The Girls Club Page 15

  Go to bed.

  It wasn’t out of the question though for whoever had Sarah ‘Sainted Twat’ Steiger to come here to get her later. Especially if Miss Steiger started to sing like the fabled canary.

  “Fuck shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite” she thumped her fists down on her bed in tandem.

  Love your friends? This has been the most fucked up experience since day one. You’ve managed to bed a bevy of beautiful women, have at least one fall in love with you, beat up a woman who was dead hours later, watch a starlet get her snatch eaten out and now this. Your boss. The one woman who perhaps knows the only thing about you that might get you in a whoooooooooole heap of trouble gets lifted in the street after coming to you for help. Should we mention that Rochelle, dear sweet Rochelle already thinks you’re bent on self destruction and she doesn’t even know the half of it.

  She was tired of her brain throwing out all this shit and if there had been a switch to staunch the flow she’d have pressed it.

  Her phone tinkled its idiot chime and goosebumps raised all over her body.

  Unknown number.

  “Hello?” her voice sounded full of confidence. Good to know there was some fight still dug down deep in there.

  “Hi hun, listen. We have a bit of a problem. Your boss needs you to bring her something”

  She smoothed down the hair on the nape of her neck.

  “Really?” light. Non-committal.

  “Yeah. In her office she had a small safe behind the crummy fake Van Gogh she has hung there. She needs you to open it, and bring the contents to her here”

  “Sure” sweat rolled down between her breasts.

  “Can I talk to her a sec?”

  Laughter greeted this.

  “What’s funny?” she asked.

  Fucking pack it in! Are you goading this unnamed assailant?

  “She’s indisposed sweetie. But when you get to the office in, say, 40 minutes, I’m going to call you back with the combination for the safe”

  “Just tell me now and I’ll write it down”

  “Oh tut-tut. That would never do. I’ll ring you back in 40 minutes when you’re there”

  “Whoa hang on…”

  The line was dead.

  How did she know this person had Sarah? Well. She hadn’t been in LA all that long and the people who had her mobile number she could count on both hands. It would make a certain kind of sense that they had got it from Sarah’s mobile. It would also explain why she was left to eat side walk whilst her boss had been carted away. It would also then serve as damn near suicidal to put herself into the hands of these people after she had done as they asked.

  “ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!” she butted the worktop in the kitchen. 40 minutes wasn’t long. She’d be driving fuzzy headed too.

  Her phone chimed again.

  Rosh.

  God dammit don’t you tell her any of it, not one bit!

  “Oh, I am glad you called. I felt pretty shitty about earlier.” Karen sounded as chirpy as she could manage.

  “Yeah. Me too. You couldn’t sleep either?”

  “No” she closed her door very quietly she didn’t want Rosh to hear her going out.

  “I can’t believe how mad I got. That was our first real fight then.”

  “That’s how you know you’re a real couple, when you’ve had your first barney” she pushed for the lift then walked back down the other end of the corridor so Rosh wouldn’t hear the boop when it arrived.

  “What’s a barney?”

  Karen smiled.

  “It’s British for row, argument, bust up, having a barney, like ‘Barney Rubble’, trouble? Rhyming slang”

  “Thought you weren’t a cockney?”

  The lift arrived and the square of light appeared on the hall carpet, she got in and pressed the button for the car park level.

  “Oh I’m not. Don’t you worry about that.”

  Going to have to get her off the phone, it’s a little harder to cover up the noise a car makes.

  “How ‘bout you come over. I don’t want to sleep alone”

  Karen felt a pull in her chest.

  I wish it was that easy.

  “Yeah. I’ll just have a tidy up and come over. I’m a bit grotty. I won’t be long”

  “I love you”

  She stopped just outside of her car door and put her hand on her chest, something way down deep clicked.

  “I love you more”

  Then she was gone.

  All we’ve got to do is get something we don’t know about for someone we don’t know about either with a code we also don’t know and maybe then, we’ll start knowing a few things. Like is the boss still alive? And really, why do you use rhyming slang, you’re not a frickin’ cockney?

  A resilient smile rose upon her features. The power of Rosh’s words gave her an edge. She had a lot to lose now. That meant playing the game - yet again.

  She wasn’t a native of LA either but she had already assimilated some jargon. Just a sponge alright.

  She sped out of the car park into the still night. It struck her that a lot of the really important stuff happened at night. It had certainly been the case for her.

  Because the office block had a 24 hour man on the desk he was able to let her sign in downstairs. He asked what her business was at this un-Godly hour, she told him with a smile that her boss was putting together a summation but had forgotten a very important affidavit.

  The guard nodded his head like he understood everything she’d just said. In truth she’d made it up, but she had a gift of being able to go with the flow and think on her feet.

  When the elevator door opened with its boing, it was incredibly loud in the dark of the office. Hardly a superstitious woman she could well believe that there were things that crawled the shadows and this was their hour and she was trespassing.

  Checking her mobile phone for the time she say she’d been just about 40 minutes. She went round the dark corridor, flicking lights on as she went, not wanting to walk the corridors in the dark. Sarah’s office was locked.

  We are going to anger the unseen caller for sure with this.

  She looked round for anything that might serve to bust the lock. Nothing sprung out at her.

  The mobile, hateful insipid creature it was, rang.

  Unknown caller.

  “Hello”

  “OK, this is the combination you’ll need,”

  “Whoa Tonto! I haven’t even got in the friggin’ office yet. The doors locked mate. Maybe you could ask the boss if she keeps a spare key anywhere?”

  “There isn’t time for that. Break it”

  Karen sighed.

  There were choices. You just had to make the right ones.

  “Hang on” she put the mobile down on floor and went round to the canteen.

  Something big?

  She was sure they had a drawer in here where they kept tools and stuff. An odd time she herself had been asked to hang a picture or tighten a nut on someone’s chair. Her mind had gone blank. There was a metal cooking pot on the stove. That would have to do.

  Back at the heavy wooden double doors she hefted the pot and wound up a good long swing to hopefully loosen the handle with the lock in it. The first blow and she heard wood splinter, the second blow and splinters became visible, the third blow with the metal pot and the handle hung in the frame. Karen dropped the pot and wiggled the handle about until it came out in her hands. She picked the mobile up and opened the door.

  “Ok, I’m in” she pushed the tasteful light switch and looked at the print the un-named caller had referred to.

  “The painting should just slide across”

  Karen pushed it on the left side, nothing, pushed the right side and it moved on a track.

  A wall safe was indeed hidden there.

  “Right”

  “OK, it’s 13 left, 45 right, 87 left, 99 left, 13 left, 78 right” buzzing noises as she whirled the dial through the numbers being given to her.

&n
bsp; The door opened and Karen almost wretched.

  “Ahhh. It is in there then! I want you to find a bag, not a see through one obviously, and put everything in”

  The voice on the mobile was coming from a million years away, the tinny voice surely couldn’t be asking her to do this knowing what was in here?

  Think, think, think. How many more reasons could anyone possibly need to kill you? Add to the espionage, smuggling human body parts.

  Never had she felt so ill. Just looking at it made her stomach roll again. A human left hand. And she was sure it had once been attached to Demi. The other grudge Prestons had with Tarkingtons and Sarah Steiger.

  “Arrg” she looked round the office for something, anything to put the stuff in.

  There was a box file. She took out the files that were in it and put them on the desk.

  She picked the mobile up and pinned it between her head and her shoulder.

  “Do you want, er, everything?”

  “Yes” she couldn’t place the voice at all. Still. It didn’t sound like a voice she’d never heard before.

  As well as the hand taped up in plastic there were two stacks of $50 bills. A gold bar that was exceedingly heavy, ‘the golden client list’ which had been put together onto one document, Karen felt a little guilty about that one. A couple of folders with paperwork in them and an oddly named sheet headed, ‘Future top ten’. Karen knew how Lot’s wife had felt, her eyes were going to betray her, she was going to read.

  No. For Rosh. Enough has happened.

  When it was all in the box file she asked the person on the other end of the line what she was supposed to do now.

  “Leave the building and drive to the end of the road”

  “That it?”

  “Honey, it really is”

  Not bothering to close the safe she pulled the door to the jamb. No sense in making a fuss since the lock was now busted and the safe had been sprung. Flicking lights off she felt hope kindle. All they really wanted was this stuff. Miss Steiger had trespassed against them so they were trespassing right the fuck back.

  Holding the thought of Rosh at the fore front of her mind she waved goodbye to the night man and got back in her car. The box file said nothing of its ghastly contents and yet she felt like she must be wearing a neon sign, Mutilation!, for all to see.

  She wondered if it was raining back home and drove to the end of the road as she was told to do hoping it would be the right end of the road.

  The mobile was still against her ear. The person at the other end had put it on a side but not put it down as such. Probably on another phone to whatever harpies were in the vicinity to collect the stolen booty.

  Absurd. Ridiculous. Dangerous. Stupid. Incredible.

  This situation was all those things. Her heart pounded and her head ached from the beer and beating it had taken.

  Through the miles between where she sat and where the owner of the phone was making her call from was she could imagine all manner of horrible things happening to her boss. Were the people there ‘killing’ mad?

  It’s alright. According to Rosh this is the way its always been.

  Crazy yanks.

  Thump! Thump! Thump!

  Karen jumped. She went to push the door open and her mind cautioned her not to, she pushed the electric window button instead. There were two women outside her car and for the very blood in her veins she would make every effort not to see them.

  “You have something for us?”

  “Wait, just one sec”

  She picked the mobile up, “Hello. OI!”

  Just another momentary lapse into insanity, on your left you’ll see Sunset Boulevard, oh that? That’s what’s left of PA Karen…

  “What?” came the answer on the mobile.

  “Are these your people, black clothes, two of ‘em?”

  “Yes”

  “Just checking”

  “Just give them the box like a good girl so we can all go home”

  “Yes ma’am” she pushed the heavy box file through the window. The woman looked to be dressed all in black, black pants, black coat, like Sarah’s meat heads that night?

  As the arms took the box off her the woman behind her stepped forward and pulled the door open. Karen dropped her mobile and was hurled to the side walk where the other meat head laid in with her feet. The first of the two women had the box on the hood of the car they’d been waiting in, she opened the lid and spoke into what looked like a hands free mobile headset.

  If it hadn’t been for the beer, the previously bump to the head, or the fact that she herself had done the dirty deed she’d been given to do by taking the client list, she might have fought back. The woman looked about 30 feet tall and was wearing rather hard trainers. Air that wasn’t reaching her brain woofed forcibly out of her lungs with each kick. The woman never spoke, just gave guttural gruntings as she laid in. There was a small grace it seemed, if they were going to kill her they’d have at least put her in their car. She would take the kicking gratefully because it meant she’d see tomorrow. The woman with the box file and its contents whistled using her fingers. The woman who was stomping all over Karen leaned forward and spoke right into Karen’s ear.

  “That’s for Sarah you cunt!”

  Sarah? What the fuck?

  And then she brought her foot down on the side of Karen’s head. It all greyed out again.

  Tasting pavement for the second time that night didn’t bother Karen. She sat up, rubbed the drool off her chin and tried to make both her eyes stay open at the same time. No soap. One of them was very swelled.

  She couldn’t very well go to Rochelle looking like this? But there wasn’t anywhere else she wanted to go. Getting up in a dipsy semi-circle she saw the goons had gone. Rather odd remark stomper goon had made, her ears had been ready to hear the name ‘Demi’, but ‘Sarah’? They had definitely been Sarah’s dogs bodies then. Or maybe they were just ‘Chain’ dogs bodies. They did as they were told by the higher ups, meat heads, hired hands. Perhaps a ‘Sarah fan’ who didn’t appreciate the fact that Karen had in fact given Prestons her head, (hand), on a stick.

  “Who gives a fuck” she asked the pavement whilst her head spun and twirled.

  Getting back into the car was relatively simple. Seeing the key in the ignition wasn’t. She turned the overhead light on, that made it a little easier.

  The mobile went on the seat beside her.

  “Fuckin…” she picked it up to hurl it out the window.

  It was Rochelle, her baby, her love. Probably wondering what the heck was taking Karen so long.

  “Hiya” trying her best to sound jovial.

  “Hey. Where are you?” sleep furry.

  “Oh. I got held up. But you just bet your boots I’m on my way now”

  “You alright?” little more awake.

  “Oh yeah” Karen nodded her head to no one in particular, blood sheeting one side of her face and her left eye was just a tiny dot amidst blue and swelling flesh.

  “Are you still mad that I got mad?” worried now.

  “No. Not in the slightest angel. Get the kettle on. I could murder a brew”

  Poor choice of words.

  But Rochelle was a little happier at hanging up knowing that things were ok, she was still coming over, everything was fine.

  “Gonna have to tell her summat?” she asked herself as she pulled out, if it wasn’t for the late hour she wouldn’t have risked driving. As it turned out she could use both lanes as required, and often did.

  “Could tell her I’ve been in a bar fight?” sounded good on paper. But what if Rochelle got to work tomorrow, found Sarah to be missing, door busted in, robbed into the bargain. Karen would die of shame if she caught her in a lie.

  “Tell the truth and shame the devil?” she asked the empty car again.

  It was the best option. Rochelle would go nuts, but maybe she’d finally consent to leaving LA with her. Let all these nutty bitches fuck each other up. It had been fu
n. Truly. But there came a time when you had to consider the long term benefits of any arrangement. And this didn’t feel long term, or beneficial.

  Tapping the door of Rochelle’s apartment she pasted a big grin on her face.

  Rochelle opened the door and clapped her hands to her mouth.

  “Its not as bad as it looks”

  Rochelle grabbed her jacket and hauled her in, shutting the door rapidly behind her.

  “Come here”

  Karen was being led into the bathroom and Rochelle put the seat of the toilet down.

  “Sit”

  Karen sat.

  “Jesus Karen.” tears formed in her eyes as she opened the medicine cabinet. Karen felt the silly grin was a little too much and dropped the act. Rochelle winced every time she dabbed the grazes with Iodine, Karen did her level best not to flinch at all. Although back in good ole Blighty they didn’t hold with no friggin’ Iodine, might as well pour salt on the fucking thing and make a good job of making it hurt like a piss flap stuck in a door.

  “It’s alright”

  “Is it?” she banged the bottle back down on the side of the sink.

  “Please don’t get mad again, I couldn’t bear it”

  Rochelle poked her face and Karen wailed.

  “Might need stitches. Bitches with scars? What a couple we make”

  Karen took the cotton wool out of her hands then and gripped her wrist.

  “Its alright” she said with more emphasis.

  Rochelle kissed her and Karen felt the familiar warmth fill her again. This was what was worth fighting for. Not money. Or stature. Or bigger cars.

  Karen carried on the kiss by nuzzling her neck, she felt Rochelle sigh her defeat and smiled in spite of the ripping head pain she felt. They belonged to each other now. For good or ill.

  “Are you even, uh, going to tell me, ow, what happened?”

  Karen didn’t answer. Whatever she told her would be half arsed and stupid. She’d tell her everything she needed to know in the best way she knew how.

  “SSSShhh” Karen stood up. The blood in her hair looked purple at this point, She looked down at Rochelle who was kneeling with her hand still in Karen’s.

  “Come on”

  Rochelle let herself be led and let Karen make love to her over and over. She could smell beer, blood, spent sweat. It was dirty and gritty and it made her feel incredibly horny. Karen was going to feel so terrible tomorrow so she would let her enjoy tonight, better make that morning.