Family Business

Ristorante Napoli

Tuesday May 28th 8.20PM Ristorante Napoli.

Prudence swings into the carpark of the Ristorante Napoli hotel. She scans for a spot as close to the entrance as possible but sighs in disappointment as the only spot in the narrow carpark is three rows down. With the use of her SUV's cameras she carefully reverses in to position. She wheezes heavily through her nose on calculating that she is at least 100 metres from the restaurant entrance.

She shuffles out of the SUV, careful not to have her car door make contact with the sedan parked beside her. She locks it. She is dressed in a tailored red corporate dress and matching red jacket. A break from her usual black suits.

Anxiously she looks around her squinting hard, the dim car park lighting giving her little comfort that no one is watching her. She begins a slow laboured waddle towards the restaurant. Her chest heaves, her inability to move at pace gives her a greater feeling of vulnerability should anyone be waiting on her. She enters the restaurant, her mood drops on the compactness of the tables, the very reason she never returned. A waving hand in the near corner catches her attention it's Holly dressed in a white sleeveless blouse revealing her well toned arms. Prudence waves back.

Prudence carefully and cautiously walks between the aisle of two rows of tables. "Hi Holly" she squeezes in between the wooden bench and table with its edge chaffing against her tummy.

"I love the outfit Prudence, red really suits you!"
"Thanks, I really like your blouse, I envy your physique". A waitress comes and presents the menus and takes their drink orders. Vanessa scans the menu. She wants to be good "I am only going to have a main course tonight, I really need to cut down!"

Holly smiles "You know I will just have a main course too and leave room for dessert!".

forty five minutes later Prudence is finishing her Pasta and Shellfish meal. It didn't take long for small talk to revert back to work.

"So Prudence" states Holly "What are we going to do, your cousin accosts you, you have expensive suits stolen and your shamed on our media, we have to protect you and get to the bottom of this!"

Prudence adjusts her glasses on her nose and takes a sip of water and extends her hands out "that bitch is up to something!" her voice trembles with emotion

Holly leans forward "Like what?, have the Police spoken to her?"

Prudence can feel her blood pressure rise "No, she's in hiding!".

Holly gasps "what!!, the hell is she up to, do we need to have you stay in a more secure location than that big house on your own?"

Prudence fans her burning face "I'm not going anywhere!" she states with defiance "She is not the smartest they will get her. I've to be careful with card usage as a precaution but mark my words, the Police will find her."

Holly bits her lower lip "I really hope so, the audacity, I'm also really really concerned that she has a mole inside. I really worry about you though in that house in your own!"

Prudence flicks her right hand outwards "I have twenty four hour monitoring and security patrol the neighbourhood. As for mole, you're doing great work, IT and security are doing great work. We'll find any mole."

Holly nods in agreement "We will!, we just have to move quickly"

Prudence shuffles in her seat as the table chauffs against her stomach "and carefully, we have to be one hundred percent sure, but I'm confident the Police will catch up on her soon enough, I need to use the rest room".

Holly points towards a stairway "they are up there!".

Prudence sighs.

Holly pulls out her cell phone and pretends to be texting when in fact she is videoing Prudence as she slowly waddles between tables in the narrow aisle. She zooms in as she struggles up the stairs.

She looks up a contact and attaches the videos "will call you at usual number at 10pm".

Prudence can feel the beads of sweat roll down her back as she wades between the tables on her way back to their table. She ignores the gasps and sniggers as she passes. "Noooooooooooo" she whines as she spots the chocolate toffee pudding awaiting her "Holly, I can't, I really can't!"

Holly smiles as she watches her struggle into the seat "C'mon, I'm having one too, we're out to enjoy ourselves!"

Prudence whines "You're like Rosamound you'll lose it a second, it just sticks to me like glue!"

Holly lifts her spoon to take a mouthful "Worry about all that tomorrow, now dig in, you can always join me at the gym."

Tuesday May 28th 10:55pm- Farley Plaza Atlantic City
Dodgy Dave pulled up on his black two year old Harley Davidson Soft tail. He removes his helmet and exactly at 11pm, the phone rings he picks it up "hello" he states

"hello" the voice replies "I met with our friend, the police are looking for her beloved cousin and boyfriend, she suspects them" The line goes dead.

12pm Passaic Industrial Park New Jersey
Richie reads out the text message from Dodgy Dave again "They are on to us, FUCK!!, YOU SEE YOU SHOULDN'T GRETCHEN HAVE WENT NEAR HER IN THE OFFICE, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, FUCK!!".

Gretchen dismisses him with a hand wave "That fat bitch would always have suspected us, our fucking family first thing they would have done either way is mentioned my name, fuck it, we'll have that fatso's money in a matter of days and out of here, so why fucking care!"


Richie rests his palms on his forehead in frustration "sure but by doing nothing we could have bought more time, am so annoyed".

Henry takes his attention off the motorcycle "Look, we can't change anything, it's happened, we're snatching her and we're taking her money, it's all planned. It will be fine."

"You see" states Gretchen as she points at Henry "He's positive why can't you be, fuck fatso and the Police, the truck is hidden, we could be out of the country for all they know".