Chapter Five: Face Value



The cell phone rung beside Catherine, she smiled to herself as she reached for it.
“Only a matter of time” she grinned, knowing exactly who it would be on the other end
“Chelsea speaking” she answered as she brushed her shoulder length hair in front of the vanity mirror.
“Chelsea, it’s Faith, we met about 2 weeks ago in the parking lot in The Central Mall” Faith introduced herself
“Oh yes, I remember, what can I do for you?” she purred, pulling off her accent with style
“Well it would seem everything I did have under control is now completely out of control, I don’t suppose you could meet me?” Faith sighed, she assumed Chelsea would have other clients, and therefore other work.
“Actually you’re lucky, I have sometime this morning. Perhaps we could meet at your house?” Catherine smirked down the phone
“Oh god that would be great” Faith grinned, finally something going right.
“Okay that’s great then, see you around ten” Catherine announced
“Don’t you need the address?” Faith inquired, finding it odd that she hadn’t asked for that
“Oh yeah, op’s forgot” Catherine picked up, cursing herself for almost making a very big mistake
“It’s 256 Cotton Oaks, just go to the gate, I’ll buzz you in from there” Faith announced
“Wonderful” Catherine nodded as she scribbled down the address, although she already had it.
They said their goodbyes before hanging up.

Catherine laughed to herself as she starred down at the address.
“Too easy Faith, you make this game too easy” she smirked, a smile blending from one ear to the other.
She pulled a small key from under the jewelry box on the dressing table and placed it into the lock of the top draw. She removed its contents, bit by bit. First the wig, and a photo she’d taken of herself as Chelsea, incase she made a mistake along the way – there would be no room for mistakes, next came her folder – a collection of items she’d gathered, a record of dates, times and activities, pretty much everything she knew, lastly came her biggest score yet. Jason was a cop, however dumb he was, she’d begged him a few weeks back to show her some of the equipment used, saying it turned her on, the stupid sex-orientated male fell for it lock, stock and barrel, he showed her bugs and phone taps, camera’s and surveillance gear, and when he turned his back, in the blink of an eye, she’d taken what she needed, a phone tap and 2 small bugs. She took them from the draw placing them proudly in front of her. She knew to ‘have’ someone’s life you had to study every inch of it, and soon, she’d get right into the head of Faith – it wouldn’t be that hard.

“Piece of cake” she assured herself, dumping the bugs in her bag and replacing the rest of the items underneath the false bottom of the draw.

~ AT THE SAME TIME ~

“Hooray, it’s about time something went right” Faith grinned bounding around the kitchen, where Brian was making breakfast
“You look like a Muppet on speed” Brian laughed as she wrapped her arms around his body
“Okay the lady is coming here around ten, she’s like an angel” Faith gaped

Brian turned to face Faith, her arms still wrapped around him. His hands touched her waist, his eyes smiling across at her.

“You know that we have to make sure we can trust her first” Brian sighed, he knew Faith was happy about this, but he still had that niggling feeling
“I know Bri, I know all that. The media, the fans, god I know, but I REALLY need her help” Faith pleaded
“I know babe, I just want you to be safe. Make sure you can trust her okay?”
“Deal” Faith smiled kissing his right cheek

~ 10 AM THAT MORNING ~

The buzzer intercom rang loudly through the house as Faith scooted down the stairs her hair half in a ponytail, the tie gripped in her teeth. She slipped the black hair tie around the ponytail and gathered her composure. She’d always been a fairly shy person, the spotlight wasn’t where she felt most comfortable, in fact far from it, obviously been with Brian meant she was known around the place, it meant she had her photos with ‘We support” or “down with” scrawled across it, but in all honesty, she’d rather sit in a hot tub reading the latest copy of Cosmo then out meeting all the big executives at movie premiers.

She pushed the ‘open gates’ button.
“Come on through” she smiled through the intercom as the large gates opened

Within a span of 5 minutes there was a knock on the door, Faith opened it, to the familiar beaming face.
“Hey Chelsea, thank you so much for coming” Faith smiled politely as she welcomed her in
“No problem, you seem like a nice person” Catherine grinned back, trying to hide the sneer she really wanted to portray

“Well come on through into the lounge” Faith welcomed as her long legs strode across the hard tiled entrance.
“It’s a beautiful house, you have here” Catherine remarked as she starred up at the paintings on the wall, giving across an ancient Roman feeling.
“It’s my fiancés decorating” Faith laughed as she walked into the dining room, Catherine behind her “He’s always been fascinated with Rome, that sort of thing, so we went with it” she added

The house was a cross between modern meets old fashioned. It stood like a villa, 2 main stories, with an attic, and a basement. A large veranda led up to large oak and glass doors, with a specially crafted pattern across them. Walking into the main entrance, which was fully tiled in a light cream and gray pattern and covered only once in the center of the room with a large basely red oriental rug, which sat at the base of the stair case, a pillared case that half way up split into two, both going opposite directions. Off to the left of the entrance was the lounge, and beside that the dining room and kitchen. To the right of the entrance was the study, which lay just off another small hall, which also led to a hall cupboard and another door, which lead down to the basement, which was in the process of been converted into a studio. It had the basic equipment needed, in fact it had more than needed, it was just in a chaotic state. The entire house was decorated in deep reds and crimsons and blues, except for the bedrooms, which were soft blue, with hints of yellow in the matching attire. Piece of artwork and sculptures were dotted around the place, mainly though in the entrance and lounge room.

“He has good taste” Catherine grinned as sat down opposite Faith across the large glass and cast iron table.
“This was my pick” Faith gleamed “I didn’t care if it didn’t go with anything else, ever since I was little I’ve loved cast iron table” she laughed
“We all have our little qwerks” Catherine responded as she lay a black bag onto the table.
She pushed down the short skirt of her matching suit and placed her hands crossed on the table.

“You must be Chelsea?” a soft southern voice announced from behind Catherine
She spun around to see Brian dressed in a dark pair of loose jeans and a black tank top, with a towel lightly rubbing his hair, and half draped over his shoulder. She smiled softly as she stared up at him. He walked toward the table, and extended his hand, Catherine thought about taking him right then and there, but she reminded herself that all good things take time.
“I certainly world be” she smiled sweetly, shaking his hand
His hand was slightly moist as his thin lips pursed into a curved smile. Catherine breathed in slowly, trying to calm herself down, she’d seen him a couple of times before, backstage and waiting outside concerts, but this was different, this was – magical. He smelt like male body spray mixed perfectly with the scent of ocean body wash.
“Well it’s really nice to meet you” Brian added, dropping her hand and walking around to the other side of the table “Poor Faith was on the brink of ripping out all her lovely hair” Brian joked as he received a elbow to the chest from Faith

Catherine grinned stupidly, she was practically ignoring everything he was saying. She hurriedly snapped herself out of this trance, she needed her wits about her.

“We haven’t met have we?” Brian inquired. There was something about her eyes lingering behind the glasses that seemed familiar to him. It was something he always noticed first, a persons eyes, because they could give away so much without one word been said, like a window to the soul.
“Ah no” Catherine mumbled, fumbling through some pieces of paper she’d gathered together in front of her ‘I don’t think so” she added shrugging him off

“Bri, could you let Marty in, he’s pawing at the door again” Faith requested as she saw the golden retriever standing on the patio.

Brian strolled over to the large bay doors and opened them slowly, allowing the soft Florida breeze to settle inside the house. The dog came bounding in, jumping up on his master licking him playfully.
“Argh, down boy, down” Brian laughed, trying to keep his balance as Marty spun up his leg
Marty backed off and walked around to the table, there was a cane basket with a sheepskin rug in the corner, which was where he usually slept. He sniffed around the table, as Faith softly patted him. Faith hurriedly explained the situation as Catherine showed fake empathy and shock.
“That’s horrible” Catherine grimaced when Faith finished
“So I was hoping you could do all the ringing around trying to find some other places, its just I'm run down with all the bridal arrangements and invitations” faith sighed
“No, that is understandable, I would love to be of assistance to you, I can get this sorted out in a matter of days”
“There is only one problem” Brian started as he pulled out one of the chairs and sat down
Catherine turned her attention to him.
“Because I tend to be in the media spotlight quite a bit, I'm going to need to make sure that this is strictly confidential, we don’t want the details of the wedding, the reception and so on leaked to the press, we’d much prefer to keep this as quite as humanly possible. We would in that case need you to sign a secrecy agreement” Brian spoke, it wasn’t that he didn’t trust her, he just had to cover all bases, and this was the best way possible
“Oh that’s no problem, I completely understand” Catherine hummed
“And would it be possible to see some references?” Brian continued, been around executives always taught him never to take things at face value.
“Well actually I’ve just moved from Tennessee, and I'm afraid I don’t have any written references, oh dear, I'm so sorry” Catherine responded. She hadn’t counted on him checking back there was a flaw in her plan, and it was a pretty big one

“Brian, a word please?” Faith smiled as she stood from the table
Brian excused himself and followed Faith out into the entrance, away from earshot.

“Baby, I REALLY need this women’s help” Faith sighed as Brian looked on worried
“I know Faith, but you cant take her just on face value. We don’t even know if she’s qualified” Brian remarked, placing his hands lovingly on her shoulders
“I have 2 weeks to sort everything out Brian, I cant do it on my own, she seems nice enough”
“Trust me, sometimes not everything is as it seems”
“Two days, give me two days, if she hasn’t been a blessing then we’ll move on, okay?”
Brian sighed, Faith loved to trust people, he hoped one day that wouldn’t end up been thrown in her face.
“Alright, two days. Then we reconsider our position. In the mean time I'm going to look for other qualified backups”
“I wish you wouldn’t” Faith pouted
“It’ll put my mind at ease” Brian smiled
Faith nodded slowly. Compromise, it always worked.
“Okay” she smiled as she reached over and hugged him
“Promise me, anything seems weird about her, you’ll tell me?” he inquired, his arms encasing her thin frame
“Promise” she whispered into his ear


Chapter 6
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