Chapter 6

I put my standard red going-out dress on. It was mid-length, didn’t call attention to my décolletage, and was actually rather comfortable. I didn’t bother with underwear; I picked up my handbag which contained my phone, a tissue, a tampon, a credit card and fifty pounds in new ten-pound notes, grabbed my keys off the hall stand and headed to Bingley and parked in the Brown Cow pub car park.

I ordered an elderflower spritz and a salmon salad and sat at one of the tables in the window overlooking the car park and in sight of the toilets. I was sipping at my spritz when a woman came and sat at the next table. As she passed me, she placed a napkin on my table. I ignored it and the woman and waited for my food to arrive. The host’s wife brought me my salad after a few moments.

“Hello again,” she said. “You were here last week, I think. I never forget a face.”

“Yes, I was; I just popped in for lunch.”

“Glad to see you back,” she said, “and here is your salad. Would you like your spritz refreshing?”

“Yes, please.”

Well, that was annoying; the too-kind landlady meant I wouldn’t be coming back. We don’t need people who remember everyone and everything, not unless they were in the game too. There was the brasserie round the corner, on the other side of the river, but parking there wasn’t as easy. So many pubs were closing around the area, mostly because the new demographic of inhabitants just didn’t use pubs. I could try a different wig and see if that fools her; it would be a good test.

As the landlady left, I picked up the napkin left by the other woman. There was writing on it; I would read it later. My salad was okay, not brilliant, and I sat enjoying it before going to the loo. As I passed the bar, I said to the staff that I hadn’t finished and that I was just nipping to the toilet.

In the cubicle, I read the message on the napkin. It gave details of a Chinese arms dealer that would deal with Ali, but only in person. I folded the napkin and carried it back with me. At the table I opened my bag and took out a tissue, wiped my eyes and then put the napkin and tissue back in my bag. I stayed around another fifteen minutes finishing my salad and drink before thanking the staff behind the bar and heading off. As I was driving home I noticed a silver Audi a couple of cars behind. I had thought the other day that a silver Audi seemed to be following; today it was there again. I wondered who they were and why they were following me. I would just keep my eyes open a bit more and see if I can get the registration number and ask the agency to investigate.

Back home I copied the details onto a separate piece of paper and destroyed the napkin by shredding it, soaking it in water and then flushing down the toilet. I would have it available for when I next saw Ali, and it would cost him. He would know such information does not come cheap.

As I was just putting the kettle on for tea, the door knocked. Half expecting Alice I opened the door without first checking who it was. It was Victor.

“Sorry for the intrusion,” he said, “but I wondered if we could continue our conversation of yesterday.”

“Well, Victor, which one was that? Oh, and come in, I have just put the kettle on.”

“Oh, you know,” he said as he stepped inside and headed to the kitchen, “the one about sunbathing, only I notice the sun is out.”

I had to admire his thinking, and I smiled while internally guffawing. The kettle boiled as I entered, so it was perfect timing to make the tea.

Bags into mugs and milk, which I pointedly replaced in the refrigerator, I saved teapot tea for moments when I was alone.

“Sugar?” I asked.

“Two please,” he answered.

After tea was made, we went and sat in the conservatory. I opened the doors; the sun was making it quite hot in there even though all the vents were open, and the open doors should help it cool down to a subtropical heat.

We sat opposite, as we had at his house. My furniture being newer didn’t sag as much, but still afforded him the ‘upskirt’ opportunity.

“So then Victor, what wonderful things did you do with your company before you sold it that you now do on a freelance basis?” I asked by way of an opener.

“Oh, well, just some very precise engineering with minute tolerances, you know, used in the aerospace industry and also in Formula One. Just sometimes, the new owners are not sure of the best way to tackle a new problem, so they ask me.”

“I guess the new owners are money men and not engineers.”

“Spot on.”

“No, I see, from what you had said, I did wonder if perhaps you had been into security and surveillance, that sort of thing.”

“Oh, lummy no, Liz; crikey, what a strange thing to think.”

I thought he protested a little too much. We would see.

“May I ask what it was that you wished to continue exploring from our conversation yesterday?”

“Oh yes, your desire to do all-over tanning.”

“And your desire to observe?”

He didn’t even blush. “Absolutely.”

In the garden my sun lounger was in full sunlight, and it was in the private area of the garden, the area that wasn’t overlooked.

I stood up and allowed my dress to fall to the floor. Naked, I walked away from him into the garden and lay on my sun lounger. I wondered if he enjoyed the view of my buttocks as they slid past each other whilst I walked. As I lay on the lounger, I could feel the warmth of the sun as it heated my skin, the heat warming my vulva in a natural way. I wondered if Victor was enjoying his view.

“Well now, that is a wonderful sight,” he said as he stood next to me, naked, his dick fat and hard and almost shining in the full sunlight.