I sat speechless for a couple of minutes, trying to make sense of the impossible. It couldn't be true, and yet it seemed as though it might be.

Tess.

Only two PCs in the office had ever connected to chatmate. Mine and Tess's. It was a logical assumption on Geoff's part that we were both victims. Logical but wrong. I shook my head and defied myself to cry, staring mutely into space. Geoff ordered some more wine from reception and by the time it arrived I still hadn't spoken. He left me to my thoughts, opening the bottle and pouring a fresh glass of wine. I drank it morosely.

It wasn't possible. It couldn't be Tess.

I'd seen str8guy's cock.

That was an accomplice.

She was my best friend.

How well do we ever know anyone?

No woman would put another woman through some of the things I'd been forced to do.

This wasn't about me. I was just the pawn to get at McCabe.

She'd been with me at times when str8guy texted me.

Accomplice, accomplice.

She was my best friend.

You're too stupid to have best friends, Molly Hadley.

She was genuinely sympathetic when I was at a low ebb, really supportive.

Crooks make great actors.

She was my best friend.

Yes, so you keep saying. Do you really believe that, now???

She knew everything about me, she knew how to manipulate me. The blowjob for Calum the Scottish guy, that was the start of it, that's when my ordeal left the chatroom and entered real life. And who manufactured that?

Tess.

I only went with him, that night, so she could get off with Jake the hunk. And the bitch, she twisted the knife by not even doing anything herself that night. Molly the Nun gave a stranger a blowjob for no reason, and Tess sat there, doing nothing. Probably, Jake was in on it as well and the two of them laughed all night at what they'd tricked me into doing.

All those nights in Walkabout, when I thought she was my friend. I tried to remember who it was who had made the first contact with Thomas and his schoolfriends, and of course it was Tess. Every doubt I had, she assuaged it, every temptation I felt, she nurtured. Using me. The whole time, using me.

I began to cry as the extent of Tess's betrayal became clear. My best friend. She'd been using me, laughing at me. All those times she'd sat a few yards away from me, pretending she had no idea what I was doing, and it was her playing the part of str8guy. I wondered how she could have kept a straight face. Tears coursed down my cheeks and Geoff sat next to me, sweeping his huge arms around me and cradling me to his chest.

"I wish I'd know what was really going on," he said. "I could have warned you."

"No," I said, sitting up stiffly and wiping the tears from my eyes. "It's my own fault. My own stupidity. I deserve everything I get."

"Nobody deserves this."

"She fucking does. She deserves to be hung, drawn and quartered for this."

"She'll get her comeuppance."

"Too fucking right she will. But how, Geoff? How?" I rounded on him, my eyes reddened from crying, but blazing with anger. "We've got to get her. We can't give in here. We're too fucking good to be beaten by this. We work well together. We can sort it."

"That's it, Molly. Some fighting spirit, that's what I've always loved about you. There's the ferret in you coming out."

"Fight? I'll scratch her fucking eyes out, mate."

"Sounds good."

"Wanna watch?"

"Two women fighting? Are you kidding? The stuff that dreams are made of."

"Oh yeah? Naked, I suppose..."

"Now you're talking, Molly."

I laughed. Humour is a wonderful way of releasing stress, and we jested lightly, allowing ourselves to forget our predicament for a few moments. "A-ha. And what would you like to see, then?"

"Oh, a damned good catfight. Lots of scratching and biting and slapping and pulling. Lots of jiggling breasts..."

"You won't get them with me, mate." I demonstrated my lack of decolletage.

"They still jiggle, whatever size they are. And then maybe some spanking. That'd be good. Woman-on-woman spanking, whoarr..."

"I did that. Got spanked on cam." McCabe's eyes lit up and a look of amazement crossed his face. I immediately regretted my words and blushed. A confession too far, Molly girl.

He saw my embarrassment and glossed over it. "She needs to be taught a lesson. After the spanking, maybe tied to the bed. Or made to act like a dog, eat from a bowl, that sort of thing..."

He stopped and eyed me warily. I caught his expression and laughed out loud. "No, don't worry," I said, "I haven't done that one..."

He smiled and relaxed. "You always did strike me as a naughty girl, Molly."

"You don't know the half of it."

"Maybe you'll tell me one day."

"Maybe. I think I've gotten into enough trouble, though. I'm planning on taking a vow of chastity."

"Oh, I wouldn't recommend it. Chastity's for ugly bastards like me."

"You're not ugly."

"Ah Molly, if I was twenty years younger I'd have your knickers off."

"That's not much of an achievement, lately..."

He eyed me curiously again. I don't think Geoff had any conception of the depths I'd reached in the last two months. I didn't feel like enlightening him, just at that moment, and changed the subject back to serious matters.

"So, we've got to get out of this. How do we do it?" We lay back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, plotting. Two ferrets, plotting. I felt closer to Geoff at that point than I ever have to anyone in my life.

Two of a kind. He always said it.