Scene Twenty-Five

Trisha and Sally felt on top of the world when they got to 'Chix.' Instantly, they plunged into the vibrant ambiance of the club. The rhythm of the music called to them both in time with the flashing lights that sporadically flashed colours over them. Sally felt comfortable in her mind and responded brightly to the introductions that Trisha made to her friends. With a shock of recognition, Sally realized that these were the same women that Trisha had introduced her to two or three months ago and she'd been intimidated by their glamorous confidence. Now she realized that they just liked dressing up and they were trying to be friendly to her. They were ordinary women, just like herself, nothing to be afraid of. It made her realize that these women hadn't changed but she had over the past months. She was nearly three months into living with Trisha, which had smoothed away a lot of her self-consciousness. Outside her place of work, it was one thing she realized she'd come to accept. Also, she had worked hard in her therapy sessions and without thinking about it, the payoff had sneaked up on her right now without her expecting it. She was less inclined to attribute everything to the dubious double-edged power of the tablet and to give herself a break. Feeling comfortable in her skin and absolutely unthreatened was such a blessing that those who didn't have her problems took for granted all too easily.

"Care for a dance?" Trisha smiled at her.

Without hesitation, she let the blond haired woman take her by the hand the same as any other woman in the club. It all felt resolutely normal to her.

Inevitably, Trisha had to slide away later and engage herself with the running of the club and Sally was quite happy to talk comfortably with the others. She didn't feel panicky about being deserted but behaved quite naturally. A friendly woman called Alice engaged her in conversation. She wore black trousers, a white lacy top and her relaxing manner put Sally-Anne immediately at her ease.

"I'm glad you could make it down one night, Sally. Trisha is always talking about you."

"She is? I mean I wasn't sure what there is to tell about me."

"Don't underrate yourself. I've known her for a long time and ever since she and Nikki went their separate ways, she's just drifted from one relationship to another until she met you. She can charm the birds off the trees but one night stands really aren't her thing."

"It's wonderful to hear that," came the bashful response.

"Sometimes, it helps for someone else than your lover to be supportive. That's what we all do for each other."

All of a sudden, a sudden chill came over Sally in the heat of the club. This puzzled her, as everyone was dressed lightly for party night. Next feelings of panic started to creep through her system. Oh no, not those horrible feelings coming back to haunt me just when she was thoroughly enjoying herself, she thought to herself, cursing her fate. Instantly, she reached for a solution and started murmuring to herself the formulas for relaxing. She tried her deep breathing techniques and lay back in her chair. The other woman looked at her with a concerned expression on her face.

"What's wrong, Sally?"

"I ought to have explained, Alice," Sally stammered apologetically." Some years ago I was in the police force and was raped by another policeman. I've been on tranquillizers ever since."

"It's no wonder, Sally. You poor thing. Try and relax and do whatever you need to do to feel more comfortable, anything. We'll look after you," that soothing voice answered, gesturing and including the other women in the group.

Those caring words achieved a miracle. They started to make her feel less like an alien amongst all these lovely supportive women. She was still edgy and jittery but she felt as if she could cope even if she felt clammy all over. Suddenly, she glanced to one side and all of a sudden, the woman who must have been around for some time came clearly into her vision. It was Trisha's assistant, Gill who was looking at her with a particularly unpleasant smile on her face, before she turned away and headed back to the bar.

"It's as if that woman over there spooked me," she said apologetically.

"Between you and me, I don't like her. There's something about her that doesn't fit," murmured Alice reassuringly. Sally reached gratefully for that sense of validation and clung to the safety of the crowd while the women swayed and gyrated in time with the music.

***

"I don't understand it," Trisha exclaimed to herself as she rifled through the recent bank statements the following evening. "I've got a lot less money in the bank than I ought to."

Sally pricked up her ears as the normally calm and collected Trisha was clearly agitated. The dark haired woman felt like an intruder, as she had never pried into Trisha's finances but found words to say.

"Like how short are you, babes?"

"Only a couple of grand," Trisha laughed mirthlessly." You know, like I can afford to chuck that sort of money away."

"Is this recent?"

'I'm not sure," admitted Trisha, biting her lip." I mean, my accountant went through the books last April and didn't point out anything wrong then."

"I haven't noticed you spend any more money personally so it must be the business," pronounced Sally softly with what felt to her as unnatural calmness and resting her hand on Trisha's shoulders. The neck muscles felt dangerously taut to her.

"I know. That's what worries me."

"Why don't you try and get to the bottom of it and go through the books right now."

"Can't," said Trisha, her voice tight and strained." Gill has the business cheque book right now."

"Then get it back off her as soon as you can and go through the books," said Sally in a determined voice. It was curious, she reflected, how certain and determined you can be over someone else's problems.

Trisha shook her head as if to clarify her thoughts. She knew that she had let things slide in recent months and that Gill had expressed an interest in her accounts. It was as if she had really been looking for a co manager to run the club and had disguised what was happening to herself by calling Gill her assistant. There had been a more convenient side to the arrangement. It had helped her to take time off to be with Sally and this taciturn woman had silently assented to the arrangement. Because of her feelings of guilt in not doing proper justice both to her lover and to her business, she had inhibited herself from examining closely what might have been going on under her very nose. It suggested that stark choices needed to be made in her lifestyle.

"What do you know about Gill?" Sally Anne persisted. Somehow, her long dormant policewoman instincts were roused to focus in on this conundrum.

"Very little," Trisha admitted frankly." She answered an ad I put in the paper and she convinced me that she was the one for the job. I interviewed others but they didn't impress me as much as she did."

All Sally's gut instincts rose up inside her and focused in on the dimly perceived threat. It wasn't just her feelings.

"Just how persuasive is she?"

"Very persuasive. I mean, Nikki used to do all the hiring and firing. I mean, I feel such a fool."

Trisha's face suddenly crumpled and Sally reached out to the other woman, folding her in her arms and gently stroking her back to offer the sort of comfort she had been crying out for.

"I'm scared," Trisha admitted later on as they lay together on the sofa while Sally gently kissed away the tears. "Scared at what I'll find."

"I'd volunteer to help you but accounts aren't my scene. You'd spend all your time showing me what should be going on. I'd hold you back."

'That's what bothers me. I know what I should do but I need someone I can trust to double check, someone with a good grasp of the ……criminal mind."

The two women shared an appalled glance. It was obvious that Trisha's subconscious had been way ahead of her conscious reasoning. All her fears were dragging these suspicions to the surface.

"What about Nikki………."

"That won't work, babes. I mean Nikki is brilliant in her way and I trust her implicitly. She has an inquisitive mind. but accounts aren't her thing. She'd be the first to say so," came the disconsolate reply.

"……………..Or Helen. She's got the sort of mathematical mind that you need and she must have done accounts when she worked for the prison service."

A wide smile slowly spread across Trisha's face. The suggestion was sheer brilliance. She considered everything that she had heard about Helen and wondered why she had never thought about it before. She flung her arms round Sally and kissed her full on the lips out of sheer gratitude. It felt heavenly that her girlfriend was giving so much support and the possibilities were opening up to her.

*****

Saturday night at Trisha's had that electric buzz about it. It was part fuelled by that questing sense of investigation and partly Helen and Nikki's immediate heartfelt sympathy. They brought a bottle of wine over and Nikki was pouring generous measures in the kitchen. Helen was armed with sheets of paper and a pocket calculator and spread all the account books, cheque stubs and bills over the large dining table. She held a biro between her forefingers and pointed it at the mass of paperwork in a meditative fashion.

"So have you known Gill to have a girlfriend?" Nikki asked with raised eyebrows.

"You know, babes, that she isn't forced to be gay to work for me," laughed Trisha.

"Let's put it this way. Why should she bother working in a lesbian club when London's nightlife is stacked with straight clubs? Unless it's changed since my day, Chix is hardly Sodom and Gomorrah but any barmaid or assistant is going to have to get used to women naturally expressing their feelings towards each other. From working in the straight world, it isn't every straight woman's cup of tea."

"I really don't know anything about her. She is a closed book."

"And on the other hand, she's been getting into yours, hey," came Nikki's impulsive retort. On seeing the shocked expression on Trisha's face, feelings of contrition swept over her and duty compelled her to apologise. "Sorry, babes, I didn't mean to be tactless."

"Just tell it like it is, Nik. That's you all over," Trisha said with nostalgic affection. Sally smiled appreciatively as Nikki confirmed the vague suspicions that had centred on this shadowy woman that she had confused with her nervous problems.

There was a lull in the conversation while Helen's body tensed as she eagerly pursued the financial trail to its source with the same degree of fanaticism finding the source of the Nile.

"I see what's been going on," Helen suddenly exclaimed loudly in a tone of mixed triumph and anger." The conniving backstabbing bitch."

The other three women turned sharply to focus on the glowing grey green eyes and the smouldering expression of anger that emanated from Helen. Sally and Nikki felt intense satisfaction that Helen had got to the bottom of the situation. Trisha's stomach lurched as she heard the fateful words. While she was incredibly grateful for Helen giving her time so generously, she felt incredibly foolish and blind to have let the situation run.

"Don't beat yourself up about it, babes," Nikki said gently laying her hand on her sleeve. Trisha flashed her friend a look of intense gratitude.

"Don't forget, we're with you," put in Sally.

"You look here, Trisha." Helen pronounced intensely, gesturing to her to come over to the crime scene." If you check through this bill here ….and here….you'll see that there's a duplicate invoice. The second one just happens to be when she gets her hands on your chequebook. You can see a payment made each time and both supposedly to the same firm but that doesn't guarantee just who the cheques are made payable to. The second cheque is definitely not in your writing so who else has had access to it."

"She's been assisting you all right," muttered Nikki cynically.

"Assisting herself more like," Helen commented derisively." She's been fleecing you out of money left right and centre. No wonder you're short of money."

Trisha stood up and moved away from the table. Everything was blindingly clear when she looked at it. It's just that she needed someone else to validate her perceptions. She turned her back and put her hands to the mantelpiece. Stress and anger could be seen in every lineaments of her body language.

'I never really trusted her from the word go," Nikki observed." There was something creepy about her."

"You thought so," Sally said open mouthed." I thought it was me being paranoid."

"I can't say I ever particularly took to her." Put in Helen." If there was one thing I learnt from working in the prison service and that was to spot a devious backstabber in good time."

Trisha stood open mouthed at everything she was hearing. Each woman had their suspicions but had delicately refrained from expressing them. She could understand how it happened as none of them really wanted to badmouth Gill when all they had to go on was suspicions. It was an unfortunate downside of the spirit of sororiality. She blessed the chance that Sally had put her way to get everything out to the open. At that moment, she profoundly loved them all.

"So what are you going to do about this, Trisha? It's your call," Helen observed quietly.

Trisha was silent for what seemed like ages while a thousand thoughts whirled through her overheated mind.

"I want her out of my club immediately," Trisha exploded with total venom." I don't need some sneaky bloodsucker to leech off me. God knows I've worked hard enough – with Nikki's full share, of course," and here she flashed a smile at her old friend," - to get this club off the ground. I don't want some parasite like her to drive me into debt after everything that was put into the club. We started up Chix as a place where lesbians could be real, for God's sake and not so I could be robbed blind under my very nose."

"Just how badly are you placed, babes," Nikki asked gently.

"Oh, I'll survive. It means that nearly all my profits have been swallowed up. I'll have to borrow from the bank to tide us over," Trisha answered with a bitter tone in her voice. If she'd acted sooner, she wouldn't need to go through that shit. It was the sense of waste that angered her.

"But you won't have your funds being drained, left right and centre," put in Helen. "Look here, Trisha, there are the makings of a criminal case to be made against her. If you place this in the hands of the police….."

"The police?" echoed Trisha." You mean ask them to help? Sorry, Sally."

"That's all right, babes. I understand," came the soft words and the soothing feel of her lover's arm round her shoulders and that real feeling of sympathy.

"Then you get rid of her. Sack her on the spot," chimed in Nikki.

Trisha strode down to the club with mile long strides, or so it felt to her. She had that blazing quality of purposeful anger inside her that felt nicely controlled. The other three women followed after her with the clear understanding of letting Trisha do the talking. Her self-respect demanded it.

"I want you out of my club tonight and never come back, either as customer or working here," hissed Trisha at the woman whose back was half turned to her. For a moment she said nothing and didn't move.

"Did you hear me?" shouted Trisha while the other three women gestured to the few regulars not to worry, the situation was under control. .

"What the hell are you talking about?" the other blond shouted, red in the face and her blue eyes glaring.

"We've just done a thorough audit of the club accounts and you've been fleecing me out of a lot of money. I am absolutely certain that you've been double billing the club and pocketing the proceeds."

"So if you're that certain, why haven't you called in the police?" Gill angrily shouted, her Northern accent accentuated in her anger. Now that she was forced out into the open, her spiritual ugliness became apparent for all to see. She reminded Nikki irresistibly of Dockley at that point.

"I don't want to involve the police, I just want you out of here."

"Well, I'm not going. I'll sue you for unfair dismissal."

Helen could sense Trisha wavering at the unexpected resistance and steamrollered in, her Scottish accent accentuating every key syllable for maximum effect.

"For your information, I've been through the accounts with a fine tooth comb. Your fingerprints are all over the cheques that you used to rob Trisha with. I used to be an acting governor in the prison service and you are in this right up to your neck. Trisha stands a good chance of seeing you behind bars if she wants to."

"Speaking as a one time policewoman, I've arrested your kind before," Sally intervened, boiling over with anger.

"So do you go the easy way or is it the hard way? You'd better cut your losses and go," Trisha demanded, feeling the balance swing in her favour and sensing the other woman start to buckle.

"You've got no chance of running your club on your own. You need me to do all the donkeywork, even paying all the bills for you. This is how I get treated."

"I'll manage. I've managed before."

"Including holding the hand of that neurotic girl friend of yours. I've been carrying this club. So what if I got a bit of extra money on the side. I've earned it," sneered Gill spitefully. At that moment, the vicious smile on her lips reminded Nikki forcibly of Dockley at her worst. The irony of it all was that there were women like the Julies who didn't deserve to be behind bars while this brass necked villain deserved to be locked up. All her recently acquired professional knowledge just amplified her raging feelings of injustice.

"You'd better go, Gill. In case you don't know me, I'm a dangerous lesbian cop killer. He tried to rape Trisha in this very club and I took him out with a broken bottle. You're just doing the same financially."

The violence of Nikki's manner as she stepped forward made the other woman shrink back. It contrasted with the mild mannered respectable woman who she'd seen and taken little notice of. Instantly she scuttled back to the office and hurriedly collected all her personal stuff and clattered out of the club.

"I'll send on your P45," sang out Trisha to her departing figure.

Helen looked at Nikki with horror. This was the first time that she'd seen Nikki so roused and dangerous. It vividly recalled that occasion when Nikki had in not so many words, threatened Fenner with a bottle in the PO's room and Helen had verbally hauled Nikki away.

"Jesus, Nikki, you scared me. I thought you'd left that all stuff behind you and you'd be going straight."

Nikki's body relaxed and she leant against the bar. She opened her handbag, flipped a cigarette out of its packet and lit up. The casual mannered gesture was a study in contrasts.

"Straight? With you, darling? Besides, I was bluffing. The rest of you ought to know that I'd never risk doing time after all we'd gone through. I'd have let down those members of the legal profession who worked so hard for us, stuck their necks on the line. That bitch wasn't to know that as she's too self centred to know differently."

"Tell you what, Nikki, it was a bloody good act. It had me convinced. As a just reward for scaring the shit out of us, the round's on you."

"All right," Nikki said sheepishly with that 'butter wouldn't melt on her mouth' expression while the other women laughed away the tension of the moment and the club returned to normal.