Chapter 1: A wild night and a stalker

Sidar is a small town in the Mediterranean. Slightly less than 10 thousand inhabitants mostly live from tourism and the rest from shipyards and fishing. In Sidar, everything is subjugated to the tourist season, which only peaks in the summer months. Then, when the 4 months of summer arrive, the mad-house breaks out: the population booms to over one hundred thousand overnight. For the remaining 8 months, the city lives quietly and a bit boringly. The local population mainly socializes among themselves—after all, everyone in the town knows each other. There are no major problems in the city. The crime rate is very low, so it is a well-known joke that the most boring job in the world is to be a police officer in Sidar.

In the spring of this year, just before the start of the tourist season, Sidar got a new police chief. David Steiner is a renowned name. He was a well-known police inspector and detective in the capital, and he gained fame by leading an action in which drug cartels and a chain of prostitution were exposed. The police action revealed the connection of several people from the government with crime, and David Steiner took all the credit. Yet David Steiner was not a favorite with his bosses because of his unconventional working methods. Namely, David puts the protection of people and service to the people in the foreground and respects the laws in the background. Because of that, he often came into conflict with his superiors. His saying is widely known: “A policeman must serve the people and not the authorities.”

And it was because of this statement that David Steiner lost the race in running for the minister of internal affairs. As punishment for disobedience, David was transferred from the capital south to Sidar, to the position of chief inspector and chief of police. The headline appeared in the newspaper: “The untried minister will now be writing fines for drunk tourists.”

The most famous and influential family in Sidar is the Manola family. Elio Manola is a former Navy captain. After retiring, he became involved in politics, now working in the Ministry of Defense, and is known as a prominent member of the ruling political party. Although he spends most of his time in the capital, the people of Sidar respect him. When he returns to Sidar, Elio Manola spends a lot of time in public places hanging out with fellow citizens and friends. He can always be found in some inn where he drinks with people no matter what class they come from. It was not uncommon for a Navy captain to sit at the same table with a local street cleaner during his visit to the city. That is why Elio Manola has always been extremely respected by his fellow citizens. However, some citizens think that Elio is not a good man, and he does all this to collect political points from the citizens.

Unlike Elio, his wife Sofia is not favored by the citizens of Sidar. Her nickname, “plastic bitch,” says it all. Sofia Manola is a successful businesswoman—she owns a company that employs a large number of citizens. Sofia began her firm as a real estate agency and later expanded it into a travel agency that managed practically all the hotels and apartments in the city, as well as the travel agency itself, which operates throughout the country. The 50-year-old, unlike her husband, has a narrow circle of people to hang out with, and, of course, they all belong to the higher class of rich people. Ordinary citizens, the people she grew up with, hardly greet her when she meets them on the street, and she also treats her employees snobbishly. Sofia, despite her age, looks very attractive. Her skin is tight and youthful, thanks to Botox, having artificial duck lips, while liposuction, silicone breasts, and various other treatments have made her look like a plastic doll. And, of course, Sofia is blonde.

Elio and Sofia have two children: the thirty-year-old Valentin and the eighteen-year-old Tina. Valentin is exceptionally talented and capable. Already at the age of twenty-five, he became a hotel manager and, more recently, a hotel owner. People say he achieved all this at the expense of an influential father—but the truth is different: Valentin and Elio have never been on good terms. Elio wanted Valentin to follow in his footsteps and make a career in the military, but Valentin still graduated from tourism college and shortly afterward earned a master’s degree in management.

Tina is a completely different story. A typical snobbish, haughty, and empty-headed blonde from a wealthy family, as typically portrayed in Hollywood movies.

Yet the main character in this story is Sandra Taranis. Sandra is a typical example of a good, family-oriented woman and a diligent worker. She is 48 years old and is successfully coping with all the challenges that women of her age face. She is in a harmonious marriage with Nino Taranis, who works hard in the yacht service and earns well. The only stressful period in their lives was when their daughter Gina had a “minor” hiccup in her life—an unplanned pregnancy. They decided to keep the child and give all the help to their daughter. Despite all this, Gina managed to graduate and receive a law degree and has recently been employed as an intern by a law firm. Gina still lives with her parents, which is the reason for her success. Sandra and Nino also have an eighteen-year-old son, Nico. Sandra is always cheerful and smiling. She is also readily recognizable: a redhead with curly, long hair, wider hips, and lush breasts who never cared about those few extra pounds, which, according to many people, gave her even more sex appeal. Sandra has a beautiful, youthfully glowing face despite her being 48 years old. Yes, Sandra has really big breasts. Even in her youth, she was known as having “Sidar’s biggest tits.” And her husband, Nino, was also one of the most handsome guys in Sidar in his time. It seems that their son Nico is now on his way to follow in his father’s footsteps. He can often be seen in the company of pretty girls.

Sandra, like many other citizens, worked in the company Neptune, whose owner is Sofia Manola. Sandra was one of the first employees of the Neptune Agency when they only had a small office at the community center. Today, Neptune owns 3 floors in the largest office building in the city center. Neptune’s employees are divided into 3 groups and are assigned to different floors: On the first floor are those who have just started their careers as booking agents and selling real estate. Part-time associates and seasonal workers are also assigned to this floor, as well as students and students in the last year of the tourist school who have a scholarship contract with Neptune and do their practical classes with different companies—including Neptune. After graduation, they will become employees of Neptune.

Permanent employees are situated on the second floor, mostly hotel- and travel-booking agents and realtors, while the third is reserved for department heads and top-tier realtors. The office of the boss and owner, Sofia Manola, is also on the top floor. Sandra Taranis, as a senior worker, has a job on the second floor. Sandra is a typical, good worker. Never at the top and never at the bottom. She does her job with a well-practiced efficiency. She always meets the goals set and often earns a bonus, and all with half steam. She is not busy with work and is not a workaholic, but thanks to her experience, she knows when to concentrate on her work and when she can relax. The end of May and the beginning of June were the most important months for the company, and the employees were expected to do their utmost to fill vacancies in all the accommodations in the city and its surroundings.

There was nervousness in the company because it was already the beginning of June, and the accommodation capacities were poorly filled. Especially hotels. More and more tourists have started booking accommodation online and less through agencies. Sandra had a scheme that she worked by: she would always contact last year’s guests first and offer them some kind of discount.

Sitting at her desk, Sandra focused on the Millennium Hotel and contacted groups of Scandinavian retirees who stayed at the hotel last summer. In agreement with the hotel manager, Sandra was able to give a discount, which the leaders of the group of pensioners from Sweden were delighted with. Sandra, through clients from Stockholm, has skillfully made contact with retirement homes in Malmö and Gothenburg. Everyone was satisfied with the offer made by phone and was waiting for its official confirmation. This was a big deal—more than half of the hotel rooms will be filled with Swedish retirees over the next 3 months. Shortly after Sandra had finished her phone calls to the clients, Sofia stormed into Sandra’s office on the second floor, slammed the door, and started yelling.

“20 percent! 20 percent! It’s already June, and the occupancy of hotels is only 20 percent!!! I wonder if anyone is doing anything here? If you don’t think about our company then at least think about your bonuses! What do you do all day? You’re talking to each other! Didn’t it occur to anyone to contact last year’s guests?” Sofia rattled on, not giving anyone a chance to put a word in edgewise.

Sophia’s screaming was interrupted by Sandra in a low, calm voice. “Associations of pensioners from Scandinavia were contacted. Hotels will be booked almost 20% more than last year, plus we have new contacts from Malmo and Gothenburg. There are 4 more groups of several hundred people in the process of making their bookings, which should be realized during the day, and the concessions were made in agreement with the hotel manager. With this, Hotel Millennium will be filled to almost 80%.” Sofia looked at Sandra.

“At least that’s something,” grumbled Sofia, and left. Everyone looked at each other and was appalled but not surprised by Sofia’s reaction. Lino spoke first.

“What a bitch!” Lino offered his opinion.

“What an ungrateful bitch!” Lidia agreed.

“Did you expect otherwise? I didn’t.” Sandra summed up the situation, well aware that she had done an excellent job and was satisfied. She was not disappointed with Sofia’s reaction. She immediately threw herself into preparing for her next job: gathering contacts from larger groups who had stayed there last year and then would turn to contacts similar to those existing who could also potentially become clients. She turned her attention to the Castle Hotel, where the Russian sports junior camps were located. She wrote down a few phone numbers and email addresses and first called her broker in Russia, who found dozens more possible guests. Then Sandra called the hotel manager to grant her a discount for larger groups. Sandra decided to enter into an agreement with the Russian guests only the next day. She thought that she had done more than enough for that day.

The next day Sandra came to work very motivated and full of confidence. She felt very safe and thought she could succeed in anything she set out to do. As soon as she arrived, she immediately got in touch with Russian sports academies. She was soon interrupted when Sofia entered the office and began to lecture Sandra and her team in a high tone.

“If you didn’t know, there are two new car camps in our area as of this year, so take care of it. Sandra, you should be studying capacities, conditions, and prices. You’ve done it before. If you guys don’t know, people come to a car camp by car and a caravan or camper, so we need guests from car destinations, which means from Europe. You will not be looking for guests for a car camp in China and Japan!” With that, Sofia exited just as she came, like a whirlwind. As soon as she left, there was a murmur of indignation and disbelief in the office.

“Does she think we’re so stupid?” Lino asked indignantly.

“Did she just call you Sandra?” Marina wondered aloud.

“Yes, very strange, indeed,” Sandra affirmed.

“I can’t believe she addressed someone by name. That has never happened before,” Lino remarked, surprised.

“I didn’t even know she knew any of us by name,” Lidia asserted.

Sandra continued to call and send emails to potential Russian tourists. She was persistent, and soon her efforts paid off. Four football camps, i.e., sports academies from Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Volgograd, and Sverdlovsk, showed interest, as well as the tennis academy from St. Petersburg. Sandra contacted a local football club and asked if they could agree on the use of their football field for Russian tourists. Everything went according to plan, and bookings for hundreds of young Russian athletes could be expected soon. But that was not all. As Sandra was working out the details, the owner of one of the football academies inquired about buying a real estate property in the city. Sandra first sent him one of the oldest and most expensive villas in town as an opening offer. Although Sandra just sent the offer on a whim, the Russian buyer showed interest—much to Sandra’s surprise. In Neptune, the rule is that if any booking agent or realtor comes across a million-dollar deal, the deal must be de facto done by a lead realtor or owner while the person who found the buyer will keep the bonus commission. Sandra first emailed the data to the third floor and then personally ran upstairs. She knocked, opened the door to the sales managers’ room, and took two steps.

“Good day!” Sandra ventured.

She waited a few seconds for her appearance to attract the attention of everyone who was there, and when everyone raised their heads, then she started talking.

“According to our work contract, we have to hand over million-dollar deals to those working on the third floor. I would like to inform you that I have arranged holidays with 5 sports academies from Russia. There are thousands of young athletes, and they would be allowed to use the football and tennis courts. I can handle this part, but the owner of one academy is interested in buying the Doretta villa that we have been trying to sell for years.”

Everyone suddenly became excited and started talking in the same voice— “Give us information, send a contact...”—could be heard throughout the space.

“Everything is in your mail,” Sandra replied coolly and walked out with a smile. She returned to her office. Her colleagues congratulated her on the work well done and were very happy because the whole group gets some points if any member of the brigade does a good job.

The next day, Sandra and Sofia met by chance at the entrance to the building. Sandra greeted her politely, “Good morning.”

Sofia answered after waiting a few seconds in such a cold tone that it could freeze water, “Good morning.” She didn’t even look at Sandra. Not even when she entered the building, and she didn’t take off her sunglasses, either. Sandra called the elevator. Soon the elevator arrived, and Sandra let Sofia in first. Sofia came in and stood in the corner, and Sandra came in behind her and pressed the buttons for the second and third floors. They didn’t say a word, as usual. The elevator stopped on the second floor.

When the doors opened, Sandra stepped out into the corridor, turned back, and politely said, “Goodbye and have a nice day.”

Sofia did not respond to the greeting until the doors began to shut. “Sandra! You did an excellent job yesterday,” she managed to call out as the elevator doors were closing.

Sandra turned back, managed to smile, and replied, “Thank you!”

And this day at work was successful for Sandra, and everything was going well. The lunch break was approaching, and the team on the second floor was finishing its work for the morning in a relaxed manner and talking more and more to each other. The conversation between the workers was interrupted by Laura, who came in the door. Laura is Sofia’s personal secretary and her right-hand woman. She is Sofia’s cousin and looks like a model.

“Sandra, Sofia wants you to come to her office right away. And please be careful because she is very angry today,” Laura announced.

“Okay, I’m coming,” Sandra agreed and got up from the table.

“I bet she’s calling you to tell you you won’t get the full bonus for yesterday’s job,” Lino offered a jab.

“Possibly. Whatever it is, it’s never good when she calls someone for a face-to-face talk,” Lidia seconded.

“Um, we’ll see...” Sandra murmured as she took a small mirror out of the drawer, looked at herself, and started going to the elevators. As she went out, Lino told her, “Just be brave; we are with you no matter what.”

Sandra knocked on the door of Sofia’s office and entered. “Hello, you needed me...?”

“Yes, please sit down. I wanted to...” Sofia started, but at that moment the phone rang, and Sofia answered; the conversation was short. When she finished, she turned to Sandra again.

“Ok, I wanted to...” Sofia began, and the phone rang again, which greatly upset Sofia. Sofia angrily unplugged her phone and cell phone.

“You can’t even talk normally here anymore! Constant calls to my personal line ... Okay, never mind. I invited you for a chat...” Sofia huffed.

This time it wasn’t the phone that interrupted her, but Secretary Laura walked into the office. “Boss, it’s urgent...” Laura hadn’t uttered more than two words, and Sofia suffered a meltdown. She started screaming, screaming, and throwing things.

“Did I say no one bothers me! Get out!” Sofia screamed at the top of her lungs.

Sandra watched it all calmly. Laura managed to get out before she was hit by various objects. Sofia was really very upset.

“You see what a madhouse it is here! I’m going crazy. I don’t have a second of peace. Anyway, I called you to tell you how things are ... we can actually have this conversation over coffee. I just need coffee, cigarettes, and a little peace with a relaxing conversation. If you don’t mind. I believe you wouldn’t mind a coffee either,” Sofia offered.

“Yes, sure, of course. Thank you,” Sandra replied in her usual, calm tone.

Sandra and Sofia left the office and went to the ground floor of the building where the cafe was. On the way to the cafe, Sandra thought, “She said a relaxing conversation? Well, then there can be nothing wrong. I just don’t know how it can be a relaxing conversation with her when seething and screaming...”

They sat in one of the farthest booths, ordered a cappuccino, Sofia lit a cigarette, and then started talking:

“You’ve been working here since the beginning. You are an average worker. You don’t have any big or high ambitions, but you do the job well. But lately, you have been working very successfully. Not only this past day but also in the past months. I follow your work very closely. You seem to be doing extremely well. This is called momentum. Even an average athlete simply flourishes in one part of his career—some even win an Olympic medal but soon return to their mediocrity. Only great enthusiasts and workaholics can reach top results constantly. But you are not like that. You are doing well now, and it will last maybe another year, maybe only until the end of the summer, and then it’s over—you will continue as you have done so far: average or mediocre. So I think you should be given a chance for something more now because if you don’t use this momentum now, you will never be able to. And now you can do everything. Now you have that momentum.” Sofia stopped talking to drink a cappuccino, lit another cigarette and then continued.

“I’ve decided to promote you to a lead realtor and head of the Booking Department. I am sure that you will do a lot of good work in this period, so it would be a pity for you and me for it to go unnoticed. For you, because you will receive higher bonuses, a higher percentage, and your future pension will be higher, and for me because you will have a positive effect on the others. When one succeeds, then a chain reaction occurs in the company ... Now is your time—you won’t get a second chance later...”

Sandra had heard enough and started thinking about what she had heard so far, and she hadn’t even listened to the rest of Sofia’s speech. She already saw herself in a new role, in a new office ... and Sofia was still talking and talking ... and talking.

“ ... so this is not a question of whether you want it or not, but as of today you have a new job.” Sofia stopped expectantly.

Sandra managed to compose herself and get out of deep thought. “I don’t know what to say. I didn’t expect this. I am very grateful to you...” Sandra began.

“Hey, you don’t have to ‘know me.’ We’ve known each other for forty years. Ah yes, I forgot that you all have a different perception of me ... Wait, I need a drink. We actually have to drink together in honor of your promotion.” And Sofia promptly ordered two vodkas. Sofia drank to her heart’s content while Sandra took a sip and set down her glass. Then Sofia ordered another.

“Just so you know, although this decision is mine, everyone on the third floor also supported it,” Sofia enunciated.