…

I was told once that I lacked imagination.

It cost me a relationship and my dream job, and it still hurt.

The thing is, in a situation where, if I could have thought outside the box, it would have saved lives, particularly Sharon’s, the woman I was supposed to marry three days after the event that ended her life.

And, it was my fault.  I accepted responsibility, lost my job, and rightly or wrongly, spent five years of my life in jail, perhaps not the worst thing to happen to me.

What was worse was the knowledge I could have prevented it, and saved her life and five others.  That was harder, almost impossible to live with.  I had never imagined what it would be like without her, because I never imagined I’d fail.

Now I could not imagine what it would be like on the outside, back in the world again, with nothing.

“So Ken, ready to take that giant step for mankind?”

Louie, one of several prison guards I’d got to know over the time I’d been incarcerated, had already delivered my stuff after breakfast after I’d said my goodbyes, and had come back to take on that last journey to the front gate

“You do realise that a high percentage of inmates re-offend within a month or two.  It’s a hard world out there, full of hate and distrust.  Easier just to re-offend and come back to safety.”

“I don’t intend to come back.”  There were 9 other reasons why I didn’t want to return, and one big one. Lodge.  He only had one name, and he didn’t need another.  Survival in those first few months had been my primary concern, and he tried to make it his.

I’d been expecting a visit at breakfast, to let me know it was not safe on the outside, and that I would get my just desserts.  People like Lodge did not like to lose, and he had simmered for years.  Luckily he would never see the outside again.

He didn’t arrive, perhaps because they locked him up but he’d made the threat before. 

“They all say that, but we’ll see.  Let’s go “

Some say the air is different on the outside, but it wasn’t.  The jail complex was in the middle of a large open space, miles from anywhere.  It was there so even if someone escaped they would have to traverse at least a mile in the wide-open surroundings.

No one had escaped.  Ever.

Outside the gate was a visitor parking area, much larger than needed, and the sun beating down on the concrete made it at least 10 degrees hotter

Louie opened the gate and waved his hand, the invitation to leave the confines of the jail.  He was right.  Despite Lodge, it had become a safe haven, and I wasn’t looking forward to going home.

There were too many memories there, so I’d planned to go somewhere where no one knew who I was.  I just wanted to become invisible.

“Are you expecting anyone?”  He asked.

 “There is no one who would want to see me.  They’re all probably still angry I only got five years.”

“Like I said, it’s an ugly world out there. There’s a bus in about ten minutes.  Goes to the nearest town.  From there you can go anywhere.  Have a nice life, Jack.”

“You too Louie “

The 50-yard walk to the bus stop was like trudging through head-high water, and by the time I got to the stop I was sweating profusely.

Five minutes, I saw a lone car coming along the road and then turning off the road to come to the jail.  A visitor.  There weren’t very many of those people in this jail.  I didn’t get one the whole time I was there.  My family, mother, father, brother, and sister had effectively disowned me. They hadn’t even bothered to come to the trial.

It was not unexpected.  They had disapproved of my choice of Sharon and were not coming to the wedding.  I know she was disappointed.

The car slowed and turned into the car park then slowly made its way to the bus stop.  Was someone else being released today?

It stopped just past the bus’s designated spot and a driver just sat there.  A woman, perhaps the wife or girlfriend of one of the inmates. 

Five minutes, then she got out.  She started walking towards me, with a familiar shape and gait.  It couldn’t be Sharon, but Sharon said she had a sister who’d moved away, who hated her family, and who had been all but exorcised from their collective memory.

Perhaps the fact she worked for the FBI might have had something to do with it because my father had told me Sharon’s family were nothing more than a bunch of petty criminals, and that I should have known better, as fellow law enforcement myself. Perhaps I should have told him that love makes us blind.  The real answer, I didn’t care.

Perhaps I should have.

“Jack Orville?”

I stood.  “Yes.”

“I’m Louise Ranchess, Sharon’s sister, the one they never speak of.  I’ve been investigating your case.”

“Not much use, unless your family wants me to spend the rest of my life in that place behind me.  Is that why you’re here?””My family were murdered about a year after you were incarcerated.  Some might say it was just desserts, but none should die like that.  Your case and theirs are linked, and I’ve been waiting for your release.  I think you were set up.  Sharon called me the night she died, said she had something for me, and that her life was in danger.  I ignored that call.”

“I simply made a wrong call.  And I doubt Sharon was doing anything other than messing with you.  She said she loved winding you up.  There’s no conspiracy here.  I’m sorry for the loss of your family.”

“You were law enforcement.”

“A small county deputy, at the bottom of the ladder.  Traffic violations, and petty crimes.”

“Didn’t you realize the Sherriff was corrupt?”

“He was popular.  People bought him stuff, and treated him nicely because he kept them safe.” 

She snorted.  “Paid handsomely to look the other way.  He was responsible for your debacle.  He had you put on the case, no doubt saying it was your first big case on the road to bigger and better things. It should have been handled by his specialist officer, not an inexperienced rookie.”

I remembered that speech, tied to the fact I was about to be married, and the job was the stepping stone to providing my bride with everything she deserved.  He knew where he was sending me and whom it involved, knowing my thinking would be compromised by my feelings.  I also remembered him saying at the review afterwards he had no idea she would be at the crime scene, and by the time he realised it and arranged for another officer to take over it was too late.  It was an outcome he wanted because by them I had growing suspicions of his corruption and had followed him on several occasions only to find him secretly meeting members of rival crime families.  I thought he was trying to solve their differences, but it was more likely he was taking bribes to inform each of them to the other.  How else could he afford a ski lodge at Aspen?

“He wanted you out of the way Jack.  Long enough to finish what he started and retire as a very rich man.  I didn’t like my family nor did I like Sharon very much, but they were my family and they died horribly.  I can’t help them now, but you were wrongly jailed and I can do something about that.  I just need your help.”

“I’m an ex-con and you’re FBI aren’t you?”

She nodded.  “But treated with kid gloves because of my family.  After 10 years I’m still trying to prove to them I can be trusted.  I just need to break one big case.”

In the distance, I could see the bus coming.  Do I take it and get on with the rest of my life, ir do I accept the offer of getting justice for being wronged, ironically getting help from Sharon’s sister?  Had someone suggested this as a possible outcome of five years in jail I would have laughed at them.

Even now it seemed unbelievable.  No one had cared five years ago, all everyone wanted was a rapid conviction.  I had considered the Sheriff was the only one who would benefit the most from my jailing, but was too lost in grief to do anything about it, and as time passed I didn’t let it eat me up.

No point.  Even now it would be just a case of his word against mine, and who would listen to an ex-con.  I doubted having Louise on my side would carry much sway, given her family connection.  It would just be viewed as revenge.

“My help would not be a help.”

“You want him to get away with it?”

“You know how it works.  Ex-con versus respected law officer.  And your boss will look at the family connection, and come to the same conclusion.”

“Not if we get solid evidence.”

“And how do we do that?”

“He’s sitting in a special room waiting to tell us, right now.  I just need you to ask the right questions.”

I turned and looked at the jail behind me, and then at the bus turning off the main road.  This was a recipe for disaster.  I could tell from the heightened state of her manner and the octave-higher voice that there was more to this story.  Something was not right.

The bus was turning into the carpark.  The jail was beckoning, and would no doubt be happy to swallow me back into the fold and prove Louie right.  I knew instinctively if I got in that car with her, it would be the ticket that would put me back inside.

“You have about 30 seconds to tell me the truth.”

She looked me up and down, trying to decide if I could be trusted.  Considering where we were standing, it wasn’t hard.

“He’s tied up, literally.  The bastard knows everything, and we can get it.  Believe me, with or without you, he’s going to tell me everything.”

I didn’t doubt the sincerity of that statement, whether or not I believed she was unhinged or not.  Perhaps I would be the voice of reason because right now this woman was off the reservation.

Another look at the prison, then the bus, almost upon us, then, decision made.  “Let’s go.  Tell me what this is about on the way.”

For better or worse I’d made my bed.  I just hope I wouldn’t live to regret it.

…

© Charles Heath 2023

…

I was told once that I lacked imagination.

It cost me a relationship and my dream job, and it still hurt.

The thing is, in a situation where, if I could have thought outside the box, it would have saved lives, particularly Sharon’s, the woman I was supposed to marry three days after the event that ended her life.

And, it was my fault.  I accepted responsibility, lost my job, and rightly or wrongly, spent five years of my life in jail, perhaps not the worst thing to happen to me.

What was worse was the knowledge I could have prevented it, and saved her life and five others.  That was harder, almost impossible to live with.  I had never imagined what it would be like without her, because I never imagined I’d fail.

Now I could not imagine what it would be like on the outside, back in the world again, with nothing.

“So Ken, ready to take that giant step for mankind?”

Louie, one of several prison guards I’d got to know over the time I’d been incarcerated, had already delivered my stuff after breakfast after I’d said my goodbyes, and had come back to take on that last journey to the front gate

“You do realise that a high percentage of inmates re-offend within a month or two.  It’s a hard world out there, full of hate and distrust.  Easier just to re-offend and come back to safety.”

“I don’t intend to come back.”  There were 9 other reasons why I didn’t want to return, and one big one. Lodge.  He only had one name, and he didn’t need another.  Survival in those first few months had been my primary concern, and he tried to make it his.

I’d been expecting a visit at breakfast, to let me know it was not safe on the outside, and that I would get my just desserts.  People like Lodge did not like to lose, and he had simmered for years.  Luckily he would never see the outside again.

He didn’t arrive, perhaps because they locked him up but he’d made the threat before. 

“They all say that, but we’ll see.  Let’s go “

Some say the air is different on the outside, but it wasn’t.  The jail complex was in the middle of a large open space, miles from anywhere.  It was there so even if someone escaped they would have to traverse at least a mile in the wide-open surroundings.

No one had escaped.  Ever.

Outside the gate was a visitor parking area, much larger than needed, and the sun beating down on the concrete made it at least 10 degrees hotter

Louie opened the gate and waved his hand, the invitation to leave the confines of the jail.  He was right.  Despite Lodge, it had become a safe haven, and I wasn’t looking forward to going home.

There were too many memories there, so I’d planned to go somewhere where no one knew who I was.  I just wanted to become invisible.

“Are you expecting anyone?”  He asked.

 “There is no one who would want to see me.  They’re all probably still angry I only got five years.”

“Like I said, it’s an ugly world out there. There’s a bus in about ten minutes.  Goes to the nearest town.  From there you can go anywhere.  Have a nice life, Jack.”

“You too Louie “

The 50-yard walk to the bus stop was like trudging through head-high water, and by the time I got to the stop I was sweating profusely.

Five minutes, I saw a lone car coming along the road and then turning off the road to come to the jail.  A visitor.  There weren’t very many of those people in this jail.  I didn’t get one the whole time I was there.  My family, mother, father, brother, and sister had effectively disowned me. They hadn’t even bothered to come to the trial.

It was not unexpected.  They had disapproved of my choice of Sharon and were not coming to the wedding.  I know she was disappointed.

The car slowed and turned into the car park then slowly made its way to the bus stop.  Was someone else being released today?

It stopped just past the bus’s designated spot and a driver just sat there.  A woman, perhaps the wife or girlfriend of one of the inmates. 

Five minutes, then she got out.  She started walking towards me, with a familiar shape and gait.  It couldn’t be Sharon, but Sharon said she had a sister who’d moved away, who hated her family, and who had been all but exorcised from their collective memory.

Perhaps the fact she worked for the FBI might have had something to do with it because my father had told me Sharon’s family were nothing more than a bunch of petty criminals, and that I should have known better, as fellow law enforcement myself. Perhaps I should have told him that love makes us blind.  The real answer, I didn’t care.

Perhaps I should have.

“Jack Orville?”

I stood.  “Yes.”

“I’m Louise Ranchess, Sharon’s sister, the one they never speak of.  I’ve been investigating your case.”

“Not much use, unless your family wants me to spend the rest of my life in that place behind me.  Is that why you’re here?””My family were murdered about a year after you were incarcerated.  Some might say it was just desserts, but none should die like that.  Your case and theirs are linked, and I’ve been waiting for your release.  I think you were set up.  Sharon called me the night she died, said she had something for me, and that her life was in danger.  I ignored that call.”

“I simply made a wrong call.  And I doubt Sharon was doing anything other than messing with you.  She said she loved winding you up.  There’s no conspiracy here.  I’m sorry for the loss of your family.”

“You were law enforcement.”

“A small county deputy, at the bottom of the ladder.  Traffic violations, and petty crimes.”

“Didn’t you realize the Sherriff was corrupt?”

“He was popular.  People bought him stuff, and treated him nicely because he kept them safe.” 

She snorted.  “Paid handsomely to look the other way.  He was responsible for your debacle.  He had you put on the case, no doubt saying it was your first big case on the road to bigger and better things. It should have been handled by his specialist officer, not an inexperienced rookie.”

I remembered that speech, tied to the fact I was about to be married, and the job was the stepping stone to providing my bride with everything she deserved.  He knew where he was sending me and whom it involved, knowing my thinking would be compromised by my feelings.  I also remembered him saying at the review afterwards he had no idea she would be at the crime scene, and by the time he realised it and arranged for another officer to take over it was too late.  It was an outcome he wanted because by them I had growing suspicions of his corruption and had followed him on several occasions only to find him secretly meeting members of rival crime families.  I thought he was trying to solve their differences, but it was more likely he was taking bribes to inform each of them to the other.  How else could he afford a ski lodge at Aspen?

“He wanted you out of the way Jack.  Long enough to finish what he started and retire as a very rich man.  I didn’t like my family nor did I like Sharon very much, but they were my family and they died horribly.  I can’t help them now, but you were wrongly jailed and I can do something about that.  I just need your help.”

“I’m an ex-con and you’re FBI aren’t you?”

She nodded.  “But treated with kid gloves because of my family.  After 10 years I’m still trying to prove to them I can be trusted.  I just need to break one big case.”

In the distance, I could see the bus coming.  Do I take it and get on with the rest of my life, ir do I accept the offer of getting justice for being wronged, ironically getting help from Sharon’s sister?  Had someone suggested this as a possible outcome of five years in jail I would have laughed at them.

Even now it seemed unbelievable.  No one had cared five years ago, all everyone wanted was a rapid conviction.  I had considered the Sheriff was the only one who would benefit the most from my jailing, but was too lost in grief to do anything about it, and as time passed I didn’t let it eat me up.

No point.  Even now it would be just a case of his word against mine, and who would listen to an ex-con.  I doubted having Louise on my side would carry much sway, given her family connection.  It would just be viewed as revenge.

“My help would not be a help.”

“You want him to get away with it?”

“You know how it works.  Ex-con versus respected law officer.  And your boss will look at the family connection, and come to the same conclusion.”

“Not if we get solid evidence.”

“And how do we do that?”

“He’s sitting in a special room waiting to tell us, right now.  I just need you to ask the right questions.”

I turned and looked at the jail behind me, and then at the bus turning off the main road.  This was a recipe for disaster.  I could tell from the heightened state of her manner and the octave-higher voice that there was more to this story.  Something was not right.

The bus was turning into the carpark.  The jail was beckoning, and would no doubt be happy to swallow me back into the fold and prove Louie right.  I knew instinctively if I got in that car with her, it would be the ticket that would put me back inside.

“You have about 30 seconds to tell me the truth.”

She looked me up and down, trying to decide if I could be trusted.  Considering where we were standing, it wasn’t hard.

“He’s tied up, literally.  The bastard knows everything, and we can get it.  Believe me, with or without you, he’s going to tell me everything.”

I didn’t doubt the sincerity of that statement, whether or not I believed she was unhinged or not.  Perhaps I would be the voice of reason because right now this woman was off the reservation.

Another look at the prison, then the bus, almost upon us, then, decision made.  “Let’s go.  Tell me what this is about on the way.”

For better or worse I’d made my bed.  I just hope I wouldn’t live to regret it.

…

© Charles Heath 2023

…

It was not more than twenty minutes since I’d walked in the door after attending the funeral, and then the wake, for my parents who had died in a motor vehicle accident in the south of France.

I’d met a man I’d never seen before who had given me an ancient envelope before he disappeared, in which there was a note and a copy of my father’s will.

The family solicitor, Lawrence Wellingham, who had attended the funeral and who told me he did not have a current will, had visited me not long after I got home, a man who had told me that anyone who said my parents had died, other than from an accident was to be ignored.

With the will had been a letter, my father saying if he died in an accident, it was likely not an accident, and to contact a man called Albert Stritching.

Then, not five minutes after Lawrence Wellingham left, Albert Stritching called.

It was a series of events that defied explanation.

After a few moments to get over the shock of hearing the name so soon, I said, “The same Albert Stritching my fathers said I needed to talk to if anything happened to him?”

“He left you a note?”

“Were you the person at the funeral who handed me the envelope?”

“I didn’t know there was a funeral.  What man?”

“About 70, grey hair, beard, blue Italian suit, brown shoes, the shoes seemed an odd addition.  Tie was old school, Eton, I think.

“Sir Percival.  We all went to school together, a long time ago.  He was what you might call, your father’s boss, mine too for that matter, when I worked in the same department.”

“What did my father, and you, do?”

“That is a long story.  We need to meet, as soon as possible.  What I can tell you, for now, is that you need to be careful.  Do you have anyone with you?”

“No.”

“I assume you are currently at your father’s house?”

“Yes.”

“OK.  Stay there, and I’ll send someone over, just to make sure you’re safe.  Her name is Genevieve, one of our personal protection officers.  Her identification code is your father’s middle name.  You do know it?”

“Yes.”

“Good.  Don’t answer the phone, or the door till she gets there.”

It was odd to think that trouble would come to what my father often referred to as hallowed ground.  The house was his sanctuary, a place no one knew about, a place he never invited anyone but family.  Not even close friends.

The thought, or notion, that trouble could visit here was preposterous.

And yet…

I heard the sound of a high-powered motorcycle from the distance, slowly getting louder until it stopped not far from my front door.  Peering through the front window from behind the curtains, I saw a figure dismount, take off the helmet and shake out a lot of blonde hair.

She looked too young to be in personal protection.

Carrying the helmet in one hand, she came up the path to the front door and knocked.

I left the door shut and yelled out, “Who are you?”

“I was sent by Albert Stritching.  My name is Genevieve.”

I opened the door a fraction, leaving the safety chain attached.

“The identification code?”

“Alwyn.”

I closed the door, removed the chain, and opened it for her to pass.  A look down the path to see if anyone was following her, which there was not, and I shut it.

“Anyone call or ring,” she asked, looking around the room.

It was old and musty smelling because it rarely got any sunlight.  The fire I’d lit earlier in the morning before going out, was slowly reviving after I’d put some more wood on the embers.  In another half hour, the temperature in the room would be above freezing.

“No.  What happens now?”

“I stay until Mr Stritching arrives, sometime tomorrow.  In fact, I have been assigned to mind you for the next few days.  All I can tell you is that it is possible your life is in danger.  And your parents were murdered.  We don’t yet know by whom, or why.  I assume your father didn’t tell you what he was doing?”

“Other than going on a well-earned, his words, holiday with my mother, no.”

“I assume you don’t normally stay in this house.”

“Not normally, but I have for the past three and a half months while they were away.  I sometimes house-sit for them.  My father told me that when he got back, we would talk about the future.  I guess that’s impossible now.”

“Didn’t leave anything to read in case of his untimely demise?”

The girl was asking a lot of questions for someone who was supposed to be a bodyguard.  Was she more than that, like another fixer for the same organisation my father now appeared to work for?

“No.”

“Anything at all?”

I decided then and there I was not going to tell this person anything, especially about the note.  “Nothing.  Had the police not come to inform me, they would still be travelling in Europe somewhere, blissfully unaware, a state I’m beginning to wonder may never return.

“Mind if I have a look around, see how secure the place is?”

“Sure.  If you’re staying, there’s a choice of three rooms on the left side of the corridor.  Mine is on the right.”

The notion that I could be in danger seemed to me to be a little over the top.  I had no contact with my father over anything concerning his business.  In fact, I knew very little about his business, being told back then, that he was independently wealthy, whatever that meant, and was free to pick whatever projects he felt like doing.

He was also a diplomat, because we spent time in various countries all over Europe, mostly, and several in Africa because of his fascination with the old British colonies in Tanzania, Uganda, what was once Rhodesia, Nigeria and a few others.  Those appointments were hard on our mother, and I suspect, contributed to her early death.

After that, she often complained about recurring bouts of ‘jungle sickness’, though later I suspected had a lot to do with an alcohol problem.

I had been spending a lot of time in the study/library, a very large room on the ground floor that backed onto the rear garden, with a large veranda with windows floor to ceiling.  The library consisted of thousands of books on every aspect of the British Commonwealth, from when it was East India Company, through the British Empire, to a token amalgamation of sometimes hostile countries.

My father had been working on a book, and he had left notes, exercise books filled with scribbling, scrapbooks with newspaper clippings, some about himself, a ream of typewritten chapters of which some read like a memoir, others like the ramblings of a lecturer.

It was a project, now that he was gone, that I was considering taking up and finishing, perhaps as his legacy.

Oddly, there was not one word of any extracurricular activities, the sort of stuff that would fill a spy novel.

I was just reading a chapter on Uganda, Idi Amin, and a proposal to Princess Anne when I heard a loud bang.  Then another, closer to the study, coming from what I thought was outside the front of the house.

Cautiously I approached the door and peered out.

I could see Genevieve, gun in hand, sweeping for … what?

“Stay in the study,” she said.

I heard her go out the front door and close it behind her.

Five minutes, there were several more gunshots, then silence.

A minute later the front door opened, and I heard what sounded like someone falling on the floor.  I went out, then to the front of the house where, inside the door, there was what looked like a man lying still on the floor, blood stains beside it.

A few seconds after that Genevieve came in and closed the door.  “We have a problem.”  She had a phone to her ear, waiting.  Then, “Send the cleaners.  They sent two assassins, got the Professor, and I got them.  The Professor needs medical help as soon as possible.”

That was the extent of the call.  She looked at me.  “You got a medical kit,”

“Yes.”  I went back to the study and got what was a briefcase with a red cross on it.  It was more sophisticated than the usual medical kit a house would have.  It was more suited to a doctor’s surgery.

I brought it to her.  She had the man lying on his back, and I could see who it was.

The man at the funeral who gave me the yellow envelope.

…

© Charles Heath 2023

…

It was not more than twenty minutes since I’d walked in the door after attending the funeral, and then the wake, for my parents who had died in a motor vehicle accident in the south of France.

I’d met a man I’d never seen before who had given me an ancient envelope before he disappeared, in which there was a note and a copy of my father’s will.

The family solicitor, Lawrence Wellingham, who had attended the funeral and who told me he did not have a current will, had visited me not long after I got home, a man who had told me that anyone who said my parents had died, other than from an accident was to be ignored.

With the will had been a letter, my father saying if he died in an accident, it was likely not an accident, and to contact a man called Albert Stritching.

Then, not five minutes after Lawrence Wellingham left, Albert Stritching called.

It was a series of events that defied explanation.

After a few moments to get over the shock of hearing the name so soon, I said, “The same Albert Stritching my fathers said I needed to talk to if anything happened to him?”

“He left you a note?”

“Were you the person at the funeral who handed me the envelope?”

“I didn’t know there was a funeral.  What man?”

“About 70, grey hair, beard, blue Italian suit, brown shoes, the shoes seemed an odd addition.  Tie was old school, Eton, I think.

“Sir Percival.  We all went to school together, a long time ago.  He was what you might call, your father’s boss, mine too for that matter, when I worked in the same department.”

“What did my father, and you, do?”

“That is a long story.  We need to meet, as soon as possible.  What I can tell you, for now, is that you need to be careful.  Do you have anyone with you?”

“No.”

“I assume you are currently at your father’s house?”

“Yes.”

“OK.  Stay there, and I’ll send someone over, just to make sure you’re safe.  Her name is Genevieve, one of our personal protection officers.  Her identification code is your father’s middle name.  You do know it?”

“Yes.”

“Good.  Don’t answer the phone, or the door till she gets there.”

It was odd to think that trouble would come to what my father often referred to as hallowed ground.  The house was his sanctuary, a place no one knew about, a place he never invited anyone but family.  Not even close friends.

The thought, or notion, that trouble could visit here was preposterous.

And yet…

I heard the sound of a high-powered motorcycle from the distance, slowly getting louder until it stopped not far from my front door.  Peering through the front window from behind the curtains, I saw a figure dismount, take off the helmet and shake out a lot of blonde hair.

She looked too young to be in personal protection.

Carrying the helmet in one hand, she came up the path to the front door and knocked.

I left the door shut and yelled out, “Who are you?”

“I was sent by Albert Stritching.  My name is Genevieve.”

I opened the door a fraction, leaving the safety chain attached.

“The identification code?”

“Alwyn.”

I closed the door, removed the chain, and opened it for her to pass.  A look down the path to see if anyone was following her, which there was not, and I shut it.

“Anyone call or ring,” she asked, looking around the room.

It was old and musty smelling because it rarely got any sunlight.  The fire I’d lit earlier in the morning before going out, was slowly reviving after I’d put some more wood on the embers.  In another half hour, the temperature in the room would be above freezing.

“No.  What happens now?”

“I stay until Mr Stritching arrives, sometime tomorrow.  In fact, I have been assigned to mind you for the next few days.  All I can tell you is that it is possible your life is in danger.  And your parents were murdered.  We don’t yet know by whom, or why.  I assume your father didn’t tell you what he was doing?”

“Other than going on a well-earned, his words, holiday with my mother, no.”

“I assume you don’t normally stay in this house.”

“Not normally, but I have for the past three and a half months while they were away.  I sometimes house-sit for them.  My father told me that when he got back, we would talk about the future.  I guess that’s impossible now.”

“Didn’t leave anything to read in case of his untimely demise?”

The girl was asking a lot of questions for someone who was supposed to be a bodyguard.  Was she more than that, like another fixer for the same organisation my father now appeared to work for?

“No.”

“Anything at all?”

I decided then and there I was not going to tell this person anything, especially about the note.  “Nothing.  Had the police not come to inform me, they would still be travelling in Europe somewhere, blissfully unaware, a state I’m beginning to wonder may never return.

“Mind if I have a look around, see how secure the place is?”

“Sure.  If you’re staying, there’s a choice of three rooms on the left side of the corridor.  Mine is on the right.”

The notion that I could be in danger seemed to me to be a little over the top.  I had no contact with my father over anything concerning his business.  In fact, I knew very little about his business, being told back then, that he was independently wealthy, whatever that meant, and was free to pick whatever projects he felt like doing.

He was also a diplomat, because we spent time in various countries all over Europe, mostly, and several in Africa because of his fascination with the old British colonies in Tanzania, Uganda, what was once Rhodesia, Nigeria and a few others.  Those appointments were hard on our mother, and I suspect, contributed to her early death.

After that, she often complained about recurring bouts of ‘jungle sickness’, though later I suspected had a lot to do with an alcohol problem.

I had been spending a lot of time in the study/library, a very large room on the ground floor that backed onto the rear garden, with a large veranda with windows floor to ceiling.  The library consisted of thousands of books on every aspect of the British Commonwealth, from when it was East India Company, through the British Empire, to a token amalgamation of sometimes hostile countries.

My father had been working on a book, and he had left notes, exercise books filled with scribbling, scrapbooks with newspaper clippings, some about himself, a ream of typewritten chapters of which some read like a memoir, others like the ramblings of a lecturer.

It was a project, now that he was gone, that I was considering taking up and finishing, perhaps as his legacy.

Oddly, there was not one word of any extracurricular activities, the sort of stuff that would fill a spy novel.

I was just reading a chapter on Uganda, Idi Amin, and a proposal to Princess Anne when I heard a loud bang.  Then another, closer to the study, coming from what I thought was outside the front of the house.

Cautiously I approached the door and peered out.

I could see Genevieve, gun in hand, sweeping for … what?

“Stay in the study,” she said.

I heard her go out the front door and close it behind her.

Five minutes, there were several more gunshots, then silence.

A minute later the front door opened, and I heard what sounded like someone falling on the floor.  I went out, then to the front of the house where, inside the door, there was what looked like a man lying still on the floor, blood stains beside it.

A few seconds after that Genevieve came in and closed the door.  “We have a problem.”  She had a phone to her ear, waiting.  Then, “Send the cleaners.  They sent two assassins, got the Professor, and I got them.  The Professor needs medical help as soon as possible.”

That was the extent of the call.  She looked at me.  “You got a medical kit,”

“Yes.”  I went back to the study and got what was a briefcase with a red cross on it.  It was more sophisticated than the usual medical kit a house would have.  It was more suited to a doctor’s surgery.

I brought it to her.  She had the man lying on his back, and I could see who it was.

The man at the funeral who gave me the yellow envelope.

…

© Charles Heath 2023

…

It was a cold, overcast, wet day.  Everywhere was wet from the last downpour, which made it difficult to take the shortcut across the grass in the park.  More rain was imminent.

I was, as usual, running late for the appointment, having not factored in train cancellations and unseasonal weather.

It was not far from where I entered the park, and I could see the bench was empty, which meant my contact was also running late.  Perhaps I might be saved a bollocking today.

For the last forty yards, the direct line of sight to the bench would be lost for a short time, and when I finally got it back in sight, someone was sitting on it, and it definitely was not the person I was meeting. It looked like a young girl, a university student, or a clerk.  Definitely not the usual contact. Not any more.

Protocol said that if there was a stranger at the meeting place, we were to walk away and reschedule.  I was not one for following the rules.

When on the final few yards, I felt my cell phone vibrate and pulled it out.  A message.  “Substituted contact with replacement given a very tight timeline.  She will brief you, her name is Heather Knowles, and the codeword for authentication is 1 spark.  The mission starts at the end of the briefing.  Play nice.”

I had no idea the department was recruiting so young, or perhaps I was used to working with many older people.

I sat down at the other end of the bench and could feel rather than see her looking at me.  I turned to look at her, a serious expression on her face.  No humour today, then.

“Heather?”

“Are you the bright spark?”

“Twenty years ago, maybe, but not today.”   She made it sound like an intended, thinly disguised insult.

“Let’s walk.”  She stood and inclined her head in the direction we would be going. 

I wondered if she had the same thought I did, a man walking in the park with a girl half his age.  It was odd that Charmaine, my usual handler, would make a meeting such as this look so out of place.  Perhaps she thought it might look like a father-daughter meeting.

“Charmaine told me you were one of her best operatives.”

Start with a compliment, that meant something a whole lot worse than I could imagine was about to happen.

“One of many, I wouldn’t say one of the best.  Not after the last operation.  Just to warn you, this call-up was unexpected.  My last mission went south, and I wasn’t expecting a recall so soon.”

Everything would have been fine if we had not been subject to on-the-spot oversight in the name of transparency, a new initiative by what we used to call ‘the powers that be’.  The person I was assigned to protect had been betrayed and had been killed, and I nearly died in the escape.  The sole survivor, just, I’d spent a month in the hospital and another three recuperating.

“As you are all too well aware, situations develop quickly, sometimes too quickly.  We have been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, if the intel is correct, and we have no reason to believe it isn’t.  You are along for the ride because of your expert knowledge, but just a heads up, you are also being assessed for ongoing participation or retirement.

“You the assessor?”

“Me, no.  I’m relatively new, and this will be my first major operation.  Charmaine tells me that having you along will teach me very valuable lessons.”

As I assumed, babysitting.  Every now and then a senior officer was allotted a new recruit and told not to get him or her killed.  I’d managed to dodge that bullet, but not any more.  I just hoped it was something easy.  I remembered my first operation.  No one to guide me, just a jump into the deep end and you either sank or swum.  I shrugged.  “The message said the operation starts at the end of whatever this is.  What is it?”

“Let’s find a Cafe.  I could do with a coffee.”

“I read up on your case file notes for the last operation, that one where Jackson got the drop on all of us.  Crosschecked with other Intel, it seems that you were deliberately set up to fail.  Of course, while the evidence points to one particular person, we have no proof, and, of course, that person can find any number of excuses to dodge responsibility.  I’m sure you think you know who it is too.”

“I have one or two candidates in mind.”

She smiled when the waitress came over with the coffee and a small banoffee pie.  She’s offered to get me one, but my taste, boring as it was, ran to apple pies which they didn’t have.  Then, after she had gone, and Heather had tasted the coffee, she turned her attention back to me.

“The operation has two objectives, to draw out the mole, we’ve decided to call this person a mole, and to surprise Jackson in a place where he thinks he is totally safe.  Yes, a bold move on a slippery son-of-a-bitch, but this time, he’s not going to get away.”

Young and naive, I thought.  Jackson was always a slippery customer, and always when we just about had him on the hook.  Going back into the fray, up against him, the man with a thousand eyes and ears everywhere, so soon, was a little daunting.  And he would be expecting us.

“Few have tried, many have failed, myself included.  My specialist knowledge will only be how to escape alive when he turns the tables on us, yet again.”

She smiled.  “Oh, ye of little faith.  I come from a new generation of agents, we’re meaner, sneakier, and for this mission at least, we can shoot first and ask questions later.”

“Oversight?”

“Yes, well, he’s in for a treat, isn’t he when he finds out, well after the clock has struck twelve.  We’re going old school, and involving the need-to-know principle, and oversight just doesn’t need to know.”

“He’ll find out.  Everyone is a snitch looking for a favour these days.  Our service is looking more and more like the Stasi.”

Another of her winning smiles.  “All those who need to know, know, now.  That’s three.  The boss isn’t going to tell anyone, I’m certainly not, and I doubt you share anything with anyone.  What does the G, middle name, represent?”

“Need to know, and you don’t.  When is this operation taking place?”

“Tonight.  You have about 6 hours to fortify the nerves, and then there will be a briefing.  There are three others who will be along for the ride also, and I think you will approve.  Now, I’m afraid I can’t let you out of my sight until then, so tell me what you’d like to do.”

I had a suggestion, but I kept it to myself.  If she didn’t trust me, she should say so, but it didn’t bother me.  I had a trusty book of cryptic crosswords and an addiction to coffee.  Maybe I might even ask her to tell me more about herself.”

Six hours passed quickly, and when the time came, we were picked up in a plain white van and taken to a disused factory.  It seemed an odd place to have a team briefing.  But she was right about the support team.  They were well-known to me and were the best extraction team the department had.

The fact that we were using an extraction team told me the mission was going to be difficult if not very dangerous.  Anything regarding Jackson was.

“The plan is simple, Jake, your team covers the exits.  There are three.  We’re not stepping on eggshells this time. Just shoot anything that moves.  Given the location, there will not be any innocent bystanders to worry about.  Ken and I will go in and take the targets.  Once secure, we bring them back here for interrogation.  We all have a reason to bring Jackson down, but remember, we need him, and the person he’s meeting is alive.”

“Where is this happening?” I asked.

“Patience.  N9 one has a cell phone on them if you have to leave it behind.  No one is on their own until the op starts. It’s not a lack of trust, it’s keeping it all under wraps until we strike, every other time he’s seen us coming.  Not this time.  Let’s go.  I’m driving.”

I got it.  This was so secret, no one was supposed to know before we got there.  Charmaine must have thought long and hard about how every other operation had been compromised and brought it a fresh face to run it. What did bother me was the ‘we all have a reason to bring Jackson down…”

I guessed soon find out.

As darkness fell, we drove out of the city and towards the hills that surrounded the city, and it looked like we were heading to the haven of the rich, a community of cabins nestled in the woods, each with privacy, and security guards that kept it so.  I had been there once before to pay Jackson a visit and didn’t get past first base.  This was going to get interesting.

An hour later, very dark, very quiet, we were half a mile from the gatehouse on the one road in or out.  The van was parked, we changed into dark coveralls and black beanies, took two guns and spare ammo, and finally put in the comms devices.  Heather then gave the extraction team each a device.  “You can now see where the security guards are.  These guys are mercenaries, so don’t treat them with kid gloves.  We don’t need any of them interrupting the part.  Ken, let us know when you out have the gatehouse.”

Seconds later we were alone, the others disappearing into the forest.  The darkness was almost complete, any moonlight blocked out by the trees.  Heather also had a device and switched it on.  Immediately, eight blips came up on the screen, evenly spaced over what looked like a wide area.  The guards on patrol.

A crooked line came up also, with a different blip, what I thought must be us, and a path to the cabin where our targets were.  She pushed a button, and another blip appeared.  “The traitor,” was all she said before she headed into the forest. 

Over the next fifteen minutes, Ken reported the gatehouse was secure, and six of the eight blips disappeared from the screen.  I didn’t ask what that meant.

Then we came out of the forest into a clearing that had a cabin, with two cars parked out front.  “There are two personal guards for Jackson, one inside, one out.”

A quick scan located the outside guard over by the cars having a cigarette.  Obviously, they did not think that anyone was going to bother their boss tonight. Wrong. By the time he realised there was going to be trouble, he was down, trussed, and silenced.

“You take the back, I’ll go in the front.  Let me know when you’re ready to go in.”

Five minutes.  As I was about to step onto the porch, the other guard came out, totally unprepared, and I took him down, quickly and quietly the moment he stepped off the porch, and in the process of lighting a cigarette.  Smoking kills was very apt.

I told her I was ready.

“Now.”

We stepped into the cabin at the same time.  Jackson had a gun, but Heather shot it out of his hand before he could use it.  The other man, the traitor, was exactly who I thought it was.

He glared at me, then switched to Heather, the surprise turning to shock.

“Heather.”

“Hello, Daddy, fancy meeting you here.”

…

© Charles Heath  2023

…

It was a cold, overcast, wet day.  Everywhere was wet from the last downpour, which made it difficult to take the shortcut across the grass in the park.  More rain was imminent.

I was, as usual, running late for the appointment, having not factored in train cancellations and unseasonal weather.

It was not far from where I entered the park, and I could see the bench was empty, which meant my contact was also running late.  Perhaps I might be saved a bollocking today.

For the last forty yards, the direct line of sight to the bench would be lost for a short time, and when I finally got it back in sight, someone was sitting on it, and it definitely was not the person I was meeting. It looked like a young girl, a university student, or a clerk.  Definitely not the usual contact. Not any more.

Protocol said that if there was a stranger at the meeting place, we were to walk away and reschedule.  I was not one for following the rules.

When on the final few yards, I felt my cell phone vibrate and pulled it out.  A message.  “Substituted contact with replacement given a very tight timeline.  She will brief you, her name is Heather Knowles, and the codeword for authentication is 1 spark.  The mission starts at the end of the briefing.  Play nice.”

I had no idea the department was recruiting so young, or perhaps I was used to working with many older people.

I sat down at the other end of the bench and could feel rather than see her looking at me.  I turned to look at her, a serious expression on her face.  No humour today, then.

“Heather?”

“Are you the bright spark?”

“Twenty years ago, maybe, but not today.”   She made it sound like an intended, thinly disguised insult.

“Let’s walk.”  She stood and inclined her head in the direction we would be going. 

I wondered if she had the same thought I did, a man walking in the park with a girl half his age.  It was odd that Charmaine, my usual handler, would make a meeting such as this look so out of place.  Perhaps she thought it might look like a father-daughter meeting.

“Charmaine told me you were one of her best operatives.”

Start with a compliment, that meant something a whole lot worse than I could imagine was about to happen.

“One of many, I wouldn’t say one of the best.  Not after the last operation.  Just to warn you, this call-up was unexpected.  My last mission went south, and I wasn’t expecting a recall so soon.”

Everything would have been fine if we had not been subject to on-the-spot oversight in the name of transparency, a new initiative by what we used to call ‘the powers that be’.  The person I was assigned to protect had been betrayed and had been killed, and I nearly died in the escape.  The sole survivor, just, I’d spent a month in the hospital and another three recuperating.

“As you are all too well aware, situations develop quickly, sometimes too quickly.  We have been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, if the intel is correct, and we have no reason to believe it isn’t.  You are along for the ride because of your expert knowledge, but just a heads up, you are also being assessed for ongoing participation or retirement.

“You the assessor?”

“Me, no.  I’m relatively new, and this will be my first major operation.  Charmaine tells me that having you along will teach me very valuable lessons.”

As I assumed, babysitting.  Every now and then a senior officer was allotted a new recruit and told not to get him or her killed.  I’d managed to dodge that bullet, but not any more.  I just hoped it was something easy.  I remembered my first operation.  No one to guide me, just a jump into the deep end and you either sank or swum.  I shrugged.  “The message said the operation starts at the end of whatever this is.  What is it?”

“Let’s find a Cafe.  I could do with a coffee.”

“I read up on your case file notes for the last operation, that one where Jackson got the drop on all of us.  Crosschecked with other Intel, it seems that you were deliberately set up to fail.  Of course, while the evidence points to one particular person, we have no proof, and, of course, that person can find any number of excuses to dodge responsibility.  I’m sure you think you know who it is too.”

“I have one or two candidates in mind.”

She smiled when the waitress came over with the coffee and a small banoffee pie.  She’s offered to get me one, but my taste, boring as it was, ran to apple pies which they didn’t have.  Then, after she had gone, and Heather had tasted the coffee, she turned her attention back to me.

“The operation has two objectives, to draw out the mole, we’ve decided to call this person a mole, and to surprise Jackson in a place where he thinks he is totally safe.  Yes, a bold move on a slippery son-of-a-bitch, but this time, he’s not going to get away.”

Young and naive, I thought.  Jackson was always a slippery customer, and always when we just about had him on the hook.  Going back into the fray, up against him, the man with a thousand eyes and ears everywhere, so soon, was a little daunting.  And he would be expecting us.

“Few have tried, many have failed, myself included.  My specialist knowledge will only be how to escape alive when he turns the tables on us, yet again.”

She smiled.  “Oh, ye of little faith.  I come from a new generation of agents, we’re meaner, sneakier, and for this mission at least, we can shoot first and ask questions later.”

“Oversight?”

“Yes, well, he’s in for a treat, isn’t he when he finds out, well after the clock has struck twelve.  We’re going old school, and involving the need-to-know principle, and oversight just doesn’t need to know.”

“He’ll find out.  Everyone is a snitch looking for a favour these days.  Our service is looking more and more like the Stasi.”

Another of her winning smiles.  “All those who need to know, know, now.  That’s three.  The boss isn’t going to tell anyone, I’m certainly not, and I doubt you share anything with anyone.  What does the G, middle name, represent?”

“Need to know, and you don’t.  When is this operation taking place?”

“Tonight.  You have about 6 hours to fortify the nerves, and then there will be a briefing.  There are three others who will be along for the ride also, and I think you will approve.  Now, I’m afraid I can’t let you out of my sight until then, so tell me what you’d like to do.”

I had a suggestion, but I kept it to myself.  If she didn’t trust me, she should say so, but it didn’t bother me.  I had a trusty book of cryptic crosswords and an addiction to coffee.  Maybe I might even ask her to tell me more about herself.”

Six hours passed quickly, and when the time came, we were picked up in a plain white van and taken to a disused factory.  It seemed an odd place to have a team briefing.  But she was right about the support team.  They were well-known to me and were the best extraction team the department had.

The fact that we were using an extraction team told me the mission was going to be difficult if not very dangerous.  Anything regarding Jackson was.

“The plan is simple, Jake, your team covers the exits.  There are three.  We’re not stepping on eggshells this time. Just shoot anything that moves.  Given the location, there will not be any innocent bystanders to worry about.  Ken and I will go in and take the targets.  Once secure, we bring them back here for interrogation.  We all have a reason to bring Jackson down, but remember, we need him, and the person he’s meeting is alive.”

“Where is this happening?” I asked.

“Patience.  N9 one has a cell phone on them if you have to leave it behind.  No one is on their own until the op starts. It’s not a lack of trust, it’s keeping it all under wraps until we strike, every other time he’s seen us coming.  Not this time.  Let’s go.  I’m driving.”

I got it.  This was so secret, no one was supposed to know before we got there.  Charmaine must have thought long and hard about how every other operation had been compromised and brought it a fresh face to run it. What did bother me was the ‘we all have a reason to bring Jackson down…”

I guessed soon find out.

As darkness fell, we drove out of the city and towards the hills that surrounded the city, and it looked like we were heading to the haven of the rich, a community of cabins nestled in the woods, each with privacy, and security guards that kept it so.  I had been there once before to pay Jackson a visit and didn’t get past first base.  This was going to get interesting.

An hour later, very dark, very quiet, we were half a mile from the gatehouse on the one road in or out.  The van was parked, we changed into dark coveralls and black beanies, took two guns and spare ammo, and finally put in the comms devices.  Heather then gave the extraction team each a device.  “You can now see where the security guards are.  These guys are mercenaries, so don’t treat them with kid gloves.  We don’t need any of them interrupting the part.  Ken, let us know when you out have the gatehouse.”

Seconds later we were alone, the others disappearing into the forest.  The darkness was almost complete, any moonlight blocked out by the trees.  Heather also had a device and switched it on.  Immediately, eight blips came up on the screen, evenly spaced over what looked like a wide area.  The guards on patrol.

A crooked line came up also, with a different blip, what I thought must be us, and a path to the cabin where our targets were.  She pushed a button, and another blip appeared.  “The traitor,” was all she said before she headed into the forest. 

Over the next fifteen minutes, Ken reported the gatehouse was secure, and six of the eight blips disappeared from the screen.  I didn’t ask what that meant.

Then we came out of the forest into a clearing that had a cabin, with two cars parked out front.  “There are two personal guards for Jackson, one inside, one out.”

A quick scan located the outside guard over by the cars having a cigarette.  Obviously, they did not think that anyone was going to bother their boss tonight. Wrong. By the time he realised there was going to be trouble, he was down, trussed, and silenced.

“You take the back, I’ll go in the front.  Let me know when you’re ready to go in.”

Five minutes.  As I was about to step onto the porch, the other guard came out, totally unprepared, and I took him down, quickly and quietly the moment he stepped off the porch, and in the process of lighting a cigarette.  Smoking kills was very apt.

I told her I was ready.

“Now.”

We stepped into the cabin at the same time.  Jackson had a gun, but Heather shot it out of his hand before he could use it.  The other man, the traitor, was exactly who I thought it was.

He glared at me, then switched to Heather, the surprise turning to shock.

“Heather.”

“Hello, Daddy, fancy meeting you here.”

…

© Charles Heath  2023

…

“Love is simply a tenuous attachment looking for a reason to break.”

As a twice-widowed, twice-divorced cynic of marriage, I could have expected no less from my mother.

I’d just explained the latest reason for Marigold’s non-appearance at lunch, without having to tell her the truth, that Marigold hated my mother.

At times, so did I.  This was one of them.

I also hated the fact that we had become rich from my mother’s plotting and scheming, what she called strategic marriages and fortuitous deaths.

It left me a target, or so my mother said, and her opinion of Marigold was so low she had said from the outset that she had married me for my money.  Hardly, because of a watertight prenuptial she had to sign, one that only a woman who loved the man, not the money would sign.

For that reason, I believed I was the luckiest person alive.

“Let’s face it, you don’t like her.”

“She’s a schemer Rodney, mark my words.  She’s up to something, I can feel it.”

I shook my head.  “Not accepting your lunch invitation doesn’t mean she’s up to anything.  She had a prior engagement, and you always ask at the last minute.”

“My plans are nebulous.  I could be anywhere, anytime.  Right now, I’m here.”

I shrugged.  It was not an argument I was going to win.

I went back to my office after lunch, dejected.

Perhaps there might be something in what she said because Marigold had become a little distant over the past few weeks and oddly secretive about her movements.  I thought she was planning a surprise party or weekend away.

Candice, the PA who’d been with me ever since I’d made junior management ranks, followed me into the office.

“I can tell you lunch went swimmingly.”  Sarcasm wasn’t her strongest asset, and it dripped off every word.

She hated my mother, too, particularly in the way it affected me.

“She should have been living it up in the south of France with the rest of the meddlers.”

I could just see Marigold in my peripheral vision, and when I looked up, I could see her almost stomping her way towards my office.

Others were familiar with her visits and used to her moods.  I wondered what had happened.

Candice left as she came in.  She stopped in front of my desk and literally threw her cell phone at me.  I caught it just before it caused an injury.

“What the hell is that?”  I could see now she was extremely agitated.

“What?”

“On the phone, it was attached to an anonymous message sent to me.”

I swiped the screen, once again lamenting her lack of implementing security on her phone, and a still from a video was sitting on the screen.  I pressed the play icon and watched.  Three minutes of what appeared to be me with another woman, in bed, in a hotel room.  It certainly looked like me.  It had a date and time stamp, 9:53, three days ago, when I was in Salt Lake City.

“It’s not me, Marigold.”

“Sure as hell looks like you, Rodney. You care to explain where you were and who you were with, if not with that woman?”  It was accompanied by a belligerent look, daring me to have a cast iron alibi.

The thing is, I did.  But it was not one I could explain to her.  But what was more concerning was the fact there was a video and quite obviously a fake, and that it had found its way to her.

“I’ll go one better, Marigold.  I’ll give the phone to the IT tech department, and they’ll tell me who sent the anonymous message and verify whether or not it’s me.  You do want me to prove it’s not me, don’t you?”

Judging by the expression on her face, she did not, and it took a few seconds to realize why.  My mother’s iron clad prenuptial had only one failing, and it was null and void if I was caught cheating.  My mother had told me enough times.

“Of course.”  Less bluster now.  “I’ll leave it with you.”

Candice watched her leave before coming back into my office.

“What did you do?”

“More like what didn’t I do but apparently did.”  She sat down, and I handed her the phone.  “Have a look at the video.  It’s quite interesting.”

She did, and I watched her fascination turn from surprise to wide-eyed amazement.  Then she gave me a look that may have been misplaced in awe.  “If that’s you, then you’re leading a secret life.”

“Did you see the date and time stamp?”

“Yes.  It’s definitely not you.  But it begs the question, do you have a brother or twin you know nothing about.”

“Would you like to ask my mother that question?”  Her change of expression told me she didn’t.  “That leaves the tech guys down in IT.”

“Oh, lucky you mentioned IT.  I got a report this morning about the unauthorised use of the mainframe computer.”

“We know what those guys get up to, using it to run simulations, within acceptable limits.  They know that if they break the rules, it’s their loss.”

“This is different.  It was only reported because, apparently, while you were practising your sexual skills, you were also down in the computer room.  Your pass card was used, albeit an older one that you reported as lost about a month ago.  It was supposed to have been deactivated, and it wasn’t.”

“Then I guess I’d better go down to security and find out what it all means.”

Going down in the elevator, I had a few moments to ponder on how quickly my mind had set on the idea Marigold was hatching a scheme that would bypass the prenuptial agreement.  Perhaps the continual verbal battering that I could not trust her.

Of course, it didn’t help that she turned up with a so-called anonymous video file of me cheating, just the evidence she needed.  Perhaps I would more readily accepted her innocence had she not subtly changed in the last month or so.  I put it down to the conversation about children, the fact my mother wanted to become a grandmother, and Marigold’s reluctance to be a mother, a sentiment fuelled by a very bad experience with her own mother.  My mother wasn’t exactly a role model either.

And if it was a scheme, why would she readily hand over her phone with the evidence?  Perhaps I needed to have an open mind.  That meant definitely not telling my mother, though she seemed to have spies everywhere.  If I had been even thinking of cheating, she would have sent Boris, her fixer, to stop it before it started.

IT was one of three departments under my jurisdiction, and the current manager was one of my recruits.  I’d read about Gabrielle some months before when she was arrested for hacking several government computer systems to prove their vulnerability to foreign hackers and instead of being applauded had been vilified, and sent to computer Coventry.  No one would hire her.  I tracked her down, spent a few days talking about computers, hackers, and stupid people, and then hired her.

A computer genius of this calibre was impossible to find, and if I did manage to find one, it would cost far more than we could pay them.

“Rod, what brings you to the dungeon.”  Gabrielle was always pleased to see me.  I had wondered a few times if something else might have developed between us, but I was a married man and it never crossed my mind.  There was also a chance her open and friendly manner could be misinterpreted.

“It seems I’m in trouble.”  I held up the phone.  ” This has images of me, only I know it’s not me because I was somewhere else.”  I passed it to her.  “I believe this is the first time I’ve seen a deep fake video.”

She looked at the video, with similar facial expressions to Candice.  “It can’t be you.”  She’d also seen the time and date stamp.  “We both know where you were.  Let me check it out, and I’ll get back to you.”

When I arrived back in my office, Eric Dorning, the head of security, was waiting for me.  Candice simply nodded her head in his direction and shrugged, telling me Eric had not told her why he was there.

“Close the door, Rod.  It’s a delicate matter.”

And Seriously, he wanted the door shut?  I closed it and sat behind the desk.  “What can I do for you?”

“A key card that was believed missing was apparently used to gain access to the computer department.  Two issues, one that was not deactivated, and the other, that it was yours, and had an all-access clearance attached to it.  That it was lost is, at the very least,8 a suspension, while aspects of how and where it was lost are undertaken.  At worst, it could cause dismissal depending on the damage caused to the company.  As you are…”

I put my hand up to stop him right there.  The fact that my mother was a substantial shareholder and was in some small part responsible for my position in the company, I never asked for special treatment.  “I know what you are going to say, and don’t.  I am no different from any other employee, and if the course of action on your part is to suspend me while you investigate, then do so.”

“We don’t have to do that.”

“You do.  This can’t be kept under wraps, and everyone needs to know that no one in this company should expect or be given special treatment.  A short truthful statement about why I’m missing will suffice.”

“Your mother will not approve.”

“It’s not her call.  Am I being suspended?”

“Yes.”

“Then you should escort me to the front door and remove my key card and phone.” I put the card and the phone and company car keys on the desk, and stood.  I could see Candice observing, and she knew what it meant.  She made a face, then headed for the elevator.  I deduced that it meant she wanted to see me at the cafe up the street.

It was clear Eric did not want to suspend me because when I was unavailable, he had to report to my immediate superior, Victor Wellman, a man who was bitterly opposed to my appointment.  With this crisis, he would have all the ammunition he needed to get rid of me.  Eric had said as much on the way down.  He said he would call when the investigation was complete.

Candice had two cups of coffee waiting and a puzzled expression.  “What did you do wrong?”

“Losing a card key without adequately securing it at all times is a cardinal sin, and in certain circumstances, a stackable offence.  I’m guilty as charged.”

“What about the fact that after reporting it missing, they didn’t deactivate it?  If there’s blame, Eric is the one who should take responsibility for the current incident.”

“I hardly think any of that matters.  Wellman will use this to have me removed.  And he’s well within his right to do so.”

“You think he’s brave enough to take on your mother?”

“He’s the only one who is, but it may have unintended consequences.  But I’m not going to fight it.  I’ve had enough of politics and everything else.  I asked for no special treatment.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Take a few days off, see what’s bugging Marigold.  I have been missing lately, so perhaps we can catch up.”  If she was home.  To be honest, I had no idea what she did with herself lately.

I had expected to come home to an empty house.

After leaving Candice to contemplate her future, I took the subway, something I hadn’t done in a long time.  Then, it was a reasonable walk to our apartment.  I spoke the James, the only building concierge I knew, who was on a rare day shift.  It was odd to see the foyer in daylight on a weekday.

Then I went up to the apartment and let myself in.  I had expected to be alone, but after I shut the door, I heard subdued voices, followed by laughter.  Marigold.  And she was not alone.

I followed the sounds up the corridor to the end, our bedroom.  I put my head in the door and saw her naked, sitting on a man I didn’t recognise.  It was not hard to see what they were doing.

“Revenge sex, Marigold.  I can’t say I’m surprised.”

She squealed in surprise, or was it shock?

“When you’re done, pack your bags and leave.  You better not be here when I come back.  Goodbye, Marigold.”

I left, knowing she would not be able to catch me or follow me.  Whether she left or not didn’t matter.  I was never going back to that apartment again.

…

It took a week to unravel the conspiracy and see the reality.

The man with Marigold was one of Mellman’s recruits in a plan to get rid of me.  He had also recruited Marigold, who had tired of me because I was never home, and it was she who had taken the card key. 

Her ‘boyfriend’ was a graphics expert and had been the one to transplant my body and that of a random woman over a recording of him having sex with Marigold.  It took Gabrielle a week to work out how he did it and was more appreciative of his talent than she should be. 

He had used the card key to get in and was the one responsible for the unauthorised use of the mainframe.  He has also erased all the CCTV footage for the time of the transgression.

Wellman was silly enough to send the video to Marigold, thinking it would be untraceable and anonymous.  It may have seemed so to a novice like him, but it was easily unmasked by an expert like Gabrielle.

I never did understand why Mellman wanted to destroy my life because it couldn’t just be because my mother had used her influence to get me that job.  Not for a few months, anyway, when Eric had told Gabrielle that he had discovered that there had been another candidate for that role, a relative of Mellman’s.  Still, to me, it seemed over the top.

I could understand Marigold.  Perhaps if she had told me she didn’t want to be married to me anymore, I would have been disappointed, but I would have been sure she got a decent settlement, rather than what she ended up with.

But, in the end, I did get to do something I’d always wanted to do, and that was to try my hand at being a private detective.  Gabrielle had brought it up in one of our late-night conversations, the fact we were well suited to handling cases where people were wronged by deep fake videos and anonymously released revenge tapes.

We were both surprised but the number of people who called, texted, or emailed in the week after I posted an advertisement.

…

© Charles Heath 2023

…

“Love is simply a tenuous attachment looking for a reason to break.”

As a twice-widowed, twice-divorced cynic of marriage, I could have expected no less from my mother.

I’d just explained the latest reason for Marigold’s non-appearance at lunch, without having to tell her the truth, that Marigold hated my mother.

At times, so did I.  This was one of them.

I also hated the fact that we had become rich from my mother’s plotting and scheming, what she called strategic marriages and fortuitous deaths.

It left me a target, or so my mother said, and her opinion of Marigold was so low she had said from the outset that she had married me for my money.  Hardly, because of a watertight prenuptial she had to sign, one that only a woman who loved the man, not the money would sign.

For that reason, I believed I was the luckiest person alive.

“Let’s face it, you don’t like her.”

“She’s a schemer Rodney, mark my words.  She’s up to something, I can feel it.”

I shook my head.  “Not accepting your lunch invitation doesn’t mean she’s up to anything.  She had a prior engagement, and you always ask at the last minute.”

“My plans are nebulous.  I could be anywhere, anytime.  Right now, I’m here.”

I shrugged.  It was not an argument I was going to win.

I went back to my office after lunch, dejected.

Perhaps there might be something in what she said because Marigold had become a little distant over the past few weeks and oddly secretive about her movements.  I thought she was planning a surprise party or weekend away.

Candice, the PA who’d been with me ever since I’d made junior management ranks, followed me into the office.

“I can tell you lunch went swimmingly.”  Sarcasm wasn’t her strongest asset, and it dripped off every word.

She hated my mother, too, particularly in the way it affected me.

“She should have been living it up in the south of France with the rest of the meddlers.”

I could just see Marigold in my peripheral vision, and when I looked up, I could see her almost stomping her way towards my office.

Others were familiar with her visits and used to her moods.  I wondered what had happened.

Candice left as she came in.  She stopped in front of my desk and literally threw her cell phone at me.  I caught it just before it caused an injury.

“What the hell is that?”  I could see now she was extremely agitated.

“What?”

“On the phone, it was attached to an anonymous message sent to me.”

I swiped the screen, once again lamenting her lack of implementing security on her phone, and a still from a video was sitting on the screen.  I pressed the play icon and watched.  Three minutes of what appeared to be me with another woman, in bed, in a hotel room.  It certainly looked like me.  It had a date and time stamp, 9:53, three days ago, when I was in Salt Lake City.

“It’s not me, Marigold.”

“Sure as hell looks like you, Rodney. You care to explain where you were and who you were with, if not with that woman?”  It was accompanied by a belligerent look, daring me to have a cast iron alibi.

The thing is, I did.  But it was not one I could explain to her.  But what was more concerning was the fact there was a video and quite obviously a fake, and that it had found its way to her.

“I’ll go one better, Marigold.  I’ll give the phone to the IT tech department, and they’ll tell me who sent the anonymous message and verify whether or not it’s me.  You do want me to prove it’s not me, don’t you?”

Judging by the expression on her face, she did not, and it took a few seconds to realize why.  My mother’s iron clad prenuptial had only one failing, and it was null and void if I was caught cheating.  My mother had told me enough times.

“Of course.”  Less bluster now.  “I’ll leave it with you.”

Candice watched her leave before coming back into my office.

“What did you do?”

“More like what didn’t I do but apparently did.”  She sat down, and I handed her the phone.  “Have a look at the video.  It’s quite interesting.”

She did, and I watched her fascination turn from surprise to wide-eyed amazement.  Then she gave me a look that may have been misplaced in awe.  “If that’s you, then you’re leading a secret life.”

“Did you see the date and time stamp?”

“Yes.  It’s definitely not you.  But it begs the question, do you have a brother or twin you know nothing about.”

“Would you like to ask my mother that question?”  Her change of expression told me she didn’t.  “That leaves the tech guys down in IT.”

“Oh, lucky you mentioned IT.  I got a report this morning about the unauthorised use of the mainframe computer.”

“We know what those guys get up to, using it to run simulations, within acceptable limits.  They know that if they break the rules, it’s their loss.”

“This is different.  It was only reported because, apparently, while you were practising your sexual skills, you were also down in the computer room.  Your pass card was used, albeit an older one that you reported as lost about a month ago.  It was supposed to have been deactivated, and it wasn’t.”

“Then I guess I’d better go down to security and find out what it all means.”

Going down in the elevator, I had a few moments to ponder on how quickly my mind had set on the idea Marigold was hatching a scheme that would bypass the prenuptial agreement.  Perhaps the continual verbal battering that I could not trust her.

Of course, it didn’t help that she turned up with a so-called anonymous video file of me cheating, just the evidence she needed.  Perhaps I would more readily accepted her innocence had she not subtly changed in the last month or so.  I put it down to the conversation about children, the fact my mother wanted to become a grandmother, and Marigold’s reluctance to be a mother, a sentiment fuelled by a very bad experience with her own mother.  My mother wasn’t exactly a role model either.

And if it was a scheme, why would she readily hand over her phone with the evidence?  Perhaps I needed to have an open mind.  That meant definitely not telling my mother, though she seemed to have spies everywhere.  If I had been even thinking of cheating, she would have sent Boris, her fixer, to stop it before it started.

IT was one of three departments under my jurisdiction, and the current manager was one of my recruits.  I’d read about Gabrielle some months before when she was arrested for hacking several government computer systems to prove their vulnerability to foreign hackers and instead of being applauded had been vilified, and sent to computer Coventry.  No one would hire her.  I tracked her down, spent a few days talking about computers, hackers, and stupid people, and then hired her.

A computer genius of this calibre was impossible to find, and if I did manage to find one, it would cost far more than we could pay them.

“Rod, what brings you to the dungeon.”  Gabrielle was always pleased to see me.  I had wondered a few times if something else might have developed between us, but I was a married man and it never crossed my mind.  There was also a chance her open and friendly manner could be misinterpreted.

“It seems I’m in trouble.”  I held up the phone.  ” This has images of me, only I know it’s not me because I was somewhere else.”  I passed it to her.  “I believe this is the first time I’ve seen a deep fake video.”

She looked at the video, with similar facial expressions to Candice.  “It can’t be you.”  She’d also seen the time and date stamp.  “We both know where you were.  Let me check it out, and I’ll get back to you.”

When I arrived back in my office, Eric Dorning, the head of security, was waiting for me.  Candice simply nodded her head in his direction and shrugged, telling me Eric had not told her why he was there.

“Close the door, Rod.  It’s a delicate matter.”

And Seriously, he wanted the door shut?  I closed it and sat behind the desk.  “What can I do for you?”

“A key card that was believed missing was apparently used to gain access to the computer department.  Two issues, one that was not deactivated, and the other, that it was yours, and had an all-access clearance attached to it.  That it was lost is, at the very least,8 a suspension, while aspects of how and where it was lost are undertaken.  At worst, it could cause dismissal depending on the damage caused to the company.  As you are…”

I put my hand up to stop him right there.  The fact that my mother was a substantial shareholder and was in some small part responsible for my position in the company, I never asked for special treatment.  “I know what you are going to say, and don’t.  I am no different from any other employee, and if the course of action on your part is to suspend me while you investigate, then do so.”

“We don’t have to do that.”

“You do.  This can’t be kept under wraps, and everyone needs to know that no one in this company should expect or be given special treatment.  A short truthful statement about why I’m missing will suffice.”

“Your mother will not approve.”

“It’s not her call.  Am I being suspended?”

“Yes.”

“Then you should escort me to the front door and remove my key card and phone.” I put the card and the phone and company car keys on the desk, and stood.  I could see Candice observing, and she knew what it meant.  She made a face, then headed for the elevator.  I deduced that it meant she wanted to see me at the cafe up the street.

It was clear Eric did not want to suspend me because when I was unavailable, he had to report to my immediate superior, Victor Wellman, a man who was bitterly opposed to my appointment.  With this crisis, he would have all the ammunition he needed to get rid of me.  Eric had said as much on the way down.  He said he would call when the investigation was complete.

Candice had two cups of coffee waiting and a puzzled expression.  “What did you do wrong?”

“Losing a card key without adequately securing it at all times is a cardinal sin, and in certain circumstances, a stackable offence.  I’m guilty as charged.”

“What about the fact that after reporting it missing, they didn’t deactivate it?  If there’s blame, Eric is the one who should take responsibility for the current incident.”

“I hardly think any of that matters.  Wellman will use this to have me removed.  And he’s well within his right to do so.”

“You think he’s brave enough to take on your mother?”

“He’s the only one who is, but it may have unintended consequences.  But I’m not going to fight it.  I’ve had enough of politics and everything else.  I asked for no special treatment.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Take a few days off, see what’s bugging Marigold.  I have been missing lately, so perhaps we can catch up.”  If she was home.  To be honest, I had no idea what she did with herself lately.

I had expected to come home to an empty house.

After leaving Candice to contemplate her future, I took the subway, something I hadn’t done in a long time.  Then, it was a reasonable walk to our apartment.  I spoke the James, the only building concierge I knew, who was on a rare day shift.  It was odd to see the foyer in daylight on a weekday.

Then I went up to the apartment and let myself in.  I had expected to be alone, but after I shut the door, I heard subdued voices, followed by laughter.  Marigold.  And she was not alone.

I followed the sounds up the corridor to the end, our bedroom.  I put my head in the door and saw her naked, sitting on a man I didn’t recognise.  It was not hard to see what they were doing.

“Revenge sex, Marigold.  I can’t say I’m surprised.”

She squealed in surprise, or was it shock?

“When you’re done, pack your bags and leave.  You better not be here when I come back.  Goodbye, Marigold.”

I left, knowing she would not be able to catch me or follow me.  Whether she left or not didn’t matter.  I was never going back to that apartment again.

…

It took a week to unravel the conspiracy and see the reality.

The man with Marigold was one of Mellman’s recruits in a plan to get rid of me.  He had also recruited Marigold, who had tired of me because I was never home, and it was she who had taken the card key. 

Her ‘boyfriend’ was a graphics expert and had been the one to transplant my body and that of a random woman over a recording of him having sex with Marigold.  It took Gabrielle a week to work out how he did it and was more appreciative of his talent than she should be. 

He had used the card key to get in and was the one responsible for the unauthorised use of the mainframe.  He has also erased all the CCTV footage for the time of the transgression.

Wellman was silly enough to send the video to Marigold, thinking it would be untraceable and anonymous.  It may have seemed so to a novice like him, but it was easily unmasked by an expert like Gabrielle.

I never did understand why Mellman wanted to destroy my life because it couldn’t just be because my mother had used her influence to get me that job.  Not for a few months, anyway, when Eric had told Gabrielle that he had discovered that there had been another candidate for that role, a relative of Mellman’s.  Still, to me, it seemed over the top.

I could understand Marigold.  Perhaps if she had told me she didn’t want to be married to me anymore, I would have been disappointed, but I would have been sure she got a decent settlement, rather than what she ended up with.

But, in the end, I did get to do something I’d always wanted to do, and that was to try my hand at being a private detective.  Gabrielle had brought it up in one of our late-night conversations, the fact we were well suited to handling cases where people were wronged by deep fake videos and anonymously released revenge tapes.

We were both surprised but the number of people who called, texted, or emailed in the week after I posted an advertisement.

…

© Charles Heath 2023

…

I had never been to a ball and had only seen what one was like on TV.

When I first received the invitation, on a gold embossed card with old style and writing in ink, real ink, I was astonished.  I was not from a class of people whom one would associate with such a high-society event.

My father, when I had shown him the invitation, said it had obviously been sent to me by mistake, that it was some other William Benjamin Oldacre, not me.  When I showed him the envelope with my address on it, he then said someone was playing a game.

I was inclined to believe him, so I called the RSVP number and spoke to a lady by the name of Charlotte Bingham, who had a very posh voice.

I told her my name, and then told her there must be some mistake.

“We don’t make mistakes, Mr Oldacre.”

“To be honest, ma’am, I am not a man of means, if you take my meaning.”  I wanted to say I was just one of the rabble, but it seemed a little too blunt.

“You don’t need to be, to be a respectable and respected young man.  Miss Emily said that you would find some excuse, and her instructions were if you were to call, to insist you come, and if you were having difficulties to call her on the cell number she gave you.  I’m marking you down as a yes, and I look forward to meeting you.”  The line went dead before I could reply.

Miss Emily.

My first encounter with her was anything but cordial, in fact, I had called her lazy, indolent, egotistical, annoying, and overprivileged, all in one breath.  She was the typical rich brat to who the rules didn’t apply, the person who didn’t have to wait in queues like everyone else and whose schedules were made for other people.

Sadly, all the boys rich or poor grovelled at her feet, so it was a shock to her when I told her exactly what I thought of her.  From there, we ignored each other, as much as it was possible, until a week before when we just happened to be in the cafeteria at the same time.  I had been running late and almost walked away.

I joined Xavier in the queue, just as I noticed her with three of her equally bratty friends and a few people ahead in the queue.

“You must be starving,” Xavier said, “your nemesis is just ahead, and being her usual obnoxious self.”

“Unfortunately, hunger trumps common-sense.”

It was precisely the moment she turned around and saw me.  Sometimes, she would make a sarcastic comment, but most of the time, she just ignored me.  With one eye on her, I noticed as several others did, three boys, one of whom I knew, Oliver Richenburg, equally as entitled but not half as obnoxious, heading towards her.

It was clear if he was going over to her, that it was not a social call.  In fact, I had heard on the grapevine, the social media account that kept up with all the rumours about the so-called social set, they had had an acrimonious breakup when she posted some telling details about his life.  He had cheated on her, or so it was said, and it had spiralled out of control.

She had seen him steaming across the room, heading straight for her.  Everyone in the hall was on alert, expecting to get a front-row seat to a gigantic bust-up.

“Brace yourself, the proverbial was about to hit the fan.””

This means I’m not going to get anything to eat, and without food, well, I was not a happy person.  There was only one course of action.  I timed my arrival at the exact moment the two faced off.  Both were surprised to see me.

 “Just…”

Oliver was just about to launch into his opening argument when I glared at him and said, in a harsher tone than intended, “Before you launch into what I’m sure will be just the right amount of outrage, let me say this.  You’re an idiot.  You had a girlfriend that most of us would give a right arm just to be noticed for five seconds, and you cheated on her.  Wow, Oliver, you’re not going to have much of a married life if you can’t keep it in your pants.”  I turned on Emily, “And you, well, you know what I think of you, but seriously, who posts utter drivel on social media in a language that only cavemen could probably understand.  I’m sure I’ll get a spray before long, but quite clearly, we’ve all had enough.  Take your cat fight outside.”

“Who…”  She went from amused to angry in the blink of an eye.

“Who?  Who what?  Who cares.  Get out of here the pair of you before I do something I regret.”  I think I displayed just the right amount of unhinged insanity that they both left.

I looked over at the head of the queue; everyone was watching them leave.  “Shows over folks, let’s eat.”

That following few days before the invitation had been interesting, to say the least,.  I had gained an unwanted notoriety that raised my profile from the usual obscurity to fifteen seconds of fame, where people I didn’t know came up and told me it was about time both of them were put in their place, to there who just shook their head.  What was more disconcerting was that she now noticed me, and I was not sure if I wanted to be noticed.

Now, getting an invitation, just took it to a whole new level.  My first inclination was just to not go.  It was for me and a plus one.  There wasn’t a girl l knew to take but when my sister, two years older and a survivor of college histrionics, learned about the invitation she said we were going.  Darcy was more of a tomboy than the average girl of her age, and a lot tougher.  She’d also heard about the fracas in the canteen and had said, “You could do a lot better than to pine over what you can’t have”.

I told her I had no intention, and she just snorted, adding, “We’ll see.”  Now I really didn’t want to go, because she was going to find a new way to humiliate me.

And when the day arrived I was feeling quite sick.  I’d received a message on my phone that a car would be arriving at six to pick us up.  The RSVP lady was making sure I didn’t change my mind.  Darcy was, surprisingly, impressed.  And I was equally impressed to see the jeans and Polo shirt norm transform into a very beautiful young woman in the most amazing ball gown.  All I could say was, “Who are you and what have you done with my sister.”

At precisely six, there was a knock on the door, which my father opened.  It was a real-life chauffeur.  My father yelled out, even though we were waiting in the next room, “Your pumpkin has arrived.”  I was glad my misfortune was causing him amusement.  The chauffeur didn’t bat an eye.

It was not a pumpkin. It was a Rolls Royce, a car I’d heard of but never seen.

Darcy was thoughtful, having got past surprised. “I think she’s trying to impress you, Will.  Is there something going on that I need to know about?”

“I assure you she’s just trying to put me in my place. “w

I hadn’t taken much notice of where the ball was being held, but twenty minutes after being picked up I realised we were heading out of the city.  It meant it could only be in one place, the spider’s lair, the family home, a mansion you got to drive past and could barely see behind the surrounding wall.  Reputed to have more bedrooms than in the houses in my street, my father was amused that one family could live in such a place without getting lost.

We were invited to the castle, and it was becoming more like Cinderella with each passing minute.  Sweeping majestically through the gates it was like passing through a portal into another world.  It was a moment not lost on Darcy, who squeezed my hand and whispered, “Just remember their real people just like us.”

I got the impression she didn’t quite believe it herself.

It was a clear run-up to the majestic front entrance to the building, which seemed small but almost overwhelming close-up.  The car stopped at the bottom of red carpeted stairs leading up into the house.  The doors were opened by two men dressed in uniform.  At the bottom of the stairs, waiting, for a very elegantly dressed woman.

She smiled when we reached her.  “William, Darcy.  Welcome.”

“You’re the lady on the phone.”

“Yes.  My name is Charlotte, Miss Emily asked me to greet you and make sure you know where to go.”

Darcy was now looking somewhat lost in awe. 

She asked, “Is this place for real.  It’s like a fairy tale.”

“It has that initial wow factor, but that wears off after a while.  Come, follow me.”

We walked slowly up the red-carpeted stairs and into the foyer with columns, a marble tiles floor, and the biggest chandelier I’d ever seen.  I was expecting to see a fountain in the middle, but there wasn’t, just a table, a very large vase, and a flower arrangement that defied description.

We turned left through a portico, to where two more men dressed in uniform stood on either side, with another.  We stopped, and Charlotte said to him, “Mr William Oldacre and Miss Darcy Oldacre.”

He read out our names by way of introduction to the people milling in the anteroom, but perhaps more for the line of people down the side where it seemed we were to be greeted.  Charlotte led us to the head of the line, Miss Emily’s father.

“Mr James Edward Rothstein, may I present William Oldacre and his sister, Darcy.”

It was like greeting royalty, but I was not inclined to bow.  Darcy was by now amused by the formality, even though she looked as though she belonged.  She was certainly as beautiful in her gown as the others.

He held out his hand for a handshake.  “So you are the young man who told Emily she needs to learn proper English before she uses those ghastly social media apps, I think they call them.  I have to say I could not agree with you more.”

“Sir, I didn’t really mean anything by it.”

“Well, your words seemed to have had the desired effect, and I thank you.  Perhaps before the night is out, you could deliver some more good advice.  She won’t listen to us.”

“I think that race is run.  She’s not likely to speak to me, and I’m not sure why she asked me to come.”

“She didn’t, I did, but I suspect she’ll either thank me or hate me more.”  He sighed.  “Us men will never understand women.  The night is young, my boy, have fun.”

With that, I was dismissed and sent to Emily’s mother, Theresa, her older sister, Jasmine, her other sister, Kendra, and twin brothers, Samuel and Thomas.  That left Emily, who needed no introduction.

It was hard to tell if she was amused or angry.  I simply put a frown on my face, thinking it would preclude any conversation.

“Your father has a unique sense of humour, Emily,” I said.

“He does, indeed.”

Darcy took a step back and looked at the pair of us, then smiled.  “I can see why he did.  I’m Darcy, Will’s older sister.  You piss him off, you piss me off, and that you don’t want to do.”

“Not more than I already have?”

“I’ve no doubt there’s a very simple explanation for it, but let me sum it up in one sentence.  Try to see what’s in front of you.  Actually,” she looked at me, too, “It’s good advice for the both of you.  Now, I was promised top-shelf booze, where’s the bar?”

Charlotte had watched the exchange with an amused expression.  I suspect she knew every one of Emily’s foibles.  “I’ll take you.  I think I need a drink too.”

Emily looked at me.  “You said you would give your right arm to be noticed.  Well, you’ve been noticed.  And when I’m done here, you and I have a few things to discuss.  And your name is down on my card for the first dance.”

“What makes you think I can dance.”

“You can, so don’t tell me otherwise.”

“What makes you think I want to dance with you?”

“Because when you do, I will answer three of your questions.  Anything.  And you have to answer just one for me.  Deal?”

“This is not one of your little schemes, is it?

She shook her head.  “Don’t make me stamp my foot in annoyance William.  I promise you, what you see is what you get.  No schemes, no tricks, no lies.”

It was too good to be true.  This was a rabbit hole I didn’t want to go down, but did I have a choice?

I nodded.  “OK.  Where’s the bar.  This is going to require fortification.

I stayed at the bar, slowly working my way through several bottles of beer that I’d never heard of, while I watched Emily, and the family, finish greeting the guests, and then mingle with everyone on a less formal basis.

There were over two hundred people but the ballroom did not seem crowded.  People gathered together in groups, and the Rothsteins dutifully stopped at each for a few minutes.  It was interesting to see Emily behave much like an ambassador, a side of her I had never seen.

Every now and then, once she knew where I was, she looked over, discreetly, and smiled.

It was not lost on me what Darcy had said, and the few words we had when I reached the bar were surprising.  “She likes you a lot, you know.  Knowing you, though, you’ll blow a good opportunity through prejudice or stupidity or even both.  I know you like her to William, no one professed their disdain more who does not love their nemesis.  Don’t make me have to thump some sense into you.”

She was right, of course.  I fell in love with Emily the first time I saw her, knowing that we could never be together, which made it frustrating and annoying, and went a long way towards explaining why I was hostile towards her.  If she despised me, it couldn’t go anywhere.  Now, here, that façade was going to be impossible to keep up.

Then, all of a sudden, it was time for dancing, the orchestra, yes it was a real orchestra, was playing the first stains of a Viennese Waltz.  Perhaps if I just sidled along the bar towards the exit…

“I can dance too, you know.”  Emily must have known I would try to disappear.  “Many, many painful lessons when I could have been out with my friends.  No possible use for it on this earth, but there it is.  Take my hand, William, show me there’s more than just a grumpy man under that immaculate tuxedo.”

As they say, the gauntlet had been thrown down.

About twenty couples had taken to the floor and were arranging themselves in a circle, and we all ended up facing each other.

The music started.  I bowed to Emily.  Emily curtsied to me.  She took my hand, did a twirl, and we came together, very close.

Could she hear my heart beating?  It was almost racing.  Just standing there was perhaps the most intoxicating moment of my life.

Then it began, first one way, then the other.  I kept an eye on those on either side, maintaining distance.

“You’re not counting your steps, are you?”  We parted, and she came back, close in, and whispered in my ear.

“No.  Just making sure it’s the right one.”

Out again, back again, close, going around and around, trying not to get dizzy.  It was the one thing that bothered me in classes.

“Is this close enough for you?”

“Is that your one question?”

She frowned.  “No.”

Concentration, then. “Ask your first.”

“Have you always been this entitled, bratty child?”

“Yes.”

Well, that didn’t give me much to work with.  At least she admitted it.

She went out, doing a twirl, then came back, a smile on her face.

“Next?”

“Why am I here?  I’m not in the same stratosphere you are, and it seems pointless.  Except if you want to point out to everyone here that I don’t belong.”

“What was it you said one, flying at 30,000 feet without oxygen.  Put it this way, you wouldn’t know if you were not there with me.  Get ready, I call it the skipping bit.”

I’d forgotten about it.  It was not long but brought many a learner undone. 

Over, twirl, back, a close hug, then a little separation, hand behind her back, arm on my shoulder.

I thought about that answer.  Did she think I was her equal?  I certainly didn’t think so.

“You didn’t answer why I am here?

“Because I asked my father to invite you.”

“Third question, “Why would you invite me given our history?”

“Hold that thought, we’re changing partners for a circuit.”

Then, all of a sudden she was gone, and opposite me was one of her friends, whose look told me I really shouldn’t be here.  Whatever Emily’s motives were, they were hers alone.

One minute and twenty seconds of utter silence, with a girl who I would never get to dance with within a million years, from a world I could never expect to be part of.

In the end, “Well done Will.  Just don’t disappoint her.”  And then she was gone, and Emily was back.

“Where you come from does not define who you are Will, and I failed to realise that.  We got off on the wrong foot, metaphorically, and I want to change that, starting now.  Now I have just one question, and you have to answer honestly.”

The thought of what she might ask filled me with dread.

“It took me a while to work out why you hated me so much.  One of your questions proved it, and you think you’re not good enough for me.  Most boys pretend to love me so they can get what they want, but they don’t love me the way you do, do they?”

Cornered, with nowhere to go.

Stop, twirl, out, back, together.  I wished it would end and I could run away.

“Would it matter what I said?”

“Yes, William, it would.”

“Then no they don’t, and yes, I do, have done so from the first day I saw you.  Make of that what you will, but it’s the truth.”

And, then, the dance was done.  A bow, a curtsey.  She could have walked away.  Instead, she held out her hand, and I took it.  She was quite literally the most enchanting girl in the room, and for the moment, she wanted to be with me.

She smiled.  “Your name is in number two place on my dance card, so there’s no escape.”

“And probably number three.”

She nodded.  “Oh, and in case you haven’t realized it yet, for some unknown reason, I seem to be in love with you, too.  As my father often says, the night is young, and we have much to explore.”

…

© Charles Heath  2023

…

I had never been to a ball and had only seen what one was like on TV.

When I first received the invitation, on a gold embossed card with old style and writing in ink, real ink, I was astonished.  I was not from a class of people whom one would associate with such a high-society event.

My father, when I had shown him the invitation, said it had obviously been sent to me by mistake, that it was some other William Benjamin Oldacre, not me.  When I showed him the envelope with my address on it, he then said someone was playing a game.

I was inclined to believe him, so I called the RSVP number and spoke to a lady by the name of Charlotte Bingham, who had a very posh voice.

I told her my name, and then told her there must be some mistake.

“We don’t make mistakes, Mr Oldacre.”

“To be honest, ma’am, I am not a man of means, if you take my meaning.”  I wanted to say I was just one of the rabble, but it seemed a little too blunt.

“You don’t need to be, to be a respectable and respected young man.  Miss Emily said that you would find some excuse, and her instructions were if you were to call, to insist you come, and if you were having difficulties to call her on the cell number she gave you.  I’m marking you down as a yes, and I look forward to meeting you.”  The line went dead before I could reply.

Miss Emily.

My first encounter with her was anything but cordial, in fact, I had called her lazy, indolent, egotistical, annoying, and overprivileged, all in one breath.  She was the typical rich brat to who the rules didn’t apply, the person who didn’t have to wait in queues like everyone else and whose schedules were made for other people.

Sadly, all the boys rich or poor grovelled at her feet, so it was a shock to her when I told her exactly what I thought of her.  From there, we ignored each other, as much as it was possible, until a week before when we just happened to be in the cafeteria at the same time.  I had been running late and almost walked away.

I joined Xavier in the queue, just as I noticed her with three of her equally bratty friends and a few people ahead in the queue.

“You must be starving,” Xavier said, “your nemesis is just ahead, and being her usual obnoxious self.”

“Unfortunately, hunger trumps common-sense.”

It was precisely the moment she turned around and saw me.  Sometimes, she would make a sarcastic comment, but most of the time, she just ignored me.  With one eye on her, I noticed as several others did, three boys, one of whom I knew, Oliver Richenburg, equally as entitled but not half as obnoxious, heading towards her.

It was clear if he was going over to her, that it was not a social call.  In fact, I had heard on the grapevine, the social media account that kept up with all the rumours about the so-called social set, they had had an acrimonious breakup when she posted some telling details about his life.  He had cheated on her, or so it was said, and it had spiralled out of control.

She had seen him steaming across the room, heading straight for her.  Everyone in the hall was on alert, expecting to get a front-row seat to a gigantic bust-up.

“Brace yourself, the proverbial was about to hit the fan.””

This means I’m not going to get anything to eat, and without food, well, I was not a happy person.  There was only one course of action.  I timed my arrival at the exact moment the two faced off.  Both were surprised to see me.

 “Just…”

Oliver was just about to launch into his opening argument when I glared at him and said, in a harsher tone than intended, “Before you launch into what I’m sure will be just the right amount of outrage, let me say this.  You’re an idiot.  You had a girlfriend that most of us would give a right arm just to be noticed for five seconds, and you cheated on her.  Wow, Oliver, you’re not going to have much of a married life if you can’t keep it in your pants.”  I turned on Emily, “And you, well, you know what I think of you, but seriously, who posts utter drivel on social media in a language that only cavemen could probably understand.  I’m sure I’ll get a spray before long, but quite clearly, we’ve all had enough.  Take your cat fight outside.”

“Who…”  She went from amused to angry in the blink of an eye.

“Who?  Who what?  Who cares.  Get out of here the pair of you before I do something I regret.”  I think I displayed just the right amount of unhinged insanity that they both left.

I looked over at the head of the queue; everyone was watching them leave.  “Shows over folks, let’s eat.”

That following few days before the invitation had been interesting, to say the least,.  I had gained an unwanted notoriety that raised my profile from the usual obscurity to fifteen seconds of fame, where people I didn’t know came up and told me it was about time both of them were put in their place, to there who just shook their head.  What was more disconcerting was that she now noticed me, and I was not sure if I wanted to be noticed.

Now, getting an invitation, just took it to a whole new level.  My first inclination was just to not go.  It was for me and a plus one.  There wasn’t a girl l knew to take but when my sister, two years older and a survivor of college histrionics, learned about the invitation she said we were going.  Darcy was more of a tomboy than the average girl of her age, and a lot tougher.  She’d also heard about the fracas in the canteen and had said, “You could do a lot better than to pine over what you can’t have”.

I told her I had no intention, and she just snorted, adding, “We’ll see.”  Now I really didn’t want to go, because she was going to find a new way to humiliate me.

And when the day arrived I was feeling quite sick.  I’d received a message on my phone that a car would be arriving at six to pick us up.  The RSVP lady was making sure I didn’t change my mind.  Darcy was, surprisingly, impressed.  And I was equally impressed to see the jeans and Polo shirt norm transform into a very beautiful young woman in the most amazing ball gown.  All I could say was, “Who are you and what have you done with my sister.”

At precisely six, there was a knock on the door, which my father opened.  It was a real-life chauffeur.  My father yelled out, even though we were waiting in the next room, “Your pumpkin has arrived.”  I was glad my misfortune was causing him amusement.  The chauffeur didn’t bat an eye.

It was not a pumpkin. It was a Rolls Royce, a car I’d heard of but never seen.

Darcy was thoughtful, having got past surprised. “I think she’s trying to impress you, Will.  Is there something going on that I need to know about?”

“I assure you she’s just trying to put me in my place. “w

I hadn’t taken much notice of where the ball was being held, but twenty minutes after being picked up I realised we were heading out of the city.  It meant it could only be in one place, the spider’s lair, the family home, a mansion you got to drive past and could barely see behind the surrounding wall.  Reputed to have more bedrooms than in the houses in my street, my father was amused that one family could live in such a place without getting lost.

We were invited to the castle, and it was becoming more like Cinderella with each passing minute.  Sweeping majestically through the gates it was like passing through a portal into another world.  It was a moment not lost on Darcy, who squeezed my hand and whispered, “Just remember their real people just like us.”

I got the impression she didn’t quite believe it herself.

It was a clear run-up to the majestic front entrance to the building, which seemed small but almost overwhelming close-up.  The car stopped at the bottom of red carpeted stairs leading up into the house.  The doors were opened by two men dressed in uniform.  At the bottom of the stairs, waiting, for a very elegantly dressed woman.

She smiled when we reached her.  “William, Darcy.  Welcome.”

“You’re the lady on the phone.”

“Yes.  My name is Charlotte, Miss Emily asked me to greet you and make sure you know where to go.”

Darcy was now looking somewhat lost in awe. 

She asked, “Is this place for real.  It’s like a fairy tale.”

“It has that initial wow factor, but that wears off after a while.  Come, follow me.”

We walked slowly up the red-carpeted stairs and into the foyer with columns, a marble tiles floor, and the biggest chandelier I’d ever seen.  I was expecting to see a fountain in the middle, but there wasn’t, just a table, a very large vase, and a flower arrangement that defied description.

We turned left through a portico, to where two more men dressed in uniform stood on either side, with another.  We stopped, and Charlotte said to him, “Mr William Oldacre and Miss Darcy Oldacre.”

He read out our names by way of introduction to the people milling in the anteroom, but perhaps more for the line of people down the side where it seemed we were to be greeted.  Charlotte led us to the head of the line, Miss Emily’s father.

“Mr James Edward Rothstein, may I present William Oldacre and his sister, Darcy.”

It was like greeting royalty, but I was not inclined to bow.  Darcy was by now amused by the formality, even though she looked as though she belonged.  She was certainly as beautiful in her gown as the others.

He held out his hand for a handshake.  “So you are the young man who told Emily she needs to learn proper English before she uses those ghastly social media apps, I think they call them.  I have to say I could not agree with you more.”

“Sir, I didn’t really mean anything by it.”

“Well, your words seemed to have had the desired effect, and I thank you.  Perhaps before the night is out, you could deliver some more good advice.  She won’t listen to us.”

“I think that race is run.  She’s not likely to speak to me, and I’m not sure why she asked me to come.”

“She didn’t, I did, but I suspect she’ll either thank me or hate me more.”  He sighed.  “Us men will never understand women.  The night is young, my boy, have fun.”

With that, I was dismissed and sent to Emily’s mother, Theresa, her older sister, Jasmine, her other sister, Kendra, and twin brothers, Samuel and Thomas.  That left Emily, who needed no introduction.

It was hard to tell if she was amused or angry.  I simply put a frown on my face, thinking it would preclude any conversation.

“Your father has a unique sense of humour, Emily,” I said.

“He does, indeed.”

Darcy took a step back and looked at the pair of us, then smiled.  “I can see why he did.  I’m Darcy, Will’s older sister.  You piss him off, you piss me off, and that you don’t want to do.”

“Not more than I already have?”

“I’ve no doubt there’s a very simple explanation for it, but let me sum it up in one sentence.  Try to see what’s in front of you.  Actually,” she looked at me, too, “It’s good advice for the both of you.  Now, I was promised top-shelf booze, where’s the bar?”

Charlotte had watched the exchange with an amused expression.  I suspect she knew every one of Emily’s foibles.  “I’ll take you.  I think I need a drink too.”

Emily looked at me.  “You said you would give your right arm to be noticed.  Well, you’ve been noticed.  And when I’m done here, you and I have a few things to discuss.  And your name is down on my card for the first dance.”

“What makes you think I can dance.”

“You can, so don’t tell me otherwise.”

“What makes you think I want to dance with you?”

“Because when you do, I will answer three of your questions.  Anything.  And you have to answer just one for me.  Deal?”

“This is not one of your little schemes, is it?

She shook her head.  “Don’t make me stamp my foot in annoyance William.  I promise you, what you see is what you get.  No schemes, no tricks, no lies.”

It was too good to be true.  This was a rabbit hole I didn’t want to go down, but did I have a choice?

I nodded.  “OK.  Where’s the bar.  This is going to require fortification.

I stayed at the bar, slowly working my way through several bottles of beer that I’d never heard of, while I watched Emily, and the family, finish greeting the guests, and then mingle with everyone on a less formal basis.

There were over two hundred people but the ballroom did not seem crowded.  People gathered together in groups, and the Rothsteins dutifully stopped at each for a few minutes.  It was interesting to see Emily behave much like an ambassador, a side of her I had never seen.

Every now and then, once she knew where I was, she looked over, discreetly, and smiled.

It was not lost on me what Darcy had said, and the few words we had when I reached the bar were surprising.  “She likes you a lot, you know.  Knowing you, though, you’ll blow a good opportunity through prejudice or stupidity or even both.  I know you like her to William, no one professed their disdain more who does not love their nemesis.  Don’t make me have to thump some sense into you.”

She was right, of course.  I fell in love with Emily the first time I saw her, knowing that we could never be together, which made it frustrating and annoying, and went a long way towards explaining why I was hostile towards her.  If she despised me, it couldn’t go anywhere.  Now, here, that façade was going to be impossible to keep up.

Then, all of a sudden, it was time for dancing, the orchestra, yes it was a real orchestra, was playing the first stains of a Viennese Waltz.  Perhaps if I just sidled along the bar towards the exit…

“I can dance too, you know.”  Emily must have known I would try to disappear.  “Many, many painful lessons when I could have been out with my friends.  No possible use for it on this earth, but there it is.  Take my hand, William, show me there’s more than just a grumpy man under that immaculate tuxedo.”

As they say, the gauntlet had been thrown down.

About twenty couples had taken to the floor and were arranging themselves in a circle, and we all ended up facing each other.

The music started.  I bowed to Emily.  Emily curtsied to me.  She took my hand, did a twirl, and we came together, very close.

Could she hear my heart beating?  It was almost racing.  Just standing there was perhaps the most intoxicating moment of my life.

Then it began, first one way, then the other.  I kept an eye on those on either side, maintaining distance.

“You’re not counting your steps, are you?”  We parted, and she came back, close in, and whispered in my ear.

“No.  Just making sure it’s the right one.”

Out again, back again, close, going around and around, trying not to get dizzy.  It was the one thing that bothered me in classes.

“Is this close enough for you?”

“Is that your one question?”

She frowned.  “No.”

Concentration, then. “Ask your first.”

“Have you always been this entitled, bratty child?”

“Yes.”

Well, that didn’t give me much to work with.  At least she admitted it.

She went out, doing a twirl, then came back, a smile on her face.

“Next?”

“Why am I here?  I’m not in the same stratosphere you are, and it seems pointless.  Except if you want to point out to everyone here that I don’t belong.”

“What was it you said one, flying at 30,000 feet without oxygen.  Put it this way, you wouldn’t know if you were not there with me.  Get ready, I call it the skipping bit.”

I’d forgotten about it.  It was not long but brought many a learner undone. 

Over, twirl, back, a close hug, then a little separation, hand behind her back, arm on my shoulder.

I thought about that answer.  Did she think I was her equal?  I certainly didn’t think so.

“You didn’t answer why I am here?

“Because I asked my father to invite you.”

“Third question, “Why would you invite me given our history?”

“Hold that thought, we’re changing partners for a circuit.”

Then, all of a sudden she was gone, and opposite me was one of her friends, whose look told me I really shouldn’t be here.  Whatever Emily’s motives were, they were hers alone.

One minute and twenty seconds of utter silence, with a girl who I would never get to dance with within a million years, from a world I could never expect to be part of.

In the end, “Well done Will.  Just don’t disappoint her.”  And then she was gone, and Emily was back.

“Where you come from does not define who you are Will, and I failed to realise that.  We got off on the wrong foot, metaphorically, and I want to change that, starting now.  Now I have just one question, and you have to answer honestly.”

The thought of what she might ask filled me with dread.

“It took me a while to work out why you hated me so much.  One of your questions proved it, and you think you’re not good enough for me.  Most boys pretend to love me so they can get what they want, but they don’t love me the way you do, do they?”

Cornered, with nowhere to go.

Stop, twirl, out, back, together.  I wished it would end and I could run away.

“Would it matter what I said?”

“Yes, William, it would.”

“Then no they don’t, and yes, I do, have done so from the first day I saw you.  Make of that what you will, but it’s the truth.”

And, then, the dance was done.  A bow, a curtsey.  She could have walked away.  Instead, she held out her hand, and I took it.  She was quite literally the most enchanting girl in the room, and for the moment, she wanted to be with me.

She smiled.  “Your name is in number two place on my dance card, so there’s no escape.”

“And probably number three.”

She nodded.  “Oh, and in case you haven’t realized it yet, for some unknown reason, I seem to be in love with you, too.  As my father often says, the night is young, and we have much to explore.”

…

© Charles Heath  2023