‘Marie-Louise, relax! It’s absolutely no problem for us, so come whenever you like. I know you’re on a tight schedule. We’re not, so just take your time and do what you have to. Paige will be fine here.’
‘It’s such a relief to know that,’ Marie-Louise sighed. ‘Can you imagine my panic if I thought that Paige was waiting at school for me. You’re a godsend, Renata!’
Renata laughed. ‘Oh, I doubt that! Would you like a glass of wine, Marie-Louise? I think you need something stronger than tea.’
Marie-Louise hesitated. ‘OK, but only half a glass. I’m driving.’
The two women started to learn a little about each other. Marie-Louise’s husband Chuck had been posted to New Albion as vice-president of a major US company. They had arrived only two weeks earlier. It had been such a rush for Marie-Louise to settle the children into their new schools and to try to keep up with her work commitments as costume adviser to the film industry. It didn’t matter where she worked to accomplish this and had worked from home since their eldest daughter Sally’s birth fourteen years earlier. That arrangement had a few minor drawbacks but many more advantages. It suited her way of life.
Renata was South African and her marriage to Steven – or “Big Stevie” as she teased him in the privacy of their bedroom, much to his annoyance - was her second. Her first marriage had ended in a messy, hurtful divorce and she had moved to New Albion with her daughter Leandre to seek a new start. Leandre was due to begin university in Wellingbury in October and was seeing out the remainder of her summer break with her natural father in spring-like Cape Town. Renata and Steven had two children of their own, Evie and Little Stevie, and Steven also had a fifteen year old son Josh who lived with them. Steven’s first wife had died not long after Josh was born.
Thirty minutes later, a more relaxed Marie-Louise gathered her three kids and they all headed out of the door. Renata realised that she liked the tall blonde American woman and was already looking forward to their brief chats each evening.
Chapter 24
FULL of curiosity, Bobby-Joe Henderton was waiting in his car after dusk on Tuesday evening, closely watching the door to his pal Spiralli’s ground floor apartment. A well-built man in his early thirties appeared and stood outside the door, looking around. Bobby-Joe locked his car, walked quietly over and stood ten safe feet away from the man. He assumed that this was the unnamed guy who had phoned earlier in the day. Henderton felt threatened by the size of the man. At 19, Henderton was small, thin and looked weak in comparison.
‘You Henderton?’ the man asked.
‘Might be. Who are you?’
‘Well, are you or not, fuckhead?’
‘What do you want?’
The man reached into his pocket and stepped towards Bobby-Joe proffering a piece of paper. ‘Message from your mate.’
Bobby-Joe read the note from Spiralli in the dim light. He looked again at the man. The note in block letters instructed Henderton to give money to the note bearer, Dmitry Durak. Spiralli had started the note with “Bobby-J”. Only Spiralli called him that so Henderton was sure it was from his pal now serving time at Hardston Prison.
‘It says I have to give you two hundred. I don’t have that much with me,’ he told Durak. ‘I’ll get it and give it to you tomorrow.’
‘Don’t fuck with me. I know his stash’s in there.’ Durak pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. ‘Spiralli told me he had it hidden and you know where it is. Get it from the stash.’
‘The stash isn’t there anymore. I moved it days ago. You don’t think I’m gonna leave it in an empty apartment, do you?’
‘Don’t give me that shit.’
‘Up to you! I don’t have it with me and it ain’t in there.’
‘You bring the keys?’
‘Yeah,’ he admitted, dangling them from a finger, ‘but they won’t be needed now, will they?’
Durak quickly stepped towards Bobby-Joe and snatched at the keys. After a short tussle, he had them in his hand and was heading for the door. ‘Show me where the stash was,’ he instructed. ‘Let’s make sure you ain’t fucking with me!’
As Bobby-Joe headed for Spiralli’s hiding place in the bedroom, Durak found the key with the green plastic tag that he was looking for on a board in the kitchenette. That’s what he was going to need!
‘Through here,’ Bobby-Joe called out. ‘See for yourself. This is where we hid the lockbox.’
‘I need money now. The note says you’ll give me two hundred - and I want it.’
‘I can give you fifty now and the rest tomorrow. That’s the best I can do.’
‘Two hundred now!’
‘Fifty now, one hundred and fifty tomorrow. What else can I do?’ I don’t have any more than fifty.’
‘Show me your wallet.’
‘Fuck off, man’
‘Durak was on him in seconds, pinning Henderton to the wall, their heads almost touching. ‘Wallet!’ Durak hissed, his fetid breath on Bobby-Joe’s face.
Henderton reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. Durak pulled out the only note in there, a fifty, and threw the wallet to the ground.
‘Tomorrow, cunt! Be here same time. And don’t forget, I know where to find you.’
Henderton picked up his wallet from the floor. He held out his hand. ‘Give me Ben’s key back.’
‘Tomorrow!’
Bobby-Joe shrugged. ‘What’s this all about anyway?’ he asked as they stepped outside.
‘If Spiralli had wanted you to know he would’ve told you, wouldn’t he?’ Durak locked the door and a second later he’d left. As Bobby-Joe watched, he disappeared into the night.
Durak was satisfied. He’d followed Spiralli’s instructions to the letter, given to him by Spiralli in a separate note. He had access to the key he came for. Mission accomplished, money in his pocket and more to come. Time to spend some of it and now he had a place to crash too. Better than that fucking halfway shithouse.
Chapter 25
ON Wednesday morning, Ella phoned Charlotte. ‘I have something for you from our friend at Hardston. Do you have time for a coffee?’
They met in the coffee shop as usual. ‘Two days ago, a psychopathic hard case named Dmitry Durak was released from Hardston Prison,’ Ella began as they set their coffee cups on their usual table. ‘He passed through our friend of a friend’s hands early in the day and although she gave him a clean bill of health, she felt something was wrong with his manner. He seemed cocky when she asked him how he planned to support himself and he said he already had a job to do which would give him both pleasure and cash. He wouldn’t say any more. She checked and found out that he had been seen spending time with a new inmate, but she wasn’t sure who that was.’
‘But, it could’ve been anyone. Spiralli was probably not the only new inmate.’
‘I know Charlotte, but it may be worth passing on to Todd.’
‘Yes. Yes, you’re right. I’ll phone him now. And thanks a million for that, Ella.’ She reached for her phone.
Chapter 26
LUCY was hard at work that Wednesday afternoon as she absentmindedly answered her mobile phone after several rings.
‘Hi, is that Lucy?’
‘Yes, that’s me. Who’s this?’ she replied, expecting a business call.
‘Sorry to bother you if you’re working, Lucy. This is May Flintsmith. I don’t know if you remember John and me. From Barcelona Beach?’ The group of friends had met May and John on a nude hike in the hills and John had surprisingly taken to the idea of naturism instantly. Not so May. She was reluctant to appear naked but at the same time had been pleased that John had unexpectedly discovered an interest that captured his full attention since his retirement from his dental practice. She had genuinely begun to worry that boredom would cause him to simply roll over and pass away.
‘May! Yes, of course!’
‘Is now a good time? I have a quick question for you.’
‘Sure. I could do with a br
eak. I’ll make myself a coffee while we chat.’
‘Actually, it’s more of a favour than a question.’
‘OK. Fire away.’
‘You remember when we lunched at Barcelona Beach?’
‘Of course. That was the last day of our holiday.’
‘Right, and do you remember offering us the use of your place at that naturist resort?’
‘Yes, whenever it’s free, you can use it with pleasure.’
‘Well, that’s what I’m phoning about. We wondered if we could take you up on your offer and stay on for another two or three weeks.’
‘I’ll check with Jake of course, but it shouldn’t be a problem. We don’t plan to use it for a while. But I have to ask, May. Are you comfortable with naturism now? You weren’t ready for it when we last saw you.’
‘Not really to be truthful, but I have to admit, John is still totally crazy about it. More so every day. We spend each moment at Barca and I have to drag him away. He’s started walking around our apartment naked and evens sleeps naked.’
‘That’s fantastic, May.’
‘I join him for a swim sometimes but keep my sarong wrapped around me on the beach.’
‘So will you be comfortable at SimpliCity, do you think?’ Lucy asked.
‘I don’t know but I think I should give it a try. I can keep my sarong on if not but we’ll see if I relax in the midst of a naturist setting. John is so keen. I’ve never seen him like this. Having retired, he may just have found an interest, although I can’t imagine what he can do with it! I was actually beginning to worry about him with nothing to do during retirement. Maybe this, whatever “this” is, is the answer. That’s why I’m going along with it.’
‘Well, that’s noble of you, May. Definitely have the chalet for as long as you like. I’m sure Jake will be fine with it. There’s a key at the resort office. I’ll let them know you’ll be collecting it.’
Chapter 27
CHARLOTTE had finished clearing up after dinner on Thursday evening when her mobile phone rang. She recognised Lucy’s number and smiled. It was always a pleasure chatting with her new friend.
‘Hey, Lucy, how are you?’ she asked cheerfully.
‘Hi Charlotte. I’m fine. Just got in actually. It was our girl’s wine bar evening. I think I told you we meet every Thursday after work for an hour or two. Why don’t you come along next week? You’ll enjoy it.’
‘I thought you’d never ask!’ Charlotte teased. ‘I’ll see how my workload looks next week and let you know. But I’ll definitely be joining you sooner rather than later. Where is it?’
‘And you’ll be very welcome. It’s called “The DownTown Vats” in the financial district on Churchill Street.’
‘You’re kidding me! What a name!’
Lucy laughed. ‘You already know Louisa Fiddleforth. She was there this evening.’
‘Was she? I haven’t seen her for a couple of days, actually.’
‘She may be keeping to herself. She seemed very down this evening. She told us that she’d dumped that boyfriend of hers over the weekend and I think it’s upset her. He was a real jerk from what she told me, so I don’t think she’ll be sorry once that bloody awful break-up feeling wears off.’
‘I had no idea. All I know is that she’d been seeing him for a long time, a few years I think. They went on holiday to Europe last year, Greece maybe, and as soon as she was back she discovered he’d been seeing someone else. Maybe she should’ve dumped him then, but that’s easy for me say when it’s nothing to do with me!’
‘Yes, it’s always easier from the outside. Which is a great segue into the reason I called.’
‘Oh? What do you mean?’
‘Looking from the outside, I mean. Jake and I have being doing just that but I’m not sure you’ll like what I have to say.’
‘Oh?’ Charlotte repeated, noticing that her friend had adopted a serious tone.
‘Charlotte, we’re becoming close friends, right? And Jake and I cherish that but we’ve been thinking about the future.’
Charlotte was genuinely puzzled. ‘The future? Who’s future?’
‘The future of our relationship, I mean…’
‘What?’
‘Don’t get me wrong, Charlotte. It’s not in jeopardy of course, but as time goes on I believe that it may increasingly cause you…well, anxiety.’
‘Anxiety? How could it? In what way?’
‘Jake and I were chatting yesterday evening and when I told him that I’d like you to meet our parents at the weekend, he said something that made me stop and think. And I’ve been thinking hard ever since. What he said was that if you meet our parents, it wouldn’t be long before we meet yours.’
‘So what? I’d love you to meet my parents and I’m sure that Todd feels the same. They just wouldn’t need to know how we met and… But what’s really going on here, Lucy? This doesn’t sound like you.’
‘I know. It does sound far-fetched to me now too, but when we talked about it, Jake and me I mean, we both realised that one thing can lead to another. What I mean to say is that if our friendship grows, as I’m sure it will, sooner or later our parents are going to be in one another’s company and I’m sure that one of ours, probably my chatterbox mother, will let the cat out of the bag. They no longer see us as the weirdos they once did and are quite open to others about our way of life. I think in some ways they’re quite proud of us in an obscure way.’
‘I get that, Lucy. But why now? What’s the rush?’
‘There’s no rush of course, but every time we all talk about our parents, we get the distinct impression that you’re really scared that your parents will discover the truth. You’ve even said that Todd’s parents shouldn’t be told in case they let on to your parents. That’s not really a healthy situation in our opinion.’
‘But why are you..?’
‘Because we both think that the longer this goes on, the more likely it is that you’ll be found out. The closer that gets, the possibility is that you’ll back off the idea of naturism altogether. Neither Jake nor I want that to happen.’
‘That’s not going to happen, Lucy. I enjoy it too much now.’
‘OK, so you don’t see maintaining secrecy as a problem? Living two lives, your future kids having to hide this secret? You coping with increasing stress?’
‘Come on, Lucy. This is not something we should even be discussing now.’
‘OK, but it will come up at some stage, I promise you.’
‘But at the beginning you mentioned an offer. What did you mean?’
‘Ah yes. I really hope that you don’t think that we’re interfering and if so, we’ll shut up immediately, but Jake and I would like to try to help you to open up with your parents about it.’
‘Oh, I don’t think…’
‘It’s my mum’s birthday on Sunday and we plan to celebrate over lunch at Molly’s restaurant. We’d like you both to come and to bring your parents.’
‘Well, that’s a wonderful idea, Lucy, and Todd and I would definitely like to come but why our parents? You haven’t even met them yet.’
‘Didn’t you say that it was Todd’s father’s birthday while you were on holiday in Pereval?’
‘Oh yes, that’s right, but…’
‘Well, that’s a good excuse to invite them all. It would seem to be a great idea for a family get together for both our families.’
‘OK, I get that. But then what?’
‘It’s our suggestion that during the lunch, Jake and I will let it out gently about us being naturists and our parents will unquestionably be supportive. We won’t have mentioned anything about you and Todd being naturists too, so they’re not likely to blurt anything out. We’ll try to guide the conversation in an accepting way and let it play out. Hopefully, an opportunity will arise for you and Todd to support us at the very least and hopefully to let it be known that...’
‘Whoa! Whoa! That’s never going to work, Lucy. My mother is more likely to ge
t up and leave!’
‘Well, if she does, that’ll be an end to it, but she’ll know that your new friends are naturists and not shy about it. She won’t be able to forget that and she’ll always wonder. That can’t be a bad thing, can it?’
‘Yes it can! You don’t know my mother!’
‘OK. Well maybe it wasn’t such a great idea after all. But we’re only thinking of you.’
‘I know, Lucy, and I’m grateful. And I don’t think you’re interfering. I’ll even speak to Todd about it, but I personally don’t think it’s the way to go.’
Chapter 28
EARLY evening on Wednesday, Todd checked with the halfway house at which Durak had been billeted. He was told that Durak hadn’t returned to the halfway house the previous evening after meeting with his probation officer. He’d given his PO the slip and hadn’t been seen since. An alert was out for him but he must be lying low.
Todd was certain he knew where he could be found.
He checked his records and found Spiralli’s address. In thirty minutes he was outside Spiralli’s apartment and could see a low light from one window. Someone’s home, he thought. No doubt who that will be. But he was in two minds. Rightfully, he should call it in and have Durak picked up, but he was also thinking ahead. If Durak was taken now, he would simply engineer another way to get at Dana when he was released again in a couple of days. Now that Todd knew where he was, he knew he had to run with it. If he could catch Durak in the act, he could stop him carrying out what he probably planned and would also have serious leverage against Spiralli at last. The risk was though that it could put Dana in serious danger. He had to be very cautious. And he needed help.
The Naked Truth: Shall Set You Free (NEW ALBION Book 2) Page 6
