Chapter 42

2011, December 7th,
Scotland
Seven years ago
The very first time Nick had met with Valeria and Pete, it was not under the best or under the fairest or prettiest of circumstances. It was a winter morning in Glasgow, the largest city in all of Scotland. The wind was a little high that morning and very few men and women littered the vacant street. The building that loomed ahead was a theatre house and at that hour, it was just getting ready for the event. While the inside boomed and was noisy with life and busy people of all ages and statures, some were hanging up the best of linens, others mopping floors and some making sure the decorations were top notch and as elegant and gorgeous as they were being paid to make it look.
For every ladder, there was a group of no less than six person gathered at the base with one up there, putting up the best of classy and beautiful decorations for the coming event that would be hosted in that very place much later that evening. The ladders numbered up go and past a dozen, only two were unoccupied by climbers or any crowd at the base and that was the part of the theater that was already beautifully and fully decorated and made ready for the event that would be holding that evening. A few feet away from each ladder was a large cart of ribbons, pins, confetti and beautifully crafted artificial flower that would make florists cringe and wonder just what they were doing with their lives, tending to real life flowers and having them wither and die, their lives too damn short and frail for comfort, their pleasure too flitting, one moment it was there and the very next it was gone and replaced with a rotting mess of petals and stems that nobody was interested in any longer.
Asides the artificial flower, the hall also was decorated with antique paintings, Picasso, a few of the best copy's of Leonardo and some other very renowned artists and painters in history. Some African abstract and English arts that aged a couple hundred years back also hung and helped in adding more appeal and beauty to the lovely decoration. Every where was either over decorated or just the right amount of ribbon and paintings and flowers attached to the biege walls of the old yet beautifully built theatre. No corner or ceiling was left blank or lacking, hence, the need for the ladders that loomed tall and was placed strategically all over the auditorium.
Children too were not left out in the decorations that morning. The children of the workers that had tagged along were on the floor, scrubbing off chewing gum and whatever thing was stuck on the floor and refused to come off, a particularly fat and aged women was kneeled, scrubbing vigorously at the stain on the floor and making sure it was as sparkling clean as her mind's eye could see it, the down side to her obsession with the stained spot on the floor was however the fact that she was scrubbing it too hardly and the rest of the floor ended up looking a little dirty because that very spot shone brightly and cleaner than the rest of them. Was her scrubbing that spot a bad thing, no, it wasn't but then over scrubbing it and not paying attention - the same dose of attention or at least something remotely similar - to the rest of the floor left it looking too clean and leaving the rest of the spot looking rather dirty.
From the vantage of those on the ladder, a large spot, about 58cm wide could be seen, looking very much like a tile that had just been installed, shinning newly and very clean, the rest of the floor ended up looking bad. It was a welcome thought though, to know that that very floor could be as clean as that single spot that the older lady had dedicated her time and what ever no doubt feeble energy she had left in her aged body.
While the children scrubbed with all their infantile strength too, if all was nothing compared to the huge sparkling spot on the floor. It become so much an issue and case for concern that at some point that morning, a certain petite young woman who acted and seemed like she was on charge of the theatre decorations that evening had come in for what was no doubt an inspection and after gushing over the works of the decorators - and by gushing what she actually did was move from one point to another, nodding her small head had giving a tight smile to the workers who crossed her path. She nodded to the children and politely answered the various greetings that were thrown at her.
After nodding and lifting her dimpled chin at everything in the theatre, the cry of a small girl whose palm was nicked with the small fine toothed comb she was using to pick things off the floor cried, she cried and the sophisticated lady turned to her and soothed her - this was done with just a nod of her head and a tight smile. The baby quite crying and sat up, suddenly consoled, whether she was quiet out of fright or fascination with the finely dressed woman was a mystery.
It was when the girl rose that the spot on the floor was noticed she halted the elderly woman at once and then gave her the scolding of her existence. Firstly, she warned her that hand scrubbing was dangerous to the health and not advisable for particularly older women. Then she pointed out the need for every thing to be done in the same manner and with the same zeal, the need for uniformity in the day's work. She stated that the floor had been cleaned with a vacuum cleaner and then scrubbed and dried mechanically, it was only fitting that if she wanted to scrub it to a sparkle then she should be ready to do that to the whole giant theatre and since it was apparent from her age and shaky hands that she couldn't quite complete that task then it was pointless to begin it in the first place.
That was how that spot had to be covered with a very large red rug and a lovely painting placed on the middle as a distraction to the discoloration on the floor. Yes, "discoloration" was the word the woman had used to describe it. Well, after that incident, the evening passed in a blur and flurry of activities and haste as they crew set up what needed to be set up and the theatre was finally declared ready by the event planner for the coming event of that very evening.
Despite the work and activities that went on inside the theatre, outside, from the street, it seemed a little dead, like an old house waiting for the right or perhaps wrong soul that venture into and be haunted. It was much later that afternoon that would lead to the evening that the wallpapers for the night's event was rolled down, a simple old brick display that made the building look even more ancient than it was already. Another crew entirely had taken up the work of fixing the outward appearance of the building, marking out the parking space in from of the theatre for the evening and drawing out ropes and lines where they had to.
Looking at any event or any concert, if was often not easy to imagine the work put in for such an outcome. Sometimes, the worse of concerts was actually judged to be worse by the number of guests in attendance and how expensive or inexpensive the wines and cocktails and food were. Even the guests was used as a yard stick to judge just how much of a success an event or a concert or a dinner night turned out that be. The work however wasn't in that, the bulk of the job was actually in setting up the right space to start with, then the decorations and the set up that had to be done for the night. It was sometimes not worth doing, considering that the whole money spent would last just for a couple hours and when compared to the job and energy put in, it become discouraging, very very discouraging to undertake to start with.
By 4:13PM, the first attendee for the event that evening had arrived, from France and with his younger daughter on his arm. Or perhaps it wasn't the younger daughter judging by the way he clutched her waist a little too tightly to his side, but the resemblance was there, although slight and subtle but there nonetheless. He had arrived with his luggages and whilst his driver went off go book them a hotel for the night after the theatre, they'd went ahead to attend the evening's event.
The second guest was a younger man with a much older women that could not quite be called his mother but maybe his very older sister or aunt or senior cousin. Well, they too had arrived from some distant country and were coming early just to be sure they met up with time and any unforseen circumstances did not spoil the night for them. Thy parked their car, a 2010 model Maserati and handed the newly arrived valet the keys before making their entrance into the theatre.
The fourth, fifth and sixth guest arrived in a limousine but neither came as a couple, or maybe they did come as a couple after all, three men alighted from the cream coloured limousine, handed the valet the keys and proceeded to enter the building, chatting loudly and laughing as thy did. More guests trooped in, arriving in the finest of sedans, Jeeps, convertibles and SUVs.
It was not longer before the parking lot was filled up with cars of all colours and shapes and sizes and builds. One thing they had in common was the price tag, none falling below a couple high hundreds of thousands of dollars, most falling under a few million dollars. The cars kept coming in and the valet parked them right and soon, an extra space had to be made for the increasing number of guests that seemed to consistently trickle in in their numbers and with large cars, looking for spaces to park.
By 5:48 PM, the parking lot was full and the east part of the building had the be converted very quickly into a parking space. Rich people didn't quite fancy leaving their car in the streets, not when they were coming to spend money at the evening's event. And the event's host was all out to please her guests in any way they required.
The east sculpture was carefully moved away, thankfully it was not one of those fixated and 3000lbs sculptures made from some expensive and rare rock. After being moved, carefully and without breaking it - except two fingers that did break off while they tried to tuck it behind the back gate of the premises. Fine ropes were very quickly provided and soft colorful and flexible chains were hung around the eighteen feet space they had successfully cleared it for more cars to be parked.
And make no mistake, more cars came and filled up that space in no time too, every couple of seconds, the valet had to move some cars forward or backwards or a little to the side in order to make or create more space for new comers the park theirs. Cars were now parked very closely to each other with just a little room for cracking open the door just a little bit and fit in, other than that, there was very little or perhaps no space at all for anything in-between, that was just how occupied the theatre was for the night. And more elites meant more cars and more cars meant they would be eager to show off their finest of cars.
Once or twice, some people left with their cars only the come back with better and more flashy ones. For the elite society, status had a lot to do with what one wore, and car was fast becoming an accessory, just like a good piece of watch or a nice perfume. It spoke tons about your status and cars were used to display just that.
By 6:46 PM, Nick arrived the venue, dressed in a black tailored trousers, a cream coloured suit, a red jacket and a black cap to top the look off, he was the valet which in truth he had no business being and he was arriving for duty that evening. With his beards completely covered in a silicon mask that have him the look of it being cleanly shaved, his hair dyed a dusty shade of black, his eyes wearing blue contacts and his stomach more than three full inches more protruded than was the original case. His disguise was ready, authentic enough to be believable and close enough to match the passport of the man that he was actually posing to be. A middle aged German that was to be paid $2,000 for the night's work.
Well, Nick had no business with the meager pay, infact, he was sure he wouldn't stick round to get the money. His eyes were on the beauties arranged on each side of the building, in several colours and styles that he just wished they could all fit into a purse, then he could pluck them off one by one, each after the other and shove them in their numbers into a very large purse where he would sort them out much later.
Nick checked in with the security at the entrance who gave him a walkie talkie and a small fancy tray where the he would store the car key until the owners came through reclaim them that night. He simply nodded and went to join his colleague, the actual and original valet for the night who was suppose to be a partner to Mr. Glen, the man that Nick was posing as.
Why didn't Glen show up for the night? Well, it was simple, his wife had travelled out of the state for a business trip and Glen was home alone. Well, as a doorman on most week days and a handyman at the small factory in the outskirts of town, most days, Glen had the choice of being at home and he often took the opportunity with open hands. A certain weakness of him was a cheap brand of whiskey which he usually bought from the store two blocks from his home. How close the store was to his house was enough reason to know that he never ran out of whiskey, he could run out of money but then the kind lady at the store always allowed him owe her a little while longer. Maybe because she liked him or maybe because she didn't mind his general health nor was she particularly concerned about his failing liver or his nerve issues. Either ways, she was always eager to give him whiskey and agree to get paid later and that always left Glen with a good supply of whiskey all year round, never mind that sometimes he pretended the not drink after his wife must have given him a good dose of her scolding and what she thought about his drinking habit.
On days like that, Glen would pretend to be sober and then hide the bottles he had under the trash can, that was the one place his nosey wife didn't search for. Well, although it did stink a little when he got it out, especially if it had been there for more than a full day, days when his wife was home and always monitoring his moves. He didn't mind the stinking bottle, so long as his whiskey was uncontaminated and in good shape and taste, he was good with it.
Aside from Mr. Glen's fondness of whiskey, he was also fond of something else that his wife would definitely not approve of, and that was Chinese girls half his age but r preferably younger. This fondness however was something he rarely indulged in, he was trying to be a decent man had of course, there was the fact that Chinese girls were not particularly in high supply in Scotland. Whether for the two reasons stated above or not, or maybe because Glen was an alcoholic but still a faithful husband, Nick didn't know but what he did know was that the moment he knew of this fetish of his, he intended to take advantage of it and use it to the fullest.
Nick was not sure what he would do, neither was he sure of how well his plan would work. But he did know that an addiction coming back in a totally amazing and irresistible package often left the mouth watering and salivating. He knew this from experience, he had been addicted to a couple of things from his earlier years, none of it happened to be a women though and he was grateful nature had exempted him from that very addiction, that very brand of addiction was often the worse, either a one way ticket to the grave or a one way ticket to penury and frustration. It was a never ending pit of want and need and cravings that most often than not led to more lose than gain. If he was to chose between drug addiction and women addiction, he would pick drugs ten time over and he knew exactly why.
Well, Mr. Glen did fall and he fell quite nicely and face flat into the trap of it. Nick found a Chinese girl under twenty years of age and she was also eager to make a few thousand bucks. For a few seconds, Nick had felt guilty for making a minor indulge in such an act but then, the looks the girl had given her and her apparently eagerness with the job left him a little consoled, she may have been a minor but then he didn't have the force, coerce or manipulate her into anything, she came back n willing and actually ready.
Now, as Nick stood beside his colleague that evening that was quickly dimming into the night, he realized that maybe, just maybe Glen was not as innocent as he did appear, maybe it was merely the scarcity of his preferred choice of girls that seemed to stop his fetish ideas.
By that time, Nick assumed that he would either be sleep from the high dose of sleeping pills the Chinese girl had slipped into his whiskey earlier that day or he would be in a hospital somehow after his wife raised an alarm of a heart attack. Either way, the girl would be long gone and all the neighbors and wife would have would be speculations and nothing more, if anyone even had the good mind to assume he was drugged, his alcohol addiction would make it unbelievable and nothing of a fact.