Jack, now wearing his posh new clothes, asked the Uber to drop him at the end of the street, just along from the emporium. He didn’t want the security guards to see that he didn’t have transport – and his own car, which was a perfectly respectable Skoda Octavia, would have immediately told them that Jack’s new wardrobe was all for show, while Jack’s regular clothes were now squashed into the Hackett’s bag he’d been given when he bought his shoes.

Jack headed straight for the security guard on the emporium’s main door with a natural swagger and nodded a ‘good morning’. The security guard nodded back, said, ‘Welcome, sir,’ and opened the door for him. It was a small and petty revenge, but it was still sweet.

Inside, the emporium was a dazzling place. Every window was brimming with items that twinkled under carefully placed spotlights.

After his first lap of the lower floor, Jack headed up the central ornate metal staircase. At the top, the shop right in front of him was numbered fourteen; to its left, was number thirteen and to its right was number fifteen. Jack turned right. He took his time, making sure that he paused to look in every window and even go into some of the shops for a quick browse.

Shop number twenty-one had a relatively low-key window display, with far less in it than most of the others. It whispered ‘quality, not quantity’. A small brass bell above the door jingled as Jack entered and it brought a young woman out from behind a door in the back. Inside, the shop was again economical in terms of its contents, allowing every item to be prominently displayed in a space of its own.

The young woman went and sat behind the counter and smiled sweetly to let Jack know that she was here if he needed her, then she picked up a book and started to read, allowing Jack to browse uninterrupted.

Some of the locked display cabinets housing the more expensive items of jewellery had mirrored panels to allow shoppers to view them from all sides. In these mirrors, Jack counted seven unobtrusive CCTV cameras mounted in the corners of the shop and down the centre aisle. It was an impressive set-up. As Jack passed the young woman reading, he glanced up in an attempt to see what was beyond the door behind her, where – thanks to the plan of the interior given to him by Ridley – Jack knew was an on-site office and storage area that was about half the size of the shop itself.