by Wood, C
“It was nice to see your wife in the salon this morning, quite the surprise to see her there, seeing as it is one of the most expensive ones in town.”
“Only the best for my wife, I dress her in all the designers, she really is such a sweet thing, don’t you agree? She hasn’t been back to see me this morning, I suspect she will tell me all about your conversation over dinner tonight, we lead such busy lives here, she deals with the two smaller hotels and I spend my days here, she really is a nice thing to look at, at the end of the day.” I had a feeling she had done as I suggested and emptied the bank account and left him. Which; meant she hadn’t tipped him off; good. On the other hand, she had and he was being as cool as a cucumber?
“Very nice, well as you know, I became owner of the hotel this morning; I don’t let the grass grow under a business deal, unless I can help it. With that said, I at this moment in time would like your keys. I have your wife’s; she gave them me in the salon this morning. As you are no longer manager here or she there, you have no need for them, all the locks are in the process, of being changed, and the safe is a new all singing dancing one. Passwords for everything changed, and the new digital camera system installed as we speak. So to, the much improved security system!
The computers locked you out at ten, when my guys took over, this morning at six am, not realising you didn’t work for me, you still came into work, I presume to clear your desk? Well, they gave you enough rope to hang yourself. You thought it gave you access to everything, it did the old systems which we were monitoring from next door, you had very limited access to the old server, to do just as I knew you would need to do, you tried to cover your dodgy tracks.
You failed in trying to hide your thefts, and dubious dealings. My computer experts were monitoring you, as I said I only employ the best. Tut-tut-tut, Mr Barren, what did you hope to achieve deleting files, trying to cover your slip shod thefts? I thought you were smarter than that. Perhaps Lucy was the brains behind the affair then after all?” He took a sip from his glass. I had rattled the tiger in the cage, and had him by the tail, and enjoying pulling on it.
“I have never stolen any money, all I ever took was what I was entitled to do, read my contract it states I may take my bonuses from where ever I have available funds, and have I never taken money I did not have a right to take. Check and see if I’m right or not.” I watched, as he looked at me cool as that bloody proverbial cucumber. I took a phone call.
“Please, excuse me, this important; get yourself another drink, we are far from finished Mr Barren.” He got himself another JD on the rocks more JD than rocks actually. I stepped outside to take the call.
“Good, she has emptied the account, great, she is in the flat now, and did you have time to plant the evidence? You did well; the perfume was mine you sprayed, the one I have been wearing here? Good and their bed neatly made when you got in the flat, and un-made now, so it was looking used and slept in when you left.
Good, the underwear was left there too, argh yes behind the bedside table, with a squirt of perfume and tags off, good thinking I forgot, hopefully she gives it me back it was such a pretty set, be a shame to break them up? Good oh and you took my earing, good nice touch, I do hope she throws it back, it was an expensive one from my first husbands father.
Thanks Uncle Harry I owe you one, get yourself back here, I need my head of security here, it may kick off, and thanks you’re a sweet heart.” I returned to the table and he went into flirt mode, it wasn’t going to get him his job, but would play along and set the scene for their downfall nicely. He really did have soft and nimble hands and as he began running them up my leg I let out a fake sigh.
“Right were where we, argh yes, you fiddling the books, but not really fiddling the books, you were taking only, what you were legally, entitled to take? Did I miss something? Well, I didn’t, you did, last night you were told you had to apply for a job, so this morning you actually did steal from me, I am not even your employer, and you don’t have a contract with me.” He gulped on the JD in his glass.
“I know you have needs Mr Barren and I don’t suppose your wife has the adequate means to keep you, as you’re having become accustomed to being kept in, over the past four years? The way poor Carrie kept you, your mother Maggie, or what was the young widow called in Bolton, umm Georgina?” I received another call, she, Lucy was on her way in and mad as a hatter. Thanked I returned to Glyn.
“I however have the means you need to straighten yourself out, perhaps work of your debt to me in other ways.” I cringed I knew what he took that to mean, to me it meant, he would be cleaning toilets, and for a long time to clear his debt to me.
He fell for it, he stroked my knee and leaned in to whisper, I giggled as he whispered he would have his debt paid off in no time, he had no complaints from anyone else including the ex-Mrs Barren. With that the new Mrs Barren waltzed in, she threw my bra at me and the earing at Glyn, Oh result I had them both back. I picked them up and looked at them. Like I didn’t know what they were, I had a fantastic set of pearl drops in at the salon and I still had them in, she had seen me place them on the side whilst I had my hair done.
“You, fucking bastard, you slept with her your new boss, in our bed this morning whilst I was having a doctor’s appointment, you fucking bastard, she isn’t as young as me and really she isn’t your type at all, you keep him De Void. He’s fucking useless in bed can’t keep it up, and yes he robbed your friend. Did you need to stoop so low as to sleep with him for revenge for Carrie?” She was losing the plot!
I feigned shock and anger. I had Harry bring in my bags from the car, I allowed her a look in the bags; I had bought two bra’s after all. She looked at me and sat down in a heap on the floor. Her hysterics reaching fever pitch, I watched as she laid into him. The words coming out of her mouth were quite blue. He looked round the room, for a place to run. Stay and make the best of a bad job Glyn, I dare you.
“I’m so sorry about my wife, she has had a difficult pregnancy, the child has been hard for her to carry, and her hormones are all over the place, she doesn’t know what she’s saying half the time.” I looked at her as she slapped him.
“My hormones, hard for me to carry, not knowing what I’m saying, sod you, how’s this for not knowing what I’m saying, the baby isn’t yours its Dave’s the night manager, who is over the moon about our daughter. I am leaving you. The flat, it’s not ours, you rent it, and anyway this was pinned to the door and eviction notice; apparently you haven’t even paid the rent since your ex-wife left you. Thank god, we’re not married, or I would be responsible for your debts, I have cancelled my credit card, in your name. You knew I was having someone else’s kid, she even knows you shoot blanks. Why pretend she was yours so you could embarrass me when things don’t work out?” I laughed at his face as she got up to leave; she continued her rant as Harry, Gina, and I watched. “Oh, and I have emptied my bank accounts. Dad wants his money back, for the deposit on the flat he gave you for our wedding present. That’s a fucking laugh too; you’re still married to your first wife. She; Carrie has been to see your actual wife too.
That bitch you were married to; helped your mother out financially, and saw to it your children were all right, she wasn’t the nasty useless bitch you made her out to be. You had me believing she was. You robbed your mother; you denied your children, all of them, not just the two who have your name. You’re a bigamist, a thief, con artist, shit in bed, and rotten gambler; did I miss something out? Oh yes I did, ha, the medical discharge from the army was and is a crock of shit; you were, dishonourably discharged, for misconduct, knowing you; you robbed the widows, and orphans fund or bunked up with the major’s daughter.
I will not be seeing you again; I swear you deserve locking up, you made poor Carrie out to be and idiot and crap at everything she did. I can honestly say; from what Catherine says, Francesco and the girls here say, she was a saint for putting up with you.
You were, and are a useless creep, thank
god, it’s not your baby, and I actually thought she was yours too. It was nice seeing you Catherine, and when you see Carrie tell her, I am so sorry for blackening her name!” She was crying and distraught, perhaps I’d push her too far.
“You are more than welcome, to keep your job here Lucy, do you want it? I will give you the small hotel to run if that would be better?”
“No, but thank you, I will be staying at home, Dave has a nice home, and wants me and his baby there, he is overjoyed about her being his, I can honestly say that chat in the salon this morning made my life so much better. I can’t wait to meet Carrie, and apologise in person and wish her luck!”
I thanked her! I watched as she ran out to join the boyfriend, my new night manager here, who was waiting for her, she was fine as she kissed him in front of Glyn, a man much more her own age, quite the man with a pulse wow, she was eating him. I laughed. Glyn looked dejected and hurt; perhaps he actually did like this one, and had thought of the child as his? I didn’t care he was now up that creek without a sodding paddle.
“I don’t suppose now; is a good time to introduce you to your new employer, is it Glyn? Carrie Wright; she will be your manager; well she is until all these debts are paid off in full. Or you can leave the area today, and I will wipe out the debt, I want you as far away from here as is physically possible, with the promise of never coming back, or bothering me again.” I showed him the stubs, well copies, because he did as I expected and ripped them into pieces. He looked at me and as he went to hit me, Harry stepped forward.
“Harry; please see Mr Barren back to my old, new, flat, see he packs a bag and he leaves by the next train out of here. Unless you want to give me, the money you owe me. I only wanted my five thousand pounds Glyn?” He clocked the five grand. “Yes surprise Glyn, see what a difference time away from you causes, it’s me the ex-Mrs Barren, scrub up well don’t I? I was going to play you at your game and use you like you did me, but even I don’t want to sully this great body with your sweaty hands and limp dick.” He looked at me carefully; I took of the glasses recognition of sorts.
“You bitch, hope you enjoy all this, because I’m leaving it, in one hell of a financial mess. Even you don’t have enough money to re-float this sinking ship.” I laughed leant over and told him I had just paid cash for all the hotels along the rest of the strip and had enough I the kitty for a five million refit in winter. He looked quite pale.
“Now, had you given me the five thousand pounds that was rightly mine, I would have repaid you ten-fold, as I did to Francesco, he now owns his salon, after offering to loan me the money to bury my mother, as it was I gave it and more, to your mother and helped her. Oh, you’re not welcome back there either; your mother wants you arrested and thanks to me knows where you are. She has everything she needs to hang you out to dry as you did to them, near killed her, the debt you left her in.
You should have played fair, come back and I will have you arrested. You’re not as clever as you think you are. The accountants you stole money from this morning are mine; you had no authority on those accounts, and we have found the phoney bank account too and have shut it down, and transferred the money back into the hotel bank account.
Now you can leave, because Glyn, you-haven’t-got-a-pot-to-piss-in-now and don’t worry my old fanny didn’t feel anything, I’m quite good at faking an orgasm too. See how you like it Glyn, goodbye and oh good luck you will need it.” Harry showed him out and I felt fabulous.
CHAPTER 7
I had a great team in place after a week, the place was shut for the week, and the few guests put up in the smaller of the hotels, whilst this one and the other four were cleaned, re-stocked, and made ready for the remainder of the season. So, I decided to stay here for a couple of weeks, working on the revenge plot for the Hutchinson’s, they would be, I think harder to bring down.
Though I had a good idea that drugs and greed would be the best way to go about the family’s downfall, after all he was only out on licence. I was sure I could do it. Given now, I was so much stronger than the young girl was at fifteen he raped. Stronger than the same girl at sixteen he let his brother sodomise for my birthday. Who then ripped me to pieces, as he joined in, and they both abused me at the same time, as his mother filmed it, as she did all our graphic sessions, after that. I believe for their private collection of video nastiest, some sold, I think to black-market porn dealers.
I was sore, and infected for weeks, but the good thing was they left me alone to recover. Locked away to heal, and they made sure nobody saw me for the six weeks it took me to do so. I was even surprised I did get better, I thought they had killed me that night, it was the worst thing they did to me, both of them penetrating, me over and over all night swopping positions one taking my bottom and the other my sore vagina.
I cried for hours, and in the end, the crying stopped as they continued their deprived drink fuelled rape of me, I said no repeatedly and over, so much, so I was duct taped my mouth and beat my body to a pulp. I wanted to run and I don’t know why I didn’t. I had a therapist who treated me in the hospital said; I had something called Stockholm syndrome. I was a hostage and their prisoner, but over the four years, I was with them, their way became the normal a way of life for me, normal everyday living, was for me torture and rape.
I thank god, mum and dad did take me to a private clinic in Surrey, to get me as far away as possible, away from home. Peter had beaten me to near death found, as a Jane Doe, in the main road, having escaped their clutches.
They whisked me of to that clinic straight away; I would be dead now if they had not, because, when my memory came back, I was still convinced Peter loved me. I wanted to go back to him; convinced too, they had kidnapped me from him. Had they not paid a lot of money to get me de-programmed, I dread to think what would have happened.
The psychiatrist said the likely hood was I would have gone back to him, as it was it took the clinic four months and a lot of their money to get me back to near normality. Council gardeners didn’t make that sort of money; and I had needed a lot of private treatment, I had to live in, it was so expensive for my parents and grandparents to fund; that was the one debt, I wish I could repay to the lot of them, in person.
My parent’s lifesavings, such as they were, went on saving me. Hence; the debts on the house; and the lack of money for either of them to have a great send-off, though I did pay for the one dad had, but it wasn’t that much better than mum’s was. Dylan said it had to come from my own money; I had a stash, saved for rainy days, my escape fund from my pitiful allowance. I wanted to repay everyone’s kindness to me, and I had done so with my family, and now my friend.
I visited the salon, having just bought it for Francesco; he was, well over the moon and promised his chair was always open for me. I spent the nights searching the internet for Jack Thompson, there are thousands on the net, here and abroad, I will have to wait to see what Frank finds, he had become my new obsession, I wanted to know the real reason he dumped me? Which; left my heart broken, and leading me down the eventual path I chose.
I set up my hotel group too with a new name, one that all my hotels would bare. I wanted to bring the family back to the northern resort, my new plans did just that, with family new rooms, and an all singing dancing children’s club; the indoor swimming pool, was to be re-instated. They also had a rock-climbing wall in the old, back centre stairwell of the hotel, now a void space, between hotels a sort of weird fire escape. We would create, an activity centre, staffed with the best child friendly staff out there.
I loved the new name for the hotel ‘The Seafront Family Hotel’ we would use the website to publicise the new family friendly hotel company. I was well on my way to even more hotels; the ones in Devon were my next port of call, the council had accepted my offer on them, and had even offered me a grant? Why is it when you have money; people throw freebies at you?
I had gathered the information I needed and was ready to put my plans into action, this part I was so
afraid of, I had a lot riding on this, and I wanted him to pay. I left the Blackpool hotels in my general managers hands, he also had the help of Uncle Harry, my actual godfather, and my dad’s best friend and the toughest cookie I knew, as head of security, he was following me down in a couple of days, I had need of his help, to pull the plot together.
I had heard from the detective; his work had been fantastic, I now knew where the Thompson boys were Ben, Jack, and Tom were. Jacks information was still a tad sketchy. He had also been information gathering on, my first husband, his father and Dylan Somersby-Smyth, and my brat children. I wonder, if I rolled up now, would ignore me? I knew how my revenge on him would go, I knew what he liked, and how he liked it, and given I could now give Jennifer George a run for her money in the body stakes, that’s the way I would sort him out.
I went back to the hotel I considered home. I was now owner of the three big hotels here on the sea front at Torquay, they were old and in need of shutting down and revamping, no chance of doing it in-situ, they needed major work done to bring them back to their Victorian elegance, I happened to know or know of, a very good architect.
Thomas Thompson, he wasn’t a druggie, nor was he a hermit, he was a successful architect a very good one on the listed buildings, list of approved architects, having won awards all over the country, all I knew was, he was good at his job, so I had him coming to quote for the job. I wondered if he had changed. I wondered too why the once close family had fallen out? I could only ask the detective, to do so much digging and now it was up to me. I had someone else to sort out first.
Enter the court of Carrie Constance Wright, case numbers four, five, and six.
I went for a look-see in big red; I needed him to see the car, get used to seeing the car, he was in fact going to steal the car. It was too much like a drug for him; he had been stealing cars and motorbikes since he was little, he liked red and shiny best; he liked nice cars, and big red was just that, a nice, shiny, red, expensive car. It had blacked out windows so he couldn’t see me. They allowed me a little privacy and I liked looking out, and them not seeing in, though if they came up close they could. She wasn’t equipped with one-way glass.