Shafted Read online

19

  Tania felt like a prisoner in her own flat during the week after the women had attacked her. She was terrified of them coming back with their rapist friends and killing her, and furious with herself for getting into this position in the first place. If she’d only had a little patience, fate would surely have brought Larry to her door sooner or later. But no . . . she’d had to go wading in like a bull in a crystal factory, trying to force his hand. And now look what had happened.

  Two police officers had turned up the morning after to talk to her about the under-age sex claims in the paper, and for a moment Tania had contemplated telling them about the women and begging them to put her into witness protection, or something. But she’d bottled out in the end, because she was terrified that the women would find out that she’d grassed them up. Anyway, she’d known from the way they were talking to her that the officers already didn’t believe a word she said, so why would they help her if she came out with something that sounded as preposterous as that?

  Too scared to ask for protection, but unable to lie and say that she had slept with Larry when she was fifteen because the women had warned her not to until the end of the week, she’d ended up telling the police that she’d made the whole thing up. But then she’d had the worry of wondering what they would do to her when she completely contradicted herself in the papers a week later, claiming that she had slept with Larry when she’d been under age, after all. They would probably lock her up for perverting the course of justice – and lock Larry up for rape.

  Already in a complete state about all of that, it almost tipped Tania right over the edge when she got the letter from Larry’s solicitor midway through the week, telling her that she would be sued if she spread any more lies about him, and that she wasn’t to try to contact him ever again. She totally didn’t understand how he could be so cold after everything she’d been through for him. And she wouldn’t have minded, but she hadn’t even done the worst bit of damage yet, so he had absolutely no reason to be so horrible.

  But if Tania was hurt that Larry had set his solicitor on her like that, and frustrated that she couldn’t get to him to explain how it had all gone so wrong, she was absolutely furious that there had been moments during the last few days when she’d actually considered killing herself to protect him and it was so obvious now that he didn’t give a toss about her. He still hadn’t admitted that she had slept in his flat that night, or apologised for leaving her to take all the flak. He’d just had his solicitor send her a nasty letter threatening to sue her – the bastard!

  Screwing up the insulting letter, she’d tossed it into the bin and had spent the rest of the week veering between regret that it had turned out like this and anger that Larry had hung her out to dry again. But Tania’s overriding emotion was fear of what the women would do to her if she didn’t do what they wanted.

  Which proved to be justified, she soon discovered, when an unwelcome visitor broke into her flat on the night before she was due to go to the papers with her latest story.

  Sleeping fitfully, Tania was shocked awake by someone shaking her shoulder. Opening her eyes with difficulty only to find that it was still pitch dark, she thought she must have been dreaming. She was just drifting off again when she got a stinging slap across the face.

  Eyes wide now, she was barely able to breathe as she peered up at the shadowy form standing over her.

  ‘You listening?’ a man’s voice growled, his tone every bit as dark as his face, which was covered by a scarf. Grunting ‘Better had be’when Tania nodded, he leaned right over her, saying, ‘You remember what you’ve got to do tomorrow, right? And you know what’s gonna happen if you fuck it up?’

  Nodding again, Tania squealed with terror when he lowered his face so close to hers that she could feel the heat of his breath through the scarf.

  Telling her to button it before he shoved his dick in her gob to shut her up, the man said, ‘After you’ve done what you’ve been told, you’re gonna forget any of this ever happened, ’cos we’ll be watching, and if we hear one word about you being forced to lie, you’re dead. And we’ll find you – no matter where you are. Got that?’

  Tears streaming down her cheeks now, Tania nodded again.

  ‘Right,’ the man said. ‘There’s been a change of script. You’re still gonna say what you was always gonna say, but now you’ve got some new shit to add to it. So listen up, ’cos you need to get this dead right . . .’

  Unable to go back to sleep after the man had gone, Tania turned all the lights on and checked all the windows and the door to see how he’d got in. More scared than ever when she found no visible signs of a break-in, she bolted the front door and wedged her floor brush between it and the wall, terrified that they had somehow got hold of a key.

  Keeping the TV on for the comforting sound of voices for the last few hours before dawn, she was a nervous wreck by the time she went to the phone box and called Sam Brady, asking him to come round immediately, because she had something really important to tell him.

  Surprised to hear from Tania again, because he hadn’t expected to after her reaction to his last story, Sam said, ‘You are joking, right? You’ve already denied half of what you told me last time, so what’s the point?’

  ‘I lied to the news people,’ Tania told him, sounding desperate as she added, ‘but I wasn’t lying to you, Sam, I swear it. And now I need to tell you what really happened with me and Larry.’

  ‘I’m not sure I can be bothered,’ Sam said wearily. ‘You’re a nice girl, Tania, but you’ve got yourself so hung up on this bloke, I don’t think even you know what’s what any more.’

  ‘I do,’ Tania insisted, terrified that the women and their friends would kill her if she couldn’t get Sam to listen to her. ‘Look, I know you think I’m messing about ’cos I keep changing my story, but it’s really important that you listen to me now.’

  ‘Why?’ Sam asked, thinking she’d better have a really good reason for him to even think about getting involved again. He’d already been questioned by the police, and had voluntarily relinquished the Dictaphone recording of his last interview with her for their inquiries. He wasn’t concerned about that, because he knew he’d done nothing for which he could be prosecuted or sued. He’d merely reported what he’d been told, and any judge would be sure to say that he’d acted on a reasonable assumption of truth. But he couldn’t risk his reputation by doing yet another piece if she was going to deny it again.

  ‘I can’t explain over the phone,’ Tania told him now. ‘But I need to tell you something I haven’t told anyone else. It’ll prove that I really did sleep with Larry, and there’s no way he’ll be able to deny it. Please, Sam – you’ve got to come.’

  Intrigued, despite his instincts telling him that he was already perilously close to losing his credibility because of her constantly changing story, Sam agreed to come straight round. The whole thing was getting a bit twisted, even for him, and he wasn’t holding out any hope of getting anything spectacularly new or usable from Tania now. But she’d said she had definite proof this time, so he’d have been an idiot not even to check it out. Still, he thought, it had better be really convincing, or there was no way he’d be committing a single word to paper this time.

  Stopping off on the way to buy tea bags, milk, biscuits and cigarettes, Sam handed them to Tania when she opened her door. Frowning when he saw how pale she was, and how outright scared she looked as she nervously scanned the corridor behind him, he said,‘Are you all right, sweetheart?’

  Nodding quickly, she flapped her hand at him to hurry up and come in, then bolted the door and put the brush back in place.

  Really worried now, Sam followed her into her musty-smelling living room and peered at her, saying, ‘You’re not all right, are you? I thought you sounded odd on the phone, but you look terrible. And what’s with barricading yourself in?’

  Looking on the verge of tears now, Tania shrugged, and said, ‘I’m just nervous in case they come back.’
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  ‘Who?’ Sam asked, his frown deepening when he noticed how badly she was shaking. Taking the groceries off her, he said, ‘Right, sit down and have a fag while I make the tea. Then you can tell me what’s really going on here.’

  Already lighting her second cigarette by the time Sam came back with two cups of tea and handed one to her, Tania drew her knees up to her chest and peered over them at him like a frightened child.

  ‘So, who are you trying to avoid?’ Sam asked, cutting straight to the chase.

  ‘I don’t know them,’ Tania admitted. ‘But there were two of them, and they broke in last night while I was in bed.’

  ‘Oh, Jeezus,’ Sam muttered. ‘Are you all right? Did they do anything to you?’

  Shaking her head, Tania said, ‘No, they just threatened me.’ Pausing now, she inhaled shakily. ‘They said if I didn’t stop telling people about me and Larry they were going to kill me.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ Sam peered at her, wondering if this was yet another lie to add to her growing catalogue.

  ‘Honest,’ Tania murmured, biting her lip now as the tears started to trickle down her cheeks. ‘It started when I got a letter from his solicitor a few days ago, saying he was going to sue me if I did any more interviews and telling me not to try and contact him again.’

  ‘Have you still got it?’

  Nodding, Tania got up and went to fetch it out of the bin.

  Uncrumpling it, Sam read it, then shrugged, and said, ‘Good news is it’s only a letter of intent, to scare you into behaving yourself. I’d keep well away if I was you, though,’ he advised her. ‘’Cos it’d be pretty easy for them to get a restraining order after all the exposure you’ve had recently from claiming to be in a relationship with him when he’s obviously denying it.’

  ‘But he’s the liar, not me,’Tania said plaintively.

  Feeling sorry for her, because she’d obviously taken a huge knock by seeing it in black and white how little she meant to her hero, Sam said, ‘Did those men really break in, Tania, or are you just saying it to get back at Larry for rejecting you? I’d understand if that’s what this is all about, sweetheart, and I promise I won’t write a thing about it. But I’d rather help you through this than go through a load of bullshit again.’

  ‘It’s true,’ she told him earnestly. ‘And I want you to write about it. I want everyone to know what he’s really like. I used to think he was fantastic, but now I know he was just using me, and I want him stopped before he does it to anyone else. Please, Sam – you’ve got to help me.’

  Still sure that she was just a hurt little girl seeking revenge, Sam nodded. He reached into his pocket for his Dictaphone, saying, ‘Okay, here’s what I’ll do. I’ll tape what you say and take it home and listen to it. And if I think you’ve got anything significant on him, I’ll write about it. But I’m telling you now, there’s no mileage in another “he loved and left me” story. You said you had proof, and that’s where we’d best start.’

  Nodding, Tania waited until he’d switched the recorder on. Then she said, ‘Larry’s got a birthmark on his . . .’ Pausing, she dipped her gaze before murmuring,‘On his thingy. It’s right underneath, and you can’t see it unless it’s – well, you know.’

  Guessing that she meant it was only visible when he was erect, Sam felt his interest stepping up a notch. Pretty good evidence of intimacy, if it was true.

  ‘That’s my proof that I really did sleep with him,’Tania went on, lighting another cigarette and sucking on it hard. ‘Because it’s there and he can’t get rid of it to say it never was. And now I’ll tell you about the other stuff.’

  ‘What “other stuff”, Tania?’ Sam prompted gently when she fell silent.

  ‘He did know I was only fifteen,’ Tania said quietly. ‘And I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, and I’ve realised I wasn’t the only one.’

  ‘Are you telling me you know of other young girls he’s slept with?’

  ‘No, but I know he’s into all that, ’cos he let me use his computer one time, so I could look something up for my homework, and that’s when I saw the . . . stuff.’

  Raising an eyebrow, Sam waited.

  Looking thoroughly embarrassed, Tania lowered her gaze and said, ‘Kids. I saw pictures of kids on his computer. Dirty pictures . . . with men . . .’

  ‘And did Larry know you’d seen it?’

  ‘Yeah. He freaked and turned the computer straight off. He reckoned they’d come through by accident and he’d just forgotten they were there. But you wouldn’t leave something like that on your machine, would you? Not if you thought it was disgusting – and it was, ’cos these were little kids.’

  Muttering ‘Shit!’ Sam shook his head. Then he asked, ‘Is that everything, Tania?’

  Nodding, she said, ‘Yeah, but I reckon that’s why he’s threatening me. I swore on my mum’s life I’d never tell, but he must have known how pissed off I’d get if he kept ignoring me. And I’m not a kid any more, so I don’t have to stick with stupid promises, do I?’

  Sam was stunned. He’d been so sure that she was just lashing out, but this was heavy shit. And it would be easy to prove, because you couldn’t erase stuff like that from a computer’s internal memory, no matter how hard you tried. If it had ever been there, the police would find it.

  ‘Are you going to write it?’ Tania asked him quietly, sounding thoroughly drained – as she actually was. She’d done what the women had ordered her to do, so they wouldn’t kill her. But she’d practically killed herself in the process by destroying any last shred of a chance of ever getting Larry to even talk to her again. But oh, well . . . he obviously hadn’t had any intention of contacting her anyway, or why would he have sent that nasty solicitor’s letter?

  ‘I’ll write it,’ Sam muttered, switching the Dictaphone off and slotting it back into his pocket. ‘But I’ve got to do something first.’ Looking at Tania now, he said,‘You know that when this comes out you might have to go to court and say it all again if there’s proof that it’s true. Are you up to that? Because you’ll get questioned over and over, and they’ll try to rip you to pieces and make you out to be a liar.’

  Inhaling deeply, a light of pure sadness in her eyes, Tania nodded.

  Leaving her, Sam went straight home and made a copy of the recorded conversation with Tania for his own future use. Then he went to the police station and handed the original in. There was no way he was messing with this shit until it had been dealt with properly.

  20

  ‘Wanna hear the good news?’ Gordon chirped, bursting into Larry’s dressing room that evening. ‘We’ve just had Robbie’s manager on the phone, and they’ve finally found a window in the tour schedule! He’s flying over for next Friday’s show, and he’s agreed to sing two tracks!’

  ‘Really?’ Larry laughed delightedly. ‘Wow! That’s brilliant.’

  Saying, ‘Isn’t it, though!’ Gordon gave a guilty grin when he saw that Larry’s shirt was still unbuttoned, showing off his toned chest, and that he only had one leg in his suit trousers. ‘Sorry, mate . . . guess I should have knocked, eh?’

  Shaking his head amusedly when Gordon backed out of the room with a hand over his eyes, calling back that the warm-up man was just getting started so he had fifteen at the most, Larry finished getting dressed with a lighter heart.

  He’d had a shit week, waiting to hear if that stupid bitch Tania had any more tricks up her sleeve. After her last piece of bullshit, he’d had to play hide-and-seek with the paparazzi who’d camped outside his apartment to follow him from there to the studio and back each day – hoping to catch him with another under-age girl, no doubt. It had damn near killed his social life, because there was no way he was risking going to a club while the heat was on. And he’d had to tell Stephanie to stay away, so he hadn’t even had sex for a full week and his balls were getting bigger by the day.

  Larry really hadn’t appreciated having to go with his solicitor Doug for a voluntary interview with the pol
ice that first day, either, during which he’d had to come clean and admit that Tania Baxter had been in his apartment that night, after all. Feeling like a criminal, even though he knew he’d done nothing wrong, he’d told them exactly what had happened in the morning, and admitted that he had asked her not to say anything. But he’d still strenuously denied that anything sexual had occurred between them.

  Fortunately, because of Tania’s age on that particular occasion, plus the fact that there was no actual evidence to prove that Larry had been involved with her previously as she’d alleged, the police had told him that he was free to go. But not before they’d warned him that they would be interviewing Tania as a matter of course, and that he should expect that they might want to speak with him again at some point, depending what she said.

  But the fear of waiting for something else to crop up as a result of that was nothing to the fear he brought on himself when he looked up some erotomania websites on the internet.

  He’d never actually heard the word ‘erotomania’ before Georgie had mentioned it at his solicitor’s office that morning. She’d asked Doug if he thought that it might help Larry if they could prove that Tania Baxter was a sufferer, because then they could discredit everything she’d already said, or was likely to say in the future. Intrigued, Larry had gone home that night and looked it up on the internet, and had been shocked by how many people – particularly famous people, like himself – had almost had their lives destroyed by over-obsessive fans. And not just by common-or-garden stalkers but full-on whackos who – like Tania – seemed to think they had a special relationship with the object of their delusional affections and would do anything to get near them – often taking out anyone who got in the way.

  Larry had had a couple of sleepless nights after that, listening out for the sounds of crazed female assassins shinning up the side of the building in the middle of the night. But both Georgie and Stephanie had told him to get a grip when he’d started checking his apartment whenever he got home, claiming that a cup had been moved, or a door left ajar when he could have sworn he’d closed it. And, knowing that they were probably right, that he was just freaking out over nothing, he gritted his teeth and struggled on, praying that Doug’s letter would do the trick and make Tania Baxter disappear.