The Naked Truth: Shall Set You Free (NEW ALBION Book 2)

by Wallace Greensage

  Chapter 16

  ON Friday, Benjamin Spiralli was sentenced to 2 years at Hardston Prison, 30 miles from Wellingbury. Dana hadn’t been called but her statement had been read out in court. Spiralli was sore at Dana MacStewart on two scores: for laying charges against him and for obtaining a restraining order. What a bitch she’d turned out to be, he decided. His scheming mind was already hatching a plan for retribution.

  He was also physically sore after taking the blame for the events that had led to the seizure of drugs hidden in his truck and for the arrest and imminent imprisonment of several gang members. He’d already been reached while on remand and a violent beating meted out. He hoped that he wouldn’t face any further punishment but he wasn’t counting on it.

  The only good thing was that he’d managed to convince the court that he wasn’t directly involved in the drugs deal and he was set up as a patsy. He should be out in a year if he kept his nose clean. The fact that he was jeopardising his intended clean record with his plans for revenge didn’t once cross his mind.

  Chapter 17

  As Phillip Stelt left his city office building at the end of Friday’s business day, the first person he saw leaning casually against a street ad hoarding was Todd. Stelt hesitated, then spun and stepped quickly away from Todd. Todd was right beside him in seconds. Phillip Stelt, at twenty-three, was a handsome, dark-haired young man who clearly kept himself in excellent shape.

  ‘So, Mr Stelt,’ Todd said quietly. ‘Can you please explain to me exactly what influence your friend Spiralli has over you that forced you to threaten Dana MacStewart?’

  Stelt stopped and spun round. ‘I didn’t!’ he retorted forcefully.

  ‘Didn’t what?’

  ‘Threaten her!’ he replied pleadingly, glancing around to see if anyone he knew was watching. ‘Look, I don’t want to talk here.’

  ‘Ah, you mean in case someone from your office is curious about what we’re talking about? And you talking to the police perhaps?’

  ‘I didn’t mean to threaten her,’ Stelt whined. ‘I just thought that since the restraining order’s been served, there was no more point in going ahead with the charge. That’s all. If she thinks I threatened her, she misunderstood me.’

  ‘Well, you thought wrong. She did not withdraw the charge and Spiralli today faced that along with all the others.’

  ‘Yeah, I heard he got two years.’ He shook his head, clearly disappointed.

  ‘Far less than he deserved,’ Todd retorted.

  ‘Look, what do you want me to do?’ Stelt asked nervously. ‘I have to go…I can’t stand around here.’

  ‘There’s not much more you can do right now Spiralli’s been sentenced, but make sure you never go anywhere near Miss MacStewart ever again, Stelt. If Spiralli wants something in the future that concerns Dana MacStewart, you tell him “no”. You’re out of the picture on that score unless you want me on your back. And tell Spiralli that from me. Make damned sure there’s nothing more you do now or in the future to help him where Dana MacStewart is concerned. Understood’

  ‘You don’t know what he’s like. He’ll be really pissed if I tell him that!’

  ‘So I see that the influence he has over you is based on fear.’

  ‘No…no. It’s not like that. He’s a friend and I simply wanted to help him, that’s all. Look, I’ll tell him, OK? Just leave me alone now.’

  ‘I’ll leave you alone if you stay completely out of the lives of Molly Hollingfeld and Dana MacStewart. Otherwise I will visit you again and next time I will not waste my own time by waiting for you to leave work. I’ll find your office, we’ll either discuss it loudly there or I‘ll escort you to my office at the station. Either way, you’ll have some explaining to do to your company. I’m sure your legal firm won’t want one of their employees…’

  Stelt interrupted. ‘Oh fuck, man! OK, OK, I got it! Now I really have to go.’ He turned to leave.

  ‘Before you slink off, Stelt, what have you done about seeking help for your drug habit?’ Todd asked.

  ‘Yeah, I’m working on it, OK?’ Stelt replied over his shoulder.

  Todd stood and watched Stelt scurry away. He was still standing and watching in the same place as Stelt glanced back anxiously before scooting around the street corner.

  Chapter 18

  PAIGE had let Stevie believe that he was allowing her to sit with him at lunch again on Friday as she had the previous day. During breaks they’d spent time together too. Little Stevie hadn’t yet made friends within this year’s class and Paige thought the other girls were too silly. At least she was learning to understand Stevie. It was no surprise, therefore, that Little Stevie and Paige walked out of school together again on Friday to their respective waiting mothers.

  Except Paige’s mother wasn’t there.

  ‘Where’s your mom?’ Stevie asked.

  ‘Mom? You mean my mummy?’ Paige asked frowning. Little Stevie nodded. ‘Sometimes she’s late. I’ll wait for her.’ She walked with him to his “mom”.

  ‘Hello,’ Renata Perks said to Paige after greeting her son. ‘Are you Paige?’ Paige gazed up a Stevie’s mother and nodded.

  ‘Little Stevie told me that you’re his new friend,’ Renata continued. ‘Is your mother here, dear?’ Paige shook her head.

  ‘She says her mom’s late sometimes,’ Stevie told his mother. ‘She’s gonna wait for her. She said her mom’ll be here soon,’

  Renata frowned. The thought of Paige standing alone outside the school gates didn’t sit well with her. ‘I’ll tell you what, Paige. Let’s all wait here together for her, OK?’ Paige nodded.

  The other parents drifted away with their charges and within a few minutes, Renata, Stevie and Paige were the only ones left. Paige and Stevie huddled together over a work of art that Stevie had cobbled together during the school day and neither of them noticed as a Ford Galaxy swerved around the corner and pulled up sharply outside the school gates.

  Renata watched as Marie-Louise Solomons jumped out of the car and ran to her daughter. Paige glanced up as she reached her. ‘I’m so sorry I’m late, Darling!’ Paige shrugged, gave her a brief hug and smiled at Stevie as she took Marie-Louise’s hand.

  ‘Hi,’ Marie-Louise drawled to Renata, hand outstretched. ‘I’m Marie-Louise, Paige’s mummy.’

  Renata shook the proffered hand and smiled, introducing herself.

  ‘I guess you were waiting with Paige?’ Marie-Louise asked Renata.

  ‘Paige said that you wouldn’t be long. It’s…’

  ‘You must think I’m terrible!’ Marie-Louise told her, interrupting. She was clearly upset. ‘It’s such a rush for me,’ she continued, ’having to finish my work, collect two of my older kids from prep school and get here in time to meet Paige. I feel awful that I was so late and worse that I’ve inconvenienced you like this.’

  Renata smiled reassuringly. ‘It’s not an inconvenience at all and it was only a few minutes. I didn’t want to see Stevie’s new friend standing all alone here so we decided to wait for you together.’

  ‘I’m so grateful to y’all,’ Marie-Louise babbled. ‘I was worried silly! Do you have an automobile with you or can I give you a ride?’

  ‘That’s not necessary,’ Renata replied. ‘We live just a short walk around the corner in the next street so it’s easy for us. And it’s no problem waiting with Paige if you’re late again. Stevie’s sister comes home with a friend so I don’t have to worry about collecting her from school unless she’s staying late for something extra and our other son is old enough to make his own way home, so all I have to do is meet Little Stevie.’

  ‘Well, truly, thanks again.’

  Renata had a thought. ‘Look, Marie-Louise. Why don’t you make life easy on yourself and let me meet Paige each day. She and Stevie seem to be getting on well and she can come back to ours until you arrive. You can collect her from there every day and then you don’t have to rush. It won’t matter if you’re late.'

  ‘Well,’
Marie-Louise hesitated. ‘I don’t want to put you out and…’

  ‘…and you don’t know us from a hole in the ground,’ Renata smilingly finished Marie-Louise’s thought for her.

  ‘No, I wasn’t…’

  ‘Why not come home with us now and I’ll show you where we live. You can see our home for yourself. Then you decide if it’s a convenient solution or if you’d like to arrange something else.’ They both knew Marie-Louise would have to arrange something, probably with the school. She clearly couldn’t risk leaving Paige outside the school gates all alone.

  Marie-Louise realised that it was a perfect solution and, despite her misgivings about letting Paige into the care of a complete stranger, she acquiesced. ‘OK, it makes a lot of sense. Come on! I’ll take you.’

  She opened the passenger’s door for Renata and hurried around to the driver’s side. As she started the Ford, she called over her shoulder to the two children, a boy and girl, to make room for Stevie and Paige and told them that they would be briefly stopping somewhere else before going home. The elder girl groaned.

  ‘Olivia!’ her mother cautioned.

  ‘I have such a lot of homework…’

  ‘Olivia!’ Marie-Louise said more sternly. Olivia stared out of the window in a classic sulk.

  Marie-Louise shook her head. ‘These are two of my other kids, Olivia and Dominic. Our eldest girl, Sally, is already at St. Swinians. She doesn’t finish until half past seven each evening.’ Olivia was, like Paige, a smaller version of her mother with fine blonde hair and a slim figure. Dominic took after his father and was solidly built. He didn’t say much and played perpetually on his iPhone.

  Within two minutes they were at the Perks’ home. ‘I think you should come in for a minute, Marie-Louise’ she offered. It would be better for her to see how they lived to settle Marie-Louise’s doubts, she thought.

  ‘We’ll, if it’s no imposition…’

  Renata, Marie-Louise and four children trudged inside. Stevie immediately took Paige to his room; he had a million things to show her, only a fraction of which would actually be of interest to her girlish mind. She’d already longingly eyed an array of dolls that she’d spied through an open bedroom along the landing as they passed.

  Eleven year old Olivia and nine year old Dominic sat at the kitchen table as they were told. Renata poured juice for them both and put the kettle on. ‘You’ll stay for some tea?’

  ‘Well, that’s very kind. I don’t want to put you out any more than we already have.’

  ‘It’s no problem, Marie-Louise. Relax. Enjoy a cup of tea and have a look around at where Paige will be if you decide to do this.’

  *

  Thirty minutes later, Marie-Louise called the kids to the kitchen and told them to get ready to leave. Olivia was watching television and Dominic had found Stevie and Paige and was bossily making their lives a misery.

  As she was packing her three charges into her Galaxy, a vehicle pulled up and girl of around Olivia’s age got out and walked towards the house, staring curiously at the Galaxy and its occupants as it drove off. Renata was still in the driveway.

  ‘Who’s that?’ ten-year-old Evie asked her mother. Evie was a miniature version of her mother, in the same way that both Olivia and Paige resembled Marie-Louise.

  ‘A girl friend of Stevie’s from his class will be waiting here after school for her mother to pick her up. She’s in the same class as Stevie and I’ll meet them both.’

  ‘Stevie’s got a girlfriend? Woohoo!’ Evie hooted.

  ‘Stevie’s got a friend at school who’s a girl. Big difference, young lady!’

  Evie ran into the house hollering for Stevie, intent on teasing him. Renata shook her head. They’ll be at it again for the rest of the evening, she thought.

  Chapter 19

  SATURDAY evening, Jake opened the door to Charlotte, Todd and Ella. It was the first time that Ella had met their hosts, Lucy and Jake.

  To begin with, Charlotte and Todd felt odd shedding their clothes as soon as they arrived at Lucy and Jake’s home but their hosts, already nude, put them at ease instantly. Jake was almost as tall as Todd and almost as fit too, although his fair skin that didn’t take well to sun was pale compared to his petite, tanned, very pretty, startlingly blue-eyed wife. As Charlotte had explained to Ella, both Jake and Lucy were completely hairless, including Jake’s shaved pate and except for Lucy’s wavy blonde hair, held up with a clip. All five were in their late twenties and early thirties, ages within three years of each other.

  They were all soon comfortably naked and relaxing on the deck. The two couples merrily renewed their close friendship; they felt that they’d known each other for years. It was hard to believe that they’d known each other for less than three weeks. Ella joined in too; it had taken but a moment for her to slip off her sundress.

  ‘So I heard that Ben Spiralli was sentenced to only two years, Todd,’ Jake commented.

  ‘That’s right. Yesterday,’ answered Todd. ‘It was too lenient and he could be released within a year with good behaviour. I was hoping for a longer sentence.’

  ‘Why was it so lenient?’ Lucy asked.

  ‘The magistrate said that intent to supply wasn’t sufficiently proven nor had it been proven that Spiralli knew anything about the drugs in his truck or even that he was actually a gang member. The magistrate also said that Spiralli had convinced the court that he’d been manipulated by the drug dealers. But he was at least guilty of being associated with them enough to be implicated, had been caught in possession of Class A drugs and had breached his assault conditions, so he had to go down. Just not for as long as we’d hoped because this was his first sentence.’

  ‘Dana phoned too,’ said Lucy. ‘She told me you helped her with a restraining order against Ben Spiralli bothering her again.’

  ‘Yes, it went through within a couple of days while Spiralli was still on remand. We already had Stelt’s written promise note, so Molly will be fine too.’

  ‘Good! Let’s hope that’s the last we hear of any trouble for those two poor girls,’ Jake commented.

  *

  Chatter over dinner was full of laughter as they light-heartedly teased Charlotte about her misplaced secrecy with Ella. It was later over coffee and a half empty bottle of Jake’s favourite Tokaji that Ella raised a toast.

  ‘It’s so kind of you to invite me,’ Ella told them.

  ‘Not at all,’ Lucy replied smiling. ‘It’s always great to make new friends.’

  ‘And that’s my toast for this evening!’ she declared. ‘New friends!’

  ‘New friends’ chorused the rest of her new inner naturist circle.

  PART TWO

  Chapter 20

  ON Sunday, the day after his arrival at Hardston, Spiralli began to work on his plan of retribution for Dana MacStewart. He busied himself with discovering who was due for release imminently. Of the four he learnt were to be released within the next two weeks, he separately started a conversation with each. One of the four, he’d heard from other inmates, was a low-intellect psychopathic offender. Just what he was looking for.

  ‘Hey man, I hear you’re gonna be out of here tomorrow,’ Ben whispered as he sidled up to Dmitry Durak in the exercise yard on that sunny Sunday morning. Spiralli was a short man and a hard, wiry battler. At twenty years of age, his upbringing had been tough and had left him with negligible compassion. Durak, a thirty-seven year old hardened Ukrainian lowlife, was much bigger and broader, with a sullen, bony face and shaved skull; not what one would call a good-looking man.

  ‘Fuck off, fish!’ Durak told him, without turning his head in Spiralli’s direction.

  ‘Got plenty of cash to see you through when you get out? Need some help with that?’

  At that, Durak turned to Spiralli. ‘What help?’

  ‘I need a little job doing outside.’

  ‘How much?’

  ‘A grand. Two hundred as soon as you get out and the rest after the job.’

&n
bsp; ‘Two grand!’

  ‘A grand. Otherwise no deal and I’ll find someone else.’

  Durak couldn’t afford to let this go. His brain, however, took some time to let this sink in, and, looking vague, he said nothing.

  ‘You’ll do it. You know you will,’ Spiralli told him disdainfully. ‘You didn’t even ask what the fucking job is!’

  ‘So what is it?’

  Spiralli told him.

  Chapter 21

  EVERYTHING went according to plan on Monday after school. Renata met Stevie and Paige and fifteen minutes after arriving home, Marie-Louise came to collect Paige. Renata invited her in but she declined and minutes later, Renata and Stevie had the house to themselves.

  Chapter 22

  SPIRALLI’S close pal, Bobby-Joe Henderton, received a phone call on Tuesday morning, the day after Durak’s release.

  ‘Got a message for you from your mate inside,’ Durak said into the phone.

  ‘Which mate? Who the fuck are you?’

  The caller didn’t give his name. ‘You know which mate. Meet me tonight after dark at his place. Bring his keys. You’re gonna need ‘em.’ The line was disconnected.

  Chapter 23

  ON Tuesday afternoon, Marie-Louise was late arriving at the Perks home to collect Paige. Forty-five minutes late, in fact. Frazzled, she accepted the offer of a cup of tea and a quiet sit-down for a few minutes. Olivia and Dominic bickered in front of the television and Paige and Stevie headed upstairs. Paige couldn’t resist it; she had to check out those tantalising dolls she’d been ogling and crept into Evie’s bedroom. Stevie shrugged and went to his own room, leaving her to it.

  ‘Renata, please accept my apologies,’ Marie-Louise began. ‘I was delayed on a conference call and simply couldn’t get away on time. I was late for Olivia and Dominic too. They’d been taken back into the school because they’re not allowed to wait outside if parents aren’t there to meet them. I had to search for them in the school and I had no idea where they’d be. I discovered eventually that there’s a special room for kids to wait for their parents, which I didn’t know about, and now I know where to find them in future I won’t be quite so late.’