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DAY ONE

AMY STEADMAN Part i

Araduate who is the erie department in an exclusive women&039;s fashion boutique located in a busy out-of-town shopping mall She lives on her own in the town of Rowley in a small one bedroom flat above an antiques shop on a narrow road just off the h street

It&039;s five-thirty in the one off, and she&039;s just dragged herself out of bed

ThisAmy has to make her quarterly sales presentation to the coement team She dreads these presentations She doesn&039;t have a proble to these self-irey-suited people, she just doesn&039;t feel comfortable with the way they stare back at her They are s her with their eyes She hates the way they don&039;t listen to anything she says, instead they just watch her She knows that they fantasise about her She finds their unwanted interest and their cheap, double-entendre laden conversation offensive and unnecessary but she puts up with it It&039;s all part of the job

In A She walks the shop floor as a representative of the store and the numerous expensive labels it stocks She knows that she must be perfectly coiffured and immaculately presented at all times Customers directly associate her with the products she sells The better she looks, she often thinks, thea sale

After a quick breakfast (she doesn&039;t feel like eating et a plumber in), Amy dries her hair and sits down in front of the mirror to apply her make-up An exercise in precision application, the make-up is crucially important to her Far more than just another part of her perfect appearance, it is aon her work personality and her custo smile In fifteen minutes she creates a character far removed from the real Ahts, eating chocolate and relaxing in old jeans and baggy ju she can hide behind The senior ers who stare and leer at her see only the fixed smile, the white teeth and the flawless complexion They are unaware of the disinterest and contempt she keeps hidden fro out of bed, Ao She leaves her flat and crawls through the earlyat work in just under fifty ht o&039;clock, and the store is just opening its doors to the first custo me,&039; Lorraine h Lorraine (who&039;s had more nips, tucks, false tans and hairstyles than the rest of us put together) is a total slave to fashion &039;Bloody hell, girl, those heels would be enough to cripple anyone Christ, you&039;re virtually walking on tiptoe!&039;

&039;You&039;re all right, you&039;ve got the height you lucky cow,&039; she snaps back at et&039; She stops talking and looks overon, stand by your posts everyone, here we go again Here comes the slime&039;

I turn round and see that our overpaid guests fro to arrive My heart sinks

&039;Morning, Mr Jackson,&039; I ser e What a vile and odious little shit this ettingmore beautiful than ever!&039;

&039;And you see creep than ever,&039; is what I want to say back to him but, of course, I don&039;t Instead I just sh and then relax when Maurice Green appears at h to the back offices

&039;Excuse me, Miss,&039; a quiet little voice says from behind me I turn round and look down and see an elderlymore than just a little bit uncohtwear unless he&039;s a transvestite or he&039;s ramme on television a while back about women who marry decrepit and desperate men for their money I can understand why they do it Most of the men I&039;ve been involved with over the last couple of years haven&039;t had any redee qualities other than the size of their wallets

&039;What can I do for you, Sir?&039; I ask, looking around for Lorraine who&039;s suddenly disappeared as she alwaysThis isn&039;t fair I have to get towith custoht this for my wife&039;s birthday last week and she doesn&039;t like it,&039; he croaks Judging by the age of the custoer then she&039;s hty years old Can&039;t ie

&039;I see,&039; I say, taking the negligee fro it up There isn&039;t much of it Definitely not to be worn in the winter &039;Didn&039;t she like it? Do you want a refund or?&039;

He shakes his head

&039;No Actually I ondering whether you had it in any other colours,&039; he says as his face turns lobster pink with embarrassment He&039;s taken me by surprise &039;She doesn&039;t like black,&039; he explains, &039;says she&039;d rather have red&039;

I can&039;t be late for the ent over to a colleague Typically there&039;s no-one about I&039;m about to lead hi&039;s caught ht, the area finance director He&039;s crouched down on all fours and he looks like he&039;s choking or being sick He&039;s dropped his briefcase and it&039;s open and there are confidential papers blowing all over the shop I run over to try and help him I call for Jenny Clarke who&039;s the duty first aid officer Christ, someone else is dooainst the customer service desk Bloody hell, she looks like she&039;s suffocating Her face is red and her eyes are bulging She&039;s holding onto her neck and Shit, Shirley Peters fro on the floor at the bottom of the escalator She looks as if she&039;s just

Ohat the back oftrapped I keep trying to clear it but I can hardly s So the back and sides ofto try and clear it away I need to get soer now Christ, it feels like soet help Jesus it hurts It&039;s stinging and burning Bloody hell, I can&039;t s I can&039;t breathe

Slon

Oh God, I can taste blood in my mouth

Don&039;t panic Slon Try and breathe Try and

Starved of oxygen, Aner dresses, pulling half of the display down on top of her She gagged and retched as blood seeped and dribbled down the inside of her inflamed throat Unable to focus, she was momentarily aware of frantic, terrified , she clawed at her neck and then began to thrash about as the reen in her blood stream was rapidly used up Already nu arainst the hard marble floor and the metal display units around her

Her mouth and chin now covered with blood, she tried to stand but couldn&039;t The world became dark and the screa, claustrophobic panic which filled her mind disappeared

Less than ainfected, A hell, I&039; trouble I can&039;t believe I&039;ve been so stupid Christ, I&039;et out of this one

There are mistakes and there are mistakes There are small mistakes and minor indiscretions that you can brush under the carpet and there are fucking hugeti huge mistake It was ato do

I&039;et s after I woke up I&039;m here on a course fro it could be ht and the first session of thestarts in less than an hour I&039;ve missed breakfast but that doesn&039;tI feel sick to my stomach The problem is, this isn&039;t my hotel room My room is next door and I shouldn&039;t be here

I&039; out of a crack in the curtains at a dull and rainy h the events of last night to try and re that happened We&039;re here for the week - Monday h until lunchtime Friday There are seventeen of us here from different outlets up and down the country We had a foret to know everyone, then we ot talking to a couple of lads froirls ork in my area I&039;d nise her friend Turns out she was Helen Hunter - the daughter of Bill Hunter,and ruthless bastards you could ever have the misfortune to come across My missus, Chloe, works in his office

And here&039;s where things begin to get really, really coe to check yet, but I&039;m ninety-nine percent sure that this is Helen Hunter&039;s bed And I&039;m equally certain that Helen Hunter is in it withnext to me, she&039;s just wrapped her ar et things into perspective A last night clearly I re heavily I was starting to get to the stage where you really know you&039;ve had a few drinks and your body starts to try and tell you to stop Sometimes the beer plays tricks on you - the alcohol sort of waits for a while and then creeps up and rushes you all of a sudden I&039;d been fine all night but suddenly I could feeland I knew I&039;d reached the point where having another drink would have been a mistake I know I stopped in the bar for at least two ot up and went to bed and I re left there with the other It was definitely Helen The rest of our group were long gone and ere the only two left in the bar We were having one of those conversations where you start discussing things you know you shouldn&039;t be talking about She started telling me about her relationships and thenet more and more uncomfortable and, at the sa withthat I was going to have to try and be a bit et through together and I didn&039;t want to give her the wrong impression Probleh

I re the bar We walked through the lobby together and went up to our rooether and I started to get ju me I stopped outside my room and took out my key and she did the same with the room next door She made some cheap co and I justproperly I reo intoone of thoseto conore whatever my brain tried to tell it to do

Helen Hunt is a cheap (but good-looking) tart with a reputation for sleeping around and being asilently at one into enitals in full control of the rest ofaway from her I walked towards her She wrapped her ar filthy in my ear I couldn&039;t re her perfu the side of my face We started to kiss One kiss, then another, then another and another until ere practically eating each other&039;s faces My hands started to wander I grabbed her backside and pulled her closer One thing quickly led to another and and that&039;s why I&039;h, what I reood She lived up to her reputation She was half-undressed by the time we&039;d made it onto the bed and I was cohts were full on and the curtains were open but neither of us cared All I could think about was fucking her senseless There was no hint of passion, just sheer lust and physical need It felt like justat the clock on the bedside table at one o&039;clock, then two and then three At sohts off and we&039;d finally fallen asleep

Despite the fact that what I&039;ve done is wrong whichever way you look at it, it was bloody good Just lying here thinking about what she did to ain