Topspin

by Soliman, W.

  “Tell him, Claire.” Angela spoke with iron resolve.

  With patent reluctance, Claire stuttered through the story she’d told Angela the day before. She kept her eyes trained on the flagstones beneath her feet, her voice an emotionless monotone. Jack just gaped at her, too stunned to speak for several minutes after she ran out of words. The strained silence on the terrace was palpable, but Jack barely noticed as he struggled to absorb all he’d just heard, shaking his head repeatedly.

  “I don’t believe it!” Jack glowered at Claire, very much afraid that it had to be true, much as he wished it could be otherwise. “You’re having me on.”

  “I wish I was,” Claire mumbled, still not meeting his eye.

  “And I saw all the signs but still didn’t want to believe it.” He paced up and down, scowling off into the distance. “Why, Claire?” He swung round to face her. “Explain it to me, because I just don’t get it.”

  When she showed no sign that his words had even registered, Jack lost it. Claire had always been the one exception to the rule. He’d told himself that women like Claire made up for the fickleness of the rest and took vicarious pleasure in her contentment with Joe. But it now transpired that Claire was as feckless, grasping, and self-centered as the rest of her miserable sex. Pangs of disillusionment preceded a searing physical pain that made him want to kill someone.

  “Why? Come on, tell me why?” He grasped Claire’s shoulders and shook her violently. She made no move to prevent him, remaining docile and unresponsive beneath his harsh hands. “What did you get out of cheating on the most decent man I’ve ever met? Tell me what drove you to it. Make me understand what was in that vacant head of yours, if you think you can.”

  “Jack, let her go.”

  Angela’s cool tone brought him to his senses and he abruptly released her. She slumped back in her chair, dry-eyed, staring vacantly at the floor without blinking.

  “I thought you were different, Claire,” he said quietly, his voice reflecting his disillusionment. “I really thought you had that rare something that set you apart. I envied Joe, do you know that? And I often thought if I could just meet someone who—”

  “Give it a rest, Jack!” Claire abruptly emerged from her catatonic state, a spark of defiance swirling in the depths of her eyes. “I’ve seen the way you look at me. If I’d offered myself to you, don’t tell me you’d have turned me down. Well, how about it? Shall we? Where’s your bedroom?” He cast a withering glance her way. “Don’t go all coy on me now. I bet you’ve done it to me enough times in your head.” She rose and moved to stand directly in his path, her features rendered ugly by the force of her anger. “Come on then, Jack, at least touch me. You know you want to.” She turned away from him and when she spoke again it sounded as though all the anger had drained out of her. “Everything’s so black and white with you, Jack, that’s your problem. There’s no middle ground.”

  “Don’t try to turn the blame on me.”

  “Why? Don’t you believe you deserve some of it?” She tossed her head. “You men are all the same. How many times have I heard you talk about the women you pick up for sex? How many times have I heard women waxing lyrical about your legendary skills between the sheets? You take what you want and then criticize women for letting you have it. If that makes us sluts, what does it say about you?”

  “It’s hardly the same thing. I’m not with anyone, which makes me a free agent. What’s more, I don’t make a habit of sleeping with other people’s wives.” Jack enunciated each word with deliberate precision, still struggling to control his anger. “I have standards and live by them, which is obviously where we differ.”

  Claire seemed to have run out of ways to justify herself and resumed her seat without looking at him.

  “Have you stopped to think what this will do to Joe?”

  “Of course I have!” She glowered at him. “What do you take me for?”

  “Trust me, darling, you don’t want to know.”

  “I’ve been thinking about nothing but Joe for the past few days. He wasn’t supposed to get hurt. Despite what you think of me, I do love him.”

  Jack snorted. “You’ve got a strange way of showing it.”

  “It isn’t something I made a habit of. It just happened.”

  “Oh, right, that’s okay, then.”

  “I wouldn’t expect you to understand.” Claire lifted stricken eyes to Jack’s face, but obviously didn’t like what she read in his expression and was the first to look away.

  “This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Angela said wearily. “I didn’t bring Claire here so that you two could hurl insults at one another. I asked her to do it because there’s more you should know. Before you condemn Claire too roundly, Jack, I think it’s time I explained a little bit about my past.”

  “You don’t have to, love. This isn’t about you. You’re not responsible for your husband’s actions. All you’ve done is try to help her.” Jack couldn’t bring himself to say Claire’s name and settled for nodding in her direction.

  “No, it’s relevant.” She took a deep breath and a large swig of her replenished drink. “I was just sixteen the first time I saw Rod. I was with a crowd of girls, all of us in our school uniforms, and although he was obviously older than us, that didn’t stop us from drooling at the sight of him. To me he was quite the most dazzling man I’d ever met. He noticed us gawping at him, of course, and came over for a chat. I was astonished when he singled me out and asked for a date. I couldn’t believe someone that sophisticated could possibly be interested in me.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short, love. I bet you were a cracker.”

  Angela flashed a brief smile at Jack. “I was infatuated with him from the word go. He had money, charm, and connections in the most unlikely places. I gave up all career plans then and there and moved in with him on the day I left school. Against parental advice, but nothing they said was ever going to stop me. I’d prove they were wrong to be suspicious about him, and when they saw how happy we were they’d come to like him.”

  “The optimistic face of youth,” Jack said, chuckling.

  “Yeah, well, gradually I learned a little more about what he actually did for a living and where all the money came from. But it was too late by then. Besides, there was no way I was going to tell my parents that they’d been right all along.”

  “What did he do?” Jack asked.

  She took a deep breath and hesitated before responding. “He was, and probably still is, a pornographer,” she said.

  Jack was surprised by her reticence. He’d been expecting something worse. “Okay,” he said slowly.

  “Oh, I know that might seem pretty tame nowadays, but twenty years ago it was still very much under the table, and therefore much more profitable. I was torn between loving Rod and disgust at what he was doing. But he can be very persuasive. He convinced me that everything he and his partner Paul recorded went on between consenting adults and was intended to be viewed only by adults. He reckoned they were supplying a need, made it sound perfectly acceptable, and gradually my doubts receded.”

  “But it wasn’t? Acceptable, I mean.”

  “Not exactly, especially since I finished up getting involved myself. Rod persuaded me to take part in a couple of films, just with him. Well, the first time he recorded us without my knowledge, and I was furious. But I got over it when I realized how well-paid it was. For the first time since leaving school, I had a little bit of money of my own, and didn’t see anything wrong with doing on film what we did virtually every night in the privacy of our bedroom.” She spoke as though it was no big deal, but her scarlet features told a different story. “But perhaps that was because I didn’t want to.”

  “And then something bad happened?”

  “Yes, Paul happened. He said his customers were bored with the same old, same old and we needed to spice things up a bit. He wanted Rod, me, and him to be filmed as a threesome.”

  “And you agreed?”

 
“I was reluctant, but they talked me into it eventually.” She dropped her head. “They promised it would be just the once. Rod and I had set our hearts on a new house in Penge, but we were overreaching ourselves. Rod pointed out that the profits from the film would pay the deposit, which was what persuaded me.”

  “Okay, so the film went ahead.” Jack spoke casually. “But that can’t harm you now.”

  She shuddered. “Yes, I made the film, but it was no longer a turn-on. I felt cheap and degraded, but Paul was ecstatic at the amount of business he turned over with that particular film. He put pressure on Rod to make me agree to do another. When nothing either of them said could persuade me, I’d never seen Paul so angry.”

  Jack narrowed his eyes. “Did he get violent?”

  “No, fortunately I was saved because I’d just discovered I was pregnant with the twins. Nothing could have pleased me more. But, astonishingly, Paul still wanted to go ahead with the next film. He seemed to think that some of his punters would enjoy seeing an obviously pregnant woman doing such things.”

  Her words dried up, and Jack could see what a strain it was for her to relive memories she’d buried deep in her subconscious and had thought never to revisit. He hated Claire at that moment. Truly hated her for what she was putting Angela through.

  “Leave it, love,” he said, covering her hand with his. “You don’t have to do this.”

  “No,” she said, smiling wanly. “It’s important you understand it all so you’ll appreciate what Paul’s trying to do to Claire.”

  “All right, if you’re sure.” He cast a glance of pure vitriol in Claire’s direction. “Can I get you anything else first?”

  “No, Jack, thanks, I’m fine.” She took a deep breath, pushed her hair behind her ears, and carried on talking. “The twins were only a couple of weeks old when Paul came round, the epitome of the model uncle, bearing lavish gifts for the babies and for me. But I knew it was more than just a social call. Within half an hour he was telling me how much the punters loved me and were demanding more. He had another production in mind and was full of how much money it would make for us all.”

  “But you didn’t want to know?”

  “Too right I didn’t! Paul tried everything to get me to change my mind. You name it, he did it.” She was gripping her glass so tightly that the whites of her knuckles showed. “Cajolery, bribery, threats, the works. And he made Rod keep the pressure up on me, too. But I wasn’t having it. I had the twins to think about and they came first.” She lifted her shoulders. “In the end Paul accepted that I wasn’t going to be bullied into changing my mind and stopped bugging me.”

  “But you weren’t sure that he’d leave it at that?” Jack said. “He sounds to me like a nasty piece of work who always wants the last word.”

  Angela offered him a wan smile. “You could say that. He wasn’t used to people defying him, you see, and always found ways to get what he wanted. Anyway, I distanced myself from what they were up to for the next few years, although I have to admit I lived well on the proceeds. I just closed my mind to where the money came from, telling myself that if Paul and Rod didn’t do it then someone else would.”

  “I don’t see what else you could have done.”

  “Paul was in and out of our house all the time. I didn’t like the way that I sometimes caught him looking at me. But he never tried to touch me, or make me participate in his movies again, so I put up with his presence. I couldn’t help overhearing their conversations, often at night when they thought I was asleep. Times were changing and Paul’s customers were after something more extreme.”

  Jack gritted his teeth, suspecting he knew what was coming next. “Angie, you really don’t need to go into so much detail.”

  “I wish that was true, Jack, but you’d best let me finish.” He topped up her glass and she took another long swig of wine. “I came into the lounge one evening, late. The twins were four at the time and one of them had woken me. I went downstairs to fetch something, and found Rod and Paul watching their latest production on our video. They switched it off as soon as they knew I was in the room, but not quickly enough.”

  She looked directly at Jack, who sensed she was finally getting to the crux of her story. “Jack, the two girls starring in the film looked to be about twelve. I couldn’t believe it. Not even of Paul. Rod assured me they were of age, but I didn’t see how they could be. He said they’d dressed them in school uniforms and made them look younger with makeup because that was what the punters wanted, but I knew he was lying. Why switch it off if they didn’t have anything to hide?” She spread her hands, her expression full of misgivings. “It wasn’t as if I hadn’t seen it all before. I should have said something.”

  “Who could you have told? Anyway, you had no proof. They never would have left that film lying around.”

  “No, I suppose not, but I’ve never been able to get it out of my head.”

  “The Internet must have been in its infancy about then,” Jack said, doing the calculations in his head. “And attitudes to porn were changing, too. Their video business must have been in decline.”

  “That’s what I figured too, which is probably why they were getting more extreme in the hope of keeping their dwindling band of customers loyal.”

  “My God!” Claire had been quiet for so long that her voice startled them both.

  “I knew then that I’d never feel safe again leaving the twins alone with Paul.”

  “Why didn’t you get out, love?” Jack asked.

  “I should have left, I know that, but I had no money of my own. Rod handled everything to do with our finances and everything was in his name. I hadn’t protested about that because he said he was protecting me from having any connections to the business. I reckoned, in my naivety, that he was being thoughtful. Besides, where could I go with four-year-old twins in tow and no means of making a living?”

  She paused to dash at the tears in her eyes. “Anyway, that’s when I first thought about fending for myself, about my intended career which hadn’t even got off the ground because of Rod, and started my training as a beautician. I thought if I had that to fall back on, I’d be able to support the kids and myself if I ever needed to leave in a hurry.”

  “But you didn’t leave immediately, I take it?” Jack asked.

  “No. Paul and Rod diversified, and I kept away from their work as much as I could. I never knew exactly what they were doing and didn’t ask. Anyway, about four years went by and we were holding it together as a family. Just. The problem was that the police were after them both. They knew what they were doing, which was more than I did, and didn’t leave us alone. I was told that the kids might be taken into care because our house wasn’t a suitable environment for them.”

  “That made you leave?”

  “Yes. I didn’t sleep that night for worry, wondering what I’d actually exposed the twins to. They weren’t much younger than the girls in the film, which made me sick with anxiety. I knew if I told Rod he’d try to talk me out of going, so I had no choice but to go somewhere where they couldn’t get at me easily. They were often out half the night, and that weekend Rod told me he wouldn’t be home at all on Saturday night. I think they’d got into hosting swingers’ parties by then, but didn’t want the responsibility of actually knowing.

  “Anyway, once he’d left I simply packed the kids into my car, took as much of our stuff as I could get into it, as much money as I could find in the house, and headed for the ferry to the Island. I had a girlfriend here who’d been encouraging me to leave Rod for years and who I knew would put us up until we got on our feet.” She shrugged. “So now you know why I hate Paul so much and won’t have Rod back.”

  “Didn’t he try to find you after you left?” Claire asked.

  “Oh yeah, it didn’t take him long to work out where I would have gone. But, you see, I’d taken a little evidence with me in respect of Paul’s nefarious activities. I said that if Rod came near us, contacted us, tried to get us bac
k or to talk to the kids, then I’d expose them both for what they were, regardless of the fact that they could implicate me in their grubby little enterprise.”

  “And that worked?”

  “Until now. I allowed Rod to pay the kids’ school fees. I simply couldn’t manage them myself and didn’t see why they should miss out on a good education just because I could no longer risk living with their father. Rod eventually agreed to pay up and promised to leave us in peace.” She searched in her bag for a tissue and blew her nose. “And he’s kept his word. Until now.”

  “I don’t understand, love. I can see what it cost you to tell us all this but I don’t see how it reflects on what she’s done.” Jack nodded in Claire’s direction.

  “Oh, sorry, I thought I’d explained all that at the beginning. Paul’s surname is Aston.” She gazed first at Jack and then Claire. “Claire meeting Rod was no accident. They set her up for a very specific purpose. You see, Paul is Ed’s partner in the scheme to redevelop the tennis club.”

  Chapter Twelve

  ED LOOKED UP FROM THE PAPERS he was reading, frowning as Leah bounded into the room, the graceful action of her coltish legs impeded by the clumsy clodhoppers on her feet. Screwing up her eyes against the sunlight pouring in through the window, she peered over her mother’s shoulder to see what was so interesting about the E-mail she was reading.

  “Is the trip to Bisham Abbey this weekend? Cool! Can we go, Mum?”

  “No, I don’t think so, love. It doesn’t give us enough time to get organized. Besides, you’ve got school on Friday.”

  “What’s to organize?”

  “Well, lots of things.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well, someone’s got to feed the cat, for a start, and then—”

  “Oh, Mum, that’s easily enough solved. The neighbors will do it, just like always. Come on, live dangerously for once. Let’s just go for it! I bet Sheba and Malik will be going. It would be so unfair if I miss out just because you’re worried about the wretched cat. Please, Mum,” she wheedled, wrapping her arms around Stella’s neck from behind. “It’ll be good for our tennis.”