Respect (Mandasue Heller)

by Mandasue Heller

  It was an hour before more people started to arrive, and her fear increased when she saw that it was a gang of bikers. Her suspect wasn’t amongst them, so she stuck it out for another twenty minutes. But when another gang arrived the atmosphere took a nosedive, and she was contemplating calling it a night when a glass went flying past her head. On her feet in a flash, she ran out just as a mass brawl kicked off – and didn’t stop running until she reached the safety of the car.

  ‘Oh, well, at least you’re okay, that’s the main thing,’ Bill said when Chantelle explained what had happened. ‘But, for future reference, if you ever feel uneasy like that again, get the hell out of there immediately. Our instincts are designed to protect us, and they must never be ignored. Do you understand?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Thoroughly chastened, Chantelle nodded and settled back in her seat as they set off.

  Still mulling over what might have happened if she hadn’t left the pub when she did, she was gazing out of the window when Bill turned onto Deansgate a few minutes later. As they passed the road where the club in which she’d first seen Rob was situated, her heart leapt at the sight of a familiar figure. It was only a fleeting glimpse, but she just knew it was Rob. And he’d been with a woman.

  ‘Something wrong?’ Bill asked, sensing a shift in her mood.

  ‘No.’ Chantelle shook her head and forced a smile. ‘I, er, think I just saw my friend. Would you mind dropping me here?’

  Bill pulled over and handed Chantelle’s fee to her. Then, smiling as the girl climbed out, she said, ‘Try to forget about that nonsense back there and have a good night. I’ll call you when the next job comes in.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Chantelle murmured, quickly closing the door as the dog wheezed its way through the gap and plopped onto her vacated seat.

  She waved Bill off. Then, head down, she quickly crossed the road, telling herself as she walked that she must have been mistaken. Rob had said he was working and he had no reason to lie, so it must just have been someone who looked like him.

  When she reached the corner and spotted Rob’s car parked down at the dark end of the road, she knew she’d been right. But that didn’t necessarily mean he’d lied, she reasoned. His meeting might have finished earlier than expected, and he’d decided to meet up with his friends for a drink. There was no harm in that.

  But why would he choose to see his friends rather than come to see her, when they hadn’t seen each other for ages and he knew she’d been dying to see him?

  Unless he didn’t want to see her?

  Sickened to think that he might have changed his mind about their relationship, Chantelle stared at the club door. She couldn’t just march inside and confront him, because it would be too humiliating if she’d got it all wrong. Anyway, he’d want to know how she’d known he was there, and there was no easy way of explaining it without making him think she’d been spying on him. But she couldn’t go home without knowing where she stood, either.

  Desperate for answers, she pulled her phone out of her pocket.

  ‘Hey …’ Rob said when he answered after several rings. ‘What’s up?’

  ‘Just wanted to hear your voice,’ Chantelle lied. ‘How’s it going? Meeting finished yet?’

  ‘No,’ Rob said quietly. ‘Still dragging on.’

  ‘Oh, I see.’ Chantelle’s heart sank. ‘Well, I hope you’ve been out for something to eat and drink?’

  ‘Chance would be a fine thing,’ Rob snorted. ‘These things can go on all night. And the rate this one’s going, I’ll be lucky if I get home before it’s time to come back tomorrow.’

  ‘Poor you,’ Chantelle murmured. Then, gritting her teeth when she heard a woman’s voice in the background, she said, ‘Who’s that?’

  ‘Probably one of the secretaries,’ Rob said. ‘I’d best go, but I’ll ring you in the morning. Love you.’

  When he abruptly cut off, Chantelle stared at the club door again. Rob had not only lied about where he was, but also about the woman he was with. And why would he do that if there was nothing going on?

  Determined to find out, Chantelle pulled her collar up to hide her face and walked quickly down the road. Halfway down, she found a narrow alleyway between two buildings from where she could see the club doorway and the car. She stepped inside and pressed herself back into the shadows. Then, holding her mobile phone in her hand, her finger poised over the camera’s record button, she waited.

  Rob had used Chantelle’s call as an excuse to go out onto the smoking patio at the back of the club. He took a last drag on his cigarette now and stubbed it out before heading back inside.

  ‘Sorry about that,’ he apologised, smiling as he sat back down. ‘Bit of business I’d forgotten about.’

  ‘What’s the betting it was monkey business?’ Perry smirked, nudging Adam. ‘Man only grins like that when he’s on a promise, eh?’

  Adam gave an insincere little laugh. Perry was obnoxious at the best of times, but he became even more crude and disrespectful when he had a drink inside him – or five, which was how many Adam had counted him necking since they’d got here.

  The girl Rob had picked up from JT’s house was sitting beside Adam on the banquette seat, directly opposite Perry. She’d already been spaced out when he collected her, but she looked like she was in another world now thanks to the cocktail Adam had just given her, and Rob was filled with regret as he looked at her. She was absolutely stunning, and it was a crying shame that she was going to be wasted on a monster like Perry when any one of their other clients would have snatched his hand off to have her. But he’d needed something special to tempt Perry into seeing reason, and she was as special as they came.

  ‘So, what do you think?’ he asked Perry, giving a surreptitious nod in the girl’s direction.

  ‘Fuckable,’ Perry said, a lusty light in his eyes. ‘But I ain’t paying, ’cos you owe me big time after that last skank you dumped on me.’

  ‘Of course,’ Rob agreed. ‘But we will need to talk before I hand her over.’

  ‘Too right we will,’ said Perry, his eyes narrowing as he reached for his glass. ‘I’ve been a fucking good customer, but I’m starting to think you’ve got me down as some kind of soft touch. Big mistake that, boys, very big mistake. You think I got where I am today by letting people mug me off?’

  ‘Not at all,’ Rob said evenly. ‘And, believe me, nobody’s trying to mug you off. We appreciate your business – don’t we, Ad?’

  ‘Absolutely,’ Adam agreed, shifting nervously in his seat. He hadn’t had a chance to speak with Rob in private yet, so he had no clue how his friend intended to deal with the man. But, one way or another, this had to get resolved tonight, because his nerves couldn’t take much more.

  ‘Why don’t you go and get the man another drink?’ Rob said, giving Adam a pointed look when Perry had drained his glass. ‘And get the lady another while you’re there.’

  ‘Righto.’ Adam stood up and made his way to the bar.

  ‘So, what did you want to talk about?’ Perry asked, eyeing the girl’s breasts as they strained against the tight, low neckline of her dress.

  Rob straightened his trousers and casually crossed his legs. ‘This has got to stop,’ he said bluntly, keeping his voice low so the people at the nearby tables wouldn’t hear. ‘We run a tight operation, and we’ve had no problem with any of our other clients.’

  ‘But you’re saying you’ve got a problem with me?’ Perry sneered. ‘What … just ’cos I won’t let you fob me off with substandard goods?’

  ‘Our goods are top quality,’ Rob replied coolly. ‘A lot of hard work goes into making sure of that. The problem lies in the way you handle them.’

  ‘Bollocks,’ Perry retorted angrily. ‘There’s nowt wrong with the way I handle them. Least, there wouldn’t be if you didn’t keep sending me duds. I don’t mind paying for quality, but when I’m paying through the nose for diseased tramps who can’t take a bit of action without keeling over, that’s where I draw the l
ine, fella.’

  Rob inhaled deeply and bit down hard on the retort that sprang to the tip of his tongue. They had been supplying Perry for a year now, but unlike the owners of the private clubs and massage parlours they also supplied, who were savvy enough to realise that they were never going to make back the money they had shelled out if they allowed the girls to be treated too badly, Perry was a sadistic cunt who got a kick out of torturing them. He also had an unfortunate habit of killing them, and that was where it got messy.

  Rob couldn’t care less what he did to the girls when they were alive; it was what he did with their bodies after he’d killed them that worried Rob. If they weren’t disposed of properly, it would only be a matter of time before somebody stumbled across one of the corpses. And if that happened, the police would have no trouble tracing it back to Perry, who would undoubtedly have deposited his DNA in every conceivable hole before he got rid. And if he went down, he’d made it clear that he would be taking Rob and Adam down with him.

  That was the kind of remorseless bastard they were dealing with, and he’d been holding them ransom with that threat for months. And that was why he had to go. This had been his last chance to see sense, but he clearly wasn’t going to, so it was time to get serious.

  Chantelle had been standing in the alley for almost two hours before Rob, the woman, and two men came out of the club. Her legs were aching from having stood still for so long, but she forgot the pain in an instant when the woman stepped beneath the light above the door and she got her first clear look at her. Just like the one she’d seen with Rob and his friends on that first night, this one had long black hair, a stunning face, and a fantastic figure. She was clearly drunk, and fury coursed through Chantelle like a wave of red-hot lava when she looped her arms around Rob’s neck and rested her head on his shoulder.

  Hands shaking, Chantelle trained her camera on the pair and gritted her teeth when, laughing, Rob put his arm around the woman’s waist and planted a kiss on her lips. One of the men in the group looked equally as drunk as the woman, and the other man held him up as the group made their way down the road. Chantelle kept her gaze firmly on the phone screen, watching as Rob, his arm around the woman, caressed her backside as she stumbled and giggled her way to the car. When they reached it, he propped her against the back door and walked around to the boot. But as soon as he opened it and leaned his head inside to get something, the drunken man made a lunge for the girl; and when she squealed, Rob ran back around and slammed him up against the wall.

  Chantelle was upset as she watched the men tussle. She’d never seen this violent side of Rob before, and the fact that he was doing it in defence of the woman – who the other man had bundled into the back of the car by now – hurt her even more.

  Just as Rob punched the man in the gut, dropping him to his knees, the phone screen went black in Chantelle’s hand. Terrified that it signalled an incoming call, she stepped quickly back into the shadows and desperately tried to turn it onto silent, only to find that the battery had died. Relieved, but shaking more than ever, she edged back out in time to see Rob and the man who was still standing shove the fallen one into the back of the car beside the woman, before climbing quickly into the front.

  When the headlights came on a second later, Chantelle stayed put and hid until the car had driven past. Then, after waiting a few minutes to make sure that they had gone, she stepped out of the alley and made her way home.

  ‘He is bleeding,’ the woman whined, pressing herself up against the back door of the car and looking with a mixture of horror and disgust at the man who was slouched beside her. ‘I think he is dying, no?’

  ‘Shut her up,’ Rob muttered to Adam, his gaze fixed firmly on the road.

  Adam reached into his pocket and pulled out a hip flask. ‘Here.’ He twisted around in his seat and handed it to the woman. ‘Have a drink and relax.’ He grinned now, his teeth glinting in the strobe of the street lights as he watched her take a long swig. ‘There you go – soon be back in la-la land.’

  The woman drained the flask and rested her cheek against the cold glass of the window. ‘Are you taking me to house?’ she asked when, a few minutes later, her eyelids began to droop.

  ‘Yeah, that’s right, sweetheart,’ Adam said. ‘Won’t be too long now.’

  They drove on in silence for the next few miles, then Adam glanced back to see how the woman was getting on. ‘Flat out,’ he said when he saw that her eyes were closed and her head had lolled forward onto her chest.

  ‘What about him?’ Rob asked.

  Adam reached through the gap between the seats and shook Perry’s leg. When the man’s head rolled to one side and Adam saw his lifeless eyes and his tongue protruding from between his grey lips, he grimaced and quickly withdrew his hand.

  ‘Gone.’

  ‘Thank fuck for that.’

  ‘I didn’t know you were going to knife him,’ Adam said reproachfully. ‘Did you even check if anyone was around?’

  ‘Of course I did,’ Rob said testily. ‘And what else was I supposed to do? I gave him a chance, but he wasn’t going to budge. He must’ve had guts of fucking steel to still be standing after the amount of shit you put in his drinks, so there was no other way around it.’

  ‘Yeah, but now we’ll have to get rid of him, and that’s not going to be easy.’

  ‘Maybe not, but anything’s better than waiting for that axe he’s been holding over our heads to fall.’

  ‘What about her?’ Adam asked.

  ‘She’ll have to go,’ Rob said quietly. ‘Shame,’ he added regretfully. ‘But she’s seen too much, so we can’t take any chances.’

  25

  Chantelle barely slept that night for thinking about Rob’s betrayal. She had watched the short film over and over again after charging her phone, searching for signs that she’d got it wrong: that Rob had only been holding the drunken woman up; that he hadn’t kissed her or fondled her bottom. But he had, and the proof – albeit shadowy, and unsteady, thanks to how badly her hands had been shaking – was right there in her phone.

  Her eyes were so badly swollen when she dragged herself out of bed the next morning that Leon was concerned when she woke him.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, getting up without his usual grumbling and following her into the kitchen.

  ‘Nothing,’ Chantelle lied, keeping her face turned from him as she poured cereal and milk into a bowl and placed it on the table.

  ‘Something’s up,’ Leon persisted, sitting down and reaching for his spoon. ‘Have you had a fight with that lad you’ve been seeing? ’Cos if he’s touched you, I’ll—’

  ‘I haven’t had a fight with anyone. It’s just hay fever.’

  ‘Since when have you had hay fever?’

  ‘Since I was a kid.’ Chantelle turned her back to make herself a strong coffee. ‘Don’t worry about it; it never lasts long.’

  Leon wasn’t sure if he believed her, but he decided not to push it. His sister wasn’t stupid enough to let a lad push her around, but if he ever found out different, he’d tell Anton. Anton liked her, so he’d soon sort the lad out.

  After seeing Leon off to school, Chantelle got dressed and made herself another coffee, then sat on her bed with her phone in her hand, waiting for Rob to call as he’d promised. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, she still desperately wanted to believe that he must have had a good reason to lie to her, and she had decided to give him one last chance to tell her the truth. If he took it, great; if not … Well, she’d cross that bridge when she came to it.

  Rob rang at 8.45, and Chantelle guessed that he must be on his way to work.

  ‘Hey,’ she said, forcing herself to sound happy. ‘How are you?’

  ‘Knackered,’ he said. ‘Meeting ran over, so I’ve only had a couple of hours’ sleep.’

  ‘Poor thing,’ Chantelle murmured. ‘I hope you took a break?’

  ‘Nah, we were pretty much stuck in there all night,’ Rob told her. ‘Hope
you weren’t too upset with me for cancelling our date?’ he said now.

  ‘I’ll survive,’ Chantelle replied through gritted teeth. Then, desperate to get off the phone now that she’d had her answer, she picked up one of her shoes and rapped the heel on the side of her wardrobe.

  ‘That the door?’ Rob asked.

  ‘Yeah. Best go.’

  ‘Okay, I’ll call you later. Love you.’

  Chantelle clenched her hand so tightly that her nails almost pierced her flesh. ‘Love you, too,’ she muttered, before quickly disconnecting.

  ‘Bastard!’ She hurled the phone down on the bed and buried her face in her hands. How could he lie to her like that? All right, so she had been lying to him as well; but that was totally different. She hadn’t lied about her feelings for him, and she would never, ever have cheated on him. His wife had been right about him all along.

  At the thought of his wife, it occurred to Chantelle that Rob had probably been lying about her as well. He’d said that he and Yvette were sleeping in separate rooms, and that it was virtual warfare whenever their paths crossed. Yvette was supposed to be the one who was holding up the divorce, but Chantelle was beginning to wonder if the woman even knew anything about it.

  As the cold harsh reality of the situation settled over her, Chantelle couldn’t believe how stupid she had been. She’d drifted through the last few months on a cloud of denial, telling herself that she was doing nothing wrong, that it was Yvette’s fault that Rob had looked elsewhere for love. But it wasn’t true. Rob had played her – exactly like he had probably played that woman last night, and God only knew how many others. She was such a fool. She had always thought she was too clever to be taken in by a sweet-talking man, and had vowed that she would never go near a married one. But she had proved that she was every bit as stupid and amoral as her mum, and she couldn’t have been more disgusted with herself.

  Determined not to let Rob get away with it, Chantelle snatched up her phone and watched the footage again. It was nowhere near as clear as it would have been if she’d filmed it on Bill’s camera, but Rob’s and the woman’s faces were clear in the shots under the light, so there was no way he’d be able to deny it was him. It was Yvette’s business what she chose to do with it, but if she had a scrap of sense she would do what Rob had been using as an excuse for why he couldn’t be with Chantelle, and take him for everything he owned in the divorce courts.