Calling All Neighbours (Calling All... Book 4)

by Tara Ford

  A time hadn’t been planned for Tiff’s visit. When would be a good time to call on Georgie? This morning? Lunchtime? Or maybe this afternoon would be better. The problem with the afternoon was that, if they did end up having an in-depth conversation and the time ticked away unnoticed, there would be a risk that Joe may come home and discover her whereabouts. No – she would have to go there this morning.

  She stood facing the long mirror in her bedroom, semi-naked. She hooked the straps of her bra over her shoulders and fastened it at the back. What could she wear? The bed was covered in tops and t-shirts, jeans, shorts, skirts and trousers. Anyone would have thought she was going for a job interview. Did it matter what she wore? She was only going next door to deliver a thank-you card – and hopefully get invited in for a chat. So, no, it did not matter at all. As usual, Tiff was getting herself in a flap about nothing. She picked up her jeans and a pastel pink top and proceeded to dress.

  A faint knocking came from the front door. Tiff stopped still and listened intently. Who was that at her door? She moved over to the window and peered down. She could see a blonde head at the front door. It was Georgie.

  Racing down the stairs, her heart thumping in her chest, she went to the door and opened it. “Georgie, I was…”

  Georgie smiled shyly. “I wasn’t sure if you were coming to mine or I was coming round here. Just thought I’d ask. Is it still OK? Is it convenient?” Wearing a pair of tatty, ripped jeans, a baggy, lilac t-shirt and flip-flops, Georgie’s ruffled appearance was somehow, calming. She’d made no effort to impress or indeed, threaten, in any way.

  Tiff stepped back from the door and beckoned to Georgie to come in. “Yes, of course it’s still OK. Another ten minutes and I would have been round to you.” She gave a short laugh. “I wasn’t sure either, I mean, if I was supposed to come to yours or vice-versa. Or, if you still wanted to chat.”

  “Yes, I do.” Georgie stepped inside and slid past Tiff uncomfortably.

  “I’m pleased you’re here – I have something for you.”

  “Oh?” said Georgie, turning around.

  “Go through to the dining room. It’s upstairs – I’ll be back down in a minute.”

  Georgie smiled weakly and went through to the dining room as instructed.

  Closing the front door, Tiff flew back up the stairs and into the craft room. She sieved through the mound of cards, already made, and found Georgie’s. As she passed by the bathroom, she made a quick detour to the mirror to check she looked OK and then trotted back down the stairs satisfied with her appearance. “Phew,” she said, upon arrival in the dining room. “Think I’m unfit – all that running up and down the stairs, has worn me out.”

  Georgie twitched her lips into a half smile and continued to sit, hunched up, on a chair.

  “Can I get you a drink of anything?”

  “Just water, thank you.”

  “Are you sure that’s all you want? I’m making coffee if you’d like one. Or tea?”

  Georgie shook her head. “No, thank you, water’s fine.”

  It was odd, Tiff thought to herself, how all of a sudden, Georgie didn’t appear to be this wanton, promiscuous woman anymore. She seemed quite vulnerable. Polite and lacking in confidence. Insecure. It was almost like she was the same type of person as Tiff was.

  “OK, do you want ice?”

  Georgie nodded. “Please, if you have some.”

  Tiff stretched a hand out towards Georgie. “Here’s a card – I made it. Hope you’ll like it.”

  “What’s this?” Georgie took the envelope and looked at it puzzled.

  “A very small way of saying thank you for everything you did on Saturday.”

  “I enjoyed doing it.” Georgie paused thoughtfully. “It’s what I’d like to do for a living, if I can get any orders.”

  “Well, if there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.”

  “That’s very kind of you – thanks.” Georgie looked genuinely surprised by Tiff’s offer as she opened the envelope.

  “Look,” said Tiff, carrying a glass of icy water to the table. “I think we probably started off on the wrong foot. I know I did and I want to apologise for…” Tiff struggled to find the right words, “for judging you so harshly. It was my fault – not yours.”

  “It’s lovely, thanks.” Georgie held the card up and smiled. “I don’t think anything is your fault. It takes me a while to trust people. I probably came across a bit… I don’t know, maybe ignorant?”

  “You seemed to hit it off with Joe from the start.” Tiff bit her bottom lip, hoping her words wouldn’t be taken offensively.

  “Yes, I did.” Georgie twisted her mouth to one side. “But you seemed to look at me like you hated me, the first time I met you,” she added, awkwardly.

  “I’m sorry for that.” Tiff moved closer to the table. “Georgie…”

  “Yes?”

  “Can we talk about what has been going on?” Tiff pulled a chair out and sat down, her coffee could wait, this was far more important. “I… well, I’ve been worried about you. I think it’s the reason why I took so badly to you when I first met you.”

  Georgie slumped down further on the chair and pulled a lock of hair across her lips.

  “I just don’t understand what’s going on.”

  Georgie shook her head and kept the golden blonde tresses covering her mouth. It was as if she were hiding. Or stopping herself from talking. “I…” she mumbled through her hair, “I can’t…” She stopped abruptly and pulled herself up straight. Her hair fell away from her mouth and she buried her face in her hands. “I can’t take any more.” She wiped her hands around her face and looked up momentarily, before her desperate gaze dropped and she stared down at the table.

  “Any more of what?” Tiff spoke softly. “Let me help you, I know this is to do with Alvin, isn’t it?”

  Georgie looked up again, her terrified eyes fixed on Tiff’s. “He’ll… he’ll have me killed if he finds out.”

  “Killed? If he finds out what?” Tiff gripped the edge of the table. This was turning into far more than she had expected.

  “If he finds out I’ve been talking to you.” Georgie chewed her bottom lip nervously. “I’ll be killed.”

  “OK,” said Tiff, putting her hands up. “Can we start at the beginning?”

  Georgie nodded her head and took a sip from the glass of water in front of her.

  “I’m going to make that coffee – are you sure you don’t want one?”

  “I’m sure – this water is enough, thank you.”

  Darting across to the kitchen, Tiff hurriedly prepared a mug of coffee and waited for the kettle to boil. She turned and smiled once or twice as erratic thoughts whirled around in her head. So Georgie was frightened of him. Petrified, it seemed. He had some hold over her and she had to find out what it was. By the sound of things, Georgie had no idea who Alvin really was either.

  Tiff poured the water into her mug and carried it over to the table. “Right, where shall we start?”

  “It’s all my fault really…”

  “What’s your fault?”

  “Why Alvin thinks he can do anything he wants.” Georgie stared blankly, like a woman who had been robbed of her emotions.

  “Can he do what he wants?” Tiff eyed her neighbour, puzzled.

  “It’s a deal we set up.”

  “What deal? Nothing you’re saying makes any sense.” Tiff frowned, desperately trying to fathom out what was going on. “Look, I’ve seen you and him out the back… in the fields. I hate to say this but… I’ve seen you both in your garden. Purely by accident. I get the feeling that you hate him, yet…” she paused, wondering how to tell Georgie exactly what she’d seen. “Well, you don’t do those things with someone you hate.”

  Again, Georgie buried her face in her hands, ashamedly.

  “Why are you doing this?” Tiff had decided it was all or nothing now. She had to clear the air. “Why are you degrading yourself by letting
some filthy creep do this to you?” She sighed loudly. “Do you even know who he really is?”

  Georgie looked up and brushed a tear from her cheek. She was sobbing like a child and her pitiful expression was one of deep sorrow. “I do,” she muttered, waveringly. “He’s a secret service agent…”

  “No, he isn’t,” Tiff interrupted. “I have found out who he really is. He couldn’t be any further away from being an intelligence expert, if he lived on the other side of the planet.”

  Georgie wiped her eyes and sniffed. She looked up and met Tiff’s eye, incredulously. “How…”

  “How do I know?”

  Georgie nodded.

  “Because, when I was away visiting my parents, I bumped into him,” She slurped at her hot coffee, “at the place where he really works.”

  “In London?”

  “No, not in London. He works in a supermarket. In Salisbury.”

  “He must have been under…”

  “No.” Tiff blurted. “He wasn’t undercover. And his name isn’t even Alvin.”

  Georgie peered quizzically. “Are you sure?”

  “Positive. His real name is Jeremy – Jeremy Greene. You can check the name registered against his address if you like.”

  Georgie pulled her hair across her mouth again and held it with her lips. Her eyes darted around as if she was frantically thinking about a lot of things.

  “I’m telling you the truth. He’s worked at this supermarket for over 20 years.”

  “Oh my God. Are you sure?” said Georgie, whipping the hair away from her face. “Are you sure it was him?”

  “Yes, I’m absolutely positive.”

  “So is that where he goes when he’s away?”

  Tiff nodded her head cheerlessly. “Yes, I’m afraid it is.”

  “I can’t believe it. He’s conned me. I…” Georgie broke off and crunched her brow together as her eyes narrowed angrily. “The bastard. He’s lied to me all this time.”

  “So what’s been going on with you and him?”

  Georgie huffed and folded her arms across her waist. “He…” she faltered. “I was in a lot of debt a few years ago. He bailed me out when the bailiffs were constantly at my door.”

  “OK,” said Tiff, encouragingly. “I suppose that was good of him.”

  “It was… at first. He said I could pay back just 100 pounds a month as I didn’t have a job. He’d given me £4000 to clear the debts.”

  “Wow – a lot of money.”

  Georgie looked down. “Yes, it was… and for the first year he was happy with that repayment arrangement.”

  “So what went wrong?”

  “He started demanding more money – he wanted it paid off quicker as he had to take some time off work to care for his sick, elderly mum.”

  “That figures.”

  “Oh?” Georgie’s eyes widened.

  “His mum has been ill, so I’ve been told. He lives with her, just outside Salisbury, when he’s working at the shop.”

  “Oh God, really?” Georgie shook her head disbelievingly. “I have been such a fool.”

  “No you haven’t. It was by pure chance that I came across him, otherwise we would have believed him too. Although we were slightly suspicious of him. But I think that was more to do with his jogging and the bird watching that he said he liked to do.” Tiff smiled faintly. “Anyway, carry on.”

  “I couldn’t pay any more money. I just didn’t have it.”

  Tiff nodded sympathetically. “We’ve all been there Georgie. It’s tough, especially when you’re on your own.”

  “Yes, it is. Then I got sick. I was supposed to look after Betty and Cyril’s birds while they were on holiday.”

  Tiff leant back in the chair. “OK, so what happened there?”

  “I couldn’t do it. I was so ill. Alvin…” Georgie stopped abruptly. “Or whatever his name is…”

  “Jeremy. Jeremy Greene,” Tiff reminded her.

  “Well, he said he would look after the birds but I had to pay him the money I’d been given by Cyril. They’d given me £800 to look after their birds.”

  “OK. I know a little bit about this story. They mentioned it to me.”

  “He took it all.”

  Tiff shook her head disgustedly.

  “It wasn’t me. He killed them. A lot of Cyril’s birds died and they blamed me for it. They demanded their money back as they would have to buy new birds.”

  Tiff nodded her head, knowingly. “Why didn’t you tell them about Alvin?”

  “He’d threatened me. He said I wasn’t to tell them anything or he’d make sure that life became very difficult for me. He said he knew a lot of people in the underworld. He told me that my face could be rearranged. I knew what that meant.”

  “Oh dear me,” said Tiff, rubbing her forehead with her hand.

  “I got in such a state about it all. I was depressed and couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t pay back Alvin – let alone Cyril.”

  Tiff took a deep breath, knowing she had to ask the all-important question. “Georgie, why are you having sex with him if he has been treating you so horrendous like this?”

  Georgie lowered her head. “Oh God, this is all such a mess.”

  “It sounds like it is – yes.”

  “It’s like a payment-in-kind. That’s what he said.”

  “Oh no.” Tiff looked down, filled with abhorrence. “He’s paying you?”

  “No.” Georgie let out a long sigh. “He knocks money off the debt – he gives me a receipt each time.”

  “Oh God, no. You can’t do this.”

  “I hate doing it – I don’t know what else to do. He’s disgusting. Perverted. Sick in the head. He…” Georgie broke off and sighed again. “He treats me like a dog and it makes me feel sick.” Her eyes watered over and she stared pleadingly, into Tiff’s eyes.

  Tiff shook her head and placed a hand across her mouth. She peered deep into Georgie’s sorrowful eyes as the revelation turned over, sickeningly, in her head.

  “I get £200 every time. It’s knocked off the debt. And £50 when…” Georgie locked her fingers into a tightly clenched fist and placed them in her lap. She looked down at her hands and continued. “I have to undress at my bedroom window or in the garden sometimes… while he spies on me with his binoculars.”

  Everything was becoming so revoltingly clear.

  “It’s the only way…”

  “No – it bloody well isn’t Georgie.”

  Georgie looked up, taken aback by Tiff’s abrupt outburst.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so angry. But you can stop this. You should not be going through this. It’s like a form of rape.”

  “But I consent to it.”

  “No, you don’t really. You’ve been threatened by him and he is using the fact that you owe him money to practically rape and abuse you constantly. This can’t happen.”

  Georgie shuddered, unlocked her fingers and placed her hands around opposite arms, as if she was hugging herself. “I need to pay the debt back. I’m scared he might send someone to kill me. What else can I do? It’s not rape – I agree to it.”

  “Do you want to do it each time?”

  Georgie shook her head frantically, her expression, a desperate picture of revulsion.

  “Then it is. You’re not going to go through this anymore.” Tiff paused, thoughtfully. “We’ve got to stop this.”

  “But…”

  Tiff met Georgie’s eye, as an overwhelming revulsion and hatred for the man, known as Alvin, came over her, stronger and stronger. “No buts – we’ve got to stop this. He can’t hurt you Georgie. He’s no one. If we stand up against him, together…” She stopped and thought about what she was saying. “We’ll turn this around, on him.”

  “But I still owe him £1250. He said that was only six more times and one striptease.”

  Tiff looked at her neighbour pityingly. “No more Georgie.”

  “He’ll be mad if…”

  “I don�
�t care how mad he gets. He’s no one and we can do this. We can turn it around and against him.”

  “I don’t know how to.”

  “Well you’ve got me to help. We will sort this out together. You could have him arrested for something – I’m sure. There must be a crime here somewhere.”

  Georgie looked fearful. “No, please. I don’t want any of this getting out. Have you told anyone? Does Joe know?”

  “I haven’t told a single person and no, Joe doesn’t know. I think he’d go straight down to Alvin’s – Jeremy’s house and knock him out, if he knew.”

  “Please don’t tell him or anyone else. Please.”

  “I’m not going to tell anyone – I promise. But I need you to promise me something.”

  “What?” Georgie stared, wide-eyed, her bottom lip clamped down painfully between her teeth.

  “Promise me that you will see this through with me and we will stop it.”

  “Why are you doing this for me? Why would you want to help me?”

  “Because it’s all so wrong – you must see that.”

  “Yes, but…”

  “And because I consider you to be a new friend. I cannot know about this going on and do nothing to stop it. I just can’t. I couldn’t live with myself.”

  Georgie peered, incredulously. Her eyes filled and tears fell over the rims and ran down both cheeks. “I…” she stumbled. “Thank you.”

  “No need to thank me for anything. When you’ve got yourself together, we’ll go down to his house – we’ll get this sorted out today.”

  Georgie sniffed and wiped her nose. “I’m scared.”

  “Don’t be – he’ll be the scared one when we’ve finished,” said Tiff, boldly.

  “As long as you’re sure…” Georgie said in a wobbly voice.

  “I’m sure. We have the upper hand here. He is not going to get away with it.” Tiff drew in a long breath and held it momentarily before letting out a lengthy sigh. “There is one other thing.”

  “What’s that?” asked Georgie, listening obediently.

  “Would you explain what went on with the birds and apologise to Betty and Cyril?”