Just Desserts (Sweet Temptation, Book 3)

by Ashley Lister

  ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘But what about Victor? Do you know him?’

  Charlotte glanced again and snapped her fingers. ‘Of course. He worked with Donny for a while, until Donny got sacked. He came out drinking with us a couple of times at Stanzas. Don’t you remember?’

  Vague recollections were coming back to Trudy. They were accompanied by a disturbing sense of unease. ‘It rings vague bells,’ she said. ‘But –’

  ‘Donny had been working at Boui-Boui,’ Charlotte decided. ‘This must have been around the time he got Imogen pregnant and then dumped her.’

  ‘I’m sure you’re right,’ Trudy said earnestly. ‘But I don’t recall anyone in our group at the time being called Victor. The name just doesn’t –’

  ‘Donny didn’t call him Victor,’ Charlotte told her. ‘The guy had some silly nickname. He was one of those clumsy chefs who always had blue sticking plaster on their fingers and –’

  ‘The Smurf!’ Trudy exclaimed.

  The memory of Bill’s words pounded through her head again in a triumphant exclamation: ‘He’d threatened me with a knife.’

  ‘That’s it!’ Charlotte cried happily. ‘I knew I’d remember the name. Donny called him the Smurf.’

  ‘Shit,’ Trudy muttered. ‘The Smurf is the one who tried to stab Bill.’

  Charlotte frowned. As Trudy rushed to find one of the producers and explain that she knew the Smurf, Charlotte tried to stay by her side. When her mobile rang Charlotte excused herself and said she would catch up as soon as she’d dealt with the call.

  Trudy found the producer and tried to compose her thoughts. She couldn’t say that Victor had tried to stab her ex-boyfriend because that sounded tawdry. It would also mean explaining who her ex-boyfriend was, and potentially dredging up a media storm as everyone wondered why she had been in a relationship with Bill Hart six months earlier, yet now he had remarried one of his former wives. Deciding to brush over the knife incident she said, ‘There might be a conflict of interests. I hadn’t realised it before but it seems I’ve worked in the same kitchen as Victor.’

  The producer raised an eyebrow. ‘How long ago was this?’

  ‘Maybe six months ago.’

  ‘And you’ve only just noticed today?’

  ‘He’s changed his appearance a lot since then.’

  Trudy knew the words sounded foolish as she said them. She could see the producer studying her as though she was a self-important diva – someone who couldn’t be bothered to remember what other people looked like as she focused only on herself and her own career.

  The truth was she’d tried to find out who he was but Victor had been evasive and Trudy hadn’t wanted to pry into something that was potentially personal.

  ‘Fair enough,’ the producer said easily. ‘Thanks for letting me know.’

  ‘Are you going to kick Victor out of the competition?’

  The producer laughed. ‘Of course not. You worked with him once. It’s hardly compromising, is it?’

  ‘I didn’t just work with him,’ Trudy explained. ‘There was a violent incident in the kitchen. He was bribed to cause upset there.’

  The producer shrugged. ‘I can’t get rid of him because of that. If I had to run this show with any sense of ethics we wouldn’t get a single episode out on air.’ Smiling sadly, speaking in a whisper, the producer added, ‘Tom’s sister-in-law was amongst the finalists last year. To my knowledge Carlos has screwed three of this year’s contestants. And the judge you replaced, Kelly White, she used to buy drugs from one of the contestants.’

  ‘Jesus,’ Charlotte marvelled. ‘This is a real den of iniquity, isn’t it?’

  The producer considered her coolly. ‘This show is entertainment. If a few unimportant principles get put aside for the sake of our making a good show, then I can’t see any reason to worry about it. Can you?’

  Trudy wanted to argue that she could see plenty of reasons to worry but she simply shook her head. The producer’s indifference told her it would be no use saying anything further. She exercised a diplomatic smile and said, ‘I just wanted to make sure that you knew there was a potential conflict of interests.’

  The producer nodded again, thanked her and then walked back to overseeing the progress of the next round’s preparations.

  Charlotte came running over. ‘How long until this evening’s filming is finished?’

  ‘Why? Is there a problem?’

  ‘You and I need to get back home. We’re needed at the police station.’

  9

  Three hours later Trudy and Charlotte were back at Eldorado. They had collected Daryl from the police station on the way back home from the studio. She’d been charged with breaking and entering, criminal damage and assault. She still managed to look annoyingly glamorous even though she had obviously been wearing the same clothes throughout the day, including a pair of strappy Kurt Geiger heels and a calf-length Ted Baker coat. She had called two of the officers by their first names and was making ‘call me’ gestures to a third using her thumb and little finger. It was only when Charlotte and Trudy started asking her why she’d been arrested that Daryl began to look uncomfortable.

  ‘What happened?’ Trudy asked.

  Daryl shook her head and headed to the drinks cabinet.

  At the police station she had promised she would tell them all about her day’s adventure when she was back at Eldorado. But, before saying another word, she paused and poured herself a large vodka. She hesitated before drinking and poured another two substantial measures for Charlotte and Trudy.

  ‘We may as well share a drink now,’ she said cheerfully. ‘You may not want to talk to me once you hear what I did.’

  Charlotte took the offered vodka and swigged a mouthful.

  Trudy sipped tentatively at hers.

  Daryl flopped into a comfortable chair, raised her glass in a semi-salute and flashed an embarrassed smile from Charlotte to Trudy.

  ‘How did the filming go?’ she asked.

  ‘What the hell happened?’ Trudy repeated.

  ‘Why had you been arrested?’ Charlotte pressed. ‘You promised you’d tell us when we got back here.’

  Daryl paused for a moment and looked like she was considering various ways of starting her story. She gestured with her glass at Charlotte and asked, ‘You remember those pictures that Donny uploaded?’

  ‘The pornographic ones?’ Charlotte asked.

  Daryl shook her head. ‘They’re not pornographic. They’re just revealing.’

  Charlotte shook her head. ‘Are these the “revealing” photographs that Donny uploaded to a pornographic website?’

  ‘Those are the ones,’ Daryl agreed.

  Trudy took the opportunity of her friends’ debate to put her barely touched glass of vodka discreetly on the floor. She had no need for the alcohol. She suspected that she would need to keep her wits about her if she was to follow the exchange properly.

  ‘I look pretty good in those pictures,’ Daryl said quickly. The slight smile on her lips suggested she thought she looked very good in them. Her eyes momentarily widened with a glimmer of pride. ‘I looked a damned sight better than Gemma with her potbelly and her bush like a bag-lady’s armpit.’

  Trudy nodded agreement. If she had been making comparisons about the models in those pictures she would have agreed that Daryl was the more attractive of the two women.

  Daryl’s wistful smile turned briefly sad. ‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘even though I looked damned good in those pictures, they were supposed to be personal and private. When Donny posted them online it was a massive violation of my trust and my privacy.’

  ‘You didn’t seem angry about this when we spoke yesterday,’ Trudy told her.

  Daryl shrugged. ‘Yesterday I was more determined to resolve the issue rather than be overcome by pointless anger. Charlotte got the legal team to send an email to the pervert who hosts the website. He was politely asked to take the pictures down.’

  She sighed h
eavily and took a large swig of vodka. She was no longer making eye contact with either Charlotte or Trudy.

  ‘I went online this morning to see if the images were still up there. My pictures had gone but that’s when I noticed Donny had added some extra files.’

  ‘Extra files?’

  Daryl glanced unhappily in Trudy’s direction. Her expression was pained. ‘I’m sorry, Trudy. He’s uploaded pictures of Imogen.’

  Charlotte groaned.

  Trudy’s hands curled into fists. ‘He put rude pictures of Imogen on that site?’

  ‘Naked pictures,’ Daryl said flatly. ‘Very explicit pictures.’

  ‘Bastard,’ Charlotte hissed.

  Trudy plucked her vodka from the floor and downed the contents quickly in a bid to quell her rising anger. ‘This is too much. He’s gone too far this time.’

  Daryl stared from Charlotte to Trudy. She was nodding sympathetically. ‘Looking at you two, I can see that we’re sharing the same response. I’d been angry when I saw he’d posted pictures of me. But I was livid when I saw that he’d put up pictures of Imogen.’ She laughed softly and added, ‘It’s not like I know her that well or anything. She just seems too young and too vulnerable to put up with crap like that.’

  ‘If Bill finds out he’s going to kill Donny,’ Charlotte murmured.

  Trudy shook her head. If anyone was going to have vengeance on Donny, she was determined that it would be her. She went back to the drinks cabinet and refilled all three glasses. Glancing back over her shoulder she called, ‘What did you do?’

  Daryl hesitated for a moment before saying, ‘I paid Donny a visit.’

  They waited expectantly for her to continue.

  Her cheeks were the light pink of an embarrassed blush. She didn’t look at them, but examined the ‘Gold Rush’ finish on her Leighton Denny nail polish.

  ‘You paid him a visit?’ Trudy repeated.

  ‘I figured that what I had planned might take all day.’ Daryl threw an awkward glance in Charlotte’s direction and added, ‘That was why I phoned you and told you I’d need someone to cover for me.’

  ‘You could have told me what was going on,’ Charlotte said.

  ‘Would you have tried to stop me?’

  ‘Probably.’

  Daryl shook her head. Her tight smile suggested that she thought Charlotte had missed the point. The reason why she had decided to deal with Donny alone was obviously that she didn’t want to be stopped.

  ‘Once I’d phoned you I made my way down to the Hadfield Hotel. I knew Donny was staying there. The last time I saw Gemma she told me she’d organised a permanent room for him there. I didn’t know which room so I called the reception desk and pretended I was trying to send a letter to Donny Welles. I told the receptionist that he’s one of their permanent residents. They told me he was residing in the Ambassador Suite.’

  ‘It was that simple?’ Charlotte marvelled.

  Daryl nodded.

  ‘The Ambassador Suite sounds posh,’ Trudy whispered.

  ‘It’s Gemma’s suite,’ Daryl explained. ‘Her parents spoil the bitch.’

  Trudy said nothing. She knew that Daryl and Gemma had once been very close friends. She guessed that their friendship was another casualty that could be credited to Donny’s selfishness.

  ‘When I got to the hotel I walked past the reception desk and made my way straight to the Ambassador Suite. There was a cleaner doing room changes nearby and I got her to open the door for me. Donny was in bed with Gemma and a mousy blonde.’ She snorted with humourless laughter and added, ‘I think Donny has a thing for mousy blondes.’

  Charlotte smiled at that.

  Trudy didn’t get the joke. Rather than pressing the point she asked, ‘What did you do?’

  Daryl blushed.

  ‘When I was marching down there I had made up my mind that I was going to be clever. I wanted to get pictures of him naked. I wanted them to be embarrassing pictures that showed him to be small and presented him in unflattering poses. I’d got my phone charged and set to the camera app so I could do that and take a revenge that was appropriate and almost just.’

  She sipped at her vodka. The strength of the neat drink clearly hadn’t yet touched her. Her eyes shone brightly as she recalled the vivid memories. Her words were spoken without any slowing or slurring to suggest she was drunk.

  ‘You didn’t take pictures of him, did you?’ Charlotte asked.

  Daryl shook her head. ‘As soon as I saw him the anger took over. I had my phone out. And I was intending to take pictures. But, instead, I just smashed my phone against his head.’

  ‘Wow,’ Trudy whispered.

  ‘Good on you,’ Charlotte murmured.

  ‘I hit him a couple of more times,’ Daryl continued. ‘I blacked his eye, I broke his nose a little bit. And I got a nasty scratch on the case of my phone.’

  Trudy stared at Daryl in slack-jawed awe.

  ‘A scratch on your phone case?’ Charlotte sounded concerned. ‘Can it be fixed?’

  Daryl shook her head. ‘I might have to get a replacement. I was looking to upgrade sometime soon but I think this might have forced the issue.’

  Trudy stared from Charlotte to Daryl as though they were insane for discussing something as immaterial as a phone case. ‘Screw the phone case,’ she blurted. ‘What did Donny do?’

  Daryl regarded her with a sly grin. She nodded and sipped more vodka before saying, ‘Donny seemed a little surprised to be woken up so abruptly. He seemed even more surprised when I found his phone, threw it on the floor and then stamped on it with my heel until the insides fell out.’

  ‘Fucking hell,’ whispered Trudy.

  ‘I figured there was a risk he might have had more pictures on his phone,’ Daryl explained. ‘And it made sense for me to do what I could to destroy them.’

  ‘What did Donny do?’ Trudy asked again.

  Daryl finished her drink.

  ‘Donny said one or two rude things that were uncalled for. He called me a psycho bitch. He called me a turncoat slut. And then he tried to attack me.’

  Trudy stopped herself from prompting Daryl to continue. She was on the verge of bursting with curiosity but she knew that her friend would need to tell the story in her own way. Clenching her jaw firmly shut, she silently vowed not to interrupt Daryl’s story even though she was desperate to know what had happened.

  ‘The mousy blonde ran off screaming to the bathroom. She must have been the one that phoned the police. Gemma pulled me away from Donny for a while. She asked me why I was hitting him and wanted to know what was wrong with me. When I told her that Donny had posted pictures of me and Imogen to one of those seedy ex-girlfriend sites she still seemed more pissed at me than at him.’

  Trudy could almost sympathise with Gemma. She could imagine the distress of being woken by the unexpected appearance of a former friend in such circumstances. But she still thought it was short-sighted of Gemma to take Donny’s side on this matter.

  ‘Gemma was trying to calm me down and stop me hitting Donny,’ Daryl explained. ‘So that was the point when I punched her.’

  Charlotte winced.

  Trudy released a heavy sigh.

  Gemma’s parents were very protective of their wayward daughter. In punching her, Daryl could now expect them to put pressure on the police to prosecute. If that course of action failed to give them satisfaction they would undoubtedly sue for compensation.

  Daryl nodded as though she knew the ramifications of what she had done.

  ‘I might have knocked over the TV set in the fracas,’ she admitted. ‘And the minibar went south when the police were trying to drag me out of the room. But aside from that, and Donny’s phone, and a couple of mirrors, the criminal damage charges are just so much bullshit.’

  Charlotte stood up and replenished all three drinks.

  Trudy hadn’t even been aware that she’d finished her second vodka. She was grateful for the refill. ‘What’s going to happen now?’ she
asked.

  ‘I can answer that,’ Charlotte said. ‘What happens now is that Sweet Temptation will cover all of Daryl’s legal costs.’

  Daryl shook her head. ‘You can’t do that. The Hadfields won’t be happy that I tore up one of their more prestigious suites and sent their daughter back to rhinoplasty. And the Hadfields have the money to make me suffer.’

  ‘I won’t hear any arguments,’ Charlotte said. ‘You were looking out for the interests of Sweet Temptation when you went out to deal with Donny. You did that for us. We owe you legal representation at the very least.’

  Trudy nodded agreement. Charlotte had been involved in a brief fling with Donny and she guessed there had probably been more embarrassing pictures on the phone that Daryl broke. If something like that emerged prior to Charlotte’s intended marriage to Harvey there was a strong danger that the whole event could be cancelled.

  ‘Does this mean you’re not going to strip me of my partnership?’

  ‘Why the hell would we do that?’

  Daryl seemed to sink into her chair with fresh relief. She took her mobile from her handbag and started leafing through a day’s worth of missed messages.

  ‘I think I should pay a visit to Bill and tell him about this turn of events,’ Trudy told Charlotte.

  ‘Why?’ Charlotte paused and said, ‘There isn’t something still going on with you two, is there?’

  Blushing, Trudy shook her head. She was trying to deny the accusation while wondering if she should tell her best friends the truth.

  ‘Of course there’s nothing going on with her and Bill,’ Daryl laughed. She brandished her mobile and added, ‘I know that for a fact because I’ve got a text from my old friend Mark saying Trudy’s going out on a date with him tomorrow night.’

  10

  She didn’t bother phoning Bill. She took a cab to his cottage and greeted him on the doorstep with a warm embrace and a passionate kiss.

  ‘Ms McLaughlin,’ he muttered. ‘This is a pleasant surprise.’

  It was after midnight.