by Kiki Archer
Andi rested her head on Pippa shoulder and breathed deeply into the mass of brown curls. “There’ll be some,” she whispered.
“But it will fade out. Our focus will change. We’ll have to diversify. Securing equal marriage has been your focus for so long, but it’s happened now. You’ve won.” She paused. “We’ve won.” Pippa gently stroked her finger up and down Andi’s back. “I guess we’ll now spend some time working with schools on changing their curriculum to include same sex marriages. We’ll do more to combat homophobic bullying in the workplace. We’ll be able to focus more attention on the trans community.” She paused. “But your marriage, Andi … Your marriage won’t be in the spotlight.”
Andi held Pippa’s waist and leaned backwards, looking into her eyes and smiling with warmth. “I’m not married. I’m only civil partnered.”
Pippa spotted the glint in her eyes. “That’s even better then,” she said smiling.
“Do you think I can do this?”
“Has Andi Armstrong really just asked me that question? You’re Andi Armstrong! You can do anything. You’ve fought so hard for people to live the lives they desire, regardless of their sexuality, and now it’s time that you fought for yourself. You’ve got to fight for what you believe in. Fight for what you desire.” Pippa lifted her hand to Andi’s cheek. “Fight for me.”
The door swung open and slammed against the doorstop. “ANDI! We’ve got a problem.” Mike, the over-weight IT guy, was sweating from all available pores, signalling for her to follow, and completely unaware of the close connection and very near kiss happening in front of him.
Andi stepped backwards. “What? What is it?”
“Follow me,” he urged, “it’s fucking nasty.”
Chapter Thirty
Andi and Pippa were racing along the Proud Unity corridor behind Mike, the IT guy, who was jogging as quickly as his oversized frame would allow. The mass of keys, loose change and Bic pens, chinking around in his pockets and weighing him down, didn’t help his speed. “Here,” he panted, turning clumsily into Andi’s office. “I’ll show you in here.”
Andi and Pippa followed him towards the desk.
Mike thudded down onto Andi’s padded black chair and swivelled himself into her computer. He wiggled the mouse and sure enough it flashed up again. The background image, which had previously shown the Proud Unity logo, was now replaced by a rather grotesque photograph of Andi and Zara on their wedding day. Only this time it wasn’t their beautiful white suits that drew the eye, or the youthful looks on their faces. It was the knife wound slashed across their necks, and the red blood dripping to the floor, that made you stare. The graffiti artist had left the blood stained knife in the photo next to Andi’s white shoes, with a trail of words, scrawled in red jagged drips, starting from the tip of the blade. “Your campaign has destroyed the institution of marriage. Now I’m going to destroy you. Stab, by stab, by stab … starting with your wife.”
Andi shuddered.
“It’s fucking nasty, right?” Mike looked up, sliding his wire rimmed glasses back up his sweaty nose. “I’ve called the police liaison officer and he’s on his way.”
Andi reached into her pocket for her phone. She dialled Zara’s number. There was no answer, so she dialled her office phone line instead. Nothing. Andi tapped the mobile against her lips, before quickly trying one final number. She listened to the instructions.
“Is she there?” mouthed Pippa, fully aware of whom Andi must be calling.
Andi continued to press the buttons on her mobile, frustrated with the automated service of G-Sterling’s main reception. She returned the phone to her ear and looked at Pippa. “I’ve got to get past the gate keeper first! I hate calling the-” She suddenly twisted her body, relieved to hear a human voice. “Hi, it’s Andi Armstrong. Is Zara in the building? I need to get hold of her as soon as possible.” She paused, listening to the friendly but firm response. Andi spoke again. “Yes … I understand that she’s in a meeting, but I need to talk to her … No it can’t wait.” Andi shook her head. “Fine, I’ll come over there and wait, as long as I know she’s in the building … She is? … Great.” Andi dropped the phone onto her desk and looked at Pippa. “I need to know she’s okay. It’s probably nothing, just some lunatic responding to the announcement. But I have to show her this picture. It’s only right that she’s aware of this.” Andi lifted her phone back up and swiped through the apps, quickly reaching the camera. She stretched out her arm and clicked on a button, taking a photo of the image on the computer screen.
“It’s on all of the computers across the network,” said Mike.
“That’s horrible!” gasped Andi. “Why would someone do that?”
“How did someone do that?” he corrected, typing quickly and logging into the mainframe. “I just need to do a couple more checks and I’ll be able to tell whether we’ve been hacked.”
“It must have been pre-mediated,” said Pippa. “The announcement’s only just been made.”
“There are some sickos out there,” nodded Mike, frantically tapping away. “But I guess they figured they’d be losing today. Stupid sickos.”
Andi bit her bottom lip, trying not to panic. “They might not be stupid. They might just be sickos who feel I’m responsible for destroying what they believe in. Sickos who feel they’ve lost. Sickos who’ve now got nothing to lose themselves.”
Pippa took Andi’s hand and squeezed it. “You’ve handled stuff like this before. It’ll be fine.”
Andi shook her head. “Nothing so personal. Nothing so threatening.” She squeezed the hand once and quickly let go. “I’ve got to get over there. I’ve got to check she’s okay.”
“She’ll be fine!”
“Please, Pippa!” snapped Andi. “She’s my wife!”
****
Andi stepped out of the taxi and hopped up onto the pavement, pushing though the guarded doors of the G-Sterling building and walking into the plush lobby. She headed towards the long reception desk.
“Andi!”
The voice made her spin around. Zara was stepping out of the lift and fast approaching with a concerned look on her face. “Is everything okay? They told me you’d phoned.”
Andi flung her arms around her wife’s shoulders and exhaled with relief. “Can we go to your office?”
“Of course we can, sweetie. Whatever’s wrong?”
Andi shook her head and held back a tear. “I’ll tell you upstairs.”
****
Pippa continued to look over Mike’s shoulder at the computer screen and the nonsensical lines of coding, not quite following the technical point he was making. She jumped at the beep of her phone, relieved to read the message from Andi that she had arrived safely. It also said that Zara was fine. She closed the message, still cursing Andi’s stubbornness to travel alone, but relieved to hear that all was well. She turned back to the screen and tried to concentrate.
“See … it has to have come from within,” said Mike tapping the peculiar coding. “Look, the firewall’s are all in-tact. We’ve not been breached. The background change must have come from an admin account.”
Pippa frowned. “What does that mean?”
“Someone with an admin password has accessed the system, either on site, or remotely, and they’ve changed the standard background image on the server. It’s as simple as that really. Like when you change the image on your personal laptop. Well someone’s changed the standard image on the server, so that all of the computers in the office show this vile picture.” Mike closed his tab in the mainframe and the image flashed up again. “It’s quite nasty actually.”
“Where’s the photo come from? Someone had to get access to the photo first.”
Mike laughed. “This was the picture they used in the magazine spread. It’s all over the internet.” He shrugged his shoulders. “And it’s easy enough to doctor the image in Photoshop, or any number of art programmes.”
Pippa bent down and studied the bloodied slas
h embedded into Andi and Zara’s necks. “So who has access to the admin passwords?”
Mike swivelled around on the padded chair and looked up at Pippa. “Me, Andi and Janet. That’s all.” He nodded. “I’m in IT and I never write my passwords down. EVER! I never give them to anyone else and I always make sure they’re so obscure that I’d be locked up if anyone ever found out what they actually were.” He paused and pushed his glasses further up his sweaty nose. “Has Andi ever given you her password? Asked you to log anything onto her area?”
Pippa shook her head. “Never.”
“Well I suggest you get on the blower to Janet and ask her the same thing. Then ring Andi and ask her too.”
Pippa nodded and lifted her phone.
Mike pulled himself out of the chair, causing the cushioned seat to make a strange slurping sound as it regained its plumpness. “I’ll wait in reception for the PC,” he grinned, “and that was the chair.”
Pippa didn’t smile. None of this was in the least bit funny. Andi had run back to Zara … Janet and Elizabeth were off cavorting with the press … and she was left staring at an image of two slashed and wounded female brides, when really she should be preparing their response to the announcement. The dial tone continued in her ear. She was about to hang up when Janet answered the phone in a very giddy fashion. Pippa clicked it onto loudspeaker and placed the phone down on the desk. “Janet,” she said, “can you hear me?”
“Yes!” giggled Janet. “It’s brilliant down here! Camera crews from every station. Loads of famous faces!”
“Listen carefully. Have you shared your admin password with anyone?”
“My what?”
Pippa could hear Mimi yapping in the background and the buzz of excited news crews. “Your password for your Proud Unity admin page. Have you given it to anyone? Or have you left it lying around anywhere.”
“No, why? Only me and Elizabeth use it.”
“Elizabeth?” Pippa paused as the sound of a passing siren wailed in the distance. “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you. You said Elizabeth has access to your admin page?”
“Yes, why?”
“It’s fine, I’ll tell you in a bit. Can you put her on?”
Janet laughed. “No! I’ll have to hold that bloody fluff-ball dog of hers!”
“Please, it’s important.” Pippa listened to the hubbub of Mimi being passed from Elizabeth to Janet.
“Yes, it’s Elizabeth. What’s the problem?”
“Have you given anyone else Janet’s admin password?”
“The one for her computer? No. Why?”
Pippa sighed. “Have you written it down anywhere? Could someone have seen it?”
“No, why?”
“Can Janet hear me too?”
“No. It’s too noisy here.”
Pippa increased her volume. “Tell Janet that we’ve been hacked. Tell Janet that Mike will have to go into all of our offices and take a look at our computers.”
Elizabeth coughed. “You’ll be going into my office?”
“Yes, why? Is that a problem?”
“No, no. Just don’t go rooting around in my drawers. I have a number of personal items in there.”
“Fine,” said Pippa silently tutting Elizabeth’s irrelevant concern. “Can you put Janet back on?” Pippa listened, once again, to the yaps of Mimi being passed between the two women.
“I’m back!”
Pippa tried her best to summarise. “We’ve been hacked and a nasty photo’s been put on the system. Mike thinks it’s come from one of the admin accounts. So he’s going to have to go into our computers and see what’s going on.”
“Fine, no problem, what was the picture?”
Pippa swallowed, staring at the screen in front of her. “Andi and Zara on their wedding day with their throats slashed.”
“Oh good, god,” gasped Janet. “Shall we come back?”
“No, it’s fine. Andi would want you to get the sound bites.”
“Where is she?” asked Janet.
“She’s gone to G-Sterling to check on Zara. Who’s fine, by the way.”
“Bloody hell, that’s put a dampener on things. Maybe we should hit the gin tonight!”
Pippa smiled. “At this precise moment I’d take a shot of almost anything.”
****
Mike, Pippa, and the male police liaison officer were sitting in Elizabeth’s compact office, for the simple reason that it was the first one they hit on their walk from the downstairs reception. They were huddled around the small coffee table looking at a file of recorded incidents.
The PC, who was becoming a friendly face within the Proud Unity offices, wanted to clarify the events to date. “So, we’ve had some graffiti scratched onto Janet’s car. A box of offal left in the office for Andi. A number of offensive tweets, including some particularly nasty ones from a user called Beth or Bethy at the @iWatchThemFall and @iWatchThemFall2 Twitter accounts. A threatening caller on the Six Show called…” he scanned down with his fingers, “…Lizzie.” He cleared his throat and continued. “A report of graffiti on Andi’s personal letterbox, but we didn’t get any photographic evidence.” He tapped the printed wedding image, adding it to the file. “And now this. A clear threat to her personal safety.”
“She also had her drink spiked,” added Pippa. “Andi did. At her party. I’m sure of it.”
The police officer checked his notes. “No, I’ve got no record of that.”
Pippa frowned. “Maybe she’s still waiting for the results, I’ll follow that up.”
“Okay, thank you.” He lifted the image back out of the file. “This is a very different level of misdemeanour. It’s a threat of actual bodily harm. If it’s the same person, then I’d worry that they felt boxed in. They may feel that Andi’s won and they think they’re left with no option, but to harm.” He shrugged. “Whether that be psychologically, with the worry caused by the threat, or physically, with an actual attack on the body.” The young officer started to blush. “I’m in the middle of a criminal minds course and I’m hoping to move into profiling.”
Mike shrugged his large shoulders. “You’ve got me convinced.”
Pippa looked at the PC in earnest. “So if we find out who’s uploaded this image then we find out who’s behind the rest of this shit?”
“Possibly.”
Pippa jumped up. “So come on then, Mike. Look at everyone’s computers, and look at all our recent activity.”
Mike pulled himself out of his seat and walked towards Elizabeth’s computer. “It’s not as simple as that. You can remotely access the admin page.” He looked at the two blank faces and decided to elaborate. “Like Andi, she could log in now from Zara’s computer at G-Sterling and make changes to her page. I can only see the last logins on each individual computer.” Pippa was still looking confused. “Here, I’ll show you.” He grabbed a piece of paper from Elizabeth’s printer and pulled a Bic pen out of his pocket. He started to draw, but the pen wasn’t working. He shifted some of the loose change in his pocket and pulled out another pen, quickly drawing four boxes on the top of the sheet. “Right, these are our computers.” He drew another box at the bottom. “This is our server.” He patted his pockets and checked behind his ear. “Grab me another pen would you? I need a different colour.”
Pippa opened the top drawer of Elizabeth’s desk, reaching for a variety of different coloured pens. She passed them to Mike and pushed the drawer closed with her thigh, only to have it jam, jarring painfully into her muscle. “Oww! I hate it when that happens.” She pulled the drawer back out and bent down, peering into the gap and looking for the blockage. A brown file had slipped out of the back of the drawer and was wedged in the runner. She pulled at it, but it wouldn’t shift. She yanked even harder and ripped it free. “Bugger,” she said, standing back up and assessing the damage to the file. Half of the brown cover had ripped off, exposing the statements on the top of the white sheet inside. She read the first statement twice over before shaking her
head and reading it out loud.
“Affair with Zara started Jan 5th 2012 - Sex in her office 3.15pm.”
Mike’s pen swerved off the paper. “Elizabeth’s been having an affair with Andi’s missus? Our Elizabeth, with the crazy orange hair?! What the fuck?”
The police officer looked over Pippa’s shoulder as she flicked through page after page of photocopied times and dates. She turned to the last page and read the final statement out loud. “A record of my affair by Melody Fickler.” She frowned. “What’s Elizabeth doing with this?”
The police officer reached for his own file. “Does Elizabeth go by any other names? Let me see … Beth? Bethy? Lizzie?”
Pippa shook her head. “No. Come on, it can’t be her!”
“She’s heterosexual,” suggested Mike incriminatingly. “I’ve always wondered what she’s doing here!” He lowered himself to his knees and started shifting through the drawers. “I bet there’ll be a load of evangelical coalition for marriage shit in here!” He wiped his brow. “She’s a mole! She has to be!”
The police officer shook his head. “She has a file that doesn’t seem to belong to her, that’s all. This isn’t a witch hunt.” He paused for a moment and thought about it. “On the plus side, if it is her, then I don’t really think there’s much cause for concern. How long has she been here?”
Pippa answered quickly. “Nearly a year, same as me.”
“Well then, she’s had plenty of time and opportunity to do something to Andi if she’d really have wanted to.”
Pippa shook her head frantically. “Unless, like you said, she’s finally realised that she’s lost!”
Chapter Thirty One
Zara closed the door to the office on the top floor of the G-Sterling building. She turned to her wife, surprised that she was so close, and taken aback by the arms thrown around her shoulders. “It hasn’t taken you long to thaw out, sweetie, has it?” She kissed Andi on the forehead. “I’m glad you’ve seen sense.”
