A New Beginning Pt. 02

"How old are you? No, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"I'm 22, and in my final year of Uni. This isn't the first time that I have had a prof hit on me, but this is the first that has been so blatant and persistent. The others took 'fuck off' as my final word and left it at that."

"As for me not wanting to get into your pants, that's not entirely true, I want to, but only if you want the same thing. I haven't yet worked out the logistics of this, but I will try to entice you into my boudoir at some time in the future."

"Can you give me a time-line on this future? How long is my freedom going to last?"

"Only as long or short as you want it to."

"Just make sure that you stay right away from the clutches of that other bitch."

"You have no worries there, she gave me the creeps."

"I promise never to creep you out. As for the other thing, it has been a long time since I have felt this way about a man. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against sex as such, but I want so much for it to mean something other than having my primal urges met."

"It has been a year between drinks for me. I have come to realise that a family really needs to have more than one parent, and that the two parents should at all times be a good example of love, so that the kids can grow up knowing the difference between love and sex."

"So there's no pressure on me then? You and I can have sex as long as it's with love."

"That's how I feel, no love, no sex."

"Well then, we had better hurry up and get to know and love each other."

"Is this the same girl I met this morning who was so weighed down with the cares of the world that she could hardly speak?"

"Yes it is, and I have you to thank for my transformation. I think that I might take up another of your ideas, punk sounds good."

"You don't have to do it if you don't want to."

"I know, let me think about it some more. When am I going to see you again?"

"I have a bit of time in the morning, after I've dropped the kids off at school and before I have to be at work. I could meet you where we met this morning. You do remember where that was, don't you?"

"If you're going to be insulting forget it. I'll see you then. 'Bye."

Here I am, just about to launch a campaign targeting randy old Professors who prey on young women, the kind of situation that would turn a girl right off men, and I'm falling for a man. Who'd a thunk it?"

"Hi." I reached up and kissed him.

"Hi to you. Have you been waiting long? I got caught up in the school drop-off log jam."

"No, I only just got here myself. Would you like a coffee, my treat?"

"Sure, I'd love it." There was a cafe across the road, so we headed for that. We ordered and found a seat at the back where we could have a little privacy.

"What time do you have to be at work?"

"My time is pretty flexible, but I should be there by 9:30, we have a meeting at 10:00 that I have to be at, so that gives us a little time together. How is the Web site going?"

"I've been working on a Web-page, but we've also got some of the IT students designing a page for us with links to Facebook, Twitter and we're planning something for You Tube. We want to cover as many bases as we can."

"Sounds like you're really getting in to this thing. Please, don't let this campaign distract you from your studies."

"Don't worry, I won't." I was about to say something else but was interrupted by the arrival of our coffees. "I want you to be proud of me, proud enough to want to keep meeting me."

"Don't you think that you're rushing this a little? After all, we've known each other for all of a day."

"I know. Don't worry, I'm not going to get all possessive and ring you all the time and stuff like that. I just want to keep myself in the loop."

"I don't see that as a problem. Look Rachel, I like you, a lot. But you have to remember that I've been out of circulation for a year now, and I'm afraid that if we rush this we might end up making a mess of things and split up. I don't want that to happen. I want to give this the best shot at succeeding."

I reached across the table and grabbed his hand. "You want what I want, that to me is a good starting point. Don't worry, I'm not going to pressure you into doing something that you'll regret."

"Thank you for that, and for this, all of this. Now I'm going to have to make a move." I stood to leave and Patrick stood. It seemed so natural when we kissed that we held it for longer than we had intended. "I'll call you tonight, 'bye." His arm was around me and he gave my body a squeeze in parting. My smile said more than any words.

I spent most of the day in lectures, and the rest of it in hastily called and informal meetings with girls who had heard of our campaign and wanted to join us. This campaign was building up a full head of steam and was threatening to blow.

My last meeting was with one of the IT guys. His name was Thoreau, I didn't ask if it was his surname or Christian name because he seemed to be very intense, and I didn't want to upset him in any way. "We have set this up in such a way that not even Bill Gates' team would be able to trace it. We launched it through several different servers in several different countries. Once it was out there we closed down this server and opened another that is linked back into the loop. What will confuse anyone trying to trace the original source is that at each stage there is a cut-out with a loop around it."

"That's way too technical for me to understand. Give it to me in words of one syllable or less, and leave out the jargon."

"You have nothing to worry about, nothing can be traced back to you."

"Thank you for that."

"I don't know why you wanted it set up this way, you do realise that this would have made you so famous that those that are named would never be able to touch you."

"Don't you believe that. Look what happened to Julian Assange, he thought that he was untouchable."

"These guys don't have the same clout as the US Military."

"But they have friends in high places. Gotta go. Thanks for this."

"No wuckin' furries."

I was working on an assignment when my phone rang. It was Patrick. "Hi, I wondered when you would call, I was just going to bed. I was thinking about what it would be like going to bed with you. Am I being too forward, if I am I didn't mean to be, just telling you what I was thinking without the expectation of it ever happening."

"Hi, before you ask, apart from this morning, I've had a shit of a day."

"Your lunch didn't go well then?"

"That was just a part of what turned out to be something of a disaster. Do you remember me telling you that she creeped me out, well nothing has changed in that area. She started off by getting angry with me for seeing you this morning. That creeped me out let me tell you. Then she told me a whole lot of stuff that I didn't know that Rosie was going through leading up to her death, and now she has virtually accused this guy that was stalking her of murdering her. But the more that I thought about this, the less plausible I found it. There is something not quite right about it, but I can't place my finger on it. What I need to do is to track this guy down and get his side of the story. My big problem is that I won't be able to take any time off work for the next week or so. I wouldn't mind so much if it was something that I liked doing, but believe me, this is one part of my job that I can do without."

"Maybe I can help you, I have a bit of spare time over the next week or two, so if there is anything that I can do to help, don't hesitate to ask."

"There is. Can you come to my office at 2:00 tomorrow afternoon, By then I should have the contents of the safety deposit box and had a chance to look at what is in there. If there is something that you can follow up on, then I can give you the information and you can get on it."

"I'll be there, wherever that is." He gave me the address and told me to speak to the receptionist who'll tell me where his office is.

"How is your campaign going?"

"The girls have already started to send their stuff out and the response is frightening, this is bigger than I thought. I'll fill you in tomorrow morning, shall I?"

"Of course, I'm so bushed that I forgot about our morning meetings. Same time as this morning?"

"Same time, same place? Or shall we make it a different place?"

"Probably a good idea. I'll drop the kids off as usual and then drive to the train station. I'll catch the train to the domestic terminal and meet you at the top of the stairs on the concourse. We can find a cafe somewhere and grab a coffee. How does that sound to you."

"She's got you ducking for cover, hasn't she?"

"It's not me that I'm worried about, I'd hate to think of what she would do to you if she put her mind to it. I'm going to talk to Guthrie tomorrow once I get a peak at what's in the box. If Rosie mentions this guy by name he can probably track him down quicker than we can."

"Thank you for caring. I can take care of myself I'll have you know."

"Against a normal person maybe, but I've got a horrible feeling that she's seriously unhinged. Look, I'd better go, I've just heard Rhianna heading for the bathroom, and she'll come down here to get me to tuck her back into bed. If I'm talking to someone she'll want to know who it is, and I don't want to lie to her, and it's way to soon to spring you on them. 'Bye Love."

"I like that. See you in the morning Darling." I shouldn't have said that, it just slipped out. I'm going to have to be careful, I wouldn't want to scare him off.

I suppose he had a good reason for meeting me somewhere different, so here I was, waiting as the morning commuter rush rushed past me on their way either to somewhere else, or from somewhere else. I saw him coming up the escalator. "Hi, how are you this morning?" I kissed him.

"Fine, really good. We won't have to worry about being seen by you know who."

"Good, I want to tell you what has happened with our campaign. It has gone viral! It is bigger than I anticipated, we are getting feeds from all over the world, especially America where it seems to be the done thing. But the big news is that I'm not the only girl that my particular Prof has been hitting on. With the number of girls claiming to have not only been hit on by him, but have actually had sex with him, I'm surprised that he ever gets any work done. He has a veritable harem happening. It's only a matter of time before the Uni Admin gets wind of this and they'll be forced to take some sort of action."

"It's also a matter of time before the media takes up the campaign. This is the sort of story that they feed on. My concern is that the professors that are named will not take this laying down. They will probably fight back and fight dirty. I don't want you to get hurt by this."

"I don't think that's likely to happen." I wasn't sure of that, the bottom feeders from the media have a reputation of using all methods in there arsenal to get to the bottom of a story. "This has been set up in such a way that it is almost impossible to trace the source. The original post was routed through literally hundreds of servers before it surfaced. And as soon as it was out there the original server was shut down."

"I wish that I knew my way around a computer like you do. We have to use them in HR, doing wages and stuff like that, and keeping track of the hours that staff work, and I can handle that reasonably well, but get me to do something that I'm not used to, and I'd flounder big time."

"Well then, you'd have to call on my expertise, wouldn't you?"

"As if I'd need an excuse to call on you. Getting on to the subject of this afternoon, I don't know what I'll find in the box, so we'll have to play it by ear until we make some sense of it. I won't be able to spend too much time on it, I have my job to do. And it's something that I can't delegate, the decisions are mine to make, and mine alone. If it's okay with you, and it needs immediate attention, I'll leave you in my office to work on it, Judy, she's my Assistant, will look after you if you need anything, coffee, whatever, feel free to ask."

"I will. It will be great to see where you work and what you do, and what people think of you, not that this will affect the way I feel about you." I smiled at him. "You know, I could quite easily be falling in love with you."

"That's good, I feel the same way about you, but we have a lot of hurdles to jump before we can take this anywhere. I have to tell you, I will not be rushed. Any decision that I, we, make will impact on the rest of our lives. I am a cautious man."

"Good. You had better get to work. I'll see you this afternoon." We stood, we kissed, and he walked back down to the train platform to catch a train into the CBD and work.

I had a couple of lectures this morning and a tutorial, so I was pretty busy. I caught up with Chelsea around lunch time, and she was a mixture of excited and scared. Excited because we had started something big, really big, and scared because she was beginning to think that it might get too big and we'd lose control.

"Look Chelsea, I'm happy to hand over control of this. Call me a coward, but I haven't posted my complaint on any site, I don't have to because several other girls have already done that. If you can do the same thing, then we can sit back and watch the skin and fur fly, and feel safe that we are not actually involved."

"What's your next project going to be, 'Cowards Anonymous' for those gutless wonders who won't publicly stand up for their rights?"

"That's not a bad idea. No, I don't see myself as a coward, if I was, do you think that I would have even started this thing in the first place? I know that the loops and cut-outs in the Web-page will protect us, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. I am entering into a good place and don't want to put that at risk."

"Oh, I see. Does this good place have anything to do with the guy that you met yesterday, and who is responsible for this whole fiasco?"

"Now that you mention it, yes."

"Rachel, what are you doing? Is this the same girl that has virtually sworn off men because she's sick and tired of wandering hands?"

"I am sick and tired of gormless young men who think that they are doing me a favour by even talking to me, let alone giving me the benefit of their extensive sexual prowess. I want to experience something, someone who cares as much about me as I do about him. Patrick just might be that man."

"I wish you luck then, I promise to not tell you that I told you so when this whole romance goes pear shaped and you are left a blubbering fool yet again."

It was 2:00 and I walked into the front of his office. "I'm here for a meeting with Mr O'Laughlin, can you point me to his office."

She thrust a finger towards a corridor. "Last office on the left."

I found it without any problems. There was a woman seated in a sort of reception area. She looked up as I entered. "I have an appointment with Mr O'Laughlin."

"That's odd, he doesn't have an appointment with anyone in the book."

"Check with him."

She got up and went into the office. I heard her announce, "There's a young lady wanting to see you, she doesn't seem to have an appointment."

Then Patrick's wonderful voice. "Send her in. Her name is Rachel by the way."

"She's a very nice young lady, this Rachel of yours."

"What do you mean by that remark?"

"She's not just any young lady, she's someone special. Don't look at me like that, mother knows." She said tapping the side of her nose.

"Don't be silly, and send her in."

"It's about time." She said as a parting shot at him. They seemed to have a good relationship going between them. Should I be worried?

A second or two later she indicated that I was allowed in.

I breezed in. "That lady out there looked at me funny."

"Yeah, she's of the opinion that we are an item."

"Are we?"

"You could say that."

"I also say that we should confirm it." I didn't give him any chance to differ, launching herself at him I kissed him, just as Judith walked in with a huge smile on her face.

"You should never argue with mother, she is always right."

"You were spying."

"Of course. What do you expect, a very attractive young lady arrives unannounced and without an appointment, I just had to find out more. It's about time I say. It takes the pressure off me after all of those nasty things that dumb cop said about us at your trial, he had some people convinced that you and I were having some sort of torrid, sordid affair. As if. Now I can spread the word that our Patrick has found himself a girl. He has found himself one, hasn't he?"

"Will you be quiet, we have work to do. Go file your talons and use them on someone else." He told her.

"No I will not. If you two have work to do I can only assume that it is something to do with Rosie's disappearance and I want to help."

"But you and I have work type work to do.'

"That can wait another half a day, this sounds like more fun."

"You could be right there, I wasn't looking forward to it. Okay, let's look at what's in this lot of papers, shall we?"

We each took several pages and began to read through them.

"Brendan Carlisle, who is he and where does he fit into this picture?" I looked up from the page that I was reading.

"He was the bloke that was harassing Rosie. I think that he was being treated for some mental illness."

"It says here that he was admitted to a Mental Health facility and is still there, still protesting that he never did any of the things that he was accused of. The prognosis is that until he acknowledges his guilt, he will never be able to move on from this. It looks as if he could be in for the duration."

"I'm beginning to suspect that he could just be right. If he was madly in love with Rosie, as had been suggested, why would he kill her? I should have been the target."

"Maybe someone who wanted Rosie out of the way so that she could get her fangs into you, wanted to kill two birds with one stone. Get rid of her clinging boyfriend and the wife of the man that she fancied, and to make it look as if it was a deranged man who killed her because he couldn't have her." I said.

"That lady that was ringing you up, what was her name?" Judy asked.

"Georgia. She has shown herself to be insanely jealous of Rachel, even though we aren't even lovers."

"And why is that? Judy asked.

"Judy! How could you say such a thing?" He asked. I smiled and said anything. "We have only just met and I want to get to know her and be very sure of my feelings toward her, and probably even introduce her to the kids before I make any commitment along those lines."

"Chicken." I said. "Actually I agree with you. I do not want you to feel pressured into making a hasty decision. I want you to be comfortable in yourself before we consummate our relationship, however long that takes." I smiled at him and reached for his hand. "But it had better not take too long. Now where were we?"

"I think that Georgia is emerging as a likely candidate. She may not have done it herself, but I wouldn't put it past her to hire someone. I think that I'll give Guthrie a ring and run this past him to see what he says."

He made the call. "Guthrie, it's Patrick." He put the phone onto speaker.

"Patrick, are you psychic or what? I was just about to call you. We have gone over the police evidence and we have a likely suspect, and you'll never guess who it is."

"Georgia."

"Wow, you should take your psychic act on stage, you'd make a fortune. How did you come to that conclusion?"

"A couple of things have surfaced, not the least of which is that she has shown, in the way that she has been stalking me and making weird phone calls, that she can be insanely jealous, border-line psychotic, and capable of doing just about anything. Then there was the fact that Rosie was being harassed by, we were supposed to believe, Brendan Carlisle, a co-worker, and supposed lover of Georgia. He denied any of this, but lost the plot and was committed to a psychiatric facility, where he still resides, still protesting his innocence. We are inclined to believe that he might be innocent. The fact that the harassment continued after he was committed led us to believe that here was another person involved, a person whose vested interest was in getting rid of Rosie and having Brendan blamed for it, someone who wanted me. Georgia has made no secret of the fact that she was interested in me when I first contacted her for information about Rosie's behaviour immediately before her death."