Once Upon a Crime by Jimmy Cryans Page B

door and the first thing she said was, ‘What are you doing here? Have you escaped and you’re on the run?’ No matter what our personal circumstances were I trusted Christine and it was only fair that I was honest with her. So I said, ‘Let’s have a cup of tea and we can sit down and I’ll give you the full story. And we also need to talk about us and James, and try to sort out where we go from here, OK?’ So that is what we did and we talked into the wee small hours before finally making our way upstairs to what we both knew would be our last night together.
    In the morning I was up early and went through to awaken James. His little face lit up when he saw me. My heart was breaking as I looked into his eyes but I had made a promise to myself that any time I spent with James from now on would always be happy and full of fun and laughter. So I scooped him up in my arms and we went downstairs to have our breakfast together. Christine joined us and for a brief moment it was as if nothing was wrong in our lives and we were a normal little family unit with no problems. But I knew that there was very little chance of us ever sharing breakfast again.
    I was taking a chance even being in the house, so after an hour or so I made my way to Thatcham. There was only one place where I knew I would be made welcome and that was John Renaldi’s house. John opened the door and said, ‘Fuck me, Jim – they didn’t hold you for very long. Are you on your toes?’ When I told him the story he said, ‘Right, no worries, you’ll stay here with me and Pauline.’ Pauline was sitting with us in the living room and immediately agreed. She wouldn’t have it when I said that I didn’t want to cause them any trouble. Now you get an idea of why I have a special place in my heart for Londoners.
    For the next few days I maintained a very low profile and stayed behind closed doors. John and me had a chance to formulate a few plans. It went without saying that we were going to be grafting together and that is exactly what we did. In between I had arranged with Christine to see James and spend a few hours with him a couple of times a week. The law did not seem to be putting too much effort into finding me, after making an initial token visit to Christine’s and my ma’s.
    Gordon and Pauline Mills were a couple who John and meknew really well and they would buy all the jewellery that we were able to steal. Another connection was that they had two daughters, Alison and Haley, and my brother Hughie was going out with Haley, the younger of the two. One Friday evening I asked Hughie if he would give me a lift over to Ma’s and he said Pauline would be glad to take me there as she had to drop off Alison. I found myself next to Alison who said, ‘Don’t be shy, Jim, squeeze up next to me. It’s freezing.’ Little did I know it but this was to be the opening line of a romance that would have devastating effects on everyone and Alison would prove to be the love of my life.
    Alison was 18 and was absolutely gorgeous and I mean Hollywood-movie-star gorgeous. She was truly stunning, standing about 5ft 6in with shoulder-length, blonde hair and amazing blue eyes. She had a perfect figure and she was the double of a young Marilyn Monroe. She also had the sweetest nature and the best personality of any female I have ever known, and there have been a few. Alison was highly intelligent with a sparkling sense of humour and was adored by everyone who knew her.
    I was a bit slow on the uptake but a couple of days later Alison called round to see how I was. I had only told her I was staying with friends for a while after breaking up with Christine. She wasn’t aware that I was in fact on my toes from the law. Alison made it clear that she was interested in me and even though I knew that this could be dangerous for me I was flattered. She also sparked something inside me that I hadn’t felt before. It made me feel good and so began a very intense, physical,