RISK

by Sam Skyborne

  “He sees his victims as pupils or beneficiaries that he has the right to punish but also has a close bond with. He definitely thought of Erika as his ‘best friend’ or mentee. His best friend deserted him.”

  Very abruptly, without warning, Toni stood up, pushing herself off the table and bolted away towards the back of the club.

  “Toni?” Lizbeth called after her. She jumped up and made a move to follow her friend.

  Maxine caught her arm and held her back. “No. Stay. Let me go.”

  When Maxine entered the restroom she found Toni standing at the basin.

  Toni looked up briefly and saw Maxine in the reflection. “Oh, look. It’s the cavalry.”

  “You okay?” Maxine asked, concerned.

  Toni did not respond but continued to splash cold water over her face.

  Maxine observed Toni for a while. “You are going to lose her, you know.”

  “What?” Toni said as she grabbed a paper towel and dried off her face and hands.

  “If you want to keep Lizbeth you need to get over yourself.”

  “I don't need you to preach to me about things you know nothing about,” Toni said bitterly.

  “I do,” Maxine said. “You don't like the fact that she's gay. It has thrown your little perfect 'best friends' world into chaos.

  “She can shag a goat for all I care,” Toni said, resignation thick in her voice. “It's not her I have a problem with.” Toni met Maxine’s gaze in the mirror.

  “It's you, you should have a problem with” Maxine cut in. “I’ve seen you look at her… You know I have.”

  “It's hard not to with you flaunting it at every opportunity.”

  Maxine moved closer. “You can't get over the fact that you want your best friend... But instead of accepting it or doing something about it you take it out on me, and on her.”

  Toni shook her head.

  “What's it like to be so scared... so selfish?” Maxine continued.

  That was the last straw for Toni. She lost it. She turned and grabbed Maxine by the collar and pushed her hard up against the wall. “You know nothing about me,” she hissed.

  “You’re not? Then just a coward?” They locked eyes for a long moment. “Prove it.” Maxine looked down at Toni’s lips, only inches away.

  Toni followed suit glancing down at Maxine’s.

  Their eyes met.

  “You know you want to,” Maxine said softly.

  With that Toni cracked and shoved Maxine backwards once more, hard, against the wall, but this time she leant in and kissed her fiercely, devouring Maxine’s lips.

  Finally, Toni backed away, breathless, still seething with a mixture of anger, frustration and arousal infused with too much alcohol.

  Maxine wiped her bruised lips and started laughing aloud. “Is that it? Is that the best you can do? Even school girls get to kiss in the toilets.”

  Toni turned and swiped a punch at Maxine but on account of the alcohol, Maxine blocked her easily and swung her round, pinning her up against the wall.

  “You have no idea—” Toni said.

  “I know you want me… You want nothing more right now than to fuck all your anger out on me.” Maxine shoved her hand into Toni’s trousers. “Or do you want me to fuck you senseless so you can stop feeling?” Maxine rubbed her hand roughly across Toni’s labia.

  Toni gasped.

  “No? Well, tell me to stop then!” She let her fingers drift backwards towards Toni’s entrance.

  Toni bit her lip and instinctively tilted her pelvis forward to maximise contact.

  Maxine leant forward and kissed Toni deeply.

  Then she pulled away a fraction, leant her forehead against Toni’s brow for stability as she kept touching and caressing her inner folds, spreading and revelling in the thick moisture that had collected there.

  Toni let out another involuntary moan.

  “Feels good, doesn’t it?” Maxine asked.

  That snapped Toni out of her daze. She tried ineffectively to push Maxine away. Finally, she gave up and closing her eyes succumbed to the delicious sensations that were flooding her body.

  “But we both know you need more,” Maxine whispered as she slowly drove her middle finger deep into Toni’s wet vagina.

  Toni let out another deep moan.

  “You know you need more than to passively receive,” Maxine said after a few strong thrusts inside Toni that made Toni feel weak at the knees. “You need to vent.”

  With that, Toni had no idea how, Maxine spun her round so she now pinned Maxine to the wall.

  Toni’s wrist ached due to the unnatural angle it was in. Maxine’s steely grip now held Toni’s hand firmly in place down Maxine’s own trousers.

  Toni could feel Maxine’s soft curls and smooth skin.

  “So do it!” Maxine jabbed her chin forward and locked her eyes on Toni. “You know I can handle it. Go on. Fuck me!”

  Toni tried to move her hand ever so slightly, testing the strength of Maxine’s grip, so doing, inadvertently dipping in deeper. She could feel Maxine’s juices coat her fingers.

  “I know you want to,” Maxine taunted. “Or are you really a coward?”

  Toni could not help herself. She felt her anger rise only to be topped by a powerful wave of arousal. She drove her fingers into Maxine. Maxine let out a grunt from deep in her throat, which was hard to identify as a sign of pain or pleasure. This only served to ignite Toni’s arousal more. She began to rhythmically thrust into Maxine. She watched as Maxine closed her eyes, gritted her teeth and absorbed every hard thrust.

  “That’s right,” Maxine said evenly. “Fuck me like you’ve been dreaming of.”

  Her anger at Maxine’s refusal to react, fuelled her own passion even more. She wanted to make Maxine scream, to lose her unyielding control, once and for all. She thrust harder and faster, impaling Maxine almost viciously.

  After a while Toni began to tire and the haze of desire began to subside and her senses began to return. “Please…” Toni said softly, begging for something, she was not sure what.

  Before Toni could say more or withdraw her hand, Maxine once again took control. Her one hand was back in Toni’s trousers and the other gripped her neck in a lock that forced Toni to look directly into her eyes. Then she masterfully caressed Toni’s cunt, where Toni needed to be touched most.

  Toni gritted her teeth, but despite her best efforts to free herself or prevent herself from feeling, she came long and hard, for once allowing her tears to run unhindered down her face.

  Afterwards, quite unable to stand, she collapsed in Maxine’s arms.

  Maxine kissed her softly on her forehead. “You can be an arse with me… But, don’t fuck it up with Lizbeth.”

  Then Maxine backed away and left, grabbing a large sheet of hand-towel on her way out.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Friday

  Toni woke up the next morning in her flat with the mother of all hangovers.

  She got up and went to the bathroom.

  She had very little recollection of how she had eventually got home. She seemed to recall being shoved into a cab with Lizbeth and Maxine. They had probably dropped her off on their way.

  She bent over the basin and splashed her face with water. As she did that torrents of memories from the restroom at The Vox flooded her mind.

  Oh God! Toni groaned. What have I done?

  She could not believe what had happened. She wished that it was all a horrible dream. She could not believe she was so stupid!

  She looked in the mirror and saw a slight darkening of her lip where she had bruised it while kissing Maxine. Yip, it was not a dream.

  Oh Christ!

  Unable to cope with what happened, or what to do about any of it, she went back to bed and pulled the covers over her head.

  Fuck! What if Maxine tells Lizbeth? What will Lizbeth think of her?

  She had to see Maxine. She sat up. She had to ask Maxine not to say anything to Lizbeth.

 
Quite frankly, right now, Maxine was the last person on earth she wanted to see. She didn’t think she’d be able to look her in the eye. Did she need to apologise? What exactly happened? All of it was a bit of a blur. From what she could recall, Maxine pretty much overstepped a line.

  Yes, but she kissed Maxine first.

  It was Maxine who pretty much violated her. Was it violation if she wanted it? Maxine did not ask permission. She doubted Maxine ever asked permission for anything in her life.

  Would she have said yes?

  Memories of Maxine’s touch flooded her mind. Oh God!… And the feeling of being inside another woman.

  She felt herself instantly get very wet. Where did that come from?

  Unable to cope with her own reaction, she threw off the covers and went for a shower.

  Hot water streamed down Toni’s body. She was plagued by incessant vivid flashbacks. The memory of Maxine taunting her, daring her to fuck her, and then taking it like it meant nothing—like she could feel nothing. Maybe she didn’t feel anything? Maybe Maxine was unmoved? Fear and humiliation swept over Toni almost reducing her to tears.

  It was all wrong, so wrong!

  She suddenly became aware of herself. Her breathing was shallow and ragged. Her pulse was racing. Once again she was completely aroused and exhilarated.

  Automatically she reached down and slid her fingers between her legs. She was stunned by how much silky wetness had pooled there. Oh God! She remembered the feeling of Maxine’s soft tender flesh—warm, smooth, and very wet. She must have wanted it too.

  Right now, Toni once again, more than anything, needed to be fucked.

  She buried her fingers deep in her vagina. She had to lean back against the cold tiles to steady herself. With the other hand she started to stroke her clit. Soon the most exquisite feelings ballooned from her core up her torso and down into her legs making her tremble. She hoped her legs would hold her up until she came.

  She remembered the feeling of Maxine’s fingers on her, her touch, her caresses, powerful and gentle, fierce and tender.

  She admitted that in that restroom, she wanted nothing more than for Maxine to take her, to fuck her.

  She started to feel drunk all over again, her head spinning faster and faster, her body progressively overpowered by the sweet sensations coursing though it until, she came hard with a deep uncontrollable moan.

  This time Maxine was not there to catch her. She slid slowly down the white tiled shower wall into a crouch. There she sat, just allowing the water to pummel her now very sensitive skin, until eventually, the warm water turned ice cold.

  If nothing else, Toni’s cold shower sorted out her hangover. She felt a bit more alive. Her head was still in a complete spin about the events of the previous night.

  She needed to do something. Normally she would have thrown herself into work but there was currently nothing more she could do about the Erika case. And she did not want to go into the office. She did not want to bump into Maxine, nor Lizbeth for that matter. She did not want to see anyone!

  She decided to focus on her flat and give her wall another coat of white paint.

  By late afternoon, the wall was painted and the brushes washed. The mundane rhythmic activity of rolling a paint-roller along the flat surface of the wall did manage to calm her libido somewhat and allowed thoughts of the case to seep back in.

  Although she was relieved they had solved Erika’s murder and that Donald Cadwell was apprehended, she still could not shake an uneasy feeling. Something still did not quite add up.

  She paced around her flat.

  What was Kevin and Dwight’s involvement in all this? What had they been up to? She had to know.

  Finally, she grabbed her jacket and her car keys and headed out the door.

  Toni knew that Kevin would be on duty until 7pm, so she waited for him outside the police station. Since it was Friday night she suspected home would not be his first destination. She was right.

  She tailed him through the early Friday night traffic, down past Angel, past City University along Goswell Road and then left along Lever Street to where he finally parked his car in Ironmonger Row.

  She watched him get out of the car, cross the road and head into the Ironmonger Row Baths.

  Just then a bright red sports Honda S2000 pulled up and parked two cars behind her. Instantly Toni recognised the driver as the same man Kevin had met for lunch earlier in the week.

  This could not just be a coincidence. This time she was not going to just hang about. She waited a few minutes after he had disappeared into the Baths, then she got out of her car and headed to the Baths’ entrance.

  As she walked in she was immediately struck by the old, cavernous, feel inside the building. On her right was a small booth. She wasn’t sure if she was imagining it but, strangely, the young man in the booth looked a little disconcerted to see her.

  He looked very young—probably a student from City University doing a part time job.

  “How much to come in?” she asked.

  “Oh, Miss, sorry, you can’t.” he said. “It’s men only night on Fridays.”

  Shit! “What time do you close?” Toni tried to sound casual.

  “9.30pm miss,” he said.

  Toni nodded. She checked her watch. It was 7.25pm. Two hours was a long time to sit and wait. She had no choice.

  She thanked the young man and returned to her car.

  At 9.25pm Kevin came out followed shortly by the young man with the Honda. They each headed to their respective cars.

  Toni had to make a decision—which one to tail?

  The obvious choice was Kevin but, if she could get to talk to the man in the Honda, she might be able to find out what Kevin was up to, without risking a direct confrontation. Or, perhaps she could unearth something she could use as leverage.

  Toni would never suggest she had a developed gaydar but from the look of the man with the Honda, she thought it was a pretty safe bet that he was gay. And if she was right, her suspicion was that Kevin was probably using him to get intel on the gay community, more than likely to feedback to his father.

  She shoved her car in gear and fell in behind the Honda.

  She tailed him back to the New River apartment block on Hornsey High Street and watched him disappear into a large thirteen-floor block of flats.

  It would have been impossible to know exactly which flat he was heading for, and the open glass architecture of the building and concierge made it difficult to tail him upstairs without spooking him.

  From where she had parked up, she could see his car. She scribbled down the car registration number.

  She checked her watch. It was nearly 9.45pm—still early by Three’s standards.

  Fifteen minutes later, thanks to Three and the DVLA’s records, Toni headed up to flat 27 belonging to a Mr Gavin Gilmore. She had also gleaned from Three, who did a quick Google search for her while on the phone, that he was unmarried and, from his Facebook profile, likely gay or bisexual.

  Either way, Toni was sure this was Kevin’s informant. She did not know how Kevin had wangled that, but she was pretty confident that someone like Gavin Gilmore would not be happy about the idea of being used to spy on his community for the Preacher and the CUL.

  She rang the doorbell.

  After a few moments, Gavin opened the door looking a bit perplexed.

  “Hi, Gavin Gilmore, am I right?”

  He nodded. “Yes, what can I do for you?” His manner was somewhat austere, as she expected. Most people did not take kindly to being called on after 10pm at night.

  “I’m Toni Mendez, a private investigator. I wonder if I can come in for a few minutes.” Toni guessed he was polite and well-mannered and would probably not want to seem rude.

  “I’m actually busy right now—” Gavin said, glancing over his shoulder.

  “It will only take a few minutes,” Toni added, “but I think it is urgent and you will want to hear what I have to say.”

  T
oni could see him considering his options.

  “Really, Gavin, you are going to want to hear what I have to say.”

  He stepped aside. “Okay, but it better be quick.” He let her in and showed her into a small room just off the front hallway.

  He did not offer her a drink or to take a seat.

  “What could possibly be so urgent that you knock on someone’s door at this hour?”

  “Gavin, I am investigating a man I believe you are acquainted with by the name of Kevin McCarthy.”

  Gavin did not say anything.

  Toni tried to read his reaction. She was somewhat disconcerted not to see surprise in his expression.

  There was no easy way to say it, and Toni didn’t have time to mince words. “I believe he is working under cover for the CUL and potentially using you as a source of information to spy on the LGBTQIA community.”

  Was that recognition she saw in his face?

  Still Gavin said nothing.

  Did he know about Kevin?

  “Ms Mendez—”

  “Look Gavin, it is vital that you listen to me, even if you don’t want to talk. As you know lots of people have been targeted, sometimes very brutally, by the CUL. So there is a lot at stake. The CUL need to be stopped and I can’t make that happen unless you help me now. All I need is for you to tell me how you know Kevin, please.”

  Gavin looked at her coolly. He seemed to take a deep patient breath.

  “What I was going to say, Ms Mendez, is, you should ask him yourself.”

  Toni was bewildered.

  What did he mean?

  She stood transfixed and watched Gavin go to the door and called out, “There is someone here to see you.”

  Fuck! She hadn’t seen that coming! How could she have missed it? Could Kevin actually be here?

  She thought back to her decision to follow Gavin. He did stop at the shop on the way home. Kevin had obviously driven to Gavin’s straight from the Ironmonger’s Baths. She tried to think back. She hadn’t noticed his car outside.