Nemesis - Constance

Nemesis - Constance

By Denham Forrest

This story has previously been posted elsewhere and is © 2010

Nemesis - Constance

Everything was at the hurry up! Really! My employers had just taken over a much smaller concern that had recently gone to the wall. I think the company probably got everything on the cheap from the administrators. In spite of my own employer having been very successful in recent months, and completely swamped with work, our management was somewhat in a panic to bring its new acquisition into the fold, and get everything up and running, tickety-boo.

To which end, a group of us had been shipped up there to reorient the staff and oversee the installation of our company's systems. In short it was complete chaos for a couple of weeks. There had been little time to plan anything out and just about everything was happening on the fly. Even down to replacing the new acquisition's computer systems network, which was not extensive enough, and adding all the necessary wiring.

In brief, the ten of us were running about like blue-arsed flies during the days and, quite literally, meeting-up in our hotel bar for a while most evenings to plan what was supposed to be happening the following day.

None of us lived more than an hour or so away by train, but we were all staying over in town most nights, because of those so necessary evening meetings. One or two of the crew had managed to slip home on the odd evening to see their wives and families, but the choice of who we could afford to have slip away depended on what was happening that day and first thing the following morning.

Anyway, feeling pretty knackered, I'd been sitting in the hotel bar for about half an hour waiting for the rest of the crew to show, when she walked into the lounge. Sherrie was one of the computer nerds, hired in from a specialist company, helping set up the computer systems and train the staff on how to use them.

And boy, did she take me by surprise when I realised exactly who had walked into the bar. Sherrie definitely did not look anything like the nerd I knew so well who had been teaching our newly acquired staff how to work our company systems all day. Gone was the baggy sweeter, calf length skirt and spectacles, to be replaced by a tantalisingly short skirt and tantalisingly well fitted silk blouse.

She did not look around and case the joint as one might expect. Sherrie just settled herself onto a bar stool and ordered a drink. I figured she was waiting for someone, and I suppose, I wondered which of my married colleagues was about to stray from the straight and narrow.

Alright I'll admit it, I was up like a shot from my table and very quickly slipped onto the stool beside Sherrie.

"Hey, gorgeous, what's a nice girl like you, doing in a dive like this?" I asked in as sexy a voice as I could muster.

Sherrie turned to look my way, I do believe, intending to give me the evil eye and most likely tell me where I could get off, but then she recognised me.

"Oh, Christ, Steve, stop messing about. What are you doing in here?" she grinned.

"I'm staying here Sherrie." I said as gestured to the barman to put her drink on my tab. "Hey, I asked you first anyway."

"I'm meeting John, one of those electrician lads for dinner. He lives in town and he's picking me up here."

I thought you computer wallahs were all staying at the Conaught?"

"We are, but John doesn't need to know that does he?" she winked at me, "Besides, the fewer people know that I date the better. I don't date work colleagues from my own company; it leads to too many complications."

"Ah, does that explain why you hide your light under a bushel in the office?"

"I'm not sure how I should take that. I think I'll assume it was meant as a compliment."

"It certainly was Sherrie. On your look now as you sit here, and your skill as a camouflage expert at work. Christ you scrub up well, girl! Poor John is going to get the shock of his life when he gets here."

She grinned at me. "A high proportion of the people I teach how to work our systems are men, Steve. Let's just say they take in instructions far better when they are looking at the monitor and not trying to sneak a peek at my god given assets. Well you now know, the secret of my success in the business, Steve."

"Yeah it was one hell of a surprise when I realised that it was you sitting here."

"Men; don't give me that one Steve. I'll lay odds that you watched me every step of the way in here. And that it took you more than a little time to work your gaze up to my face."

"Yes I did, I'll admit it, and who could blame me. Sherrie, you are one fine example of your gender! What a shame you don't date colleagues." I grinned at her.

"Steve you always were a charmer even to that geek in the office. But just remember you don't work for the same employer as me, so technically we're not work colleagues."

"What an enchanting idea Sherrie. Except for that one fly in the ointment, I'm married!"

"Damn, just when I thought I was going to get lucky." She grinned. "Still if you ever get tired of married life, you know my company's phone number."

We must have joked together in the same manner for about twenty minutes before Sherrie's date eventually turned-up, and after he'd recovered from the shock, they left together. I bought myself another drink and then went back to my table in the corner to await my colleagues.

I don't know, probably ten or twenty minutes later I went out to the gents. While I was in there another bloke came and started to use the urinal adjacent to mine.

"Pretty girl" he commented.

"Sorry?" I said, not really being sure that I'd heard him correctly. It's always a little uncomfortable when a complete stranger starts talking to you in the gents, you just never know what his motives are; but I tried to remain polite.

"That young lady you were talking to at the bar, she's a pretty girl." The man clarified.

"Yes she is, isn't she?"

"You in town in business?" he asked as I started washing my hands.

"Yeah, we're setting up a new branch office in town."

"Married?"

"Yes I am, but why are you asking?"

"Oh I was just thinking. Married men who are away from home should look out for who's watching them when they talk to pretty girls in hotel bars."

The bloke was washing his hands by then as I dried mine under the air blower. He was confusing me something chronic. I was trying to workout whether he was some weirdo trying to pick me up, or an unlikely looking pimp, touting for business for his girls.

"Are you implying something?"

"Yeah! That you've been in the bar three evenings this week, and whenever you're in there, so is that little shit over in the other corner; haven't you noticed him?"

"No. I really don't know what you are trying to say?"

"The moment you started talking to that young lady just now, he started fiddling with his phone. And what's more; when you go up to your room in the evening he moves out into the lobby and hangs around out there until well after midnight."

We were exiting the gents by then and the bloke told me that he couldn't say anymore at the moment, he thought the numpty hiding in the corner might have noticed that he'd spotted him. He asked for my mobile number and told me he'd call me in a few minutes, then he walked out of the hotel's front entrance.

Confused, I returned to my seat in the bar, still trying to figure-out why I'd given a complete stranger my mobile telephone number.

True to his word my mobile rang within a few minutes. It was the bloke and he told me just to sit quietly and listen; then he told me an almost incredible story.

He went around the houses quite a bit, but the essence of what he told me was that he had recently been stitched-up by his now ex-wife. He explained that while away on a business trip he'd innocently fallen into conversation a pretty young woman sitting at a hotel bar.

During their chat it came out that she had come into the bar to hide from her abusive ex-husband, who she'd managed to spot in the street outside before he'd had a chance to see her.

It had not dawned on my gullible new friend; that sitting on a stool up at the bar wasn't the most conducive place for her to hide. If he had not been so beguiled by her good looks and story, he probably would have realised that a better choice of seat for her, would have been in a dark corner.

Anyway she pointed out marks on her face and arms that led him to believe that someone had recently been violent to her, and consequently he swallowed her tale, hook, line and bloody sinker.

Then she suddenly claimed that her husband was about to enter the bar and fled via a door at the rear. Fearing for her safety, my new friend followed her, and quickly located her trying to hide in an alcove in the corridor.

He had suggested that he get her a room for the night where she could hide, but she insisted that she could not go into the hotel's lobby because her ex-husband would most likely see her.

Yeah, even I guessed what was coming next. After a lot of discussion it was decided that the young woman would take his key and would hide in his room, while my new friend booked her a room of her own. Then he'd give her the key and she could hide in there for the night. Which in essence was what happened. The instant he gave the young woman her key, she'd given him a hug and a kiss on the cheek in thanks before he'd escorted to her to the room and then he'd immediately returned to his own room.

He didn't see the young woman the following morning, and brushed the whole incident off as a slightly expensive wander into the realms of old fashioned chivalry. Feeling quietly pleased with himself, he'd thought the incident was over. But it wasn't!

A few days later while unpacking his suitcase, his wife found a pair of ladies briefs tucked into the bottom of it; then all hell broke loose. Within days he was served with divorce papers and in them he discovered that a certain young lady was admitting to having a sexual liaison with him in the hotel room that night. What's more, there were photographs of him with the young woman, in the bar, and entering and/or leaving, his hotel room.

He claimed that the whole pantomime had been set up by his wife and her lover, who he'd later discovered had been her superior at the place she'd worked before their children had come along. Although he had no evidence of the fact, and none that his wife had been intimate with the bloke until after their divorce was underway, and they were officially separated.

"It was all too bloody pat!" he said "The bastard was round the house giving her the business the evening the judge issued the separation order. And I'd been banned from going near the place because the cow claimed I'd threatened her with violence!

"Now she's got the house, because I've got to supply accommodation for the kids until they're of age. I've lumbered with child support, alimony and maintenance on the sodding house. And all the while that arsehole is banging my ex-wife in it!"

"I can understand your obvious frustration my friend, but what has that got to do with me?" I asked when he eventually fell silent.

"Are you sitting in seat at that corner table you and your friends have been using all week?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Then try not to make it too obvious, but in the corner at the other end of the wall there should be a young lad sitting there on his own. I should imagine he's almost hidden from you behind that damn great Triffid of a plant thing."

I casually glanced in the direction my new friend had indicated. Sure enough, there was someone behind that plant, but I could not see whom.

"Yes, I think I see him."

"Well, I'm not sure what his game is, but that little shit is watching you my friend. I'm just giving you the nod because you look like a decent enough bloke to me, and I wouldn't like to see you stitched-up like I've been."

"Well that's most kind of you my friend. But I don't intend to stray from the righteous path."

"Neither did I, my friend, and actually I didn't! But that didn't stop me from getting stitched-up. For some reason your wife must think you're straying when you are away from home."

"Never! I'm very rarely away from home actually. This is my first trip in over a year." I informed him.

"Rather odd then, don't you think. Why else would that lad be following you?"

"Following me?"

"Yes of course. He has followed you into the hotel for the last three nights."

"Nonsense, my friend, It must be pure coincidence that we've both arrived at the hotel about the same time every evening."

"He's not resident in the hotel. He goes home just after one AM. Look, I can prove it to you. Finish your drink and then leave the hotel. Walk down to the Plume of Feathers, it's only a couple if hundred yards or so. There are plenty of entrances, so if his is watching you, as I believe he is, then he'll have to follow you inside the pub to make sure you don't slip out of one of the others. If you stand up at the bar itself, you'll be able watch for him to enter, in the mirror behind it."

-----

I passed the other boys on my way out of the hotel and told them I'd be back shortly. It was only after I'd walked about halfway to the Plume of Feathers that I'd wondered if I was doing the right thing. After all, there was the distinct possibility that I was setting myself up to be mugged or something. There were sod-all in the way of other people about.

I made the Plume safely and ordered a pint. Sure enough the young numpty I'd risked a quick gander at on the way out of the hotel bar, came in and bought himself a drink at the far end of the bar. Then he took a seat on the far side of the room from where he could plainly watch me.

A couple of minutes later my mobile started ringing again.

"Was I right, or was I right?"

"Yes," I conceded, "he's over by the wall, trying to pretend that he isn't watching me."

"What are you going to do about him?"

"Buggered if I know."

"Well, just don't do anything stupid like letting him know that you've spotted him; or chatting-up some bit of spare. Let me think on it and I will call you tomorrow."

"But what if he's... you know, planning on robbing me or something?"

"No, he's not the type. I figure he's a college student, earning some readies, by working for some iffy private detective agency. He certainly has no idea of how to covertly follow anyone."

"I never spotted him."

"You, my friend, are a little bit too much like myself. The thought of straying doesn't cross your mind and therefore you don't have any reason to keep looking over your shoulder. Now, your redheaded mate, he's on the make and he's scanning around all the time. I'm a little surprised that he hasn't spotted your shadow."

Yes well, the redheaded colleague of mine he was talking about, is actually the office Casanova, and whom I'd first suspected that Sherrie was in the hotel to meet.

Having finished my pint in the Plume, I made my way back to the hotel by somewhat meandering route that took me along by the river. I hoped that it looked like I was out for an evening stroll to take in some fresh air.

Back at the hotel the boys were curious about where I'd disappeared to, but they didn't push me on the subject. Then we got on with looking at office plans and discussing what we hoped we were going to achieve the following day.

Later, as I left the bar on the way to my room, I could just discern -- out of the corner of my eye -- that someone was hiding behind that bloody plant again,

-----

"Are you okay?" my new friend asked when he called me the following afternoon.

"Yeah fine, still can't figure-out why that kid should be following me though."

"Do you want to know?"

"Yes, I believe I do. Someone must be paying the bugger and if my wife's wasting my hard earned cash, I'll be pretty annoyed!"

"Okay, leave it with me. There's a couple of other divorced husbands working at the office I've been seconded to. I'll have to stay out of sight because the bugger might recognise me, but we think we've got a foolproof plan where they can grab the bugger and ask him what he's about without letting-on that you know he's been following you."

"That'll be a feat, wont it?"

"No, the boys are going to kid him on that they've been employed to follow you as well and they are going to get stroppy with the lad. Shit, he's only a kid; he'll probably wet his pants. Anyway, they'll promise him that if he comes clean with them, they won't let on to whoever is employing him that he fucked-up the job. With any luck, he'll keep his mouth shut rather than risk losing his earner."

It was arranged that I'd take another constitutional around the same time that I had the previous evening. Only this time making my way to the river via a very specific route that took me along a dark allyway.

I'll admit that when I got into that ally I wondered once again, whether I'd been conned into walking into something nasty.

Half way down the ally I just caught sight of two dark forms loitering in the shadows. I was somewhat relieved to hear one of them say. "Keep going - he's about fifty yards behind you!"

Then I continued with my stroll and nothing further of note happened -- that I was aware of -- and someone was back behind the plant once again when I made my way to my room that evening.

-----

"Well it worked, but it doesn't make much sense." My new friend's voice said when I answered my mobile phone just after midnight.

"Oh he talked then?"

"Boy did he, they couldn't stop him talking."

"Well, they looked like big blokes to me."

"In a pitch black ally, at that time of night, everybody looks like a big bloke my friend. But this, you just aren't going to believe, I know I can't get my head around it."

"Your little tail has to pick you up from your office every evening. He has to follow you around until midnight and then when he's satisfied that you've gone to bed, he can knock off and go home."

"Is that it?"

"Yes, he's moonlighting for a local detective agency as we'd surmised. But they aren't really interested in what you do or where you go, unless it's to the train station."

"The railway station?"

"Yeah, you know those things that run on rails."

"Yeah well, that is how I got up here, no point in bringing the car."

"Well, the interesting bit is, if you do go to the station he's to watch which train you get onto. If it's a train going north, he can knock-off and go home. If you get on a train going south... well, then he's got a mobile number he has to call immediately."

"South you say?"

"Yes, I would assume you live on the south coast my friend?"

"I do!"

"But why would you get on a train going north?"

"My sister lives about a half hour up the line."

"Hmm, I think its bad news then, don't you?"

"Yeah, have you got the number the lad's supposed to call?"

"I'll text it to you the instant we end this call."

"Thanks."

"What are you going to do my friend?"

"I think I will pay my sister a visit tomorrow night!"

"Do you need any back-up?"

"That would be kind of you. I have no idea what I'm going to walk into."

"Text me the time of the train you'll be going down on tomorrow and we'll meet you at the next station along the line. Oh, and my two friends, if you spot them anywhere, don't acknowledge them, if you understand me? They are complete strangers to you and it might be safer for everyone if things stayed that way."

"Is that really necessary?"

"They are two very angry ex-husbands my friend. You'll only have to give them the nod and they will be only too happy to take care of anything you need after we are safely on the train back up here."