Work The Angles by David Mayer

Chris Calder feels that life as an underpaid theatre technician is going nowhere. After a chance meeting, ex-con Tony O’Brien makes him a proposition: they will steal a bag of money which his employer, Jimmy McIntire, an old-school villain who has moved into the drugs trade, regularly delivers to the suburban home of crooked accountant, Felix Slater-West.

Jack Conway, an ageing career criminal diagnosed with a condition which will leave him permanently blind, also plans to steal the next delivery from Felix’s safe.

Rob Ellis, an ambitious small-time criminal, hopes to rip off McIntire’s next consignment. At a private party in a Colombian restaurant, he sees McIntire in conversation with Ernesto Calda, local businessman and cocaine cartel overlord, and exchanges phone numbers with Calda’s daughter, Cristina, although warned off by Jaime, Calda’s bodyguard.

Chris agrees to O’Brien’s scheme. During the robbery, O’Brien and Conway clash and Felix is killed by a stray shot. O’Brien and Chris leave with the money. Chris suspects that O’Brien intends to kill him in order to remove a witness to Felix’s killing. Returning to O’Brien’s flat, Chris shoots O’Brien.

Calda tells McIntire that a large cocaine shipment has been seized in a customs raid. He suspects there is an informant, and seems suspicious of McIntire, suggesting that he use one of Calda’s trusted men as a driver. Considering it beneath him, Jaime palms the job off to Rob Ellis, now courting Cristina. Ellis agrees, reporting on McIntire’s movements to Jaime, finding the situation uncomfortable, caught between McIntire and Calda.

Although fearful of arrest and troubled by remorse over O’Brien’s death, Chris plans a new life with the proceeds of the robbery. He runs into Barry, who asks if he will attend a funeral service for O’Brien. Jack Conway is drinking with Barry, who he suspects of being O’Brien’s accomplice. Recognising Chris, Conway follows him. Seeing Chris deposit a large amount of cash at a bank, Conway is convinced that he has the money.

Conway unsuccessfully pursues Chris as he moves the money across town the next day. He enlists Barry to arrange a meeting with Chris, telling Barry he will do the talking. Conway instead lies in wait outside, hoping to follow Chris to the money. Barry leaves the bar, lifting Chris’s jacket to protect him from the rain. Mistaking him for Chris, Conway follows Barry. Chris emerges from the bar, observed by Ray Randall, McIntire’s lieutenant.

McIntire and Randall seize Chris and the money from the house where he is lying low. Ellis driving, they find themselves in a trap, their car boxed in on a narrow side street. Jaime and the other gunmen, under orders from Calda, execute McIntire, suspected police informant or convenient scapegoat, then leave with Ellis.

Unscathed but dazed on the floor of the car, Chris runs from the scene. Hearing distant sirens behind him, he realizes that the bag of money is still inside the car, lost to him now. Walking on with a sense of unreality, he finds himself in the City Airport, reflecting on what has happened.