Ellen's Tale Pt. 04

"Sure, but don't worry about paying. As long as you're not a pig for it but I was going to offer you a smoke anyway," she finished knotting the tie and pushed the knot up to the top.

"Cool, thanks," she stared at the suit, "that looks really smart," she glanced at the cufflinks and then at the tie, registering that they were colour matched. The cufflinks had green in them and the tie was a bright green.

"You're colour coordinated," she smiled.

"It's my obsession," she smiled tightly and reached for her jacket.

She moved further into the bedroom and Shobi gave way for her inspection. It looked welcoming and with a sensual atmosphere set by the king size bed with its brass bedhead and footer. A series of eight A4 photographs above it portrayed a woman disrobing and when she turned to the built in wardrobe she noticed that the doors had full length mirrors attached to them. She stepped over to it and slid the door open wider to take note of the clothes. She had an impressive collection of outfits and she flicked at a series of suits. Everything was arrayed in order, suits, skirts, dresses, tops and blouses at the far end. They were also arranged in colours, starting from black and descending to a white suit, it was the same all the way down the long wardrobe she noted.

She stepped away and moved to the other door and when she opened it she saw the tie rack filled with ties, all similarly arranged alongside a belt rack and then a scarf rack. She fingered the ties as she recalled Ritchie's tie rack and then she took a half step backwards and turned around. The dressing table was covered in lipsticks, eye shadow and other sundry items, all meticulously ordered according to colours and shades.

"You've got an attention to detail," she murmured.

"I've got OCD," she turned to look at her, "as you can see."

"It's not a crime," Anna reassured her, "but it does help to explain the way you are at work."

"I have to force myself to settle for less at work," she confessed.

"Whatever," she approached her and reached out to touch the tie, "nice tie though."

"Thanks," Shobi seemed almost put out by the compliment, "I've got a few to choose from."

"All arranged the same way?" Anna looked into her eyes.

"I'm afraid so, OCD doesn't give ground."

Anna released the tie and stepped over to the bed. She sat down and stared at the door, noting that the pictures arranged on the wall opposite in the passageway formed a diamond shape, the pictures looked to be six by four inches and showed women in business attire.

"I'm weird, I admit it."

"Yeah, but in a nice way," she slid along the bed and put her back against the bedhead, "don't worry I won't put my feet on the bed."

Shobi smiled and glanced at the door.

"Would you like a smoke or just a drink?"

"I think I'll have both," Anna contemplated her reflection in the wardrobe mirrors. There was a distinct change in the atmosphere and she leaned forward and looked down at the polished floor boards. Shobi slid a hand into the sleeve of a jacket followed by the other sleeve but the jacket was tight against her back. Anna rose a second later and came up behind her.

"Here, let me," she grabbed the collar and pulled it up to her neck.

"Thank you," Shobi turned around to find herself inches from Anna's face.

Anna adjusted the collar and Ritchie's face rose in her mind's eye as she slid her hands down the lapels and then she caught a whiff of Shobi's perfume and snapped out of her reverie. She looked into her eyes and bit her lip.

"Shit, sorry, so sorry. I was thinking of someone else," she let go of the lapels.

"I figured that, no need to apologise," she grabbed her wrists briefly, "the last time you did this was for your ex husband."

"It was," she looked down as Shobi released her wrists.

"Do you need to charge your phone?"

"Huh?"

"Your phone, I've got a power board over there with different chargers plugged in."

"Thanks, I hadn't thought of that," she turned to face her, "now?"

"If you want."

"I'll just go get it," she moved past her and left the room.

Shobi considered her situation now that she was alone. The woman was in free fall, that much was obvious and a smile nudged her lips. Having Anna suddenly ask to stay at her place was like a gift from the gods and then there were the other signs, the conversation over lunch, a visit to the sex shop and now she wanted to smoke some weed. She stared at the drawer containing her stash as she formulated a plan but it harboured risks and so she'd need to make her approach carefully. Anna was one of those women who looked before she jumped.

I need to test the waters, she moved to the bed and sat down.

Anna entered a minute later to find her sitting on the edge of the bed and she handed the phone over and watched as Shobi turned it off.

"Why are you doing that?"

"Shit, sorry, it's my obsessiveness breaking through," she plugged the phone in, "I do this with all my phones and even my girlfriends' phones, it drives them crazy," she set the phone down on the bedside cabinet.

"I can turn it back on if you want?"

"No, it's cool," she sat down suddenly, "maybe it's better off. This bent copper has me worried and I'm not the only one," she fell back onto Shobi's bed and closed her eyes.

"He's been charged but there's a chance he might come back at me or someone else."

"You don't have to tell me any more," Shobi turned to face her and Anna opened her eyes.

"It's fine," she reached out and tugged at her belt, "I don't want to know more."

Anna stared at her as Shobi examined the belt buckle.

"This is solid brass," she rubbed it and then touched the belt, "I know a woman who does the best leatherwork, she'd do you a nice belt to match it."

Anna patted her hand as she stared up at her. She was lying on Shobi's bed and that indicated some degree of trust or was she merely shifting the boundaries and making room for her? And if so, did that mean she should step over the line and let it go further? She propped on her elbows and looked down at herself. Shobi was a colleague and she'd always had the unwritten rule that you didn't sleep with your colleagues, despite the fact that office romances were common enough but for Anna it had always been an obstacle. One could get involved with a colleague only if they were assigned to another branch or left the company. The first rule had been added after a guy she fancied transferred to another branch.

Perhaps I'm a bit OCD myself, she mused.

Shobi shifted around further and brought her hand up to the pocket, she plucked at it and a frown creased her brow.

"This was a uniform blouse, there was something sewn onto it."

"You should be a cop like Gitti," she looked down at her hand, "it belonged to Kym's mum, she used to work for the State bank, she gave me a bag full of old clothes."

"Do you mind if I?" Shobi slid her hand across to the left hand row of buttons.

"You may but I'm curious, why?"

Shobi didn't reply as she slid her hand between the buttons until she got to the other row and then she raised her eyes in surprise.

"I thought they were decorative, but they're functional."

"So are the buttons on the one I wore yesterday," she replied, "this is a very practical blouse, she gave me two more just like it so I could wear a fresh one two or three days in a row."

"I noticed that," she smirked, "are you always this well organised?" Shobi kept her hand inside her blouse, noticing that Anna hadn't shown any discomfort yet.

"I used to be," she fell back onto the bed, "everything was planned down to the day."

Her eyes shifted as Shobi slid her hand out from behind the blouse but then she grabbed the edge and slid up to her collar.

"Now I'm having to learn about spontaneity and it feels like I'm out of control."

"Not if you check before you leap," she fingered her collar, "I'm the same way but but I limit the planning to housework and my wardrobe, the rest I just make sure I have an exit."

"Good point,"

"Come on, let's get that drink," Shobi rose and held out her hand.

Anna took her hand and held onto it as she rose to a standing position and they stood together like that for the better part of five seconds before Shobi led her to the door.

"What do you fancy for dinner? Home cooked or order in?"

"Order in," Anna let go of her hand, "my shout, the sky's the limit."

Anna chanced a glance at the bed before they left the room and in a sudden flashback she was back in Kym's bed with her legs apart while the older woman shoved a dildo inside her and then the two of them were walking down the passageway.

***

Lynette Donaldson had always been an attractive woman with an instinct for making money, but those attributes hadn't helped her find a decent man. She'd gone from a violent abusive copper to a man with an appetite for more than one woman and by degrees she'd sunk to an unemployed artist with dreams of writing the great Australian novel. It was her hair salon and her ability to use the settlement money from the divorce settlement with her first husband that had kept her head above water. It had enabled her to climb the property ladder and buy two other houses that she rented out. The holiday house in Dromana was another bonus that had come her way when her father's estate had been settled. The only other claimant was her older brother and he lived in London and wanted nothing to do with a father who'd routinely bashed their mother.

"I do keep it in the family though," she eyed Gitti, "just in case he wants to retire here."

Gitti leaned back against the office chair and glanced out the window looking onto the salon. She'd been dropped off here twenty minutes ago and had just 'dropped in' to see how Lynette was doing but the slight narrowing of the eyes told her the lie had already been spotted.

That was fine however, she was just playing the game, waiting for the right moment to ask about her old friend, Tom McNally.

"Dromana's nice in the summer, but miserable in the winter although our winters are better than the ones in London."

"Yeah, you could say that," Lynette also glanced out the window and then she turned back to her, "but that's not why you're here, is it?"

"No, I was just killing time but I really have retired from the force."

"It's about Tom, isn't it?"

"It is," she replied, "he hasn't reported into the station in the last twenty four hours and he's made a few enemies on both sides of the law. One side wants to throw him in jail and the other want to put him off permanently."

"What makes you think I'd know?"

"He's done you a few favours and now it's time to do him a favour," she took out her phone and a moment or two later held up a photo.

"Have you ever seen this man?"

"Looks kind of familiar, maybe the newspaper or the six o'clock news?"

"His name is Dimitri," she swiped the screen to show another picture of Dimitri with his extended family, "and that guy there making a pistol with his hand is Alex, the owner of a dog food factory out near Bendigo," she put the phone down.

"When Tom went missing the cops started kicking down doors and one of the guys they hauled in was Dimitri and when they asked about Tom he came out with a threat about turning him into dog food once he found him," she paused for effect.

"When I was on the force we had that place under surveillance twice because two of Dimitri's rivals went missing, never to be found. We suspected they'd been put through the mincer but Dimitri's family have good lawyers and we could never prove it."

Gitti stared straight through her for a full minute and then seemed to come back to herself as she licked her lips.

"He could be joking, you know how these guys are."

"I hope you're right but if we don't find him then Dimitri might and we're afraid that his boys will start kicking down some doors themselves. It won't come from the cops who brought me down here today but right now they're finding dirty cops in unlikely places. Tom needs to come in and it has to be tonight, Dimitri has to be set loose at seven. They've kept him back to answer some old charges but even if they get somewhere he'd still make bail first thing in the morning."

"And if I told you where he is, he'll come after me," she swallowed, "you don't know what he's like."

"I do know what he's like but the press release will say that they got an anonymous tip off from a curious local. Your name won't be mentioned and he goes straight into lockdown in the protection yard."

"With the paedos," she looked at her.

"He's got to stay alive for the trial. Tom is part of the reason no one trusts the cops, he's also a contributing factor when it came to my reason for resigning."

For a minute or two she thought she'd lost her because she got up and paced the floor of her tiny office and then she stopped in front of the window and stared out at her staff.

"How does the most successful girl in school wind up with such fuckwits? I used to be the prefect at my school, the girl voted most likely to succeed and here I am giving sanctuary to a guy I had an affair with years ago. I should ditch the lot of the pricks and go back to the other side."

"You wouldn't be the first," Gitti replied, "my boarder has just dipped her toes and by the sounds of things it wasn't such a shock."

Lynette said nothing as she stepped up next to her and wrote down an address on a pack of post it notes.

"Take the picture and send it to whoever is outside waiting."

Gitti took the picture and whilst she was sending the picture to Angie, Lynette put the note and the two pages beneath it through the shredder.

"He told me it was for a week," she sat back down her seat, "he told me he was reporting to the local station, so I let him have a house I'm getting ready to renovate but the builder has been held up on another job for the next three weeks, so I told him to crash there for the next two."

"You're doing the right thing," she looked down as a new message came through on her phone, "um the cops want me to stick around until they get to the house."

"It's fine, I understand," she shifted her position, "but we can't sit in here for the next hour or so or the staff will think I really have switched sides," she pushed back from the chair.

"Come out into the salon and I'll do your hair for free."

"Deal," Gitti ran a hand through her hair as she stood up.

***

Jacinda lived in a house set in the leafy suburb of Mount Evelyn. She'd been lucky with the price because it was a hasty sale due to the fact that the previous owner had separated from her husband and had decided to move in with a man she'd met in Eltham. It had three bedrooms, a combined kitchen and living room, and two bathrooms, one was an ensuite bathroom. The front yard had been immaculately landscaped with attractive flowerbeds and the centrepiece, a flowerbed in a figure of eight shape. Daffodils, roses, dahlias and buttercups fought for dominance with tulips and some flowers she couldn't identify. The centre garden bed had a more tropical look with ferns for the most part.

She kept walking up the sloping driveway, heading for the verandah that extended from the corner of the house to the front door. The mosquito netting was rolled up and as she got closer she saw the table and four chairs under the front window and then she mounted the steps to the verandah and saw large lion-headed door knocker and a little further up a security camera.

The door opened suddenly and Ellen stepped back as Jacinda stepped into view. She was wearing a grey skirt suit with a white blouse and striped tie under a dark blue vee-necked jumper, a pair of black ankle length boots completed the outfit and she smoothed her hands over her front and then unlocked the flywire door.

"I tried for the schoolgirl look, I tried to find a shorter skirt, but," she eyed the brooch at Ellen's throat, "I see you returned the brooch."

"Yeah I did," she put a hand to her throat, "but you're not getting it until later."

"You're looking beautiful," she looked her up and down.

Ellen had opted for a white trouser suit and white blouse, but the shoes were cream pumps. She held the plastic bags in her other hand out.

"Thai chicken, they didn't have the sauce you wanted so I improvised."

"If it's anything like your improvisations in the past I'm sure it'll pass," Jacinda stepped backwards, "you look like a vision in white, step into my parlour said the spider to the fly."

"I'm all in white tonight," she stepped across the threshold, "except for the shoes."

"I'll forgive the shoes," Jacinda closed the door behind her.

Ellen stepped into the living room and came to a dead stop as she looked around the living room and then the kitchen.

"My God, you've done well for yourself, so much fucking space."

"I'm in the middle of redecorating," she led her towards the kitchen, "these rooms were first and the master bedroom has just been completed last month. One room at a time."

"Whatever," Ellen stared at a framed copy of a movie poster for the X Files movie and when she got closer she noticed it was signed.

"Whose signature?"

"Gillian Anderson," she shrugged, "I mailed it off to an agent and she signed it."

"I'm jealous now," she stepped away from the poster.

"Don't be, I never met her and I even had to pay return postage."

"Even so," Ellen kept walking towards the kitchen bench, "she touched it."

Jacinda didn't reply as she reached the island bench in the kitchen.

"All right, plates and cutlery. You fancy white or red?"

"Either or," she put the bags on the bench.

***

The words to John Lennon's song Nobody Told Me were playing in Kym's head as she stared at herself in the dressing table mirror. It had been the strangest day or to be more precise, a strange day following a stranger night. She wrinkled her nose and studied the outfit. It was one of the few she'd taken from that bag her mother had given her and she suspected the off-white silk blouse with its white highlighted satin diamonds had been bought in error because she couldn't recall her mother ever wearing it. Likewise the black harem pants with the linen belt tied closed, she pulled it around as she thought about the confidential conversation with Jodie.

She'd virtually outed herself under the cover of a quarterly teacher assessment, which was supposed to start in two weeks but she'd made the excuse that she wanted to get an early start. In true style she'd multi tasked, filling in the form whilst giving Jodie the short version. She had followed that up with the inevitable, "what does that make me now?"

The conversation had lasted the better part of fifteen minutes, the usual time for an assessment but the last few minutes stood out prominently because Jodie had suggested using an escort girl to see if it was just a random fling or something worth considering.

"Her name's Debbie," she wrote down the number Julie had just texted her, "she specialises in women only, no men allowed," she smiled. "She's been to a couple of Julie's barbies but she's often working Saturday arvos," she handed her the piece of paper.

"My only suggestion is that you don't drink or take anything else beforehand. It's not breaking the rules but you need a clear head. Being stone cold sober is the operative phrase of the night," she smiled.

After Jodie left, she stared at the paper for five minutes before picking up her phone.

Kym pursed her lips as she studied her reflection in the dressing table mirror. The last half an hour had seen her frantically rearranging herself after managing to get rid of her kids for the night. Jon had been the easiest because he had a girlfriend and he often stayed over at her parent's place for the weekend. Debbie however was thirteen and an entirely different scenario and so she'd called one of her friends mothers and arranged a night out at the pictures. Debbie had been talking about Wrath of the Titans with her best friend Linda but with its M rating, Linda's mother, Sue had been a little wary until Kym decided to spring for the price of the ticket for her as well.