By
Jan
Chapter 4
Helen
walked into the club the following morning feeling wrecked. Sexual athletics
with Sean still hadn’t managed to erase the picture of Nikki from her mind. She
frowned when she saw Sylvia Hollamby and the two blonde cleaners…Julie Saunders
and Julie Johnston, known affectionately as the ‘two Julie’s’…hovering in the
corridor outside the office door. “What’s going on?” she demanded walking up
behind them.
Julie
Saunders turned round and leaned towards her. “It’s Trish and Nikki. They’re
going at it…”
“Hammer
and tongs,” Julie Johnston supplied.
“You
mean they’re arguing?” Helen asked in surprise.
“Well,
Trish certainly wasn’t in the mood for anything else when she came in,” Sylvia told
her. “Apparently, Nikki didn’t go home and Trish has accused her of everything
apart from murder.”
“I
don’t really think you should be eavesdropping on a private conversation,” she
said stiffly.
“We
don’t have to eavesdrop. You can hear for yourself. They’re not talking in
whispers,” Sylvia returned tartly.
“Who
were you with?” Helen heard Trish holler and her blood ran cold.
“I’ve
told you where I was and who I was with,” Nikki shouted back. “If you don’t
believe me ask her.”
“Don’t
worry, I will do!” Trish retorted.
There
was a loud crash from the office and the door was flung open. “Oh, piss off,
Trish!” Nikki exclaimed. “If you won’t listen to reason, I’m going out!” She
emerged through the door and glared at the four women standing just outside.
Her eyes lighted on Helen and she flushed angrily. As she pulled the door shut
there was another crash as something hit the other side of the door. She pushed
past the women and out of the club.
“Very
good thrower is our Trish,” Julie Saunders mused.
“Olympic
Gold Medallist standard, ain’t she, Ju?”
“I
need to speak to Nikki,” Helen mumbled. She hurried out of the club after Nikki
and found her wandering round the car park smoking a cigarette. “Nikki, we need
to talk.”
“If
there are any problems, sort them out with Trish!” she snapped.
“What
were you and Trish arguing about?” she asked bluntly.
Nikki
laughed in surprise. “What the hell has it got to do with you?”
“That’s
what I’m afraid of. Has it got
anything to do with me?”
“Oh,
don’t worry, Helen. I didn’t confess all,” she said bitterly. “I won’t mess up
your wedding plans with Sean.”
“Why
does it upset you so much that I’m marrying Sean?” she asked curiously.
“You
really don’t know, do you, Helen?” She glared at Helen then a look of alarm
crossed her face and she grabbed hold of her shoulders and pulled her to one
side.
“What
the hell…?” She was silenced as a missile flew through the air and landed where
she had been standing.
“You
forgot your mobile!” Trish yelled angrily before she went back inside.
“Sorry
about that,” Nikki said wryly as she surveyed the pieces of shattered plastic
that had once been her mobile phone. “When Trish gets mad she starts throwing
things.”
“Gold
Medallist standard I’m led to believe,” Helen grinned.
“Luckily
she hasn’t got a very good aim so they usually miss me.” Nikki returned her
grin. “But she has made contact once or twice and I’ve had to have treatment.”
She rubbed her eyes and Helen realised how tired she looked.
“Are
you alright, Nikki?” she asked with concern. “You look shattered.”
“I
didn’t get much sleep,” she muttered.
“Neither
did I,” Helen admitted and then flushed under Nikki’s careful scrutiny.
“But
I bet it wasn’t for the same reason,” Nikki said pointedly. “Look, I’m getting
out of here. Come with me.”
“I’ve
got work to do,” Helen protested.
“Play
truant,” she urged. “I’ve got to take the van back, pick up my car and have
some breakfast and I really would like your company.” She raised her eyebrows and
looked at Helen pleadingly.
“Oh,
what the hell!” Helen exclaimed. She knew Nikki was getting under her skin but
when she looked at her with those big brown eyes she couldn’t refuse her
anything.
Nikki
led her to a blue Transit van, she couldn’t remember being here the night
before. And where was Nikki’s car? What had she been up to after they had left?
She was still wearing the same clothes.
They
had been driving a few minutes and Helen looked at her in surprise when she
turned into the long winding driveway of the Lark Hall Hotel. She drove round
the back and switched off the engine. “Come on. I want you to meet a friend of
mine.”
As
Helen climbed out of the van a middle-aged woman, smartly dressed in a tweed
suit and cream blouse, came out of the hotel to meet them.
“I
wondered where you’d got to, Nikki,” the woman said anxiously. “Did you manage
to get everything?”
“Sorry
I’ve been a long time, Monica,” she apologised as she came round to join Helen.
“But I had a run-in with Trish and, yes, I got everything.”
“Have
you been upsetting Trish again?” Monica admonished her gently.
Nikki
grinned sheepishly and took Helen’s arm and drew her forward. “Helen, this is
an old friend of mine, Monica Lindsay. Monica…Helen Stewart,” Nikki introduced
them. “And don’t call her Mrs Lindsay,” she teased.
“Nice
to meet you, Monica,” Helen said shyly.
“Likewise,
Helen,” the older woman smiled.
“Monica,
be a love and rustle up some breakfast for us, whilst I empty the van,” Nikki
coaxed. “I’m starving.”
“You
always are,” Monica observed. “When was the last time you had something to
eat?”
“I
dunno.” Nikki shrugged. “Breakfast yesterday, I think.”
Monica
looked at Helen and shook her head. “Is there any wonder she’s so scrawny?” she
commented as she went back into the hotel.
Helen
flushed. The Nikki she had seen in a state of undress the night before was
anything but ‘scrawny’. The phrase ‘honed to perfection’ sprang to mind. “Can I
give you a hand?” she asked as Nikki returned from taking a box of provisions into
the hotel.
“Much
as I would like to take you up on that offer,” Nikki smirked. “I’ve got to
empty the van first.”
“Nikki,
you’ve got a one-track mind!” Helen replied with feigned shock.
“At
last, someone else has seen you for the dirty-minded twat you are!” a voice
triumphantly spoke behind them.
“Hiya,
Zan,” Nikki said with a grin as she turned and surveyed the pretty blond-haired
young woman approaching them. To Helen’s surprise the two women hugged each
other. “Zandra, this is Helen. Ignore her mouth, Helen, she sometimes lets it
run away with her.”
“So,
how do you know Nikki then, Helen?” Zandra asked as Nikki carried another box
into the hotel.
“I’m
working for Nikki at the moment. I’m a financial advisor,” Helen informed her.
“Bollocks,
no kidding!” Zandra exclaimed. “Well, the only advice Nikki needs is to get rid
of the miserable twat she lives with!”
“Leave
Trish out of it, Zan,” Nikki ordered as she reappeared.
“’Suppose
that’s a start. You usually say, that’s the woman I love you’re talking about,”
Zandra affected Nikki’s way of speaking.
Nikki
looked at Helen and blushed and when she spoke she appeared to be flustered.
“Am I the only one doing any work around here today?”
“Keep
your shirt on, you miserable sod!” Zandra retorted. “We’d better help her,
Helen, or she’ll carp on about it all day.”
“You
don’t have to do that, Helen,” Nikki remarked as she came out of the door and
passed Helen carrying a box in.
“I’m
quite capable,” Helen said smoothly. She went through the door and found
herself in the hotel kitchen where Monica was going through the boxes Nikki had
already taken in.
“Just
pop it over there please, Helen,” Monica told her with a friendly smile. “Don’t
let Nikki bully you. She works hard herself so she slave-drives everyone else.”
“Don’t
worry, I won’t,” Helen assured her, returning her smile. She went back outside
where she could hear Nikki and Zandra still bickering. The two must be very
good friends, she thought to herself. Nikki seemed to tolerate more flack from
Zandra than anyone else, even Trish. She stopped dead in her tracks when she
heard Zandra speak her name.
“Helen
seems nice.”
“Yeah,
she is,” Nikki gave a non-committal reply.
“You
fancy her, don’t you, you randy twat?” Zandra exclaimed loudly.
“No,
I do not!” Nikki retorted. “And keep your voice down.”
“Nikki,
this is me you’re talking to,” Zandra wheedled. “Don’t forget, I’ve seen that
look before.”
“This
is different, Zan. There’s Trish and Helen’s got a boyfriend but last night…”
Nikki lowered her voice and Helen couldn’t make out what she was saying.
“Bloody
hell, Nikki! You haven’t?” Zandra screeched.
Helen
flushed angrily. Nikki had obviously told Zandra what had happened between
them. She cleared her throat noisily and Nikki looked round the side of the van
guiltily.
“Something
wrong, Helen?” she asked seeing the angry expression on Helen’s face.
Helen
forced a smile. “No, of course not. I’ve just been talking to Monica. Looks as
if I’m the only one doing any work
now,” she said pointedly as she picked up a box from the back of the van and
went back into the hotel.
“Do
you think she heard?” Zandra whispered.
“I
dunno,” Nikki shrugged. “I hope not anyway.”
“Nah,
she can’t have done,” Zandra assured her. “If I’d just heard somebody telling
somebody else they were in love with me, I wouldn’t have a face like thunder.”
“Are
you sure?” Nikki asked worriedly. Maybe telling Zandra she was in love with Helen
hadn’t been such a good idea, especially when Helen could so easily have
overheard them. “Don’t say anything else about it, Zan. Come on let’s get the
van emptied.”
“My
lips are sealed, Niks,” Zandra said conspiratorially.
The
three of them finished emptying the van then, when Nikki went out to lock up
Helen followed her. “Nikki, about last night,” Helen said quietly.
Nikki
locked the van and turned and looked at her. “What about it?”
“It
meant nothing to me!” Helen exclaimed. “You mean nothing to me so I’d rather
you didn’t brag about it to your friends!”
“Brag
about it?”
“I
heard you and Zandra laughing,” she said accusingly.
Nikki
breathed a sigh of relief. So, Helen hadn’t heard what she had said but she had
obviously heard enough of the conversation to jump to the wrong conclusion.
“Helen, believe me, we weren’t laughing about you. I was just telling her about
Trish bollocking me for not going home.”
Helen
looked at her in disbelief and had just opened her mouth to tell her so when
Zandra called out to Nikki from the kitchen door. “Niks, do you want this
breakfast or are you going to stand there gabbing all day?”
“Be
there in a minute, Zan.”
“So
why didn’t you go home last night?”
“I
had a call from Monica just after you left. Barbara, her business partner, had
cut her hand badly and she wanted me to take her to hospital. I spent half the
night in A and E.”
“Nikki!”
Monica called impatiently from the doorway. “Your breakfast won’t be fit to eat
if you don’t come now!”
Nikki
smiled wryly. “You know my trouble? Too many bosses!” Suddenly, she chuckled.
“I think I could stand being bossed around by you though.” She turned away
abruptly. “Come on let’s go in.”
Helen
gazed after her. Being around Nikki Wade was getting dangerous. The sooner she
finished her investigations the better because it was obvious the woman was
attracted to her and if she was honest with herself, she found the thought
disturbingly exciting.
“Helen!”
Monica
speaking to her from the doorway brought her down to earth. “Your breakfast is
getting cold.”
She
grimaced inwardly but forced a smile. The last thing she felt like doing was
eating.
“You
were miles away,” Monica commented as they entered the kitchen.
She
smiled, wishing she was miles away because Nikki Wade was getting too
close for comfort!