by steve higgs
‘Okay.’
‘I should mention that the crime lab guys were able to prove that someone had tampered with Kimberly’s shampoo. There was an exotic cocktail of carefully crafted chemicals in it that could only have been produced by a very knowledgeable chemist. There were also traces of chemicals on the outside of the shampoo bottle that suggest he is involved in the production of crystal meth.’
‘Really? Big Ben and Jane said simultaneously.
‘I think he is the Magdalene King. Someone the police have been after for more years than he has been alive, but I think maybe he has assumed the role or come into it by deposing the previous guy. I don’t know, I’m still working out the idea, but I will be tailing him from now on.’
‘Is there anything you specifically want me to ask him tonight? Or do I just make chit-chat and let him talk about whatever he wants?' Jane asked.
‘You could maybe drop in about religion, see if he talks about voodoo at all. Maybe ask what he does for a living, see if he brags about a shady side.'
Big Ben had a thought, ‘You could say that bad boys are a bit of a turn on for you and see if he takes the bait. Lots of guys like to pretend to be the dangerous, gangster sort.’
‘Time to go.' Jane said, checking the time on her phone and putting down her now empty teacup.
‘We’ll be back once it is done.’ said Big Ben doing likewise.
‘Hold on I’m coming with you.’
‘Won't he recognise you?' Asked Jane.
‘Give me one minute.’ I rushed to the bedroom. I had been thinking about this for a few hours. I have some costume makeup from a Halloween event a few years back and outfits that will alter my appearance. If Jane could be a man dressed up to look like a completely convincing girl, then I could turn myself into a boy.
I had a short wig that I tucked all my hair into and a pair of men's cargo pants and paint-spattered caterpillar boots that had been left in my flat when I booted a cheating boyfriend out a couple of years back. His feet were only a size bigger than mine, so I used them when I had crappy tasks to do and didn't want to ruin anything of my own. I wiped off the little makeup I usually wore and used mascara to thicken the fine hairs on my face. It would be dark in the bar and all I needed to do was not look like Amanda Harper to Bartholomew. We would sit close enough to see him, but not so close that he would be able to notice me. I could probably sit with my back to him and let Big Ben do the surveillance bit anyway.
Satisfied that I looked manly enough to fool someone that was not looking at me, I went back out to find Big Ben and Jane standing by my door and waiting to go.
‘Oh.’ Said Jane.
‘Oh, good, or oh bad?’ I asked.
‘It’ll do.’ Replied Big Ben. ‘Although, you forgot one element in your transformation.’
I stepped to my right to look in the full-length mirror I had by the door. ‘What?’ I asked when I failed to see what to him was clearly obvious.’
‘Sweetie, you have rather large boobs.’
Oops. He was right.
‘Too late now. Let's go.' And with that, I pushed them both out of my apartment and down the stairs.
Jane's Date. Wednesday, November 2nd 2000hrs
When we arrived at the bar, Big Ben and I had gone in first. I spotted Bartholomew straight away, in a cubby not far from the bar. We took a table that was diagonally across the room from him and quite close to the door. I had a direct line of sight to watch him but sat so that my natural angle of vision was not on him. Big Ben went up the bar to order drinks and scope the rest of the bar just to see if Barty had any of his friends with him.
Big Ben would not know what they looked like but was savvy enough to watch body language and spot two people looking at each other too often for it to be a coincidence.
A minute after we came in, timed so that we could have a quick look around and position ourselves, Jane came through the door.
Bartholomew had been watching and, through the wonders of modern internet dating, knew exactly what she looked like. I watched his face. He was very pleased to see her.
There wasn’t much we could do now except hang on and see how Jane got on. Really, we were only there as a rescue squad if Jane wanted to bail.
Big Ben returned with two large gin cocktails and sat down adjacent to me. We could both watch the corner where Jane and Bartholomew were sat, but both needed to avoid doing so in case we made it obvious.
‘You were telling me about Patience.’ Big Ben reminded me.
‘Sorry, yes, Patience.' I said. 'Missing but officially, of course, she isn't.'
‘How about unofficially?' His voice was guarded, or perhaps it was concern I was hearing, like if someone hurt her he would make them pay.
‘I don’t know where she is and neither does anyone else. I spoke with her mum and her sisters, they mostly suggested she was to be found in bed with a man.’
’You don’t think so though.’ He said it as a statement.
‘Patience always tells me about the men she meets. She told me more than I wanted to know about you. She hasn’t mentioned anyone in the last week, so unless she met a guy last night I don’t think that is the answer.’ Talking about it was making me more worried for her. Tomorrow I would need to press the chaps at the station to do something.
‘Do you think he might have something to do with it?’ he asked, meaning Bartholomew.
‘I don’t know.’
We both lapsed into silence and sipped our drinks. Neither of us wanted to have more than one drink tonight and had chosen alcohol so that we would not stand out as the only two people in the place not drinking. Jane and Bartholomew seemed to be getting on famously. They were both talking animatedly, laughing and smiling and I risked a wry smile at the thought that Jane could really mess with some guys by pretending to be a girl only to reveal what was under her dress later on.
Big Ben and I made conversation to pass the time. It was nice to actually talk to him without him trying to get me into bed for once. Being out in a bar with him only made me think of Brett though and my need to speak with him to clear up the mess. He had asked me not to call though, so I wouldn't, even though I worried he would just meet someone while he was on his kitesurfing break. He was too handsome not to attract whatever females were in his location. What if he was in bed with one right now? Forgetting all about me as he writhed around with another girl.
Big Ben spoke to break my train of thought, ‘You are having an odd effect.’ I looked at him with a quizzical expression, so he would expand on his statement. ‘When I go in a bar, girls come up to me. Doesn’t matter if I am already with a girl or if the girl coming over to me is out with her boyfriend or husband. Since we came in, not one girl has approached me, but I have had several smiles from different guys. They think I am gay. You must look more convincing from a distance.’
‘I guess I do.' I checked my watch. It was nearly ten o'clock. Two hours had slipped by. I was getting tired, not to mention bored. I hadn't thought their date would go on this long, but just as I was thinking about how I could possibly cause the date to end, Jane stood up. Bartholomew did likewise, then helped her into her long, elegant winter coat and walked her to the door. As they went by us, I could hear him asking if he could walk her home. It sounded like he had already asked several times when she replied that it really wasn't necessary.
Before we came into the bar we had all agreed that if the date came to a natural conclusion, Jane would leave and head back to my place. I would follow her, and Big Ben would follow Bartholomew. Jane was outside now and walking away. We could see her through the windows. I couldn't leave to catch up with her though because Bartholomew was standing in the doorway with his phone in his hands, his fingers typing something to someone. A minute went by. I wanted to leave, but I dare not get too close to him in case he recognised me.
Thankfully, he slipped his phone into a pocket, zipped up his coat against the cool air outside and left. I got up.
‘
Let’s go.’ I said to Big Ben, although I was already leaving. I turned around to check our plan as I pushed the door open. ‘I’ll try to catch up with Jane. Meet me back at mine?’ He nodded, and I saw his eyes flare at something ahead of me.
I turned to see what he was looking at and bumped straight into Bartholomew as he came back into the bar.
There was a moment where he was about to apologise and then he saw through my disguise.
‘You.’ He sneered. ‘Stalking me now, are you? Now I really will have to teach you a lesson.’ He made to grab for me but suddenly the hulking form of Big Ben was in between us.
‘I think you should reconsider that idea.’ Big Ben said calmly.
I moved to the side so that I could see around Big Ben at what Bartholomew was doing. He pulled a hand-stitched doll-looking thing from his pocket – a voodoo doll and grabbed for Big Ben’s hair. Big Ben punched him in the mouth and Bartholomew went bowling back out into the street, straight into the doorman’s legs, felling him like a tree.
‘Sorry about that.’ Big Ben said as he stepped over the tangle of bodies. He had hold of my arm to steer me along. I was going anyway. We left the scene, any thought of tailing Bartholomew abandoned.
After Jane's Date. Wednesday, November 2nd 2209hrs
Jane had gone around the corner and stepped into the darkened alcove of a shop to wait for us. She emerged into the street light as we approached.
‘Hey, guys.' She was smiling.
‘Hey, how’d it go?’ I asked.
Jane sighed and sort of gave herself a hug as she grinned at the sky before fixing her gaze back on us. ‘He is such a sweetie. If I were not already in a relationship…'
‘Err, Jane you seem to have forgotten the bit about him being a crazed stalker that attacks ex-girlfriends with chemicals.’
‘Yeah.’ Said Big Ben. ‘What do you think he would do to you after he lifts your skirt for the first time and finds himself confronted by the last chicken in the butcher’s shop?’
Jane pursed her lips at him. ‘I didn’t say I was going to do anything, did I?’
‘Never mind that, Jane. What did he say? Were you able to get him to talk about voodoo or drugs or being an outright criminal scumbag?’
‘No, I wasn’t.’ she replied, her face taking on the dreamy look again. ‘He told me he works with his mum and dad at their chemical business developing new products for various industries. He showed me a couple of new products that they have intellectual property rights for and said that was how his parents made their money. He goes to church every Sunday and sings in the choir and he is just lovely. He wants to see me again tomorrow night. He said he would plan something and call me.’ She locked eyes with me. ‘I think you have the wrong man.’
‘Really? How much gin did you have?’
‘It has nothing to do with the gin. I just cannot see how that sweet boy is involved in the things you have said.’
‘You met the client, right?’
‘Oh, yeah.’
I rolled my eyes. Bartholomew was a good actor or had created a convincing alter ego that he let the world see while he went about his nefarious activities. Tonight was a bust.
‘Let's call it a night, okay? Jane, I will be spending tomorrow tailing Bartholomew. If he is involved in the manufacture of crystal meth all I need to do is follow him and work out where he is doing it. There will be trucks to bring raw material in and other vehicles to take the product out. Plus, he will need somewhere big to make it.'
Jane had nothing else to say on the matter, so we air kissed back at her car and she went home. Big Ben waved us goodnight and jogged back towards the town, presumably to walk into a bar and pick up a girl for the night.
I went to bed.
Surveillance. Thursday, November 3rd 0600hrs
I awoke in the dark. Disorientated for a moment, I remembered what I planned to do today and silently groaned to myself. Last night, when my ire was up, I had been determined that today I would follow Bartholomew wherever he went and prove that he was the Magdalene King. Now though, I admitted to myself that I had neither the skill nor the resource to pull something like that off.
Where the heck was Tempest when I needed him? He would know what to do and how to do it. As soon as the thought manifested, I pushed it back down. I rolled over and swung myself out of bed.
Stop being pathetic, Amanda. You don’t need a man to rescue you.
I was going to be a strong woman. I was going to solve this for myself, not for anyone else – other than Kimberly, of course. I was going to be the master of my own destiny, dammit!
Yeah, but wouldn’t it be nice if you married Brett and didn’t have to do any of this?
The question that popped uninvited into my head had my mother’s voice. I ignored it as well and shoved an angry arm into my sports bra as I pulled it over my head. I was going to be the best version of me today. That started with doing some exercise. It would focus my mind and get me ready for the day.
I went out the door just after six o’clock. It was pitch dark and lightly drizzling, but I was going for a run and had Beyoncé in my ears to remind me how powerful I could be.
As she booted a man out of her life, because she could have another man in a minute, I turned away from my apartment and set off on the hard route, the one I really hated that made me run uphill.
Forty minutes later, I staggered back through the door to my place, out of breath, sweaty but elated. Today I was going to be a winner.
There were no spiders or snakes in my apartment. Perhaps the curse had a limited lifespan, or perhaps Bartholomew had bigger issues to attend to. I was going to find out what they were today. My first task was to go to Patience’s place and see if she had come home yet. If she hadn’t, then I needed to go to the station, or at least speak to them as her disappearance ought to now be something they were concerned about.
Breakfast was cream cheese and smoked salmon on a pair of bagels and a bowl of blueberries with natural yoghurt. Proud of myself for starting the day like a champion, I went out the door just after half past seven. The first stop on my list was Patience's building.
There was traffic on the roads already, plenty of it as busy people made their way to work and mums drove kids to school. It was moving though, so the drive to her building took no time at all.
Her car was still there in the same spot, but there were no lights on in her apartment. I went up anyway and hammered on the door loudly enough to ensure she heard me if she was in and asleep, but not so loudly that I would wake all her neighbours.
I waited, but once again there was no response. Praying that she was just hooked up with a man somewhere, but not believing it for a minute, I trudged back out to my car and drove to the police station in the centre of town.
I didn’t park in the car park around the back, I no longer had a pass to get me through the barrier. That had been taken from me as well. Instead, I parked in the visitors’ car park like everyone else and had to put money in the ticket machine.
Manning the front desk was PC Alison French and Sgt Butterworth. I got on well with both.
Alison looked up and spotted me as I came through the front doors. ‘Oh, hi, Amanda.’
Sgt Butterworth turned to see who it was, ‘I didn’t expect to see you back here so soon.’ He said, peering over the top of his glasses.
‘I just can’t seem to stay away.’ I replied, rather than get into why he thought I would want to avoid the place. I knew why: CI Quinn hated me and was determined to make my life horrible if he got a chance. ‘I came to ask you about Patience, actually. I want to know if anyone has heard from her. She hasn’t been home in two days and has abandoned her car and phone.’
Alison raised her eyebrows. Sgt Butterworth just tutted. He disliked Patience, with good reason as she was a bitch to him. To be fair Patience was horrible to most men, but some took it well and gave it back as good as they got, others, like Sgt Butterworth, took offence.
‘Have you
spoken with her family at all?’ Alison asked.
‘Yes, they don’t know where she is. Her sister suggested she might just be with a man somewhere, but I don’t think she is.’
‘Why is that?’ asked Sgt Butterworth, making no effort to conceal the disdain and boredom in his voice.
‘Because she tells me everything. If there was a man, I would know about it.’
He didn't bother to reply. He found some paperwork to shuffle instead. ‘Look.' I said, addressing Alison. 'I know that officially you cannot do anything about this yet, but I am reporting that PC Woods is missing and may be in trouble.' Behind Alison, Sgt Butterworth gave a quiet snort.
‘I’ll make a few calls.’ Alison assured me.
‘No, you won't.' Sgt Butterworth shot back. ‘You will get on with your job. Miss Woods will report for duty when she is next on shift and be just as unpleasant as usual.' He turned to me. 'I suppose you think she has been taken by your voodoo priest?' he watched my expression. ‘Yes, we all know about your crazy theories now that you work for Tempest Michaels. No doubt there is a spook behind every corner at that ridiculous firm. You can see yourself out.' I was being dismissed. One of their own was missing and might be hurt and I was being dismissed.
Alison flared her eyes at me. She was going to do what she could, no matter what Sgt Butterworth said. I heard Quinn's voice echoing through to the front desk from somewhere deeper in the station and decided it was time to leave.
I had to find Bartholomew and let him lead me to the crystal meth. I didn't know where he was though, and I couldn't afford to have him spot me tailing him. I had seen his car. If I had friends in the station still, I would be able to get them to look out for it, but I had the feeling that a request for help from me would be less well received than it would have been a few days ago. Quinn had probably threatened them all with disciplinary proceedings if they did help me.