by Susan Lewis
Rachel’s face showed almost as much distress as Laurie’s as she hurried into the room. ‘Oh Laurie,’ she said, as Laurie got up. ‘I hardly know what to say. I’m just so sorry … I feel so responsible …’
‘Ssh, don’t,’ Laurie told her, as they embraced. ‘It’s not your fault. You didn’t know it was going to happen. No-one did.’
‘But when I found out …’
‘Please, stop blaming yourself,’ Laurie said, having to cut her off because she couldn’t bear to hear any more. ‘They’re adults, two grown people who make up their own minds. There was nothing you could have done to stop it – only they could have done that, and they chose not to.’
As she listened Sherry was impressed by the spirit in Laurie’s tone, when she must have been feeling like hell right now. It wouldn’t last of course, but at a time like this every strong moment was to be treasured.
‘Have you seen him, or spoken to him, since I left him at Davey’s?’ Laurie asked.
Rachel nodded. ‘He called a few minutes after you did to let me know he’d told you, and to apologize for putting me in such a difficult position.’
Laurie’s voice trembled slightly as she said, ‘Well, that was big of him.’
Rachel’s eyebrows went up. ‘He offered to move out of Chris’s flat too, if we want him to.’
‘To go where?’
‘He didn’t say.’
‘So did you say he should?’
‘I said, as it was Chris’s flat, he should speak to Chris, which was a way of stalling, to find out what you’d like us to do.’
Confused, Laurie turned away.
Rachel looked at Sherry.
Sherry shrugged, not sure what to say.
‘If you tell him to move out he’ll just move in with her,’ Laurie said, voicing all their thoughts.
Rachel looked at Sherry again, and this time her eyes conveyed so much unease that Sherry got the distinct impression another blow was on its way. She glanced at the clock, and decided she should leave now, rather than have to make her excuses in the middle of a new crisis.
After telling them to stay as long as they liked, and to help themselves to anything, she packed up her files and took off for Laurie’s office. It wasn’t that she didn’t care what Laurie’s next hurdle was going to be, it was more a need to keep on top of this story, which, ultimately, was going to help Laurie a lot more than staying around now to mop up more tears. Besides, she could guess what the issue was: that now the secret was out, Elliot was planning to accompany Andraya – provided Chris and Rachel agreed – to Eduardo Olivieri’s villa in Tuscany, before they all flew on to New York. So this really was an awkward situation for Rachel, since she could hardly snub one of Chris’s most important artists, nor could she avoid Elliot if he was going to persist in this affair.
There wasn’t much doubt that they were going to become a cosy little foursome, and Sherry had to admit that she’d fantasized about her and Nick being a part of the group too, while Laurie got a taste of what it was like to be frozen out as a single. Not that she’d ever dream of actually doing that, it was just one of those despicable little roads the mind travelled before the journey was cut short and genuine affection and human decency continued to steer the course. Much as it had at lunchtime today, when she’d felt that ridiculous surge of jealousy on seeing Nick with his arm round Laurie. She was perfectly OK with it now, because she knew very well that he was just someone who cared about other people. He always wanted to help, or fix things, or come up with some kind of solution, which all too often involved him in more than he was able to give. Since it was a quality she adored, she didn’t in any way want him to change it, though maybe she should keep an eye on things there, make sure he didn’t get in too deep. When a woman was as needy as Laurie was right now, and he was such a diehard Galahad, an entirely different kind of disaster could be looming – and that was something everyone would want to avoid, most of all her.
Chapter Fifteen
CHERYL WAS PADDING about her luxury flat in the cool lace-up crop top she’d got at Miss Selfridge earlier today, and a black Calvin Klein thong. It was late afternoon now and she was starting to get bored. Eddie had gone to Majorca with his wife, to a right fancy-sounding spa that she was going to get him to take her to just so’s everyone would know that she got the same privileges as Mrs Eddie; all her mates were busy doing other things today, and even her mum couldn’t come over until tomorrow. So here she was, all on her tod, with nowhere to go and no-one to talk to. She supposed she could always go to the club, but the other girls were such bitches, especially now that cow Suzy had roused them all up against her. So if she did go she’d only end up sitting around on her own, watching them all dance, and she’d have to keep telling the punters to get lost and leave her alone, which definitely wasn’t her idea of a good time.
Sinking down at the computer, she called up the solitaire game and started moving the cards. This was bloody boring, but there was nothing on the telly and the neighbours had complained about how loud she played her music. There was no point listening to it unless the place rocked, so screw it, she’d turned it off altogether. If it weren’t for Eddie she’d have given them a right mouthful, but he’d been very strict about that – she weren’t to cause no fuss with the neighbours, she had to get along with them real nice, and try not to have anything to do with them at all if she could help it.
Anyway, mouthy women weren’t what turned him on – nice and meek and malleable was what Eddie liked, so nice and meek and malleable was what she was. She could be an actress, she thought, she was so good at pulling that off. She could make the kind of videos he sold on the Net, though if those actors were actually screwing for real, and from the ones she’d seen it definitely looked like they were, she knew Eddie wouldn’t allow it.
She wished she knew how to use this computer properly so she could surf the Net and things, the way Danny had when he’d come over earlier. He was brilliant at it, going all through Eddie’s porn sites, showing her what kind of videos and services Eddie’s company was offering. Seeing it all had got her really turned on, so she’d dragged Danny and his lovely big dick back into bed for another marathon session.
She hadn’t felt one bit guilty about it at the time, after all Eddie had abandoned her for another woman, even if she was his wife. And it wasn’t as if she’d gone out of her way to invite Danny over, she’d just said, ‘Yes, OK,’ when he’d asked if he could come and leave Eddie a message. Plenty of Eddie’s people did that, so there was nothing wrong in Danny doing it too, though she had to admit, she didn’t usually open the door to the others in a bikini. But it was a hot day, so she’d been outside sunbathing. That was how she’d tell it, if she had to. She probably wouldn’t have to, though, because she couldn’t see any way of Eddie finding out.
Actually, now Danny had gone she was starting to regret what had happened, because if Eddie ever did find out … Well, she hadn’t forgotten how he’d threatened to cut Danny’s dick off just for mentioning his precious daughter, so God only knew what he’d do if he found out Danny had been poking his girl. And in Eddie’s bed too. At one point Eddie had rung up to get his messages, which had been a real turn-on, Danny doing her doggie-fashion while she talked to Eddie on the phone.
Come to think of it, she couldn’t remember now if Danny had left his message. He’d shot off in such a hurry, saying he had to meet some bloke, that she hadn’t thought to ask what his message was. He could have left it on the computer for Eddie to find when he got back, but she’d better make sure. If anyone had seen him come in here, and there was no message to give, she was going to have some serious explaining to do, especially considering how long he had stayed.
This was starting to feel increasingly like a setup. However, since she was trapped in the back of Barry’s ancient Ford Capri, being driven deeper and deeper into the East End, while his friend Danny, her ‘date for the evening’, explained why it would be his pleasure to stitch Eddie Cri
bbs up with the press, she didn’t have much choice right now but to go along with it. The Marilyn Monroe wig, however, which was managing to make her look more like Myra Hindley, was so excruciatingly tight she’d just have to discard it until they reached their destination.
‘Bastard reckons I don’t know what he did to my old man,’ Danny was saying, as they sped along the A13 towards Dagenham. ‘He told my old lady and me it was the Turks what did it, but we know different. Eddie Cribbs had my dad taken out, because he was in discussions with the Turks to go over with them. Eddie was worried what information he might take wiv ‘im, so he had someone wait outside his local one night, then they dragged him off down the railway lines and slit his throat. Nearly took his bloody head off, the bastards.’
Sherry winced, then quickly braced herself as Barry hit the brakes to avoid another car that shot out of a turning in front of them.
‘Moron,’ he muttered.
‘Where are we?’ she asked, looking out at the tatty shopfronts and filthy gutters of the high street they’d just turned into. As it was early evening there were still a few people around, though she got the impression it wasn’t a place where many ventured out after dark.
‘Not far now,’ he answered.
Sherry said to Danny. ‘So tell me more about the girl we’re going to meet. And how do we know we can trust her?’
‘I told you, her name’s Suzy,’ he answered, glancing back over his shoulder and doing a double take when he saw her hair had changed colour. ‘I’ve known her since we was at school. She’s a diamond. She’ll do anything for me, and she ain’t too happy wiv Eddie lately, but you don’t need to mention that.’
‘Are you sure she knows something that can help us?’
‘She says she does, but you’ll have to talk to her yourself. She’ll want paying, so I hope you got the cash.’
Sherry assured him she did. ‘Can’t we just meet at her place?’ she said. ‘Or yours? Why do we have to go to the club?’
‘It’s what she wants. The way she sees it, if Eddie gets to find out she talked to you, she can say you tricked her by coming to the club with me to set up a threesome. It’ll happen in full view of everyone, not that many’ll be in at this time of night, and it’s the way these things’re normally done. She’s just safeguarding herself the best way she knows how.’
Though Sherry supposed it had a certain logic, she might have felt happier if Barry was intending to come in with them. But he was just going to drop them off, leaving Danny to make sure she got home all right. Not for the first time on this journey, she was regretting not listening to Nick when he’d tried to talk her out of coming. She needed to know more about these people, he’d told her firmly. It wasn’t enough that they were friends of Barry’s.
Remembering what Barry had told her when he’d introduced her to Danny, back at the office, she said, ‘So you must know this Suzy too, Barry, if you were all at the same school.’
‘Not as well as Danny does,’ he answered, ‘but yeah, I know her. She’s all right. A good girl. Here we are. We’re here,’ he announced, pulling up outside a sex shop.
Fifteen minutes later Sherry was sitting in a darkened booth at the back of the basement club, finding it extremely disconcerting to try and make social chit-chat with a woman she’d just watched take off all her clothes and flaunt herself extremely provocatively in the faces of a few leering men. Not only that, she’d seemed to enjoy it every bit as much as they had, jutting out her buttocks, fondling her breasts, doing many of the things they’d clearly love to do for her. For some reason Sherry had always assumed that women in this sort of work remained aloof, unconnected to what they were doing, but even if some did, it didn’t appear Suzy was one of them. Actually, since she was such an accomplished dancer, it seemed naïve now not to have realized she might just enjoy doing what she was good at.
Danny, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be enjoying anything. His eyes were darting about all over the place to see who was watching, which, considering how uninterested the sparse audience appeared in anything not on the stage, was becoming annoying.
‘So looks like we’ve got a deal,’ the diminutive, large-breasted Suzy declared loudly, making Sherry start.
Belatedly realizing it was for the benefit of the G-stringed waitress who’d come to clear their table, Sherry couldn’t think of anything to say except ‘Good.’
‘You, me and her,’ Danny piped up, as Sherry watched the waitress and wondered what it felt like to strut around virtually naked in front of total strangers. The thought of doing it herself made her shudder – exhibitionism had never been her thing.
‘This’ll be her first time,’ Danny was explaining in a bad actor’s voice to Suzy. ‘She’s never done it with another woman before, i’n’t that right?’
Sherry smiled weakly, then actually felt herself blush as the waitress threw her a wink.
‘Well Danny’s brought you to the right person,’ Suzy was assuring her. ‘How long have you two known each other?’
‘A couple of months,’ Danny answered. ‘She’s pretty hot stuff, aren’t you babe?’
As he hugged her Sherry fought the urge to shove him off, and injected a note of coyness as she said, ‘Sssh, people will hear.’
The waitress moved on and Danny got to his feet. ‘Right, we’re going to Suzy’s place,’ he announced. ‘It’s not far, walking distance. This is how it’s normally done,’ he added in a lower voice to Sherry.
‘I can’t be long,’ Suzy told them, checking her watch. ‘I’m on again at eight.’
‘Do you do this a lot?’ Sherry asked, as they climbed the stairs out of the club. ‘Slip out between shows?’
Suzy threw back an incredulous look. ‘Is she for real?’ she demanded of Danny. ‘This is what I do, darling. It’s me job. You know, just like you slip out for the odd bit of information that gets you a story, I slip out for the odd bit of cash that gets me a living.’
Feeling faintly foolish, Sherry decided not to say any more and followed her outside.
Suzy’s flat was on the eighth floor of a high-rise council block close to a main-line station, where the lifts and communal areas were obviously doubling as a toilet and message centre, and stank so badly Sherry had to hold her breath as they went up. Stepping into the flat was like stepping into a flowering meadow after a festering sewer. It was spotlessly clean, delightfully fragrant, stylishly furnished – mostly from IKEA – and was crowded out with bang-up-to-the-minute electronics. The corner bar, which was very Seventies, seemed to offer everything from the humblest mixer to the rarest cognac, and from the look of it Danny was as at home here as Suzy herself.
‘So,’ Suzy said, bringing a tray of drinks over to the coffee table, ‘we might as well get straight down to it.’
For one alarming moment, as she cast aside the sweater she had draped round her shoulders, Sherry thought she meant the ménage à trois, but then to her relief she said, ‘Remember, nothing I tell you here tonight came from me. Have we got that straight? I never said nothing. Right?’
‘Right,’ Sherry agreed. Then after a pause, ‘So what do you know about these women?’
‘You mean the ones he brings in from other countries, right?’
Sherry nodded. ‘Most of all, we’d like to know where he keeps them.’
Suzy crunched on an ice cube. ‘You been to the workshop on New Road?’ she said.
‘Yes.’
‘Well the women are all upstairs. Not directly overhead, sort of over at the back …’
‘They’ve been moved,’ Danny interrupted.
Suzy looked surprised. ‘Where to?’
‘We don’t know, that’s why we’re asking you. I went over to his bird’s place today and had a look on the computer there. Nothing.’
Suzy’s eyes were wide with disbelief. ‘You went over to that flat? The one on Cinnabar Wharf where that slag Cheryl is shacked up? Are you out of your mind? You know what Eddie’ll do if he ever finds out you been
messing …’
‘Just shut it!’ he barked. ‘No-one’s gonna know unless you tell them, and I don’t think that’s gonna happen, do you?’
Suzy’s face was taut with anger as she glared at him.
He glared back.
Sherry watched, saying nothing, but noting that Eddie Cribbs apparently had a girlfriend called Cheryl who lived in Cinnabar Wharf. It might come in useful.
In the end Suzy said, tightly, ‘So how do you know they’ve been moved?’
‘Because the place has been checked out,’ he answered. ‘They’ve gone. We ain’t lying, so come on, do you know where they are now?’
‘Not exactly, but I could probably find out.’
‘How long would it take?’ Sherry asked.
‘Not sure. This is a very sensitive area we’re talking about here, I hope you realize that.’
An understatement if ever she’d heard one, but all Sherry said was, ‘Yes, I do, and I’m really grateful for your willingness to help.’
‘It’s gonna cost ya,’ Suzy snapped.
‘How much?’
‘Five grand.’
Sherry didn’t flinch, though she knew Laurie probably would. ‘If the information’s good enough, then five grand it will be,’ she promised.
Seeming satisfied, Suzy picked up her glass and clinked it against Sherry’s.
‘So tell me what happens to these women,’ Sherry said.
‘What do you mean what happens to them?’