Searching for Scarlet

Chapter 1

Dear Doctor Hall,

I’m sorry to take up your time, but I think a friend of mine might be in danger. From what I’ve heard, you could be the best person to ask for help. The last few weeks I’ve noticed her become increasingly jumpy. I know she’s been having trouble with some guy for a few weeks now, but I’m worried it might be escalating into something horrifically serious. A couple of days ago she seemed totally spooked out by a piece of mail, and when I asked her about it she became extremely defensive and refused to show me the letter. Yesterday, when only I was in, a really creepy looking guy knocked on our door looking for her. I got a scarily bad vibe off him and it was his visit that persuaded me to seek help. None of this is enough to interest the police, but I thought you might like to look into it for me. I can only offer modest financial rewards, but I dearly hope that you will try to help me. If you are interested then please contact me at the email address or come to visit me at the address, both of which are overleaf. Her name is Sandi Lords and she lives with me at that address. She is about to start her third year at UCLA and has a room there too.

Yours pleadingly,

Scarlet.

‘She certainly seems pretty spooked,’ Sabine Larksson said to Christopher Hall after she’d read the letter.

‘Indeed she does,’ Christopher replied.

‘Hand delivered, she obviously came round hoping to see you.’

‘Considering I’ve got nothing else on for you at the moment, are you intrigued enough to investigate?’

‘Sure, if she’s every reason to be this concerned, then it definitely is worth looking into. And if she’s overreacting greatly, I’m sure I’ll be able to work that out before I waste too much time on her.’

Christopher had been working in and around Los Angeles as a private detective for over forty years. Turning seventy at the start of this year was his cue to get somebody younger to help him with his business.

‘So you want me to go round and see her now?’ Sabine continued the conversation, the two of them sat on patio chairs, overlooking the Pacific Ocean from the back garden of Christopher’s house.

‘Not just yet, your new partner will be here soon so I thought you may as well look into it together.’

‘He’s coming here today?’

‘Don’t let yourself down dear, by asking questions you clearly already know the answer to.’

‘Sorry Doc, so what time are you expecting him?’

‘His plane should have landed about an hour ago, so depending on how on schedule it was and how efficiently he can collect his luggage and make his way here, he could be here any moment now.’

‘Still don’t really see why I need a partner.’

‘Call me old fashioned but I don’t like the idea of a young lady walking the crime ridden streets of LA on her own.’

‘So this ex-ball player guy is just a bodyguard then?’

‘You know full well he’s more than that.’

‘Sorry it’s just that I’ve been asking my friends in England about him and they’ve told me that the game he used to play is one of the most brutal games around and that he had a reputation for outstanding brutality even within the sport.’

‘Sport is such a wonderful thing,’ Christopher talked as if he hadn’t heard Sabine’s latest comment. ‘Great test of character and a great way to reveal it. Besides I’m reliably informed that his on field reputation is in stark contrast to his off field persona.’

‘Oh good, a schizophrenic, brutally inclined ex-sportsman. Another thing is that sportsmen in general, and apparently Rugby League players in particular are not noted for their high IQ’s. If we just wanted some ugly bruiser then there are plenty of them in LA, why you had to get somebody from England when looking for a psychotic, big goof to protect me I’m not entirely sure. I know he’s got a degree in criminal something or other, but how much use is that going to be out on the streets? And if it’s anything like over here then the degree is probably more a representation of his athletic ability than his intelligence.’

‘Criminal psychology, first class degree and a Masters in criminal psychology.’ Sabine heard a voice from behind her and although she’d never met the man before, she knew who had spoken without looking at him. Couldn’t stop herself from turning round.

‘How long have you been standing there?’ Sabine asked looking apologetic. ‘So I know exactly what to apologise for,’ she added with a pleading smile.

‘Given my reputation for outstanding brutality, I can understand your willingness to apologise to me. Or should I say both of us?’ He continued to make Sabine squirm.

‘So you caught the whole show.’

‘Don’t worry about it, given my low IQ I will probably forget all about it really soon. After all I am big, can’t argue with that, plenty of people would agree with the goofy part, Rugby League players in general are not the sharpest tools in the box and you’re certainly not the first person to call me psychotic, ugly is a little harsh but I can sort of see where you’re coming from. Hi Sabine, good to meet you.’

‘Hey Jordan,’ Sabine got up out of the chair and the two of them shook hands and exchanged smiles. ‘I will strike ugly from the record.’

‘Good, because that was the one thing that truly hurt.’

‘As first impressions go, not the best.’

‘Oh I don’t know, lets see; you speak your mind, good with words and have an independent streak that I have to admire.’

‘Biggest case of glass half full ever.’

‘That’s me, always the optimist.’

‘By the way I’m an icy bitch who can be extremely anti-social and have a habit of playing with my hair that some people can find annoying. Just thought I’d tell you that so you can hurl some insults at me whenever you feel like getting even.’

‘I’ll keep it in mind. By the way university sport back home is nothing like over here. Vast majority of sports stars back home don’t get close to going to university. Plus you certainly don’t get any favours from a University if you are good at sport.’

‘Glad to see you kids hitting it off right away,’ Christopher said and got up out of his chair to greet Jordan.

‘Pleasure to finally meet you in person Doctor Hall, I knocked on the door but there was no answer so I thought I’d have a walk round the back,’ the pair of them shook hands.

‘That’s fine, and call me Doc, everyone else does and you’ll just confuse me if you start using different names.’

‘Excellent, I can handle that. Telling people I work for the Doc, that sounds quite cool. There you go, being goofy already.’

‘Trust me it is cool to be working for him,’ Sabine said.

‘Not to mention working along side such and icy bitch,’ Jordan said.

‘There you go, I feel less guilty already.’

‘So what are we doing today?’ Jordan asked.

‘I was just about to go around to a lady’s house to follow up her inquiry letter to the Doc. You can come with me if you want.’

‘Sounds good, that your car out the front? I can throw my things in there and if it’s not too much trouble when we’re done you can drive me to my new place.’

‘I see I could have added; “a little cheeky”, to your list of slight faults.’

‘Considering the abuse you’ve hurled at me already, I thought a lift might be the least you could do.’

‘I’m only joking. Let’s get going. You don’t have to come along if you don’t want you know, give yourself a day or two to get over the jet lag if you want.’

‘Jet lag? Jet lag? Did I hear you right? Jet…….lag? Do you really think I’m going to be stopped in my tracks by jet lag?’

‘Is the macho image something I’m going to have to get used to?’

‘No I promise I won’t be like that!’

Sabine drove Jordan round to the address on the back of the letter. The house was on a beach road and was out on its own, with the nearest house in both directions at least a quarter of a mile away. Jordan read the letter during the car trip, so he knew as much about the case as Sabine did.

‘Odd that she doesn’t leave a phone number,’ Jordan said as Sabine parked her car.

‘Yeah, whole thing seems a bit odd.’

There was no sign of life from within the house, but from peering into the windows the two of them could see that it did look lived in.

‘Don’t suppose we’re at the breaking the door down stage yet?’ Jordan asked.

‘No, not just yet. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for a while to hit something.’

‘All in good time.’

‘Doc’s emailed her already but I’ll leave a card so she can call me,’ Sabine said then slipped one of her cards through the letter box.

‘I love the location of this house,’ Jordan said.

‘Definitely good if you like the quiet life, and that would include me.’

‘So has the term started at UCLA yet?’

‘No, it will start on Monday.’

‘Will it be open yet? The halls of residence or whatever you guys call it. I believe some people come from thousands of miles to go there so it’s not like they’re all going to turn up on Monday morning and not before. Surely the Friday before term starts has a few arrivals.’

‘I’m sure you’re right. You fancy a trip down there to see if there’s any sign of this Sandi girl in her dorm room?’

‘I haven’t got any other plans.’

‘That jet-lag is going to kick in some time and it will kick hard.’

‘When it does I’m sure you’ll enjoy seeing me get kicked, but in the mean time let’s get to work.’

When they got to the campus they wandered around for a little while, before being pointed in the direction of where they needed to go to find out where Sandi’s room was located. The lady behind the reception desk was enthusiastically helpful in telling them where Sandi’s room was and told them that she remembered her moving her stuff in the day before yesterday. Sabine and Jordan walked the short distance from the reception to Sandi’s ground floor room. No answer was forthcoming when they knocked on the locked door. At the opposite end of the corridor a man was working on fixing a window.

‘Excuse me, excuse me chief,’ Jordan spoke loudly to get the man’s attention, then beckoned him over. He seemed happy to have an excuse to leave his work alone for a while so wandered towards them. ‘Do you work for the University? Have you got a key for this room?’

‘Yeah I work here, and yeah I’ve got a master key.’

‘Awesome. You see we’re private investigators and we’ve received information that the young lady who lives in this room might be in some danger,’ Jordan explained.

The man looked a little sceptical, but after a close inspection of Sabine’s identification he got out his key and unlocked the door.

Blood, so much blood. There were plenty of other things in the room but the three sets of eyes were all drawn to the blood and each of them struggled to pull their glare away from the blood. Blood covered the white bed sheets and there was a splattering of blood up the wall and spots of blood on the carpet next to the bed.

Chapter 2

‘Oh God,’ handyman was the first to speak, then put his right hand over his mouth.

‘Wow,’ Jordan found himself using one of his most common words, a word that he can use to fit many situations.

‘Get him out of here,’ Sabine said to Jordan, the handyman had gone pale and was looking close to fainting, vomiting or both.

Jordan led the handyman out of the room and out of the building and got him to sit down in the fresh air, where he could no longer see any blood. As soon as she’d finished telling Jordan what to do, Sabine flipped open her phone and called the police.

‘He’s sat down outside now and another member of staff is with him,’ Jordan said as he came back into the room.

‘Cops are on their way.’

‘Some first day for me. Have you ever seen anything quite like this?’

‘Never seen this much blood before, hard to believe it’s only come out of one person.’

‘There’s a thought, and not a pretty one, could be a mass murder scene right here.’

‘Or could be somebody’s been down to the butcher shop and is playing a very sick joke.’

‘Here’s hoping.’

Jordan couldn’t help but notice a change in Sabine’s demeanour, and not just from the shock of what they’d just walked in on. She’d switched from Sabine the person to Sabine the detective within a second or two of coming into the room, intensity came into her look, her thoughts and words increased in clarity and she gave off an air that there was already a thousand thought trails going off in her mind. She started to wander slowly round the room, looking closely at every part of it.

‘I’m guessing this is a, “don’t touch anything” scenario,’ Jordan checked.

‘That would be a good idea.’

‘If the Butcher shop theory doesn’t pan out are we still going to take this case?’

‘I should think so, her friend asked us to help her out and I’d put finding her murderer in that category.’

‘Definitely. The police won’t stop us then?’

‘There’s no way they can stop us investigating the case if we want to.’

The first police car got there within a few minutes of Sabine’s call, closely followed by the second which had a senior officer in it.

‘Hey Sabine,’ the senior officer greeted her as he walked towards Sabine, who was now stood outside the door to Sandi’s room.

‘Hey Fred take a look at this, you haven’t just eaten have you?’

‘No, why?’ Fred continued to walk as he talked then looked into the room. ‘Holy crap! What the Hell?’

‘The forensic team on their way?’ Sabine asked Fred.

‘Yeah I called them on my way over here just like you said to.’

‘We need to find out if the blood belongs to the girl who’s room it is and whether it’s only hers.’

‘That would be our start point. So what were you doing here anyway?’

‘The Doc got this letter claiming to be from a friend of this girl Sandi,’ Sabine handed Fred the letter.

‘Guess she was right to be worried,’ Fred said after reading the letter.

‘Looks that way. Oh by the way, this is Jordan. He’s going to be working with me and the Doc from now on.’

‘Hey Jordan,’ Fred said and the pair of them shook hands.

‘Hey Fred, how you doing?’

‘You’re not from round here are you Jordan?’ Fred guessed.

‘They really do only select the best to be detectives for the LAPD don’t they?’ Jordan replied.

‘Jordan’s English,’ Sabine told Fred.

‘And a little too quick with snappy put downs,’ Jordan conceded.

‘No worries Jordan, I can make myself a pretty easy target at times.’

The forensic team duly arrived and set about their business. Heavy police presence did attract the attention of a few people, mostly students. Sabine and Jordan wasted no time in asking the students and staff questions about Sandi. With the police asking questions as well, virtually everybody that turned up to have a look what all the fuss was about got questioned. Not all of them knew of Sandi, but those who did all described her as a pleasant, polite young lady who was quiet and kept herself to herself. All of them said she seemed innocent and led such a unremarkable existence, that it was hard for them to imagine that she’d have got caught up in anything that would lead to her murder. None of them knew Sandi particularly well and only a couple of them had ever seen Scarlet, when she had come round looking for Sandi.

Chapter 3

‘Scarlet. Scarlet, you waking up?’ A man stood over a young lady who had long, bright red hair. She was stirring from what felt like a coma like, deep sleep.

‘What the? Where? Where am I?’

‘Where’s not really relevant, the fact is your going to be staying with me for a while.’

The young lady took a moment or two to let her eyes adjust, so she could take a better look around. Realised she was lying on a bed and had one arm handcuffed to that bed.

‘Most guys just have to ask to tie me up or handcuff me and I’m more than happy to let them, you didn’t have to drug me or whatever you did,’ she spoke with a feisty edge.

‘Sorry to disappoint you sugar but this isn’t a sex thing.’

‘Freud would probably disagree with you there.’

‘Him and me would disagree a lot.’

‘So what is this then?’

‘Simply that somebody has paid me a good chunk of money to keep an eye on you for a little while.’

‘Keep an eye? Is that a euphemism for kidnap, murder or both?’

‘Kidnap. Been told I don’t have to hurt you, but that if you try to escape I can hurt you.’

‘There’s a small drop of comfort.’

‘Count your blessings. By the way, no point shouting for help, the walls are seriously thick and we’re a fair distance away from any human ears.’

‘Could be bluffing.’

‘Indeed I could, but you making any noise will annoy me, and you really don’t want to see me annoyed. Remember I don’t have to hurt you, but I can if I want.’

‘Something tells me that you’re not a rookie when it comes to hurting people,’ she took a good look at the man who wasn’t that much older than her, but had a hardened look to him and a piercing stare.

‘In this case your women’s intuition is serving you well.’

‘So you hurt people professionally?’

‘Hurt, kill, torture and now kidnap. Yeah I’m in the paid ranks.’

‘Just out of interest what do you write on forms when it asks for your occupation?’

‘Do you get kidnapped a lot? Because you seem remarkably calm.’

‘First time, guess I’m just a natural. So what do you write?’

‘Electrician.’

‘That’s not even kind of close.’

‘I am a qualified electrician as well as it happens.’

‘In that case when you’re done kidnapping me can you leave me your card, because I’d like to put a couple more plug sockets into my house. By the way when will that be?’

‘When will what be? When I let you go?’

‘Yes.’

‘Just depends.’

‘On what?’

‘When I get the word.’

‘What word?’

‘The password. When the person who is paying me calls and says a certain phrase, then I’ll let you go.’

‘Look I really think this is some kind of mistake. I’m not the sort of person that people want to kidnap.’

‘There you go, that’s the sort of pleading I was expecting to hear.’

‘Seriously, I’ve got no money, nobody who knows me has any money. I’m not important in any way.’

‘Somebody obviously thinks you’re important.’

‘Lucky me.’

Chapter 4

Once the forensic team had finished with the room and the police had also left, Sabine and Jordan took their chance to have a thorough look around the room.

‘So you looking for anything in particular?’ Jordan asked.

‘No, just anything that could act as a lead.’

‘Let me know if this supposed to be a quiet time,’

‘No it’s fine.’

‘Just that I’ve been playing in a team for so long I’ve become conditioned to continuous chatter whenever I’m at work.’

‘No problem, talk all you want, you might not get a response, but don’t let that stop you.’

‘I suppose a diary would be useful.’

‘This could be better,’ Sabine said as she pulled out a laptop computer from under Sandi’s bed. ‘These days some people’s entire life is on a computer.’

‘Did you just say “these days”?’

‘Did make myself sound a little old didn’t I?’

‘I’ll let you off, bit of a technophobe traditionalist myself. I firmly believe that pencil and paper will make a big come back soon.’

Sabine placed the laptop on a desk, opened it and switched it on.

‘Oh fuck, need a password,’ she said.

‘Lets not give up just yet, could be guessable.’

‘That could be a really long game.’

‘Could be a fun one though.’

‘Look there are guys down at the department that can break into this for us.’

‘That’ll take up the rest of the day, if we guess it then it could just be a few minutes.’

‘Or it could be forever.’

‘All right then how about we guess for fifteen minutes, then if we haven’t got it you can take it to your old friends.’

‘Okay then, let’s play. We know nothing about this girl, how are we going to go about guessing her password?’

‘We know something. Try Sandi, for example.’

‘That’s taking optimism to a whole new level,’ Sabine said as she typed in Sandi whilst shaking her head. ‘Big surprise the computer is saying no.’

‘Okay, idnas.’

Sabine thought for a second. ‘As in Sandi backwards?’

‘Exactly.’

‘No that’s not it either.’

‘All right then let’s look around,’ Jordan said and started looking at the posters on Sandi’s wall. ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s.’

Sabine typed in the film’s name followed by the words breakfast and Tiffany’s on their own, but to no avail.

‘All right then, Holly Golightly, Audrey Hepburn, Moon River. You see how many guesses we can make,’ the failures weren’t dampening Jordan’s enthusiasm at all.

‘I am beginning to fully understand just how many times we can get it wrong,’ Sabine said after trying Jordan’s latest suggestions with no success.

‘Now then, next poster. It’s a Wonderful Life.’

‘Not a wonderful password though.’

‘Frank Capra, James Stewart, George Bailey, Clarence.’

‘Oh wow we’re in,’ Sabine said.

‘Really? Which one?’

‘Clarence. I don’t know whether to be happy we’re in or disappointed because you’re going to be bragging about this for a while.’

‘That hurts, the important thing is we won the little game.’

‘Yeah my typing skills were crucial.’

‘Exactly, with me doing the thinking and you the typing, we’ll drive women’s liberation back into the dark ages in no time.’

‘Can’t quite see myself as a secretary somehow.’

‘No me neither.’

‘Now let’s see if we can find anything interesting on here.’ Sabine searched the documents and found one called “Journal”. ‘Good girl Sandi.’

‘A journal, that’s almost too easy.’

‘Don’t get carried away, it’s unlikely for her to write an entry along the lines of “the guy who is going to kill me tomorrow came by today, his name is this and he lives at this address”.’

‘Now that would be too easy. Doesn’t look like she’s got a printer, how about we save it onto a disk, take the disk to a library, use one of their computers and print off a couple of copies there. It shouldn’t cost too much.’

‘You got a lap top with Internet access with you?’

‘In your car you mean? Yeah, had to make sure I had Internet access when I came over here, the best way to keep in touch with the proper sports that the rest of the world plays apart from you guys.’

‘In that case we could just email it to each other and read it when we get back to our respective homes. But your library idea was really good too.’

‘You kids today. Did I mention that I’m a bit of a technophobe?!’

‘Yes you did, and I think that’s the first time somebody younger than me referred to me as a kid. I think I actually like it.’

‘We spend our whole childhood wanting to be adults and our whole adulthood wanting to be kids.’

‘Very true, for a jock you really are a deep thinker.’

‘Wow, steady on, be careful using the term “jock” around me. I know you mean it to describe a sports person, but back home it’s also a name for a Scottish person, and you really don’t want to be calling a Englishman a Scot and certainly not the other way around.’

‘Oh okay, no more jock talk.’

‘It would be like me calling you Canadian.’

‘Enough said.’

By the time they’d found the journal document in Sandi’s computer it was early evening and Sabine and Jordan agreed that the best thing for them to do was to go back to their homes and read through the journal. Sabine drove Jordan to his new apartment, which was only about five miles from her own house.

It was an hour or so drive from UCLA to Jordan’s new house.

‘You’re only thirty, and injury forced you to retire right?’ Sabine checked as she drove.

‘Prefer to think of it as twenty nine and eighteen months.’

‘That’s a way of making you sound younger that even I hadn’t thought of! Was it purely the injury that made you retire?’

‘Yeah, bad shoulder damage. It’s healed to the point where it doesn’t effect every day type of stuff, but just no way I could take or make the hits anymore.’

‘Must admit I’ve never seen a game of Rugby League, but I’ve got a couple of friends in England and they’ve told me it’s pretty brutal.’

‘Yeah it is pretty tough. Great team game, everybody has to do their bit, you can’t rely on a few superstars to win games for you.’

‘I suppose our football is the closest thing we have to it.’

‘Yeah sort of, although really there are a lot more differences than similarities. We play two non-stop halves of forty minutes, thirteen in a team, seventeen in a squad and usually there’s at least seven of us who will play the full eighty minutes. Some researchers or other did a study that proved that of all the team games ours is the one where the players expend the most energy. Then there’s the collision aspect, like your football it’s wrong to call it merely a contact sport, it’s a collision sport. People do tend to go on a little too much about the size and physical attributes of the players, forgetting that it is one of the most technical sports in the world and there is often immensely impressive skill on show.’

‘So you don’t miss it much then?!’

‘Oh no not at all! Seriously though I can’t complain. I had a fantastic, if a little shorter than average career. Won a Grand final with my home town team, that’s like our Superbowl, and represented my country a bunch of times.’

‘A bunch? Bit vague.’

‘Okay I admit it I know exactly how many times, just don’t like sounding too geeky or big headed, it’s 31. Which is actually quite a lot for a Rugby League player.’

‘Oh don’t worry about it, you’re playing reputation precedes you. Both the Brits I talked to about you knew who you were and were most complimentary of your playing prowess.’

‘And I suppose they just happened to mention I was a bit of a lunatic on the field at times as well?’

‘They did say something along those lines.’

‘Hence our wonderful introductory meeting.’

‘Absolutely. So when did you get your degree, if you only retired a year or so ago?’

‘Did the degree part time, during my playing days. That took me six years, then almost as soon as I retired I started the Masters. Starting to feel like we’ve been talking about me for far too long already. These friends from the North of England?’

‘Yeah, why you say that?’

‘Just that Rugby League is amazingly localised in England, so chances are for them to have heard of me they must be from a Rugby League town or nearby.’

‘They’re both from around Manchester.’

‘Oh of course, they must be friends that you made from your time over there during that serial killer case you worked on.’

‘Yeah that’s right, didn’t realise you’d heard of me.’

‘Oh yes, I did my research too. Made Lieutenant in the LAPD by the time you were thirty, left them just a couple of years or so after that to work with the Doc. What made you make that change?’

‘A few things really, I’d always loved the investigating crimes part of the job, but all the other extras that went with it were starting to wear me down.’

‘Paper work etc?’

‘Yeah pretty much, a senior officer of mine could see how stressed I was getting and he recommended I speak to a friend of his. This friend turned out to be the Doc, who was looking for someone to do his leg work for him. After the briefest of interviews he hired me, that was six months ago and I haven’t come near regretting the change. I’d heard all about the Doc and was so excited and flattered to be asked to work with him. I definitely needed a change after that serial killer case.’

‘I remember reading about that case at the time, was amazingly bizarre.’

‘Oh you don’t know the half of it, definitely not the sort of thing I’d want to get caught up in again.’

‘Definitely sounded like a once in a lifetime sort of case.’

‘Yeah once was more than enough. It took over my whole life, I got so stressed and intense about it I couldn’t believe it.’

‘When you play sport for a living there is definitely a danger that you can start taking things too seriously, that’s when you need to remind yourself that it is just a game. But with your sort of job, and I suppose our sort of job now, it must get immensely difficult to switch off and have your own relaxation time.’

‘Definitely not a good idea to get too emotionally involved.’

‘I’ll try to remember that. Anymore tips and hints for me?’

‘Not a big one for instruction, I’ll just tell you the one thing the Doc told me and it rings so true but is sometimes a lot harder to do than say. That is to always believe facts and not people.’

‘Sounds good, I can handling being distrusting of people.’

‘You will get lied to a lot.’

‘We all get lied to a lot. “Yeah your hair looks fine,” “no your bum doesn’t look big”, “I thought you played really well today,” “of course you don’t look fat”, “I can’t come out tonight I’m busy”.’

‘Very true,’ Sabine said and had a little chuckle.

Chapter 5

Sandi’s Journal

Sun 16 Jan

Move my stuff back into my college room for the new semester, which starts tomorrow. See a couple of people I know from the campus as I’m bringing my things in from the car. Chat with both of them, friendly enough. We catch up on what we got up to over the holidays and wish each other well for our upcoming exams. It’s so funny that people here look at me and talk to me as if I’m this sweet, innocent little girl. Indeed I suppose that is the image I portray at college, if only they knew the real me. They’d be shocked to find out what I really got up to, my nocturnal activities, where I really get my money from and the sort of people I actually socialise with. It’s so interesting being a different person here to the person I really am. People treat me so differently, as if I really am the sweet young girl I play so convincingly. I’m constantly surprised how easy it is for me to play this role and impressed with myself for never slipping up by drifting out of character. One of the best things about it is that I can easily keep myself to myself because everybody thinks I’m so quiet, not to mention boring. That is good because I really haven’t got the time to have another circle of friends. Friends? Who am I kidding, friends is way too strong a term. Social acquaintances is the most polite way I can put it. Could quite easily come up with more blunt and crude terms, for the people I spend a lot of my spare time with in the evenings and night times. Being two different people is proving to be strangely freeing, almost as if I don’t have to take responsibility for my actions, because the actions aren’t mine, they’re my characters. Must admit I’m spending more time thinking about which character is closest to the “real me”, I know the “real me” is probably somewhere between the two extremes.

Friday 21st Jan

With another week of playing the “mousy” Sandi behind me, it was time for the “other” me to come out to play. Made a new contact during the week and tonight is the night I’m going to meet him. He’s taking me out to dinner first, like most of them do, as if it somehow justifies in their mind what they’re doing. Paying for a girl’s dinner then having sex with her is apparently to them a massive jump from paying to have sex with a girl. He’s married so we’ll be going to a hotel after dinner. Of course I have to dress as expected and do my make-up and hair accordingly. Some would call my finished look, slutty and trashy, some would call it gorgeous and sexy, the line between them is increasingly blurry to me. Worst case scenario tonight is that I get a free dinner and have to put up with some lousy sex. Best case scenario, as always, is that he becomes a substantial long term investment.

Sat 22nd Jan

Turns out the sex was pretty lousy. Just looking at the girl who brought us room service got me closer to orgasm than he managed to the whole night. However he does seem to be seriously wealthy and definitely doesn’t want a divorce, so there is plenty of potential there for me.

Make another couple of contacts in the evening, that computer webcam is definitely proving to be my smartest investment ever.

From the noise next door I gather that Amy got lucky again last night. I do wonder whether I should tell her all about my exploits and bring her in on my business plan. She is undoubtedly a hottie and our earning power together would probably be more than double mine on my own. However I do like having my secret identity and I think that in the long term I will work better on my own.

Mon 23rd Jan

After my morning exam I get a text message from Chad my lecturer in that subject, message read; ‘looked like you were struggling a bit in there, if u want 2 increase ur mark u know the deal. I’ll be in my office from 3-5. xxx’. Little does he know that the “favours” I do for him I actually do pretty much professionally, so going to his office and pleasing him the way college girls can, isn’t that much of a chore for me. Definitely less hassle than working extra hours in the library and it certainly takes a lot less time. I go down there about three and give one of my better performances which means I’m back in my room before quarter past three.

Sat 4th Feb

Meeting a contact with a difference tonight. He is married but he actually wants his wife to join in with our activities. Which is fine by me, from the pictures she looks fantastic, especially for her age. I’ll just have to find another way to make money out of this one. With that in mind I take along my camcorder. No pretence of dinner this time, just straight round to their house, for champagne and bed.

Sun 5th Feb

Get back to my room sometime in the mid afternoon, last night was enjoyable even if I don’t manage to make any money out of it. Clearly I wasn’t their first threesome, she was amazing and he was pretty good himself. No objections about using my camcorder either, at least not yet. We’ll see if there are any objections when I tell them I’m planning to sell the footage. A little sleazy I know, but a girl has got to eat.

Fri 12th March

Tonight all the groundwork I’ve done with one of my long term contacts will pay off. He’s one of my unmarried ones but he has a senior position in the State Government, so he is keen for me to not tell anybody about our activities. Tonight he has invited me to a most exclusive party with some powerful people. Apparently so many people in these circles have things to hide that it means everyone’s secret is safe with everyone else. So I don’t have to pretend to be his niece or his new PA or his best friends daughter, I can openly be his young, college girl play thing. This party was exactly what I was hoping for from him. Tonight will be about one thing, networking. Lots of senior, important and powerful public figures will be there and I just know that I’ll be able to reel so many of them into my seductive web. I have to get the look right for this night, have to leave trashy out of it completely. Pairing up classy with a definite hint of youthful seductiveness, which of course is still close to the neighbourhood of slutty.

Sat 13 March

Last nights networking went just as I dreamt it would. So many people there who think they are a lot more important than they really are. All of them have a few things in common, one being massive ego’s, another being petrified of the public knowing what they are really like, and they all can’t help wanting something they know they shouldn’t have. A mysterious young girl in a tight, short black dress, with a naughty smile and seductive eye contact, was like a delicious tasting forbidden fruit to so many of them. Definitely worth putting up with some average sex with my contact later that night. When I woke up late morning and checked my phone there were seventeen answer phone messages and thirty four texts, all from people at the party. Some would say they were just checking they got the correct number off me last night, others said how pleasant it was to meet me, others waived such subtlety and got straight to the point of arranging a meeting, some of them went to the trouble of describing just what they plan to do to me when we do meet again. General rule was the later the message the more explicit the content. Some were married men who I knew would have to be very discreet for a few reasons. Others were single men but still needed an element of discretion because of their jobs. Some were married women, some which wanted to experiment with me by themselves, others knew full well they wanted me and there would be no sort of “experiment”, whilst others said they’d sound out their husbands about how they’d feel about a threesome or maybe watching me with their wife. My favourite messages were consecutive answer phone messages from a married couple, both offering to meet up as long as the other one didn’t find out. From the timing of the messages they must have called me at almost the same time.

To buy this novel on kindle follow this link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Searching-Scarlet-Sabine-Jordan-Investigations-ebook/dp/B0056J1ATU/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Searching+for+Scarlet+by+Rob+Watson&qid=1637437016&qsid=259-4575610-9750238&s=books&sr=1-1&sres=B0056J1ATU%2C1908147865