Page 46 of An Artful Dodge
“Mary has earned the ring plenty over the years, and she needs time to find a new situation. I know the beds are for the ring, but I’ll pay her share of rent. The only thing you’d be losing is her take.”
“Which is not insubstantial. She brought in nearly fifty pounds a month back when she worked.”
“All the more reason you should bend on this,” I retorted.
“Very well.” She tapped the first two fingers of her good hand lightly on the desk. “I’ll give her three months. Is that sufficient?”
It was something. “Yes.”
“Now, what did you find?”
“I think it’s foolish to try Hatton Garden when there are so many other places,” I said frankly. “I visited twenty-four shops, and most have more than one clerk. Nine have private detectives. Sixteen have at least one mirror for visibility around corners, and most have two. All have locks on the cases, most of them keyed. Most have Yale locks on the doors and, from what I saw, black Chubb safes in the offices and workrooms.”
She appeared unperturbed. “That’s all excellent, Kit.”
“Of all the shops I went to, only five would take out more than two items at a time.”
“Oh? Which ones?”
I named them.
“Ah.” Her eyes glinted.
“But every one of those had clerks and mirrors.”
She smiled. “But you have only thought to thieve during the day, when the shop is open.”
“Actually, I considered what it would be like after dark, so I stayed late last night. Most stores have two or three locks on both doors, front and back. There are very few with windows in the back, none on the ground floor, and at closing, everything is removed from the plate glass windows in the front, which are so large that if they were broken, a constable would notice immediately. There are four uniformed constables that patrol and three more that are fixed—not to mention there might be plainclothesmen I didn’t see.”
“Hm.” Maggie pulled open a desk drawer and drew out the map she’d shown me before. “It’s easy enough to get in through the back alleys, here.” She pointed.
“All of the alleys I saw had iron gates with padlocks,” I said.
“There’s a narrow wall to one side that wouldn’t be difficult to get over, with a boost.” She glanced at my dress. “If someone wore trousers.”
“And the constables? There was one posted at the end of the alleys at dusk.”
“He could be paid to look the other way,” she said placidly.
A hefty bribe, no doubt.
“So you’re thinking to hit a shop after dark, when it’s closed.”
“It’s a better time,” she agreed.
From inside an alley, one might pick the back door and enter the shop. But there was still the problem of entering the room with the safe, not to mention the safe itself.
“You said you were thinking of me for it, but I’m rubbish with picks, and I’m useless with a safe,” I said.
She waved away the objections. “I have a cracksman.”
That twanged at my nerves. Amelia never would have planned a dodge that required bringing in a man from the outside. I wondered who it was.
Maggie looked at me expectantly.
“I’m sorry. I’m not interested,” I said. “I know you’re clever, and you probably have it all planned. But this is too risky for me.”
“Would the risks be worth it,” she asked, “for a cut of two hundred pounds?”
