Agent Provocateur (13 page)

‘He’s not here yet,’ Grace whispers. ‘I’m going to give it half an hour and then we’ll try the other bar.’ Betty nods surreptitiously, and looks at her watch. She can’t help but feel a little bit undercover, and as such she also feels a tiny fleck of excitement. Not that she would ever tell Grace that.

It is nearly six. She takes her drink back to the table that luckily still belongs to her. To pass the time, she pulls out her mobile phone and sends Johnny a text message, checking the bar every now and then for activity. After half an hour and about one hundred messages she notices Grace walk past her, gesturing for her to follow.

Once outside, they speak.

‘I think we should go to the next bar. If he’s not there, then we’ll wait and come back here later. It’s all we can do. If he doesn’t turn up, then I’ll have to call my boss and let her know. It does happen sometimes.’

‘Are you sure it’s OK for us to be seen together?’ Betty is getting more into the cloak and dagger routine.

‘Well, you can follow me if you like.’ Grace looks amused as she gives Betty directions to the next bar and sets off before her.

The first thing that Betty notices as she opens the door to the bar is how crowded it is. The second thing she notices is Grace pushing her way to the front of the bar. Thirdly, she sees a group of five men; the victim is one of them. She cannot help but feel a slight thrill as she makes her way to the bar, and decides on the way that perhaps she could have a glass of wine. She isn’t the greatest drinker, but one or two glasses she can take. She tries to catch Grace’s eye at the bar, unsure if Grace knows the man is there, but Grace is resolutely refusing to look her way. Betty watches her take her glass of champagne to a ledge located near the group of men, but not too near. She is probably going to observe him for a while, the way she said she does. Betty finds a space to stand, but nowhere to sit. She is wishing she hadn’t worn her boots, because they are beginning to hurt, but she has a good view of both Grace and the men, and she settles herself to watch.

After what seems an eternity, Grace approaches the group with an unlit cigarette. She says something, and four men all reach into their pockets and pull out lighters. The victim does not. Grace takes a light from one of the men, but establishes eye contact with the victim. Betty shuffles forward a bit, intrigued by the way she works.

Conversation is happening. Grace seems in the middle of the group, and although Betty has no idea what she is saying, she hears the men laughing. Then she starts to move away, but turns round as someone says something. Betty realises that one of the men (but not the victim) has offered to buy her a drink. Grace has her drinking companions for the night. She stands with them for a long time and finally, after two more drinks, she seems to be talking to the victim. Betty wishes she could hear what is being said, but she cannot risk moving nearer. Two of the men leave. There are three now, and it is nine o’clock. Betty can barely believe how quickly the time seems to have gone. She still hasn’t drunk her glass of wine, she is so absorbed in observing.

She looks around the bar, and sees that it has emptied without her noticing. She finds a seat, and her feet are grateful. It is so smoky that her eyes are beginning to sting, but she barely noticed that before. People are definitely merry by now – the after-work crowd that always go for one and stay for several. She knows that Johnny sometimes goes out after work and comes back plastered, and she wonders if he would be in a bar like this.

She pulls her attention back to her honey trapper. Grace is now talking only to the victim. The other men are looking the worse for wear, but are still trying to muscle in on the conversation. She sometimes lets them, other times she does not. Betty can see that she is totally engineering the situation, though she still cannot hear a word she is saying.

He whispers something in her ear. She nods, then walks away. She goes to the ladies. She returns later and Betty almost misses it, but sees her put something in his pocket. She immediately thinks it’s drugs, and feels confused. Then to her surprise, Grace says goodbye to the men, allowing her look to linger on her victim and walks past Betty out of the bar.

After a few minutes, Betty gets up and follows her out, but can’t see her. Then she notices a black cab, stopped a few feet away. She walks to it and gets in.

‘What happened?’ Betty desperately wants to know. Her curiosity is genuine and she has forgotten to be judgemental.

‘It’s normal when there are a group of men. He whispered to me, asking me if we could meet later when the others weren’t around and asking for my phone number. I realised that while he didn’t mind his friends seeing him flirting with me, he didn’t want them to know that anything more was going on, so I went to the ladies, scribbled down my phone number and slipped it into his pocket.’

‘You gave him your real phone number?’

‘Of course not. I should have explained. Each job is different, but I keep a couple of pay as you go mobiles, and take them with me. If further proof is needed then I’ll give the man the number. Tomorrow it will be in the bin. I charge it to the client, of course.’

‘But isn’t it proof enough that he asked for your number?’

‘No. I need him to call me and ask me to meet him. That is what this particular client wants.’ Grace pulls out a mobile and starts to dial.

‘What if he’s trying to call you?’ Betty asks. In answer, Grace pulls out another phone and lays it on her lap. She still feels adrenalin pumping from the job, as, surprisingly, does Betty.

‘Nicole.’

‘How did it go?’

‘I gave him a number. He was with some colleagues and didn’t want them to know. If he calls me and asks to meet, is that enough?’

‘Yeah. If he doesn’t call you, then there will be a happy client. But if he does, then the job is done.’

‘I can go home and wait then.’

‘You might not even make it that far.’

‘I’ll call you later.’

‘Sorry. I don’t know where you live.’ Grace turns to Betty.

‘About two miles away from you. If we go to your flat, I can take the cab on.’

‘OK.’ Grace shrugs.

Just before they reach Grace’s street, her second phone rings. Betty almost jumps out of her skin.

‘Hello, Susan speaking.’ This is news to Betty, who has no idea who Susan is. ‘Oh, hi, you ditched the others then?’ Grace’s voice is syrupy sweet. ‘Well, it is very late. I’m not sure. Oh, what the hell, I’m only in town for a couple of days. Will you come to my hotel?’ After a while, she hangs up.

‘But you’re not going to meet him?’

Grace looks at Betty, then instructs the taxi to pull over outside her building.

‘No.’

‘But you told him you would.’

‘Well, I like to give them an extra present. The idea of the scumbag standing in the bar at the Great Eastern Hotel, waiting for me, gives me a kick.’

‘I suppose it serves him right. Why that hotel?’

‘I told him earlier that that was where I was staying.’

‘What did he say to you?’ Betty is still interested in the details, to Grace’s surprise.

‘He asked me if I’d meet him because he wanted to fuck me, actually.’ Betty looks horrified, as Grace pays the taxi driver and, without another word, she gets out.

Chapter Ten

‘She is such a bitch.’ It’s midnight on day two of the assignment. Betty is at home with Johnny, who has waited up for her. He is wearing his dressing gown and nothing else. The plan was to jump on his wife the minute she walked in the door, but she has other ideas. ‘I know I was a bit out of order, giving her opinions, but I’m a journalist and I could argue that I was playing devil’s advocate. But she gives me this spiel about how she is doing a job and it’s the women who want it otherwise she wouldn’t offer it. She makes out she’s a fucking saint.’ If there was tension on day one, it had nothing on the second day. In fact the first day now looks positively rosy.

‘Christ, I don’t remember seeing you this riled.’

‘Well, you spend two days and two nights with that woman and then you tell me I shouldn’t be riled.’

‘I didn’t say you shouldn’t be, I just said it was unusual.’

‘Well, it’s not unusual because she’s a marriage-wrecking bitch who revels in ruining women’s lives.’ Betty is amazed at how strong her feelings are. She can barely believe that one person could make her feel like this, but Grace has managed to get to her in the worst way.

‘But they request her.’

‘Yeah, that’s what she says. Anyway, it doesn’t matter who asks for what, she is a bitch.’ They have come full circle.

Johnny manages to get Betty to come to bed, but she continues talking about the honey-trap woman. Johnny realises that he is out of luck and because of that, he almost hates her himself.

Betty turned up at Grace’s flat at ten o’clock as agreed. Then she asked her all the questions she wanted to ask after having seen Grace in action. She was polite and tried to keep their relationship professional.

‘How comfortable are you flirting, because that’s a big part of your job?’

‘To be honest, I only flirt so easily because I know I am doing a job. Otherwise I’m hopeless.’ Betty didn’t believe her, but she didn’t say anything.

‘There were five men, how did you ensure that you got the right one’s attention?’

‘Eye contact, mainly. He wasn’t the one who was making the moves initially. It was someone else who lit my cigarette, someone else who offered me a drink, but by using eye contact, I managed to get him to chat me up.’

‘You were in control the whole time.’

‘Absolutely.’ The questions were fair, and the answers honest, but things started to go wrong when Grace made a call to a woman whom she was working for that evening. Betty heard only half the conversation, but that was enough.

‘I can’t believe you just said that,’ she said when Grace put down the phone.

‘What?’

‘You said that she wasn’t to worry, you’d be blonde, and you’d talk about stocks and shares.’

‘So?’

‘Well, you’re not testing his fidelity, you’re presenting him with his ideal woman, which is a different matter.’

‘It’s what his wife has asked me to do.’

‘Why not just go as yourself, talk about soap operas and if he still falls for it, then you’ll know.’

‘That is not my brief.’

‘I think it’s wrong.’

‘Betty, no offence, but you’re not in my flat to give me your opinions. You’re meant to be here as a journalist.’

Betty apologised, and Grace accepted, although it was obvious that neither woman was happy. After an awkward lunch and a strained hour following lunch, Grace suggested that Betty leave and then, as she had the previous evening, meet her at a bar near that evening’s job. Betty felt as if she was being forcibly evicted, so to save face she said she had to go to the magazine office. Betty was relieved to be out of the flat, but not as relieved as Grace was to have her out.

When she got to the magazine she went straight to Fiona’s office. She had a plan.

‘Didn’t expect to see you.’

‘Well, Grace is sleeping this afternoon,’ Betty lied.

‘Right, so how’s it going?’

‘Fine, really. But I’m not sure I need to spend the week with her. I mean, after yesterday and today I already know her routine and I’m going to watch her on another job tonight, so I was wondering if we should leave it at a couple of days.’ Betty believed this. She had seen Grace both make and take calls and she guessed that that was her normal day, and the rest of the week would be the same. She vehemently didn’t want to spend more time with her than necessary.

‘Maybe, but I want you to see her in action more than twice, so we know about different aspects of her job. I think that you’ll get a more complete picture if you stay.’

‘Fine. It was just that I thought I might be able to work on other things, as well as this.’

‘Nah, I think you need the full five days on this. I want you to write a bit about her personality as well and you can’t know that so soon.’

‘I suppose not …’ Betty wanted to argue, but felt it unwise.

‘Good. What’s the case tonight?’ Fiona rubbed her hands together, relishing the tackiness of the whole thing. Betty hated it.

‘It’s a man whose wife thinks he’s cheating on her, and she has asked Grace to do the full tempting thing. Apparently the clients say whether she should approach them, or if she should wait for them to approach her. And this one wants her to make the first move. Oh, and she’s got to tape it.’

‘Excellent. This is going to make such a good story.’

Betty smiled weakly and then left.

She went home to change before going to meet Grace at a bar round the corner from the bar where she’d be working. She wondered if Grace would be doing the ‘businesswoman on a business trip’. Although there was no way she would be standing next to Grace, it became paramount to her to look good. Schoolgirl rivalry was afoot.

She was early. This annoyed her because it made her feel as though she had lost all her cool. First she had worn a short black skirt and chiffon blouse (an outfit that she looked incredibly sexy in). Then she had put on her highest heels (Grace was taller than she and would be wearing heels), then she had spent an hour applying her make-up and painting her nails. She didn’t look as trendy as she usually did, but then trendy was last night. Tonight was sexy. When she left the house, she didn’t look like Betty – a comment Johnny would make later.

She ordered a mineral water, deciding that she would allow herself a glass of wine later. She was working, and wanted to be professional (even if she looked more like a high-class hooker than a journalist). She sensed Grace’s presence before she had appeared. There was the smell of expensive perfume, surrounding her like a force field; there was the click, click of her heels; there was an aura. Betty could almost feel everyone looking their way, a reaction she had not managed to get alone. Finally and reluctantly, she looked up.