As soon as he saw the stunning girl at the counter, he remembered her, even though she was looking even better than that first time.
“Hello Michelle. You look very well. I saw you have had quite a time of things in Russia.”
She smiled, and it was as if someone turned on a powerful sunlamp.
“Yes, I have had a terrible time, but I am a survivor.”
Her accent was much less pronounced, but her voice still had a profound effect upon the policeman. He brought her through into the small interview room.
“So, what can I do for you?” he asked.
She took out £50 and passed it to him.
“I also owe you a dinner, so if you name the time and the place, I always pay my debts,” she said, with a smile.
“That was my treat. Believe me, I should love to, but Mrs Richardson would not be so amenable,” he replied with an embarrassed grin.
“You were very kind, and I want you to know that I appreciated your help very much. You are a very good man.”
“It was a pleasure, and I hope things get better for you.”
“I hope they will, too,” she said, kissing him gently on the cheek, and was gone.
Bill stood there for a moment, feeling that somehow he should have taken her up on the meal, but he shook his head sadly. Some things just weren’t meant to be.
Michelle did not want to continue working for Gordon’s company, so they let her go with a little relief, as she was too intense and made all the directors feel very uncomfortable.
She had sufficient from Gordon’s insurance, investments and property to ensure a comfortable standard of living. But she needed to be occupied. She found the pregnancy was a double-edged sword, as it was certainly a restriction, yet it was also quite wonderful. There were times when she seriously considered termination, and other times when she was aghast at herself for even considering it.
In the event, nature had other plans, and she was rushed to hospital with severe abdominal pains.
When she came to, she immediately sensed that all was not well, and as soon as the first Doctor appeared, she started to cry.
“I’m sorry, Miss Czakan, there was nothing we could do. The baby was in a bad way and had died.”
“Was there any deformity?” she asked, through her tears.
“No, not that we could discern. These things just happen, and, well your friend was saying what you have recently been through, so it could have some bearing.”
“Friend?” she asked.
Rebecca came in, and she was almost overcome with grief.
“Oh, you poor darling, what you must be feeling like?”
Rebecca stayed for about an hour, and was actually more harm than good. Eventually she left, and Michelle silently wept for her child.
8.
Ryan Marcham was a thief. He wasn’t an ordinary thief; he was an exceptionally clever one. He never broke in, nor did he take from the poor or needy. In fact, most of the time, his crimes went undetected for months, and when they were, no one had any idea how the offence took place.
He had several degrees in computer related subjects, and although he had the interpersonal skills of a Tsetse fly, he was a very rich man, courtesy of those computer skills.
At thirty-four, he was a short man, overweight and with a receding hairline. He had no partner, and was not inclined to acquire one yet. He got his kicks, such as they were, from cyber sex with equally frustrated persons on the internet chat rooms.
The ‘girl’ he was currently involved with was probably equally repellent, but her semi-naked photograph on her personal profile would declare otherwise. She was a stunning blonde from France, and used the profile name of ‘ma’mselle_la_belle’. The fact that Ryan’s own photograph was of a body builder taken from a Gym magazine was another story, and he used the name, ‘super_stud_001’. He was actually aware that her photograph was probably equally fictitious, but the chat was blisteringly hot and steamy.
His new home was in the more classy suburbs of Los Angeles. He had moved from Detroit, where his career had started, so when his finances allowed, he bought the $1,000,000 property. It was probably worth nearly double that now, but Ryan couldn’t care, he had almost $100,000,000 salted away.
His method was simple. He would find a huge corporation, hack into the various computer systems, and place simple yet unidentifiable programs in places no one would look. These programs would remain dormant, and then suddenly, all the fractions of cents would be rounded down in every transaction, and the residue filtered into a dummy account. Within seconds the account would be closed, and cash transferred to another account, so ending up with a cheque being issued to a phoney company.
One cheque, cashed, and the company then ceased to exist. All within a one hour period.
Each target was hit once, and never touched again. The program was so written that after execution it self erased. One U.S. Pharmaceutical Company was hit for $1,300,000. It took exactly fifteen minutes for the whole operation to complete. By the time any accountants worked out anything was missing, Ryan was long gone.
Ryan had also set up a legitimate company that provided security firewalls and other software purporting to prevent cyber-theft. The company was worth in excess of $50,000,000 in its own right. All the clients were companies whom had at one time suffered loss at Ryan’s hands. His policy of never attacking a company twice, meant that they paid him twice, and once legally.
He was not concerned with the money, as he could never spend what he had accrued in any case. His joy was in the acquisition of the cash, and it was almost sexual, it was really the rape of the companies’ assets.
He returned to his house and opened the front door. The alarm did not bleep at him, and he found it had been switched off. Frowning, he thought back to when he had left, and shook his head. He could not recall whether he had set it or not. Normally a meticulous man, this concerned him, but then he heard the music.
He had no gun, as he was actually terrified of them, but also was not inclined to call the police. He cautiously advanced towards the source of the music, and found a complete stranger in his pool, the music centre was playing one of his CDs at full volume.
The stranger was a very tall and beautiful woman, and she was stark naked.
He switched the music off, and the girl was still swimming front crawl up the pool.
She reached the far end and executed a perfect racing turn to return rapidly up towards where he now stood.
She reached the end and, in one fluid movement, lifted herself effortlessly out of the pool and walked towards him, with no attempt to cover her luscious and perfect body.
“Bonjour cherie. ‘ow are you?” she said.
His jaw dropped, it was his internet friend. Ma’mselle_la_belle. Not only that, she was even better in the flesh.
“How, how did you find me?” he stammered, as she ran a damp hand over his trembling head. Her full and very firm breasts brushing against his chest. She was many inches taller then he.
“It was easy. But your picture is not ze truth, non?” she said. Her accent made her voice sound like honey dripped in fine French wine.
She wrapped a towel around her long hair and another round her ample figure. She had the body of a goddess, and Ryan found his erection said it all.
She walked over to him, and one of her hands brushed the outside of his straining pants.
“Oh la-la, you want me very much, non?” she said, and laughed.
Ryan shook his head. This was unreal, things like this just don’t happen.
She took his chin in one hand, and he saw the delicately varnished nails, beautifully crafted into long and lovely shapes. She gently moved his face so he was looking into her eyes.
“We are going on a journey,” she said.
When he woke up, it was dark.
The girl was gone, and for the life of him, he could not remember anything that had happened.