by Sofia Grey
He spotted a quiet café and tugged on Sylvie’s hand. She looked at him blankly but followed him in, and they queued together at the counter. He ordered two hot chocolates with whipped cream, and a slice of cheesecake to share. This drew a tired smile from her.
They draped their wet jackets over the backs of the chairs and looked at each other over the small wooden table top. A little colour had returned to her cheeks.
They picked at the cheesecake, and Sylvie spooned the cream from her hot chocolate. They’d arrived at the late afternoon lull in business, and the café was as good as empty.
Alex reached across the table to hold her hand. “Was it Frankie?”
Her face turned a dark and embarrassed red. She knew what he meant. She held his gaze and nodded. “Yes, but I asked him. I remembered you telling me he used to be your dealer.”
Anger surged, but he pushed it back. Sylvie watched him closely. He had to stay calm.
“What are you going to do?” Her voice was low and scared.
“I’m going to talk to him. You nearly died, Syl. Do you know that?”
Her eyes widened. “I’m never taking pills again. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
He nodded; he’d been there. He’d also sworn to stay off them and still slipped back. More than once.
****
Nick seemed distracted all day Saturday, and Lara figured it was the upset over Sylvie. They hoped to visit her on Sunday, but before that, they were going to Nick’s parents for lunch.
They only had a couple of miles to go before they arrived, and Lara had to say something.
“Are we telling them today?” she asked.
“Huh?” Nick glanced at her, and then resumed his focus on the motorway. “Telling them what?”
“Well, duh. The baby, of course.”
“Today?” There was an anxious note in his voice.
“We have to tell them sometime.” She shifted in her seat to look at him. “They’ll be so excited. Their first grandchild.”
Nick tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “Why today? Have you told your mum yet?”
“Not yet. I don’t want to tell her over the phone.” She looked at Nick. At the way his brows furrowed together. “Why not today?”
He grunted and fiddled with the controls for the music system, turning up the volume.
Lara reached out and flicked the music off. If he didn’t want to talk about it, she wanted to know why.
“I was listening to that,” he snapped.
“Why not today, Nick?”
“Hell. I’m not ready. I’ve not wrapped my head around this yet. I don’t see why it can’t wait a few months.”
“Months?” She couldn’t help laughing. “In a few months, I’ll be showing. It’ll be kinda hard to hide. And why so long?”
“I told you.” He grated the words out. “I’m not ready. Yes, they’ll be excited. Over the fucking moon. And they’ll expect me to be, and I’m not.” He cleared his throat. “Not yet.”
It felt like a slap in the face. Tears pricked at her eyes, and she breathed slowly while she calmed herself. Okay. This was no surprise. It still hurt, though. “You are coming to the scan, aren’t you?”
“Uh... when is it?”
“Three weeks on Monday. I’ve got a late appointment at the hospital, so I don’t have to go back to work afterwards.” She chewed on her lip. “I mailed you the details yesterday.”
“It’s busy. I won’t be able to get the time off work.”
She wanted to call bullshit, but by then they were approaching his parent’s house, and she had to swallow down her fury.
It made lunch stilted. His parents asked about their holiday plans for next year, and they had to pretend they were going abroad as normal. Then his dad asked about the BMW Z4 Nick had planned to buy.
Nick flashed Lara a filthy look and said he hadn’t quite decided about the model yet. She’d already pointed out there would be no room for a baby seat.
They were barely speaking as they drove back, and she sent Sylvie a text.
Hi. How are you today? We’ve been to N’s mum’s for lunch. On way home now. Fancy coffee? xx
Sylvie’s reply was quick.
Hi! Just out with Alex. Back at Jordan’s in 30 mins. Wanna meet there? xx
Lara asked Nick if he’d drop her at Jordan’s, which merited another glare. “Why don’t I come with you? Otherwise how are you going to get home?”
She shrugged. “You can come if you like. I’m not bothered either way.”
She replied to Sylvie.
Great. See you at J’s. We’ll be 30 mins anyway.
Nick bitched about finding a parking space near Jordan’s apartment. Lara snarled back that he could always leave her there.
Eventually he found a space, switched off the engine, and turned to her with a sigh. “I’m sorry. I didn’t sleep well last night. This business with Sylvie, and then Jason... It’s been playing on my mind. Shall we call a truce?”
How could she refuse?
Alex and Sylvie were walking into the building as Nick and Lara arrived. They were both soaking wet, and Alex explained they’d been for a walk in the rain. It was a huge relief to see Sylvie on her feet and looking normal again, and Lara gave her a hug.
Sylvie gave Nick a big hug too, oblivious to the doorman’s curious stares. “Thank you, Nick. I owe you one. Alex told me you dashed me to the hospital. I might not be here without your help. And you were so good at the service. I remember how you held me up while I was speaking.”
Pink lined his cheeks, but he gave her a grin. “What are old mates for?”
They were a cheerful group as they walked into Jordan’s, chattering and laughing together. It felt fleetingly like old times, but with Alex fitting into the foursome as a much better option than Sylvie’s long-ago ex, Chris.
Kate was lovely. She fed them homemade cookies and fresh coffee, and they sat around the kitchen table and gossiped, mainly about TM-Tech.
Jordan disappeared to take a phone call, returning a few minutes later with interesting news. “That was Aiden. He’s been looking through Farnley’s email accounts and discovered some deleted automated alerts Farnley’d set up to message him as soon as anyone accessed the invoice archives. He was notified about which invoices had been accessed and by whom. Aiden found them when he loaded a backup of Jason’s email from the day before he died. Or didn’t die, as the case may be.”
Lara gazed at him, grasping the significance straight away. “So when we logged into the invoices, he would have known who was looking at them. We used your login. It must have worried him.”
Jordan nodded. “So let’s assume it was Jason behind the fraud. He would know it was only a matter of time before we uncovered his role in it. This might have prompted his actions. Whatever those were.” He looked at the group. “Does anyone have any suggestion at all about the suicide note? I can’t get my head around it.”
Nick spoke first. “I’ve been assuming all along that it was the attack on Adele that made him run, but what if you’re right? What if that was incidental? And the fraud being uncovered was what scared him?”
“So,” said Alex, “the fraud was rumbled, and he was found out. How about he wrote the suicide note and tried to make it look as though he killed himself, pushing some poor fucker under the train in his place. He then did a runner with the money. He’d get away with it but for the CCTV footage.”
Sylvie slipped her hand into Alex’s, and he smiled at her.
Jordan frowned. “Sounds plausible. But why would he be hanging around, letting himself be seen by Lara and Adele?”
Cogs dropped into place in Lara’s mind. “What if he didn’t get the proceeds from the fraud? If he was using it to pay someone else? I told him a made-up story about my sister being in the Met and investigating date-rape attacks on women. He believed me. So maybe he wants to get his own back. Maybe he’s a psycho.” She shuddered.
Nick looked anxious. �
��Has anyone heard from Adele today?”
“Yeah.” Jordan nodded. “She’s helping Karl and Aiden trawl through the forums and chatrooms. They’re looking for women who might have been targeted by Farnley, to see his pattern.”
Lara was looking at Nick when Jordan replied. She saw his face darken at the mention of Adele and Karl. It was quickly masked, but she saw it. And she didn’t like it.
****
Adele’s weekend plans evaporated. Aiden asked Karl to help find other possible victims, and she volunteered too. It filled her with trepidation but was a better alternative to sitting at home on her own. Karl made her feel strong.
To her surprise, Aiden’s first suggestion was for them to trawl around the nightclubs Jason frequented and show his photographs again. She could do that, and it gave them a few more hours to chill out at Karl’s place.
They visited six clubs on Saturday night, staying just long enough to talk to the bar staff and bouncers of each, before moving on to the next.
Aiden was busy setting up laptops in the IT department at TM-Tech, when Adele and Karl arrived at the office.
“Good morning,” said Aiden. “Let’s sit down and talk this through.” They settled around a meeting table, and he sketched out his plan on the whiteboard. “We’ve got eight laptops hooked up to the internet, and all running on VPNs to cloak their location.”
He smiled at Adele. “That stands for Virtual Private Networks. Anyway, I’ve started a list of chatrooms and forums for victims of assault in London, but I’ve only scraped the surface. When you hear of others, note them on this board, so we don’t duplicate our efforts.”
The words victims of assault made her shiver. She tried to concentrate.
“What about logins?” asked Karl.
“I’ve set up a fake email account for each of us, and I suggest we use one ID each across all the sites. The idea is to talk to other women who’ve been assaulted in the area and see if Jason might have been responsible.” Aiden paused and gave Adele a serious look. “This will be uncomfortable for you. Intolerable, even. If you need to step away, do so. If you want to stop completely, that’s fine too.”
Adele nodded. Karl took her hand and tangled their fingers together. She could do this. Wow. That could be her mantra these days.
“Remember,” continued Aiden. “Don’t mention Jason by name or TM-Tech. Everything is anonymous. These are the IDs and email accounts I’ve created.” He wrote on the whiteboard. “Let’s see what we can find.”
Adele wanted to stay remote from the other victims, but she couldn’t help herself. She talked about her experience. Other women chimed in with similar stories. There were a depressing number of women reporting scenarios like Adele’s. Drugged in a nightclub or pub, and then raped in their own home. Adele sat at a laptop, tears rolling down her cheeks. If Jason was responsible for even a fraction of these, how many other women had he hurt?
She had to keep stopping for coffee and breaking off from various chats. Karl and Aiden were amazingly supportive. By the time they finished in the early evening, Adele felt traumatized all over again and increasingly depressed at the prospect of going back to her apartment.
Aiden logged out of his sessions and left for the night, leaving Karl and Adele to finish off. She didn’t know if they’d achieved anything here today, apart from upsetting her and showing her how many other women had suffered in silence. She gazed out the window at the darkness. What was the point of this? They were chasing shadows. It was a dumb idea.
Karl walked up behind her and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Adele? You okay?”
She turned to him with a muffled sob and pressed her body against his.
“Poor you. Today must have been rough.” He tugged her into his arms.
“Karl, do you think it was worth it? Or was it all a pointless exercise?”
He thought about it for a moment. “I think we’re making headway. Aiden has a growing list of women with a similar story to yours. If he can make contact with them, we can see if Jason was responsible for any of the attacks.”
She raised a tear-lined face to look at him. “But we don’t know for sure if he’s even alive. And if he is, apart from the club, we have no idea where to find him. It’s hopeless.”
“It’s never hopeless. It just takes time.”
She wanted to believe him. God, how she wanted to. “I guess I’d better head home.”
He kissed the side of her face, sliding his hands up, to hold her cheeks. He dropped a kiss on her lips, then looked back at her. “Do you want to do that? You can always come back with me, if you want to.”
“Are you sure? I’d need to pick up some work clothes first, if you don’t mind.”
He held her close. “The last two nights have been amazing. Why would I possibly mind you staying longer?”
****
Alex felt a movement in bed and realised Sylvie was no longer cuddled next to him. He blinked in the darkness, reached out for her, and felt emptiness instead of her body. He waited a moment while his eyes adjusted. Was that her, standing by the window?
“Syl?” His voice was thick with sleep.
She didn’t reply.
“You okay, babe?” There was still no reply, so he slipped out of bed and went to her side.
She appeared to be staring out of the window, except that the thick curtains were closed.
He pulled one back a little way. The bright street lights of London flooded in. Although her eyes were open, she was still fast asleep.
Fuck. She was sleepwalking again.
“Syl?” He put his arm around her shoulders and gently guided her back into bed. She moved obediently, and lay down while he covered her with the duvet, and then rolled onto her side. She muttered something, but he couldn’t make it out.
Alex climbed in next to her and gathered her in his arms. She was sound asleep. In contrast, he was wide awake and filled with a deep sense of foreboding.
Sylvie had sleepwalked before, at the same time as having terrifying dreams of Rico dying. She was under immense mental strain at the time. Alex would only upset her if he told her about this in the morning.
He dozed off, Sylvie in his arms, only to wake rapidly a little later. She struggled against him in bed, sobbing, and shouting his name.
Alex was flustered and disoriented. He snapped on the bedside light and found her sitting up in bed. Was she awake this time?
“Oh my God.” She rubbed at her eyes. “I had the most awful nightmare. Hold me. Please.”
When she was calm, he kissed her softly. “Do you want to tell me about it?”
It took a few minutes, and her voice was hoarse from crying, but he caught the gist of her garbled words. There was a fire. She couldn’t get to him. They were trapped. There was smoke, and she could feel the heat from the flames. She stammered, as she told him she smelled burning flesh.
Alex felt sick. It sounded horrific.
He could only hope this was nothing more than a reaction to coming off the speed and the sleeping pills. If it was another of her premonitions, God help them.
****
Nick was confused.
He spent all Sunday night trying to wrap his head around the idea of Adele dating Karl. What did she see in him? Did she feel sorry for him, after accusing him of the attack? Or was she taking advantage of his good nature while the Jason business was going on? Karl seemed to have a major crush on her.
And why did Nick even care?
Some days he found himself looking at Adele and wondering what if?
He’d no right to think that way. He was married and in love with Lara, and having a baby with her.
The nights he spent with Adele in Paris continued to play on his mind. Part of him would always have feelings for Adele. Seeing her broken and vulnerable brought every protective instinct to the fore and made him want to chase every other man away from her. And what a fucked-up concept that was.
He sighed and refreshed the screen on hi
s laptop. He couldn’t have Adele, but he could look out for her. That nerd, Karl, was more interested in online gaming than having a real relationship. His perfect woman was probably made up of pixels.
Nick tried to focus on the document in front of him but gave up. Instead, he called up Adele’s schedule and found a free slot mid-morning. Perfect for coffee. He sent her an invitation, and she accepted it seconds later.
He left early for the appointment and was waiting for her, lattes served, when she walked into the café. “Hi there.” He stood, hugged her, and kissed her briefly on the cheek. Her face was cold, but her eyes were dancing, and her hair shone in the sunlight. He remembered how well they fit when they snuggled in bed together, and pushed the memory away with difficulty.
She looked happy this morning, a brilliant smile in place, and his heart sank. This was the look of a woman who’d spent the night with her lover.
“Thanks for the latte,” she said. “My turn to buy next time.” She dug into the froth with a spoon, then sat back. “Good weekend? What did you get up to?”
“Oh, the usual. Went to my mum’s for lunch yesterday. Caught up with Sylvie at Jordan’s afterward. How about you?”
Her eyes sparkled, and she leaned forwards, wagging a finger at him. “I’ve a bone to pick with you, Nick Anderson. How long have you been hanging out with AJ and Sizzle? And you didn’t tell me? You know I adore Event Horizon. How dare you keep a secret like that from me?”
He shrugged. “They’re very private, and we’re sworn to secrecy. I haven’t even told my mum.” He took a sip of his drink, watching her lively face as she continued to spoon her froth. “So when did you realise it was them?”
“Karl recognised them. He told me when we went home from the hospital.”
Nick winced inside. He was right; they were sleeping together.
Adele chattered on. “I saw AJ at the service and thought he looked familiar, but didn’t guess for one minute that it was someone famous. You and Lara, best friends with rock stars indeed. I’m blown away.”
Time to do some fishing. “Are you okay at your apartment? Lara said she could find somewhere else for you to stay, so Jason can’t find you.”
