by Ami Snow
“There are five CCTV cameras Boss. I counted three out front and two in the rear. They are synchronized which means there is only one monitor inside and it switches cameras every five seconds. I have disabled the pressure plate on the front porch and opened a window on the ground floor. When I tell you to go I want you to run headlong for the front door. You have five seconds to get there, I have done it twice, it isn’t too exerting. Wait for me there, and in another fifteen seconds I will join you and disable the internal alarm system,” Jacko instructs me. As per usual his plans work flawlessly and in another minute we are both inside the house and Jacko is tinkering with the electronic keypad near the front door. Indicating that he is finished we climb the main staircase and walk down to the master bedroom. Jacko works his magic for me again and swings the door wide noiselessly. In the waning moonlight I see Bradley Simons alone in the bed and moving to his side I shake him savagely awake. “Wha. What the hell? What the fuck are you doing in my house Andrews? Get the fuck out right now before I call the cops,” the scared man blusters. “Let me know when you have finished your ridiculous tirade Brad and we will have an adult conversation,” I explain calmly. Moving out of the shadows Jacko stands silently at the foot of the bed with an implacable expression on his tough craggy face. Gulping, the guilty man sits up in the bed pulling the cover up to his chest protectively. “I have two men in black SUVs in a secure location and they are singing like canaries Brad,” I begin. “If the police get wind that you tried to have me maimed or even killed by having those men ram my town car off the toll way, and then trace the license plates back to your shuttle service, I think you will be eating porridge for around ten-to-twenty at hard labor. I have a series of questions and if your answers are not satisfactory I will tip off the police myself where to find the vehicles and drivers and you can start spending heavy cash defending an attempted murder charge. Do we understand each other?” Nodding furiously the now very frightened man silently agrees. For the next hour I grilled him about the reasons for his cowardly and dangerous attack on my car. The upshot of the entire episode was totally juvenile, one of my maverick drillers had offered Brad the deal to pre-purchase any oil deposits he discovered and Brad had laughed in his face. The driller had never forgotten the demeaning and embarrassing episode and when he struck a bonanza he brought his gigantic royalty gratuity to Bard’s office and shown him what he had missed out on. The gratuity was underwritten by my bank and signed by me personally. It was an act of childish jealousy that had prompted his actions, not worthy of an oil man and certainly not warranted. We all gamble on winning and losing daily. There is no place for this behavior in my industry. Looking the squirming wretch directly in the eye I told him if I did not hear of his resignation from the board of his public company and immediate retirement from the oil industry on the nine AM news I would submit a full report to the authorities at nine ten. He opened his mouth to protest and I gave him the best right hook I have ever delivered, right on the lips. I felt a satisfying crunch as teeth broke and he lay back bleeding profusely. Without a word I left the room followed by Jacko and we returned to the cars and drove over to my home. Mable greeted us at the door and ordered us into the kitchen for coffee, seeing my hand she tut tutted and proceeded to wash it and treat it with iodine. We sat at the kitchen table as she prepared breakfast and a eight fifty five we turned a television set on. After various news breaks about corruption in the senate and a crisis averted somewhere in Europe concerning a terrorist bombing attempt the item we were waiting for was broadcast. Bradley Simons of Clean Way Oil has resigned from the position of managing director and chairman of the board and announced that due to ill health he is leaving the oil industry forwith, effective immediately. Clapping Jacko on the back I instruct him to go let loose the miscreants who had been driving the SUVs but not the vehicles. “Dispose of them Jacko please, I don’t want him thinking I am soft. It will serve as another reminder of his bloody stupidity.” Looking across the room at Joe looking haggard and drawn I guessed I look the same way. It has been one hell of a long twenty four hours. “Joe take the day off and go to bed,” I order him. “Mabel will you call the office for me please and tell Miss Scott I won’t be in today either?” With a happy grim Mabel went off to do her masters bidding, satisfied because bother her favorite men were at home this day. I climb the stairs wearily and collapse across the bed fully dressed. Instantly I fall into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Feeling a little foolish when I arrive for the promised date I realize I don’t even know the green eyed minx’s name. How shall I ask for her? I hired a security car firm to drive me tonight so Joe can spend some time with jubilant wife. Instructing the driver/bodyguard to wait I walk the usual two blocks and enter the house. “Good evening Sir, how can I help you?” A new girl was behind the desk. It was my worst fears confirmed, I can’t ask for anybody because I don’t have a name. I am going to appear as if I am some sort of stalker or something equally as absurd. Enquiringly the girl asked me again, “Can I be of any assistance to you Sir?” She repeated with a slight accent on the Sir. Normally never at a loss for words or caught in an awkward situation, I am totally at a loss as to how to reply to this lovely young thing who is starting to regard me as something akin to, but less than, an earth worm. My mouth was opening and shutting but there were no words forthcoming, just a silent imitation of a fish breathing. I would rather be in front of a panel of predatory bean counters trying to explain gross over expenditure than face this young lady for a moment longer. I was just getting mind and body ready to make a mad dash for the door when I was saved by the bell. “Hello darling, sorry I am late. Do I look alright?” Saved in the very nick of time! She actually looked stunning, her auburn tresses were piled high exposing her graceful neckline and she wore a sheer red satin ball gown with slippers and wrap to match. Stepping up and taking her arm a replied, “You look absolutely lovely my dear,” and without a glance at the suspicious desk clerk I steered her outside to the waiting car. “Where are you taking me dear,” enquired my date. Damn! I hadn’t given our destination a moment’s thought, with all the hectic activity since our last meeting, and then my exhausted slumber it had completely slipped my mind. “I thought I would let you choose my dear,” I replied suavely. I could have bitten off my tongue when she chose the casino. It was definitely one of my unfavorite places, but ever the gentleman I acquiesced and directed the driver to take us to the casino. Right from the moment we entered the place I realized what a mistake I had made. As we passed every table she requested some cash for a ‘little flutter.’ Half way across the room and at least two thousand dollars ‘in the hole’ already I saw a sign advertising a restaurant. Quickly guiding her towards it I reminded her that we had come out to eat. Pouting a little she tottered along beside me on her ridiculously high heels then squealed with delight as she saw we were heading. “Oh darling, it is perfect. I have always wanted to eat in here but it is so insanely expensive I never dared.” Dam and blast, I was out of the frying pan into the fire. I can see immediately it is one of those third rate eatery’s with first rate prices. There is no staff to show us a table so we picked our way through crowded noisy diners and found a vacant table next to the men’s toilet door. Perfect, it just gets better and better I grumble to myself. A short tubby girl brings us a plastic covered menu card and I can see this going to be a very lousy meal with a very hefty price tag. Biting the bullet I ask the girl what she would like to order. Going right to the most expensive item on the menu she orders the large lobster at eight hundred dollars and a bottle of mediocre champagne at four hundred and fifty dollars. “Hey there Oliver, what on earth are you doing in here? Good Grief, Kitty!” A colleague from an oil transport company Bryan Webster calls a greeting over the noisy group of revelers at the next table. Standing abruptly my date mentions something about needing the powder room and totters off. “Do you know who that girl is Oliver?” Asked Bryan immediately, I admitted that I didn’t but had taken pity on her and got hoo
dwinked into taking her out. “That’s Cash Card Kitty, the sharpest flim-flamer in the business boyo. Did she do the pleasure cry for you? What about the ‘oh but I have nothing to wear’ routine? But her real specialty is slipping a fluid pack up her cunt and bursting it to fake a gigantic orgasm. Oh Darling I have never cum with a client before.” Bryan mimicked in a female falsetto. “That’s how she got me to take her out, the scheming bitch. Has she ordered yet, don’t let her man she will break your billfold.” Admitting it was too late and telling Bryan what she had ordered the cheerful transport guy grabbed Oliver’s arm and almost physically dragged him from the restaurant out into the casino. “Run Oliver, don’t look back. Stick the cunning slut with her own food bill and repay her for all the crummy tricks she has played on the rest of us. Just do it, for the sake of all men everywhere who get scammed by tricksters like that bitch, just DO IT!” With a violent push he shoves the billionaire oil tycoon into the crowd and waves a cheery goodbye. With an almost hysterical laugh Oliver keeps moving in the direction the crowd is steering him along the busy isle. He realizes he is at the main entrance and sees the car in the private bays. Walking up to it he climbs inside and orders the driver to return him to his home. He must give Bryan a call and thank him in the morning, he grins ruefully, and request a gentlemanly non-disclosure agreement. He laughs out loud, startling his driver who gives him a disapprovingly stern look in the rear vision mirror. He just had this mental picture of the girl being presented with her twelve hundred dollar plus dinner bill. Grinning all the way home he exits the car and bounds up the stairs, “Mabel! I am famished, what’s for dinner?”