by Lee Wood
As each week of his job goes by, Daniel gets to explore the various properties on his security round. Instead of just hanging around like many of the other guards do, he undertakes his job diligently and gets out of the vehicle to check each building is secure, taking time to walk around and check every door and window.
Out of the sixty-two premises on his nightly round is a former furniture store. The electricity is still connected to the alarm system. And the water supply connected to ensure the sprinkler system can operate in the event of a fire.
One night, while checking around the back of the store, Daniel discovered concrete steps leading down and using a key marked 'basement', he found what he presumed was an apartment, previously used by the store manager.
It consists of one bedroom, a kitchen, bathroom and toilet.
The kitchen has a washing machine, oven, and a fridge freezer, although all turned off. In the lounge, there is a sofa and two chairs. The bedroom has a king-size bed.
The only downside to being a basement is it has no windows.
There are two points of access to the basement. The first is via a door from the back of the furniture store. The other way is from a driveway behind the store into a small private courtyard.
Last year, Daniel's bedsit was flooded when the tenant upstairs forgot to turn off the bath and it overflowed, making it impossible for Daniel to stay there. With nowhere else to live he moved into the furniture store basement apartment on a temporary basis for two weeks.
He only stayed until he was able to find a new bedsit as he didn't want to do anything that might jeopardise his job.
When Daniel used the apartment, the courtyard area was in a dire state.
He tidied it up while he was there. The locks and hinges on the outer door from the driveway were rusted up so he sprayed them with WD40. He dug up all the weeds pushing up between the concrete. And where he thought it needed it, he added a lick of paint.
Buying groceries from the nearby corner shop, Daniel got talking to the elderly owner. Daniel didn’t mention the fact he had temporarily moved in. Instead he said he patrolled the property each night.
"Times change," said the man. “Before the furniture store, it had been a department store and the basement used as Santa's Grotto at Christmas. But,” he added, “sadly those glory days are long gone. When I retire next year this place will probably become a coffee shop. That's all people want nowadays."
Chapter Fifteen
10.30pm and Daniel has taken a short break from his night security round to drive over to the house where the twins live with their parents.
Daniel wants to find out more about the twins and what they are interested in, so when he meets them they will think they have similar interests and he can get to know them.
Before he came to the UK, Daniel worked for an alarm company that specialised in fitting intruder alarms to houses and commercial properties. He is aware both the Mitten residence and the house next door have weak points in their security.
He uses the solid wood bin storage unit in next door's garden to climb over the fence into the Mittens’ garden. There is coverage from the trees and bushes almost all the way to the house.
For Daniel, the problem is the kitchen being on the left of the property this is the place they spend most of their time. But the lounge is the best he can do without being caught.
The HY929 high-strength wall microphone he purchased online is so powerful you can listen through the wall and Daniel attached an audio device to record their conversations. It only records for two days before he needs to exchange the battery and repeat the process.
So he comes back every two nights and exchanges the battery and micro SD card, takes them back to his bedsit, transfers everything onto his computer, and listens to what they have been saying.
On one of the recordings, he learns the girls are trying to become models and online celebrities. They are excited because their new agent and business manager Miles Tyler thinks he can persuade the producers he has been negotiating with to include the girls as part of a forthcoming reality TV show. All will be confirmed in a few days.
Daniel doesn't understand much about such things but he will make sure to find out.
But what makes him sad is the show will be recorded in a place called Brighton, which he has never heard of. This means the girls will be away from home for two or three months. But at least he will be able to see them on TV.
Chapter Sixteen
Erica and Leona Mitten are in their element. Today is Saturday the second of February and it is their eighteenth birthday. They are celebrating the event at their favourite place to party, The Alley Club in Trentbridge where they are the centre of attention, something they always enjoy.
The place is buzzing and filled with their friends. They are also celebrating some exciting news from their newly appointed business manager and agent Miles Tyler.
He called them this morning to confirm he has secured slots for them on a new reality TV show.
He's told both the girls, "Trust me. After this, your careers will take off like a rocket."
Chapter Seventeen
The TV execs are ecstatic. Ratings for their reality dating show 'The Game of Love' are going through the roof. A huge success from the first episode, aired on Valentine’s Day the fourteenth of February 2019.
Each week one contestant will be voted off and in the final episode the winning couple will share a prize of £50,000.
The six guys and six girls aged between eighteen and twenty-eight have been set up in a boutique hotel in Brighton. Each has their own room. There are cameras in every room, and at various places around the hotel, as well as on the enclosed rooftop garden. The only exceptions are the bathrooms.
Millions of viewers were glued to their TV screens for the first episode where the contestants had been told to dress up for a romantic Valentine's Day party.
However, there is a twist. Before any of the male contestants are brought out, the six girls are placed in a row behind a screen that shows off their bodies from the waist down only. Their upper halves are hidden.
Each girl has a number. The boys come on and each one writes down on a card the number of the girl they would like to be paired up with.
When the results are announced it turns out five of the boys have chosen the same girl.
After the screen is taken away, the boys are asked if they want to revise their choice. None of them does. The girl chosen by the five boys is revealed as eighteen-year-old Erica Mitten.
As the show enters its third week, the viewing figures have soared to over five million. Advertisers and sponsors are queuing up to grab a piece of the action.
For the first three episodes, none of the contestants is allowed access to social media or their phones. So they are unaware of the tricks the show is playing on them.
The TV audience watches as two of the contestants are revealed to be working undercover for the TV show. This is a ploy to get the real contestants to open up more.
In each episode, one of the contestants has to reveal a shocking secret about themselves.
During episode one, the 'fake' female contestant reveals she is still a virgin but wants to lose her virginity on the show.
In episode two the 'fake' male contestant tells everyone he is a compulsive gambler and only on the show to win the prize so he can pay off his debts and stop the people he owes money to from hurting him.
The idea is to make the 'genuine' contestants reveal their innermost secrets.
In episode three, Erica is chosen to reveal her secret. What the other contestants don't know is, she has an identical twin called Leona. They are sharing the same bedroom, and have been taking it in turns to come out. So on one occasion, the group would be seeing Erica and other times it would be Leona. So far no-one had sussed.
Erica asks everyone to close their eyes before she will reveal her secret to them.
Then Leona walks in and stands by her side. Erica then tells
them they can open their eyes.
There are gasps and laughs as each person reacts in their own way.
The show is set to run for eight episodes. After the second episode, the two 'fake contestants' had said their goodbyes, leaving the ten original contestants, plus Leona.
Starting from episode four, the TV viewing audience vote on who pairs up with who and then they can vote to eliminate two people each time. By the final, only three contestants are left.
Everyone had taken to the twins from the beginning. Both have proven to be intelligent, down to earth, savvy, utterly gorgeous and with a good sense of humour.
So it comes as no surprise when Erica and Leona are announced as the winners.
Before their appearance, the twins had enjoyed a moderate amount of success as models. Making a basic income from photo shoots for small up and coming fashion labels, and working as waitresses or event models.
Now they are red-hot property and everyone wants a piece of them. Their business manager Miles Tyler is fending off phone calls and emails from the same people he tried to speak to in the past.
Now they are returning his calls. He’s received enough offers of lunch dates to last him for the next ten years. And the press is bombarding him with requests for interviews and photo shoots of the girls.
Miles has been in the business for a long time and is extremely clever. Now he controls the hottest property in town, he is being picky about who to work with and will take his time to avoid overexposure.
Following on from their TV appearance, photographs appear in newspapers showing the twins wearing tight-fitting ripped jeans and low-cut tops revealing more than ample natural cleavage. No plastic in sight!
Where America has the Kardashian clan and Kylie Jenner, the UK now has the Mitten Kittens.
Their Instagram following has gone from a few thousand to over one million.
Throughout the TV series, Instagram had been going wild with the hashtags #mittenkittens and #sexmittens.
It's been nearly three months since security guard Daniel has seen Erica and Leona in the flesh. He has been watching them on TV and reading about them in the newspapers and online.
Daniel is sitting on the only chair there is room for in his tiny bedsit. He has just finished a twelve-hour night shift. He’s listening to the morning show on his favourite local radio station and one of the guests is the twin's mother Diane Mitten.
She is saying how the girls might be famous but they still have their feet firmly on the ground and it won't change them.
As the interview goes on and the interviewer asks her questions, Diane says neither of the twins has a boyfriend. Yes, they both hope to meet the right man and get married one day.
She also reveals they are currently having a few days’ holiday in Ibiza and will be flying back to Birmingham Airport on the sixteenth, in time to celebrate her fiftieth birthday on the eighteenth.
The news makes Daniel extremely happy. He had been worried the girls would meet a lot of famous people and he would lose the chance to meet them and have the opportunity to fall in love with him.
Now fate has given him another chance and he is going to grab it with both hands.
Because he works nights, Daniel doesn't start his shift until 8pm so this will give him the time to go to the airport and see them as they arrive back from holiday.
Daniel has decided he will hire a car for the day and go to the airport. Perry's Vehicle Hire offers cars from £30 per day. He can go online and check the times of arrivals from Ibiza. There should only be a few at the most.
Maybe he could accidentally bump into them and start chatting. How amazed they would be to learn he lives in the same town they are from. Once they are talking, he is sure they will really like him.
He doesn't know which flight they will be on, but he can wait around and watch the passengers coming through from each flight until he spots them.
Perhaps he can find a way to offer them a lift back to Trentbridge in his hire car. He can pretend he was at the airport to drop someone off.
This isn't Mission Impossible, this is Mission Possible. He just wishes his first name was Ethan instead of Daniel, it sounds so much more exciting.
His plans to join MI5 came to nothing but he's now thinking about becoming a private detective. So he decides he will take all his spy devices with him to the airport. Perhaps if he shows them to the girls they will be impressed.
Chapter Eighteen
For Erica and Leona Mitten, winning the TV reality show has been a dream come true.
Because all of the work was in London, they had decided to move from their parents’ house to an apartment in Greenwich in southeast London.
Since then it has been a gruelling four weeks of twelve-hour days undertaking interviews and photo sessions.
Now they are sitting in Miles Tyler’s office, discussing plans for the future.
“Okay girls, we need to be selective about what you become associated with. The worst thing we can do at this stage of the game is for you to become over-exposed. So now is the perfect time to go and get some sun. I’ve booked you a week in Ibiza. Your flight leaves at three thirty tomorrow. I’ll have a cab pick you up from your apartment so you arrive at the airport in plenty of time. I’ve booked you a separate return flight to Birmingham for the sixteenth so you can go home for your mother's fiftieth birthday. You can see all your family and then come back feeling refreshed.
“I’ve also arranged for top celebrity photographer Terry Keagan to fly out to Ibiza for a couple of days and take set-up photos of you relaxing and then gradually feed them out to the media. This way we are in control of everything. Then when you come back we can sit down and set out plans to build you into a highly lucrative online personality brand.
“I’ll make sure nothing stops you from becoming rich, successful and famous. We need to look at the ways to take your brand to the next level. We’ll start by producing your own range of cosmetics and clothing. That is where the BIG money is. After all, it’s what’s made your idol Kylie Jenner a billionairess.”
Chapter Nineteen
For James Sheldon it doesn't matter the 7.42 from Birmingham is running late. He can wait. He hasn't got anywhere else to be. He stands on the tracks with his eyes closed tight, thinking of his family.
I just want to be with you, my darling. Wait for me wherever you are. Losing you and the kids ripped my heart out. I don't want to be alone anymore.
Today is the fourth anniversary of the death of his wife Miriam and their two children, Jack and Abigail, killed in a hit-and-run.
After their funerals, he spent eight months pouring the mortgage money down his throat before the building society got fed up and made him homeless.
Then, by a strange quirk of fate, he won £168 million on Lotto and managed to sort himself out and use the money to help other people.
He set up a charity and invested £35 million buying a rundown council estate of 880 houses and a further ten million improving the properties.
Once refurbished, the charity rented them out to deserving families at half the market rate.
A further £40 million went on building a bridge across the River Stern to connect the estate with the town centre.
He also bought The Albion Hotel to save the jobs of the staff members who’d helped him when he was homeless.
After all of this he still has more than fifty million pounds cash in the bank. Yet it seems all that money can’t buy you happiness.
His car is parked in a lay-by near the railway crossing. On the passenger seat sits a suicide note saying each year gets harder and he doesn't want to live without his wife and kids. In his will, he's left his entire fortune to the MJA Housing Trust charity he set up in memory of his family.
Mick Winner and his wife Tammy have been married for nearly thirty years. Both are in their fifties and like to keep themselves in shape. Earlier this morning they spent time donating blood. Mick has one of the rarer blood types, B-positive,
and they both donate four times a year.
After the latest donor session, they went shopping for groceries and Mick called in to Specsavers to collect his new glasses.
They returned home and hitched up their caravan and drove the fifteen miles to Evesham Country Park and into the rear field at the closest spot to the river. It is where they usually come to spend the day fishing. Tammy was the first to take an interest. A hobby they love to share.
But today is not a fishing day. May is closed season so they are not allowed to fish. It means the caravan park is quiet this time of the year with only one other vehicle on site.
That doesn’t matter to the Winners. This is a spot where they love to come and spend some leisure time and it is only a few miles from their home. They come to enjoy the countryside and the hospitality of the nearby pub also adds to their enjoyment. It has a lovely restaurant they discovered on a visit last year.
On a warm sunny evening, what could be better than a five-minute walk to enjoy a meal and a pint?
Mick plumped for his favourite, gammon with eggs and pineapple. Tammy ordered lasagne.
Following a slow walk back, they sit outside the caravan with a glass of wine, enjoying the view of the glowing sunset across the open fields.
Mick decides before it gets too dark he will take their two dogs for a short walk. They don't like to go too far so he will only walk across the field at the rear to the train crossing.
As he gets close, he notices someone standing on the railway tracks.
As Mick approaches the man on the track, even from the side view, he thinks he recognises him, but to be sure he calls out. "Mr Sheldon. Is that you?"
Startled by the intrusion, James opens his eyes and turns towards the unknown voice.
"Do I know you?"
