I breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment I thought she had first-hand knowledge, other women atherestablishment that had been beaten by him. I’d have to rethink my opinion of my cousin if I thought she’dallowedthat to continue.
“Okay, but I want you to check in with me regularly, please?” I asked.
“I will. It’s all so terribly exciting, isn’t it?” she said.
“No, exciting isn’t a word choice I’d have used but effective, for sure. Seems his business partners are all distancing themselves from him.”
We said our goodbyes and I returned to the paper. I went back to the start of the story. Sebastian Dye. I pulled the card from my pocket and matched up the name.
“Who is it?” Mackenzie asked.
“Seems Mary’s grandson isn’t just a postal boy,” I said, showing him the card and laughing.
“Very useful to know.”
Having insiders in the media had always been an asset to large businesses and corporations. A heads-up on a news story about one’s company or a competitor always goes down well and certainly ensures a very nice bottle of whisky at Christmas.
Mackenzie’s mobile phone buzzed to alert he had an incoming message. He looked at it and then smiled.
“Stanton is being re-arrested for the assault. The Serious Crime Squad are involved, as are the Financial Action Task Force,” he said, chuckling.
The FATF was a multi-country task force to combat not only money laundering but the financing of terrorist activity. If they were involved, Stanton really was in the shit.
“I wonder what they’ll get him on first. No doubt he’ll settle on the assault charges if he gives up all his contacts,” I said.
Personally, I didn’t care about the laundering aspect. I cared about the people he had hurt with his loan business, and I mostly cared about the women he had abused. People like him needed to be taken off the streets.
I looked at my watch. “Shit, look at the time.”
We were meant to be meeting Gabriella for dinner. I dialled her mobile and received her voicemail.
“Hello, I assume you’re still shopping. Do you want to meet at the restaurant?”
“Where did she go?” Mackenzie asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Her favourite shoe shop, she said.”
“We’ll go and collect her. She could be hours,” Mackenzie replied, laughing.
I often wondered what people thought when they saw the three of us together, especially when she had her arms linked with both of us. Although a fairly jealous guy by nature, her friendship with Mackenzie didn’t bother me at all. I wasn’t of theschoolthat necessarily believed a man could have a female best friend without there being just a little sexual tension, but that certainly wasn’t the case with those two. They were more siblings than friends.
A car was idling outside the office and we’d left instructions that should Gabriella return, she was to wait for us.
“What on earth…?” I said as we pulled up outside a darkened windowed store with no name.
Mackenzie grinned. “Your cousin introduced me to this store, and I mentioned it to Gabriella. She hasn’t left it since!”
We pushed a button and waited for access. The door opened automatically. The store was sectioned nicely. One side displayed all the shoes that I knew Gabriella loved, the high heels that seemed impossible to walk in and that created an endless length of leg. There were beautiful dresses to another side, and then it changed a little…or a lot.
We walked through and into another room that held all the implements needed for the club, plus items I’d never seen. Everything the discerning BDSM enthusiast required was for sale. Latex and leather outfits, holes cut out everywhere, lace and string adorned mannequins with mind baffling examples of how to wear it. Crosses, chains, whips, lined a wall for those with an active dungeon. I chuckled as I walked around. Vibrators and dildos, strap-ons, paddles, and ornately carved knives for blood play were proudly displayed inside glass cabinets.
A woman approached us wearing a cat suit with a tail that she held and swung around.
“Mackenzie, and you must be Alex. You are the spit of your cousin. How is Veronica? I must visit this new club of yours,” she said, air kissing us both. “Oh, please accept my apologies. I’m Jodie.” She held out her hand, finally letting go of her tail.
“We were hoping to find Gabriella here,” Mackenzie asked.
“No, I was expecting her earlier, but she didn’t show. I have some amazing new Louboutins in for her to try on.”
