How Well Do You Really Know Your Colleagues.
After First Contact Even The Best Plan's Change.
It was a warm sunny Thursday morning in June in Glasgow. My alarm woke me for another day at the office, but I quickly realized that, starting tonight, it was a Civil Service double Bank Holiday this weekend. As I was embedded in a Government Office, I would have a long four-day weekend to enjoy myself. Nothing planned, I would just make it up as I went along.
My apartment was a leased, serviced business apartment, just off Sauchiehall Street and paid for by my employer. I had rented out my own apartment in Portsmouth which was near the large Naval base with HMS Victory's masts towering above it. The apartment had just one problem in that it was overlooked by a glass fronted office block. If the bedroom blinds were not closed and mine never were, you had to be very discreet.
My office, where I shared a work pod with Rood Bloomfield, was just off the Broomielaw, overlooking the river Clyde and about a fifteen-minute walk from my apartment. Rood was originally from Amsterdam and we were both independent Project Forensic Analysists. Although we worked for different employers along with a Forensic Analysist team for this assignment, we had the same ultimate paymaster, whose demands were very impatient and unremitting. The remainder of the team worked in various other Government offices.
We had now worked together for over two months and had built up a good working rapport. It was said that we were now almost clairvoyant with each other as we did our forensic analysis of what had happened. We were separate from the regular staff in the office, who would sell their souls to get something on us for leverage. They were very wary of what we were doing and only saw us as scalp hunters, particularly as we were not allowed to tell them anything about our findings, only question them and examine what they had done or not done. I think they saw us as a Friday the 13
th
team and possibly they were correct, but it was too soon to say.
At lunch time in the cafΓ© area Rood asked me what I had planned for the holiday weekend. When I told him that I had no plans and that I was going to make it up as I went along, his suggestion was that, for tonight, I tag along with him and his partner to make up a foursome at a private nightclub, where he was a member. I was reticent, being wary of blind dates, as I'd had a couple of bad experiences, including one when her husband turned up. But Rood assured me nothing like that would happen as they are stag and were dumped a few days ago, better offer by someone with serious money.
The arrangement was that I would meet Rood at the top end of Michael Street, not far from the Night Club and we would first both go for an Italian meal together. His partner would meet us in the Club later, as they were working an extended shift in the large Queen Elizabeth hospital and wouldn't finish until after eight. We had eaten at that restaurant before at one of our regular Friday lunches out and it had been excellent. We had also taken our Senior Investigation Officer, our line boss, there on one of his biweekly visits. This had been to appease him as he was having a bit of a strop about information that was being withheld from us. Rood and I met as planned and shared a bottle of wine and I had my usual Fruit di Mar. The Night Club was just down the street and round the corner in the adjacent Michael lane.
After our meal, half a bottle of wine and a few beers each, we headed down the narrow spooky lane. I must admit that, although it wasn't yet dark, I was wary about walking down that lane. We arrived at the entrance which was on the ground floor of a multi-story car park with an uninviting plain double wooden door with a sign on it saying Groundhog Private Members Club and a logo that I couldn't make out. Rood tapped in a code on the keypad and showed his Club pass to an electronic eye in the wall. The door opened automatically and we were met by one of the Club's security staff who directed us down a flight of stairs leading into a very plush reception area. Rood asked me to wait for him in the guests' waiting area as he checked us both in.
I was idly browsing some of the club entertainer's photographs, when one of the security staff came over to me. I recognized him immediately as we were both members of the same gym. He had helped me out one morning, when I got into a predicament with the weights doing bench presses. I had slept late that morning hurried to the gym in Queen Street without any breakfast, then beasted into my training program to catch up before the gym started to fill up. On the bench press my arms were starting to fatigue out big time and I was unable to put the barbell back up on the stand. My arms were starting to shake under the load and I thought I was going to drop the weight on my chest. As if by magic, a very muscular arm appeared from nowhere and lifted the barbell single handed onto the stand.
I sat up and thanked my life saver. That, at least, is how I saw him at the time. He introduced himself as Martyn Courtland, part time gym trainer, competition weightlifter and night club bouncer. Seeing him, with his thighs, upper body and arm muscles looking ready to burst out of his tight-fitting Lycra shorts and top, I was very impressed. As I thanked him for his help, he kicked into trainer mode, enquiring why I had fatigued out. I explained my morning rush and missing breakfast. He told me to follow him as we headed to the gym relaxation area, or the sin bin as it was often called. He explained that skipping carbohydrates and not taking fluids before a gym workout was not a good idea, then gave me a can of energy drink which produced an almost instant kick. Since then, whenever we met in the gym, we chatted about life in general and sometimes shared a coffee.
Martyn interrupted my browsing, saying to me that he didn't realize that I was a member of this Club. I explained that I wasn't and this was my first time here, making up a foursome on a sort of blind date, as a guest of Rood Bloomfield. He welcomed me and hoped that he would see me later when doing his rounds. Before Martyn moved away, Rood returned, handing me a visitor pass with my photograph on it, saying that he had emailed in my works security pass photograph. It was a terrible photograph and I said that I would need to get it replaced by something better. We then headed into the venue area and Martyn went back to his club security duties.
When we walked over to the table, overlooking the entertainment stage, that Rood had booked earlier, two guys were sitting there. Rood first introduced me to Eric De Jong, his partner. I hadn't known that Rood was gay, despite the fact that we had worked together for a few months and he had stayed over at my apartment a few nights when we were both the worse for wear as the result of an after work drinking session. He then introduced me to the other guy, Scott Marshall, a man of about my height, with jet black hair, very well spoken and confident, but a little effeminate looking. He was then introduced to me as my blind date for the night and I was lost for words as we shook hands.
Rood broke the silence, saying that he and Eric needed to discuss something with the Club Manager and asked Scott to entertain me, explaining that they would be away for an hour or so, then walked away. Scott broke the ice by suggesting that I hadn't known that this was a gay club. When I confirmed that, he jokingly invited me to sit down before I fell down. A waiter arrived with two cocktails of the week for us, courtesy of Rood or Eric. I never found out what was in them but they had a very pleasant instantaneous calming kick to them.
I explained that Rood had invited me to make up a foursome and had joked that it was to be a blind date, because you had been let down, which Scott at once confirmed. His friend, like him, was a private banker. He had been invited by one of his very wealthy clients, whom he had known off and on, so to speak, for a couple of years, to move in with him in his bungalow in the Seychelles. He said yes, so you won me for the night, which I hope you don't mind. Of course, I said no but explained that I was just caught out. So, we both smiled and clinked glasses together. It was amusing, because Rood must have thought I was also gay, but even although I wasn't, I got a bit of a kick out of it.