The Bandstand

[Swirly]

The Bandstand


Part 1

Kate Martin stood outside the Student’s Union smoking her second cigarette of the day; she was alone. She coughed a little and moved her weight to her right leg as she had seen the other girls do and tried to look relaxed, just as they did but somehow it felt awkward.

Kate was a small pretty girl, with wide blue eyes, and blond shoulder length hair. She stood at just five foot tall and was very slim with a narrow backside. Whilst so many other girls tried to lose weight, Kate had spent her teenage years trying to put it on, to no avail. Contrary to what she believed, nature had been kind to her for she had a generous bosom which to her felt grotesquely large on her petite frame, so much so that she had seriously considered breast reduction surgery.

Kate was a straight-A student, she always had been. Despite speaking perfect English she was actually French and her arrival at the exclusive college in Boston had been announced in the local paper for her father was chairman of a prestigious Boston law firm, and a trustee of the college. Her arrival at the college had caused something of a stir.

It was Kate’s third day into her first year at the college and so far she had only chatted briefly to a girl in the lunch queue who had seemed friendly but she had lost her in the crowd and after a brief look around for her, had sat alone. A boy from a seminar had smiled at her today but had looked away when she had tried to make eye contact. All this added to Kate’s feeling of isolation and home sickness; she had spent every night reading alone in her room while the others were out drinking and having fun.

Tonight she had ventured to the Student’s Union, again alone, in the hope of mixing with her peers but thanks to the newspaper article everyone knew her face and conversations had stopped as she had approached a number of tables. Reluctantly she had walked outside to smoke, a habit she didn’t particularly enjoy but one which she thought might make her seem more human, more approachable. Besides, her father despised smoking and this small gesture was the one thing she could do to annoy him, to get back at him for putting her in this position, not that she saw him very often. Hers was a lonely life.

Six girls were sitting to her right on the low brick wall, they too were smoking. One of them looked up at Kate with raised eyebrows and then laughed and turned to the others and whispered something and all six girls sniggered behind their hands.

Kate knew what was happening, it had happened in every school she had attended, and there had been a few. She pretended not to see them, not to care, that was what the cool people did, wasn’t it? She let her cigarette drop to the floor and stamped it out with her foot and walked behind the girls and back towards the Student’s Union entrance, listening to the giggles and shouts that erupted as she left. She didn’t hear most of what was said, it was drowned out by the music coming from inside, but she heard ‘rich bitch’ quite clearly. The words had seemed to cut through all other noise like a knife that stabbed at her heart. She sighed and walked on; she had heard it all before, many times.

Kate walked into the toilets, there were two girls standing by the sinks chatting. They looked drunk and didn’t notice her. She went into a cubicle and sat down, just to give herself time to think. What right had people to treat her like this? What had she done? This college was supposed to be a fresh start and so far it was some start. She had had one brief conversation in three days. The woman who had sat next to her on the plane had been the last person she had properly spoken to and she had wanted her to be quiet so she could read in peace. Well she certainly had all the peace and quiet she wanted now.


She flushed the loo so no one would know she had just been sitting there thinking, left the cubicle and washed her hands automatically. The two girls had gone now. She pulled open the heavy door and turned right out of the entrance once again. Sheepishly she looked to her left; the smokers had gone back inside. She relaxed a little and put her hands in her pockets; it was a cool night and an impressive canopy of starts stretched out above her.

She walked slowly back towards the accommodation block but stopped a little further up and turned left down another footpath instead which led to the lake. It was only ten o’clock, too early to go back to her room and she had wanted to see the lake. It was a decision that would quickly change her life.

Her top was riding up, showing off her flat stomach and pierced belly button; another half hearted attempt at rebellion. She pulled the top down as best she could. She left the path and walked around the large lake, looking back at the college buildings far off. She could hear the distance muffled sound of music coming from the Union.

She looked up to her right; there was a big white bandstand nestled amongst the tall trees. A group of girls were sat down inside, maybe twenty in total. She recognised the six girls who had been smoking outside the Union. They were passing something around; one of them had a bag of something. Drugs, she thought. They looked up when they saw her and whispered to one another. It looked as though they hadn’t been there long and now they presumably felt that she had found out their secret, maybe even that she was spying on them. Oh God, she thought, way to make friends! She put her head down and sped up a little and carried on past. If she could just get to the trees on the other side of the clearing, then back to the path, and the back to the accommodation block…

She heard footsteps to her left and glanced up. The six girls from the Union were walking towards her. She put her head down and carried on going. “Hey!” one of them shouted out. “Where ya going, Frenchy?”

Kate stopped and looked back at them; it wasn’t like she could run away. She swallowed and tried to smile. “Hi”, she said weakly. She pulled her top down over her stomach, suddenly aware of the cool breeze coming over the water.

[Swirly]

Part 2

The six girls stood around her in a horse-shoe shape. They all towered over her. The other girls on the bandstand were standing up now, craning their necks to see what was happening.

It was the tall dark haired girl with the sullen mouth who spoke again. “Whatcha doing out here, Frenchy?”

“Just walking,” said Kate quickly.

“She’s just walking?” repeated the girl. “You know what we’re doing out here?”

“Chatting, I guess,” said Kate.

“No, we’re not chatting and I think you know that. You wanna see what we’re doing, Frenchy? Come and have a look.” The tall girl put her arm around Kate’s shoulder and started to steer her back towards the bandstand.

“Listen, it’s none of my business what you are doing, really. Perhaps I’ll just carry on with my walk, instead,” said Kate. She smiled and tried to walk away. The girls crowded around her and she stopped.

“Frenchy, if I say we’re going this way, looks like we’re going this way. Comprendez?”

“Sal,” said a buxom girl wearing black leggings, “You sure that’s a good idea, showing her, I mean?” Then she lowered her voice and spoke as though Kate were not there. “You know who her father is.”

The dark haired girl, Sal, stopped. “Well yea, Jenny, I think’s it’s a good idea.”

Kate started to shake her head, “Look, I’m not into drugs, okay?”

The girls stopped and looked at one another. Sal looked shocked. “Drugs?” she said in mock-surprise. “You hear that, girls, Frenchy here thinks we’re doing drugs.”

“No, I don’t think that; I didn’t see anything,” said Kate, realising her mistake but it was too late. Sal carried on walking slowly towards the bandstand with her arm firmly around Kate’s shoulders. The others followed, unsure of what was about to happen. The rest of the group of girls on the bandstand looked out at her like feral cats and soon Kate was being led up the five steps into the lion’s den.

Sal let go of Kate and turned to look at her; looking her up and down with distaste as the other girls crowded around them. “You see we’ve got a problem, Frenchy. You know who we are, don’t you?”

“No, I, I don’t know who you are.”

“Well if you don’t know yet you’ll soon figure it out because you were in our classes today. That means you’ll get to know most of our names, you’re a clever girl, aren’t you?” Sal let the weight of what she was saying sink in for the other girls. “Now we can’t have you running around telling your old man, Mr Frenchy Lawyer Guy that we’re doing drugs and giving everyone our names. They’d believe you, wouldn’t they, Frenchy. We’d be expelled.”

“No, I won’t tell anybody what I saw, really,” Kate pleaded.

“That’s right,” agreed Sal. “You won’t.”

Kate swallowed. The group of young women were silent, waiting for Sal to speak, wondering what she would do. Sal sighed. “Gimme your phone,” she said at last.

“I don’t have it with me,” said Kate weakly.

“Sure ya do. It’s in your back pocket,” said Sal. The girls looked and saw the small bulge in Kate’s rear pocket. “Hand it over.”

“No, I,” Kate began. Sal slapped Kate round the face sharply.

“This is the last time I’m going to ask nicely, Frenchy. Hand it over.”

Kate held her cheek and swallowed. Then slowly she took her phone out of her pocket and handed it to Sal.

“Good. That wasn’t so hard was it?” said Sal. She held up the phone and turned it on. “Nice phone, Frenchy, looks expensive. Now let’s see,” she spent a minute or so going through the menus which were in English. “Interesting,” she said at last and she smiled. Sal held the phone down by her side. “Now here’s what we’re gonna do, Frenchy. Like I said we can’t have you running off telling people we’re doing drugs here, we’re only three days into the semester. So we need something on you, understand? We have something on you, you won’t tell on us. Got it?”

“But I don’t do drugs!” exclaimed Kate.

Sal slapped her quickly round the face again. “Don’t interrupt me again. Do you understand that?”

Kate gasped and stood silently looking up at the girls. She was surrounded.

“I asked you a question. Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” said Kate quickly.

“Good. Now what I’d like to do is put together a little file, I think. A little file on you, full of embarrassing little things that we’ll collect over our time in college together. That sound alright?” Some of the girls started to smile. “And we’ll keep this file, and then we’ll know you’re not gonna snitch on us, right?”

Kate opened her mouth to protest but the memory of the last slap stopped her. “Yes,” she said quietly. Sal stepped towards her and slapped her again.

“Next time I speak to you you answer clearly, you got that Frenchy?”

Kate started to cry. She lowered her head so that her hair fell in front of her face and she held her sore cheek. Sal nodded to one of the girls behind who pulled Kate’s hair back roughly lifting her head up.

“I asked you a question, Frenchy. Don’t make me repeat it.”

“Yes, yes!” said Kate. She was being pulled up onto the balls of her feet by the girl pulling her hair.

“Yes, Miss!” said Sal, enjoying herself.

“Yes, Miss,” repeated Kate loudly. Sal grinned and the girls started laughing and shaking their heads. Here was the girl from the newspaper article, the talk of the college, daughter of the great lawyer and she was being treated like this! They looked at Sal with new found respect. She was the one, alright, better not cross her.

“Alright then,” said Sal. “First things first. We need to get the ball rolling, to stop you going and calling your daddy as soon as we let you go tonight, do you agree, Frenchy?”

Kate remained quiet until Sal glared at her. “Yes,” said Kate hesitantly. Sal turned towards her. “Yes, Miss!” said Kate.

“Tell me Frenchy, you prefer painful or embarrassing?”

Kate swallowed. She looked quickly at the faces of the other girls around her, looking for a friend, but found none. All she saw in those faces was contempt.

All of the other girls seemed to be considerably taller than her, the bodies surrounded her, there was no way out, no gaps, no chance to run and no way of calling for help.

“Frenchy, I asked you a question,” said Sal impatiently.

Kate swallowed, “Embarrassing, Miss,” she said at last, what choice did she have? The girls started to laugh and snigger, unable to believe what was happening. The anticipation that hung in the air was electric, nobody except Sal dared speak.

“Oh, you prefer to be embarrassed? Alright, Frenchy, now here’s a question for you. Do you think it should be embarrassing or really embarrassing, please be aware that I will be offended if you give me the wrong answer.”

Kate swallowed. “Really embarrassing, Miss.”

“Oh you forgot to say ‘please’,” said Sal and she slapped Kate again, her finger leaving red marks on her cheek.

“Really embarrassing, please miss!” said Kate quickly, unable to believe what was happening to her.

“Very well, Frenchy. I think we can help you out. Hold her,” she said to the girls. Suddenly Kate’s arms were held firmly at her sides and her hair was pulled down again so that her chin was lifted up. Sal stepped towards her so that her face was only inches from Kate’s and she licked her sore cheek. “There, is that better?” she said quietly.

“Yes, thank you, Miss,” said Kate as quietly as she dared.

“Good, you’re learning, Frenchy.” Sal looked down at Kate’s tight little body and lifted Kate’s black top over her stomach to reveal the belly button ring. Sal smiled and lifted the top further still so that the bottom of her pink bra appeared. The girls started to smile nervously. Sal continued until all of Kate’s bra was exposed and then she let go, the material stayed where she had left it, above her exposed bra. “Not bad, Frenchy, not bad at all,” said Sal. “Quite a set you’ve got on you.”Slowly she reached down to Kate’s trousers and undid the top button and zip. She looked into Kate’s eyes for a hint of defiance and proceeded to pull the trousers down around her thighs revealing her pink lacy knickers.

Tears welled in Kate’s eyes. She held her breath. She was sexually inexperienced, a product of her upbringing and of her isolation, and here she was just three days after arriving, surrounded by twenty or so girls and she was being….

Sal hooked her forefinger around the waist band of Kate’s knickers and in one swift movement pulled the knickers down. “What is it with you French, huh? Too busy to shave?”

The girls started craning their necks to see, laugher filled the bandstand as tears cascaded down Kate’s cheeks. She stood unable to move, she was completely exposed to all the girls. Sal smiled and held up the mobile phone. She clicked a button to put it into camera mode and snapped two photographs, one which showed Kate’s face and body and another which was an explicit close up. Then she began pressing buttons on the phone’s keypad.

“Just sent a copy of those to my phone, just in case. You don’t mind do ya, Frenchy?”

Sal turned the phone around so that all could see the screen and the picture which included Kate’s face and crotch. The girls started laughing excitedly, nervously. Sal had actually done it!

Sal nodded to the girls behind Kate who let go of her arms. Kate immediately wiped her face and began pulling up her knickers and trousers, and pulled down her top. For a moment she thought she might be hit again for acting without permission but the strike never came. Instead Sal turned to her and held up her phone, “Come back here tomorrow night at ten o’clock. If you’re not here at ten, those pictures get sent to daddy and every one else in your phone book by one minute past. Got it, Frenchy?”

Kate swallowed, “Yes, Miss,” she said.

“And Frenchy,” Sal continued, “Tomorrow morning before you do anything else you go get that bush shaved off, there’s a place in town will do it for you called the Bedford Beauty Salon. You go in and ask for a full Brazilian, no landing strip. Got it? That outa keep them busy. The woman that does it is only there in the morning so you gotta go early.” The girls started to snigger again.

Kate’s mind began to race, “But I have lectures tomorrow morning!”

The girls looked wide eyed at Sal, waiting for her response, everyone was silent.

Sal moved closer to Kate so that she was towering over her. “Either you go to the salon tomorrow or we shave it, Frenchy, it’s up to you. Either way you gonna get shaved.” Sal smirked at Kate and lifted her hand as though she would hit her.

“Yes, Miss,” said Kate quickly. She swallowed.

“What you gonna ask for, Frenchy?”

“A full Brazilian, Miss, no landing strip.” She had no idea what it meant.

“That’s right. We’ll see you here tomorrow night at ten, Frenchy, don’t forget,” said Sal.

The girls moved around Kate and suddenly she could see the steps and a way out. Slowly she started walking away. She wanted to ask for her phone back but she knew she would never get it. She kept walking and soon she was down the steps and into the trees, the accommodation block in site ahead of her. Tears ran uncontrollably down her face and she tried to think desperately of a way out of it. She couldn’t go back there the next night, but how could she not. Sal would send those awful photographs to her entire family and all of her friends. Her entire world was in that phone, everyone she knew, practically, everyone she cared about. She couldn’t allow those photographs to be sent, she just couldn’t!

[dare-demon]

really amazing......continue

[Komodo Jones]

Very nicely done Swirly. You're going at a good pace and you have a great hook. The content is very nicely done and there were very very VERY few mechanics and spelling errors. I am interested to see where this goes.

[Swirly]

Part 3

At nine o’clock the next morning Kate made her way to her morning lecture as usual. She sat at the back and took out her notebook and pen; her hands were shaking. She kept looking at the clock on the wall and remembering Sal’s words. She swallowed. No, her mind was made up. She wouldn’t let herself be pushed around by these bullies. She had to nip this in the bud before it got even more out of hand. She tried to focus on what the lecturer was saying.

A couple of rows in front of Kate a slim girl with long dark hair and glasses leant around and looked at her. Kate ignored her at first but then she glanced over. She didn’t recognise the girl so she looked back to the lecturer. But what if she was one of the girls from the bandstand, she thought suddenly. There were twenty of them, she would only recognise a few, but they all knew her. She looked back at the girl who smirked and pointed to the clock on the wall.

Kate looked away, her pulse was racing. She thought of those terrible photographs on her phone being sent to her parents, to her friends. Oh my God! She started to panic. She looked back at the girl who had looked away as though nothing was wrong. Was she seriously considering going back to the bandstand that evening? What would happen if she didn’t? What would happen if she did? If she was going to go she had to go to the salon first otherwise, otherwise they would... those horrible girls were going to... “Oh my God!” she said quietly. They had her exactly where they wanted her. It was almost as though they didn’t want her to turn up so they could send those awful pictures and ruin her life. Quickly she put her notebook into her bag and made her way along the row of seats, passed the other students and pulled open the back door to the lecture theatre.

Two rows in front of where Kate had been sitting the dark haired girl turned around and smiled as Kate hurried out of sight. Sal was right, she thought, they were gonna have fun with this one, alright.

[Swirly]

Part 4

Kate hurried through the doors at the Bedford Beauty Salon at a quarter to eleven Friday morning; it had taken her over an hour to find the place.

The lobby was bright and impersonal. She hurried to the young receptionist and tried to compose herself. “Hello, I would like a wax today, please.”

The girl behind the counter looked down at her appointment book and smiled politely as she had a thousand times before. “I’m sorry,” she said. “We’re fully booked for this morning. We can fit you in any time tomorrow morning.”

“You don’t understand,” said Kate, “It has to be today. Please.”

The young girl frowned, “I’m sorry that’s just not possible.”

“Please, I’ll pay anything you like, it must be today,” begged Kate frantically.

The girl looked around the empty waiting room. “Means that much to you, huh?”

“Yes, I’ll do anything. Please.”

“Anything, huh?”

“Yes, yes, anything,” pleaded Kate.

“In that case we might be able to help each other,” said the girl quietly. “Come round to the office and we’ll have a chat.”

Kate followed the girl through a door marked ‘Staff’ into a tiny office with two chairs and a table. “Have a seat,” said the girl. “Here’s the thing. To get you in today I gotta call someone who has an appointment and tell them the woman who does it is sick today and reschedule, and book you in her place, right? I could lose my job for that. So I’m gonna need something in return. A favour.”

“Yes, of course,” said Kate who at this point had little time to think about favours. She would agree to what was required and deal with that later. Right now all she wanted was to secure an appointment.

“I’ll fit you in on one condition. When they’re done with you here you go to this address,” she handed Kate a piece of paper which she took from her top pocket. “A guy called Tony will open the door. Go with him. He’ll tell you what to do. Got it?”

“Yes,” said Kate uncertainly. This would mean missing more lectures in her first week. No matter, she thought, she had to get this done; she would catch up later.

“Can I trust you to keep your word and go and see Tony when you’re finished here?”

“Of course,” said Kate, a little taken aback; she was an honest girl.

“Good. Now go through to the waiting room and wait to be called. I’ve got to phone Mrs Watson and cancel her appointment.”

“Thank, thank you so much,” said Kate with relief.

The girl watched her go and then she picked up the phone and dialled, “Hello, Sal? Yea, she went for it.”


Kate’s name was called forty minutes later and she followed a large black woman with a ready smile into a tiny room with a padded table in the centre. The woman raised her eyebrows when Kate told her what she wanted done, or rather what Sal wanted done. “You even know what that is, honey?”

Kate looked to the ground.

“Your boyfriend want you to do it, huh?”

“Yes,” Kate lied.

The woman smiled. “Brazilian, no landing strip? Don’t get more extreme than that. You’re asking me to remove all the hair from your pubic region, front and back. Complete hair removal from around the anus, perineum and vulva. You sure that what you want, honey?”

Kate looked down at her hands and nodded.

“Alright, honey, it’s your money. Get undressed in that cubicle and then come out and lay on the table for me, okay.”

Kate swallowed and looked uncertainly at the cubicle.

“You don’t have to go through with this, you don’t want, honey. It’s your body. You want to have it done it’s gonna be sore a couple of days and then you be as good as new.”

“Alright,” said Kate.

The woman smiled. “Alright, you go get yourself changed, I’ll put on some music ‘fore we get started. You like jazz? Sure you do.”

Kate smiled at the woman. It had been a while since someone had shown her kindness. She walked slowly into the changing cubicle and closed the curtain behind her. She took a deep breath and undressed.

She stood naked in front of the mirror and looked at her reflection as though seeing herself for the first time. Here she was about to bare herself to a stranger. Could this really be her? She felt as though she were watching someone else’s life unfolding before her. She managed a little smile that might have been pride, pride at her own bravery.

“You alright in there?” came the woman’s voice.

Kate swallowed and slowly pulled back the curtain and stepped out of the cubicle.

“Oh my,” said the woman with a motherly smile. “You really are new at this, aren’t you? You could have kept your top covered up, honey.”

Kate swallowed and folder her arms over her breasts. She looked back at the cubicle and wanted to go and put her top back on. “No matter,” said the woman, “Come and lay down.”

Kate hesitated and then climbed up onto the padded table and lay on her back. The woman looked at her breasts and chuckled. “Damn, girl, what size are those things? Can’t remember seeing a girl your size with such big boobies.”

Kate felt herself flush and didn’t answer.

The woman shook her head. “You’re boyfriend one lucky fella, hope he knows that.” She looked down at Kate’s pubic hair. “You gonna make me earn my money, today, honey. No matter, been doing this a long time. We be finished before you know it. You’re boyfriend gonna love it.”

Kate closed her eyes and tried to relax and concentrate on the saxophone solo that drifted into the room from hidden speakers.



Thirty painful minutes later and it was nearly all over. The table had been altered so that Kate was sitting up with her feet wide apart. She had quite forgotten her nudity and chatted a little with the kindly woman who took her mind off the pain.

“Hope I not being too personal, but you are a virgin, honey?”

Kate swallowed. “Yes.” She had never told anyone that before.

The woman nodded. “I can always tell. I think you right to wait, though.”

“My family are Catholic,” said Kate. “I want to wait for my wedding night,” she said honestly.

“Course ya do. And no bad thing. You imagine it, do you?”

Kate giggled.

“Sure you do, there’s you looking beautiful in your white dress, there’s your husband looking just so, gonna be perfect, honey. Just perfect, your first time. Magical, gonna remember it the rest of your life.”

“I hope so,” said Kate with a self-conscious smile. Suddenly she had an urge to share something with this woman, something no one else had acknowledged. “It’s my birthday today,” she said quietly.

The woman looked up and smiled, “Happy birthday, child. I’ll try and be extra gentle, how does that sound? You know I had a woman in here a few months ago, she’s had three kids, came in for a wax and she said this was more painful. You believe that?”

Kate smiled. She didn’t know why she had told the woman but she felt better. At least someone knew, someone nice.

A beeping noise sounded close by.

“Oh, excuse me. My pager,” said the woman. She unclipped it from her belt and looked at it with concern. “I’m sorry honey, will you excuse me for a minute. I gotta make a phone call. Be right back. Here, I drape this over you so you’re not sitting her freezing your ass off waiting for me.” The woman took a large white towel from a shelf which she laid over Kate and then walked out and shut the door behind her.

Kate sighed and closed her eyes. A moment later she heard the door open and shut again but when she opened her eyes the woman was not standing there. Kate frowned. She heard movement behind her and a gag of some sort was dropped in front of her head and placed tightly around her mouth and held. With wide eyes she tried to sit up but strong hands grabbed her arms from behind and the towel was pulled onto the floor. The door opened again and a girl walked in whom she recognised from the bandstand. She was holding a camera. “Smile, Frenchy!” she said and she raised the camera. Kate clamped her legs together. The girl lowered the camera and nodded at someone behind Kate who pulled on the gag until the pain was unbearable. “Legs, Frenchy,” said the girl in an unhurried voice. Slowly Kate opened her legs wide and the extra pressure on the gag stopped. The girl smiled and began taking many photographs of Kate’s sore body. Tears welled in Kate’s eyes but she could not move. When the girl was done she winked at Kate and walked out. A moment later Kate’s arms were released and the gag removed. Kate turned her head to see the backs of two more girls leaving through the door. She picked up the towel and draped it back over her and wiped her eyes. The door opened again and Kate looked up expecting them to return. The black woman smiled at her.

“Sorry, honey. Damndest thing, got a message to call my husband, he’s home sick today. I called him and he said he didn’t page me,” the woman looked annoyed but she smiled. “All this technology and where has it got us? Right, where are we, oh yea.”



Half an hour later Kate emerged from the room feeling flushed. It had been quite a morning. At least it was over with. Now she just wanted to go somewhere and cry, to be by herself. She looked at her watch. She had just forty minutes before her next lecture; she had better get going. She walked through the lobby and the girl behind the desk caught her eye. “Tony is expecting you at two o’clock,” she said quietly. “Don’t let me down.”

“I won’t,” said Kate. She had quite forgotten about the favour she now owed this girl for arranging the appointment. Could she get out of it? No, she had promised and the girl was relying on her. She had no idea what the favour involved. Was she to deliver something? What had she agreed to? Oh, this was all too much. It was already half past one. She swallowed and took the note with the address on it out of her pocket. She needed to find a map, fast.

She left the building and saw a taxi rank at the end of the street and hurried towards it. She wanted time to herself to think about what had happened inside the salon, more photographs of her to be used against her, to make her do whatever they wanted. She needed time to take it all in.

She reached the taxi rank and climbed into the first car and gave the address to the driver who looked at it with a frown. “You sure about this, kind of a rough neighbourhood, you know what I mean. Nice looking girl like you, I’d be careful,”
“I’m sure,” said Kate hesitantly.

“Okay,” said the man. He raised his eyebrows and looked at Kate in the rear view mirror and shook his head, “Can’t say I didn’t warn you.” The taxi pulled away from the curb and joined the traffic.



Back in the salon a tall dark haired girl opened the door to the room where Kate had spent the last hour. The room was empty. She smiled to herself and walked swiftly to the corner bookcase. On top of the unit was a spider plant. The girl reached up behind the plant and her fingers closed around a small tape digital tape recorder. She put it in her pocket and walked out with it.

The girl left the salon and turned left along the sidewalk. She walked slowly; she was in no hurry. She felt the sun on her face, life was good. She stepped into a coffee shop and bought a drink and sat down by the window. Then she removed a tiny set of headphones and put one of the ear pieces into her left ear and skipped to the start of the sound file and started listening whilst she sipped her drink. Most of it was idle conversation but she put down her drink a couple of times and smiled to herself.

Later on she took a piece of paper from her pocket and wrote down some brief items of interest and then she looked at her watch. There wasn’t much time to arrange something today but if anyone could do it, Sal could. She picked up her phone. “Hi, Sal,” she said, trying to keep the smile out of her voice, “there are some things you should know about Kate.”