Reel Two

Being almost Sunday morning he did not have to go to the shop. In fact, the way business was these days he only went there a few days in the month to collect any cash takings for banking anyway. This gave him more time for any ‘recovery’ work that came up and most of the shop trade was now done on-line.

So he made himself a cup of coffee, drank it happily and then went upstairs to the top floor where his bedroom awaited him. He took off the towelling robe and contemplated his choice of sleepwear, not an easy task as he had everything from scratchy pyjamas, through to onesies and a complete range of cotton or satin nighties of every shade and length. Finally he just put on a short, satin pyjama set and got into his bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

He slept until noon and, refreshed, got out of his bed and made his late morning ablutions. After another refreshing shower he dressed in a tee-shirt and track pants and slid his feet into a pair of old moccasins, going down to the kitchen again to get some lunch and to contemplate the activity of the previous night. As he ate he tried to remember any client that had not been satisfied with his services and he could not think of a single one. He had no enemies in his ‘normal’ life and there were none in his business circles.

His business had been left to him on the death of his parents, back when he was still a teenager with a lot more hair than he now had. They were the ones that gave him his name and his interest in old movies. Janet and Walter Greenstreet had loved the old films of the thirties and had amassed a sizable collection of them from sales of old cinemas as they moved into the modern age. Of course, with the surname of Greenstreet they just had to christen their only child Sydney Hughes, after the big man himself.

On taking over his parents’ collection he had spent a part of his inheritance getting the films restored and copied; also adding a few that had been originally missed. He opened up in a small store and sold the copies on Super Eight reels and then, as the technology altered, on video tape and then on DVD. He had conserved and reproduced all of the old posters as well and these seemed to sell better than the actual movies. These days he had every film in his archive saved on a bank of servers in his office and could either stream a film directly to the customer or else load it onto a thumb-drive to send it by post. The shop was still there and only stocked the old formats for the real buffs. A young student was his current store manager and Sydney only went in to replenish any stock that was close to running out or move things around on the display. The original collection was now in an air-controlled strongroom in the basement, next to the armoury.

He had been interested in acting since he was very young and had put on shows for his parents, playing the characters they loved. From there it was a short leap to dressing as those characters when he felt the need for a little fun. Of course, he could never be identical, no; it was more that he looked similar and took on the persona of each character. As Joel Cairo, for instance, he was so sleazy and wimpy there was not a person on earth who would recognise the Sydney Greenstreet they may know in ordinary life. The movement to female characters came about when he started the ‘recovery’ side-line.

He had put an advertisement in the city paper that read “Lost something? Need it back but don’t know how? Reply via this newspaper” and there was a newspaper box number. He would always be in disguise when he checked the box. The very first case was a ’lost’ will. The client was certain that the will read out after her mother had died was not correct and that her brother, an unemployed lay-about, had forged it. The only way to get near the brother was through sex and Samantha Spade had been created as a mixture of Mary Astor and Jean Harlow, as well as a fair proportion of Marlene Dietrich. Once he had been Sam a few times he was hooked as blondes did have more fun. The brother had been stupid enough to keep the original and it had several clauses he had not bothered with. Reading them led to the discovery of a wealth of books kept in storage that he had discounted as beneath him but had ended up with his sister gaining several hundred thousand and the brother getting five years.

The course of that case had two unexpected effects, other than the earning of a good commission. He found that he was hooked on the excitement of being in the real world and seriously playing a different person. He also found that he made a very good woman, so good, in fact, that men lusted after him and wanted that one thing he was not equipped to give. He did like all of the things that led towards that final act, though, as it was nice to be wanted, or even loved. As the years progressed he recovered lost items on a regular basis and amassed a sizable account, spending a large chunk of it when the house behind his apartment came up for sale and a fair bit more turning it into his headquarters.

The newspaper advertisement had given way to a website hidden behind a cascade of cut-out sites, each more untraceable and ending at a site that only he had access to. With it came the reputation and with that came the more interesting and dangerous recoveries. He had even worked for the government at times, mainly finding ‘lost’ plans or paperwork. He had taken up training with various guns with the pretence of just liking the sport and had also undertaken many courses in various unarmed combat regimes ‘for the exercise’. He never took on revenge cases and never met the client unless he was in another character and acting as a cut-out. In truth, he, alone, was the business.

After clearing up his lunch dishes he went back down to the secret basement to look at what he had got out of the safe. Before handling anything on the table he put a face mask and a pair of latex gloves on. He had not touched any of it with his bare hands last night and did not intend to now. The money was straightforward, five bundles of fifties with each bundle adding up to a thousand. Except the one he had used to pay the taxi driver. The numbers were all consecutive and it would be an easy thing for anyone to tell their bank that they had been robbed and to look out for the numbers within the range. It was not foolproof but, then again, it wasn’t meant to be anything other than proof that he had been in the ‘victims’ apartment.

He took another hundred from the bundle and carefully put it into an envelope taken from a pack he had purchased from a department store. This he put into a plastic bag for the moment. The rest of the money he put into another plastic bag and sealed it before putting it in a paper sack. He then turned his attention to the yellow envelope. It had the seal and it was not his usual practise to look at what he had recovered. This one, however, needed more scrutiny.

Using tweezers to handle it he put it on a strong lightbox which only showed that it contained one or two pieces of folded paper. There was a tiny part of the flap which was not glued down, as usual with all envelopes. He had a tiny camera usually used in micro-surgery which he carefully pushed into the gap. Holding the envelope vertical and pushing slightly to make it bellow a bit he fed the camera into it while looking at the TV screen. The tiny light was good enough to read anything on the papers but he was not surprised to see that they were blank. He did, however, make sure that he examined every part of the paper with the camera and was rewarded with a mark on one corner that looked out of place. The mark looked like a smear of shit or chocolate.

He captured the image from a couple of directions and then put a long cotton bud in the gap and took a sample of the smear, placing the bud into a sterile evidence bag. He took his camera out and put the envelope into another plastic bag after also photographing the seal. Searching through his various data bases he discovered that the seal was one that had last been used over seventy years ago by the Godfather of the Galimbarro Family. It had been a very dangerous crime syndicate that all of the law enforcement fraternity had thought became extinct with the death of the Godfather around the time his favourite films were being shown.

The fee for recovery was, as usual, transferred to an account before he took on the job, only to be transferred a few more times before ending up in a Swiss numbered account. His instructions had been for him to leave the envelope in the left- luggage at the main railway station this evening. He had been given the locker number and the access code. His bonus was waiting for him there, he had been told. This was one fact that triggered the feeling of danger as he usually designated the drop-off at a place of his own choosing.

They would expect a female after viewing the camera video so he would have to dress again, but not as Samantha this time. He had been playing with a new female character and a couple of hours later his version of Carmen Miranda left the basement apartment in the next street and sauntered a block or two as if out for a stroll, before hailing a taxi that dropped her near an underground station. Ten minutes later she rose from the platform under the main station and wandered into the concourse where the left-luggage lockers were.

She looked as if she was checking the timetables but was actually checking the surroundings for an ambush. She reckoned that she had seen at least two guys who looked a little out of place. Out of their sight she found her patsy, a lad who looked as if he was looking for pockets to pick or bags to snatch. He was surprised when she told him that he could earn a couple of hundred with a couple of minutes work. She took the envelope out of her bag with her gloved hand, pointed out the locker number and code and said that all he had to do was to put the envelope in the locker and close it again. There was, she said, money in the locker which was his to keep. She gave him two envelopes, the yellow one and one with the notes clearly visible.

She watched from a distance as the lad went to the lockers and opened one and only left as shouting and gunfire erupted, going quietly down to the underground platform to take a couple of random trains before heading for a bar where she knew she would find someone in need of a little companionship, pulling the small coloured foam pieces that looked like fruit off the hat on the way and dumping them in trash cans as she passed.

Marianne G © 2021

Reel Three

The next morning Sydney checked out the news feed on his computer. The story about the gunfight in the railway station was prominent. The word was that a couple of armed transit guards had seen a couple of guys trying to rob a lad who had just opened a locker. When approached they had drawn guns and so a short fusillade had erupted, the two men now dead and both guards only wounded thanks to their bullet-proof vests. The CCTV showed the lad leaving an envelope and taking a bag before disappearing into the crowd.

He was glad the lad got away and was sure that any money he had found would be carefully spent. The gangsters were, as yet, unidentified, as they had nothing on them and all fingerprint searches had been in vain. It was thought that they may have been brought in from overseas and the police were awaiting the results of DNA tests. The envelope was a real oddball, having nothing but blank sheets in it. Further searching through the news came up with a story about police receiving a tip-off about a murder and, when breaking into the address, found a guy tied to his bed, obviously having been in a sexual encounter as he had dried semen on his stomach. He had thanked the police for freeing him but gave no explanation as to how he had found himself in this predicament.

Sydney sat and thought long and hard about the chain of events. The so-called murder was only a way of getting him searched for and the money was a way to getting him found. Obviously whoever was behind this would have given the police the details of the ‘stolen’ cash and a link to the ‘murderer’. The deal with the lockers seemed to be a separate situation but may have just been a quick way to get him. Someone was playing hard with this and he still had no idea of who or why. The idea about why rattled around in his brain for a while. If it wasn’t revenge then it must be for some gain. Was someone after his business? Either way, he had thwarted them this time.

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Across the other side of town, Antonio Gonzales stood angrily from his desk and threw his wine glass at the wall, shattering it into a hundred pieces. He was sure that he had seen the woman shoot the set-up, as planned, and had also taken the money. Surely the police would have found a body and launch a full investigation? It had all gone so wrong and that part of the plan had brought him no nearer to wiping out the person he thought of as opposition. Even a simple snatch job at the station had gone to shit and he was now down two hoods that had cost a fortune to bring into the country.

In another fit of rage he picked up the wine bottle and smashed it down on the computer monitor, which sparked wildly before going black in a wisp of smoke. Several times he had been sure that he would have got a recovery job and several times he had been told that the job had already been completed on his second virtual meeting. As the bastard son of a bastard son, there was no way he was able to resurrect the proud Galimbarro Family but had never thought of doing anything legal. With the dope, the girls and the casino already well and truly catered for, he had decided that the recovery business would provide the pathway to riches. The only problem was that it was not easy creating a trustworthy credential when you are not actually trustworthy, and he was far too single minded to see it.

He went through to his lounge room after taking a few of his favourite chocolate treats from the bowl on his desk, popping them into his mouth to soothe his nerves. He had a time of thinking and decided that he may try to track his money as the cash in the safe and the cash in the locker had now gone. All of his other outlay had been lost with the death of the imported failures.

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Sydney spent the rest of his day researching the Galimbarro history. As far as he could see there were none of the Family left and the use of that seal was puzzling. He did note that old man Galimbarro was known as a ladies man so there may still be descendants out there, probably not knowing their family heritage. It was pretty much a dead end without further input and the next step, he knew, would be either through that smear or the money. If the owner of the money had already reported it missing he may be able to get more information from the few contacts he had built up. That would, unfortunately, take a little while as most of the police he knew only knew him as an on-again off-again girlfriend who gave good head.

The smear was another thing, though. He knew one film buff that worked as a forensic scientist and was such a good customer Sydney knew he could ask a favour. He rang his friend and told him that he had an original copy of one of the old films that had been damaged by somebody handling it with dirty hands. He said that he did not want to try to clean it before he knew what the substance was. His friend said they could meet at his laboratory the next day.

The last thing that Sydney did was to take a bundle of the money out of its bag and peel off a number of notes with the tweezers, putting them in a new envelope, putting the bundle back into bag and back into the safe. These would be helpful if it came to tracing their original owner. He had found that a lot of people did not truly think through the details when they were trying to do evil, being too taken up with the end point of their plans instead of taking it slowly and carefully. That was something you could not say about Sydney, he took very small steps and looked at each step in a number of ways. He stripped off his latex gloves and left his workroom to cook himself a good dinner.

He had a routine when he cooked himself a Sunday night meal. Up in his bedroom he stripped, showered, shaved and dressed carefully. The person that went down to the kitchen looked like one of the cast of ‘The Stepford Wives’. Not the latest one, of course; Sydney was now a good representation of Paula Prentiss, who was in the 1975 film, one of the few modern movies that Sydney bothered with, having so many different dresses and styles to study. So it was Bobbie Markowe who cooked a lamb roast with a range of vegetables, laid the table with the silver and poured a glass of claret from a decanter.

As she ate she considered her future. Bobbie was one of the girls who had past dealings with gay policemen and she knew one who was in the drug squad and may be in a position to pass on snippets of information. She would have to check her locker in the basement and reactivate her phone. Every different character had a locker with a range of clothes for undercover work only as well as false ID’s, phones and all the little things that mark one out as an individual. Each one also had an individual email address over a range of providers with the accounts paid for from an untraceable offshore account.

After eating her meal and drinking a couple of glasses of claret, Bobbie washed and dried the dishes, tidied up and watched, what else; an old movie on video before going to bed. She stayed in character and wore a satin nightie to bed, pleasuring herself with a cock-shaped, condom covered vibrating dildo while wearing a condom herself. As a Stepford wife she would never put up with that nasty sticky stuff. After she had satisfied her needs she went into the bathroom and cleaned herself, putting the two condoms into toilet paper and flushing them away. Back in bed she slept like a baby.

Monday morning Sydney was the person eating breakfast. He picked up the smear sample in its bag and put it into his coat pocket, leaving his home by the front door. He only used this entrance dressed as Sydney to maintain his cover. When he arrived at the laboratory he had a chat with his friend and passed the bag over, along with some money to pay for the testing. He was told that he would be emailed the results in a day or so.

Back at home he made himself a light lunch and then went up to his bedroom and stripped, putting on a robe to go downstairs to the basement. It was a somewhat short version of Lee Gentry that left the basement apartment in the other street. Lee, as was played by Claude Rains in the 1934 film ‘Crime without Passion’. This was a favourite film and he had already created the characters Carmen Brown as played by the actress Margo; and Katy Costello as played by Whitney Bourne. He was glad that most of the thirties films featured girls that seemed to have come from similar moulds. His male characters were normally chubbier men as he left his normally thin facial features for the female characters. This was why he had never recreated Sam Spade as acted by Bogart in the 1941 version of the Maltese Falcon, much to his disappointment.

Lee made a leisurely stroll to the shop where he bought a VHS copy of ‘Gone with the Wind’ from his manager and paid for it with the notes that he pulled from his pocket with a gloved hand. His manager did not recognise him and treated him as he would any customer – somewhat off-hand. Sydney was happy at that as it added to the atmosphere that old film buffs liked. In most of the old films the assistants behind counters were surly or off-hand, unless they were destined to be the hero when they were usually friendly and chatty.

With his purchase in a ‘Greenstreet’ bag he then took the underground across town to a pawnbroker where he bought three golden chains with more of the ‘hot’ money and then took a roundabout route back to the basement apartment. He transformed himself back into Sydney and spent the rest of the day reading his latest book purchase ‘Films of the Thirties’ by Jerry Vermilye. He opted for a onesie that night and slept, once again, like a baby.

The following day Sydney went to his shop and the lad gave him the bag containing the cash takings, along with the register strip. He had a few posters with him and replaced some that were on display. When he put up the ‘Crime without Passion’ poster the lad said “Hey, I had a guy in here the other day that was the spitting image of that one there.” Sydney laughed and said “If he was it would be a miracle, that guy has been dead over fifty years.” When he left the shop he knew that if the police were tracing the notes they would end up at his shop and Lee Gentry would be the one on the wanted poster. He wondered if Claude was up there laughing, knowing that any publicity was good publicity. The takings were taken to the bank and deposited.

Marianne G © 2021

Reel Four

There was not much else he could do now until things filtered through the system and that didn’t bother him. He had a look at his website and saw that there was a message for him. When he opened it he had to laugh as it said that he was a thieving bastardo who had stolen the cash he had been employed to recover.

That message told him a couple of things. The first was the use of bastardo meant that the person who set him up had a link to the Italian fraternity and the second was that the person was angry at the loss of the money that he had said was there for the taking. Angry people, as far as Sydney had discovered, made mistakes. The fact that the envelope was not mentioned proved it had been a ‘red herring’. On a whim he did an internet search for people who did recoveries and found a fair few. One stood out with the use of the word ‘recoup’ rather than recover. This, again, pointed at someone more used to Italian where the word for recover was ‘recuperare’. He made a note of the site in case he needed to look for his nemesis that way.

The next couple of days were uneventful and he finished reading his book and found a space for it on the shelf with others from the same author. When he checked his normal email address there was a message from his friend at the laboratory. There was a page of numbers and he skipped that to go to the page that had the answer to his question. He read the result and sat back and laughed. The answer was that the substance was thought to be simply chocolate. His friend did go further, suggesting that the ingredients of the chocolate could well make it a product made by the Mars Corporation. He also suggested that a dry cloth may be all that was needed to clean the film. He sent back a thank you.

Later that day he had a phone call from his shop manager. He said that the police had been in to talk about a person who had paid for a product with stolen money. He told Sydney that together they had decided that the person was the one who bought a VHS copy of ‘Gone with the Wind’ and that, when the police asked him to describe the customer all he needed to do was point at the picture of Claude Rains on the poster. He said that the police simply took a picture of the poster and thanked him before leaving. Sydney told him that he had done well and not to worry about things. He, Sydney, will follow it up with his police contacts if there are any problems.

Friday afternoon Sydney spent some time making sure his body, arm and legs were totally hairless. He took some time on his eyebrows with tweezers and shaved three times before having a shower with scented soap. Tonight Bobbie was going out to see what could be learned and, maybe, get herself reamed as well. The woman who left the basement apartment was one that exuded femininity. She was dressed in an A-line dress with petticoats and showed a good bit of cleavage. Her dark hair was shining and her make-up was a little over the top and she attracted a lot of looks as she walked to the main street to flag down a cab. A half an hour later she entered a bar where she knew that her police contacts hung out after a long day in the job. She saw Rocky, a nice detective she had been with a few times before, and swung her hips as she walked towards him. His eyes lit up and he said “Bobbie, so good to see you, where have you been?” She sat up on a stool beside him and answered “Questions already, Rocky, and no spotlight?” He laughed and asked her what she wanted to drink.

Over the course of the evening he got slightly drunk and she got slightly amorous and they ended leaving together. Outside he pushed her against the wall and said “Here or home, baby?” She said “Home, Rocky, I want you slowly and completely tonight.” He flagged a taxi and they kissed in the back seat on the way to his apartment. There he rubbed her leg as he followed her up the two flights to his landing. At his door she turned to him, pulled his head to her and kissed him, taking his crotch with her other hand and feeling his stiff cock. He quickly opened his door and pushed her inside.

She did try to slow him down but it was just fifteen minutes later that he collapsed on her, her legs up around his waist and his cock still throbbing in her anus. She had scored his back with her nails and he had not minded a bit, perhaps he had not even felt it. He was more sober now and they lay side by side and he said “Bobbie, darling, I could be happy to live with you in my bed every night; how about it?” She rolled over to kiss him and said “Sweet Rocky, you know that it would become ho-hum if we did that, it is much nicer once in a while.”

A little later she said “So, Rocky, how are the felons going these days, are you still winning a few?” He laughed and said “You wouldn’t believe some of what has been going on. The sergeant showed us a picture of some old film star from the thirties and told us to keep an eye out for him. Scottie asked if we were now zombie hunting and the sergeant got very angry. I think that he had orders from the guy that pays him his monthly bonus because he said that this film star look-alike had ripped off the casino down on Front Street, bundles of money that was from a batch meant to do the payouts, as if that place ever actually paid anybody. It is set up to take, not give.” Bobbie then kissed him again and whispered “How about you thinking about giving because I think I want to take you some more.”

About two in the morning Bobbie slid out of the bed, went to the bathroom and quietly cleaned herself before getting dressed. She left the snoring Rocky and walked, somewhat shakily, to a bigger street where she flagged down a cab to take her near the basement apartment. As she went through the secret doors she giggled to herself as she thought of the evening. It had been very satisfactory in more ways than one.

She stayed in character, cleansing her face, undressing, showering and putting on a nightie to sleep happily. She slept in and it was about ten on Saturday morning when Bobbie made her breakfast, sitting at the kitchen bench in her nightie with a gown loose over the top. She was deep in thought and, after she had tidied up, she turned on her computer to do research into the casino on Front Street. It was a hard slog as the place was listed as owned by a company that did not seem to have any registered office or board. Further investigation found that the company was an arm of another shell corporation. She was no closer to naming the guy who paid the sergeant his bonus. She did, however, get the name of the manager. She was sure that Dayly Winner had to be an alias, but who knew, these days.

Sunday was a quiet day if you were used to lots of action. Bobbie spent time to become Sydney once again and then spent more time on his computer, trying to find all he could about that casino. One interesting point was that the building had sat empty for over forty years and, before that, was a gym. He could find no records of any sales so, as far as he could see, whoever owned it in the twenties left the deeds to whoever owned it now.

On Wednesday evening he disguised himself as Vincent Price from the horror film ‘Tales of Terror’ This just needed some elevator shoes and a natty moustache along with minimum cheek pads and a black hair moustache and wig. A fifties style suit with wide lapels set off the image. He went to the casino, laughingly called ‘Luckies’ and went in, finding the bar and getting a scotch which must have been aged at least three months. He spent some time at the bar, diluting the scotch with water until it tasted all right. He watched the croupiers and the heavies as they meandered around the tables. One, he saw, put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a red bag, selected something from it which he put in his mouth, crushed the bag and put it in an ashtray.

‘Vincent’ made his way to the roulette table, passing the ashtray, and saw that the packet had unfurled itself a little and he read the word ‘Malte….’ At the table he bought fifty in chips and it took him all of an hour to lose it all; that, he thought, was the table being good to him. He was about to leave the table when a voice behind him said “I haven’t seen you before. Snazzy suit, by the way, takes my mind back to my younger days.” He turned to see the man who had discarded the packet. “This is my first time here” he said “I have come to town to see if I can open up a little business.”

“What do you do?” he was asked and he said “Import and export, mainly.” The guy laughed and said “I do a little importing myself. I’m Antonio Gonzales, by the way; and you are?” “Pleased to meet you, Antonio, I am Vincent Prentice and I think I may have just given you some of my money.” Antonio smiled and said “Look, Vincent, have you a place I can send a parcel for you to export for me. It is too sensitive to go through the normal post and the courier companies do not take enough care.” Vincent thought a bit and said “I have only just got here and have been looking for an office. Tell you what, if you have a business card I will open a place and send you the details if you are not in a great hurry.”

“That will do me” said Antonio as he picked a fifty chip off of the pile next to the croupier “How about you take this as a down payment on our little export arrangement. I shall wait for you to get back to me.” He gave Vincent his card and the chip and walked away. Vincent put the chip on the red and doubled his money and then slid the hundred onto odds and doubled it again. Not being greedy Vincent cashed in and left the casino with a smile on his face. He was sure he had just met the person who had tried to frame him.

The next day he, still as Vincent, paid the deposit on a small rental office in the poorer side of town using paperwork he had printed the evening before. He was sure that he was moving forward in eliminating the danger but still had no idea of an end game as yet. At the office he made arrangements for any goods delivered to be put in the mail box that was part of the deal and then went to buy a cheap laptop. At the office he linked the laptop to the Wi-Fi hub that was also part of the deal and sent Antonio an email from ‘Prentice Logistics’ and gave him the address.

Three days later a message came into his secure mailbox with a ‘recovery’ job. The person he had to recover an item from was Vincent Prentice and the office address was given. The message said that there was a parcel which had stolen jewels in it that needed to be returned to the owner without anyone else knowing. Vincent, the message said, was ‘expendable.’

Marianne G © 2021

Reel Flve

“So” Sydney mused “I have been asked to recover something from myself and I am expendable but there will be someone out there watching for the pick up to kill me. A very strange state of affairs, I must say.” He sent a message back saying that no jobs were being taken at the moment.

He was now absolutely certain that Gonzales was the man behind his recent troubles. He tried to see what he could find out about the mans’ancestry. All he could find was that the Gonzales name came from the man his mother had married when Antonio was three. That made Antonio a real bastard. His mother came from a family which was truly working class, mainly in service. Sydney thought that Antonio may have been fathered by a man she had worked for and so the search came up to a dead end.

The next line of investigation was finding out all he could about Gonzales; his likes and dislikes, his hates and preferences, his friends and enemies, even his living arrangements, the houses and apartments. The last came up with the fact that Gonzales lived at the casino, in an apartment that included his lounge, dining, sleeping and office quarters. What made Sydney smile was just how easy the information was to put together. There was even an article in one of the womens’ magazines which showed him and his woman of the time photographed in the various rooms. From this he could work out a floor plan and some dimensions. One of the pictures showed the happy couple sitting on a settee and, there on the coffee table, was a bowl with Maltesers in it.

One of the things that struck Sydney when looking at the pictures was just how ‘butch’ the wife looked. When he delved deeper he discovered that no marriage had ever been registered and going deeper he found that the ‘wife’ was a transgender who had worked as a croupier in the casino. She was, he found, the third ‘woman’ to grace the Gonzales apartment but there was none in residence at the moment. That, he thought, was the crack in the armour; Bobbie was set for an outing and it needed to be well planned.

That evening he rang Rocky and put on the Bobbie voice. She asked Rocky if he would take her to the casino on Front Street for a night out, she would pick up the tab for a meal. She told Rocky she was thinking about his proposal but they needed to do more together than get drunk and have sex. Rocky was happy to go along with the idea and a date was made for the following Saturday evening with them meeting at the entrance to the railway station. Bobbie knew that she would be good on the underground early but would need a cab home, as long as everything went well.

All the week Sydney was busy getting ready for the next stage of the plan. He dressed as Bobbie and went into the city centre to a good dress shop where she bought a mid-length red dress that looked like it had been poured over her. She decided that things would go well and bought another one, similar, but in black with shimmering gold ribbons all over. At VS she got the sexiest sets to suit the two dresses that she could. It would need all her fire-power if it was to work.

Saturday afternoon was spent getting totally into her character and she looked like a film star when she left the basement apartment; still thinking that she just had to do a bit of dusting and cleaning before long. A couple of guys tried to chat her up on the way to the main station but she was a dab hand and leaving them with the idea that, maybe later, they may be lucky.

She met Rocky by the main entrance as planned and he told her she looked fabulous and she had to tell him that just an air-kiss was all that was needed but he may be able to mess up her make-up later. They walked the couple of blocks to Front Street and up to the door of the casino. She had made a reservation in the dining room and it did not take them long before they were seated and looking at the menu. Rocky wanted to know the limits and she told him just to order what he wanted as she could handle it. They enjoyed the meal and chatted. Rocky told her that he had been here several times, sometimes with his sergeant, and had been quite successful at the tables, even though he wasn’t on the list. She asked him if he was unhappy at that and he said that he would never go on the take as it led to poor policing.

When they had finished their meal Bobbie gave Rocky a credit card and told him to settle up for her. They then moved to the gaming floor where Rocky bought fifty in chips and Bobbie did the same. Together, they played frugally, doing reasonably well; at least, not getting wiped out. After about an hour there was a voice behind them that said “Rocky, glad to see you here enjoying yourself. Who is this wonderful thing? “They turned to see Antonio Gonzales smiling at them. Rocky said “Mr Gonzales, it is not often I am in a place like this and not armed to the teeth with a warrant and a squad. This is Bobbie, love of my life but she won’t move in with me. I suspect that her accommodation is much grander than mine.” Gonzales laughed and said “Rocky, dear boy, you know that all you need to move up in the world is to join my merry band of tame policemen. Now, knowing what the sergeant has told me about you, I must say that I am surprised to see you out with such a beautiful, and real, woman.”

Bobbie decided it was time to get her word in so said “Thank you, kind sir. Rocky has not gone straight just yet; I can assure you of that.” The smile broadened as Gonzales took her hand and said “My apologies, dear lady, I am Antonio Gonzales, the owner of this little establishment and I am sorry that I have been remiss. I have known Rocky for a while now and, although we don’t see eye to eye, I do admire his willingness to be upstanding, if it also means he remains poor.” “That’s all right” said Bobbie “he is a very nice guy and we have had a lot of fun together that didn’t cost any more than a few beads of sweat. I wouldn’t have him any other way.”

“Look” said Gonzales “how about you both join me at the bar when you have finished here. I do believe that there may be a run of blacks coming up.” As he walked past the croupier he whispered something and, for the next half an hour, black outnumbered red three to one and the two of them had a wad of cash each once they had passed the chips in. Rocky said “I am not happy at this but there is a credible reason I won; it beats getting a paper sack with notes in.” Bobbie said “Don’t worry, Rocky, it is purely for my sake, I think. Gonzales wants to impress me with his power and control. I think I see him at the bar. Just a couple of drinks to be nice and then you can take me home and show me how much you appreciate me.”

At the bar the chat was light. Gonzales wanted to know if they had had a good time and, when Rocky had gone to the toilet, he asked Bobbie what she was doing the following evening. When she said she didn’t have any set plans he asked her if she would grace the establishment with her presence and also have dinner with him. She smiled and said that she thought that would be good. She then went off to powder her nose and when she got back Rocky and Gonzales were laughing over something and she said “Rocky, darling, I think it may be time we left. We do have another appointment, don’t we?” Rocky shook hands with Gonzales and Bobbie gave him a kiss on the cheek before they left. Rocky said, as they walked out “Bobbie, with these winnings I think I can cover a hotel room and you can stay the night, how about it?” She just put her arms around his neck, kissed him and whispered “Where-ever you want, Rocky dear, I’m all yours.”

And she was. In the hotel room they undressed each other and when Rocky saw her in her new underwear he whispered “You are so beautiful, Bobbie. Why is it I think this may be our last night together? You are out to get Gonzales, aren’t you?” She took him by the penis and led him to the bed, saying “Rocky, you know me too well. When this is over I will come back to you but not quite as you see me now. You will know when you see me but, tonight, I want you so bad.” That night they did not get a lot of sleep and, for the first time in his life, Sydney had another man give him a blow-job. After breakfast they parted with a kiss.

Bobbie was back in character and her final act was to give Rocky a burner phone. “Rocky” she said “the only time this phone will activate will be when I send a text. The text will be an address and a name. I want you to take some of your trusted friends and go to that address and retrieve a package. Hopefully, that package will have everything you need to bypass his tame coppers and take Gonzales down forever. Destroy this phone as soon as you have the package.”

That day Bobbie set to make herself irresistible as well as preparing a few little items for tonight. She had worn the red dress last night and tonight it would be the black. She slept a while, ate well and did some exercise routines to burn off any toxins from the previous evening. She realised that Bobbie rather loved Rocky and it would be a shame to lose the connection but, after tonight, Bobbie would either have to disappear altogether or, with the worst case scenario, she may even be dead. That was truly the sort of thing that Sydney had loved about the life he followed.

That afternoon Bobbie became the femme fatale in her black underwear and shimmering dress. Her bag was a little bigger than one would think considering the lady was only going out to dinner but it did contain a few extra items, as well as a change of outer clothes should the need arise. Just after six she exited the basement apartment and made her way to the underground station and then on to the main station. Climbing to street level she took her time walking to the door of the casino. As she expected, sometime last night there had been photos taken because the doorman glanced beside him as she approached him and then smiled brightly, saying “Welcome to Luckies, Miss Bobbie. Mr Gonzales is in the dining room. Enjoy yourself.”

Marianne G © 2021

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