadi broke into the dialogue in some excitement. 'This is the beauty, Harry.'

Zahir said, 'We're having the diamonds delivered to us.'

'Delivered? Who by?'

'The owners. The top dealer in Hatton Garden, the home of the London diamond trade.'

'How do you arrange that?'

Zahir exchanged more looks with Rhadi and Ibrahim. 'This is what will happen. Rhadi will go to Hatton Garden and inform the dealer that a prince of the Kuwaiti Royal Family has come to London to buy rough diamonds and is staving at the Dorchester Hotel. In Hatton Garden they know that the Kuwaitis are rich beyond dreams. They will arrange to take their best stones to his suite for inspection.'

'Before you go on,' Harry said, 'these Hatton Garden people aren't fools. They'll check with the hotel.'

'And when they check, they'll find that it's true. There will be a Kuwaiti prince on the hotel guest-list.'

'You, I suppose,' Harry said, not over-impressed.

'No. A true member of the blood royal. The Kuwaitis visit London frequently and stay at the Dorchester. They have a financial stake in the City. Anyone checking will find this is totally on the level.'

'Get away. The fifth man is a Kuwaiti prince?'

'No, no. You're still not listening. The prince isn't in the plot. We time our heist to coincide with the visit.'

Harry still needed convincing. 'How will you know when one of the princes is over here? Private visits by royalty are arranged in secret. They're very aware of security.'

'Rightly so,' Zahir said, unfazed. 'We'll know because we have a man inside the Dorchester.'

Harry digested this.

'Clever,' he said, after a pause. 'The fifth man?'

'Yes. He's on the staff, on the catering side. When royalty are coming, they have to order food supplies specially, so he's one of the few to be entrusted with advance information about VIP guests. He will advise us – through you – when one of the princes has a booking. We will then book one of the best suites for you under the name of Lord this or the Earl of that. Your job. You can impersonate one of the aristocracy, I hope?'

'With ease.'

'Good. I suggest you are disguised. Dyed hair, glasses, moustache. You will check in, and occupy the suite. Presently I will arrive with Ibrahim. Within a short time you will remove your disguise and leave by the back stairs. Your job will be over. It's as simple as that. Shortly after you depart,' the Hatton Garden dealer will arrive, and be met in the foyer by Rhadi, posing as the emissary of the Kuwaitis.'

'He may have security with him,' Harry warned.

'We're prepared for that. Rhadi will escort him to the suite, where I will be waiting, with Ibrahim, both dressed in the jubbah. If they bring a security officer, he will be ordered by Rhadi to remain outside the door. You don't bring functionaries such as that into the presence of the blood royal. The dealer takes out his parcel of diamonds and we relieve him of them. As smoothly as possible. Minimum violence. He is tied up and gagged. We leave by another door.'

'Isn't that the neatest scam you ever heard?' Rhadi said.

'Sounds all right,' Harry grudgingly admitted. 'But why do you need me?'

'For your special talent, and our protection. You have two functions. First, you are the go-between, as I mentioned. Our man on the Dorchester staff will communicate with you, not with Arabs, which might arouse suspicion. There is sure to be a security enquiry after the heist. He will, of course, deny having given information to anybody.'

'And secondly?'

'You are the decoy – the peer who booked the suite. It will take some time for them to realise how it was done.

For all they know, you may have been a genuine peer abducted by the gang.'

Harry was silent for several seconds as he reviewed the plan. Certainly it had attractions. No safe-breaking, fiddling with security systems, no guns, no excessive violence. The concept of the dealer being conned into bringing the rocks to the hotel was neat, as was the idea of timing the scam to coincide with a genuine royal visit. Yes, it appealed. His own part didn't sound too demanding. He'd taken bigger risks in the past.

'And if it all goes to plan,' he said, 'how will you fence the diamonds? If they're tiptop items, they'll be well known in the trade.'

'These are uncut stones, Mr Tattersall,' Zahir reminded him. 'The industry is worldwide now. Huge. There are factories in Bombay, Tel Aviv, Smolensk. Every damned place. There is no difficulty in unloading top quality roughs for a decent price, believe me. They will be out of Britain within hours and cut and polished within days. And once a stone has been cleaved, it changes personality, just as you do for a living, or so I'm told. Are you in?'

'For a hundred K guaranteed?'

'Guaranteed.'

'I'll incur some expenses.'

'We can take care of that.'

'Over and above my hundred grand?'

'Expenses – yes. What do you have in mind? The disguise?'

'A suit. I can't walk into the Dorchester in what I'm wearing.' It was worth the try, Harry thought, and he was mightily impressed when it got a result.

'I was thinking the same,' Zahir said, looking him up and down. 'Fifteen hundred in expenses, then.'

'Upfront?'

'Rhadi will see to it'

They shook hands.

'What next?' Harry asked, trying not to show his awe at the deal.

'You buy some decent clothes, and then you wait. We all wait.'

'For the word from your fellow in the Dorchester?'

'Which he will give to you.'

'Is this hotel man reliable? One hundred per cent?'

'Be assured of that. He held the Queen's commission. He was an officer in the Royal Air Force Catering Branch.'

'How did you…?'

'Your door was open.'

'Bloody liar. You put your boot against it.'

'So it was open,' Diamond said.

He didn't usually force an entry when calling on a witness, but the rules change for winos. Warburton clearly wasn't in any shape to get up and greet a visitor. He was on the floor, his back propped against a greasy leather armchair on which the lurcher was curled up asleep, oblivious of Diamond's arrival. Maybe it, too, was pie-eyed. Empty cider bottles were scattered about the floor.

'You're that copper,' Warburton said through his alcoholic haze, as if Diamond needed reminding.

There was another chair, an upright one, with a plate on it with the dried remains of a meal of baked beans. Diamond chose to remain standing. He was trying to decide if the man was capable of coherent answers. In vino veritas is a maxim reliable only up to a certain intake of the vino.

'What you want?' Warburton asked.

Diamond ignored him and walked through to the second room of this foul-smelling basement.

A mattress on the floor and an ex-army greatcoat slung across it, presumably for bedding. More empty bottles.

He stooped and looked under one side of the mattress. And then the other. Nothing except some dog-eared pages from a girlie magazine. He brushed his clothes in case of lice.

Back in the main room, watched by the still-supine tenant, he sifted through the few possessions. From a carton containing cans of dog food, baked beans and a stale loaf, he picked out a supermarket receipt.

'What's this? Thirty-eight pounds fifty-three? You had a good splurge on the twenty-third. In the money, were you?'

'Me social, wasn't it?'

'On a Tuesday? Come off it, Jimmy. This was the day you found the woman in the park. You nicked the cash from her bag, didn't you?'