The Girl at the Spa Ch. 04

"We're getting one camera back at a time, young Colin here is a bit of a whizz at this kind of thing, fortunately the ones of the rescue cage were the first. We're playing Sean at his own game and sending him a feed of Alice on a four and a half minute loop. The firearms team are on their way mate, stay cool..."

"Where's my Dad?"

"He's outside talking to Sean... Richie, stay calm... he has Meghan."

"What?"

"He must have rung her on the internal phone system, she went out probably to rescue Alice, or you."

"But..."

"Stay the fuck away Richie, THAT'S AN ORDER! A lot of big nasty men in black are on their way with sniper rifles, machine guns and a whole mess of other shit. STAY WHERE YOU ARE!"

"OK," I said, "I'm putting my phone on silent, just in case my Mum rings me."

"Good one Richie, stay low and out of trouble mate, you'll be out in no time flat."

As the silence resumed I could hear talking not too far away, just a few raised voices. Keeping low, I took Ali's hand and we both crawled through the bushes to where the noise was coming from. In what was about 90 seconds but seemed nine hours we were spitting distance from Dad and obscured from Sean who was in front of bungalow 5. I could see him through the hedging. His laptop screen was only about ten feet away and I could see that clearly too.

I looked up from that, seeing Meghan her hands tied behind her by her wrists, no posh perverted binding like he had done with her daughter, obviously short of time.

"You take a step closer Ralph and I kill your step daughter," Sean raised the remote control for the cage and looking down at the laptop with the gently swinging cage and his one-time occasional lover bound and masked giving the occasional twitch or spasm, "I've already killed your son Ralph, I won't think twice to kill Alice." He still kept the huge curved blade of the kitchen knife at Meghan's throat, "yes," he said, "what's left of that bastard son of yours is washing out to sea right now, food for the little fishes!" he gave a mirthless giggle.

"Sean," said Dad, his hands raised, "Please," he begged. The look on Meghan's face was fierce and I could see the angry Cornishwoman her wrists tied behind her, fuming in her helplessness. Or perhaps not... I could see from my hide that she wasn't as well tied as Sean thought.

"I press this little button and the cage you so thoughtfully installed for the poor mariners and the poor crashed paparazzi goes crashing to the rocks below, and they'll spend six weeks picking her out of it.

Dad's face was pouring with tears and Sean was loving it. Dragging Ali behind me I moved closer to Dad. I needed him to be able to see me and Ali, so he knew all was not lost. That would take some doing, I crawled through one of the beautifully manicured flower beds flattening the early blooming bedding plants that the gardeners made such an effort over. Ali was starting to get it and followed as best as her beaten body would allow.

I looked to my left and saw Meghan, and there was something going on in her spirit and I just knew that she had something up her sleeve. To this day I still can't tell you what but it was going to blow!

I looked at the flower bed we were in and thought about my task. I slowly slid to my side looking up and using the stars and the waning moon to tell me if the bushes around me were moving to tell Sean there was something happening. Eventually I got to where I wanted to be. I could hear Dad's voice.

"Sean, please, what's this about, why the revenge? Richie is dead, leave Meghan and Ali alone please..."

"What's this about? Seriously Ralph?" He scoffed as if it was totally obvious. "I was like your son... wasn't I?" He shouted, "WASN'T I? But then the wonderful Richard appears I get pushed out of your life." He snarled. "One month! ONE FUCKING MONTH! You betray me with Rodriguez, that ignorant fucking Spic that has not got a single thing wrong with him and he insists on YOU! Your fee from him would have covered MY ENTIRE TEACHING PROJECT FOR THE WHOLE SUMMER!" He spat, "then suddenly the Golden boy is on site and being molly coddled around the Spa, MY FUCKING SPA!" he spat, "and you even gave him Alice... MY ALICE! That's fucking sick."

I tried to crawl closer, Dad had to know we were OK, this was torturing him and I could see it in his face.

"THAT'S WHY I KILLED YOUR SON RALPH! THAT'S WHAT ALL OF THIS IS ABOUT FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" Sean took a deep breath, "You gave him everything that you and I had worked for, everything that should have come to me as your natural successor. Alice," he smiled in a weird way and I saw Meghan's shoulders heave. "I never made a move on Alice MEGHAN DEAREST!" he pulled Meghan up by her hair and pushed the knife harder against her neck, "because I knew she would be mine when I eventually took over." He dropped his head down, "But she's mine now," he said looking into Meghan's fuming face and looking like he was enjoying his revenge and his power over the boss' despised wife, "I fucked her, spent the whole weekend doing it, only found out that fucking whore was still taking contraceptive pills, they went down the fucking toilet for a start."

"I'll kill you for that!" she spat at him.

"HOW THE FUCK YOU GONNA DO THAT MEGHAN?!" he shouted with a laugh. "Devon and Cornwalls' finest are currently locked in the building, and the second one that of them arrives at the gate, I press 'F8' on this jolly old keyboard here and the Spa generator's entire output goes to those steel gates you so sensibly installed... Daddy!"

"You hurt my baby girl you bastard, I'll fucking cripple you... you watch me...!" she hissed.

"Yeah... fucking... yeah..." hissed Sean. Meghan's nostrils flared and the muscles in her neck flexed. Next to me Ali's shoulders were heaving and she was pulling at my hands desperate that we do something to help.

I got back to my plan.

I pushed my head forward out of the undergrowth with a big smile on my face, it took a while for my Dad to spot me. He did, but thank God he stayed cool and looked back at Sean. I went back into the brush and pulled Ali forward whispering in her ear what she needed to do. She took my place and crawled forward.

This time Dad took a second look and nearly blew it. She put a finger to her lip.

"Sean, we can talk about this..."

"What the fuck is there to talk about Ralph? Seriously?"

"Look, let Meghan go, she can go and release Ali and we'll give you an hour before we call the police."

"I told you, Alice is mine."

"Sean, no one else needs to get hurt, please."

"Just you Ralph, just you." He eased the strain on the knife to Meghan's throat for a moment and I saw her relax; slightly more movement in her this time I noticed. "You're the only one I want to hurt. You see, if you'd stayed in America and finished your so called teaching tour, all this would have been behind us, Richard would be washing out to sea, Alice would be in love with me, I would go back to being number 2 and all would have been well. BUT NO!" You have to come flying back to the rescue..." there was a choke in voice as he spoke of the ruination of his well laid plan, "and now everyone dies..."

"Sean please," Dad's eyes dropped to where we were and both Ali and shook our heads as if to say, 'don't tell him!'

"This is straight up revenge Ralph, you took my life and wrecked it, threw it over the cliff back there metaphorically speaking, just as I did with your bastard son..." he grinned at that recollection, "So I have to do the same to yours. I've killed your son, I'm going to have your step-daughter, I'm minded to kill your witch of a wife, and once all of the 'terror at the Spa' videos I have been making upload to YouTube when I press the right set of buttons that's the end of your business! You won't get the celebs and the sports stars within a hundred miles of the Spa where the killing spree went on, I can almost see the headline - YOU CAN STILL SEE THE BLOODSTAINS says local idiot employed as Spa cleaner," he roared in mockery of the next day's newspaper. "And then I'll be done, your life for mine. This is all your fault Ralph fucking McNair but you can't see it can you." Dad made to speak, "CAN YOU! THIS IS YOUR FAULT RALPH! ALL YOU!"

"Sean," said Dad, "I'm sorry, I never knew. You were one of the team, I didn't realise you felt that way."

"One... one of the fucking team? ONE OF THE FUCKING TEAM? I WAS LIKE YOUR SON!!" He roared pulling Meghan up by her hair and I was sure that he was going to cut her throat now.

"SEAN PLEASE!" Dad screamed.

"ONE OF THE..." Sean calmed and everything relaxed slightly, and I saw a change in Meghan also. "So you're saying I'm just like that fucking slut Paula, that old cow Gwen, James, Roger, that fucking Queen Stefan!? I'm no different to any of them?"

This was a no win situation for anyone and I started to crawl towards Sean in the hope that I could at least stop Meghan from getting cut too much...

"You're the best Chiropractor," said Dad, thinking about his options now.

"And that's it, is it?"

I looked at Meghan, Sean had let go of her hair and now had hold of her by her polo shirt. Her poise was different, couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"Sean, how the hell was I to know, you never said anything."

"I needed to tell you did I?" he snapped, "did your absent and now demised son tell you how much you meant to him did he?"

"Yes actually," said Dad, "he... he told me all the time."

"Did he really? Funny that, you hardly saw him more than twice a year."

"I only saw him here twice a year, used to see him in London quite often, talked on the phone and on skype all the time"

"You don't seem that upset Ralph?" Sean did actually look concerned about that.

Shit.

Dad was straight back at him though.

"Richie..." he started to act, a cough and a catch of the breath, "Richie's death is... is something I'll have to deal with, right now I'm trying to stop you from killing my wife and my daughter."

"Step-daughter."

"Ali is every inch my daughter and has been since I first sat her on my lap.." he paused, "when she was a little girl." Dad smiled in the recollection.

What a player, Dad was taking Ali from being the woman Sean had raped and beaten up to a small child, Sean would have known her as a teenager at least. I could see his mind game had worked, I desperately hoped the Police and staff were getting the cameras and security system sorted in the office, we were desperately running out of time here.

Sean snapped out of seeing Ali as a inviolable child and looked down at the computer screen, still with her twitching on it. He pointed at the screen to reinforce it. He pointed at Dad, "But you let her fuck your son, HIS FUCKING SISTER!" Sean snarled, "Your own son, but she was MINE!" He raged, then looked down at the picture, I desperately hoped he wouldn't notice the loop in the recording being fed to his laptop.

"BUT I FUCKED HER!" He shouted turning his head and cupping his hand to his mouth to spread the word to world, "I FUCKED HER - THE PERFECT ALICE TRENOWDEN! THREE OR FOUR TIMES, AND YOUR SON NEVER WILL!" he put his hand back down to Meghan's collar. "I was her last! That is a triumph that I'll carry with me, that I got one over on your fucking bastard son."

Meghan's face was a picture of rage, almost spitting in her anger.

"WHAT'S UP YOU, FUCKING WITCH? Unhappy that I fucked dear, poor little Alice? She was a better fuck than you ever were. Oh," he dropped his face to Meghan's ear, "And I cut an 'S' into her back, just so she would never forget me..."

That was his last mistake.

My Dad looked straight at me in my hiding place,

"NOW RICHIE!"

I sprang to my feet and Sean spun to look at me, and as he did that Meghan pirouetted out of his grasp and I finally saw what the change in her was. With years of yoga she was incredibly flexible and her hands were now in front of her and she had her balance, poised and ready.

"That's your daughter's death warrant," he said grabbing the orange and yellow remote hanging from his belt, "Shame and all that..." he pressed the button and listened. There wasn't the resultant crash we had been expecting. I guessed his wiring wasn't as good as he thought it was or the battery I'd disconnected had operated more than just the jammer.

"Hi Sean," Ali stood up next to me.

Sean gave me and Ali a look of totally hatred and went to take a step snarling,

"I'll fucking kill the pair of y..." thinking Meghan tied and helpless beside him.

His threats were cut short by a sharp kick to his face then a second, and blood splashed from his lip down his face and McNair Chiro scrubs shirt.

"Come on fuckhead," said Meghan, still bouncing on the balls of her feet, "try and torture me..."

The look she gave him should really have given him the message that this was one scrap he wasn't going to win.

He moved slightly and Meghan leapt balletically swiping his head with her trainer shod feet stunning him briefly, she continued her spin and her trailing foot caught him right in the groin and he dropped, in extreme pain. But his sudden burst of fight or flight adrenaline brought him back up, so Meghan flew again, this time kicking him square in the jaw and in something like slow motion, I watched as a splash of blood, spit and at least one tooth ricocheted from his abused gob.

He stood like an idiot.

I made to move forward,

"Stay were you are Richie," said Meghan with a growl, "this is between me and Sean!" She moved slightly closer to him but out of knife range. "Put the knife down Sean, or so help me you will live to regret it."

"Fuck you Meghan!" he snapped and raised the knife in an arc, intending to drop it down and onto her.

"Nah," she said taking half a pace, "you were crap." She side stepped him lightly bringing her foot around back to smack into his already bruised testicles and this time he dropped to one knee his spare hand on his balls, his bloody face a look of wide-eyed agony. Little did he know how much worse that was going to get.

In a perfect move I have never seen the like of before or since, Meghan's head spun and like a violent ballerina, she spotted her target and her extra momentum brought around the other foot striking his knife fisted hand resting on his knee and the extra drive she had given the blow pushed the sharply pointed blade into Sean's torso.

Meghan hit the ground gently and put hands on his shoulder to stop him falling forward onto his agonised shocked face.

"Now Sean," she said easily, hands still tied between them, "You can't say I didn't warn you can you."

"It's..." he looked down and the protruding blade I reckoned just below his diaphragm, into his stomach and possibly into his intestinal cavity.

Dad's voice broke the silence,

"Richie, the laptop, see if you can turn off all that shit he did and let everyone out."

I dropped to the computer at Sean's feet and pulled it away from him. I saw it was connected to a large battery pack, so began to try and get my head around it while Dad ran to Ali and picked her up into his arms. She was finally able to let go her anguish and it was to the man most suited to the task.

"It's OK Ali," he said hugging her, "Daddy's got you, it's all going to be fine."

Meghan looked down at Sean as I tapped away at the computer using Ali's passwords to get into things.

"Does it hurt Sean?" she said brightly, smacking the knife handle. This transmitted through his body as excruciating pain and he howled, "Oh excellent, you had me worried I'd missed you there." She pulled the back of his head up by his 'just too long hair. "You hurt my baby girl Sean, but you know what? This is old witchcraft, and I want Ali to see it." She leaned forward a bit more, "this knife," she hit the handle again, "this knife will hopefully do a fuck load of damage to your stomach and hopefully when you plunge it into you as you fall, you'll sever loads of intestinal strands and hopefully you'll get full use of your colostomy bag in prison. After all, they'll find a use for your arsehole, good looking boy like you." She giggled, "and I'm sure they'll have a great line in easily digestible baby food," his face blanched and he gasped, "Awwwww don't worry! You'll get used to it!"

Sean's face froze and he moved his head to Meghan's grinning one.

"You see... this moment, this trauma will revisit you every day for the rest of your miserable life. You tortured my little girl, and by me doing this..." she tapped the blade again and we had our first cry from Sean, "This will mean that you'll get the flashbacks and the nightmares, not my Alice. See?" She hit the blade again. "Proper old witchcraft that is Sean, just like my Grandma taught me."

He screamed and started to cry,

"Ambulance... please Meghan, call an..."

"We can't Sean," she said, "some bastard has screwed the phone system!"

"Please!" he tried again.

She hit his shoulder this time, which transferred straight to his pain receptors.

"Some cunt has locked the gates as well, unless you want to walk out to the ambulance of course!" She chuckled and punched his shoulder again, in a 'ol' buddy' kind of way. He vomited, Meghan held him up as he did so, "Better out than in Sean!"

"Please..."

"Nothing we can do Sean, sorry..." she checked her fingernails absent mindedly.

"Alt..." he gasped, "Alt F5... turns it all back on..."

"Really Sean? I reeeeeeally hope you're right." Meghan put her hand on the knife handle and Sean flinched, "Richie?"

I hit the two buttons and there was a clatter of all of the surround locks turning off and resetting. The faint buzz from the main offices was audible from where we were and there were shouts from Detective Dave, Paula and others as they realised they were free and ran towards us.

"Well done Sean!" said Paula, hitting him a resounding congratulatory slap on the back with the hand that had been holding him up, causing him to cry out again, more so as he lost his balance and fell forward hitting the ground face first with a pained grunt as the knife pushed deeper into him. "Twat..." I heard her whisper and saw her jump in the air, scrunch her lithe body flipping her legs through her arms like a skipping rope so they were back behind her again, to sit limp, miserable, traumatised and pathetic on the grass beside me as the cavalry arrived

Sean groaned and I could see just the point of the blade and a growing patch of blood at his back. It had pushed all the way through.

I pushed the laptop to one side and shouted to the running crowd.

"I need a first aid box, plenty of bandages!"

Two of the staff stopped and ran back to the treatment rooms.

"There," I heard Dad whisper to Ali still in his arms as he knelt down next to an over-acting Meghan, "Mummy sorted it all, and you'll never need to worry ever again..."

Paula reached us, hugged Ali, then seeing the supposed tied and helpless Meghan went to her.

"Meghan Darling!"

"I'll be... OK," sniffed the martial arts expert, going for 'best actress in an extremely violent psychological revenge piece' award.

The first aid box arrived and I cut off Sean's scrubs shirt and packed around the knife blade as trained. I packed the back, tied his left arm in place with a triangular bandage as the paramedics arrived.

I looked around, the little stage where our drama had taken place was well chosen by Sean, and wasn't covered by CCTV. I looked at Meghan, busy with Paula using my bloody scissors to cut her bonds, then looked to the paramedic,

"Bit of a scuffle," I said, "hard to remember too much but he ended up falling on the blade..." Meghan groaned at the memory, "a couple of times," I added.

They complemented me on my work,

"First aider," I said with a smile.

"Right professional is that," said the ambulance driver that turned up a few minutes later, "You should think about that for a living mate rather than all this alternative stuff."