The Girls Club (26 page)

“Some people would mark a person, say, by carving their initials into them , like they were a fucking tree in a park!” she pulled back out into traffic, dead arm down the car door side and good arm over-arming the wheel while she kept the mobile pinned to her ear.

“Others. Well. Others might seek a much meaner punishment, a marking all the same though. Did they cut your bits off Sarah? Did they cut your flaps off because that’s the bit that got you into shit with the Chain brass?” her voice rose and as it rose she pushed her foot further to the floor.

All she was getting was cawing and laughing, the sounds of Sarah destroying whatever place she was in, fury at being balked of her physical retribution.

“I’ll make you a deal Sarah, a once in a lifetime offer that you can’t refuse”

Karen winced as a blood curdling cry filled her ear.

“YOU DON’T DARE TO DEAL WITH ME, NEVER, ARE YOU LISTENING?”

“You’re really going to want to hear this though.”

Just keep following the arrow.

“The only thing, the ONLY thing.. .”

“Shut the hell up a minute. I’ve left something at your house. A present”

Quiet now.  Bangs and crashes forgone for the moment.

“I knew I had to do something to get rid of you, I promised Rochelle I wouldn’t hurt you. And I haven’t. But if you don’t get to your house pretty quick the cops are going to find a pair of gloves on your couch covered in blood.”

“What the fu…”

“Oh I was real clever”, her vision doubled, “The gloves came from your office, I put them on over my own gloves. Someone had already been there you see, and off’d the desk man. I bet it
was
you wasn’t it? Gonna frame me for that? Or maybe Charlotte because she also knew you for what you were. A FREAK!” Karen was grinning now, burnt hair and hoody, blood splattered arm.  If she got pulled over now it would be over for Rochelle.

“You wanted people to think you were still missing, you were spying on Rochelle weren’t you? Do you touch yourself when you think about her? I just bet you do.”

Silence now.  Angry emptiness on the line.

“Well now Miss Steiger, I’d say it’s been nice catching up, but I’m trying to drive and I don’t want to get arrested now do I?”

“You’re passport!”

“…is back in my pocket, thank you ma’am, it was rather helpfully in the same drawer as your driving gloves. How’s that for handy?”  

More silence from Sarah.  It felt like perhaps the first time ever she had been gazumped, and she wasn’t finding it to her taste.  Karen hadn’t heard her hang up, just as she was letting the mobile slip from the nook it was in she heard, “You’re dead”

Maybe so.  But not today crazy lady.

The point of no return had been passed.

Karen pushed on towards whatever was waiting for her at the airport Holiday Inn.

Chapter 14

“Something beginning with ‘H’”

“Are you fucking kidding me, again?”

Sky smiled.

“Sorry”

“No. It’s alright. Guess it shouldn’t be too much longer”

They had made the best of a bad situation and passed the time congenially enough.  Sky sat on the floor next to Heidi who was still trussed up against the big ‘H’ of the Hollywood sign.  Sky had brought a blanket from the car up and gave it Heidi to sit on, no one had said kidnap had to be cruel.

Sky still harboured quite a crush for the fiery redhead.  And if truth be told, Heidi was finding it easier to smile with this young lady all the time.  If not for the fact that she was bound up and being held hostage it would have been the nicest afternoon she‘d spent in a long time.

“Bet you haven’t got anything to eat” Heidi said morosely.

Sky looked genuinely sorry, “No, you’re really hungry by now I guess”

“Fuckin ’A’” as she shifted loose debris skittered away.

“She would have had to get there as quick as she could”

“She retarded? She’ll get shot to shit when she gets there” Heidi grinned sickly.

“She’s a good person” Sky protested.

“Oh? Good enough to blackmail you into doing this to me? Yeah, a fuckin’ saint”

Sky bit her tongue.  Miss Huntington-Wolfe wouldn’t get it, it seemed the higher up you were on the Chain the less you thought about the very real emotions that can exist between two people.  And she pitied her for it.

“Let’s play eye-spy some more”

“If you come out with one more fuckin ‘H’…”

“I won’t”

Heidi’s cell.  Which had been on the dusty ground next to Heidi’s leg mostly forgotten, sprang into life.

Sky looked at Heidi, her wits momentarily having escaped her.

“Better answer it, I always answer my cell”

Sky picked it up, “Heidi’s phone”

“Aww Skylar. How have you been?”

She almost dropped the phone.  Heidi watched her face go pale.

“Sarah...hi!”

Heidi’s face also went pale.

“So, I hear you’re fucking the starlet, good move. Where are you sweetie?”

Her tone was of ice covered glaciers sprinkled with fresh powder for good measure.

Sky told herself to relax, Sarah had no way of knowing where they really were.

“I’m at Heidi’s place”

“WRONG ANSWER!” Sky flushed.

“Gimme the phone, quick!” Heidi hissed. Perplexed and horrified by the anger permeating from the tiny phone she held it down against Heidi’s head.

“Sarah? The fuck you been?”

“Heidi?” she almost sung the word.

“Yeah, what gives?”

“I’m at your apartment, ready to go over your case on Monday, you know, the one I’m helping you get out of, and you’re not here. That’s upsets me Heidi. I thought we had something a little deeper than that”.

Sarah had lost whatever tenuous grip on reality she’d had.  Wherever she had been and whatever the number one had ordered it had tipped her over.

“I can be right there, no problem”

Sky didn’t know when to believe what Heidi was saying, lies and truth mixed together without distinction.

“I’ve got a better idea. Apparently there’s some trouble at my house. I can’t get there directly, I have…stuff to do first. Would you go attend to that for me whilst I go back to the office and pick up your file?”

“Sure thing Sarah. How bad is it?”

“I’m not sure but one of my neighbours called me to tell me that the upstairs was on fire. This means I am prioritising my role to you, as lawyer, rather than my own home and possessions”

Sky was looking down at the cars bustling busily about.  She wanted to know what Karen was up to, whether she was alright, it had been hours since she had left with a wink and a smile.  She didn’t dare call her though in case she wasn’t in a position to answer.

“I appreciate that Sarah. I’ll get right over there now. What is it that needs shifting?”

Oh Heidi, I thought you were such a nice girl.

“Thankfully most of the really distasteful things, were in my safe at work,” she laughed at this,  “Or they
were,
there’s just one thing if you see them. A pair of black gloves, I think they’re on the couch. Lift them if you see them,
discreetly!
”

“Sure thing Sarah”

Sky shifted on her feet, her legs were going to sleep being bent down like this.

“I look forward to seeing you later Heidi, I hope you are willing to cut your weekend with Skylar short and spend some time with me. I need a friend right now”

“Ok. I’ll call you later Sarah. Bye”

Sky hung the cell up.

“Sarah sounded
really
mad, as in mad as a wet hen mad and out of her mind mad”

“I think that’s an apt description of the situation. Now untie me”

Sky was torn. 

She didn’t tell her anything though, not really.

“Listen, babe, if you don’t untie me I can’t do Sarah’s little errand and then I’ll be as dead as the rest of you idiots. Untie me, help me do what I need to do and we’ll come out of this OK enough to still be able to live here”

Karen would know what to do.

But she couldn’t call her.

“You know I’m right” covered in dust and weary looking in the afternoon light Sky believed her.

“And I’ll help you get whatever it is that fuckin’ limey has of yours too”

Sky coloured at this.

“She hasn’t got anything of mine” she almost whispered down to her feet.

“You’d do this for her anyway? Risk pissing me off? What happened to rank sweetie, I’M YOUR FUCKING SUPERIOR, NOW LET ME UP!”

“Please don’t shout at me, I’m getting a headache.” a tear escaped and tracked through the dust on her cheek.

“Another fuckin’ word that begins with ‘H’, WHAT DID I SAY!” and she let her act slip then, a smile broke her face.

“Come ‘ere”

Sky bent down.

“I’m not interested in anything bad happening to your friend, just saving my own ass.  You in?”

Well Karen, I hope you’ve had all the time you need.  Because LA time is catching up to you now.

She went round the front of the ‘H’ supports and started picking the rope apart.

“I’m gonna need some clothes, and a piss!”

Sky grinned, she could be so down to earth and friendly, she hoped this wasn’t the start of a run of bad decisions.

The ropes fell down and she went round the other side to help Heidi up, it took a minute for her legs to come back after being on the hard ground for hours and she stomped off round the other side of the ‘H’.

“Heidi?”

Liquid gushing sounds, followed by a hearty sigh.

Sky picked up the cell and the water bottle, when Miss Huntington-Wolfe came back she had regained some of her composure, now the need to urinate had been dealt with everything else felt clearer.

“Are you a Wal-Mart girl Sky?”

“Sometimes”

“Me too, lets go see what they have on sale in pink!”

Chapter 15

“What’s that Sheila? You’re not making much sense girl” she lifted her head out of the toilet.

“I, I, I…”

She ducked her head again and flushed.  It washed some of the blood off.

Infused with a power of utter hatred as she was she also knew she couldn’t linger.  But  if you didn’t show people the error of their ways they were always destined to do naughty things again.

She had broken into Heidi’s apartment after banging for minutes with no answer.  She hadn’t been convinced that no one was home.  Sheila had arrived not long after and come charging in, a goofy grin on her face, perhaps the thought of tackling a burglar for Heidi had given her a hard on. 

It had gone downhill from there.

Dragging the large woman across the lino of the bathroom Sarah knew that standards always slipped when she wasn’t around.

Dressed in what had been brand new denims this morning and a red shirt she cut a haggard figure.  Her usual bouncy locks were matted in places.  Her face bore bruises of all colours.  Prestons.
Fucking Prestons! 
She couldn’t believe the sanction that had been agreed against her. 
She’d made the fucking top ten!
How dare they treat her so disrespectfully!

She left Sheila garbling on the floor and went over to the kitchen.  This was going to be a harsh lesson indeed.

But she saw nothing that held her eye.  Until she saw ‘Steve’.

Smiling she took the huge black dildo back over to where Sheila, concussed and waterlogged was trying to turn over and get off her back.

Placing a foot on her shoulder she wielded the dildo like a knife and brought it down again and again and again.  Sheila, who had left her post in a time of crisis, felt all of her front teeth break under the blows and when the front end of the dildo split Sarah turned it round and started using the heavier battery end.

“THIS IS WHAT YOU GET! THIS IS WHAT YOU GET! THIS IS WHAT YOU GET! THIS IS WHAT YOU GET!”

Sheila felt a piece of tooth slid down her windpipe and coughed, as her mouth opened the dildo caught her bottom jaw and she felt a sickening crunch.  Her nose, eye socket, cheek bone and almost full compliment of teeth had been shattered.  Pulverised.

“This is…what…you get” winded she took her foot off the lackey.  “I haven’t got the fucking time” she tossed ‘Steve’ aside and gathered her jacket and cell.  She had a date at the airport.

She was driving a rental.  She didn’t want them knowing she had made the scene just yet if possible at the Holiday Inn.  In the back of her mind though she didn’t care if they did know.  On guard or off they were going to catch hell for the fuck-ups that had happened in abundance during her absence.  If anyone had touched Rochelle they would see the sun come up tomorrow through an oxygen tent.  If Sarah allowed them to live that was.

And there’s the matter of the cutting.  We don’t know just
who
of the guardians did the deed yet.  Guilty until proven innocent.  Get them all!  ALL!  ALL!  ALL!

Sarah had felt disgusted by the guardians lack of poise, the manner in which she had spilled her guts in order to ingratiate herself.  Not to worry.  Sarah had taught her a valuable lesson today.

Sarah wasn’t worried about Sheila calling anyone just yet, that was one canary that wouldn’t be singing anytime soon. 

She left Sheila in a pool of blood and bone fragments, eager to be on the road now, feeling time getting away from her.

She was going to get to Rochelle before Karen, and she was going to take her far away.  Far enough away from Karen for her never to find her.

Like they did with you?

She shook her head.  This wasn’t like that.

Always a little jealous though weren’t you when you found out? 

Banging her hands on the wheel making the horn beep she negated all thoughts.  It wasn’t anything she could deal with just now.  There were far more pressing matters to attend to.

They gave you away Sarah, they gave you away!

“No!” tears rolled down her face.

They gave you away…AND KEPT HER!

“But look. Look at what I am, WHO I AM!” wiping the tears off with her red shirt, the red deepening with Sheila’s blood.

THEY GAVE YOU AWAY!

She only hoped to get where she needed to be before long.  The chattering in her head was making her furious.  She needed Rochelle. 
Needed
her.

She hoped when Huntington-Wolfe got to her home the cops wouldn’t have arrived yet but knew it would a close, perhaps impossible thing.  As long as she was spotted there before the cops found the gloves, maybe it would be alright.  Her neighbours, awfully nice people, rang her to tell her that her multi million dollar home was burning away merrily.  Her only thought had been of Karen. 

She had tried to call Charlotte and got no replies.  Weird as hell, Charlotte was always first in line to shout ’how hi?’, she’d left almost 30 voicemail messages and so many texts she’d lost count.  She may have been gone just short of 48 hours but the collapse had begun.  She would pull it back from the brink.  Sort out all those who had sought to sully the Chain with disrespect, get rid of Karen, put Rochelle back where she belonged and maybe consult a plastic surgeon about the odd problem she had been presented with.

The excising of ones nipple is relatively easy.  The choice of red shirt helped cover the fact that they were still weeping blood.  Miss Smythe had got what she wanted.  The client list would have made Sarah’s early retirement, who would have known the trouble it could bring.  She had been promised by majority vote of the top ten that the next time she trespassed it would be circumcision, they would take her nipples.  This time.

The night she had cut Rochelle was replayed just for her, the roles had been slightly changed.  But as it was now her faced with the cutting table she knew that if she faltered she would have nothing left to salvage after this.  Her career, her connections,
her life’s work!
Sarah had wanted to take a short cut, and ended up spoiling everything she had ever done that was genuinely good.

She had glanced round the room with its dim corners and not spotted Heidi or Charlotte. 

Fucking good for them too.

Two goons had done the job.  Perhaps even those among the top ten feared her retribution.  The cutting table had been tilted at an angle of 90 degrees and she had been stripped to the waist.  Then bound to the table.  The two goons wore black hoods.  Sarah stared at them, telling them with her eyes that when she found them out they’d be sorry.  She’d see to it.  Her sentence was announced.  One of the goons had a pair of piercing tongues and used it to grip the end of Sarah’s left breast.  She pulled it out to extend it as far as possible.  The other Chain guardian had a slender 12 inch blade that looked keenly sharp.

She had closed her eyes.  Not wanting to see the parting of her flesh.  The crowd waited, a breath not expended hung in the air.  The Chain guardian, dressed head to toe in black, drew the blade directly across where Sarah’s areola were.  In one fluid movement, the excised nipple was clasped in the piercing tongues, the rest of her breast fell back against her body like badly used elastic and blood started to flow.  The Chain guardian with the nipple popped it into a small jar situated on a tray table next to the cutting table.  With a ridiculous air of ceremony they switches sides across the front of Sarah.  When her other nipple was gripped, then pulled, the raw stump of her damaged breast flared with hot pain.  Sarah gritted her teeth and eyed the crowd, the tears in her eyes threatening to fall, she let her hate and contempt for them boil them away instead. 

The Chain guardian with the knife wasn’t so apt this time, there had been two strokes of the knife to separate her flesh.

The nipple joined its slightly tidier looking mate in the jar and an alcoholic smelling liquid was added.

“Done?” she fumed, her voice edged with pain.

“WELL?”

“Let her up” She heard from the back of the room somewhere. 

She was untied from the table and handed her bra and shirt.

“Sarah Steiger you have been found guilty of trespass. You have also served your sentence. You’re free to go”

How fucking perfectly judicial of you!
  She’d thought.  Judge and jury.  Yet again the Chain which she felt was enriched with her presence and hard work had been set against her.

“We will however be keeping the items recovered from your safe. Perhaps you should bear that in mind the next time you decide to pull such a stunt”

She had been furious then, after she’d seen the rifling her office had been put through and the broken door. Well.  She reached unplumbed depths of rage.

In her sensible rental car she sped to the Holiday Inn.  If she was in luck, she would be well ahead of Karen.  She needed to talk to Rochelle.  Needed to explain to her that it was inevitable she was going to have to kill Karen.  She would pull open her shirt and show Rochelle the weeping wounds caused by the pictures the Brit had taken at Kelsey’s.  That she had been marked, taken her place, so Rochelle could give her blessing, or get out of the way.

It might have been wise to have your cuts dealt with first you know.

But she considered she had dealt with them.  The first aid kit in the glove box came with gauze and strapping tape.  She’d done a handy job of covering each wound, each wound being almost two inches across.  She would consider tit-rot or gangrene low priority at this moment.  If Rochelle got away it would hurt far more.

Her cell phone chirruped. 

Unknown number.  She pressed ‘receive’ and tucked her headset on.

“Sarah Steiger” cordial and attentive.  Every inch the up and coming LA lawyer.  It was light years from the bloodied shirt and mangled hairdo.

“Hello Miss Steiger, this is detective Johnson, from the 54
th
precinct”

If any other fucking thing happens before I get to the fucking airport.  I’ll, I’ll…

“Hello detective, what can I help you with?”

“Well if I could have you come in for a talk perhaps, you see, we are investigating the murder of the night watchman at your office block, one…”, flipping of pages, “Alfredo Malenz, we’re just checking in with everyone who works in the building and wondered when you could come in for a talk, like I said”

Thank fuck that.

“I would be happy too detective. Could I come in to see you tomorrow? I’m currently out of town, been visiting folks”

No answer from the detective.

“Yeah. I suppose that would be just fine. What time could I expect you Miss Steiger?”

Well lets see, I have to get to Rochelle, maybe kill whoever else is there.  Kill Karen for sure, travel back, and parkings always a bitch.

“How’s 1 o’clock”

“1 o’clock”, scribbling sounds, “That’s just fine Miss Steiger, you just have good day now”

“You too detective”

He hung up.  She didn’t think it was completely feasible that they would expect her to go in just to chat about some doorman getting whacked in a reception cubicle.

Sarah thought it more likely that someone had fingered her for it.

I’d like to finger Rochelle.
 

It was that kind of thinking that was muddying up the process.

If the slimy Brit had spoke the truth about planting some gloves then she only hoped for Heidi’s own sake she got them out of there before the cops got them.

She pushed harder on the accelerator.  After all.  What was one dead doorman when your only living kin was about to run out on you?