Perfect Heist

Chapter Fourteen

The Wiener Hausberge range, known as the Vienna Mountains, comprises several scenic peaks that form the tail-end of the Alps. About a three-hour drive from Vienna, they are a popular destination for day-trippers and hikers in the spring and summer but, in mid-winter, the area is far from busy. That is why Joey, Brie and Nico chose it as the location for their hideout. Several weeks ago, they had rented a holiday chalet in the foothills of Schneeberg Mountain, one of the nearest to the city, and stocked it up with food and drink, bed clothes and piles of logs for heating.

Sitting on a chair in her kitchen, firmly bound and gagged with heavy-duty tape, Serena was able to overhear what her former partners-in-crime were saying. It was clear they had long planned to overthrow Percy and were using this major heist as the opportunity to do so. The plot was to steal the Bavarian Shield, sell it for a fortune and split the profit three ways before disappearing abroad never to be seen again. Serena had done them a massive favour by delivering the diamond right into their hands. She was now of no use to them anymore and understood perfectly well the threats Brie had made to her were real. She would be disposed of as soon as the right moment presented itself.

Nico, Joey and Brie were busy gazing in awe at the gigantic gemstone and taking it in turns to hold it, forgetting Serena's house would be one of the first places visited by the police once the Hubers had named her as the jewel thief. Suddenly there was a thunderous knock on the door and, when they failed to respond, the sound of splintering was heard as it was smashed with a battering ram. In a mad scramble to get out of the side door that led onto a derelict boatyard, they cut the tape round Serena's ankles and yanked her roughly by the shoulder to take her with them. They couldn't leave her behind because she would reveal their identities and they would be caught immediately. Hiding behind the rotting wooden hulls of the old boats until the police eventually went away, they sneaked along to a second-hand car they had parked down by the river. It had been bought from a teenage driver because it had blacked-out windows which suited them perfectly for their drive to the mountains. Piling into the car and going straight down the motorways rather than back roads, they managed to escape from Vienna just before a circle of road blocks was set up to search every vehicle entering or leaving the city.

The drive to Schneeberg was uneventful for about two hours into the journey. Then they found themselves driving towards a gathering bank of deep black clouds that made the air become still and the light begin to turn to an eerie yellow.

"It's going to snow," said Serena. Her gag had been removed at the start of the journey on condition she didn't speak.

"Shut the fuck up!" Joey snarled at her.

"Okay, okay. I know the rules. Just thought I'd warn you. When it snows here in the Austrian mountains, it really snows...agh!"

Brie silenced her with a vicious smack to the side of her head.

Serena's warning became more and more pertinent with each kilometre they drove. At first it became so gloomy the car lights needed to be on full-beam, even though it was still mid-afternoon. Then it began to snow in little flurries of thin white flakes that were easily removed by the windscreen wipers. These soon changed to huge fluffy snowflakes that were so heavy the wipers struggled to remove them at all.

"Anyone fancy building a snowman?" asked Joey.

Everyone ignored him.

"Or a snowball fight," he continued, determined to make light of the situation.

"Joey, please do what you told that bitch to do just now," growled Brie. "Shut the fuck up!"

Nico, who was driving, ignored their bickering and stared ahead anxiously through the windscreen. "Don't think we're going to make it up to the lodge. I've already slowed down to a crawl. If we're not careful, we could easily go over the edge of one of these narrow mountain roads."