CHAPTER I

"Blonde, I want the sexiest woman you can whip up for me." As he talked his cigar rolled around in the corner of his mouth. Karen wished he would choke on it. He called himself Bob Kincaid and he was from Bob's Intimates.

CHAPTER 66
We were back up in Merthyr by Monday lunchtime. Sammy had already briefed, within limits, the CCTV operators, and Jon and Lexie were tasked to spend the rest of the day sitting on folding chairs in the control room watching the screens. My aversion to a certain greasy spoon seemed rather lightweight compared to the hell of boredom that awaited them, but at least they would be in the warm. As for us, I had a flask of hot chocolate, Alun one of coffee, and I had made sure I had fitted a trip into Frank’s/Gemma’s place on the Saturday. We were well prepared.

Christine watched as Nora, Ginger, Melody, and Kelly boarded the Lear Jet. She was going to miss them as she watches them lift off into the air. She wishes she was going with them, but Kelly and Nora were going to be busy to spend time with her while she was recovering.

Tizzy, her husband Ikaika, Krisha and Cheshire watch as her private Lear liftoff. Cheshire was proud how Nora’s life has turned out. She knew at one time because the nature of the assignments Nora was sent on had taken a toll on Nora.

“So, who’s hungry?” Tizzy was feeling hungry.

“Always.”

Carol couldn’t believe she was given an important lawsuit to handle. She had been asked by one of the partners to take the lead on the case involving the abuse of inmates from the Rockingham Correctional Center. One of the inmates that had been incarcerated there had been killed.

CHAPTER 65
“St Nicholas’ church. May I help you?”

A woman’s voice, with a strong West Welsh accent. That would be the vicar’s other half then.

“Miriam Jenkins?”

“Speaking. Do I know you?”

“Diane Sutton. I was over at Christmas, with the Powells. With my husband and little boy”

“Would that be the very big man… Sorry. I sometimes fail to think properly before I speak. There are many big men in our circle. Was he the little one who slept with Elaine and Siân’s two? Um… Roderick?”

Maybe I really had become dumber. Sigh.

Shopping with my mom is something interesting. It was fall, I had hit another growth spurt, and most of my clothes didn’t fit anymore. I nearly ripped a shirt I wore just a day ago. Momma said it was common for girls to hit their growth spurts at my age. Meant I was becoming a woman. I didn’t know how I felt about that. Not saying I don’t want to be a woman or anything. Just there’s one thing that makes me different from other girls.

My entry in the Reader Retention contest.

Frankie and Julie spend their first night in bed together, clarify their relationship and discuss Charli.

Every day is a struggle. My father left just when my sister was born, and my mother went crazy soon after that. Drugs and alcohol consumed her, and she was fired from job to job never really staying at one. The money she does get, she uses on herself. When she sober, she’s horrible to deal with. I don’t know what happened to my dad or why he left us. Mom never mentioned anything about him and when I asked, she’d beat me. Asking her any question like that got me a beating. Asking for money got a beating. Asking her for food got a beating. Just existing got a beating.

Rick spoke in a clear slightly voice as he launched into telling them how and why he’d flunked second and third grades. How his failed jock father tried to use him as a surrogate but was too ignorant to realize all he’d succeeded in doing was to age Rick out of sports eligibility for his junior and senior years short circuiting any hopes for college. The he told of the drunken beatings and horrific verbal abuse from his dad while admitting he’d become a bully in elementary school.

My entry in the Reader Retention contest.

I’m in a bind. Not just any bind, the type of bind that normally means you’re in deep shit. I’m currently staring at the decorated walls of the principal’s office. The constricting room was littered with paper and folders. Pictures of his family were ornamented on top of the mess and the trashcan was full of fast food. The principal sat in front of me. A balding middle age man still tall and not any less attractive. Not that I’m into men or anything.