003

Jill stood transfixed, trying to see something, but the glare blinded her too much. The room was completely dark, only the catwalk in front of her was bathed in a whitish light from the headlights. 

"Run!" hissed a voice behind her, and she took a few unsteady steps forward. 

"Will something happen today?" a woman's voice shrilled from somewhere in front of her from the blackness of the room, drowning out the low hum of the cameras. "Are you going to put down roots there?" 

Helpless, Jill began to move again, stumbling forward with little grace on the stilettos with the unusually high heels. She tried hard not to slip, which was not an easy task given the mirror-smooth floor. 

She staggered menacingly a few times, but eventually she managed to reach the bottom of the podium. Relieved, she stopped, blinked hard into the darkness. 

"A bit old, isn't it?" she heard a man's voice. 

The woman screamed again. "Now don't just stand there like a log, move, turn around!" 

Completely unnerved, Jill followed this request, almost losing her balance as she turned, only just able to catch herself. 

"That's impossible," it squeaked again, and Jill now knew it was probably Harriet Grumb. 

"I don't know, I think she's got something," came another man's amused voice. 

"Yes, she's not ugly and her figure is great too," said the first again. 

Jill felt like a piece of meat on the counter at the butcher's around the corner. She felt like taking off her shoes and throwing them forward into the darkness, hoping to stab at least one of the judges fatally. But with the cameras rolling, she didn't want to embarrass herself any more. So she made a good face at the bad game and conjured up a crooked smile on her face with the last of her strength. 

'Fine, she'll get a chance,' said Harriet in an annoyed voice, '132, you're next - exit - next!' 

'Uh... what?' she asked, irritated, certain she had misheard. 

'Are you hard of hearing?' hissed Harriet venomously. “You are further. Now out with you, you're holding up the whole operation.” 

“More,” Jill thought in disbelief, “I'm further.” 

She hadn't expected that, it was clearly too much for her nerves. Panicked, she turned and stumbled back down the catwalk, bumping into the next girl already coming towards her. The slightly chubby brunette fell to the ground like a sack of flour and squealed loudly in shock. Startled, Jill stopped and leaned down to help her stand up. 

"Can't you be careful, you oaf?" the girl snapped at her angrily, slapping her hand away. 

"Sorry," Jill apologized contritely, then continued toward the curtain. She could hear the jury whispering behind her. Harriet seemed quite upset, one of the men gave an amused chuckle. Shortly before the end of the catwalk, she was pulled down a small flight of stairs and a little later she was back in the cloakroom. 

Completely distraught, she went in search of her clothes, finally found them in a corner and hurriedly changed. 

"Let's get out of here," she thought incredulously as she left the locker room. Outside, she took a deep breath and dropped into a chair. Stunned, she put her head in her hands and tried to understand what had just happened. 

The fact that she had been mistaken for a model and coerced onto that runway was bad enough in itself. But now it gradually dawned on her that probably hundreds of thousands of viewers in front of the televisions had followed her embarrassing performance live. She felt nauseous and wondered how she was going to break it to Walt. Words like "discreet" and "unobtrusive" flashed through her mind, and she knew she must have screwed things up badly. 

"Hi," a soft voice suddenly said, snapping her out of her thoughts. 

"Hello," she replied absently. 

"I'm Mandy," said the blond young woman next to her, holding out her hand. 'It's quite a mess here, isn't it? Are you through?” 

Jill made a face and nodded. 

"Yes, I am," she confirmed unhappily. 

"You don't seem very happy." Mandy smiled. "But I can understand that, it's all so new and exciting, I'm pretty scared too." 

"Yes," Jill sighed, "scared is exactly the right word." She thought about Walt again and the trouble she was having sure would get, and got up. "I have to go now," she explained to Mandy. 

'Oh, okay - goodbye, see you.' 

'I don't think so,' Jill thought laconically, then said aloud, 'Yeah, you too, until then.' 

Jill left the building, paused outside the door for a moment standing and wondered if she shouldn't go back inside and look around a little more. Due to her involuntary appearance, she had hardly had the opportunity to do so. But she dismissed the thought as quickly as it had come, no more ten horses would bring her into this witch's cauldron. Besides, it didn't matter now anyway, she'd screwed up the operation and Walt would definitely take the case off her hands, so she headed home frustrated.

 

The next morning she entered the headquarters with mixed feelings. The fact that all the colleagues she met in the corridor grinned at her or whistled softly didn't necessarily make the whole thing any better. Blushing, she rushed into the meeting room. 

"Hey Jill, great show yesterday," Tom Steward greeted her immediately with a big grin. 

"Yeah, great," she replied, annoyed. “Walt's going to be thrilled, too.” 

One by one, the other colleagues began to trickle in, and Jill had to endure all sorts of amused comments. 

"Well, if I had known there was such a treat hidden under those clothes, I would have..." Tom didn't get any further, because at that moment Walt entered the room. 

"There's our supermodel," he grinned, also amused, and Jill felt like sinking into the ground. 

"I - I'm sorry, I must have screwed it up," she murmured unhappily, bracing herself for the lecture to come. 

"Why screwed up, nothing better could have happened," Walt explained to her surprise. »If you survive the next selection, you will move into this so-called 'model villa' together with the other nine models and the crew. You're in the thick of it, day and night, and we couldn't ask for a better camouflage.” 

Jill stared at him, horrified. "You're not asking me to be part of this circus, are you?" 

"As I said, we won't find a better chance for our investigation," her boss emphasized again, and his tone made it clear that he expected no contradiction. 

“But…but…” Jill stuttered, images of half-naked girls lounging lasciviously in front of a camera popping up in her mind. "I'm sure I'm not going to get any further," she said hastily. 

"With the character?" Tom laughed again, "Of course you will, unless the jury has tomato eyes." 

Walt gave him a stern look, then turned back to Jill. 

“I realize it's not a 100% sure thing, but it's worth a try. Make an effort, it'll work out.” 

They talked for a while longer, Jill tried to resist Walter's suggestion tooth and nail, but in the end she had no choice but to give in. 

"Cheer up, I'm sure," Walt patted her paternally on the shoulder as we left. "Just do your best."