Chapter 4 Lou

When Lou was fifteen, three men with sticks had come into his parents' shop. They were taking the cigarettes and money when they heard a police car. Lou had shown them how to escape, over the back wall. His father had been very angry.

'You let them get away!' he shouted at Lou.

'It's best like this. Dad. They won't come back and break our windows. They'll be grateful to us,' Lou replied.

His mother had understood. 'We don't want to attract trouble,' she had said.

In fact, six weeks later a man came into the shop to buy cigarettes. Lou was serving. Robin introduced himself, asked Lou's name and then said: 'Here's a leg of lamb for your mother, Lou. You're a good boy — you'll hear from us.'

His mother had cooked the lamb and asked no questions.

Lou had felt excited at the thought of being so close to the criminal world. He was glad when he met Robin again, by chance it seemed. He did his first real job for the thieves then. He was told to get work cleaning in a cinema. He had to leave a door unlocked at night. The thieves got in and took all the money. They gave him one hundred pounds.

Lou never asked Robin for a job. By the time he was nineteen, he had only helped him twice. Lou was working in an electrical shop. But he wanted to meet Robin again, and it happened, unexpectedly, at a nightclub.

'You're looking well, Lou. Working at the moment?'

'Nothing that can't be changed, if necessary.'

'Busy place here, isn't it?' Robin said, looking at the notes that were passing across the bar.

And that was the job. The thieves wanted to rob the van that left the club with all the money every night. They wanted someone to stop the van for about five minutes by driving their car in front of it. Someone that the club knew well, who came there regularly. They bought Lou a car.

•

Six weeks later, Lou met Robin again.

'Been going to that nightclub regularly?' Robin asked.

'Twice, three times a week. They know me well now.'

'Don't drink tonight. And perhaps I'll show you a good place to park the car.'

'That would be great.' Lou asked no other details.

At about ten o'clock that night, he parked the car where Robin had shown him. Then he went into the club. Almost immediately he met the first girl that he ever thought he could love and live with for the rest of his life. Her name was Suzi and she was tall and beautiful with long red hair.

They danced and they talked for four and a half hours. They liked the same kind of films and music. They both liked Indian food. They both hoped to go to America one day. He knew it would be normal to drive her home. But he couldn't. He had a job to do.

'Can I see you again tomorrow, Suzi?'

'So has tonight ended?' Suzi asked.

'I've got to meet someone here a bit later. But tomorrow we'll go anywhere you want, I promise.'

'Really?' she said, upset and annoyed. 'Goodnight Lou.' And she picked up her coat and walked out into the night.

The robbery worked perfectly. At the right minute Lou drove his car backwards in front of the van with the money. Then the car stopped. He pretended that he couldn't start it again. While he was trying, dark figures escaped with the money over a wall.

Nobody thought that Lou had had a part in what happened. The people who worked in the club told police that they knew him; he was a very nice man. He got a good report from the electrical shop.

Lou heard later that the thieves had been carrying guns. He felt a bit sick then. He had thought that they still carried sticks. But when he next saw Robin, the man gave Lou a thousand pounds.

•

The day after the robbery, Lou went to Suzi's cafe at lunchtime with a red rose. They met most nights after that. Lou was able to buy Suzi nice things, but it seemed to worry her when he pulled out twenty pound notes.

'Hey, Lou, where do you get money like that?'

'I work, don't I?'

'Yes, and I know what they pay you. You're not doing anything that you shouldn't do, are you, Lou?'

'Not at the moment, no,' he said.

Suzi had the sense to say nothing more. And for the first time, Lou hoped that he wouldn't meet Robin again.

•

As usual though, Robin found Lou when he wanted him. Robin already knew about Suzi. He expected that Lou would want to buy a house soon. Robin could, of course, help him with that, but there was a job to do first. They needed a place to store five or six boxes every week. A place where there was a lot of activity, so people could go in and out unnoticed with these boxes.

'I'll think,' said Lou. 'But, well, actually, Robin, I'm thinking that... I don't want to be part of this in future.'

The look on Robin's face was terrible to see. 'When you're part of this, you're always part of it. That's the way it is.'

'I see,' said Lou.

•

That night Suzi said she wasn't free. She had promised to help the Italian woman who rented a room in her parents' house. They were going to tidy some rooms in Mountainview school, ready for an evening class. Lou said he would help too, and he was glad that he did help. Because there was a storeroom with boxes in it in the part of the school where the classes would be. Empty boxes. 'Shall we throw these out?' Suzi suggested.

Slowly Lou spoke. 'Why don't I just put them in a corner? You never know when you might need them.'

'You're right,' Signora said. 'We might use them for a table in an Italian restaurant, or a car in the garage.'

'Good woman, Signora,' Lou said.

•

'I found somewhere,' said Lou when Robin telephoned him at work.

'I knew you would, Lou.'

Lou told him where it was and about the activity every Tuesday and Thursday, with thirty people.

'And have you joined the class?' said Robin.

'No. I have trouble speaking English. Why would I want to learn Italian?'

'I think you should, Lou.'

When he got home that night, there was an envelope waiting for him. It contained five hundred pounds.

•

Suzi found it hard to understand why Lou suddenly wanted to learn Italian. He told her that he wanted to improve himself

He went to the first lesson like a man walking to his death. But it was surprisingly enjoyable. 'Mi chiamo Luigi,' he told the others. They were such a strange group of people. Perhaps they wouldn't question why he was there.

After two weeks he heard from Robin. Some boxes were going to come in on Tuesday, at the time when people were arriving for the class. Lou didn't know the van driver. The four boxes were in in a minute, then the man was gone. On Thursday they were taken out again.

Lou made himself popular with Signora by helping with the boxes. Sometimes they covered them with paper and put knives and forks on them.

'Quanta costa il piatto del giorno?' Signora asked. And they repeated it again and again until they could ask for anything. Perhaps it was childish but Lou liked it. He even thought that he and Suzi might go to Italy one day.

And so it continued. Weeks of boxes, in on Tuesday and out on Thursday. Lou didn't want to think about what was in them. He knew it must be drugs.

•

One of the nice things about working in a cafe was listening to people’s conversations. Suzi said she could write a book from the bits of conversation she heard.

One day an older man came in with an attractive girl. She was wearing a bank uniform. They didn't look very relaxed together, Suzi thought.

'I'm only agreeing to meet you because I want a good cup of coffee,' she said.

'But please, Grania, can't we talk?'

'We are talking. Tony.'

'I think I love you,' he said. 'Let's go out for dinner and talk like we used to talk.'

Suzi cleared the next table very slowly. He was a nice old man. The girl should give him a chance.

'Just dinner then,' Grania said, and they held hands.

•

Suzi and Lou decided that they would marry next year. 'I'll never like anyone more,' Suzi told Signora. Signora admired Suzi's ring. 'It's very, very beautiful,' she said.

'It's only glass, Signora, but it looks real, doesn't it?' Signora, who had always loved jewellery, but never had any, knew that the stone was real. And very expensive. She began to worry about Luigi. How had he managed to buy this? Of course, Robin had arranged it. Lou had only had to pay 250, but another 9,500 had already been paid towards a ring before he and Suzi went into the shop.

•

It was the Christmas party in the Italian class. They weren't going to meet again for two weeks. There were flags with Buon Natale ( an Italian phrase that means Happy Christmas) written on them. They wore paper hats and had a few glasses of wine.

In the middle of all this, Luigi suddenly had a terrible thought. Where would they store the boxes for the next two weeks? The school would be locked. Why hadn't he thought of this before? He knew he had to act quickly.

'How are you getting home?' he asked Signora, when they had finished clearing the tables. 'Is Mr Dunne meeting you?'

'Yes, he did say he might.' Her face went a little pink. She felt worried. If Luigi thought there was something between her and Aidan Dunne, then the whole class must think so. She didn't want people to start talking about them. Aidan Dunne only thought other as a friend. That was all.

'Why don't you leave now, then?' Luigi said. 'It's late. I'll lock the doors for you.'

'Crazie, Luigi.' She gave him the key. Now he might still be able to get the boxes in and out.

•

The evening before Christmas they worked long hours in the electrical shop. Just before closing time, Robin came in.

'Happy Christmas, Lou. I came to tell you that you can stop learning Italian, if you want. We've found another place for the boxes.'

'What?'

'Yeah, the last van driver made a silly mistake. We don't want to be seen around the school now.'

'What will happen to the driver?' Lou asked, afraid.

'He'll never work for us again.'

So that was what you had to do to get out of this, Lou thought. Just do one job badly and you were never called again. It was so simple.

'I've bought a present for you, Lou. It's a television for you and Suzi.'

'I can't take it,' Lou said. 'She'd know it was stolen.'

'It's not stolen. I've paid for it,' said Robin.

It was, of course, the most expensive television in the whole shop. Suzi would never accept it. But Lou had an idea. He still had Signora's school key. He put the television in the back of his car. It was midnight when he drove up to the school. With difficulty he carried the big television into the classroom. He had written a note which he left on it: Buon Natale a Lei, Signora, e a tutti.

The school would have a television. There was nothing on it to show where it had come from. They would never know.

And when Robin asked Lou to do another job, the job would be done badly. Lou would be told that he could never work again. He could continue with his life.

•

It was Christmas Day. Lou went round to Suzi's parents' house for tea and Christmas cake. Signora was there.

'Signora!' he said.

'Luigi.' She seemed pleased to see him.

They talked about the presents they had received. In the middle of the conversation, Lou remembered that he still had Signora's school key. She put it in her bag and the conversation continued. No one noticed him giving it to her.

•

The class began again on the first Tuesday in January. They were all there. Nobody was missing from the thirty who had joined in September.

The Principal, Tony O'Brien, was there too, and Mr Dunne. They were smiling all over their faces. The class had been given a present ... a television. Who had done it? Was it one of the class?

The Principal was pleased but he said that if nobody knew the answer they would have to change the locks on the doors. Because somebody must have a key.

And suddenly Signora looked up and looked at Luigi.

Lou tried to leave quickly when the class was over.

'Not helping me with the boxes tonight, Luigi?' Signora asked.

'Sorry, Signora, I forgot.'

Together they lifted the empty boxes into the store cupboard.

'Luigi, you are going to marry Suzi, the daughter of the house where I stay,' Signora said. 'I want to discuss that with you, and the ring.'

'Yes, it's beautiful, isn't it. But it's only glass.'

'No, I know it's real. It cost thousands, Luigi. And that television cost hundreds.'

'What are you saying?'

'I don't know. What are you saying to me?'

He felt ashamed. No one had made him ashamed like this before. 'I'm saying ...' he began. 'I'm saying it's finished. There won't be any more of it.'

'And are these things stolen, the ring and the television?'

'No, they were paid for by people I worked for.'

'But you don't work for them now?'

'No, I don't. I promise.' He wanted her to believe him.

'So Suzi won't ever need to know anything about this?'

'No, Signora. I'll be good. I promise.'

'Good luck, Luigi,' said Signora, and locked the door behind them.