Kill a Spy: The House of Killers

by Samantha Lee Howe

  When Elliot comes into the room, Beth turns the light on beside the bed. He’s shocked to see her awake.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ she asks.

  ‘Oh nothing, just went for a glass of water,’ he says.

  Beth blinks. She’s hurt by the obvious lie. She decides to take the bull by the horns.

  ‘You were on the phone,’ she says. ‘Who were you talking to?’

  ‘It was just a work thing,’ Elliot lies again.

  Beth sighs. She doesn’t know what to say or how to reveal she knows this is a lie without admitting to cloning his phone. Something they’d probably never be able to recover from as a couple.

  ‘It’s not the first time you’ve made calls in the night. Tell me what’s going on.’

  Elliot loiters by the bedroom door, uncertain what to say.

  ‘It’s my mother,’ he says. ‘She suffers from insomnia sometimes.’

  ‘Your mother? You’ve never told me anything about her,’ Beth points out. ‘Where does she live?’

  ‘She’s in a care home in Manchester,’ Elliot explains. ‘I did mention her once. She’s got dementia. I don’t talk about her much because… I feel guilty about leaving her there. I thought you’d think bad of me.’

  Beth folds her arms.

  ‘Why would I think bad of you?’

  Elliot shakes his head, reluctant to talk.

  ‘You might as well tell me because I’m not going back to sleep until you do,’ Beth says.

  ‘I tried to look after her, but she needed twenty-four-hour care,’ he says. ‘The weirdest thing is, she’s mostly okay and remembers everything, but then she gets these episodes. The doctors say, one day she won’t remember who I am and that will be it. So, when she wants to talk to me, I let her.’

  Beth processes this information but she still has doubts. Why would he talk about work to his ailing mother? And because she can’t think of a reason, she asks him.

  ‘I thought I heard you talk about the murder case to someone, a few nights ago. Were you talking to her?’

  ‘Beth, my mother is the only person I talk to about anything other than you. You know what this job is like. We can’t tell anyone anything. But sometimes, when she’s not being very lucid and she’s all confused, I talk shop just to have something to say. I know it’s odd. But she never remembers our chats anyway. She just knows she’s talked to me and it settles her down.’ Elliot holds out his phone. ‘Look at it if you want to. You’ll see her texts and the calls I make.’

  Beth shakes her head, refusing the phone.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Beth says. ‘It must be awful for you that she’s fading.’

  Elliot closes the bedroom door. He gets into the bed beside her.

  ‘I was going to tell you about her. But… I didn’t want it to be something we talk about. I really want it to be about our life when we’re together. Mum’s condition is a bit of a downer, and I try avoid thinking about it when I can.’

  ‘I understand,’ says Beth. ‘I won’t ask, but I want you to feel you can talk to me about her if you want to.’

  The cloned phone is on her mind as she turns off the light and cuddles up to Elliot. She feels terrible that she hadn’t just asked him what was going on sooner. She blames the current situation at Archive for her constant state of paranoia, but it doesn’t excuse her suspicion of him. She closes her eyes, determined to return the phone and hacking device to Acquisitions the next day, both duly erased and reset.

  When Elliot leaves for work the next day, Beth takes the phone out of the drawer. She switches it on and looks at the screen. Determined not to spy on him anymore, she is about to reset the phone back to factory settings when she sees that Elliot is writing a text to his mother.

  Might be compromised, Elliot types. Beth questioning our late-night calls.

  Time to come home? Mother replies.

  Not quite yet, Elliot says. Haven’t got what we need.

  Hope you’re not falling for the girl… Mother says.

  Never in a million years, Elliot answers.

  Make a move soon and get out of there! comes the reply.

  Elliot replies that he is On it and the text exchange ends. Elliot then erases the conversation from his phone.

  Beth stares at the message even as it disappears.

  Elliot isn’t who he says he is and even worse, he’s using her. This is Beth’s worst nightmare.

  Beth turns the phone off. Putting it back in the bedside drawer once more, she sits down on the bed staring into space. She wants to cry but she holds it all in.

  Elliot had been the one to say he loved her first. He’d instigated every step they’d taken to advance their relationship and he didn’t fake his lust for her. That was genuine. But then, these things were easy for men to do. Beth knew she wasn’t unattractive. She worked out, keeping herself fit to do her job and her body was toned. Yes, she was lust-worthy and Elliot may have seen that part as a perk of the job.

  All of those romantic talks we’ve had, she thinks. How he must have laughed at her behind her back. Looking back at everything he’d said and done, Beth finds the deceit almost too hard to conceive. But on the text, Elliot had said he could never love her ‘in a million years’. Beth feels sick to her stomach. She runs into the bathroom and dry heaves into the toilet bowl.

  She’s shaking and crying when she returns to the bedroom. She sees the ruffled sheets and her mind flashes back to the night before. The heady sex. Always so unselfish on Elliot’s part as he made sure she was taken care of. Could someone really fake that?

  She tries to reconcile what she’s experienced with him and what she now knows about how he really feels and it’s a hard pill to swallow.

  He’s a liar. No… he’s a spy. Probably the mole that placed the bugs in their office. But how? He’d never been left alone when he visited her. Beth dismisses this as soon as she considers it. Elliot couldn’t have planted the bugs.

  She dries her eyes and tries to bring her mind back to what’s important, taking the emotion out of it and looking at the situation as an agent. According to the text from ‘Mother’, he had a task to do. What was it?

  Beth picks up her phone and searches for Ray’s number. She pauses, then presses cancel. What proof does she really have that Elliot isn’t who he says he is? Ray will question why Beth suspected him in the first place. He’ll tell her she shouldn’t have acted alone, and he would be right. What she’d done was dangerous. And really, a few late-night calls weren’t that suspicious, were they? Maybe she’d been looking for a way out of this relationship all along. At least, Ray might see it that way, and that would mean ‘misuse’ of MI5 equipment. A sackable offence. She can’t afford to lose her job, not after all she’s worked for.

  Beth decides to keep her findings to herself for now. But it’s not a decision she makes lightly. She’s been an idiot in every sense. She’s shown a serious lack of judgement in getting involved with Elliot, and in cloning his phone just to prove something to herself. Ray will not understand. Not unless she goes to him with something tangible. It is important to discover what Elliot is up to first, and next time to make sure that she screenshots any conversations he has with ‘Mother’ – whoever that really is. That way, she’ll be covering her own back and hopefully bringing a spy in their midst to much-deserved justice. This is the only way she’ll come out of this with both her reputation and her job still intact.

  After confronting him for his late-night phone calls, she’s sure he won’t make any again when he’s with her, but that doesn’t mean she can’t monitor others he makes during the day.

  Feeling as though she’s taking back control, Beth showers and changes. She removes the phone from the drawer and places it in her handbag, determined to keep checking it at intervals throughout the day. She’s a spy. This is her job and she’s damn well going to find out what Elliot is up to.

  When she gets to work, Beth finds an email from Elsa saying she’s been pulled away for a ‘family emergen
cy’. This means the office is only being manned by Beth and Ray. And Ray is out, having yet another meeting with MI6.

  Beth curses under her breath. Some people just don’t have the same work ethic as others. The girl hasn’t been there long and she’s already giving excuses not to come in. Beth had learned early on that you don’t put family before this job. Beth finds herself wishing Michael was there. They’d at least be able to bounce ideas off each other, and maybe Beth would even ask his opinion about Elliot. He was after all the one person she’d feel safe to confide in.

  On her own and trying to field calls as well as do her own job, Beth’s day is swamped, and she only gets a chance to look at the phone at lunchtime and at 5:30 in the evening when she finally calls it a day. She sees that Elliot’s phone has been silent all day. Beth begins to worry that he knows what she did.

  She sends Elliot a text and tells him she’s tired and needs a night alone. On the clone phone, she sees the words pop up as he sends the text.

  Not upset with me, are you? he asks.

  Beth has been expecting this and so she responds, Think I’m coming down with something and just wouldn’t want to give it you.

  Okay. Rest up. Let’s talk tomorrow.

  Beth wishes him a relaxing evening and then she studies his phone to see if he contacts anyone.

  He doesn’t.

  She packs the phone away and picks up her handbag. Then on her own phone she sends a message to her security detail to arrange collection in the car park.

  Beth locks up Archive’s office and walks towards the lifts. She wasn’t lying when she said she was tired. A night away from Elliot might help her get some perspective. She knows she’ll have to face him again soon though. If she is to learn what he’s up to, she has to be a better spy than him.

  Beth gives a bitter smile. First and foremost, this is what she was trained for. She’s a spy, Michael is a spy and so is Ray. Why should it surprise her that Elliot, MI5 pathologist, was anything else?

  A night alone, that’s all I need, Beth thinks. And then I’m going to string that bastard along, just like he’s been doing to me.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Beth

  After saying goodnight to her security detail, Beth closes the front door and walks down the hallway. In the kitchen, she drops her handbag down on the table. The house feels quiet: she realizes how used to having Elliot around she has become.

  ‘That shitbag,’ she murmurs.

  She opens the fridge and pulls out a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. Pouring herself a glass, Beth takes a long swig and then places it down on the kitchen table.

  She returns the bottle to its spot in the fridge door. She’s hungry but she doesn’t feel like making herself hot food to eat alone. That too was something that she and Elliot had started doing together. Beth takes a block of cheese and some butter from the fridge. She puts them down on the worktop, opens a cupboard and takes out a packet of cream crackers. Then she puts a dinner plate on the worktop and she proceeds to make herself a snack.

  Even now, as Beth butters the crackers, she can’t believe how the past few months have been a lie. He sure had me fooled.

  She sits down at the table and sips the wine. Then she takes a mouthful of cheese and cracker, choking it down. After a few more bites, she pushes the plate aside, finding it too difficult to eat. Beth is nauseated and only the wine makes her feel any better.

  She gets up and takes the bottle back out of the fridge and tops up her glass.

  Her phone rings then, and she sees her ex-husband’s number come up. She hesitates to answer, imagining that he’s calling just to tell her how foolish she was to let him go. But she and Callum are on good terms now and she’s sure he no longer wants a reconciliation. In fact, her son, Callum junior, had let it slip that his dad had a new ‘friend’. It had grated a little to know Callum was getting over her so soon, but hadn’t she fallen into bed with Elliot not long after the split? To criticize Callum now would be hypocritical.

  She answers the phone.

  ‘Hi,’ she says. ‘Are the boys okay?’

  ‘Yeah. Just wanted to see if you can make the school play next week? Phil has a lead part and he’d like you to be there.’

  ‘I’ll make sure I am,’ she says. ‘What day and time?’

  Beth writes the details on the kitchen wall calendar and then Callum puts her on the phone to Phil.

  ‘Hey Phil,’ she says. ‘What part are you playing then?’

  Phil chatters about the play and Beth listens. Talking to her son at least takes her mind off Elliot and their current situation. She almost wishes she had never cloned his phone. That way, she would be ignorant of his lack of real love for her and maybe tonight she’d be enjoying his amazing tongue exploring her instead. But such benefits don’t outweigh what she knows, and Beth can never go back to that time of innocence. He is a liar and a fraud. All she needs now is to learn who he’s working for and what he wants.

  When Phil’s conversation dries up, Beth asks to speak to Cal.

  ‘He’s on a sleepover tonight,’ Phil says. ‘But he’s got his phone with him so you can call him there.’

  ‘Okay, honey. Love you,’ she says. ‘You guys are coming here at the weekend still, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yeah. See you Friday,’ he says.

  Beth hangs up the phone and tops up the glass she’s been sipping from. Then she goes into the living room and turns on the television.

  She flicks through the channels but nothing grabs her. She’s down and doesn’t know how to get herself back up again.

  Going back to the kitchen for another refill, Beth’s eyes fall on her handbag, still on the table where she left it. She opens it up and searches for the clone phone. What is Elliot doing this evening?

  She pulls the phone from her bag and takes it into the living room. She checks the text messages and doesn’t find any new ones. Then she notices that Elliot is actually on a call.

  She opens it up and listens in, something she shouldn’t be able to do unless they were both using the same network tower. He must be close by. The call is once again made to ‘Mother’.

  ‘Beth’s given me the heave-ho tonight,’ she hears Elliot say.

  ‘I thought she couldn’t get enough of you,’ says a female voice.

  Elliot laughs. ‘You taught me well. She’s been having a great time.’

  Beth feels sick at his words. Whoever he’s talking to, can’t be his real mother but the thought of Elliot sleeping with another woman disgusts and hurts her. She takes a sharp breath.

  Beth hears a thump upstairs. She looks up to the ceiling frowning.

  ‘What was that?’ says the woman.

  ‘Sounds like noise on the line,’ Elliot says.

  ‘You’d better check your phone,’ the woman says. ‘It might have been hacked.’

  Beth feels the blood rush into her face with guilt.

  ‘Beth was suspicious but probably thought I was chatting up some other woman. She’s clueless really. I told her I was speaking to my mother and she accepted it.’

  Beth almost blurts out her anger at his words. She bites her lip to stop herself making any noise. Then she mutes the phone, kicking herself that she hadn’t done that in the first place.

  ‘Have there been any more murders?’ asks the woman.

  ‘No,’ Elliot says.

  ‘There won’t be any more for now,’ the woman says.

  ‘You know who it is, don’t you?’ asks Elliot.

  The woman doesn’t answer right away and Elliot waits. Beth can hear his breathing as he does.

  ‘Yes. But I’ll take care of the problem in house,’ the woman says eventually.

  ‘Yes, Mother,’ says Elliot.

  Elliot hangs up the call. Beth puts the phone down and then picks up her glass of wine again.

  The conversation she’s just heard confirms Elliot is a double agent of some sort, it doesn’t tell her who for.

  She goes upstairs, taking the p
hone with her. She looks in the bathroom, feeling nervous after hearing the noise that seemed to come from there. She sees a bar of soap in the centre of the bath and realizes it’s slipped down. This explains the heavy thump she’s heard. Feeling relieved she goes out onto the landing and closes the bathroom door behind her. In Phil’s bedroom, she switches on his desktop computer. Then she types up all of the conversation she’s overheard for future reference. She saves the document on her own Dropbox account and then shuts down.

  In the bedroom she puts the clone phone on charge. She strips off, throwing her clothes into the washing basket and heads to the bathroom. She switches the shower on and gets in before it warms up. Beth scrubs herself clean, wishing she could remove the last few months of Elliot from her skin. Her skin is red when she finally gets out of the shower. She wraps a towel around herself and goes into the bedroom.

  Elliot is lying on the bed.

  ‘What the fuck…? You scared me!’ she says.

  ‘I thought I’d surprise you,’ he says. ‘And it’s purely selfish, as I didn’t want to miss out on a night together when I know you have the boys this weekend.’

  ‘Elliot. I’m tired. I thought you understood that. Have you been hiding in the house? Because security is supposed to let me know if they let anyone through,’ she says.

  ‘You got me,’ he says. ‘I thought you rumbled me when I knocked something over in the bathroom. So, I went and hid in the spare room until you came up. I really did want to surprise you.’

  Beth glances past him at the clone phone charging on her side of the bed.

  ‘Okay. That’s sweet of you,’ she says. ‘I need a glass of wine. Let’s go downstairs and get one together?’

  ‘I’ve a better idea. Why don’t I go down and get a bottle and two glasses and bring it up?’ he suggests.