Chapter 30: Cleanup and Regroup

I called out to Daise to warn her that I was a friendly, then moved further round the front on the car to confirm that the threat was past. A quick glance told me all that I needed to know, and I rushed back to the driver’s seat of the Landrover. As I jumped in, I called to Daise and she sat back down, pulling her door closed behind her.

I shifted into reverse, and pulled back, wincing as the car I had crashed scraped as it pulled free of the Bull-Bar and crashed back down onto the road. Once I was clear, I shifted back into first gear and swung round to shine my head-lights onto the first car that had arrived at the hospital.

I was gratified to see that my confidence in Cpl Maseka’s ability had been fully justified. The driver of the car was face-down on the tarmac and his hands were secured behind him. Cpl Maseka’s helper was standing with one foot planted firmly in the center of his back, and his pistol pointed down aimed approximately in the direction of the back of his head. I could see two heads with long hair through the back window of the car, so I guessed that the women were still OK.

I left the Landrover with it’s engine running and jumped out. Cpl Maseka was in front of the car busy with something that I couldn’t see. When moved around to where I could see him properly, I could see that he had just finished binding the hands of a second man.

“Everything under control Cpl?” I asked

“Hundred Percent Major,” he replied, “no major injuries.”

“Major injuries?” I asked.

“A few cuts and scrapes from ducking into cover. Nothing a few plasters won’t fix.”

“The girls?”

“We just shouted at them to keep down when we pulled open the car doors. These idiots hadn’t even drawn their weapons.” His voice dripped with scorn as he gestured with his head to one side. A glance told me that he had recovered both of their fire-arms.

“Ok. We need to clean up and get out of here.”

“Two minutes. The Sgt-Major is getting the car.”

“Ok.”

I reholstered my fire-arm and moved to the passenger door of the car. As I turned around, the headlights from the Landrover must have illuminated my face sufficiently for Bettina to identify me. The door suddenly flew open and I found my arms full of a sobbing woman.

“Hi Bettina, sad to see me?” I said jokingly.

My only reward was two fists beating on my chest. I gave Bettina a big squeeze, then pushed her away from my chest so I could see her face.

“Are you OK?”

“Yes,” she answered through her tears, “but I am worried about my daughter.”

“Ok. We’ll talk about that in a few minutes. What about your friend?”

Bettina turned back to the car and crooked her finger at the girl still sitting there. “This is Katerina.”

Katerina climbed out of the car slowly. It was obvious that any movement caused her pain. Once she was standing, she took two steps towards me and then reached up, put her arms around my neck and pulled me down to kiss me. I hesitated slightly and the thought ran through my head ‘Never kiss the groupies’, but I shrugged it off and returned her kiss. I figured that this was her way of thanking me for helping her, and that it would demean her to refuse.

“Hi Katerina, nice to meet you. We need to get out of here, so we will talk a bit later.”

I walked to the Landrover, pulling the two girls with me. Once there, I handed them over to Daise with a quick introduction, and turned to look for the Sgt Major. Typically of the breed, he was standing right behind me and grinned when he saw that he had managed to startle me.

“Geez Sgt Major, don’t DO that,” I admonished him.

“Do what?” he asked with a faux innocent expression on his face. “We’re ready to rock and roll whenever you are. Roy just wants to know where the brass is from the shots that you fired at that other car. He doesn’t want to leave any obvious clues.”

“It wasn’t me who fired, it was Daise. I suspect that her doppies ejected straight into the Landrover. She was standing in the passenger door when she fired.”

“Yebo. I’ll grab the other car, load up Cpl Maseka’s crew and make my way back to your place for a debrief. Ok?”

“Perfect. What is Roy up to?”

“He’ll hang around here. Arrest those two clowns and muddy the waters as much as possible when the Police arrive. He’ll have some story worked out by the time they get here.”

“What about the CCTV cameras?”

“What do you expect? Did you REALLY think they were actually working?”

“And if they are?”

“One of the guys has gone to sort that out. We figure a hundred rand or so and the tapes from tonight will be hard to find.”

“Perfect. See you back at my place.”

I jumped back into the Landrover and pulled out of the parking lot. Once we were driving, I called to Bettina, “Where is your Daughter?”

“She’s at my flat. I have a nanny who looks after her at night.”

“Directions please?”

It only took us five minutes to get to Bettina’s flat. I went up with her and helped her gather her clothes and a few personal items. Once we had thrown those into a bag, she went to wake up her daughter. The nanny turned out to be a young Zulu girl, who showed every sign of being petrified of me, until I was able to reassure her that I was not part of the crowd that had been scaring Bettina. Speaking her language helped a lot with that. Once she knew that I was going to take Bettina and her daughter away with me to look after them, she begged me to take her with, pointing out that we would still need someone to look after the child. I decided that she had a point and told her to come with.

Ten minutes later we were all loaded up in the Landrover and on the N3 Highway back up to Kloof.

Chapter 29: Boiling a Frog

Waiting is hard, but it is the soldier’s lot. We all knew how to do it. I decided to follow my earlier thoughts and allowed Cpl Maseka to run the ambush. I knew I would have to work hard to suppress my instinct to interfere though so I decided to find a place that would allow me to watch what was happening without interfering too much. Once I had settled myself into a dark shadow at the corner of the building, I took another look around.

The parking lot had a lot less cars than it would have had during the day; a quick count told me there were sixteen. I guessed that the nine or so parked under shade-cloth were Doctors and other staff. From what I had seen of the people waiting in the Emergency Room, I guessed that most of the patients at this time of night had arrived either by foot or by taxi. That reminded me of one of the vulnerabilities that we had, The last thing we needed was more civilians getting caught up in this. Cpl Maseka had positioned some of his soldiers so that they should be able to warn off anyone who got in the way, but it nagged at me as a blind spot. I didn’t like having any variables that I couldn’t control.

I glanced across at the Land Rover, which was parked just around the corner from where I was standing. It was positioned so that it would be out of any potential line of fire. Alina was sitting in the driver’s seat where she could watch me. She wouldn’t be able to see what was happening out in front of the hospital; her job was simply to start the Land Rover on my signal and then scoot out of the seat to allow me to jump in. I peered over and saw a vague blob through the window, so I gave her a reassuring wave.

I had long since learnt how to keep awake and alert at night, and my particular trick was to make sure that I was on my feet. For some reason, when the pre-combat nervousness hit me, I would fall asleep. Just drop off with no warning or nodding, and it happened irrespective of any of the normal tricks. Being cold or uncomfortable was no help. The only thing that worked was being on my feet and making my brain work on all the angles. Thinking about all the possible variations of what could happen so that when something did happen, and the plan went awry, I would have already thought through a whole slew of variations from which I could pick and choose in the middle of the chaos.

This was something that it was extremely difficult to teach young leaders; NO plan survives contact with the enemy. Not even close. My own theory about the ‘Fog of War’ was that it was a mental fog. The battlefield smoke and noise did contribute of course, but an agile brain could deal with that simply enough by knowing where all the elements were and constantly updating that mental map as the battle progressed, both from radio reports and from knowing the terrain and the expected actions of the unit. This presupposed that the unit had drilled sufficiently in training that they would follow the standard operating procedures by instinct. The radio reports, in a good unit, should be simply to update the commander on variations on those drills.

The real fog was the natural reaction of most people to being confronted with combat, especially in a leadership role. Their brains would refuse to process the information in coherent way. I had seen it too often to doubt it. It was something that we could only guess at by making training as realistic as possible, but the reality often overwhelmed even those who did well in training. There were some who operated well in those situations. I had discovered I was one of them and I expended extraordinary effort to identify others that were the same. These were people who didn’t block out the sensory over-load, but who thrived in the input; who were able to take it all in and process it in split seconds to form a coherent picture of what was going on, and then were able make decisions based on that information and convey those decisions as orders to their subordinates in a clear and concise manner so that they were understood. The few exceptional ones were the ones that got obeyed, instantly and without question, in the middle of the battle. There was something in the voice or attitude of those that conveyed itself almost magically to the soldiers around them and under their command.

Sgt Major Dhlamini was not such a leader. He was a very, very good senior NCO, but not what I looked for in this context. Cpl Maseka was. I had y eye on him for a commission. The rule was that he had to be promoted to full Sergeant though before he could be sent on Officer’s Formative training, but that was, as far as I was concerned, a formality. I was just waiting for the signal from Army HQ confirming his promotion so that I could send him to start the process of gaining a commission.

All these thoughts and more swirled through my mind as I weighed the possible actions of each of the soldiers waiting in the dark, and postulated those of the enemy that we expected. In some ways, I thought it might be considered over-kill to plan and think through everything so obsessively, but it takes more time to describe than to do. The process of tactical evaluation was both a skill and an art, and it needed to be practised constantly to hone it. I had taught myself to evaluate things around me constantly in these terms, and it was a process that ran as a sub-routine of my brain during almost every waking moment, so while my surface thoughts were considering whether Cpl Maseka and his men would react as I expected them to, and if Cpl Maseka himself would lead them in the way that I hoped he would, my brain had been busy watching and evaluating the scene constantly.

I suddenly came on full alert as I saw a car turn into the parking lot. I was pretty sure that this was the car we were expecting, and a quick glance at Cpl Maseka confirmed that he thought the same, but what had caught my attention was a car that had been second in the queue behind the one turning in which had coasted to a stop next to the road before the entrance.

My adrenalin suddenly kicked me into high gear. I turned and signalled to Alina as I ran towards the Land Rover. I hadn’t consciously processed all the information yet, I just knew that something was very wrong.

I grabbed onto the Land Rover door and barely touched the driver’s door step on my way into the seat. Alina had barely cleared the seat before I was stomping on the accelerator and hitting the switch that turned on the row of spot-lights on the roof-rack. In the sudden glare of light, it became obvious that the second car was filled with ‘muscle types’ as I was staring into the barrels of at least three rifles. By the time the deep sounding chatter of weapons on automatic informed me that we were being shot at with AK’s, the Land Rover was three-quarters of the way across the parking lot. I spared a micro-second to glance at Cpl Maseka and his helper, and saw that they had taken cover behind a row of cars, before the Land Rover ramped right over the curb dividing the parking lot from the street. The next second, the bull-bar in the front of the Land Rover had caught the sedan car right in the centre of mass, across the driver and rear passenger doors, and was shoving it bodily across the road. I shifted down a gear and floored the accelerator again, but in my haste I had selected the wrong gear and the Landy stalled.

The car I had hit was tilted up at about fourty-five degrees on two wheels and the gun-men who had been shooting at us had been thrown back into the interior of the car. I grabbed the hand-brake and pulled it up to hold the Landy in place, then pulled my hand-gun and jumped out of my door.

As I advanced cautiously around the front of the mortally wounded car, with my weapon held out in front of me in the approved two-handed grip, I could see that I had been spectacularly successful. I could see the driver through the front wind-screen of the car and it as clear from the angle of his head that he was no longer a threat. The passenger side of the front wind-screen had been shot out and there was blood and gore all over the front bonnet. It took me a second to realise that one of the shooters in the back seat must have been firing when we hit and hadn’t stopped. ‘Own Goal’ I thought smugly to myself. Just as I was about to pat myself on the back, I saw movement to my left and swung my fire-arm to cover it. Before I could even get my weapon around, I was startled by the sound of two shots going off in rapid succession, and I saw one of the shooters who had obviously got out of the car, going down. I glanced further left and was surprised to see that Daise was standing in the Landy’s passenger doorway with her weapon extended and obviously looking for more targets.

Chapter 28: Adding responsibilities

The song ended and I paid Bettina for the ‘dances’ she had done for me. While I did so, she told me where she was going to take Katerina and I told her to do what she had to do and that I would meet her somewhere along the way.

Once she had left the booth, I left enough money on the table to pay for my drinks and to tip the waitress, then I got up and walked out of the club. I gave Roy and Maseka a slight nod as I walked past their tables on the way out.

I crossed the parking-lot and jumped into the Land Rover, once Sgt Major Dhlamini had shifted over into the passenger seat. I didn’t say a word; just started up and drove off.

“What now?” the Sgt Major asked quietly. I guessed he was responding to my dark mood.

“We have a rescue to plan and execute.”

“Who?”

“Two of the women who work there.”

“Where?”

“Wait one. I’m thinking. I’ll brief you now.” My mind was working furiously, trying to cover all the angles. I was sure that the actual rescue of the women would be fairly trivial to arrange, but the longer term consequences were a little more serious. We had come to a water-shed moment. Everything to this point had been at arms length, and I thought that while Dimitri might be pissed off about Alina and Daise disappearing, we hadn’t had any direct confrontation. It was possible, unlikely, but possible, that Dimitri would eventually let their defection to me slide … eventually. Stealing two of his women right from under his nose was something different entirely. I suspected that he would see it for what it was; a direct threat to his authority and control.

I pulled into the parking lot of the City Hospital and turned off the Land Rover. “Ok,” I said, “here’s the story. I met one of the dancers in there, Bettina, and she told me a story. She is being blackmailed to stay there and to work as a prostitute, rather than as just a dancer. She is going to bring a woman called Katerina to this hospital in about an hour. Katerina was violently sodomised earlier and needs medical attention.”

“Oh,’ Alina flinched when she heard that.

“Sorry Alina. No way I could make that sound any better than what it is.”

“No problem Rupert. I just keep getting reminded of Dimitri and …”

“Yes, I realise that. It seems to be his signature.”

“It’s also clever of him,” Daise interjected, “it means that the woman can continue to work.”

“True, although from what Bettina tells me, this was so bad that she needs to receive medical attention.” Just then my phone rang. I saw that it was a call from Roy so I answered it, “Howzit Roy. You out of the club?”

“Yes. You see what you needed?”

“Yes. Meet us at the City Hospital.”

“Ok, be there in a few minutes.”

I told the Sgt Major to SMS Cpl Maseka to get out of the club and call us when he was out, then climbed out of the Land Rover and told Daise and Alina to come with me. We walked into the entrance to the Emergency Room and looked around. There was the usual crowd for that time of night; victims of the usual shootings, stabbings and hijackings mixed in with the kids with high fevers and drunken idiots who had crashed their cars. We sat down and watched the operation for a few minutes.

“Alina, go to the bathroom please and wait there with Daise. When Bettina and Katerina arrive, I will send them in there to you. You can tell them that you are with me and keep them there till I call you. Ok?”

“Sure,” Alina responded and got up. Daise bent over, draped her arms round my neck and gave me a kiss, then followed Alina into the ladies’ bathroom.

I got up and went out to the parking lot again. Roy was there talking to the Sgt Major and as I joined them, Cpl Maseka and his crew pulled up. I briefed them all on what had happened and laid out the Ops Order that I had come up with. I could see that they had all put on their ‘war faces’, so I used the standard format for verbal orders. I knew that the familiar ritual would make things seem familiar to them and settle everyone done.

“Orders. Situation: Enemy,” I began and saw a slight smile flash briefly across the Sgt Major’s face. He obviously recognised what I was doing and why. When he nodded faintly at me, I was reassured that he approved.

“Our enemy in general is Dimitri and his crew. Current indications are that the crew consists of between twenty and thirty men with unknown training. They are armed with hand-guns and, possibly, with AK-47’s and variants.

“Own Forces. Two females inside and those of us standing here. Attachments/Detachments. None unless you count Roy as a cop.” I paused for the expected laughter. I could see that the tension was slightly relieved and carried on a little more informally.

“Ok, the situation is that we have two women who will be escorted by at least one of Dimitri’s crew from the club. As far as I know, Dimitri has no idea that anyone is interested in the women, and the guy is being sent along just to ensure that the women don’t run away. When they get into the Emergency Room, I will be sitting there and I will try to get the women to go to the bathroom, where Alina and Daise are waiting. Once they’re out of the way, then I want Roy to pull his police ID and ask the goon to go outside with him. I’ll cover his back by remaining in the background inside, and once the goon leaves, I’ll escort the women out to the vehicles. Sgt Major, you’ll run the outside operation. I want the car that they arrive in to be watched, and as soon as they are inside, it must be disabled. When Roy and the goon exit, they need to be covered and I want over-watch cover for me when I bring the women out. You need to assign a driver for my vehicle so that as soon as we come out, we can be picked up at the entrance with as little exposure as possible. Roy will search the goon, and I am sure he will pick up on something that he can use as a pretext to arrest him. Once he has the goon loaded up, and we have been picked up, then everyone is to saddle-up and make for my place. Questions?”

“Yes, what do we do if there is more than one ‘goon’?” Sgt Major Dhlamini asked.

“Ok, two possibilities. I guess that there won’t be more than two of them. If there are two, then either one or both will go inside. If one stays outside, then once the other is inside, you take out the one who stays outside. If they both go inside, then I’ll have to provide support for Roy. Make sense to you Roy?”

“Actually, no. I think we should just block the women off in the bathroom and get the guys out here to make a loud racket to draw the goons out, then handle them when they are out here. I am a little concerned with getting too far outside my jurisdiction and also a bit nervous about getting too closely identified with something so far off the books,” Roy said.

“Sorry, I didn’t think of that. Ok, rethink. I don’t want to tangle with these guys, even if it is just one, without separating them from the women. I don’t want to have them caught in any cross-fire or used as hostages,” I thought out loud.

“Major,” Cpl Maseka interjected, “why don’t we take the goon at the car when he arrives? We can act as car-guards and he shouldn’t be suspicious when we approach him. I can take the driver, and if there is more than one, Rifleman Ndlovo can come up on him from the other side. You can be the ‘snatch team’ and the Sgt Major and the rest of the guys can provide cover.”

“Good call. Probably a lot cleaner that way. Ok, make it so. Let’s set up for them now.” It took me only a few second to recognise that the Cpl was better placed to make a tactical call at this level. I had just been subtly reminded of that fact and I made a mental note to be more aware of it in future.

I called Daise and told her to bring Alina and wait in the Land Rover, then in conjunction with Cpl Maseka and Sgt Major Dhlamini, we set up our ambush and settled in to wait.

Chapter 27: Meeting the Enemy

 Cpl Maseka and his cronies had no trouble engaging dancers for their table. I thought quietly to myself that this duty was no hardship for them, the bill was being paid by me after all. I did notice that while they had dancers busy almost every second song, they were taking care to have at least one of their number watching all the time, while the other three paid attention to the dancer. I was satisfied that they would notice if anything went wrong.

Dimitri and his companion didn’t stop talking the whole time that I watched them, although the dynamic changed after a while, and it looked as if it was now Dimitri who was issuing orders or instructions, and the other man who was simply listening to what he was being told.

The waitress came around again and offered me a refill on my drink. When I refused, she lent close to me and whispered in my ear, “Is there a specific dancer that you would like to talk to?” I realised that not engaging a dancer might draw attention that I didn’t want, so I told her that I was interested in talking to Bettina. She seemed unsurprised by this, nodded and left. A few minutes later Bettina walked up to my table. She stretched out her hand, and I shook it without thinking.

“Can I sit here?” Bettina asked.

“Sure. That was a great dance.” I told her.

“Thank you. I try my hardest. I noticed you weren’t that interested I what I had to show?”

“Oh, I was interested all right. I am just not really comfortable in places like this,” I laughed.

“What is your name?”

“Rupert. I guess your stage name is Bettina?”

“Yes. It’s also my real name,” she said with an amused smile on her face. “Why aren’t you comfortable here?”

“I suppose I value my own privacy too much, and it seems like an invasion of yours to have hordes of men staring at you. I can’t help projecting my own feelings sometimes.”

“Oh, I have no problems with it. I work damn hard to keep my body looking like this, so I take pride in displaying it.”

“Well that’s good to know. It makes me feel a little better. Do all the dancers feel the same way you do?”

“Some of them,” she answered with a slight grimace.

“Oh,” I prompted gently, “what about those that don’t?”

Bettina gave me an evaluating look, then looked over her shoulder before turning back to me. “You aren’t a cop, I can always tell, but you are looking for something. What is it?”

“Why do you think that?”

“You don’t feel right. Your attention is in all the wrong places. Are you some sort of cop?”

“No. I am a soldier some of the time.”

“Mmm that does help to explain it. You aren’t here for the girls though?”

“You’re very perceptive. Can you keep a secret?”

“You need to get me to dance for you or something or else I will have to move on.”

“Ok, that shouldn’t be any hardship,” I said with a smile. “How about a table dance?”

“It might be better to have a ‘private’ lap dance. That way we can close the curtain.”

“Cool. Do I need to pay you first or something?”

“No. Just wait.” Bettina stood up and I saw her catching the eye of one of the bouncers. He nodded to her and she reached up and pulled the curtain closed. “Ok, that should do it. What is the secret?” As she said this, she started to do a strip-tease.

“You don’t need to actually strip,” I told her.

“Yes I do. I am working after all, and if anyone checks I need to be doing my job.”

“Before I tell you the secret, could I ask you about the conditions here?”

“What do you mean?” Bettina asked as she removed her green bra.

“I know this is a strip-club, but I have heard rumours that things have changed since the change in management. Is that true?”

“Yes. Sit back on the bench.” I leant back and watched as Bettina removed her panties and climbed up onto the bench. When her knees where on either side of my legs, she leaned forward so that her mouth was right next to my ear. “A few months back a bunch of foreigners took the place over. Since then they have employed a few girls from overseas, mostly Russian and Ukrainian. The VIP room has been turned into a brothel.”

“Is it only the foreign girls who work there?”

“No. They have been putting pressure on all of us to work there. I make enough so that I have been able to hold them off, but some of the other girls have started to go back there.”

“What are the foreign girls like? Are they happy with their work?”

“That’s the problem. They don’t say much about it, but I get the feeling from what they don’t say that they don’t have much choice.”

“They’re force?”

“Pretty much. You will still see them out on the floor, but mostly they don’t dance on the ramp. They aren’t really dancers. Some of them spend all their time in the VIP room, and they can’t work the floor.”

“Why not?”

“Too many bruises.”

“Is someone hurting them?”

“Take a look at my left breast.”

Bettina pulled back a bit and her breasts were level with my face. From this close, I could see that they had a coating of makeup on them. When I concentrated on her left breast, I could see that the make-up was concealing a faded bruise.

“What happened to your breast?”

“A few days back the one guy out there … did you see the short one at the table near the door?” I nodded. “His name’s Dimitri. Anyway, he arrived and he kinda took over. The guy he’s talking to is the manager, but Dimitri has been telling him what to do ever since he arrived. Anyway, he called all the girls in, one by one, for an interview. When he saw me, he asked me why I wasn’t working the VIP room. When I told him that I was a stripper and not a prostitute, he reached out and grabbed me by the breast and started twisting. It was very strange, he didn’t ask me anything or tell me to do anything, he just twisted. I cried out and then he seemed to get excited. The more I cried, the more excited he got. I dropped down to my knees trying to get away from him and he let me go. I think he was going to do something else to me, but his phone rang and he chased me out.”

“Why are you still here then?”

“I’ve been waiting for the end of the month so that I can get paid. It’s only another three days. Once I have my money, I’m out of here.”

“Has he bothered you again since then?”

“Not me specifically. I think he’s been too busy. He scares me. I saw him looking at me a little earlier and I had almost decided that I was going to leave tonight. Screw the money. He’s crazy.”

“I think more than you know.”

“He’s why you’re here,” Bettina said in a sudden flash of insight. “I heard one of the bouncers talking. He said that they were trying to find some guy. You’re that guy, aren’t you?”

Just then the curtain twitched open and a bouncer stuck his head in. “Another song Bettina?” he asked.

“Yes, maybe even two more,” she told him.

He disappeared again, pulling the curtain closed again.

“See,” Bettina said, “I told you we had to do this properly.”

“Properly is not the word. You know that even with what we have been discussing, I have been excited by you.”

“Of course I know. I wouldn’t be any good at my job if I didn’t pay attention to those big details, now would I?”

I decided to answer her earlier question. “I am just here to find out a little about Dimitri and his crew. Do you know more about him?”

“Actually, there is one of the Russian girls that you should ask. I only know what I have been able to see.”

“Which one? Could you point her out to me?”

“No. She is sitting in the change-room. Dimitri decided to teach her an object lesson a little earlier. That’s what convinced me he’s crazy. Really crazy.”

“What object lesson?”

“He said that we were all sluts. His sluts, and we would do whatever he told us to do. He grabbed Katerina and bent her over the table, then he raped her in her arse.”

“Shit. In front of you?”

“In front of all of us. That was just a little while before I came out to dance. It was the final straw for me. She is sitting in there now, bleeding. He told me that I could take her to the hospital later.”

“Why would he let you do that?”

“She doesn’t speak much English. I’m supposed to go so that I can tell the doctors what they need to know.”

“Isn’t he worried that you’ll give him away?”

“No. He said he would send one of his goons along who would hurt me badly if I did.”

“Ok. I tell you what, how would you feel about me taking you out of this situation.”

“What do you mean?”

“I already have a bit of a ‘dispute’ with the man. I was thinking that if I got you and Katerina away from the ‘goon’, that you could help me find out what I need to know.

“I don’t know if I can trust you completely. How do I know that you aren’t some kind of weirdo?”

“You don’t. What I will do is make up the money you are missing by leaving here, and promise that I will do my best to look after the two of you.”

“Three actually.”

“Three?”

“I have a young daughter. She’s seven. She’s actually the real reason I didn’t leave immediately. Dimitri said that he would hold her hostage for my obedience.”

“Shit. Ok, know this. You and your daughter will be safe with me.”

Chapter 26: Strip Club

Daise left me on the couch to go and wake Alina as Sgt Major Dhlamini walked into the lounge. They greeted each other and the Sgt Major dropped heavily into an armchair.

“What’s up with you Sgt Major?” I asked him, noticing the frown on his face.

“Are you letting your penis do your thinking for you Major?” he asked me.

“What?”

“Just yesterday, you were taking the proper precautions: not going out onto the veranda; having people watching the road and generally taking care. Today you buy a flashy red car and blithely let the woman drive it home, with you following. If you are going to change tactics and set them up as bait, I would appreciate being told beforehand.”

I could see he was mad with me, and I felt a bit guilty. “You are correct Sgt Major. I wasn’t thinking clearly. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t apologise to me Major. Just don’t make such bloody stupid mistakes again. I couldn’t give a shit about you, but my people’s lives are at stake and I am starting to get a little fond of the two women.”

“Sgt Major! You are going to make me cry if you aren’t careful. It sounds almost as if you are trying to protect an officer from his own stupidity.” I waited to see how Sgt Major Dhlamini would respond to my attempt at levity, and wasn’t disappointed.

“You only cry when you see people kicking puppies. You know better about the way I feel about stupid bloody officers,” he said while grinning wryly at me.

“Too true. Thanks for the kick up the arse. I wasn’t thinking clearly. “

“Are you ready for tonight?”

“I think so. Are you happy with the plan?”

“Not really. I do think that it is the best we can do though. Just don’t act like a silly bugger tonight and we should gain some useful intelligence.”

“Ok. I’ll make sure I don’t sodomise anyone…”

“You know what I mean. There’s only so much we can do if they attack you in the club.”

“Here come the ladies,” I said seeing the two of them descending the stairs. “Ladies, if you will forgive me for saying so, you would both look like a million dollars dressed in sacks. In those jeans, you look like ten.”

“You like?” Daise asked as she twirled to show off the tight jeans she was wearing.

“Yes, I do. Do the boots fit you Alina?”

“They’re perfect, thank you Rupert.”

“No problem. Both of you need to be comfortable and I figured that good boots stand anyone in good stead if they have to do any kind of running or fighting. There’s nothing like being prepared.”

I got up and went to the gun safe. Daise already had her Vektor SP1 in a bikini holster on her belt, and I got out the little Luger 9mmK. “Daise tells me you know how to shoot an automatic,” I said as I handed the weapon to her along with a bikini holster.

“Yes I do. I haven’t shot much though,” Alina said as she started threading her belt through the holster.

“This weapon is simple enough. It has a thumb safety. Move it down, and pull the trigger. I will cock it for you so that it is ready.” I matched actions to words and handed her the weapon. She took it from me and tested the feel of it in her hand.

“This fits my hand perfectly,” she said with a surprised note in her voice. “I expected it to be too large for my hand.”

“That’s why I gave it to you. Don’t think about it too much. It’s only there in case there is a dire emergency, then you have it as backup. The old saying is ‘You never need a fire-arm until you really need a firearm’. Don’t draw it unless you really need to use it, OK?”

“Ok.” Alina practiced taking off the safety and engaging it again, then, once she was happy that she knew what she needed to know, she slid the weapon into her holster. “How do I hide it?”

“Just pull your T-Shirt out and let it hang over the holster. If it shows too much, then pull the holster slightly round behind your back.” I demonstrated by lifting my T-Shirt to show them where my holster sat. “I’ll have to leave mine behind when I enter the club, so I won’t have it on me. I’m relying on Cpl Maseka and his crew inside the club, and you guys as backup on the outside.”

I glanced at my watch and started hustling the girls out to the Land Rover. Sgt Major Dhlamini climbed into the front passenger seat and the girls got into the back. I took a few seconds to load the Lee-Enfield into its storage compartment and we were on the road.

---

We arrived in the parking lot of the Strip Club ten minutes before nine and I saw thatRoy’s car was parked near the entrance. We had already decided that he would enter the club before me, so I wasn’t too worried about that. I stopped and looked to see if I could see Cpl Maseka’s car. Just as I hauled out my phone to call him, he arrived along with three others in the car. He waved at me and found a parking spot. Our plan was that the four of them would be a distraction as well as my support in case anything happened inside the club. They got out of the car and stood around chatting. I gave Daise and Alina a quick kiss and got out of the Land Rover. As I walked towards the entrance to the club, Sgt Major Dhlamini drove the Land Rover out of the parking lot and stopped across the street.

I walked into the club’s entrance and stopped at the barrier. The bouncer there, a giant of a man dressed in a suit, patted me down before directing me to the cashier’s window. He was distracted though, as we had planned, because Cpl Maseka came up right behind me with his three companions. I paid my R100 entrance fee and entered the club proper. As I came through the screen door, I was greeted by one of the waitresses who asked me if I was alone or whether I was expecting anyone. When I told her I was alone, she asked me to follow her and led me to a table in the centre of the club, near the ramp. I asked her if I could rather sit against the wall and she just smiled and agreed.

I sat down in a booth with my back to the wall and looked around. Cpl Maseka came in shortly after me and the four of them moved to a larger table right near the ramp, but about two tables away from mine. They immediately ordered a round of drinks.

I hadn’t been in this club before, so I was interested to see the décor. I had been in another club a few months before on the occasion of a friend’s bachelor party, so I had something to compare it to. This club was not as clinical and well lit as the other had been. The booth I was sitting in had red leather covered seats and was fairly sheltered from view. I looked up at the ceiling and saw that it was possible to pull a curtain across to ensure privacy. The table was fairly sturdy, and I guessed it had to be to handle the rigours of women dancing on it. There was no-one dancing on the ramp, but there was a table dance going on a few tables away from me. When I looked a little closer, I saw that the blonde dancer’s legs were resting onRoy’s shoulders and his nose was about ten millimetres from the crotch of her panties. Well, his cover seemed to be intact.

There were about twenty dancers in the club that I could see. Other than the one busy with the table dance forRoy, there was one other table dance going on the other side of the ramp. I craned my neck and saw that it was two dancers up on the table doing a dance for a group of eight guys. Only a few other tables were occupied; it seemed to be a little slow.

The waitress came back once she saw I was settled and I ordered a brandy-and-coke which I thought I would be able to nurse for a while. There were signs on the walls giving a list of the rules, the most important of which seemed to be that there was no touching of the dancers and no photos were to be taken.

Shortly after my drink arrived, the current song ended and the DJ announced that ‘Bettina’ would be doing a dance for us. All the girls that had been doing dances on the tables, as well as the others who were sitting on chairs against the far wall, disappeared into a staff-only door. The lights dimmed a little and a new song came on. I recognised it as Joyride from Roxette.

As Hello, you fool, I love you, C'mon join the Joyride erupted from the speakers, a tall, striking red-headed women appeared on the ramp. She was dressed in a pair thigh-high black leather boots over tight green pants and a white men’s dress shirt. Over that she had on a long green cape. She started out by dancing along the ramp, swirling the cape and playing with it coquettishly to cover and reveal her face. After a few minutes of this she discarded her cape, and started using the poles spread along the ramp. I watched her eyes, and noticed that like all good strippers, she was evaluating her audience, checking to see what appealed to them and where she would get the most attention. She used her hands constantly to direct the audience’s eyes away from her face to her breasts and her legs, them drew them up again to watch as she moved on.

The first song soon came to an end, and as the next song started, she sat down on a chair to remove her long boots. Once they were off, she started dancing again, going through basically the same routine until about halfway through she started unbuttoning her shirt. The way that she moved and twirled provided a very titillating experience, showing occasional flashes of her bra.

I was suddenly distracted from the show when I caught movement in my peripheral vision and turned my head slightly to see that three men had come into the club. I watched as they moved to a table and two of them sat down, so engaged in their conversation that they were completely oblivious to anything that was happening around them. Their lack of attention was compensated for by the third man, who’s attitude screamed ‘body-guard’ as he stood against the wall near their table and tried to watch everything going on. His gaze flicked across me and I could see that he evaluated and dismissed me as a threat. I kept watching the two at the table, trying to hide that I was doing so. I suspected that the shorter man was the Dimitri that I had heard so much about, while the taller man looked more like a local. I risked a glance inRoy’s direction, and got a slight nod from him as if he was confirming what I thought.

When I started paying attention to the dancer again, she was down to her panties, and I took a few moments to admire the truly impressive job that some plastic surgeon had done on enhancing her natural assets. As the song ended and the next one began, ‘Bettina’ bent over from the waist and slowly removed her panties. Her rear was pointed away from the audience while she did so, and she kept glancing around coyly, giving the impression that she was alone and was worried that someone was watching her. I was tremendously impressed with her skill. She was obviously not just a run-of-the-mill bump-and-grind dancer, but someone who took great pains to actually dance, and to put on an act at the same time. It took her almost half of the song before her teasing was done and she was fully nude. After that, she went back to the poles and eventually was displaying herself completely to the audience. She moved around the ramp, stopping every now and then to put on a bit of a show, and once again used her hands to direct the eyes on her; starting at her face; then down her body; pausing at her breasts; before moving on to stop between her legs. It was instantly obvious that she was either a true red-head, or her hair had been died to match top and bottom.

When she was facing me, she caught my eyes watching her, and returned my look. She moved her hands to direct my gaze away from her face and I smiled at her, nodded and continued to look at her face. She moved on after giving me a slight nod and a faint smile.

At the end of the song, ‘Bettina’ gathered up her clothes in one arm, performed a very elegant bow to us with her whole body, then turned and left the ramp through a door in the wall. As soon as she had left, the staff-only door opened and the rest of the girls appeared again. They started circulating amongst the tables.

I was approached by three at different times, who asked if they could sit down. I turned them away politely, saying that I might be interested later.

Chapter 25: Getting Ready

It took about an hour to get everything sorted out, but then we could leave in a mini convoy. Daise was driving her new car with Alina sitting beside her. They had the top down, and the admiring looks from other motorists were obvious. Two beautiful women in a cabriolet, I was surprised that there were no accidents, from the inattention of other drivers, on the way home.

Once we were home again, I called everyone together in the lounge to discuss the activities planned for the evening. The most obvious issue was that neither of the two women should show themselves in the club, and we decided that it would be a bad idea for me to sit with Roy as it was likely that he had been identified as a policeman. I was a little concerned about the fact that we would have to be unarmed in the club, the search at the door as likely to be very thorough, so we had to figure out how to make the situation as safe as possible. After some discussion, we decided that the best bet was to work with some misdirection and we worked out a plan for that. Once we had settled on that, I called Roy and discussed it briefly with him.

I explained our concerns to Roy, that we were concerned about security and his being identified. He was quite happy to go along with our plan, so it was settled. We would enter the club separately with a little diversion to draw attention away from us. Sgt Major Dhlamini was designated to take care of the outside security, and possible backup, while Cpl Maseka and a couple of the others would form a raucous group, celebrating a bachelor’s party. I would sit on my own as near to them as possible, and Roy would also sit on his own, but far from us.

Nqobile had prepared us a nice meal of lamb chops, mashed potatoes and some salads, which we all enjoyed before moving off to our various rooms to get some sleep in preparation for an expected late night.

When I walked up the stairs to my room, Daise took my hand and Alina walked right behind us. I expected her to turn off to go to her own room, and was a little surprised when she followed us into my room. I shrugged mentally and stripped down to shorts before climbing onto the bed. Daise climbed up next to me and snuggled up in my arms, and Alina, after some hesitation, lay down on my other side. I decided that just pretending to ignore the situation was my best option, so I closed my eyes and before I knew it had dropped off to sleep.

---

I woke to the delightful sensation of two beautiful women cuddled up to me. I eased my way out from between them and jumped in the shower before going downstairs. It was just five o’clock when I got to the lounge, so I turned on the TV and caught the highlights package from the days play. It was day three in the cricket test match between South Africa and Australia, and it looked as if we had a good chance of beating them by an innings. It was very nice to see, even though we had lost the series already as they had won the first two tests.

Sitting and watching a bit of cricket was a relaxing activity and I allowed my mind to mull over the events of the past few days in an attempt to put everything into perspective. There had been a lot of things happening and I hadn’t really had a chance to think them through and decide what I really felt about what had happened. I had discovered fairly early on that it was important for me to take time to process things as soon after they happened as possible, otherwise some overlooked facet could jump out and bite me at the most inopportune moment.

I decided that I was very happy with the fact that Daise and I had gotten on so well, and I was really starting to like Alina after a pretty rocky start. The fact that the two of them had started pulling me into a conflict was a little more difficult to get my head around. One the one hand, I didn’t want or expect anything of the kind to happen, but on the other I was finding myself enjoying the mental challenge. I had to admit to myself that the threat of danger added more than just a touch of spice.

My ruminations were interrupted by the sight of Daise walking down the stairs. I turned the volume on the TV down and greeted her quietly, “Hi. You sleep well?”

“Very well, thank you. I can’t believe how nice it is to sleep snuggled up safely next to you,” Daise replied. She walked over and settled onto the couch next to me, tucking her legs up under her in that effortless way that women have. I lifted my arm and dropped it around her shoulders as she scooted up closer to me.

“How are you doing?” I asked her. “We haven’t really spoken much since Alina got here.”

“Actually, I am doing a lot better than I thought I would. Rupert, I must tell you that you are the best thing that ever happened to me. I was really worried that I would be just a trophy wife or some sort of sex-slave, and I was prepared to accept that if that was what it took to escape from my situation, but you have taken me into your heart and your life in a way that fulfils my dreams. I wanted to thank you for that, as well as to tell you that you really didn’t have to buy me the car or anything else, I am quite happy just being with you.”

“Thanks Daise. I really appreciate that. I think you know that I am in love with you. I was also more than a little worried what would happen when Bev pushed me into making those first moves, and I can tell you that you are way more than I expected. I have noticed though that you seem a lot more relaxed now that Alina is here…”

“I am. I don’t think you realise exactly just how close Alina and I are,” Daise told me. I looked closely at her and I could see that there was a faint blush that had spread across her face.

“I’m not sure I understand exactly what you mean,” I said, pretending not to have noticed the blush. I had a pretty good idea, picked up from observing the way the two of them interacted with each other, but I wanted her to tell me in her own way and, more importantly, in her own time.

“I think I told you that we shared everything,” she asked looking up at me as she did so. At my nod, she continued “Well, we became very close in the last year or so. Alina didn’t have any boyfriends. I think what she was being forced to do had made her scared of men. So …” Her voice trailed off and she looked down, tracing a pattern with her finger on her bare leg.

“Are you saying that she turned to you for comfort?” I prompted quietly.

“Yes. We … we became lovers,” she said just as quietly, then she glanced up quickly at my face. I guessed that the expression she saw there she found sufficiently encouraging that she gained the courage to continue. “It started with me holding her in the night because she was having bad dreams and crying. I would kiss her tears away and the one night she just reached out and grabbed hold of my head and started kissing me on the mouth. That was the first time. It was a huge surprise to me. I had never experienced anything like it and hadn’t expected to. I didn’t know what to do, so I just responded to what she did to me. Afterwards, Alina told me how good it felt for her to be in control for once but how, at the same time, how nice it was to have someone gentle and soft to make love to.”

“Yes, I can imagine how that must have been for her. What about you though? Is this something you were comfortable with?”

“Not at first. It was very exciting while she was busy making love to me, but I was very embarrassed the next morning when I woke up in her arms.”

“Was it just that one time?”

Daise was watching my face the whole time. I was concerned about how she might interpret my feelings, because I was unsure what expressions showed on my face. I was even more unsure of what my feelings were. I guess that uncertainty must have shown.

“Do you think it was bad?” Daise asked me anxiously.

“I have no problems with the fact that the two of you made love,” I answered cautiously, “the only thing that concerns me is whether she forced you somehow.”

“Oh no!” Daise answered emphatically, “She was very gentle with me.”

“No, I don’t think you understood me. What I meant was if it was something that you wanted to do. She could have made you feel that you were obligated to her or something.”

“Oh, I understand. No, once I got over the surprise, I definitely wanted to do it.”

“Did you do it again?”

“Yes, a few times. I just thought that I should tell you though. Alina was telling me before we went to sleep that she misses our closeness.”

“Do you still want to be involved with her?”

“I don’t want to lose you.”

“That isn’t what I was getting at. I wanted to know about your feelings.”

“Well, yes. I think I would miss her.”

“I must tell you, I suspected that the two of you had a more intimate relationship. I have been watching how you interact with each other.”

“Does it bother you?”

“Well, it would have when I was much younger. I am not nearly so immature and insecure as I was at eighteen. I think what is important for me is that there is honesty; each of us needs to be honest with the other and open about what we want to do. Thank you for telling me about this Daise. It bodes well for our relationship that you are able to tell me these things.”

“Thanks Rupert. I knew I had to tell you. I already told you that I would give up anything else for you, and this is included.”

“I’m not asking you to give it up Daise. I just wanted to explore your thinking about it. I am quite happy to be in a triangle relationship with the two of you.”

“What do you mean, exactly, by a ‘triangle’ relationship?”

“What you seem to be describing. You and I loving each other and you and Alina loving each other.”

“Oh no,’ Daise laughed, “you’ve got it only half right.”

“What do you mean?”

“You have to finish the triangle Rupert. Alina told me that she is starting to fall in love with you too.”

That was a shocker. I had thought that there was an easing of the hostility, not a move towards love.

“Are you sure?” I asked Daise. “This is a hellova turnaround from her feelings just a few days ago.”

“Yes. Alina told me that if it hadn’t been for me feeling the way I do about you, she would have made a move on you already. Why do you think she snuggled up to you earlier? She could have slept next to me if that wasn’t the way she was feeling.”

“That’s true, I suppose. It’s something I will have to think about. It’s not something I had ever considered before. I’ve read about relationships like that, but never experienced anything like it. In fact, I don’t think I’ve even met anyone who had a relationship like that.”

“What about Sgt Major Dhlamini? He has lots of wives.”

“That’s not the same. They aren’t together in his bed. It’s very much one at a time.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, he’s never given me any reason to think any differently.”

“Well, that’s not the idea I got from Mzwandile when I chatted to her in the ladies’ room at the Spring Ball. She definitely seemed to be looking forward to some intimacy with one or two of his other wives once they were married.”

“Well, that’s a surprise to me. How on earth did you get involved in a conversation like that with her anyway?”

“She asked me a lot of questions about our relationship,” Daise giggled. “I think she might be a little more interesting than the Sgt Major expects.”

“I think you’re right. Damn. I would love to tease him about this, but I get the feeling that he would have just as many opportunities to tease me by the time they’re married.”

“You mean you will consider it?”

“Yes. We will have to see how things go with this whole situation though. I don’t think that now is the right time to be exploring variations in sexual triangles.”

“Sexual triangles… hmm… that gives me some images to feed my imagination.”

I laughed. “Me too, you minx. I think it’s time we got everyone up and ready for tonight though.”

“Looks to me that you are up and ready enough,” Daise teased me, running her hand over my thigh and between my legs.

“Hey,” I protested weakly, “we can’t do that now.”

“If you say so,” she said with a last teasing squeeze and a smile.

Chapter 24: Shopping

Roy’s announcement left me a little flabbergasted for a few seconds. I took a few seconds to process what he had said. As I thought about it, I realised that it made a lot of sense. I had heard that the strip clubs were often full of women from the ex-Soviet republics, and that it would be a natural habitat for someone like Dimitri.

“That sorta makes sense,” I told Roy. “Which one were you thinking of?”

“The new one in Stamford Hill Road,” Roy answered. “Club 363. Its been open a while, but we’ve been watching it for a while now and there was a change of ownership about six months back. Since then, it has gone from a pure strip club to having some of the dancers becoming ‘Ladies of Negotiable Virtue’.”

Roy glanced at Daise and then fixed on Alina as he said this. I looked at Alina, and saw that she had a strange expression on her face. I couldn’t quite define what it was, but guessed that it was somewhere between anger and amusement.

“Alina? You Ok?” I asked her.

“Yes. I like the way that you put that Roy. Much nicer than some of the things that I have heard it called,” Alina said.

“Ja, I like it too. I have seen enough women in the industry to have some sympathy with them. I don’t like the way that they are often treated by other policemen and I try to compensate a little. A lot of them are really nice…” His voice trailed off, and I could see that the subject was still painful for him.

“How is Julie by the way Roy?” I asked him.

“I keep track of her as much as I can. She has put on a lot more weight since you saw her last. She moved down to Knysna and is working as a clerk for a lawyer down there. She is slowly rebuilding her life.”

I decided that Roy had come a long way to be able to talk about it like that. It hadn’t been too long since he wasn’t able to talk about it at all. I could see that both Daise and Alina were intensely curious, so I looked at Roy and asked him “Can I tell them?”

“Sure. Probably a good idea that they know.”

“Ok. Alina, Roy had a girlfriend, they were engaged to be married, and he noticed that money was going missing from their accounts. One day he got a call from Julie’s partner in her law firm to ask where she was. He called around, and no-one knew where she was. She had just disappeared. He hunted for her for days, and when he eventually found her, she was walking the streets. It turned out that she had had a growing addiction to cocaine and it had got her into all kinds of trouble, both financially and professionally. Eventually, the money that she had borrowed landed her in the clutches of the Nigerians. They had introduced her to Crack and were pimping her to maintain her habit. Roy here tried to intervene, but wasn’t successful for a long time; Julie’s addiction wasn’t something that she wanted to shake. He did eventually manage to get her out and into rehab. Once she came out, she started putting on weight. We think it was to make herself unattractive to men. Now she wants nothing to do with men at all.”

“Did you say her law practice?” Daise asked.

“Yes. She was a damn good lawyer. We think that there were a lot of high flyers in the circles she moved though, and they got her into the cocaine as a way to maintain the energy level. It’s a damn shame.” I answered her.

Daise turned to Alina, and put her arm around her. I could see that Alina was close to tears. I knew before I told the story that it might hit a little close to home, but I figured that it was worthwhile as an object lesson as well as to show that both Roy and I were sympathetic to the plight that Alina had found herself in. Alina looked at me and I could see a softening in her eyes towards me. She hadn’t been exactly hostile before, but there had been a reserve there that had bothered me. I guessed that we had taken the first steps towards breaching that reserve, and that made me glad.

“What’s the plan then Roy?” I asked him.

“I thought we could meet down there about twenty-one hundred, go in and just check out the place. See what we can see.”

“Aren’t you on duty?”

“Not really. I have just come off the night-duty shift and I have two days of down time before going back on the day-duty shift. I figure I can maybe convince my supervisor that this is overtime work too.”

“Ok,” I laughed, “sounds good. Lets do that then. I have some things I would like to do this afternoon, so I think we should leave you to your Castle Draft and see you later?”

“Cool. Have fun and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he said with a friendly leer at the girls. Daise and Alina took it in good spirits and both smiled at Roy, even though Alina’s smile was a little wan.

---

Once we left the Pavilion Mall, I drove into Pinetown. Cpl Maseka and his crew checked in with me via cell phone and I told him where I planned on going. The girls didn’t have a clue though; and it struck me that sometimes it was useful to be able to speak a language that they didn’t know. That thought sparked another, and I decided that I needed to think carefully about how I could get them to listen in to what would happen that night.

Once we got into Old Main Road in Pinetown, I spotted the place that I wanted and pulled in.

“What are we doing here?” Daise asked with barely suppressed excitement.

“What do you think?” I asked. “Have you forgotten that I told you I thought you needed a car?”

“I thought you were just talking,” she said, then she lapsed into what I guessed was either Ukrainian or Russian and her and Alina went back and forth for a while.

While they were talking, I parked the Land Rover and got out. I knew exactly what car I wanted to get Daise; I had been eyeing it for a couple of months now whenever I drove past. As I walked into the showroom, I could hear the excited chatter continue as the girls followed me. Once inside, I was approached by a salesman and I started telling him what I wanted, but I spoke in Afrikaans so that I could keep it a secret from Daise and Alina. It took me a few minutes to explain to the salesman, and to figure out the practical arrangements for payment. I gave him my details and he scurried off to process the paper-work, and phone the bank I supposed, before turning to Daise.

“What do you think of that?’ I asked. Daise turned to look where I was pointing. She went still, looking eerily like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a car in the road; dead still and poised to run at the slightest sound or movement. “Yes, in a few minutes that will be yours,” I assured her. I really liked the Beetle 2.0 Cabriolet, and if the look that Daise gave me when she turned around was any indication, she really liked the red one I had pointed out. All of a sudden, I found my arms filled with a very grateful and excited woman.