August and Janine then walked arm in arm up to the front door, which was open. The sound of disco music wafted to their ears from the back of the house.
‘ Is this where I meet all those police-loving businessmen you promised?’
‘ I’ll do my best,’ she said. ‘It’s a pretty big charity do. Anyone who’s anyone’ll be here and they’ll have paid handsomely. There’ll be councillors, sportsmen, businessmen… all in a good cause.’
‘ And why haven’t I paid to attend?’
‘ Because I know the organiser,’ she said mysteriously.
As they entered the house a photographer snapped away.
Inside it was a mass of people, shoulder to shoulder. The music was loud, but it was a good beat. There were clouds of cigarette smoke and the unmistakable tang of cannabis.
August’s eyes went from face to face. Many of them had been at the boxing. He half recognised a couple of footballers and an MP whose name he couldn’t recall.
Janine led him out through the throng to a large patio at the rear, which doubled as a dance floor. Beyond the patio was a large swimming pool; beyond that was a marquee which seemed to be the focus of food and drink.
A waiter bearing a tray thrust a glass in August’s hand; another held a tray full of sandwiches, pies and sausage rolls under his nose until he made a selection.
He drank the wine in one. It was immediately replaced.
‘ Now, darling,’ Janine said, ‘I promised to introduce you to some people. I won’t be long.’
She left him open-mouthed by the pool and hurried back into the house, where Lenny Dakin was waiting for her.
The businessmen spent an hour with August. One said he had the largest Volkswagen dealership this side of Birmingham and was interested in sponsoring vehicles for the special constabulary. The other said he owned a firm specialising in industrial, commercial and domestic security. He wanted to sponsor neighbourhood watch schemes by providing cut price security items, even free ones to pensioners.
August was hooked. The ease of it amazed him. Getting money out of the private sector was usually like getting blood out of a stone. But this! Pure gold.
Both men promised they would contact him the following week.
Business concluded, the two out of work actors left him beaming with pleasure into his beer. They collected their fee — ?100 each — were told to forget this night ever happened, and left the party. Neither one had any idea why the charade had been carried out. Some sort of practical joke, they assumed.
Janine rejoined August who was sitting at a table by the pool.
He shook his head in admiration. ‘I’ve got to hand it to you. You are brilliant. And sexy. And intelligent. It was a freak of Fate, us meeting like that and hitting it off so well, wasn’t it?’ He was referring to their first encounter two weeks before during a flutter he and a couple of friends were having at a casino in Blackpool.
‘ Mm, she agreed. ‘It was a freak.’
‘ Why did you agree to have dinner with me so readily?’ he enquired. ‘You didn’t even know who I was.’
‘ Yes, I did, actually. I’ve seen you on TV many times. I wasn’t going to miss the chance to get to know you. You’re an interesting guy, to say the least.’
Janine hoped she sounded convincing. The effects of the cocaine Dakin had allowed her were wearing off now and she needed another snort.
Bastard, she thought. I’ll be glad when all this is over.
‘ Anyway,’ she said, raising her eyes to his again, ‘now that I’ve kept my promise, I want you to make one to me.’
‘ Anything. ‘
‘ That you’ll let me fuck your brains out.’
August nearly came there and then. ‘Here?’ he croaked.
‘ My place. I have a house nearby.’
‘ I didn’t know that.’
‘ There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Davey darling.’
‘ In that case, I promise.’
‘ That was lovely,’ Karen said softly.
‘ Yes, it was.’ Donaldson was tired and dreamy.
They were lying facing each other, holding hands, a single sheet draped over their bodies.
‘ I was frightened that it would never happen,’ she confessed. ‘I was terrified that I wouldn’t want a man to touch me again after what I went through.’
Donaldson rested a leg across hers. He kissed her neck.
‘ I’ll help you every step of the way, if you want me to,’ he promised tenderly.
‘ Yes, I do. I want you in my life all the time, for everything, not just that.-’
‘ Sounds fine by me.’
‘ But I want to ask you something… do you think I should prosecute Dave for what he did to me, or just let it lie?’
‘ Er, how could you do it now?’ asked Donaldson. He propped himself up on one elbow. ‘It would be your word against his, wouldn’t it? Pretty damned difficult to get a conviction, especially after six months.’
Karen took a deep breath. ‘Just after it happened I was in deep shock and I didn’t really know what to do about it. I went away for a month to Greece — Skiathos, but before I did I went to a rape crisis centre in Manchester. They were very kind to me. It’s a fantastic place, in its own way. I had a few days’ counselling there and made a statement while it was all fresh in my mind. And 1 saw a doctor too.’
‘ So?’ Donaldson was puzzled.
‘ A specially trained doctor who specialises in sexual assault cases. She took photos of my injuries, made her own notes and took samples, swabs for evidence — and kept them all. It’s the sort of place where they understand that the victim isn’t always completely together mentally and may not be in a position to press charges. So they take the samples and store them at the correct temperatures, just in case the victim wants to pursue it at a later date.’
‘ You mean all the forensic evidence is still there, intact?’
She nodded.
‘ Well I’ll be damned!’ he exclaimed. ‘That’s handy.’
‘ I feel I may want to press charges, but I’m still not sure. I’m still in two minds about it.’ Tears stood in her eyes.
‘ Hey, calm down, don’t upset yourself.’ He stroked her hair.
‘ Sorry. I need to discuss it with you, but not now, not here — I’ve a lot of love-making to catch up on — but soon. Do you mind? I’ll understand if you don’t want to get involved.’
‘ I want to get involved all right,’ he said, ‘physically and mentally, OK?’
She slipped a hand around the back of his neck and eased him towards her. ‘I love you,’ she said. They began to kiss.
Dave August stirred and rubbed his eyes. He looked at his watch. Six-thirty in the morning. He pushed the sheet back and swung his legs out of bed. Then he realised where he was. Janine’s house, somewhere south of Manchester. A smile spread across his face as he glanced round at the sleeping female next to him in the large bed.
Carefully he pulled the sheet off her and looked at her bare flesh with a tinge of pleasure.
He felt himself move again.
But no. He had to leave.
Janine stirred and moved over the bed to rub her bare breasts against his naked back.
‘ I need to be going,’ he said reluctantly. ‘You said you’d give me directions to the motorway. I don’t know this area at all!’
‘ Later,’ she murmured, and gently slid her hand around to grip his twitching penis, taking it firmly in her palm. She squeezed it, began to manipulate it. It expanded rapidly.
August placed a hand on one of her breasts.
As soon as August and Janine left the house some twenty minutes later, a removal van pulled up outside. Six men descended on the property. In less than an hour every piece of furniture and every fitting had been removed and placed in the back of the van. A ‘For Sale’ sign was erected in the front garden and the van, men on board, drove away.