A Girl Called Malice. Aurelia B. Rowl

shower. ‘Oh, hey, Josh. Yeah, I’m fine thanks.’

      ‘Have you been swimming? I didn’t see you.’

      ‘No, I was out running and got caught in the deluge. This place was closer than home so I figured I’d come here.’

      ‘Sounds grim.’

      ‘It was. I was easily as wet as you when I got here.’

      ‘Yuck,’ Josh said, twisting his face into a grimace. ‘Shame you weren’t poolside. You missed some spectacular talent just now.’

      ‘Yeah? Is one of the under nines coming good?’

      Josh laughed. ‘Nah, mate, not that sort of talent. I meant the other one. You know, the one that comes in a teeny-tiny swimsuit with pert tits and legs up to her armpits,’ he said, drawing the shape of an hourglass in the air.

      ‘Oh right,’ Zac said flatly.

      ‘I swear she was giving me the eye too.’ The lascivious grin spreading across Josh’s face was what had landed the guy with his questionable reputation with the female lifeguards.

      ‘I thought you had a girlfriend?’

      Josh shrugged. ‘I do,’ he said, leaning in closer. ‘Doesn’t stop me looking though. Right?’ He nudged his elbow into Zac’s side like they were co-conspirators.

      ‘Of course it doesn’t,’ Zac muttered under his breath, growing more uncomfortable with the conversation with each passing second. He let go of the shower valve and counted to five as he waited for the water to shut off. ‘Right, that’s me done. I’m out of here.’ To avoid eye contact, he bent to pick up his shower gel. ‘I’m on duty next Wednesday so I guess I’ll see you then.’

      ‘Yeah, mate, see ya next week,’ Josh replied. ‘Hey, I hope that girl comes again too.’

      Lost for a suitable reply, Zac opted for silence and raised his hand as a goodbye, then busied himself by wrapping his towel around his waist as he walked away from Josh.

      Jeez, the guy was a twat.

      Far too jumped up and full of himself, Zac couldn’t wait for the day somebody knocked Josh down a peg or two. The kids seemed to like him, but it probably had something to do with them sharing the same mental age. No, that was harsh; Josh was a good coach as well as a total louse and the male equivalent to a tart.

      Unbidden, the image of Alice bent over the reception desk leaped into Zac’s mind and caused him to stop dead in the centre of the changing room. Aware that he was causing an obstruction, Zac shuffled to the bench where his clothes lay waiting for him. He dragged the towel roughly over his skin and tried to brush off the niggling doubt that had taken up residence in his head.

      When it failed to work he screwed the towel into a ball, then tossed it onto the bench hard enough to make the wooden slats rattle. The whole set-up was just too much of a coincidence to ignore. Too convenient. He could well imagine Josh fawning over the bleached-blonde look and based on how little Alice had been wearing when fully dressed, it didn’t take much to guess the kind of swimming costume she’d have worn.

      Alice certainly kept herself in shape but she was there to meet a friend—or at least, that’s what she’d said—and that friend couldn’t possibly have been Josh since he didn’t show any sign of knowing her. Unless that’s where the ‘kind of’ came into it?

       Not my problem.

      What Alice and Josh did or didn’t do was entirely their own business. If Josh was stupid enough to play with fire, then he deserved to get his fingers burned. He was a grown adult and could look after himself, as could Alice. Better off staying out of it, Zac wanted nothing to do with the drama. He kept up the internal mantra and dressed quickly.

      Not wanting to risk bumping into either of them again, Zac made his way back to the staff room to kill time and hide out until he was sure the coast was clear. The first coffee barely touched the sides, but the second hit the spot. His peace ended when the door burst open to admit four members of staff chattering excitedly, all talking at once as they converged around the small television mounted on the wall.

      Two more colleagues came in right behind them while a guy from the gym, Mike or Tyke or something, flipped through the channels. A loud cheer went up when he came to the channel with the CCTV footage and Zac couldn’t help looking up to see what all the fuss was about. His jaw dropped open and the mug slipped from his fingers.

      Right there on screen in full colour, albeit a bit grainy, he saw a guy and a girl getting intimately acquainted. Josh was instantly recognisable even from behind. Zac knew better than to watch yet dread slithered over his skin and paralysed him. He couldn’t tear his gaze off the images flashing across the screen for all and sundry to see.

      Proper car crash viewing.

      Even though the girl wasn’t so easily identifiable from the camera angle, Zac knew exactly who she was. Sadly. The sight of her skirt and shoes merely confirmed it. He raised his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, massaging it gently but the images burned into his vision refused to vanish. If anything, they got worse as his imagination joined in on the act.

      Another jeer went up and his eyelids flew open against his will. Alice had now removed her vest and hitched her skirt up to her waist. Since she didn’t appear to be wearing underwear any more, there was absolutely nothing left to the imagination. Shouts of ‘get in there,’ ‘go on, my son’ and ‘oh my god, they’re actually doing it’ filled the staff room.

      Josh wasted no time getting down to business. The tan lines on his backside made his bright white arse look like a flag blowing in the breeze as he thrust and gyrated into the girl with a wanton smile. A smile which faded the instant Josh couldn’t see her face any more. If anything, Alice looked bored.

       Huh?

      Unaware she was live-streaming on television, she even went so far as to check her phone or send a text or something. Who in their right mind would do that? Nobody else seemed to have noticed, too busy focusing on the action most likely, but the girl on screen wasn’t the Alice that Zac had met in the park. The question now was, which one was real and which one the impostor?

       Only one way to find out.

      He was going to have to venture into the sandstorm after all, before Alice could do permanent damage to herself. Zac crossed to the door and didn’t stop walking until he reached the door to the meeting room. He knocked sharply on the door three times, giving Josh and Alice ample warning, and then pushed it open an inch to avoid having to shout and cause even more of a scene.

      ‘No, wait,’ Josh yelled, an edge of panic to his voice. ‘You can’t come in.’

      ‘You’ve got thirty seconds to make yourselves decent before I open this door fully.’ Zac couldn’t help grinning. ‘And you might just want to keep your backs to the camera since you’ve corralled an audience with your antics.’

      ‘C-camera?’ Josh spluttered, not sounding anything like his usual cocky self any more. ‘Audience?’

      ‘Yeah, you might want to choose a better venue for your extra-curricular rendezvous in future,’ Zac said, enjoying Josh’s discomfort far too much. ‘Of all the rooms in the whole place, you had to choose one of the only ones with an external door. God help you if anyone tries to break in tonight and the tapes get seized as evidence.’

      ‘Shit.’

      Zac had no idea if it had been thirty seconds or not, but he shoved the door open anyway then stepped inside. ‘Time’s up.’

      Alice was still struggling with her top so he point blank refused to look her way. Josh swallowed, then opened his mouth to say something but his gaze got drawn to the door. The blood drained from his face and his eyes grew wide—frantic—so Zac looked behind him half expecting to see their boss, or perhaps a two-headed monster, but there was just a girl stood there.

      ‘C-C-Caroline?’