Dark Service

by Linda Coles

  He could see her in the distance, stood on the front step of her house chatting to someone. A parent, maybe? From what he could make out, the person looked about the right age, a male, but as he closed the gap, he could tell by their body language that Vee wasn’t the man’s daughter. In fact, moments later the man turned and walked back down the path towards a car that was parked at the curb. As Vee turned to go back inside, she saw Griffin and waved at him. He could see her bright smile easily and he found himself smiling back. She really was pretty in that special way of hers, and he was beginning to enjoy her company more and more each day. He’d even found himself thinking about her while at home on his own, and he couldn’t remember when he’d last done that. Or with whom.

  He waved back. She began walking back down the path to meet him.

  “Good morning,” he said when they were a few feet apart.

  “Good morning to you too, Mr. Formal.” She was teasing him already.

  “How am I supposed to greet you – with a ‘Yo’?”

  “Good morning is just fine. I’m teasing you, silly.” She threaded her arm through his and they walked up towards the front door. It dawned on him that he was about to meet her parents. No sooner had the thought entered his head when an older male and female filled the doorway. The woman looked like an older version of Vee: same small nose and fine face structure, though her hair had lost its colour some time ago. Her father, on the other hand, had a thick head of dark brown hair, with just a few wisps of grey at his temples and around his ears. There was no mistaking these folks were her makers.

  Here goes.

  “Good morning. I’m Griffin,” he said, extending his hand. He caught the woman’s eye as he shook with her first. She had the same vivid hazel eyes as Vee.

  They shone back at him as she replied, “Lovely to meet you. I’m Vera and this is my husband Bruce.” She nodded to her husband. He too reached out to shake hands with Griffin.

  “Nice to meet you both.”

  It was Vee who broke the moment’s silence that followed. “Yes, I’m named after Mum. ‘Little Vee,’ as I’ve been known since I was born. But I’ve grown up to simply be Vee now. Perhaps when I get as old as Mum, I’ll blossom into a fully-grown Vera,” she said, winking and smiling at her mother. There was obviously a deep bond between the three of them, Griffin thought as he watched their gestures and expressions. Love was written all over her parents’ faces.

  “We’d better get a move on,” Vee said. “I don’t want to be late for the first one.”

  “Right. Okay.” He turned to follow Vee, who was already making her way back down the path, and nodded at her two waving parents. “Good bye, then.”

  When they were down the road a little way, Vee turned to Griffin and said, “I hope that wasn’t too embarrassing. I should have warned you they’d be nosey and want to meet you, but they mean well.”

  “You look so much like your mum, but with your dad’s colouring. Who do you take after most?”

  “Oh. Probably a big chunk of each. I look more like Mum, but I think I take after Dad with my mannerisms and laid-back approach to things. But if something bugs me and I get a bee in my bonnet, then I’m more like Mum. She can be a feisty so-and-so when she gets riled up. My sisters and I used to get her in a fizz sometimes. How about you? Who do you take after the most?”

  Griffin had to think about that one. He wasn’t particularly close to his parents and hadn’t seen either of them for at least twelve months, probably longer.

  “I’m not really sure, to be fair. I’ve never really seen eye to eye with Dad. He just thinks I’m odd. And Mum is a bit of a social butterfly, so I didn’t really fit in with her ‘perfect son’ goal, either. So we speak occasionally but hardly ever get together. It’s too hard, all the pretence of being something they want me to be rather than who I really am.”

  They both fell silent as they walked towards the train station, both thinking about what Griffin had just said. As they approached the entrance, Griffin tried to lighten the mood. “Well, that kind of killed the conversation, didn’t it?” He was smiling as he turned to her and spoke the words without malice. Vee hooked her arm through Griffin’s a wee bit tighter and squeezed some affection up his arm.

  “I’ll look after you.”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  They were on their third property viewing, and almost the instant they set foot on the cracked path up to the house Vee knew she might as well go no further. From the outside, the place looked reasonable, though rundown, and she was prepared to keep an open mind, but waiting outside she’d become more and more dismayed at the place. The only vibe she’d picked up so far on the small estate was a dodgy one. Small groups of youths milled around looking for something to do, and she guessed that would probably include petty crime. Had she asked them, they would have confirmed her suspicions – that is, if they’d dropped their attitude and been civil in conversation.

  The estate agent arrived and let them in, then led them straight upstairs. But Vee knew this was never going to be the place.

  “And a view out over the local area,” the agent gushed, pointing out of the smeary window like she was pointing to the Atlantic Ocean. In Croydon, the only water feature would be the pond in the back garden, if you were lucky enough to have a back garden. To appease the woman, Vee looked out at what she thought was so impressive. Or maybe the so-called view was the only good bit of the pokey property the agent could find to comment on, more like. Vee wrinkled up her nose.

  “Not for me, thanks. A definite no-go, in fact. Thanks for showing us, though,” she said, and walked towards the door. Griffin followed dutifully, leaving the woman to lock up. She didn’t look too pleased at having her time wasted. As they made their way back down the weed-ridden path to the road, Vee let out a disappointed sigh.

  “Don’t be despondent yet,” said Griffin. “We have one more to look at, and the first one we saw was quite good. Needs some work, but at least it was a decent-sized space in a nice part of town.” He looked at his watch. They had plenty of time until they were due at the next and last viewing.

  “Let’s take a break and grab a drink before the next one, eh? We’ve walked for miles and I know my feet could do with a rest.”

  “Alright. Mine too, actually. And a cold one would be nice right now. Café or bar? What do you fancy?”

  “Let’s get out of this dump first, then see what comes along. How about that for a plan?”

  “Perfect. Let’s go.”

  Twenty minutes later they came across the first place that looked half decent. A pub it was to be, then. He opened the door for her and she stepped inside. The interior was dark and cooling after their walk in the warm sunshine.

  “Snakebite? Or too early?” Griffin had his wallet out ready.

  “Too early for me. I’ll have a Coke, please. But I need to pee, more importantly. I’ll be back in a minute.” He watched her disappear around the corner and he approached the bar.

  He ordered two Cokes –one diet, no ice in either.

  He waited. When she reappeared, he steered her to a vacant table in the corner and motioned for her to sit on the bench side. Covered in a deep burgundy-coloured velvety fabric, it looked more comfortable than the wooden chair opposite. Placing her Coke in front of her, he said, “I assumed you meant regular Coke, not diet? Not that you need diet, I should add. And I didn’t get ice. Wasn’t again sure if you took ice. But I can easily get you some if you wish?” He was babbling a little and he knew it. She smiled at his efforts.

  “Full-fat Coke is fine. No ice is also fine, thanks.” Then she added, “For future reference though, I drink Diet Coke and don’t care either way about the ice.”

  For future reference. He liked that.

  He watched her gulp down almost half the glass in one go, mesmerized by the dark liquid disappearing down her throat. When she’d come back up for air, she asked, “What have you been up to this morning then, before we met up?”

 
“Catching up on some research. I’m writing an article on doping within amateur sports. It’s becoming quite an issue and quite commonplace. It’s not just the big names anymore, but the weekend warriors, the serious amateurs. And it’s rampant.”

  “Really? You mean in cycling?”

  “I mean many different sports now, even golf. There’s quite a market, evidently. Look at the people who compete in Masters, or age-grade competitions in any sport. They are still serious, even though they’re not professional, and they all want the edge over their competitors. Cycling is probably one of the more common sports you’d think of, but as I say even golfers are doping now. And from what I can gather, it’s prescription drugs mainly that are available and being misused for something else.” He took a breath and paused for a moment, letting what he’d said sink in. He took a long mouthful of Coke.

  “I can understand something like cycling, but how does doping work in golf, for example?”

  “You’ve heard of beta blockers and what they do?”

  “Yes, my dad is on them. Helps keep his blood pressure under control.”

  “That’s right. And they’ll probably be in the bathroom cabinet and you could get to them. If you wanted, you could take a handful here, a handful there maybe. And sell them.”

  “But I don’t understand what a golfer would need them for. What am I missing?”

  “Drugs will steady them – steady their movements, lower their blood pressure a bit. And as I said, the prescription forms are all perfectly legal to take, but they can give athletes an edge over someone who isn’t taking them. How unfair is that? It’s a form of doping, and doping is cheating.”

  “So where do they buy them from? Not exactly off eBay, I’m sure. The dark web?”

  Griffin wasn’t surprised to hear her mention the dark web; she worked in cyber security all day long, not that they’d talked about it much. He made a mental note to bring it up in conversation another time.

  “Yes, or a dirty doctor somewhere. That might be harder to find, though, unless you have the contacts. With some team sports at a higher amateur level, the coach may be the one organizing things. And no one wants to let the side down, do they?”

  Vee was silent, pondering what he was saying. She’d probably never thought of it before, but then why would she have? “And what have you found out so far, for your article? Have you uncovered something big?”

  “Oh, this is big, alright. And the more I dig the worse it appears to be. There’s so much available – prescription drugs galore as well as other things.”

  “Other things?”

  “Like how to cheat by using substances that occur naturally in the body anyhow, so things like EPO, which is where they take blood from their own body to make the body replenish itself, then reinject the blood back in on top at a later date, getting the benefit of all those extra red blood cells. This is usually done by endurance athletes, like long-distance runners, and it’s hard to detect, which is why they do it. But then you are starting to get into quite a dangerous area, messing with your blood cells. Get it wrong and you could be dicing with death, literally. I actually heard of a cyclist that used dog blood, which is a definite no-no. But to answer your question, it’s all there for sale. And on the dark web. I’ve spent a bit of time there recently, actually. I’m beginning to know my way around quite well.”

  “Wow. Good on you for doing it, bringing it out into the open. What will you do with the article? Sell it?”

  “That depends. Officially, I work for the paper, but I’m tempted to try this freelance, see what I can get for it. Trouble is, it could cost me my job in the process.”

  They both fell quiet and sipped on their drinks, deep in thought. Finally, Vee spoke.

  “We should get going. But for what it’s worth, I think if you can sell it for a decent fee, and if you’ve got the evidence in your research that this could be big, you should go for it. You’ll get another job easily enough. You have the talent. Or you might choose to go freelance. Could be your real destination.”

  Griffin downed the last of his drink and followed her towards the door. He’d told her what he was working on: she was the only person who knew. Had that been the right thing to do? He hardly knew her, really, knew anything of her background. Hell, her dad could be a dirty doctor for all he knew. He caught her up as she held the door open for him. While he’d told her of his doping research, he hadn’t dared tell her of the other reason he spent so much time on the dark web.

  Maybe he never would.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  By the end of Saturday, they’d both had enough, and Vee was feeling despondent with what they’d seen. Or not seen, to be more precise. She took her heavy Doc Martens off and flung them across the lawn with a groan. Griffin sat on a lawn chair and watched her toes wiggle free as her socks followed her boots up the grass.

  “Oh. That’s. So. Much. Better,” she groaned, lying back under the late afternoon sunshine. With her eyes closed, she couldn’t see him watching her with amusement. Somehow, though, she sensed it.

  “What?”

  “Maybe some lighter footwear in the summer would be a good idea? Your feet must boil.”

  “Technically, it’s autumn, but I know what you mean. All in aid of fashion, though.” She waved her arms above her head dramatically. “What can I say? I’m a slave to it,” she called out, then immediately rolled on to her stomach. She looked at Griffin, who had joined her and was also now lying in the grass. A lawnmower hummed in the distance and someone’s sausages were burning on a BBQ nearby. They still smelled delicious.

  “Did you think any of them had potential? Could you see the future in them?”

  “Personally, if it was me, I’d look at the two bigger ones again. But next time, go with the idea of what they could be, not what they are now. Your first home will never tick all the boxes unless you have a rich daddy to buy it for you, and I don’t believe that to be the case here. You’ll be surprised what a wall shifted or a clever colour scheme can do to a place.”

  She nodded in silent agreement.

  “How many have you looked at so far?” he asked her.

  “Too many. Probably at least twenty.” As she said it, she realized how silly the number sounded. “Perhaps I am being too picky, want too much. What was your first place like?”

  “Quite nasty to start with, but I had space. And it was my space to make my own. Then when I could afford it, I moved up the ladder another rung and my current place is much nicer. You should come over soon, see what you think.”

  “I’d like that, thanks.” She thought for a moment then added, “Maybe I am wanting too much. Mum and Dad have both said the same, but I’ve written their advice off because, well, they are parents, aren’t they? They say sensible stuff like that. Perhaps they are right.”

  “Look, here’s what I think.” Griffin looked at his watch and pointed to the clock. “It’s gone five pm now. Why don’t you come round to mine later? I’ll order pizza and get some cider and lager for you to mix, and you can see what can be done with a larger small space.” As an afterthought, he added, “You’ll be quite safe – just food and Snakebite and flat talk.”

  She grinned at him and accepted his invitation with her smile. “On one condition.”

  “Name it.”

  “I pay for the pizza.”

  Griffin nodded. “Deal. Seven pm work for you?”

  “I’d better grab a shower, then, and yes.”

  Griffin gave her his address and they said their see-you-laters. On the way home, Griffin stopped and picked up Snakebite ingredients and a tub of chocolate ice cream for dessert. He figured he’d be safe with chocolate; everyone ate chocolate ice cream, didn’t they? Then it was his turn to hit the shower and wait for his guest.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  She was punctual, 7 pm on the dot. He liked that. The pizza guy didn’t make the same grade but conversation filled the gap until he did arrive. When they’d finally got a slice an
d a drink each, they settled back into an easy silence, one that didn’t need filling continually. Finally, Vee wiped her chin with a napkin and broached the subject of her hobby, or one of them.

  “Earlier, we were talking about the dark web, and your research.” She took another bite and chewed before carrying on, tomato sauce gathering at the corner of her mouth. Griffin let her continue, intrigued as to what she was going to ask him. “Well, I know quite a bit about it, with my work as you can imagine. But I also use it myself. For personal interest.”

  So she wasn’t going to ask him a question.

  “Yeah? What sort of personal interest, as you put it?”

  “I’m an admin of one of the chat rooms. One rather close to my heart, actually. Online revenge, to be precise. My main clientele are those who have been targeted with revenge porn – you know, nude photos of themselves being posted all over without their permission or knowledge.”

  He let her pause and go on again before he said anything, noticing the change in her demeanour as she’d raised the subject. The words ‘close to my heart’ hadn’t gone un-noticed. He nodded in encouragement.

  “Well, I may as well tell you the whole story then, now that you’ve probably guessed it happened to me.” She took a deep breath, put her pizza back in the cardboard box and wiped her fingers. “My last partner and I enjoyed our private life together, you know, in the bedroom. We did some stuff that, well, others might think a bit kinky, but we were both consenting adults. You don’t need to know the details. And he filmed it sometimes. On his phone usually. Then we broke up, and I started seeing his friend, long after we’d finished, so there was no affair, no overlap. But my ex was pissed at me and decided to post one of our videos to get back at me.”