The Malteser Fulcrum -A short Noir in 6 reels. Reel 6

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Reel Six

She walked leisurely towards the dining room, this time taking a lot of interest in the positioning of the wandering heavies. When she entered the dining room Gonzales left the bar and came over to greet her, taking her hand and kissing it.

“Welcome, Bobbie” he oozed “I must say that you are even more beautiful tonight; I hope the extra effort is for me and you do not have another engagement.” She smiled and said “Tonight, sir, I am all yours and I hope you are as smooth in bed as you are out of it.” “My dear” he laughed “I propose that we eat well as there may well be a lot of energy expended before morning.” He led her to a secluded table and they ate a very well prepared meal, much better than the one she had eaten the night before.

They chatted and Bobbie found him to be very entertaining and engaging. Occasionally the shell showed a split when he spoke about things that had upset him and she could see the lack of any empathy. She flirted outrageously and he was very ready when they finished their wine. They walked around the gaming area for a while before he led her to a curtained door which opened to an area that looked like a hallway of an ordinary house. There was a sweeping stair up to the next floor and Gonzales took her by the shoulders and kissed her before they went up. “All right with this?” he whispered in her ear and she whispered back “More than you can imagine, lover.”

When they entered his quarters she was relieved to see that it had not been altered. Gonzales held her close and kissed her, putting his tongue almost down her throat. She pulled back, saying “Take it easy, lover, we have all night. Just let me get something out of my bag for later and then we can get these clothes off. She went and put her bag on the sideboard and pulled out a bundle of condoms. “First” she smiled “I plan to taste you before we get on to the serious stuff.” Walking back across the room she stopped at the bowl of Maltesers and picked up a couple. She walked up to Gonzales and popped one into his mouth and said “The sugar rush will, I hope, last all night” and popped one into her own mouth. She turned so he could unzip her dress and, as she turned back to him with it pooled at her feet, she gave him another little ball of chocolate and said “This should be enough to keep you up for ever” while smiling broadly.

She helped him take off all of his clothes once they were in the bedroom and they got onto the bed. She worked on him and he was really getting excited as her mouth moved down his body. She had just licked and kissed his penis and was about to take it in her mouth when she heard the sound of a snore and the penis suddenly started shrinking. The two Maltesers she had palmed when she took out the condoms had finally done the trick. They had been laced with the tranquiliser she had used on the man with the envelope but she did not know how long it would take when ingested. She had been prepared to go as long as it took and, actually, she was starting to enjoy it. Gonzales was quite well -built and he would have been good to feel inside her.

Now, however, it was time for what she had come for. Back in the sitting room she put her dress back on and went to her bag, pulling out her camera finding gizmo. She took her time and went through all of the rooms to make sure there were no cameras with movement sensors. She was especially careful in his office. Turning on the computer she went back into the bedroom and covered Gonzales up before giving him another shot of tranquiliser in his neck. She then put a note on the bedside table that said “You were fantastic, lover; I hope we can get together again.” This had been written with her left hand on common paper and would provide no clues.

In the office the computer had logged on. She examined the icons and there was one which she was immediately drawn to. It was a picture of the seal and, when she clicked on it there was a page asking for a password. She took a punt and typed in ‘Grandfather’ and was pleased when the screen showed a menu of his business workings. Before she did anything else she plugged a USB stick in and transferred everything to it. Then she started looking at the files. There was a group with the casino dealings, one with a range of business details from his drug trade, another from the working girls and, finally, a full listing of all those on the take, with payments and favours against each name.

She took her time reading as much as she could and then found a file called ‘recovery’ which she originally thought may be a sub-routine to bring back lost files but then, when she looked at the size, she clicked on it and was rewarded with a list of the recovery jobs that Gonzales had gone for and lost out on. She recognised several that she had worked on over the last year or so and now knew why he had been trying to eliminate her. She found a file which had the videos of her with the man on the bed so she deleted these and then went to the scrap bin and deleted them again before running a clean-up program to totally eliminate any part of the videos. She double-checked that her USB had all of the information and then turned everything off.

In the bedroom she made sure that Gonzales was sleeping peacefully and then used the bathroom to redo her make-up. She took a hankir from her bag and then went through the apartment wiping every surface she had touched before putting on her shoes and, making sure she had left nothing, opened the door and went out. Down the stairs and back into the gaming room she was quickly confronted by one of the heavies, who asked “Leaving us, Bobbie?” She smiled and said “Yes, I am. The poor boy has fallen asleep after the third time and I thought it was time I went home. He is quite a man and I don’t think I could take any more when he wakes up.” He held her there while he sent another guy up to check that the boss was all right and, when it was reported that the boss was snoring well and nothing seemed to be missing, she was wished “Goodnight Bobbie, we will see you again”

It was now after midnight and she flagged down a cab to take her away from there. The first cab took her west to an underground station. In the ladies toilet she took off the dress and put on leggings that she had hidden in the false bottom of her bag, along with a long cotton top. With a light pair of flats on and the dress and heels now in a plastic shopping bag she took a train to another station before, now sure that there were no followers, she took another to a station that was close to home.

The following morning Sydney sat in the basement at his computer with the USB plugged in and quietly worked through the contents. There was enough on it to put Gonzales away for life as long as his ‘friends’ were first neutralised. The list of the ‘friends’ was very good reading; police, politicians, government agents and judges being prominent and Sydney saved a copy of it for the future. He also saved a copy of the ‘recovery’ file before deleting it from the USB. He then took a new USB and transferred the remaining files to it. He made sure that he handled it with gloves and put it in a new envelope.

On Monday, Vincent Prentice went to the temporary office and put the envelope under the box which he had taken out of the mailbox and put on the desk in the office. When he left he had picked up a tail which took a couple of hours to lose several miles away. Back home he put all of his clothes into a bag for the incinerator. Vincent, along with Bobbie, was no longer needed. Sydney took a burner phone, went back onto the underground and, a long way from home texted the one he had left with Rocky. The text gave the location of the box and warned Rocky to watch out for lurking gangsters as well as an envelope he may find interesting as long as he only checked the contents with a member of Internal Affairs.

For a week Sydney was very busy with the shop and with getting around to some cleaning. He went into the basement apartment and cleaned it thoroughly and removed the secret switches to open the connecting door, sealing the cracks and painting the false wall. On his side he put up another panel over the door and sealed it from his side as well. He had come to realise that the ‘recovery’ business had suddenly moved from being fun and exciting to being dangerous. It was no good feeling alive and vibrant when it was likely that you could become dead and cold very quickly. Antonio Gonzales had taught him a lesson and, at the moment, Gonzales was still out there and looking for him – now in both the Samantha and the Bobbie guise.

It took two weeks before the results of that nights’ work started to show. First there was a series of drug busts and then a sweep of illegal brothels which created lurid front page pictures of very young girls scantily dressed - all to give the public the news, and pictures, that they craved. Then there was a range of promotions and sudden retirements that swept through the legal and political scene. Finally, a month later, Gonzales was found at the scene of a drug delivery and a gun battle ensued. He died of his wounds two days later and the paper reported that his last words were “That bitch Bobbie, when I see her in hell I will kill her.” The paper thought that he may have been referring to one of his many girlfriends.

When the dust settled Sydney put the basement apartment on the market and it sold quite quickly for a good profit. He quietly closed down the websites and links for the ‘recovery’ business and took a holiday. Actually, it was Samantha that did these things and it was Samantha that now used the front door of the terrace. She had decided that, as Samantha was no longer being looked for; combined with the fact that she had discovered that blondes do have more fun, it was time to become Samantha for good. She went into the shop with a note signed by Sydney that stated that Samantha Spade was now the owner of the business and the young manager was very happy to see her brightening his future.

The last thing to do was something she had looked forward to. After many years of working alone, Sydney, as Samantha, was starting to feel lonely. Without the buzz of the ‘recovery’ work she now craved some companionship. She made herself look like a million dollars and called for a cab to pick her up at her front door. It delivered her to the bar where she knew Rocky may be winding down from a hard day. As she walked into the bar there was a sudden silence and then she saw Rocky at a booth with a couple of other guys. She slowly made her way to the bar and sat on a stool, ordering a drink. When it was put in front of her a voice behind her said “I’ll pay for that, the lady deserves it.”

She turned to face Rocky, a smile on her face. “You sure you got the right girl?” she asked. Rocky gave a laugh and said “Even with the blonde wig and the very different look; I knew, by the sexy walk, that it was Bobbie all along. Actually, Bobbie is being looked for as we speak to throw some light on the successful rolling up of a big case. A case, I may say, that has given me a promotion.” “Well, congratulations for that. I am sorry to tell you this but Bobbie was a figment of everyones’ imagination and has been consigned to the nether world, never to be seen again.”

He laughed again and said “She may have been a figment but she is very real in my imagination. I expect that I saw a side to her that only Gonzales saw as well.” She looked him in the eyes and said “Rocky, sweetheart, only you have seen it all. Gonzales just saw a tiny piece of Bobbie before her specially prepared Maltesers took effect. He was just getting to his full, and impressive, length when he took a nap. He was nowhere near as impressive, though, as you my love.” “So, what do I call you now?” he asked and she whispered in his ear “call me Samantha, or Sam if you want; but I expect you to call me darling in the morning.”

Marianne G © 2021

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Comments

Nice job!

An entertaining series that finished in just the right place. Thanks for writing it.

Call me darling in the morning

Great story, I enjoyed it a lot. Too bad Samantha is out of the recovery business but I think she'll have things well in hand (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean, know what I mean).
Thanks for sharing this story with us.

>>> Kay

Very nicely wrapped up.

Thank you. I hope domesticity provides the “buzz“ she needs.

I'll Make Sure

joannebarbarella's picture

That I open all my own Maltesers in future.

Maltesers..

Lucy Perkins's picture

Nice one Joanne! Lol
I loved the film noir pastiches that you created here. As a child in the seventies and early eighties, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, even Tippi Hedren and Janet Leigh were my idols.
To quote Suzanne Vega
" You stand with your hand in your pocket
And lean against the wall
You could be Bogart, and I could be Bacall"
Lovely to read about a character who grew up the same!
Lucy xx

"Lately it occurs to me..
what a long strange trip its been."