- a free online novel Rob Hopcott

Chapter 06

The first indication for Mike that his date was going to be something different was the red rose she wore in her hair instead of her lapel as agreed.

Mike threaded his way across to the cafe in busy Brompton Road past office workers snatching a quick lunch and tourists who were there to soak up the atmosphere. He felt very aware of the red rose in his lapel and wished he could dispose of it.

Mike knew that she was only 25 years old but she looked much younger. Her short curly fair hair gave her a schoolgirl like appearance.

"You look much younger than I was told," said Mike. "That's a compliment."

She smiled up at him as he stood in front of her hoping that he had not got the wrong table.

"And you look the right age for my ideal man," she said, innocently. "Are you my ideal man? The agency said their selection methods were the best and I liked your photograph. You looked sort of studious but manly - a cross between a college professor with a dash of the tough gangster." She giggled, suddenly; it was a high-pitched birdlike sound that emphasised her small stature.

Mike sat down in the chair close to her. Her attitude was challenging, instinctively he knew she wanted him to assert himself.

"You're sitting down a bit quickly aren't you," she said, "Perhaps I don't want you to sit there or even to stay here at all."

"And perhaps youll take half an hour deciding," said Mike. "Now I'm comfortably seated, it doesn't matter."

He hunched forward towards her, putting more pressure on her personal space, elbow on crossed legs, holding his chin in comfortable condescension.

"Go on, take your time! Concentrate! Now the question is, do you want to stay here or a go somewhere else?"

"Oooh, very manly," she said. "I think you've just past your first test. How does it feel?"

Mike adopted a mock gangster accent, puffing on an imaginary cigar.

"It feels great looking at you, ma'am."

"Do gangsters normally introduce themselves," she asked.

"Who needs introductions," said Mike, "when all the gals are called Moll!"

"Well your other gals may be called Moll but this one is called Stephanie," she said, firmly and you are Mike I take it. "

They shook hands, their eyes meeting, both challenging and still wary.

"Well Stephanie," said Mike, "I'm still waiting to find out. Do you want to stay here or go elsewhere?"

"I've decided to ... go somewhere else. You can come if you want to," she said peremptorily. As she stood up, Mike saw that she was wearing a short mini skirt whose colour matched the red rose in her hair.

She threaded her way ahead of him through the seated crowd out to the open air. Behind them was a shout. Mike paused in his stride but she grasped hold of his arm and pulled him on a peal of laughter.

"Better keep going, she said, I haven't paid for my lunch."

She turned sharp left into a clothes shop threaded her way through the lines of clothes and out of the building on the other side. For a short woman, only five foot two Mike remembered from her details, she certainly knew how to move quickly. Twenty minutes later they were seated together out of breath on a bench in Hyde Park.

"It wasn't my plan to spend this afternoon in a police station," said Mike.

"And where exactly did you want to spend the afternoon?" said Stephanie, mischievously.

"Depends on my luck," said Mike. "But I thought you were a married woman."

For a moment there was a crack in her armour. Her large laughing eyes were now defensive and sad.

"It says we are married on the certificate," she said, "but it's not like that when you read the novel. This girl really needs a friend."

Then the barriers were up again and she was back to role-playing.

"Will you be mine?" She flattered her eyelashes, demurely and defencelessly.

"Since my wife doesn't want to be my friend, why shouldn't I?" Mike said. "I just can't understand her attitude. OK ... so she got tied up, dumped in a lock-up garage by a masked stranger ... But why blame it on me?"

Stephanie did a carefully rehearsed double take.

"I hope you've been properly checked out by the agency," she said.

"And very in-depth interview by the head of the organisation," said Mike, slowly and gravely.

"And something tells me that you enjoyed every minute of it." Stephanie laughed.

"I think I would have enjoyed it more with you." Mike complimented.

"Thank you kind sir," said Stephanie. She rummaged in her handbag and held something out for Mike to see.

"You know what this is," she asked.

"It looks like a gold credit card to me," said Mike.

Stephanie took a pair of small nail scissors from her handbag and slowly chopped the gold card into pieces then she ceremonially tossed the bits into a nearby rubbish bin.

"Are you, sir, carrying a credit card with you?" She had now adopted the tones of a schoolmistress.

"Indeed, I am not." This was a lie. Mike had at least two credit cards safely tucked away in his wallet. But having seen what happened to Stephanies, he had no compunction.

"Then let's go shopping," said Stephanie, delighted.

"I gather that you're not really going to buy anything, or if you take something away, that you are not going to pay for it," said Mike, as they walked in the direction of High Street Kensington, arm in arm.

"What took you so long to figure that out?" Her eyes were laughing again and very attractive.

"Always nice to know..." said Mike, to himself.

In the first shop, as promised, she didn't buy anything but merely tried a number of hats, most of which from the front window. Mike could see little in common with the hats and only saw the point of the visit when they left. Looking back he saw one of the busts sported a rose through its nose.

In the second shop Mike nudged Stephanie, and directed his gaze to the security camera. When they left, the security camera was wearing Mike's rose. Stephanie was wearing a long green dress over her mini skirt.

In the next shop, Stephanie had hardly crossed the threshold when she caught her foot on raised piece of carpet and fell to the floor nursing her ankle and with a pained expression on her face. Worried looks were exchanged between the shop assistants and the manager was immediately called.

"What a way to treat your customers," said Stephanie, through tearful sniffs. "It's no wonder your shop is empty and it's even more surprising that your shop is still here. With dangerous carpets like that just waiting to injure your customers, I'm surprised you haven't been sued out of sight already. My husband is a lawyer and I'm going to tell him about this. I only came in to try on that pair of shoes in the window. I wish now I had not bothered."

"I assure you, Madam," said the shop manager; "We regard our customers and our reputation with the greatest degree of importance. Although it is a very tiny tear in the carpet, we will get it seen to immediately and if madam can manage to walk, perhaps she would like to find some shoes to take away free of charge."

Madam could walk and indeed, once out of range of the shop managers sight, danced down the road happily in her new pair of free shoes.

"Such as pity," she said, "I saw that small tear yesterday when I walked past the entrance to the shop. It seemed such a shame to put it to waste."

"And for the final evil deed of the day," announced Stephanie. "It's your turn. You will steal something wonderful for me. After all, what is the point of being a gangster if you can't treat your Moll. And, so far this afternoon, I have done all the work."

"Perhaps," said Mike, "I usually let others do the dirty work. But on this special occasion, I will steal something personally for you provided you promise you will keep my present for always in your heart and close to your beautiful body." He looked Stephanie up and down enjoying her from head to toe.

"Ooh, it sounds gorgeous," said Stephanie, "I love it already."

They had been walking arm in arm. Now Mike grasped her and drew her firmly into a store packed full of computers and electrical equipment. They browsed for a few minutes and then Mike whispered to Stephanie.

"Shield me from the security camera and watch out for any shop assistants."

Stephanie looked up the aisle and tried not to look at Mike who was fiddling with some equipment behind her. Then Mike grabbed her and pushed her hard towards the door. One of the store assistants was taking a great deal of interest in them. He clearly thought there was something suspicious but wasn't sure what. As they sped through the door, Mike saw in the mirror that the shop assistant was checking the area where they had been standing and was looking puzzled when he found that nothing was missing. By then they were outside.

"Quickly," said Mike, taking her hand and leading her away at of very fast walk.

In the shade of a tall tree, at the end of a very wide road with palatial ambassadorial residences stretching as far as eye could see, Mike handed to Stephanie the web phone.

"It's the best, the very best thing that has ever been stolen for me," said Stephanie solemnly. "I will treasure it for always."

She stood on tiptoe holding the web phone in her hand, caught an arm round his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Mike straightened up with his arm wrapped round her waist lifting her off the ground and returned to kiss.

She wriggled out of his arms and danced away from him, instantly.

"I have to go now," she said. "Let's do it again, soon. I'll contact you on this beautiful new toy."

"I'll see you home," said Mike.

"Silly boy," she smiled, "I am home."

Mike watched her as she sauntered jauntily down the road. It was full of the biggest houses he had ever seen. Across the way he could now see the name of the road and it was indeed the one in her address.

The next that day, Carolyn let Mike in through the side door that led directly into her office. Mike levered his tall angular frame down onto the couch.

"How did it go yesterday," said Carolyn.

"She's quite a bundle of fun, is Stephanie," said Mike. "A severe case of too much time and not enough to do in it. Not a serious lady."

Carolyn looked at Mike, appraisingly.

"I hope you didn't enjoy yourself too much," she said in mock severity.

"Frankly," said Mike, "I was scared witless. I just didn't know what she was going to do next and she seems to get excitement from breaking the law."

"Perhaps she should be working with us," commented Carolyn, wryly.

"I doubt if we'd know what she was doing for one minute to the next," said Mike.

"Anyway, the important question is," said Carolyn, "did you give her the web telephone?"

Mike nodded his head.

"But I had to make her think that I had stolen it for her," he said, wearily. "She really is a fruit cake - although probably a very nice fruitcake, if you can get past her mad exterior."

"I decided to bring in a second desk," said Carolyn, pointing. "With the two of us working here, I thought it was needed. And in the course of yesterday, a new computer arrived, yet another surprise, so your desk now has a computer too."

Mike ambled over and seated himself at his new desk. The computer on it was large, powerful looking, gleaming new and with a web camera built into the top of the screen.

"The instructions said to switch it on and leave it on. As soon as I did that, it automatically logged onto the Internet. Fortunately the dialup it used was a 0800 free phone number because it's been online ever since. It seems to be doing things but I don't know what. It's quite fascinating and seems to have a mind of its own. I was watching it last night. "

She handed Mike a pair of headphones that were plugged into the front of the computer.

"Wear these," she directed. "It's something else I discovered last night."

Mike listened, puzzled.

"Its people talking," he said, "but it's all jumbled up."

Mike listened. "I can't make sense of it."

"I think it's listening to the web phones," said Carolyn.

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In Holiday to Murder Alice decides to spend some time away from her husband in the remote and forbidding house where her old school friend has just been murdered. As she delves deeper into the secrets of this small village comunity, danger lurks in every leafy byway ... as well as insistent suiters ... More

Romances, thrill and mysteries ...

Unwelcome Paradise by Rob Hopcott is copyright   2001, All rights are reserved. All characters are fictitious in this story and no reference is intended to any person living or otherwise.

I hope you enjoy 'Unwelcome Paradise'.      Rob

- a free online novel Rob Hopcott