Royal Flush Ch. 10

And she had been burgled. They hadn't just turned the flat up-side-down, her laptop, her phone, in fact any piece of computer hardware was gone. On the other hand, her wallet and its contents were left untouched. Once she had got herself as straight as possible she walked to the phone box on the corner and phoned the office. Unlike normal protocol, she was put straight through to Angus.

"Get your arse down here, now! I don't care what time it is, get your butt on a train and get down here." he all but screamed down the phone at her. "Meeting, my office, soon as."

She made her way to the station and caught the next train in and, it wasn't long before she arrived at the office. When she got to her desk, her PC was missing and her desk drawers had been emptied. She went over and found Andrea whose desk was also minus its PC.

"Have you been...," Tamsin started but Andrea just nodded.

"Come on, Angus is waiting for us. I don't know what they did to him but... well, wait and see."

Together they made their way to Angus's office where Tim Ewing was already present. He let them in and locked the door behind them.

"The story is dead. Dead as a dodo, deader than dead. Norwegian parrots have nothing on this one. It is dead. Is that completely understood?"

"Yes," they chorused.

"It's so dead it never even happened. If you've got anything, anything at all, from the last few weeks then you destroy it, completely and utterly." Tamsin had never seen Angus looking so scared. Come to that she had never seen him looking scared at all but there was no doubt that he was terrified of something. "What's more, you don't tell anyone, ever. This is a secret you take to your grave. If one word of this gets out, one single word, if there's the slightest whisper then it won't just be you, all four of us....

"Look, let's just assume that all four of us had visits this morning. I've no idea what hold they have over you and I sure as hell don't want you knowing.... but the story stops here, in this room, just the four of us. It never happened, it never happened at all. Agreed?"

There was no dissent.

But Angus hadn't really needed to stress all this. Although no one was giving any details it would seem that they had all had visits that morning and, although he was the only one that had been 'persuaded' to drop the story, the other three had been scared enough to get the message. It wasn't quite clear what hold they had over Angus but it had to be big. They were all shaken and scared but, for him, it seemed to have another dimension.

Now he was trying reassert his authority, to be the big hard man, threatening Andrea and Tamsin so as to keep them quiet but he was still a mere pussycat compared with what Tamsin had already been through that very morning.

"OK, so that leaves you two without a story to work on. For starters you can have the rest of the week off. Fuck off back home and I'll see you back here on Monday morning. In the meantime you can find out all you can about boy bands. Seeing as how you two work so well together I'm keeping you together as a team and I've got just the right story. It's a line on the X Factor finalists, nice bit of juicy gay action. It seems that all is not what it seems."

"I... won't do that," Tamsin replied, amazed at her own boldness.

"What do you mean, you won't do that?"

"I've... I've had enough. I came into this business to inform, to unearth wrongdoers. I didn't do it to expose peoples private lives. Who cares if those involved in X Factor are gay or not. We all know it's fiddled anyway. I've had enough, enough of all this muck raking."

"Inform! Unearth wrongdoers! What fucking planet do you come from. No one gives a fuck what you care about. It's what our readers care about that counts and they care whether those involved in X Factor are gay or not. That's what they want to read. That's what sells newspapers, that pays your wages. Is that too hard to understand?"

"In which case I've had enough of destroying people's lives just to sell newspapers. What people do in their private lives should stay that, private."

"Private! Fuck that! Have you gone mad or something?"

"I'm sorry, I just can't do it any more. As I said, I've had enough. I've got some leave owed me, and some time off in lieu of all this overtime I've been putting in so you can take that instead of notice."

"You can't just walk out of here. If you do...."

"What? I'll never work in newspapers ever again?"

"Don't push it sunshine, now is not the time. If you leave...."

"Just watch me go."

***********

Six Months Later

***********

It had been a long hard day. The seats at the checkouts at PennySavers were not the kindest and Tamsin had had to deal with the usual range of disgruntled customers. Why is it that those who pay the least seem to demand the most. Still, when all was said and done, at least it was a job.

Life had been pretty tough since she had so cavalierly thrown away her job at the Daily Sleaze. It had been hard to find work and there was nothing that matched the wages she used to earn. What made it harder was that Angus was refusing to give her a reference and that wasn't helping in the slightest. PennySavers had her on the minimum wage and made it quite clear she should feel grateful for the privilege of working for them. With this drastically reduced income she had had to give up both her flat and her car and move back in with her parents; that was all she could afford.

Still, at least she was sleeping at night, well, sometimes. There were always these dreams, dreams involving.... No, no, no! She mustn't go there.

She got off the bus and, as she turned into Sunnyhill Road, she became aware of the big black saloon that was following her, keeping pace, five yards behind. She quickened her pace and it speeded up. She slowed down and it did as well. It wasn't trying to be discrete; it was out to scare her. Her heart sunk; nowadays she had every reason to be paranoid. She'd kept her part of the bargain. She hadn't spoken a word, not to anyone, anyone at all. However if Andrea, or Angus, or even Tim Ewing had been foolish.... Angus had intimated that if any one of them talked all four were for the high jump. Her heart started pounding and she started to run but you can't outrun a car. It kept pace with her for a while and then accelerated only to draw up just in front of her where two men got out. She just sighed in resignation and stopped. There was no point in running any more, no point at all.

She was bundled into the back of the car and the all but obligatory hood was put over her head. However, this lot weren't anything like as rough as the last lot. They also hadn't restrained her hands, although she was under no illusions that this meant that she would be able to escape or anything like that. They hadn't restrained her because there was no need.

It was quite a drive before they finally stopped. She was then helped out of the car and guided, quite gently, up some steps and into a building. This wasn't the hell hole she had been in last time. Here the floor was carpeted and the place smelled of furniture polish. She was led to a chair and asked, politely, to sit.

"OK, boys. Thanks. I'll take it from here."

Tamsin's heart leapt. She'd know that voice anywhere! Princess Charlotte! Charlie! The hood was removed and there she was, standing in front of her, holding a file.

"Well, well, well, little Susan, or should that really be Tamsin Phillips? Quite the little viper in the grass, weren't you."

For a moment Tamsin just stared at Charlie and then her head dropped.

"Do you know, I really thought there was some sort of connection between us, some link, some... you must have been laughing so hard at the way I fell for you. Was that your plan? Was that part of your plot. To get me to.... Well?"

"No, I never planned that, I never planned that at all!"

"And why should I believe you? Everything else you have said has been a lie. Well, apart from your parents living in Sunnyhill Road in Streatham. South Africa! Hah! You've never been any further south than Benidorm.

"And, as for the rest of it.... Well, you had me fooled, I'll give you that. Remember me opening my heart to you, out there on the moors? Do you? Do you? What an idiot I was, what a gullible idiot. But then, you were bargaining on that all along, weren't you?"

Tamsin didn't reply. She had no words.

"So, how does it feel to be out of a job? Oh, I know you're working the checkouts at PennySavers but that's no job for the likes of you. How the mighty have fallen, eh? Tell me, why did you leave the Daily Sleaze?"

"I had editorial differences."

"Is that what you call them. You've applied for quite a lot of jobs but none of them in journalism. I wonder why that is." Charlie flicked back and forth through the file. "You're not having much luck, are you. I guess Angus put the mockers on that one. Let's see, one hundred and thirty job applications and not so much as a whisper. Tough times, tough times indeed."

Tamsin still just sat there. Charlie deserved this anger, and she deserved this telling off. Nothing would undo what had been done and there was nothing really left to say.

"Surely you must have wondered who it was that blew the whistle, how your little scheme got found out? Well, did you?"

"Sometimes," Tamsin admitted.

"And did your wondering come to any conclusions? I mean, how many were in the know. Angus, surely not, Tim Ewing? I can't see that one either. Must have been Emma, oops, sorry, make that Andrea. I mean, there's no one else left, is there?"

"I wouldn't know."

"Wouldn't you?

"I don't know, really I don't."

"The thing is you're not the only one who got to wondering and, unlike you, I have contacts, contacts who can find things out. Let's start with the actual tip off. That came from a gmail account opened just for that one email. Opened, email sent, and then nothing. Of course, anyone can open a gmail account, easy peasy, and completely untraceable.

"Or that's what I thought. The boys tell me otherwise. Seems they have ways of finding out the location of the PC that was used to open the account. Very clever, those backroom boys. Didn't take long either. Turns out it was opened from a public terminal in the lobby of the Flyaway Inn in Croydon, you know, the one next to Gatwick Airport."

"I've never been there."

"Have you not? Maybe you ought to try it sometime. We went and asked the staff there but you know what it's like. Turnover is high and who's to remember one single person from all that time ago. On the other hand it seems they keep the CCTV footage. Here's a still that might interest. These things are always a bit blurred but you can see quite clearly someone working on one of the terminals in the bar. Here, have a look."

Charlie handed over a photo and but the person was wearing a hoodie which obscured the face. It could have been anyone.

"And here's one from the car park. Same figure getting into a Ford Fiesta. Didn't you used to own one of those? The number plate is a bit blurred but you can just about read it. What do you make of it?"

She handed over another still from the CCTV. Tamsin stared at it. It was blurred but there was no mistaking what it showed.

"Now, Andrea was busy in Barnet that night, Angus was at a party in the West End, Tim Ewing was at home with his family. Any idea who the girl in the hotel was, Tamsin, or should I say, puppygirl1986?"

Tamsin just stared at the carpet. She had no secrets left. She felt more naked than she had ever done, even with her clothes off. Charlie knew everything.

Charlie put down the file and squatted down in front of Tamsin so that there heads were level.

"Thank you, Tamsin, thank you."

"I don't deserve your thanks. You ought to hate me, really hate me. What was the phase you used? Blood sucking vultures? Yeah, I'm one of them."

"Oh, I used to hate you. Believe me I used to hate you. I thought you were the worst of the worst, the way you weedled your way in, gaining my confidence. All that little girl lost you played so well. Oh, yeah, until I worked it out you were number one on my hate list but it never did quite ring true. And then there were the photos on your thumbdrive. Why those? Why there? In the end I started to wonder, were you really that good an actress, had I really been so completely fooled. And then, when I got the boys to do a little digging for me, well, it had to be you, didn't it? Who else was going to throw away the chance of a lifetime so as to save my reputation and that of my friends. Angus? Andrea? Tim Ewing? I don't think so. There was only one person it could be and I owe her everything."

"You don't, really you don't. I'm sorry, I'm so so so sorry," Tamsin broke down. "I should have said no before it started. I should never have agreed to it in the first place."

"Should have's, would have's, could have's. Maybe you should never have agreed to it but, if you had, then we would never have met. And if we hadn't met then we would never have done this," Charlie leant forward and kissed Tamsin. For a moment Tamsin fought it. She still felt guilty, so very guilty, but, it seemed that didn't matter to Charlie. And then she couldn't fight it any more. They melted into each other and held each other tight until, after a long, long while, Charlie pulled back and looked at Tamsin.

"I love you, do you know that. I think I have done ever since that day in Bedfordshire and, up in Scotland...."

"I love you too. I'm so glad I don't have to lie any more. I'm so sorry Charlie, I'll never lie to you ever again."

Charlie leaned forward and they kissed again.

"I think you and I need to be somewhere a little more comfortable, don't you agree?"

Tamsin just nodded. Charlie stood up, took Tamsin by the hand and led her to the bedroom. Slowly, gently, lovingly, she eased off the PennySavers uniform that Tamsin still wore. Under that were a light tee shirt and cotton panties and they soon joined the dress.

"God, you're beautiful," Charlie said. "I've thought so from the first day we met.

"Me in the puppy gear."

"Kind of suits you, you know, and it couldn't hide your eyes. I knew back then that... and to think that I thought..."

"Please, don't. I hated lying to you."

"And all those things you had to do," Charlie laughed. "Poor you, was it awful?"

"Some of it was. Most of it was but...."

"But what?"

"Not all of it was lies. Being your puppy girl, there in the garden, that wasn't lies."

"I knew it wasn't." Charlie gave Tamsin another kiss. "Just for those few minutes you were my little puppy girl. That was pretty special to me as well."

"But then I had to go and be Celia's puppy girl as well. Please don't ever ask me to do that again."

"Oh, you're my little puppy girl now and I'm going to keep you all to myself. You can be sure of that. I was getting pretty fed up with all the games anyway and now, now that I've got you, why would I ever want to play around?"

But Tamsin was too busy undoing Charlie's blouse buttons to give an answer. She had had enough of chatter for the time being, there were other things to do and she was intent on doing them.

It was quite late when they came up for air and Tamsin discovered that even princesses are not averse to having pizzas delivered. What's more, Tamsin had to phone her mum and explain that she wouldn't be coming home for a while. And then it was back to bed again to try and discover all those bits they might have missed last time.

"How would you feel about going back into journalism?" Charlie asked as they rested after yet another rather athletic bout.

"No way, no way José. I've had enough of that cesspit to last me a lifetime"

"Oh, I wouldn't want you to be a journalist."

"Sorry, I'm not following. What exactly are you asking me to do?"

"Well, my press secretary, Julie, has gone and got herself preggers. She's going off on six month's maternity leave and, after that, well, she's always wanted to be a mother more than my press secretary; she couldn't give the job the commitment it requires and I wouldn't ask her to do so. Now, the replacement I'm looking for needs to know their way around but, more than that, I need loyalty and an ability to do the right thing in a tight spot and then keep their mouth shut afterwards. Do you still not want to go back into journalism?"

"Do you think I'm up to it?"

"Oh, I'm certain you're up to it and, what's more, it gives me the perfect excuse for keeping you around and, more than anything, I plan on keeping you around from now on in."

"So, was that the only reason you got your goons to abduct me. Some sort of staff recruitment drive."

"I can think of one or two others. These for instance." Charlie kissed Tamsin's nipples to make her point. "But seriously...."

"But seriously, I'd love to, if you really think I'm up to it. There is one problem though."

"What's that?"

"Well, your friends... I know neither of us are particularly keen to go to one of Lady Mary's little soirées ever again but... well, we're bound to meet up from time to time. They all think I'm Susan Ward. What are we going to tell them?"

"They already know quite a lot of the truth. I had to tell them. I had to explain why Emma Pearson had just disappeared off the face of the earth. And that means I had to tell them about you as well. They already know Susan Ward is not your real name. I'll put the word around that you're the good guy and, after that, they'll just have to accept you. What's the phrase, love me, love my dog?"

"Woof!"