Predators in Plain Sight

Meghan was in her kitchen the next day looking for something else to eat besides cornflakes

when she was buzzed by someone at the front gate. On the security cam she could see it was Will

with a large bag and wearing what appeared to be tee-shirt, shorts and sandals. Thinking that her

new hire was already proving surprising, Meghan reassured her off-site security service and let him

in.

"You don't have to come in this early, Will," she said, "And what's with the shorts, we're

not that casual."

"They're my swimmers, I'm taking my swim before work. Hope you don't mind. I've

brought my clothes in the bag, along with the ingredients for a mocha and these," he produced a

package, "English muffins. Cut one in half, toast it, spread it with margarine – I'm not a

mayonnaise or a butter guy – and jam and that's breakfast. I saw you had a four-slice toaster

yesterday. Do you want one?"

Like all movie stars and top models, Meghan was on a perpetual diet combined with an

exercise regimen that would do credit to a professional athlete but thought that she could fit in an

English muffin with jam. She ate hers sitting on a stool at the kitchen's central bench, while Will ate

his moving around the kitchen, organising a mocha for her.

"You didn't have breakfast at home before you came?"

"Nope. Put on my bathers and came straight here. If you saw the kitchen at my place you'd

understand. Best to come here and avoid food poisoning. I appreciate I may be imposing, if so just

tell me so."

"The muffin buys you kitchen time," said Meghan, while chewing. "I'm generous like that.

Is the kitchen really that bad where you live?"

"The cockroaches like it. If you happen to ring me at home again and a cockroach answers

the phone you'll know what's happened."

Will gave her coffee in a mug.

"I'll have mine when I come out," he said.

Meghan followed Will out to the pool area and sat down at the patio table with her coffee to

watch Will take off his shirt, which she found interesting. Her new hire had a real swimmer's build,

she thought. No wonder he had wanted access to the pool. She watched him wash his swimming

goggles in the water, put them on then a swimmer's cap and start his session with a racing dive. The

dive woke up the housekeeper's ginger cat which had been stretched out asleep on another table.

The cat, Gato, glared at Will for daring to disrupt her peaceful day, tail lashing the table top.

Meghan was still there when Mia arrived. Her arrival usually marked the start of her day

when they went over her schedule.

"What's with the beefcake?" said Mia, also sitting down. "And that looks like good coffee."

"It's Will," said Meghan. "You remember I got you to get his number and check him out."

"So it is," said Mia, looking closer. "You hired him like you said you might. That was fast

… and he's using the pool?"

Meghan told Mia about the interview and what Will had suggested.

"A benefit. Is that going to work?" said the assistant.

"Will's going to start organising when he gets out of the pool, so we're going to find out."

"There's no need for him to get out of the pool just yet though is there?" said Mia. "He's

already doing well from where I sit."

"No, no need just yet."

Mia went over Meghan's day while Will splashed up and down the pool, changing smoothly

from freestyle to breaststroke and then to butterfly, while Gato continued to glare.

"You have Julio coming at 10," said Mia. (Julio was Meg's personal trainer. One of the

rooms was set up as a gym.) "Then a Zoom conference with the director of The Fermi Interface"

(Meghan was cast as a super spy) "at 12, and not much else today. Tomorrow, you do action scenes

at a studio."

"Will is going to coach me in investment today, I hope," said Meghan.

The ladies were joined by the only other member of Meghan's small entourage, Emma, a

recent college graduate billed as an assistant to Mia but whose main function, as far as Meghan was

concerned, was to keep Mia company when Meghan was away. A pretty girl who chatted too much

for Meghan's liking, Emma was taken aback by the sight of Will in the pool.

"Is this a new Diva thing?" she asked.

The others laughed.

"You may be organising a benefit with him," said Meghan, and took the opportunity of

inviting Will over, all wet from the pool, to be introduced to Emma.

She shook hands with him, round-eyed.

"How come the swimming thing, Will?" asked Meg. "You seem to know what you're doing

in a pool."

"I got through college on a swimming scholarship," said Will. "I always liked swimming."

"That's something else that's not sad or hopeless," said Meg.

"True. But you hired me to be a social media-PR type, not to swim, so I'll be out in a

minute," said Will and he got back into the pool.

"Josh doesn't have a body like that," Emma said, after he got back in the pool. Josh was her

boyfriend and an endless source of anecdotes.

"Let's see if he organises as well as he swims and makes coffee," said Meghan.

Will got out of the pool, had a shower, changed into jeans and a tee shirt, gave Mia and

Emma coffee and set Emma to work researching venues.

"Don't call anyone just yet," said Will, "but there'll be websites. We're looking at a dinner

dance and will want to seat several hundred."

"Really!" said Emma. "This sounds like fun. Are we invited?"

"You'll be there, but you'll be too busy working to have fun."

"Awwww!"

"No fun. Just pain, misery and suffering," said Will. "Think of it as a life lesson."

"You don't mean that."

"Research the venues. Remember life is grim."

That kept Emma quiet, or at least quieter, for a time which Meghan thought was a good

thing.

Will started making calls. The fund raising office of the Haddenbach Children's Hospital

welcomed the idea but thought the administrator would like to meet with the two entertainers before

endorsing the idea. That meant fronting Connie Leighton. A few more calls later Will managed to

contact the singer's staff through an agent. An assistant heard Will out, went and spoke to the

singer, then set up a meeting.

Will also showed Megan how to operate the investment platform of the bank that she used.

"You can go directly into shares if you want," said Will, "but again that's for those who

have the time to research the companies or have some reason to invest in a particular company.

Otherwise, you may want to look at a fund that just follows the index or puts money into mutuals

that invest in the market, bonds, property and so on."

"I dunno anything about companies," said Meghan. "Are you really going to meet with

Connie?"

"Seems so," said Will. "If she's still mad about bicycle crack I may have trouble making it

out alive but I will be earning my per day pay."

Connie Leighton's house was not far from Casa Meghan, in LA terms, but was a proper

mansion with an even bigger door. Will was ushered into the singer's living room where she sat

between two large, male associates who glared at the writer-consultant. While not in the same

league as Meghan in looks, the singer was sufficiently easy on the eye to feature on all her album

covers and had a body made for cavorting on stage. Leighton was not in the mood to be admired,

however, particularly by Will

"Who came up with that line about trading my jet for a bicycle?" she demanded.

"That would be me," said Will. "I met Meghan in a bar when we were both dragged there by

other people. I told her that was an obvious come back and I was surprised when she used it."

"I'm having venues cancel on me over that affair thing," said Connie, while her associates

continued to glare. "And now I can't even get between the gigs I've got in my jet without the media

making nasty cracks."

"You were attacking my employer and now I'm here to offer you a way out of your troubles

– certainly better than the one suggested by your PR agency," said Will. "Are you using Holstern

Media by any chance?"

"How did you know?"

"I didn't. Meg uses that agency. They seem to be giving the same advice to talk about the

environment to everyone. For the record, Meghan doesn't believe the producer and his wife, and I

was surprised with the Me Too movement so active no one took a closer look at the producer."

"You were surprised?" said Connie forcefully. "I was fucking devastated. Not only are the

venues pulling out my label wants to renegotiate my contract."

"In the hope of making it out of this interview alive," said Will, "I did some digging, mainly

into the wife, as she seemed to be key to the whole affair standing by him the way that she did."

He took a few sheets of paper out of an envelope he had brought in and passed them over.

"I saw that the wife originally came from New York so I ran her name through a couple of

databases I still have access to. Look at the highlighted name on that news item."

Connie studied it for a moment, then looked up, open mouthed. "She was a sex worker?"

"A high end sex worker, yep," said Will. "That was a messy divorce and note the name she

used when working was different. Once I knew the working name I did some searching online and

found the item on the next page. It's a current listing."

"This is for the Washington area," said Connie, after studying the page. "How come she's

attacking me at Hollywood parties?"

"Were you by any chance talking about your future with this guy?"

She sat back. "Yeah, I was. I thought I was in a good place with him. I was talking about the

future."

"The next item in this show and tell," said Will, "is your former beau's marriage certificate."