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Back Goodnight Lady
Chapters (60)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Praise
  4. Dedication
  5. BOOK ONE
  6. Prologue 1989
  7. Chapter One
  8. Chapter Two
  9. Chapter Three
  10. Chapter Four
  11. Chapter Five
  12. Chapter Six
  13. Chapter Seven
  14. Chapter Eight
  15. Chapter Nine
  16. BOOK TWO - 1925
  17. Chapter Ten - 1925
  18. Chapter Eleven
  19. Chapter Twelve
  20. Chapter Thirteen
  21. Chapter Fourteen
  22. Chapter Fifteen
  23. Chapter Sixteen
  24. Chapter Seventeen
  25. Chapter Eighteen
  26. Chapter Nineteen
  27. Chapter Twenty
  28. Chapter Twenty-one
  29. Chapter Twenty-two
  30. Chapter Twenty-three
  31. Chapter Twenty-four
  32. Chapter Twenty-five
  33. Chapter Twenty-six
  34. Chapter Twenty-seven
  35. Chapter Twenty-eight
  36. Chapter Twenty-nine
  37. Chapter Thirty
  38. Chapter Thirty-one
  39. Chapter Thirty-two
  40. BOOK THREE - 1947
  41. Chapter Thirty-three
  42. Chapter Thirty-four
  43. Chapter Thirty-five
  44. Chapter Thirty-six
  45. Chapter Thirty-seven
  46. Chapter Thirty-eight
  47. Chapter Thirty-nine
  48. Chapter Forty
  49. BOOK FOUR - 1968
  50. Chapter Forty-one - 1968
  51. Chapter Forty-two
  52. Chapter Forty-three
  53. Chapter Forty-four
  54. Chapter Forty-five
  55. Chapter Forty-six
  56. Chapter Forty-seven
  57. Chapter Forty-eight
  58. Chapter Forty-nine
  59. Chapter Fifty - 1970
  60. EPILOGUE

Solly Goldstern was thin to the point of emaciation. He was sixty-seven years old and was a gold merchant. A gold merchant in the East End bought for peanuts from the Jewish immigrants who were trying to get a start and a new life, and sold for a small fortune to the wealthier jewellers in Hatton Garden and roundabouts.

Solly had borrowed a large amount of money off Tommy to buy a ruby tiara from an old Russian woman. She was shrewd, knew her tiara’s worth and stuck out for fifty per cent of its real value. Solly had borrowed the money from Tommy, made the purchase and then sold it on for a huge profit. All was good, until his daughter’s husband, Isaac, had taken the money, left his forty-year-old wife and five children, and run off with a little cockney girl called Daisy. The funny thing was, Solly was more annoyed about Daisy than anything. Isaac had run off with a goy, an English girl. His daughter’s shame was worse because of this fact.

He had tried to locate the errant husband without any success whatsoever, and now Tommy Lane was coming for his money and soon it would be common knowledge. His daughter and grandchildren would be shamed, he would lose the respect of his usual clientele. People would think he was old, foolish, that if his son-in-law could rob him, he was easy prey. He knew exactly the East End mentality. It was what had shaped him from his first arrival in this country, when he still spoke Yiddish and had only his quick brain and business acumen to help him along.

He felt the sting of tears in his watery blue eyes and hastily blinked them away. He caressed the handle of the gun before him and bit his lip ’til it bled, licking at the salty droplets of blood. He tasted his own misfortune and felt the urge to cry again.

He had borrowed a lot of money for that tiara, and now he was expected to pay it back. He had nowhere near the amount Tommy would want. With the ten per cent interest and the five per cent handling charge Tommy had insisted on, Solly was just about broke already. Like a cornered rat, he was thinking in terms of death.