Birmingham, 1919
Grace's Secret
Birmingham, 1916.
Thomas stared at the wall of his room in his apartment in downtown Birmingham. Behind the wall that was blocked by the painting there was a half-meter diameter hallway with a length of one meter. In it Thomas kept a precious thing. One day he will sell it to other rulers and gangsters. It was a smuggled item he stole when he returned home from World War.
After Thomas returned home from the war, his face did not shine as before. Fear always enveloped him, even though he could always cover it from others. He's having trouble sleeping. Even if he sleeps, he will easily wake up because of nightmares. A nightmare with an incident at the time of war that killed his best friend on the battlefield.
The first business The Blinders ran was horse racing gambling. Horse racing is a popular pastime for all walks of life in the UK. Their nobles and middlemen add to the excitement with gambling. They will put some money on the horses that are predicted to win the race.
When the betting horse wins, it wins money from those who bet on the losing horse. Those betting money will be collected and recorded by The Blinders and they will get a share of the people who win gambling. Sometimes Thomas plays to trigger people to bet.
It was from this business that The Blinders began to rise up and could pay the workers and the police. The enemies of the Blinders at that time were those who lost and sniffed out the cheats that arose from losing in gambling. One of the enemies of The Blinders in Birmingham is the Lee Brothers.
The Lee brothers are a gangster from the gipsy family. One of the important people of the Lee Brothers had bet and suffered a defeat, which apparently resulted from Thomas luring people to bet on a horse given magic to win.
The Lee Brothers immediately hated The Blinders, especially Thomas, and intended to steal a book containing financial records. The Lee Brothers are convinced that if the book is stolen and dismantled, then everyone will know that The Blinders and The Blinders will be destroyed.
'Kring Kring'
The pub door opened and rang a bell at the end. The bell will ring every door open.
Thomas sat down at the bar table and was astonished to see the short, shoulder-length blonde woman in the pub. The pub was Thomas' favorite place, but the woman he had never met.
Thomas stood at the bar, and the woman approached.
"Give me some whiskey" Thomas said.
"Irish or Scoth?" ask the blonde woman.
"Irish."
The woman gave Thomas what he wanted.
"You new here?"
The woman nodded. "Grace."
Thomas takes his order and keeps his pay on the bar table. That was the beginning of their meeting. Thomas is a cold man to women. He only comes to comfort women if he wants to. As Grace goes on, she manages to keep her heart warm until she starts to believe it.
'Kreek'
That afternoon, Grace entered Thomas's apartment. His eyes went to various directions and stopped at a quite striking deer painting across the bed. Thomas closed the door and kept his coat and hat on the hanger and walked to the mini bar table at the end of the room.
"As usual?" ask Thomas to prepare a drink.
"Yes." Yeah."
Grace keeps her coat and bag on the hanger and then approaches Thomas at his mini bar table.
"It looks like a lot of women are coming to this place."
Thomas chuckles. "Never."
Grace took her drink and walked to the front of the painting. Thomas followed.
"Tell me the story of this painting" said Grace.
"Can I trust you?"
Grace turned around then looked at Thomas fixedly. Slowly he pressed his lips over Thomas's. Thomas accepted it with pleasure.
'PRACTICE!'
The glass that the two were holding was lying on the floor just like that. The owners were busy on the bed. Thomas poured all his desire on the woman who was above his body. The first time after a long time he did not feel the activity of lovemaking. Grace, managed to melt her cold heart.
"Huuff...."
Thomas smoked a cigarette and puffed his smoke into the air. His sweaty body he rested on the head of the bed, staring at the painting. Grace slowly enveloped her innocent body with a blanket then hugged Thomas.
"You want to know the story of the painting?" ask Thomas.
Grace nodded.
"I bought it in Chinatown."
"Do you like art?"
"Not really. I bought it to cover something."
Grace was silent for a moment. "What's that?"
Both of Grace's eyes were wide open. "Then what are you going to do with that gun?"
"I'll sell it. But not now. Now the police are looking for him. I'll wait for the right time."
***
That night all the Scott family members left the base. But a little mercenary this afternoon managed to infiltrate the headquarters to open the door. Several gunmen from the Lee Brothers gangster then emerge from the dark alley and enter into The Blinders headquarters.
There was only Greg who was counting the betting money for tomorrow's horse race game.
"DOR! DOR!"
Gunshots were running all over the room. Greg was unconscious because he had a shot in his stomach and arm. They immediately plundered all the betting money and profits The Blinders from cropping up, then kept the trap there.
'BRAK! BRAK!'
Someone knocked on Thomas' apartment door with a fist. Thomas, who was with Grace, immediately got dressed, leaving Grace on the bed. Thomas opened the door and saw Jhonny coming in breathless.
"Our headquarters is breached!" jhonny.
"****!"
Thomas immediately went to the base. Upon arrival all the members of the Scott family had gathered and were engulfed in chaos.
"Greg!" arthur exclaimed when he saw Greg spattered with blood. Arthur immediately checked his pulse and looked at Jhonny. "Jhonnie! Help me get him to the doctor! He's alive!"
Jhonny immediately rushed to help Arthur lift Greg's body and went from the headquarters to the doctor's residence. Aunt Poly and Adda checked the safe and were sitting limp.
"They didn't leave a pound. All are lost" said Aunt Poly limp.
Thomas was silent then saw something. A pliers of cable lay on the table. That Tang was never at that base. Then he remembered something. The pliers were a sign that there was an electric bomb trap in that place.
"All right, don't move!" shout Thomas.
Adda and Aunt Poly looked at Thomas who was staring jelly all over.
"What's wrong?"
"This is Lee Brothers. During the war they were experts at assembling electric bombs. Tang this is a notice that he set up that trap" Thomas explained.
"Where's the bomb?" ask Adda.
Thomas shakes. "That bomb can't be here. If it was here, it might have exploded from earlier."
Thomas thought hard. Lee Brothers had problems with him personally then it was certain that the bomb would be aimed at himself. Immediately Thomas ran out looking for his car parked in the headquarters garage. He came by Jhonny's car.
A young boy was sitting and playing the car.
"Finn, what are you doing?" ask Thomas carefully.
"I'm pretending to be you" replied Finn, the boy.
"What door did you get in there from?"
"I don't use the door. I jumped in through the window."
"Well, Finn listen to what I'm saying. You go out the same way, don't go through the door!" thomas said as he slowly approached.
Finn laughed and was hooked. Seeing Thomas approaching slowly so, it was like he was about to catch the boy. Laughing cheerfully, Finn then opened the car door and exited. Thomas immediately picked up the bomb stuck in the doorknob of the car, then immediately threw it into the air.
"AWAS!"
"TWOARR!"
Some of the people walking around the street were shocked when they heard the sound of an explosion. Finn hugged Thomas in surprise.
"That's why you can't pretend to be me" Thomas told Finn.
Thomas finally returned to his apartment limply, thinking of a solution to the problems that befell him. Thomas was again surprised when the door of his apartment was wide open and he immediately entered.
"Grace!" thomas shouted as he looked around for Grace.
Thomas was stopped when he saw the painting of his body lying on the floor and the safe behind it was wide open and the contents were empty. Grace has not been seen in Birmingham since that day.
"****!" shouted Thomas, who felt betrayed by the woman he had just trusted.