by Linda Coles
At precisely 6 pm, Stephanie gathered her things to head out for the evening, still expecting a tap on the shoulder, a summons to his office after hours even, but when his P.A. shouted “Good night!” as she too left for the evening, she finally let herself breathe a little easier. Maybe her attack had done the trick and he’d been too embarrassed to mention it. Maybe he was avoiding her for fear of being stabbed again. Or maybe he just had better things to worry about. Hopefully that would be the end of it.
“Oh well. Whatever,” she mumbled happily as she slipped inside her car and drove home.
The man in the dark corner of the car park sent a message back to the operator. It read “No contact all day. She’s headed home.”
The reply came back. “Perfect. We’ll activate the next part.”
The man pulled out of his hiding spot and stayed within a safe distance of her car. She’d be going out later, though at this point she didn’t know it yet. He knew where she lived, so cars pushing in in front of him as they drove didn’t worry him, and actually made his tail even more natural. He observed as she approached her flat but he carried on past, opting to park further up the road. She wouldn’t be going for at least another hour, so he settled himself in and opened his flask of hot coffee to wait for further instructions.
From his own computer in his own flat, Chris watched as the various points came together on his screen. She was home. He hoped she’d had a rather more pleasant day without the sleaze ball hounding her around every corner. He pressed send on his phone and it connected almost immediately.
“I’m guessing it was all okay today. I didn’t hear from you.” Chris sounded like the caring friend he was.
“It was the weirdest thing,” she replied. “I kept expecting something, a tap on my shoulder, but no, nothing. I’m half wondering if he wasn’t that bothered. Or better yet, maybe I’ve warned him off properly. Maybe that’s it now. I hope so.”
Chris smiled at her optimism. “Well, that’s great I’m pleased for you. I’ve been thinking about it all day but didn’t dare to ring or text. Look, I’ll buy dinner, something casual, then what do you say to a couple of drinks? Nothing heavy, but a bit of a celebration, eh?”
The air went quiet between them as Stephanie was obviously considering his offer. Chris was quick to interject before she could find an excuse. “In fact, let’s go all out and eat at that new champagne bar in town, then drink champagne there! We could dress up nice and be toffs for the night. Sound like fun? I’m buying.”
Her giggles rang in his ear; he’d hit the right spot. “Great! Get your best dress on, then, girl and I’ll meet you in sixty minutes. Is that long enough?”
“Yes. Sounds great. You’re on. I’ll see you in an hour. I’d better get a move on.”
He smiled. She sounded lighter and ready for some fun after her ordeal yesterday, and he was pleased with how things were turning out. He really hoped what was about to happen didn’t upset her too much, but it had to be done. The debt had to be repaid.
Even for the rather lovely Stephanie Michaels.
Chapter Forty
“You look gorgeous as usual, Ms. Michaels. Care to take my arm?”
Chris stood in the doorway smiling broadly at Stephanie, arm proffered for her to take, gentleman style. She linked hers in his, and they set off towards his car, which was parked at the curb. He opened the passenger door and she slid in, careful not to expose too much thigh in his direction. She didn’t want him getting ideas about anything other than friendship. She gave a mock royal wave with her right hand as though she was riding in the golden horse-drawn carriage. In actual fact, she had been poured into his Mini. Top-end model, but still a Mini. She examined her surroundings, taking in the flight deck of clocks and the various knobs and buttons. The leather interior invited her to stroke it.
“What a beautiful interior. Small, but beautiful.”
Chris got in beside her and started the engine. He revved it a couple of times for her benefit. “Listen to that purr. She’s like a big cat.” He gently revved a couple more times, listening himself to the power tucked inside the bijou casing. “Ready?”
“Let’s go!”
And off they drove to the champagne bar that would become their venue for the majority of the evening. There was no need for the tail. Chris knew exactly where she would be tonight: right by his side.
For the time being.
Chapter Forty-One
It was a couple of hours later that he made his approach. Chris had gone to the bathroom, leaving Stephanie alone for a short time at their table, which was his signal to take over. A suave blond-haired male approached the table, a Margarita in each hand. “May I?”
Stephanie looked up from her thoughts, straight into the deepest blue eyes she’d ever seen. For a moment, she didn’t quite know what to say; she felt almost hypnotized as he gazed back, but his smile broke the spell.
“I – I’m with someone tonight, actually,” she stammered.
“I know. He’s just gone to the gents so I thought I’d bring you a drink. I didn’t think you were actually an item together, which is why I’m here.”
She smiled at that. “Oh? What makes you think that?”
“Your body language together. I’ve been watching. You’re just good friends, am I right?” His eyes danced as he teased her and she found herself staring at them again. And blushing. He sat down next to her. “Here,” he said passing her a cocktail glass. “I took a chance on a Margarita. You look like a woman with taste.”
“Are all your chat-up lines so cheesy?”
“I’m afraid they are, and they rarely work, but I live in hope they will tonight.” They both laughed. He put his hand out to introduce himself. “I’m Sebastian, and you are. . .?”
“Stephanie.” She took his hand and they shook gently.
“Well, that has a cheesy ring to it already, doesn’t it? Stephanie and Sebastian. Heavens, it sounds like a posh kids’ store. We’re doomed before our drinks are over!”
Stephanie laughed again and raised her glass. “May as well finish your drink first. No point in wasting it.” Over Sebastian’s shoulder she could see Chris approaching the table, when another woman grabbed his attention. Stephanie watched as the two of them embraced like old friends, hugging and laughing together. Chris pulled free to look her up and down. She suspected he was saying something along the lines of ‘You look great! You’ve not changed one bit.’ She caught his eye and gave a little wave to tell him to carry on; she was fine with the cheesy guy for a while. Chris immediately got the message and acknowledged it with a slight wave back. They were there as friends for the evening after all, not on a date. With Chris busy with his old friend, she turned back to her guest.
“So, Sebastian, tell me. What brings a man like you to a place like this?” She tried her hardest not to giggle but failed miserably, and they threw their heads back in unison.
“I guess two can play cheesy, eh?”
“Oh yes. But seriously, tell me about the man who takes random drinks to random women when they were sitting with another man. What kind of guy does that?”
Over the following couple of hours, Sebastian and Stephanie drank several more Margaritas and several more glasses of champagne while Sebastian filled her in on his life and asked her questions about her own, and they generally got on like peanut butter and jelly on sliced bread.
Chris had stayed with his old friend, giving Stephanie the occasional wave to make sure she was still okay, but he knew she was. It was all part of the plan.
“Let’s go back to mine,” Sebastian said to Stephanie as the witching hour approached.
Stephanie paused to think for a moment, looking across to Chris who was still enjoying himself with the other woman. What the hell – why not?
“Sounds good,” she said, flirting back somewhat drunkenly, and got to her feet.
Once back at his apartment, Sebastian had poured them both a nightcap, then pulled out a little box where he
kept his cocaine and cut a little on the dining room table. He turned to Stephanie, passing a glass to her.
“Would you like some, to relax with?” he said, indicating the coke.
Stephanie had never tried the hard stuff in her life and wasn’t about to start now. Taking her wrap off, she made herself comfortable on the sofa, sipping her drink. “Not for me, thanks, but don’t let me stop you.” She kicked her shoes off and lolled her head back. Seconds later, Sebastian was next to her, planting kisses on her neck. She let him, stretching her neck to him for more, enjoying the feeling it gave her. They both knew what was going to happen next.
“Come,” he said, as he pulled her up and guided her to his bedroom. There was no resistance from Stephanie. Even though she had drunk far too much champagne and too many Margaritas, she was still in the mood for Sebastian.
It was sometime after that that things had gone blurry. Had Stephanie not drunk her spiked brandy, she would have been awake when the visitor had knocked an hour later and Sebastian had passed another keycard through the door. She would have felt Sebastian on top of her, and she would have felt the blade nicking the backs of her thighs as he straddled her, watching tiny beads of blood rise to the surface on her glorious legs. She might have even been aware that another man had crept into the room some hours later and severed her hair, leaving it rough and clumpy.
But she had drunk it. And Sebastian had swapped that keycard for a single baggy of cocaine – the value of her hair.
Chapter Forty-Two
Present day
Stephanie sat staring into space, lost in her own world of distant memories, jarred loose by the women’s discussion of “Mr. Sleazeman.” As their chatter quieted and they tucked into their food, she realized with a start that Matt the barman was hovering nearby. It was obvious he had spoken to her, though she had no recollection what he’d said. She shook her head gently as if shaking out the cotton wool in her head.
“Sorry, I was miles away.”
“It’s okay. I was merely seeing if you wanted a top-up. Or something to eat. Can I get you anything?” He had an easy, welcoming smile and gentle, soothing eyes. Or was that the glass of wine on an empty stomach? She checked her watch. Did she have to be someplace?
“Thanks. I’ll have one more, and how about a chicken salad sandwich with fries? That should soak the wine up and put my day back together.”
“Coming right up.”
Stephanie took the opportunity to make a phone call; she wanted to talk to Ruth. She pressed her speed dial number and Ruth answered on the third ring.
Breathlessly, Stephanie blurted out what she’d remembered.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” said Ruth. “Slow down – you’re not making any sense. Now start again, slowly.”
“I overheard a conversation about sexual harassment in this woman’s workplace and her having to clear his mistakes up again and how much damage it’s doing to the company’s reputation. She was really heated up about it, and it jogged my memory about something that happened not long before my hair went missing.” She paused to catch her breath.
“Go on,” Ruth prompted. “Tell me what happened. From the top.”
And so Stephanie relayed the story of how her boss had become too familiar with her, and cornered her in the kitchen one night, and how she’d basically stabbed him. And how, the following day, the problem had vanished. He’d never mentioned it, she had certainly never mentioned it, and the whole thing appeared to have gone away.
“I can’t believe you stabbed him, Steph!” Ruth said incredulously. “That was a big risk. Mind you,” she went on, “I’d have probably done the same if it had been me. And he never said anything about it again?”
“That’s right. If someone had stabbed you with a fork, you’d have said something, wouldn’t you? And being the boss too?”
Ruth thought for a moment. “I wonder why not.”
“Well, that’s just it, Ruth. I told my friend Chris that night, nobody else, and I wonder if the whole thing is linked with something else that happened?”
“Oh?” Ruth’s voice perked up. “What?”
“Well, the following night after work, Chris and I went out for drinks and, well, that was the night I ended up with Sebastian Stevens, back at his place. I think.”
“Go on,” Ruth prodded again, her voice serious now.
“Well, Chris was with me for most of the night. And then he went to the loo, and that’s when Sebastian came over and sat down. After a while, Chris started back to our table, but he bumped into an old girlfriend. I gave him the signal I was okay with Sebastian, which I was, and Chris stayed with his old friend. I never saw him again that night after we left the bar. Sebastian and I went back to his place, and then I was drugged, and you know the rest.”
Ruth was quiet on the other end of the phone for a moment. “So,” she said at length, “you’re saying you wonder if your friend Chris set you up somehow because he’d done something to stop your over-amorous boss?”
“I think so. Yes.”
“Wow. That’s a big jump. Are you still in touch with this Chris guy? Does he have a surname?”
“Chris Meeks, and no, he moved away soon after that night. I’ve not heard of him since. I can’t help thinking there are too many coincidences, though – that I was set up, that a debt I didn’t know I had was paid back. In full.”
“Shit. Have you told Amanda yet? You’re going to have to, you know.”
“I know. I wanted to run it past you first.”
“Well, even if it is something to do with this Chris guy, she’ll need more than hearsay and gut feeling. I’d start thinking about how you might find him again. And I’d write out what you’ve remembered. It might help jog more memories loose when you read it back again. She’s going to need some help, and the name ‘Chris’ and not much else is a bit thin, I reckon.”
Stephanie knew she was right: she had to come up with more. The arrival of her sandwich and fries distracted her, and her stomach growled in anticipation.
“I’ll write it all out, then I’ll call her later,” she said. “May as well get it all out of the way. And if he was involved then, and another woman has lost her hair now, there will probably be others.”
“Keep me posted, Steph, and you know where I am if you need me.”
Stephanie blew her friend a kiss down the phone and hung up. She picked up a couple of the hot fries and chewed on them, thinking. The salty grease tasted damn good. If she had put the right pieces together and figured it out, then someone needed to track Chris down. Rather than waiting, she picked her phone up again and called Amanda while it was all summer-fresh in her mind. She’d know how to find Chris.
If Chris Meeks was his real name.
Chapter Forty-Three
Griffin lay in his bed; the alarm was due to go off in a few more minutes. It wasn’t unusual for him to wake before his alarm, but it was unusual for him to lie in bed. Eventually it was his bladder that made him get up. He tapped the alarm button as he passed his clock, just as it was about to bleep, and dragged the bedclothes back so the sheets and mattress could air. As always, he gave a moment’s thought to the bed lice, and then almost forcibly switched the thoughts off again. Bed lice were invisible to the human eye, he told himself again, so technically what the eye couldn’t see shouldn’t worry him. And he wasn’t about to get a magnifier to feed his curiosity.
As usual, his routine was precise, and fifteen minutes later he was in his tiny kitchen pouring milk onto his waiting cereal. Weekends were much the same for Griffin, though without the need to head into town, but he still kept to a regular timetable of sorts, just a little more relaxed. He took tea at home rather than at the office.
The morning sun streamed through the kitchen window, giving a yellowy glow to the room as he ate his Special K. Milk spilled from his spoon onto the table as he completely missed his mouth.
His mind was elsewhere and he knew just where.
Today, he’d agreed
to meet up with Vee again and look at a couple of the flats she had lined up to view. The thought of spending the day with her thrilled him; he was finally beginning to relax in her company a little, although it was tough going. Yes, he’d had a girlfriend before, but that had been some years ago, before he’d grown in size like a blow-up paddling pool. Now, he’d shrunk back to a healthier and near normal size for his height. Vee seemed to like him. And if last night was anything to go by, they were getting on nicely. He’d walked her home and they’d stood on the back step, but with her parents inside, he hadn’t dared to lean in and give her a quick kiss. And that had been the excuse he’d stuck to. Draining his bowl of the last of the milk, he wondered how he’d avoid the situation again should it arise. Which it would. His lack of confidence could be a pain sometimes.
On Saturdays he had a slice of toast after his cereal, and he put a slice of bread in the toaster while he waited for the kettle to boil again. His thoughts drifted back to the previous night: drinking Snakebite in the pub, her beating him at darts, and their stroll home under the amber glow of streetlamps. The toast pinged up and gathered his attention, so he spread peanut butter on it for his morning protein. He was finishing the last mouthful when his phone chirped like a bird. A text had landed.
“Are you up yet? I guess you are now!”
He smiled at her cheekiness. “Of course I am. You?”
“Awake, but still in bed. You still up for today?”
“Of course. Where and when?”
“Coffee first?”
“Excellent idea.”
“Come round here and we’ll go. 10 am suit?”
“Perfect. See you then.”
Griffin waited for a moment in case his phone pinged again, one last emoji perhaps, but it didn’t. He found himself slightly disappointed. He gathered his crockery and placed it in the dishwasher as usual and went through to the living area to retrieve his laptop. With a couple of hours until he was due to leave, he put the time to good use and carried on with his research. Depending on how far they walked today, he could get the remainder of his 10,000 steps in at the end of the day. He opened the lid and the screen sprang into life, the login prompt flashing at him like a pedestrian crossing light. Entering his details, he brought up the TOR browser and continued his search. And there he sat until it was almost time to leave.
