Ruby Pulls It Off. From the forthcoming novel, Pseudonyms, by Ian Hunter.

Ruby Pulls It Off. 

From the forthcoming novel, Pseudonyms, by Ian Hunter.

Ruby Stone stepped off the steps and felt the dry heat hit her face as she walked across the concrete towards the terminal building. She hated lying to Sebastian but what he didn't know couldn't hurt him. She was beginning to feel that things were now coming to an end. She had been running the time share scam for nearly four years now, and the cardinal rule was not to be greedy, and to get out while you still could. She was getting tired of the running, the name changes, the feeling of never belonging and constantly looking over her shoulder. If all went to plan in the next few days, it was definitely time to get out.

If all deposits were paid, she would be up to the tune of a hundred and eighty thousand euros. She had about the same amount dotted around in various accounts and a third of a million was a nice chunk of change. In a few days time she would cast off Ruby Stone and consign her to Interpol's missing persons file before choosing one final identity and disappearing into the sunset.

She smiled at the border officer as he glanced at her face and looked down at her passport. It was as good a forgery as anyone was likely to see but she still felt the sweat in the nape of her back whenever she had to present it. 'Ruby Stone?' said the officer. 'Like a ruby stone, yes?' She smiled once more. 'My father was a jeweller.' The officer smiled and was seduced by her charm as he handed it back. 'It's a pretty name for a pretty lady. Enjoy your stay in Sardinia.'

Ruby Stone sat on the balcony of her rented apartment and sipped her mint julep in the warmth of the early evening sun. Tomorrow morning she was meeting the Taylor's. Some fuck-witted retirees from Derby, looking to spend their bungalow equity on three weeks of Sardinian paradise per annum. By Friday they would be looking at the photos of the white walled hacienda high in the hills above Porto Torres, whilst standing on the pot holed car park of a knackered donkey sanctuary and wondering where the fuck their house was. The following day it was a drive down the coast to Alghero to play the same scam on a couple called Doris and Albert Faulkner of Hull.

She needed to think what to do about Sebastian. In a few days time she was going to be an all points bulletin once more. After Cyprus and the Costa's she'd got a flight to Alexandria and then the ferry to Tel Aviv and spent a couple of months visiting Mauri's family and seeing her cousins. One of the plus points of being half Jewish was that nobody fucked with the yids and that included the forces of law and order. She could move about normally and get a tan without any fear of being lifted. Even if the cops had tracked her down, Israeli bureaucracy would have fucked them up for long enough for her to got the boat to Northern Cyprus and away from any kind of extradition.

She missed the old man more than she knew. She had been thirteen when he died. She'd been too young to really understand Mauri's life and what he did, and as she got older and things came out about him, she had found herself loving him even more than she had when he was around to be her daddy. She knew in her heart that he would never have left her of his own free will. The cops said he had taken his own life rather than face fifteen years inside but she had never really bought that.

Dad had been involved with some bad people. Some she could remember, some she couldn't. Some she could remember more than others. She felt a shiver down her spine and took a big slug on her cocktail as the mental lock broke and uncle Bobby's face sprang into her consciousness. His silver hair and ruddy face, sitting on his knee and giggling as he blew raspberries on her neck. He was like a big funny cuddly bear, until that night he had forced her mouth onto his cock and then raped her.

She had never told anyone and just the thought of that night was going to make her sob until she had nothing left to give. Most of the time she kept him locked in that box in the back of her mind, but now and again he managed to crawl out. His tiny semi flaccid penis below his grotesque belly, moving towards her mouth. Ruby Stone sunk the rest of her mint julep in one massive swig and went to her bed to cry.