Heller's Revenge (16 page)

“If I have to pay for it, then
I’m going to chose what you wear. And it’s going to be very
revealing. Your tits will be hanging out everywhere and I’m going
to look at them all night.”

“God, you’re a classy person,
aren’t you,” I scorned. “I’ll choose my own dress, thanks very
much.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“Whatever.”

After he dressed (Starsky and
Hutch t-shirt today), we left the room and caught the lift down to
the hotel’s boutique shops in silence. There I spent an enjoyable
two hours trying on every gown in every shop. Starting off very
opinionated about each gown, by the end of the second hour
Clarrie’s eyes had glazed over, he was stifling yawn after yawn,
and was slumped back on a leather sofa looking as if he was
seriously wishing a meteorite would crash through the ceiling and
kill him instantly.

Amateur!
I scoffed to
myself with an evil inner smile. Thinking he could outshop a
woman!

After I spent another fifteen
minutes pretending to be undecided between four different dresses
and trying them all on again, he couldn’t have cared less what I
wore, and was starting to lean towards the
Heller’s
uniform.
I ultimately chose my favourite gown, which I’d had my eye on all
along, and he gratefully paid the exorbitant cost for the dress and
matching shoes and handbag, just to escape back upstairs. I smiled
cheerfully all the way up in the lift.

“You’re very pretty when you’re
happy,” he commented, looking at me glumly.

“And when I’m not happy?” I
prompted.

“You’re a scary bitch.”

I shrugged. “You should try to
make me happier then.”

“How?”

“By being honest about those
notes, to start with. I know that you know more about them than
you’re letting on.”

He didn’t answer. We stepped out
of the lift and went back to the suite. I was hanging up my
beautiful new dress when Clarrie called me from his bedroom.

He better have his clothes
on!
I thought as I entered the room, fists clenched. He was in
his ensuite, staring with horror at the mirror, which had been
defaced with large letters written in lipstick.

CLARRIE COCKARSE!

FINAL WARNING!

I WILL SEE YOU ON CERMONY NIGHT!

THE TRUTH WILL BE TOLD!

LOVE M.

“God damn!” I exclaimed.

“I know, it’s terrifying, isn’t
it?” Clarrie trembled.

“No! That bastard used my
favourite lipstick.” I picked up the discarded empty tube, the
lipstick wasted on the aggressive lettering. “I’m going to kill him
when I find him. It’s expensive.”

“He’s been in my room! He must
have come in when we were downstairs. This definitely wasn’t here
this morning when we left. I brushed my teeth and there was no
writing.”

I tore my mind from my
significant loss and focussed on his problem. “Could it be
Kitty?”

“No!”

“Do you know her from the past
or something?”

“No! I told you. It wasn’t here
when she left. Someone’s been in the suite since we went
shopping.”

I retrieved my digital camera
from my bedroom. I snapped a couple of photos of the mirror and one
each of the notes, then fired up my laptop and emailed them to
Heller. He rang me quickly.

“I don’t like this, Matilda. I’m
going to make sure there are men there at the ceremony. I don’t
care what Mr Cockburn says.”

“I’d feel better about that. I
mean this person was in the suite when we weren’t here. How am I
going to sleep worrying about them coming back?”

“What’s it about?”

“Clarrie reckons he doesn’t
know, but I think he’s lying. It’s too random otherwise. It must
have some meaning for him.”

“Try to make him to tell you. It
might help us narrow down some suspects.”

“He’s like a clam.”

He sighed. “We’ve had some more
trouble here.”

My heart started racing. “What?
Is everyone all right? Niq? Daniel?”

“Everyone’s fine. Don’t worry.
Another broken window, but fortunately no one was in the room at
the time. It was the room that Niq sleeps in at Daniel’s
place.”

I couldn’t speak for a moment.
“Oh. How lucky that Niq wasn’t in the room. Those people are going
to kill one of us one day.”

“I know. I suppose they’ve found
out about my deal with Taldac and they’re not happy about losing
the contract, to say the least. But I’m going to deal with it.” He
sighed again. “Anyway, I’ll ring you later to let you know what
I’ve decided to do about the ceremony. Ring me immediately if there
are any more developments. Take care please, Matilda.”

God, another attack! It seemed
almost unbelievable, but
Heller’s
was the subject of
sporadic attacks from one of its rival firms, the main suspect
being Select Security. They generally didn’t appreciate the extra
competition Heller had brought to the city, nor his growing success
at securing high-profile and well-paying assignments. And now that
Heller had stolen a lucrative contract out from under their feet, I
could only dread what that meant for us. Already, windows at the
Warehouse had been smashed and bullets fired at
Heller’s
vehicles. I’d been caught up in a couple of the attacks a few
months ago.

Just great!
Now I had
something else to worry about as well.

Chapter 11

Finally it was the day of the
award ceremony. We hadn’t heard another peep from M, but that
didn’t make me feel any easier about what could happen later that
night when Clarrie received his award from the Prime Minister. The
ceremony was being held downstairs in one of the hotel’s opulent
ballrooms, and Heller had arranged for six men to be available to
generally patrol the room. Clarrie wasn’t thrilled about it, but
the alternative scenario of possibly being attacked by a mad person
was a strong incentive forcing him to agree. I convinced Clarrie
that everyone would automatically assume it was security for the
Prime Minister and he loosened up after that. I would have relaxed
more if either Heller or Clive was going to be present with us, but
they were both tied up that evening at a meeting with an important
client that couldn’t be moved.

The program for the ceremony was
a gala dinner, followed by some speeches from various dignitaries,
ending with the presentation of a number of annual technology
awards, the highlight of which would be the Prime Minister
presenting Clarrie with a special award for innovation in
technology. Clarrie was also giving a short speech and spent the
day hunched over his laptop, going over his notes.

The
Heller’s
security
team arrived a couple of hours before the ceremony started, headed
by my old friend, Rumbles, a giant, friendly man, and they
proceeded to scope the ballroom. They were competing with the Prime
Minister’s security team and for a while the ballroom crawled with
big, beefy men dressed in black. Rumbles and another man I didn’t
know came upstairs to fetch me so that I could also do a recon. We
left the other man behind with Clarrie while I accompanied Rumbles,
making small talk in the lift until we reached the second floor.
The ballroom was fairly large and had already been set-up for the
evening’s event. Rumbles gave me an overview of emergency exits,
potential hiding places, security cameras and showed me where
Clarrie and I would be sitting and his likely path up to the stage
and back.

I returned upstairs and started
to get ready for the ceremony. The
Heller’s
man on duty with
Clarrie stayed with us, his orders to safely escort us down to the
ballroom at the appropriate time. I had a lengthy, luxurious bath
and spent a very long time on my makeup, which I applied
generously. I decided to leave my hair loose, using my heating wand
to give myself more bouncing waves than normal. I wanted to look
very feminine, just to make Clarrie happy. I don’t really know why,
because God only knows I couldn’t stand the little creep, but it
was his big night and it seemed churlish not to look my best.

I slipped on my dress. It was a
beautiful deep ocean green colour, so low cut at the front and back
that I was forced to go braless. But it was tight enough in the
sparkling bodice to offer sufficient support so that my generous
boobs wouldn’t be jiggling everywhere. Or so I prayed. The long
skirt of the dress was floaty and charming, and swished around my
legs flatteringly. I hadn’t brought much jewellery with me, but had
some pretty emerald-coloured earrings and a matching necklace. I
regarded myself in the mirror as I slid my feet into low-heeled
shoes. I was going to tower over Clarrie in any case, but I’d
decided that there was no need to make us look more ridiculous than
necessary by wearing high heels. I made a few adjustments to the
dress and took a final glance in the mirror, uncertain about the
amount of flesh I was showing. Preparations finished, I went out to
wait for Clarrie in the living area.

The
Heller’s
man’s eyes
opened wide in appreciation at my arrival. All the men who worked
there thought I was Heller’s woman, so he didn’t comment except for
a bland, “you look very nice, Miss”, but I could feel his eyes
lingering on me for a while.

Clarrie came out of his bedroom
dressed in a tuxedo. I was surprised. For some reason, I thought
he’d be wearing jeans, sneakers and a Star Wars t-shirt. He
actually looked quite presentable. He goggled at the sight of me
and stopped dead in his tracks, staring at my chest openly, mouth
agape. The
Heller’s
man and I exchanged a bemused
glance.

“Clarrie? Clarrie?” I asked
sharply, clicking my fingers in his face, trying to snap him out of
whatever mammary reverie he had fallen into.

He shook his head as if to clear
it. “God, Tilly, you look stunning. I love that dress. I really,
really
love that dress!”

That settled it for me. I was
definitely
flashing too much boob. Problem was that I had
nothing else to change into, so had no choice but to brazen it out.
Nobody would notice me because there would be loads of other women
there, I assured myself, and surely some of them would be flashing
even more boob than me. In the lift, Clarrie shamelessly stared at
my boobs all the way down to the second floor. It wasn’t even done
in the spirit of revenge, but just his sexually stunted nature
coming to the fore again. I honestly believed that he literally
couldn’t stop himself from perving. But when I briefly cast my eye
on him, the
Heller’s
man was doing the same, only more
discreetly. I glanced away from both of them, wishing I was
somewhere else.

Looking back, I frankly don’t
know what I was thinking, because on entering the ballroom it
became immediately and painfully obvious that there weren’t going
to be a lot of women present. It was not an awards ceremony for top
sportsmen and their beautiful and competitive WAGs; it was an IT
awards ceremony. Full of IT people. I stood out like, well, I guess
like a pair of perky breasts at an IT awards ceremony.

Every eye in the room swivelled
towards me, or parts of me anyway. Clarrie proudly led me through
the throng, stopping every few metres to greet someone, have his
back slapped, or pose for a photograph, his arm firmly clamped
around my waist. I kept my hands to myself. He was grinning widely,
enjoying every moment. I didn’t smile in any of the photos. I
didn’t want anyone to think that I harboured any kind of positive
feelings for him.

With a nod, I acknowledged
Rumbles and the other four
Heller’s
men who were
strategically placed around the room. They were all also
bugged-eyed at my appearance, which I wasn’t pleased about. They
were my colleagues, for heaven’s sake! The sixth man, the one who
had brought us down, escorted us to the top table before taking up
his allocated position. I was on high alert, senses buzzing, eyes
darting around everywhere. I wondered if M was in the crowd
somewhere, mingling with the others, just waiting for a chance to
take revenge on Clarrie. But for what? That was the key
question.

There was only one other woman
at our table, the wife of the director of one of the country’s
leading software development companies, and she had very sensibly
come dressed in a stylish but comfortable pants suit. She sat next
to me during the dinner and I was grateful for her kindness in
doing that. It was much easier to speak to her than to the men, and
she was also sparing me the revolting sight of watching Clarrie
eat. I smiled at the waiter who placed my dinner in front of me and
thanked him nicely, before returning my attention to her.

“Have you and Clarence been
going out for long?” she asked curiously.

“It feels as though I’ve been
with him forever,” I said honestly.

“Oh, how sweet.”

“What can I say? I’ve never
before been in a relationship where two people are so honest about
their feelings for each other.”

“Lovely!”

“He lets me know every day how
he feels about me.”

“That’s very romantic.”

“Isn’t it just? I’d have to say
that there were definitely sparks between us right from the
beginning. You know how you can tell immediately if someone is
right for you. He even looks at me in his own special way.”

“Stop, you’re starting to make
me jealous!”

I smiled to myself and scanned
the room quickly. I was so glad that the
Heller’s
men were
there. I wasn’t going to be much use dressed as I was. Everything
seemed normal to me. There weren’t any suspicious characters
lurking in the shadows. I could see the
Heller’s
men keeping
a close watch on Clarrie and me, and that helped me relax. I made
sure that I didn’t drink very much. I wanted to keep alert.

Clarrie tried to get my
attention. I looked away deliberately. He put his arm around my
shoulders. I shook it off. He tried to grab my hand. I scratched
him with my nails. He put his hand on my thigh. I shot him a look
promising a long and excruciating death in his immediate future if
he persisted. He snatched his hand away quickly and kept both hands
chastely to himself for the rest of the evening. I couldn’t make my
feelings for him any more transparent.