The man stopped. “That’s right.” He pulled up the sleeve of his overcoat and studied his watch. “Well, Mr. Porter, I have an extremely important meeting to attend, and I’m afraid that I’m late as it is”—he turned and waved his hand in the air—“but it should take no more than an hour.” With that, he hurried away with the grace of a seal making for water.

Dan thought about running after the man and laying into him, but realized that it would be a pointless exercise. As he squeezed past the car again, he felt like turning and sinking a foot into its highly polished side, but again knew that it would only lead to trouble.

He was walking back to the van to get his mobile to call Ronnie when he saw the pile of pallets at the side of the load yard. They were stacked three deep and to a height of at least eight feet. He studied them for a moment, then walked over and gave them a shake. They were as solid as a rock. He glanced back at the car, his head to the side as he studied the miniscule gaps at either end. Then he turned and went off to find Tommy, the forklift driver.

Tommy was a complete artist with his truck. Having coupled on fork extensions, he edged them carefully under the BMW and jammed some old sacks and a couple of blankets between the bodywork and the retaining frame so that there would be no possibility of damaging the car. Then he lifted the car effortlessly off the ground and slowly moved backwards, his eyes darting from one end of the car to the other as he negotiated it through the gateway. Once clear, he picked up a little more speed, reversing back and twisting the forklift round so that it sat directly opposite the pallets.

“Are you sure they’ll take the load?” Dan asked, having second thoughts as to whether his idea had been such a good one after all.

“Without a doubt. They could hold a lorry up there.”

He drove the forklift forward until the car was inches from the pallets and then continued to lift it until the wheels were exactly level with the top of the stack. He once again edged forward, working his lift, tilt, and sideshift levers as quickly and as accurately as a touch typist, until he had the car exactly where he wanted it. Then he settled it down, without so much as a scuff mark on its shiny red bodywork, high up in its new parking place.

As he reversed the forklift back, Tommy turned to Dan and shot him a wicked grin. “Aye, and there are no yellow lines up there either. He can park on my pallets as long as he likes, which is just as well, because I’m going off for the day now.”