Part   Twenty Six   "Shadows"

 

Tammy's Tales Book 6
 

 
Saturday 24th October 2015
 

"Do you have this in a sixteen?"

"I'll check in a moment, Madam."

Tammy returned to the lady directly in front of her, who was waiting to pay for the top that was laying on the counter.

"That's fifteen pounds, how would you like to pay?"

Sarah's card payments machine now accepted contactless cards but the processing limit was £20 at present, with a promise of an increase to £30 in time for Christmas. The customer waved her debit card over the card reader, waited for the receipt then was gone.

"Now, I'll look in the stock room to see if we have that in your size."

The customer, however, was now a non-customer as she was heading for the door complaining about poor service. Tammy sighed, it was always too busy on a Saturday morning for just one person to cope. Whoever that lady had been, she wasn't a local, the regulars would have understood that Tammy couldn't attend to everyone's needs if she was on her own.

Lori had answered her phone the previous evening but told Tammy she was going away for a few days, meeting her mother in Edinburgh. The promise to Lori was that her errant brother, Ryan, was going to stay with his father over half-term. Lori assured Tammy she'd be back by the following Saturday, subject to the usual caveats of course..

Tammy had hoped that Martina might pop into the shop, but that wasn't to be. In fact, Tammy hadn't seen any of the girls who had previously worked for Sarah. At this rate she wouldn't even get any lunch.

No sooner had the shop emptied than the next group of potential shoppers walked in, thankfully these were locals and tolerated the extra time Tammy was taking.

"Has Sarah left you by herself?"

"Not exactly, Sarah has to go away for a week and would have been here today but her daughter's with her at the moment." Sarah's impending operation was not common knowledge. "I'll be looking after the shop until next weekend."

"Oh, it's nice to see you back here, I thought you'd moved away?"

"I'm usually busy doing other things on a Saturday these days, but Sarah asked me to take care of the shop and I was happy to help her out."

"On your own?"

"Yes, that's unfortunate. Sorry, I need to help someone else."

At one Debbie had sent a message asking if she wanted any lunch, and had delivered ten minutes later but the shop was still busy. By two in the afternoon the number of customers had reduced to a trickle so Tammy was now, albeit late, having her cheese and onion pasty. It had been warm when it had arrived, an hour earlier.

By four, very few people were walking past and virtually no-one was coming in so Tammy decided that she should close up. After securing the door she totalled the takings for the day, surprised that she'd taken twelve hundred pounds. She updated the ledgers, locked everything away in the safe and grabbed her bag.

Given past her experience, Tammy was wary before unlocking the door to leave, checking the outside cameras first. When she was convinced the road was clear she punched in the alarm code and stepped out onto the street to lock the doors. A recent addition was an automatic blind that descended across the double glass doors.

She turned to walk towards her car, parked at the rear as usual, but could see a shadow moving even though there was no-one in sight. She decided to walk down to the hotel instead, unsure if someone was watching her.

A few of the cast were still in the bar, even though there was no rehearsal. Tammy ordered a coffee from the bar then joined Josie and Karen. There was a small pile of baggage near them.

"Hi Tammy, we wondered if you'd be around?"

"I've been looking after a shop and I wasn't planning on coming in."

"We've been here since half two but that's because I'm waiting to be picked up."

"I think I'm only here for ten or fifteen minutes," Tammy wasn't keen in advertising her insecurity, "I've not seen you in there before, Karen?"

"I don't like bars, but I'm going with Josie."

"Going?"

"For half term."

"You don't go to St Andrews, do you?"

"No, Thurso High, Josie's my cousin."

The girls chatted for a few minutes until Tammy realised someone was walking towards them.

"Hello Mrs Richardson.

"Oh, hello, you're ....."

"Tammy Smart."

"Oh yes, we met in January at the school."

"Indeed, I understand you're here to collect Josie and Karen?"

"Yes, I meant to get here this morning but everything's gone wrong. Are you ready, girls?"

There was a shuffling of chairs as the two seventeen year olds stood, each grabbing a bag. Tammy finished her coffee and stood to assist.

"Do you need a hand?"

"No, thank you, I think they can cope."

"Where are you parked?"

"In the public carpark." This was nowhere near Tammy's car.

Josie's mum hurried out of the door with the girls, leaving Tammy behind. She still wasn't comfortable going to her car by herself so returned to the bar to get a soft drink. Her phone pinged shortly after.

There's activity near your car, do not return to it

That confirmed her suspicions, she called for a cab to take her home and informed Hilary that she was leaving her car there overnight.

 
Sunday 25th October
 

"Can you run me into town, Dad?"

"The shops are closed, er, where's your car?"

She explained her concerns of the previous evening. "I'm certain I told you?"

"Plainly not, how soon do you want to go?"

"As soon as possible, it's not nine and very few will be around."

Naturally, when Richard stopped next to Tammy's Mini there was no-one around. A visual check of the car revealed nothing out of the ordinary. Given that there was no further news from Hilary, Tammy assumed the vehicle hadn't been interfered with. She followed her father back up the hill to Dunbankin'.

On their last visit, the security team had left Tammy a mirror for checking under the car, she retrieved this from the storage bin next to the golf buggy charging point and had a look around, finding nothing. Her phone rang.

"Hi Hilary."

"Sensible to check your car, but you should have done that before you drove away."

"Firstly the mirror was at home and secondly I didn't know if I was being watched?"

"Okay, I understand, but can you go inside and use the phone in the study? Please leave this phone outside the study or turn it off."

"Why ..." The line was cut before Tammy could finish her question.

With her phone switched off, Tammy went into the study. After latching the door she opened the safe to obtain the encryption key. Finally she dialled the number for Caithness Marine Research.

"Okay Tammy?"

"Yes, but why turn off my mobile?"

"It's new advice, not to take a working mobile phone into a secure environment."

"But this study is used by at least three of us and isn't secure."

"You're using a secure connection and the door is locked?"

"Yes."

"The room is also swept regularly?"

"Yes."

"Any cryptographic or restricted material is locked in the safe when not needed?"

"Yes, Hilary."

"Then right now it's a secure room. Are we done with semantics?"

"Sure."

"Now, can you go over yesterday evening?"

"I wasn't comfortable when I left the shop, I felt someone was watching me. That's why I went the opposite way and ended up in the hotel bar."

"Okay, as you know I detected some activity near the car but they were out of range of the visible light and the infrared cameras."

"Then I was being stalked?"

"That's unlikely, but I've asked London to enhance the video to see if they can identify anyone."

"So that's it?"

"For now, yes."

"What about tomorrow?"

"Just do what you would normally do, don't change your routine."

"Even though I'm being watched?"

"You are jumping to a conclusion that can't be verified; seeing shadows and detecting movement does not imply you are being watched, followed or anything else."

"Okay, okay, I had a lousy day yesterday."

"What happened to the Gore girl? I saw that you were on your own."

"She quit."

"She did? Would she have known that you would be running the place for a week?"

"Yes, almost certainly."

"Then we may have a problem, Tammy, I'll get back to you."

"Problem?"

"I'll call back, might be a few hours."

"I've got all day."

---

Hilary finally called back at three that afternoon and quickly came to the point.

"Martina planted a bug, two in fact."

"What? Why?"

"Good question, but this reinforces the suggestion that you are being targeted."

"By the Gores?"

"The Gores don't work for themselves, they work for a client."

"But are given work through their handler, Ms Lanovska?"

"Yes, so Martina is simply doing a job without any clue as to who ordered it."

"All rather curious, especially as the court cases start in the morning?"

"Indeed, Tammy."

"What about these bugs?"

"Leave them."

"Pardon?"

"You heard me, leave them. I haven't told you where they are and don't go looking."

 
Monday 26th October
 

Tammy was at the bakery just after eight, treating herself to a hot pasty and a cake. She was on edge as she approached the shop door but all she could see were busy folk scuttling along the street. There was a frost on the ground, she'd needed to clear the windsreen before setting off that morning.

Once inside she relocked the door before heading to the rear of the shop to open the safe. She hadn't sorted the till out on Saturday so now have to make sure she had a float and to cross check the till contents with the ledgers. Finally she took the excess banknotes and wrote out a deposit slip before putting this in a banking bag.

Her pasty was still warm and she felt she deserved a reward, but she put the kettle on first. Her phone was then put into action so she could listen to music. She had a search for the bugs but this was out of curiosity although she wasn't sure she trusted Hilary's direction. One thing was clear, Hilary could use the shop cameras to spy on Tammy at any point during the week.

Just before nine, with she put on the main lights, and unlocked the door, although the first customer didn't arrive until half an hour after opening, but this was to return a dress.

"I should have tried it on when I was here on Saturday, but it was so busy."

"That's fine Mrs Abbot, how did you pay?"

"I used my card, here's the receipt."

Tammy refunded the forty-five pounds when it was clear that Mrs Abbot didn't want anything else. A minute later she was on her own again.

The shop phone rang just after ten, it was the store in Kirkwall that Sarah dealt with. Tammy wrote the order down, wishing that they'd fax or email it, although there weren't many items.

"Some of these were ordered last week but Sarah couldn't get them, she told me to put them down again for this week."

"I see, some of this is in our store but I suspect the much of the rest is on the delivery that's due?"

"Well, do what you can and please send it across as soon as possible."

"Will do."

Tammy didn't understand Sarah's ordering system, there was a danger of the same item being ordered twice. She cross-checked the Orkneys order from the previous Thursday, and it was near identical with just a few extras. Sarah had plainly submitted her own order on Thursday afternoon, the crates arrived at lunchtime.

Of course, lunchtime generated some trade, so Tammy had to leave the stock inventory alone. In the space of an hour she'd taken a few hundred pounds, not much but every penny apparently helped.

By two it was quiet again so Tammy spent some time in the stock room checking the delivery, entering it in the ledger and then sorting out what had to go on the following day's ferry. She was in the midst of finalising that order when the shop door opened. Tammy quickly ticked off the last item and went into the shop.

"Hello Tammy."

"Err, hello Ms Lane."