“Miss Wright… it is Miss Wright, isn’t it?”
Tanya, sitting in the chair opposite his desk, picked up on his tone which implied that he was in fact questioning if her name was actually what she had booked herself in as and was not a friendly question that he wanted an answer to confirm.
“Look, if this is about my bill, then there’s been some sort of mistake; I paid it two days ago when I arrived; in cash; in full.” How dare he drag her in here like this and talk to her in this manner?
“Well, you see, ‘Miss Wright’, that is exactly why you are here.” He coughed and looked uncomfortable.
“Your bill so far has been paid for just the room, it does not include your spa treatments, and all the bottles of wine and champagne,” he emphasised the word ‘all’, much to her annoyance. He coughed again, and she could sense that he was having a bit of a dig at her. lt was her choice how much she bloody drank: the cheek of him.
“Your suite is three and a half thousand for the week and so far all the extras bring your entire bill to five thousand one hundred pounds,” he continued, ignoring her look of disbelief that he was speaking to her in such a way. Tapping her foot impatiently, she wanted him to stop dragging whatever he had to say out and get to the bloody point.
“Yes, and I paid the receptionist three thousand and five hundred pounds when I arrived; if I need to pay more than I will, but as I keep telling you the room is all paid for.”
“Well, you see, that’s our problem, actually; unfortunately it was Sally, our new girl, who checked you in on Monday night, and she is not really very well trained when it comes to these matters.”
“Matters? What matters do you mean exactly?” Tanya was starting to get really fed up with this guy, he was wasting her time, and his attitude towards her stank; making a note of the name on his badge, she decided to make a formal complaint. What an arrogant little prick: clearly having a little bit of power round here had gone right to his thick little head.
The phone on the manager’s desk rang and, turning his back on Tanya, he answered it and spoke in a hushed tone. How fucking rude, thought Tanya, as she heard him tell the person on the end of the phone to ‘send them in’: what the hell was going on?
“I’m afraid, Miss Wright, that the money that you paid us with is counterfeit.”
Tanya stared at him in complete disbelief; he may as well have been talking in another language, because she didn’t understand what he was talking about. Her ears had heard the words, but there was definitely some kind of a mistake going on.
“And unfortunately it was undetected by Sally when she checked you in two days ago; otherwise, we would never have let you book in. I’m sure that you can appreciate our concerns about your now unpaid bill.”
Tanya’s mouth was on the floor: she was speechless.
“And I’m afraid, Miss Wright, that it is also my duty to inform the police, not only because of the outstanding balance but because you have committed a criminal offence.”
As if on cue, there was a knock at the door and in came the young, good-looking man who Tanya had been giving the eye to at the bar for most of the afternoon. Clearly he had been interested in her for reasons other than the obvious. He was followed closely by a similarly dressed in smart dark suits, older man. Realising now that they both had that familiar cop look about them, Tanya wanted the ground to swallow her up. Feeling all her hopes crash down around her, she fought to stop herself from smashing up the fucking room in anger. Fucking Billy O’Connell, she should have known that he would never have let her walk away with all that cash; trying to gather her thoughts she went to start on a long elaborate story of how she had obviously been conned herself, maybe she could say that she had sold something and the guy who had bought it had clearly ripped her off, but she stopped as she saw the older officer placing her holdall, with all the money in, down in front of her, her room had obviously already been searched.
“Would you care to explain how you came into possession of this bag and its contents, Miss Wright?”
How the hell was she going to talk her way out of this one? A few dodgy notes were one thing, but a quarter of a million pounds in a holdall was not a very good look. She could hardly say that she had been ripped off by some bloke after she had kidnapped his sister. She hung her head in defeat.
“I want a solicitor, and in the meantime no comment.”
54
Kate felt like a little kid, she was so excited she thought she would burst. Looking out of the passenger window of Paul’s car, she saw the sign for the Gatwick Airport turnoff ahead, a few hours from now they would be sitting on a plane on their way to the Caribbean.
Paul had booked it as a surprise and she had been really grateful to him, she really needed a break. She had been at home for two days, and she still felt shaken up, more by her constant thoughts of what could have been than anything else. Tanya and Jay were scum, she knew that now: she was sorry that she had been so trusting and had let herself get into that situation. She felt stupid about that.
It had been good to be home, but everyone had been fussing; bless them, even though she knew they meant well, she was sick of constantly having to say that she was okay. Sonia had made her many cups of tea and homemade cakes, the cakes to “put some meat back on your bones”, and promised her that she had disowned Jay; she had told Kate that she wished she could make it up to her, which meant everything that her son, now ‘that boy’, had done. Kate had reassured her that there was no need, Sonia had done more than enough for her: she had taken her in when she had been pregnant, she had helped her and her brother sort out their differences and been like a mum to her, what more could she possibly do for her. She told her that she adored her, and Sonia had been extremely grateful to hear it.
They had all vowed to never speak Jay’s name again. All they knew was that he was gone, and Billy guaranteed that he would never be troubling them again. Kate had tried not to dwell on the ins and outs of Billy’s promise too much: what she didn’t know couldn’t hurt her. She knew not to ask any questions on the matter, she was sure she would not want to hear the answers. Any ounce of guilt or worry in that respect, and she just reminded herself of what he had done to her and, more importantly, to her friend, and left the rest to karma. Whatever he got, it would have been deserved.
Emma and Billy had been constantly watching her every move, and of course they were just worried about her, but every time she looked up she had caught at least one of them keeping an eye on her, checking that she was okay and not about to fall to pieces at any moment like a fragile doll. They had become really good friends, which pleased Kate.
Kate had gone to dinner at Paul’s house two nights ago too, when she had certainly discovered more than she bargained for. She had almost geared herself up whilst she had got herself ready to meet his new glamour-puss girlfriend, had visualised that she would have to sit there pretending to be happy for him and smiling sweetly. So when she was greeted by an adorable little girl, who was as shy as she was beautiful, Kate hadn’t known whether to laugh or cry. She had an amazing evening with Paul and fell in love with Sophia in a heartbeat. Paul had cooked a lovely meal and the three had had a really good time, sitting together and enjoying the food. Kate had worn a sparkly pink tiara throughout the meal, at Sophia’s insistence, and had laughed heartily when Sophia had whispered that her daddy had told her the secret about Kate being a real princess, but that Sophia wouldn’t tell anyone.