Snatched From Home: What Would You Do To Save Your Children? (DI Harry Evans Book 1) by Graham Smith Page A

playing cards in the pile.
    Picking up the stack of cards, Campbell sat down at a desk and motioned for the salesman to sit on the opposite side. Once the man was seated, he started counting the cards onto the desk.
    ‘One.’
    ‘Two.’
    ‘Three.’
    ‘Four.’
    ‘How many cars have you for sale today?’
    The salesman took a moment to calculate the number before he answered Campbell. ‘Twenty-three.’
    Campbell laid a card down. ‘Twenty-four.’
    ‘Twenty-five.’
    ‘Twenty-six.’
    ‘How old are you? You look near retirement age?
    ‘I’m only fifty-four, so a few years yet.’ The salesman pulled a face at Campbell’s question, irritation creeping into his voice.
    ‘Fifty-five.’
    ‘Fifty-six.’
    ‘Fifty-seven.’
    ‘Fifty-eight.’
    ‘Sorry about that. I’m twenty years younger than you. I was born in December seventy-nine.’
    ‘It’s OK.’ The salesman nodded at Campbell’s apology.
    ‘Eighty.’
    ‘Eighty-one.’
    ‘Eighty-two.’
    ‘Eighty-three.’
    ‘I’ve heard the temperature is to hit ninety-eight this weekend.’ Campbell laid down another card as he spoke.
    ‘Really, ninety-eight?’
    ‘Ninety-nine, one hundred.’ Campbell crossed his hands on the table.
    ‘Please, can you count the cards I have given you?’
    ‘Again? They been counted three times now: first, I counted them and then he counted them and then you counted them in front of us both.’
    ‘Just count them for me please.’
    ‘This is where you learn how you’ve been tricked, you imbecile.’ Evans made no attempt to hide his disdain of the salesman.
    The salesman counted the cards that Campbell had laid on the table, and looked up in amazement when he finished. There were only twenty-one cards in his hands.
    ‘Are you looking for these?’ Campbell lifted his hands to reveal the other seventy-nine cards.
    ‘How the hell did you do that?’
    ‘I distracted you by asking you questions which had numbers as the answer or were about different numbers. When I started counting again I carried on from the number which had just been spoken.’
    ‘Well, fuck me sideways with a pickaxe.’
    ‘Was that familiar?’ Campbell ignored Evans’s outburst, and directed his question at the salesman.
    ‘Yeah. That’s just what it was like.’ A hand rubbed the salesman’s reddening face. ‘Mebbe the jumps in numbers weren’t as big, but that’s just how it was when he counted the money out.
    Campbell was elated at discovering the method used to con the garages. As they drove out of the forecourt he explained the methodology to Evans. ‘It’s a simple enough scam if you have the confidence to pull it off and if you use the same questions at each garage you get the same amount of money. The key is the questions. The ones I chose were designed to annoy or interest him, which gives the bigger distraction. Also I overcooked it for effect. He would never have missed the jumps in numbers if I had given him notes instead of playing cards.’
    ‘So these folk are walking in with three grand and driving away with a car worth five? That has to be one of the best cons I’ve ever heard of. When we catch them we should give them a medal for services to motorists.’
    ‘Is it even illegal?’
    ‘If both parties agree to the amount of money that changes hands, I think it’d be very hard to prove otherwise in court.’
    ‘That’s what I was thinking. Say we do catch the folk who’re doing this, what then? We know how they’re doing it, but it’ll be a nightmare to prove without CCTV footage. Any halfway competent solicitor will get them off the hook in a few minutes.’
    Evans gave a twisted smile. ‘I’ll think of something. There’s no way we can let people get ripped off like this.
    While Evans rocketed the BMW to Silloth with his usual disregard for traffic laws and other road users, Campbell used the time to call Bhaki, instructing him to get onto the DVLA and flag up the cars on their system. With luck they could