The Naughty Girl

By Ashley Zacharias

I’d like to hire you, my dear. You’re a girl with pluck. You’re young and beautiful. You think fast, and you aren’t afraid to take decisive action. You’re willing to seduce a man to get what you need from him. What’s the job? Strictly business. My clients are corporations who need good information to make good business decisions. Valuable information can be hard to acquire. My agents get that information by whatever means is necessary. Legal? Not strictly speaking. My agents are a bit naughty, but they get the job done. And they’re paid handsomely for the risks they take. You’re interested? Good. Let’s discuss your first assignment over a nice pot of tea and some cookies. My name? Just call me Granny.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ashley Zacharias
• Release date: May 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311218407

Ashley Zacharias

I am a post-modern woman who lives a vanilla life but fantasizes about adventures in masochism. I appreciate readers who purchase my books but, more than money, I need your honest response to my writing. Review my books or contact me at ashleyzacharias.com and let me know what you think of my stories. Good or bad, as long as you are not indifferent, your honest response will help me to write more and better stories.You can find my thoughts about my own stories athttp://ashleyzachariascommentary.wordpress.com/Yours, Ashley

Book preview

Chapter One

You’ve been a naughty girl. An old woman settled, unwelcome and uninvited, on the park bench next to Raleigh.

Raleigh turned to stare at the stranger. What?

You heard me. I said that you’ve been a naughty girl. The old woman’s eyes twinkled merrily in the sunlight.

Raleigh lowered her sandwich to the wax paper spread out on her lap. Do you always go around insulting people like this?

Do you think that being called naughty is an insult? I’ve been a naughty woman for most of my life and I’m quite proud of it.

Raleigh hated to be judged by her age, her gender, and what she wore. Well, I don’t like you calling me naughty. You don’t know anything about me.

Oh, no? I know that you’re Raleigh Bern. You’re a clerk at Holden, Carter, and Findlay Consulting. You work for Ben Dobbins in records. You’ve been having quite the torrid affair with James Burton, Director of Acquisitions at HC&F. For almost three weeks, you and Jim have been fucking like bunnies all over the place after hours. I know that much and more.

Raleigh flushed with a combination of anger, fear, and embarrassment. This woman wasn’t crazy; she was a stalker. She was dangerous. Raleigh bundled the wax paper around her half-eaten sandwich with a couple of quick jabs and jammed it into her paper bag.

Wait, dear. The old lady put an age-spotted hand on Raleigh’s bare arm. You can’t run off quite yet. We’ve got some important business to discuss.

I’ve got nothing to say to you. Raleigh stood.

I’ve got a few things to say to you and you’d better listen if you don’t want to go to jail.

Raleigh paused. What do you mean, go to jail? For having an affair with a married man?

Posh, no. That’s to your credit. No, you’re going to go to jail for insider trading. Stock fraud. That was naughty. More than naughty, it was a crime. If you don’t listen to what I have to say, you’re not only going down, you’re going to take your lover down with you.

Raleigh sat back on the bench. Are you with the SEC?

The government? The woman’s laughter tinkled in the late-summer air. Heavens, no. I’m a freelance agent. I just need five minutes of your time. Listen carefully and consider my proposition and then you can go on your way, free as a bird, to carry on with your foolish behavior all you want.

I didn’t break any laws. Raleigh pouted.

Oh, yes, you did. I have copies of your transactions. She patted her worn, embroidered purse lovingly but didn’t take any papers out of it. Last Tuesday, James Burton told you that AnAmEx Holding was going to acquire Saveco Industries. He advised you to purchase Saveco stock. You maxed out your credit cards and bought eight thousand dollars’ worth of Saveco. The day after the acquisition was announced, you sold that stock for ten thousand dollars and paid back your credit card debt. In forty-eight hours, you made a twenty-five percent profit. That was a good business move, but it was also a blatant violation of the Securities Exchange Act. You committed a felony.

How do you know that I did that?

That’s my business.

No, it’s none of your business. You were sticking your nose into my business.

No, I mean my job, my work, is to know things like that.

To know about other people’s business?

Exactly. Think of me as a kind of private detective.

Someone hired you to investigate me?

Oh, heavens, no. No one is interested in your little trade. That was just something that I noticed while I was on another case, so I thought that I should talk to you about it.

And send me to jail.

The old woman grimaced. No. I’m bluffing about that. No one is going to send you to jail over a couple of thousand dollars. The worst that the SEC would do is make you give the profit to them in penalties, and they probably wouldn’t even bother with that. I’m sorry to say that you’re very small potatoes as far as everyone is concerned.

So why do you want to talk to me about it?

That was just to get your attention. I want to offer you a job.

Raleigh raised an eyebrow. I’ve got a job.

You call being a clerk at HC&F doing drudge work a job? You’ve got a good degree from a first rate university.

In anthropology. There are no jobs for someone with a BA in anthro.

You were at the top of your class, and the only job that you could find was sorting through files at a management consulting firm?

Raleigh was offended anew. HC&F is one of the biggest firms in San Diego. My job may not be much right now, but it’s an entry-level position. It got me in the door. I can get promoted quickly. There’s a career path for me there.

Posh. How many people who’ve started as a file clerk at HC&F ever got promoted up to associate partner? Zero. That’s how many. And how many women are partners? Also zero. If you want to advance, you’ve chosen the wrong job in the wrong company. I’m offering you a real career, starting right now. If you work for me, I’ll multiply your salary by five immediately.

Raleigh’s jaw dropped. That’s a hundred thousand dollars a year. She looked down at the half-eaten cheese sandwich in her lap. If she were paid a hundred thousand, she could afford to eat roast beef sandwiches. From a deli. Every day.

The old lady’s sharp eyes followed the line of Raleigh’s gaze. That’s right. And that’s just the beginning. You can earn a lot more than that if you’re the person that I think you are.

Raleigh looked at the woman and frowned suspiciously. This was too good to be true, and that was a red flag that someone was trying to gull her into a bad deal. What do I have to do for a hundred thousand dollars a year? She expected the old woman to tell her that she was going to have to prostitute herself. It was going to turn out that this little old lady was a madam who owned an escort service.

Like I said, we’re a bit like a detective agency. But we don’t sneak around motel room windows, snapping pictures of cheating husbands for time plus expenses. We investigate business deals. We gather commercially-sensitive information, sometimes on contract, sometimes on spec. It’s like when you got information from your lover about the acquisition of Saveco. You were acting naughty. That’s good. But then you used that information to buy a bit of stock. That was bad because it was foolish. You had information that was worth millions and you used it to trade a few stocks and earn only two thousand dollars. Worse, your misdeed left a paper trail that a blind man could follow. When you work for us, you won’t make those foolish mistakes. We sell information for fair value. We cover our tracks, and we get properly compensated for the work that we do. We only take risks if the reward is worth it.

Are you saying that you break the law?

I already told you that I’m proud to be a naughty woman. But it’s not like I mug people at gunpoint or break into homes to steal televisions. I believe in the free market. I believe that businesses need to be free to conduct their businesses as profitably and as efficiently as they can. My clients are corporations who need certain information so that they can compete against other corporations more effectively. My business is good business for everybody.

And that’s worth a lot of money?

If it weren’t, then I wouldn’t do it. There’s nothing more foolish than taking a big risk for small potatoes.

How big of a risk?

The kind of risk that you already took with Mr. Burton on the AnAmEx-Saveco trade. Except that you’ll be much smarter about it in the future.

Do you want me to keep working at HC&F and telling you about more acquisitions that they manage? Is that the job?

No, I want you to work exclusively for me. You’ll have to quit your current job. HC&F doesn’t manage acquisitions on a big scale often enough to make staying there worthwhile. I’ll have much more interesting assignments for you. And they’ll have a much quicker, much bigger payoff.

I don’t know. I’m going to have to think about this.

You’ve got six hours. I’ll contact you after work for your answer. If you can’t make up your mind that soon, then I’ve misjudged you. The old lady rose from the bench and turned away.

Wait. I don’t know your name.

She turned back. Everybody calls me Granny. She turned and strolled across the lawn, looking up at the birds singing in the trees.

Chapter Two

Raleigh spent the afternoon in a dither.

Was Granny real or crazy? Would she really pay her a hundred thousand dollars a year? That was a fortune and Raleigh was a twenty-five-year-old woman without any investigative experience whatsoever.

Worse, Granny had described the job as investigating corporations to search for business information. Raleigh was woefully ignorant about anything financial. The most complex finances that she understood was how to pay her own rent and utilities. The only reason that she’d bought the Saveco stock was because Jim had told her to. If he’d told her only that AnAmEx was buying Saveco, she probably would have bought the AnAmEx stock because that was the bigger company. But AnAmEx stock had gone down by ten percent when they announced the merger. She’d been surprised that the stock in the little company that was about to be swallowed up was the one that had risen. If not for Jim’s explicit instructions, she would have lost money by buying the wrong stock.

On the other hand, Granny seemed to know what she was talking about, and she knew all about Raleigh. If Granny thought that Raleigh could do the job, how could she contradict the old woman?

Besides, what did she have to lose? Granny was right that her clerk’s job at HC&F was a dead end. She’d already worked here for two years and hadn’t been promoted. Furthermore, there was no promotion coming in the foreseeable future. Her supervisor, Ben Dobbins, had been in the job for more than a decade. He was a man with little ambition and even less talent, so he wasn’t going anywhere. He was going to die in the traces. But, he was only fifty-three. Raleigh would have to wait for more than a decade for him to retire, merely to inherit a job that was no more interesting than her current job.

Granny talked about being like a detective and conducting investigations, but Raleigh knew better. Granny wanted her to be a spy. A corporate spy conducting industrial espionage.

That didn’t sound as bad to Raleigh as it should have. It sounded exciting. It sounded like an adventure.

And for a hundred thousand a year? In ten years, she’d earn a million dollars. Of course, the government would take most of it in taxes, but even after taxes, her salary would be a lot more money than she was going to earn from HC&F.

What did she have to lose?

When she left work for the day, she’d made her decision, but had no way to get in touch with Granny and tell her that she wanted to accept her offer.

She needn’t have fretted about that. She got on the trolley alone – she couldn’t afford to live downtown and had to commute – but she didn’t stay alone for long. Granny got on the trolley at the next stop and took the seat next to her.

I’m going to do it. Raleigh smiled bravely. If you still want to hire me, I’ll work for you.

Granny patted her hand. That’s nice dear. You can give a week’s notice if you want. Stay home a week from Monday. That’s the twelfth. I’ll come visit you and we’ll talk about your first case. I’ll bring cookies. Do you like ginger?

Yes.

Good. I’ll bring some gingersnaps. Maybe you’ll brew a pot of tea? Gingersnaps go well with tea. Granny got off at the next stop.

Raleigh’s misgivings accrued during a sleepless night, but she stuck to her decision and gave Bob her notice the next morning.

He didn’t seem surprised, and he didn’t ask what she would be doing; he only wished her luck.

That night, she stayed late because Jim did. When he finished making love to her on the couch in his office, she told him that she had resigned from HC&F, effective on Friday.

Are you still going to see me? If you aren’t going to be around the office, then we can get a room at a hotel when we want to get together.

She’d expected him to say something like that, but she’d already decided against it. No, thanks. It’s been fun, but I’m going to make a new start all around.

He looked disappointed, but far from heartbroken. That’s probably wise. What are you going to do next?

I don’t know for sure. I’ve got some leads, but I haven’t made any final commitments yet. She didn’t want to admit that she’d taken a job without knowing anything about either the work or her new employer. That would sound stupid.

Good luck, then.

There were no tears shed by either of them when she left. For the past few weeks, she’d given him some good sex, and she’d profited by two thousand dollars from his stock tip. They were about even; neither had any reason for hard feelings.

Chapter Three

When Raleigh answered the bell, Granny was standing at her door, carrying a bright floral-patterned china plate piled with cookies, covered in plastic wrap. Ready for your first assignment?

Raleigh was about to find out what she has signed up for. She didn’t expect this job to be easy, but she hoped that she was leaping only into a hot pan and not into the fire itself.

The plate of cookies was an odd touch. That was how the evil witch lured children into her oven. Seeing it did nothing to calm her nerves. Sure. Come on in. You want some tea? I’ll put the kettle on.

A cup of tea would be nice, dear. Granny followed Raleigh into the kitchen. She removed the plastic wrap before setting the cookies on the table.

A wonderful odor of ginger drifted through the kitchen to Raleigh’s nose. They smell fresh baked.

I baked them this morning. Granny smiled. I like to bake cookies in the morning. It makes my kitchen smell nice all day long.

Orange Pekoe or Earl Grey? I’ve got both.

Whatever you’re having, dear. I’m not particular.

Raleigh suspected that Granny was fibbing. An old lady could be quite particular about her tea but would be too polite to say so. Raleigh selected a couple bags of Orange Pekoe for the pot. She feared that the bergamot flavor in the Earl Grey might clash with the ginger cookies.

After Raleigh served the tea and sampled a cookie – it tasted as good as it smelled – she suggested that they get to business. I assume that you have some papers for me to sign.

Your assumption is mistaken, my dear. I don’t commit anything about my employees to paper. My people work to a verbal contract only. As long as we come to an understanding and try to treat each other fairly, then there’s no need for paper records, is there?

I guess not. Raleigh felt uneasy about a strictly verbal arrangement – it gave her no security – but she couldn’t argue about it at this point.

Good. There are only three important issues to discuss, anyway. The work, the payment, and confidentiality. We have to take them in the reverse order. Confidentiality first. That’s pretty simple. You don’t say anything about any part of my business to anyone, ever. You don’t put anything in writing that isn’t absolutely necessary and you don’t keep any notes longer than you need them. Is that agreeable to you?

Okay.

If for some reason, you do need to keep a record of something, you give it me. I have ways to store it securely and I can retrieve it quickly enough when you need to see it again.

Okay.

Granny nibbled on a cookie and washed it down with a sip of tea. Now, as for payment, I’ve set up an offshore bank account in your name. I will deposit two thousand dollars in your account every week, starting today. That’s not a salary; it’s a nonrecoverable advance against your commissions. You will be an independent contractor and will be paid a commission for each assignment. If you complete assignments successfully, the advance will be a trivial part of your income. If you don’t complete assignments successfully then you won’t be working for me for long. She took a paper from her purse and slid it across the table to Raleigh. These are the details of the bank, your account number, and your password. Keep the account number safe. If you forget it, you’ll never be able to withdraw your money. She then explained how Raleigh could change the password, transfer small amounts of money to a local bank account, withdraw cash, and pay off credit cards and other bills. Using the offshore account isn’t quite as convenient as having everything in your local bank branch, but it’s more secure. When tax time comes around, I’ll help you decide how much you want to declare for taxes. I suggest about twenty-five percent of your income. That should be enough to keep from raising the government’s suspicions without having to pay them more than necessary.

Okay. Raleigh would have to think about that. Not paying all of her taxes would give her a lot more money to spend, but if she were caught, failing to declare income was a serious crime. She would suspend judgment for now. She suspected that, by April, she might have a different view of financial crimes than she did today.

Now about the work. This is where the fun begins. Granny withdrew another piece of paper from her purse