called Dean and Craig. It was my good fortune that Craig was working the late shift and Dean had closed the office for the day.
They both agreed to come over.
It took a while to calm her down. The boys arrived conveniently as I’d got her settled. I left Craig to keep her company. He is a nurse after all; he should know about hysteria. Then Dean
and I drove back to her flat in his Range Rover.
“Bloody hell! There’s not much we can salvage here.”
“I know. Let’s just do what we can to clean the place up before she sets foot in it again. Empty is better than trashed.”
He was in perfect agreement. The two of us put our backs into it and had everything liveable in about three hours. I was reluctant to leave Tori longer than that. There wasn’t really
anything else we could do. His car had piles of bin bags with the things we couldn’t save in the back and the few clothes still wearable in a hold-all in the front. The bastards had cut the
wires on her electrical appliances. Her tropical fish were dead, her freezer had defrosted, the food was starting to go off and the floor was flooded. Nothing from telephones to CDs had escaped the
rampage.
“You know, whoever it was did this before she was raped.”
“That had occurred to me, but I wanted your opinion.”
He sat down at the scratched but otherwise whole table on the remaining hard-backed chair.
“Is that why you left Craig looking after Tori instead of me?”
Time for some brutal honesty. “Not entirely. I meant what I said, about your helping me to catch the person that did this. But I still wasn’t sure how you felt about Tori after the
dinner party fiasco. I didn’t think she needed to wonder about whether you blamed her, at a time like this.”
“Fuck! You don’t believe in pulling your punches, do you?”
“No.” I looked at him.
Dean ground his teeth then grimaced back.
“I’m sorry. I overreacted.”
“OK.”
“OK? That’s it?”
“As far as I’m concerned, yes. You’re my friend. I can see you’re sincere. I’m not a queen. I won’t make you pay for the next twenty years. Life’s too
short.”
This business had brought that home to us all. I could see him wondering how he would feel if something like this had happened to Craig.
“You’re right. We should get together on this. Find out who’s responsible.”
“Tori doesn’t know who it was. She thought at first it might be someone she knew. Maybe an ex.”
“It was a personal attack I grant you, but… I don’t know. It feels wrong, Randall. It really might be something to do with the club.”
I was about to lay into him for his prejudices when he held up a conciliatory hand. “It needs looking into. If I’m right this won’t be an isolated incident. We should find out
if any of the other girls have been victims of similar attacks, anything from this –” he waved a hand around us “– to what happened to Tori. Violence always accompanies the
sex industry. It could be our starting point.”
“And the ex-girlfriends?”
“I’ll look into that. You haven’t got enough perspective. You’ll want to go wading in full of righteous indignation and beat the crap out of them. Getting bound over or
imprisoned for assault won’t do Tori any good, no matter how noble a gesture it might be.”
I turned my back on him full of frustration.
“You know I’m right. Let’s do this properly and get the bastard in a way they can’t get out of. Once we know we’ve got the right one, I’ll happily stand back
and let you kick skittles of shit out of them and swear you were with me at the time. But let’s make sure we get the right one first, OK?” He laid a kind hand on my shoulder.
I really wanted to hit something, but Dean’s voice of sweet reason routine had short-circuited me. He was right. But that didn’t make it any easier when all I wanted was a target.
Which is when I decided what I was going to do tomorrow.
I’d followed Tori to her
They both agreed to come over.
It took a while to calm her down. The boys arrived conveniently as I’d got her settled. I left Craig to keep her company. He is a nurse after all; he should know about hysteria. Then Dean
and I drove back to her flat in his Range Rover.
“Bloody hell! There’s not much we can salvage here.”
“I know. Let’s just do what we can to clean the place up before she sets foot in it again. Empty is better than trashed.”
He was in perfect agreement. The two of us put our backs into it and had everything liveable in about three hours. I was reluctant to leave Tori longer than that. There wasn’t really
anything else we could do. His car had piles of bin bags with the things we couldn’t save in the back and the few clothes still wearable in a hold-all in the front. The bastards had cut the
wires on her electrical appliances. Her tropical fish were dead, her freezer had defrosted, the food was starting to go off and the floor was flooded. Nothing from telephones to CDs had escaped the
rampage.
“You know, whoever it was did this before she was raped.”
“That had occurred to me, but I wanted your opinion.”
He sat down at the scratched but otherwise whole table on the remaining hard-backed chair.
“Is that why you left Craig looking after Tori instead of me?”
Time for some brutal honesty. “Not entirely. I meant what I said, about your helping me to catch the person that did this. But I still wasn’t sure how you felt about Tori after the
dinner party fiasco. I didn’t think she needed to wonder about whether you blamed her, at a time like this.”
“Fuck! You don’t believe in pulling your punches, do you?”
“No.” I looked at him.
Dean ground his teeth then grimaced back.
“I’m sorry. I overreacted.”
“OK.”
“OK? That’s it?”
“As far as I’m concerned, yes. You’re my friend. I can see you’re sincere. I’m not a queen. I won’t make you pay for the next twenty years. Life’s too
short.”
This business had brought that home to us all. I could see him wondering how he would feel if something like this had happened to Craig.
“You’re right. We should get together on this. Find out who’s responsible.”
“Tori doesn’t know who it was. She thought at first it might be someone she knew. Maybe an ex.”
“It was a personal attack I grant you, but… I don’t know. It feels wrong, Randall. It really might be something to do with the club.”
I was about to lay into him for his prejudices when he held up a conciliatory hand. “It needs looking into. If I’m right this won’t be an isolated incident. We should find out
if any of the other girls have been victims of similar attacks, anything from this –” he waved a hand around us “– to what happened to Tori. Violence always accompanies the
sex industry. It could be our starting point.”
“And the ex-girlfriends?”
“I’ll look into that. You haven’t got enough perspective. You’ll want to go wading in full of righteous indignation and beat the crap out of them. Getting bound over or
imprisoned for assault won’t do Tori any good, no matter how noble a gesture it might be.”
I turned my back on him full of frustration.
“You know I’m right. Let’s do this properly and get the bastard in a way they can’t get out of. Once we know we’ve got the right one, I’ll happily stand back
and let you kick skittles of shit out of them and swear you were with me at the time. But let’s make sure we get the right one first, OK?” He laid a kind hand on my shoulder.
I really wanted to hit something, but Dean’s voice of sweet reason routine had short-circuited me. He was right. But that didn’t make it any easier when all I wanted was a target.
Which is when I decided what I was going to do tomorrow.
I’d followed Tori to her
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