Riley was close to tears, looking blankly at the piece of paper in her hand. She was shaking, making the paper rustle softly as it shook.
"I don't have the money," she said in a whisper.
"I never imagined you did," said the bailiff gruffly, "and by the looks of this lot I am not going get anything towards what you owe here." At this point his arms waved around indicating he meant the contents of her room. The room contained an old TV, a sofa, a few chairs and a cooker. The paint was peeling and the carpet threadbare. It was a not the kind of place a bailiff could recover thousands of dollars from.
"Pleeeeasssssse I'll find a way. Just give me some time," she pleaded.
"You are out of time sweetheart, you pay at least half now or its jail." He replied with lots of emphasis on the word jail.
"Jail!" exclaimed Riley. It had never occurred to her it would come to that.
He watched as Riley began to shake even more and then overcome, she began to cry. The bailiff stood waiting for a while, looking as though he was debating with himself and then he calmly spoke.
"Sit down," he said with a sigh, "perhaps there is a way."
Riley sat down and he sat beside her. She thanked him as he produced a handkerchief for her to wipe her eyes with.
"What do you mean?" Riley finally asked when she had recovered a bit. She passed back the handkerchief as she spoke.
"Perhaps I should introduce myself first," replied the bailiff, "I am John Shreeve." At this point he held out his hand, which Riley shyly shook.
"See now we are friends! Tell me how did you get into this mess." His face and tone showing concern but then he was used to acting that way.
"Scumbag boyfriend. Thought he loved me but just used me." She replied. Usual story he thought.
Riley continued, "Gambled money away, bought a sports car and other things on HP which have all been reposed and then ran off leaving me with all these debts. All I can afford is this dump. God, its a mess, a horrible mess. I don't know what to do. Please I don't want to go to jail. Please help me." Her hand reached out to his leg and she began to shake and then sob again.
"The idea of jail frightens you?" Asked John softly.
Riley nodded and whispered. "It terrifies me."
He continued, "Well if you really want to avoid jail I might have a way to do that."
He pulled out his mobile phone and after dialling a number he spoke briskly into the phone. "Hello its John, I think she is ready to talk. You better come in," and he hung up.
"Who was that?" asked Riley, her face a picture of suspicion and confusion. She wondered what kind of situation she had gotten herself into. Out of the frying pan into the fire as her mother would have said. God, what would her mother think if she had lived to see her now, she tried to push the thought out of her mind.
"Relax and trust me Riley. You are just going to meet a friend of mine. OK. I promise he is only going to talk to you," replied John seeing her concern. "He might have a solution to your problem. What do you have to lose by listening Riley?"
Riley felt an anxious pain across her stomach. She knew she was in trouble with her mounting debts, but she doubted she would like John's solution either. The idea of jail horrified her so she knew she had to be open minded to any possible escape. Even more worrying was the fact the man must have been waiting nearby as within a few minutes there was a knock at the door. The fact the whole thing appeared to be a set up made her very frightened indeed.
John got up from the sofa and let in an older man, maybe in his fifties, into Riley's apartment. The two men nodded at each other. He was smartly turned out with suit, tie and even a briefcase. John had arrived in scruffy jeans and a tee shirt making them a very unlikely pair.
The man looked around making no effort to hide his disgust at the décor and surroundings, and then he spoke.
"This must be Riley," he said holding out his hand, which Riley stood up to shake. "Please to meet you. I am Simon Trent. I hear you are having some money problems, which must be very upsetting for you. John here thought I might be able to help you."
Simon looked Riley up and down and smiled to himself. She was he already knew in her early twenties. Her grades at school had been excellent, but from then her life had been a car crash. Until now he had not seen what she looked like. She was wearing a white blouse, well it had been white once, but now it was faded with age. It was missing the odd button, which helped show off the fact she had larger than normal breasts and her tatty short skirt did not spoil the view of her shapely legs. He was impressed with her body if not her clothes. She was lovely and ideal for his plan. John as usual had picked well. She had a real chance to pull off his plan. The question would be was she desperate and scared enough to co-operate. He looked around and felt confident she would be.
"Who are you?" asked Riley in a whisper, wondering who this smart businessman was and how he would help her escape his debts. She imagined he must be someone important dressed like that, or was at least keen to kid her he was.
"Well, who I am is not really important," replied Simon, "lets just say I work for some very important people in government and I solve the problems they can't."
"Or you get expendable nobodies like me to solve them for you." snapped Riley. She was cross because she was scared and her experience of men to date had been a total let down. Why did these two men continued to play games with her and talk in riddles? This Simon might be important but she told herself not to be cowed by him.
Hmmm smart girl thought both men. In a tough situation, but coming out fighting, showing she has some intelligence and some backbone. Good she might work out well. Those qualities would be important if she ended up in a tight spot.
Simon smiled. "You have me there. Its true I often have to find others to solve my problems, but John and I are good at recruiting the right "volunteers"." He made the sign of speech marks with both his hands as he said the word "volunteer." This made John laugh but further irritated Riley. She hated it when people did that pompous sign.
"Which brings us to me?" asked Riley. "I suppose I am your latest "volunteer"." She repeated the speech mark sign back sarcastically.
"Which brings us to you. Indeed it does." said Simon with a hint of don't give me attitude girl. "I have a little job proposal for you. I need you to seduce a man for me and if you succeed I will make your debt go away. Since you seem like a girl that likes straight talking that's the long and short of it. I could pretty it up, beat around the bush but you seem to favour a blunt approach."
