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Breaking and Entering
Chapter 7
Christmas Eve was in full swing. The shops were doing stampede trade, the shop assistants going from one tired foot to another, wishing for closing time and a moment of peace and reflection within their family constellation. About four in the afternoon, while mayhem was oozing through the streets, Abe phoned Cath and booked a taxi. Despite assurances that her husband’s lips were sealed like a flight recorder, he gave an address a mile from Greg’s apartment. It was an icy walk, which required us to hang on to each other, which was what we had been doing most of the day. We arrived at a fancy iron gate, scrolled and adorned with decorative security spikes. Through the bare trees we could make out a condominium in the distance.
‘This had better work. I don’t fancy trying to find a cab home from here.’
‘It has to work,’ he replied. ‘We are already
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The idea now, was to walk casually to the road and hail a taxi. ‘There won’t be a taxi, after midnight on Christmas Eve,’ I consternated. ‘Yes, there will! Trust me.’ ‘I trust you, but I hear a dog barking in the distance. Could it be a tracker hound?’ Abe was worryingly quiet. ‘An option of which I hadn’t thought,’ he admitted. ‘Why would they need a dog? Our tracks in the snow should be enough.’ ‘Not what I wanted to hear. What now? How long can we hide in this weather, before we have to give in, with frostbite or similar?’ ‘Let’s move deeper into the forest!’ He took my hand – nice gesture – and pulled me down an embankment and into some trees, which was all very well, but the stray light from the city, that had been bouncing off the clouds and providing good visibility, was blocked out. Theoretically, we know what total darkness must mean, except we have never experienced it. Theoretically, we know wild anim
Goddesses or 49 ½ shades of charcoal Christmas in Baltimore
Chapter 8The phone next to Abe rang. It was eight o’clock, Christmas morning, in a hotel in Baltimore. I guessed it must come from a long way eastwards of here – somewhere people are awake at this time. I was right. It was Dee calling from Cairo. Abe put it on speaker.‘Greg has been in touch. He knows you used my card to access the apartment. He has sworn “to fix me and all my tribe.” It sounds bad. Does he mean my family or you two, who it seems, despoiled his cathedral?’Abe was silent. Dee and I knew him well enough to not interrupt his thoughts.‘The tribe will be we three, Dee. I wouldn’t bother warning your family - just cause unnecessary anguish.’‘What if you are wrong, Abe?’‘I’m well paid not to be wrong on these matters. Trust me! I’m more trustworthy than your previous c
Goddesses or 49 ½ shades of charcoal Raging Roland
Chapter 9I tried to cook a Christmas dinner as best I could. Concentration was not easy. I could hear Abe’s conversation with Mave. He had put the phone on speaker for me.‘I have a proposition, Mave. I promise you won’t regret helping us – financially, that is. I know that someone in your position has to take the best offers going and may be tempted to go over to the other side, but, I promise, I will offer more.’‘Wrong, Abe. Cath and I never switch sides during a job. Do that once and the word gets out - we’d be too toxic to hire.’‘Good. Can we meet?’‘Where are you?’‘I’m going to send you an encrypted message. The URL I gave you ...’‘Okay, I understand. You don’t need to say more.’She hung up and Abe switched the phone off.I cooke
Goddesses or 49 ½ shades of charcoal Blind Date
Chapter 10It stopped snowing. The owner used his small snowplough to get us to the main road. From there on, the roads were clear. We arrived at Mave’s around nine. Cath was already there in her black catsuit – no tail. She looked stunning and I assumed would monitor events inside Oscillations, mouth shut, nearly invisible. At ten we set out for the club. Mave gave me the plan in the taxi.‘Meet me under the picture of the naked lady standing in an oyster shell. I may have to use the back entrance. I’ll find you, find Greg and introduce you. Keep your eyes down to hide your face. It’s handy it is part of the demure crap these guys want from a slave.’‘A what?’Why hadn’t I considered the milieu I was entering? This was no ordinary girl-meets-boy date. I remembered the alcoves with the selection of whips, canes and pad
Goddesses or 49 ½ shades of charcoal A Proposal
Chapter 11The plane lifted off. Mave’s farewell words were still in my ears. Apart from, ‘goodbye’, it was a list of things I had to watch out for.‘Was that bullshit?’ she started. ‘That story about a computer program that demands your input, or it fires Greg into the public domain?’‘No,’ Abe assured us.‘It’ll make no difference. He’ll come after you.’‘I know. Be careful. You are closer than we.’Mave fell silent. The conversation had ended. No one elucidated. As the ground disappeared I thought, ‘Time to enquire’.‘What could Greg still do to harm us? We have so much material – material so damning it would ruin his business career.’Abe took my hand.‘There is more than one way to skin a rabbit. We may find that by t
Goddesses or 49 ½ shades of charcoal London
Chapter 12I had thought I would have to look up where Abe, as a name, has its origins. The hotel clerk in Las Vegas saved me the trouble. He led us to sign the certificate, or whatever it was, on an oak table in front of the marriage centre, (which was little more than a set of broom cupboards). To get us to the honeymoon suite (it came as a package, like everything else in Las Vegas), he called the lift operator and announced loudly, ‘Honeymoon Suite for Mr and Mrs Abraham Bentwhistle.’ I died a little on my wedding day.Abe comes from Abraham, father of the nations. Bentwhistle comes from the same place as Grimshaw and should have stayed there. My childhood dream of one day ridding myself of Grimshaw is over. I pray I will wake one morning and discover Bentwhistle is one of his many aliases.‘No one uses Bentwhistle as an alias,’ he assured me. ‘Aliases m
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Goddesses or 49 ½ shades of charcoal Tannhäuser’s plan
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