A Good Find by Gary L Beer (chrysanthemum read aloud .TXT) 📕

is dressed in a tight fitting electric blue blouse that shows the black bra and ample breasts that they try to contain. Her faded blue jeans are skin tight and show off her muscular legs and firm buttocks.
Sheila is similarly dressed in a tight fitting red blouse unbuttoned to her small breasts that are covered by a pale blue bra. Her blue jeans fit loosely around her legs and end with black trainers on her feet.
“Hi Nat, Hi Sheila,” greets Steve in a cheerful voice “you want coffee?”
“Good idea,” replies Natalie looking at the men seated around the table; “do you want us to wait in the front room?”
“No, no need, this is Barry, Phil, Dave and Rob.” Steve says indicating each at the table as he says their name with a nod of his head.
“Hiya.” says Natalie as she raises her hand and gives them a small wave; Sheila nods her head in general at the table not appearing interested.
Steve makes Sheila and Natalie's coffee and hands them their steaming mugs; “Pull up a chair and join us at the table.”
Natalie takes the mug from Steve's hand and walking towards the table she picks up a chair from against the wall and seats herself between Barry and Dave.
Sheila does not look so keen as she takes the mug from Steve; “Sit in my seat, I'll get an extra chair.” Steve offers as he turns and walks out of the kitchen.
Sheila walks slowly towards the table and empty chair; Phil and Rob move their chairs to give her more room as she sits uncomfortably at the table. Her dislike for men is intense and to have to sit at a table surrounded by them makes her skin crawl.
Phil and Rob sense her dislike and move their chairs as far away as possible as Steve enters with another chair and beaming smile; “You all right there Sheila?”
“No, I'm hungry you got any bacon?”
“Yeah plenty of food in the fridge; help yourself.”
“You are not going to cook it for me then?” she asks not mentioning his promise of cooking them breakfast.
“Would be a pleasure, one rasher or two?” Steve asks with a smile.
Sheila stands up quickly from the table and walks across the kitchen to the refrigerator. Opening the door she looks inside; “No, I'll do it while you are talking to your friends.” she replies in a joking sarcastic voice, glad to have some distance between herself and the men at the table.
“Do me some as well will you Sheila? Two rashers, fried egg and toast please.” asks Natalie in a sweet voice.
Sheila does not answer as she busies herself preparing the food, Steve returns to the table and sits down; “Got a few more on the way and then we'll get down there, I'll just phone make sure they are on the alert.” he says as he takes his phone out of his pocket. Dialling a number he holds the phone to his ear, the phone rings twice and Eric answers in a cheerful voice; “Morning Steve, hope all good with you?”
“Yeah fine mate, any sign of life across the road?”
“No, all is quiet, you coming down to give us a break?”
“Yeah we're just waiting for Barney and Curly Pete and then we'll be with you.”
“Nice one am getting itchy feet sitting around here, feels like we've been stuck in here for weeks rather than a few hours.”
“Be 'bout an hour mate, any word from Dippa?”
“No, not a word, he lost his phone though didn't he?”
“Yeah that's right,” answers Steve sourly recalling his own loss; “phone his missus will yer and I'll meet him there at Stella's in an hour.”
“Will do mate and I'll send Carol up the shop to get some milk as we drank it all, unless you wanna get it?”
“No, send Carol.” orders Steve as he disconnects the call. “All good there; fellas still in his flat, we just need to figure out a way to get in.”
“Thought you had it all figured?” asks Barry with an edge of worry to his voice.
“Not entirely,” admits Steve, “his share of the money is still in there and he knows where the rest is.”
“You couldn't get him to talk before, what makes you think he will be any different?”
Steve laughs and looks at Sheila who is busy at the cooker, the bacon hisses and spits as she turns it over in the hot frying pan; “That's why I asked Sheila to join us, you like to hurt men don't you Sheila?” Steve asks raising his voice so that she can hear above the noise of the cooking.
Sheila turns towards him a cold unpleasant smile forming on her lips; “If you say so dear.” she replies a touch of excitement to her voice.
Steve and Natalie laugh amongst the worried faces at the table. Even Dave looks concerned at the expression on Sheila's face and silently vows not to upset her, as it looks like she enjoys hurting; especially men!
“How long are Curly Pete and Barney gonna be?” asks Barry impatiently.
“They are on the way, by the time Sheila and Natalie have eaten they'll be here then I'll take you down there.”
“Be a bit of a crowd by then.” says Barry sarcastically.
“We don't all have to go at the same time, I'll take you down and the others can follow a few at a time.”
Barry does not like this idea as it means he will be on his own with Steve, Barry feels very unsure of Steve since his arrival this morning. There was a change in Steve's attitude towards him that he felt the reason was more than bringing Dave along; “Sounds good.” he lies and nods his head in agreement.

“That sounds like Heather,” says Nicola as the sound of a car coming up the drive penetrates the silence; “she is going to go mad when she sees what you have done to her garden.” Nicola continues accusingly.
“Best you tell her everything, I'm going to use the toilet.” says Stef as he starts to walk out of the lounge.
“Yeah, that's probably the best thing you can do is hide, you coward.” shouts Nicola to Stef's departing back as he runs down the hall.
Nicola hears the slamming of a car door and peers out of the window. Heather starts to walk towards the front door and is halfway along the path before she notices the ruined flowerbeds and lawn. Turning quickly she retraces her steps and goes for a closer look, as she reaches the flowerbed the look of shock on her face makes Nicola run out to explain.
Hearing Nicola approaching her Heather turns to face her, looking more upset than angry her thin pinched face looks pale and her eyes are filled with tears; “Was it you driving or Stef?” she asks in a shaky voice.
“It was Stef, we are sorry to do this to you but we are in so much trouble I didn't know who else to turn to.” replies Nicola echoing Heather's shaky voice.
Heather looks at Nicola and can see that she is upset to, and it appears much more serious than a ruined flowerbed; “We had better go inside, where's Stef?”
Nicola laughs nervously; “You know what he's like, he's hiding in the toilet in case you get violent, he knows how much you love your garden.”
Heather turns around to look at the mess of her garden and Stef's car parked behind the shed; “Looks serious, what have you been doing?”
“Shall we go indoors, I'll make you a nice cup of coffee and tell you all about it.” says Nicola as she grabs hold of Heather's arm and starts to lead her towards the front door.
“If you are in trouble with the police it's best you don't tell me, and leave, now.” replies Heather firmly. She may be a lot smaller in build than Nicola, this being highlighted by her tight fitting nurse's uniform, but mentally she has always been stronger than her sister.
“No, no trouble with the police, we wouldn't have come if that was the case.” replies Nicola with a touch of anger to her voice.
“Yeah, silly question I know that you would not jeopardise my job.” says Heather as they reach the front door, opening the door Heather turns to Nicola; “I am going to get changed while you make me a coffee.” she smiles as she starts to head up the stairs.
Nicola makes her way to the kitchen and prepares three cups as Stef comes out of hiding and stands behind Nicola; “Is she Ok?” he asks softly.
“Yeah it's safe for you to come out now.” Nicola says with a smile.
“When you've told her, tell her I need to borrow her car later on, I'm gonna tidy the garden a bit.” Stef says not meeting Nicola's eyes.
“What and put her in danger?” asks Nicola indignantly.
“No, I gotta plan and anyway she could do with a new car, we'll buy her one tomorrow if today goes well.”
“What are you going to do?” asks Nicola the fear returning to her voice.
“I'll tell you later.” says Stef softly as the sound of Heather's footsteps on the stairs reach him. Stepping past Nicola he opens the back door and quickly steps out into the garden.

“That sounds like Barney's van.” says Sheila as the sound of a vehicle pulling in to the drive can easily be heard at the silent table. Whilst Sheila and Natalie ate their breakfast an uncomfortable silence fell on those around the table. The seriousness of the situation and the amount of money involved did not lead to idle chatter.
The sound of Barney's van comes as a welcome relief and Steve gets up from the table and walks to the front door, opening it wide Barney's worried face looks towards him; “You Ok mate?”
“Yeah all cool so far, you can put that back in your van for the moment.” replies Steve indicating the sawn off shotgun that Barney holds along his right side.
Barney looks disappointed as he turns and walks back to the van; Curly Pete passes him and looks towards Steve. The grief on his face for the loss of his friend looks to have aged him by ten years.
“You feel up to this Pete? I know Razor was like a brother if you feel you'd rather be with him and his family I gotta a little help here now.” he says gently indicating his head towards the house.
“You are forgetting I gotta score to settle.” Curly Pete tells him harshly as he tries to walk past Steve.
Steve steps quickly in front of him blocking his way, the mood Curly Pete is in he is likely to want to fight anyone; “Got some people in there you not met before, I'm not sure about all of them, let's see how it goes?” Steve asks politely.
“Yeah sure,