The Diamond Rosary Murders Read Free

left onto Farringdon Road.
    About a hundred metres up the road, the car slowed then stopped at a dishevelled-looking newspaper-seller on the pavement at the side of the road. He had a canvas newspaper bag with the words
London Chronicle
printed in red over his shoulder and hanging down by his waist, and a bundle of papers under his arm.
    ‘Paper, please,’ the man in the car said.
    The paper-seller came unusually close to the side of the car. ‘60p, Guv,’ he said. Then he glanced to his right and to his left, and then opened wide the bag half-filled with newspapers. The man in the car leaned out of the open window and dropped something into it as the paper-seller handed him a paper from under his arm. The sleight of hand took only a split second.
    The paper-seller promptly closed the bag, and in a loud voice said, ‘Thank you, Guv.’ Then he turned away from the car and began to hobble at speed back along Farringdon Road.
    The man in the car pressed the button to close the window, as the Mercedes roared away up towards the busy junction; it was soon lost in London traffic.
    Minutes later Hatton Garden was swarming with police cars and policemen. Three hours after that, the headline of the
London Chronicle and Advertiser
read:
    DARING HATTON GARDEN ROBBERY. BLOODY MARY’S £20M GEMSTONE ROSARY STOLEN. £1M REWARD OFFERED.
    At 10.55 a.m. today, thieves raided the showroom of Julius Henkel Limited, antique jewellery dealer of Hatton Garden, London. Police say that it was probably the work of the Chameleon, however it is not known whether he took any active part in the raid. The armed robbers used grenades and handguns.
    A man came into the showroom with a blonde woman, whom he introduced as his wife; he gave his name and address which appeared to be that of a genuine jewellery dealer and his wife from Glasgow. The couple purported to be interested in purchasing, on behalf of a syndicate, the fabulous diamond- and-ruby Rosary given by King Philip II of Spain to Mary I, Queen of England, on the occasion of their wedding on 25th July 1554.
    Julius Henkel, chairman of the company, said the Rosary was unique and comprised a gold crucifix with all the beads represented by precious stones, mostly diamonds, and every decade a ruby, all threaded onto a gold chain. The presentation of the Rosary was made at Kensington Palace on 23rd July 1554. The marriage took place two days later. The Rosary was in a brown leather presentation case.
    The leader of the gang who did all the speaking in what was thought to be a Scottish accent was portly, aged about 50, had dark hair, a moustache and beard, horn-rimmed spectacles, and wore a dark suit. His accomplice was a woman aged 35 years who had a ‘striking’ figure, long blonde hair, and was wearing a dress decorated with black lace and a matching coat. The third man was the driver of the car which was said to be a silver Mercedes. The licence plate was found to be false.
    A witness said that he saw a car thought to be the getaway car stop to buy a newspaper from a street vendor on Farringdon Road.
    There is a reward of £1m for information leading to the capture and identity of the Chameleon and the return of the jewel.

TWO
    The King George Hotel, Bromersley, South Yorkshire. Wednesday 7 December 2011. 10.30 p.m.
    J ames Argyle was the first into the room. His arms were behind his back and bound at the wrists with brown sticky parcel tape.
    Behind him, pushing him, was Charles Domino. He had the barrel of a Walther 38 sticking into Argyle’s spine. He jabbed it into him meanly from time to time.
    ‘All right. All right,’ Argyle said in a crisp Scottish accent.
    Domino looked down his nose at him and said, ‘I just don’t want you to forget who is running this show.’
    Argyle looked round the shabby hotel bedroom. He wrinkled his nose as if he’d just caught a whiff of the gravy vat in the cookhouse at Strangeways.
    ‘Not exactly the Ritz,’ he said.
    ‘It’s good enough for