The Tangled Web (30 page)

Magnus Pellicci at 20:20 on 14th July

They can do what they fucking want.  I’m done with women
altogether.  Liars, the lot of them. 

Wee Mela at 20:21 on 14th July

Shhhht!  You’re one to talk Maggie

Adam Robertson at 20:24 on 14th July

What do you mean Mags?

Magnus Pellicci at 20:31 on 14th July

I fancied a quick look at Diana’s passport to see what
stamps she had.  Boy, did I get a shock!

Adam Robertson at 20:35 on 14th July

Oh yeah?  What did you see? 

Wee Mela at 20:37 on 14th July

Don’t mess with Vicky especially cos she drives around in
big black cars with dead people in the back.  She’s a psycho!

Adam Robertson at 20:40 on 14th July

@Mags I’m on my way round to your house

Wee Mela at 20:41 on 14th July

Hey, Maggie, what’s up?  Your new girlyfriend a drug
smuggler or something?  I knew the cupcake thing was just a plan to drug all
the men in Inverness so that she could have her evil way with them and steal
them away from their girlfriends and wives!  Mwahahahaha.  Go get a set of
balls :P

Ruth Watt at 20:53 on 14th July

What’s wrong Maggie?  Off buying yourself some balls?

Scarlett McDonald at 20:55 on 14th July

Oh no!  This is really getting out of hand now!

Magnus Pellicci at 20:56 on 14th July

Hey Ruth baby, I don’t believe we’ve met!

Ruth Watt at 20:58 on 14th July

As much as I enjoy being sexually harassed by foreign men
via the Internet, I’m afraid you’ll have to direct your attentions elsewhere. 
I’m gay for Wee Mela.

Wee Mela at 20:59 on 14th July

Yeah, so fuck off mate!

Ozgur Durmaz at 20:59 on 14th July

Does anybody here want a Magnum??? ;)

Wee Mela at 21:00 on 14th July

WTF?  Who asked you to butt in Ozgur?  Jeez, my sister
knows some proper weirdos :/

Magnus Pellicci at 21:16 on 14th July

Ruth, I know for a fact Pamela is not a lesbian.  I just
thought I’d be friendly and introduce myself

Wee Mela at 21:17 on 14th July

Can you not just dry up or something?

Magnus Pellicci at 21:19 on 14th July

FYI I’m not a foreigner, I’m from Kilmarnock

Wee Mela at 21:20 on 14th July

FAIL!  Nobody said you were!  We’ve moved on from that! 
Jeez, you’re about an hour too late!

Bob Robertson at 21:20 on 14th July

Who is Christos Polycarpou?  Is he related to the
Polycarpou family who run the deli?

Wee Mela at 21:23 on 14th July

I love it when old folk try to join in!  It’s so random!

Magnus Pellicci at 21:36 on 14th July

Pamela, why are you so aggressive towards me?

Bob Robertson at 21:37 on 14th July

Who is Christos?  Is he the Christos that Vicky always
texts?

Magnus Pellicci at 21:28 on 14th July

Yes Bob, it’s the same guy.  I’m just trying to be friendly
with everyone here but Pamela seems to have an issue with me this evening.  I’ll
try and resolve it sir.

Wee Mela at 21:29 on 14th July

Friends?  Haha, yeah rite!  OMG, you are such a creep
calling my dad sir!

Magnus Pellicci at 21:31 on 14th July

That message wasn’t meant for you Pam it was for your Dad

Wee Mela at 21:32 on 14th July

What’s all this Pam business about?????

Magnus Pellicci at 21:34 on 14th July

Hey Mela, the last thing I want to do is fight with anyone,
I just wanted to make friends with Ruth

Adam Robertson at 21:35 on 14th July

Stop flirting with my little sister’s friend!  She’s too
young for you and you’ve just broke up with one girl.  Thought you said you
were done with women?  Go and get some beauty sleep for your TV appearance
tomorrow.  You need it, you ugly git.

Wee Mela at 21: 37 on 14th July

HEY VICKYYYYYY!  I got him!  I got him!  Christos is a
rat!  I got him!

Peter Blackwood at 21:40 on 14th July

Bob was wrong before.  This is BETTER than Eastenders!

Vicky dropped her phone into the sink from shock and her
brain scrambled to piece everything together.  She picked up her phone.  She
cursed succinctly, realising that she had left the tap running and the kettle
was overflowing.  In fact, her right hand had become numb with the weight of a
full kettle and the temperature of the icy water.

She had to read it through again.  She set the kettle down
on the worktop and attempted to dry off her BlackBerry with a dishtowel which
had been lying around.  She swore again as the screen began to fade. 

What was she going to do?  How could she tell Flic?  Did
Magnus know everything about Lumi?  Is that why she had turned up in tears? 
This was not what they needed right now. 

And Adam!  Oh God, how were they going to explain this to
him?  She could imagine the lecture she would get.  A big family falling out
was on the cards, she could tell. 

She went to the living room and took a seat on one of
Flic’s cosy brown couches.  Right now, she wished she could text Christos and
tell him what was going on.  Maybe he wouldn’t know what to do.  He probably
wouldn’t have any solutions for her.  But he would listen and provide jokes to
take her mind off things.  He would lighten her mood.  If only she hadn’t
dropped her phone in the sink!

She stared at the suitcases waiting to be transported to
Flic’s car and then onto sunnier climes.  That was, if they managed to get away
now.  If Lumi wasn’t going to back out.  If Lumi still had her passport and
Magnus hadn’t kept it!  Vicky was horrified at the thought. 

She started to fidget with her hair and realised that their
plans were about to be completely wiped out.  There was no plan B anymore.  She
wouldn’t get to Cyprus to meet up with Christos.  Flic had no chance of getting
Adam back.  They didn’t have their business.  She would lose her job because of
what she’d written on Tête-a-net.  There was a big family falling out ahead. 
And Peter was probably going to write another story, about their downfall this
time.  At least the truth was out about Lumi.  That was the one positive thing
to come out of the conversation she had just read.

‘Did I hear you putting the kettle on?’ Flic asked, peering
round the door frame.

Vicky couldn’t reply.  She stared at Flic. 

‘What’s wrong?  What’s happened?’ Flic frowned.  She
shuffled her way around the barely opened door and creaked it closed behind
her.  ‘Is it something to do with Lumi?’

‘You’d better switch on your phone and check Tête-a-net. 
Then let me log on with your phone and delete what I wrote about going away,’
Vicky whispered.

‘What’s happened?’ Flic pressed.  Her face crumpled with
concern and she switched her phone on.  ‘Why can’t you use your own phone to
delete it?’

‘I dropped mine in the sink when I checked my profile. 
It’ll need to dry out.’

Vicky watched Flic sit back on the couch slowly and turn
paler as she read on.  The occasional, “oh no,” involuntarily escaped from her
lips as she was reading.

Flic put her phone down once she had finished reading. 
‘Lumi’s just getting dressed.  I loaned her some clothes.’ 

Vicky had expected Flic to have a way out.  She always
seemed to know what to do.  Why not this time?

‘Any solutions popping into your head?’ Vicky ventured.

Flic shook her head ferociously.  ‘We do nothing.  We just
go ahead as planned.’

Vicky raised her eyebrows.  That wasn’t what she had
expected to hear.  

‘Lumi just said that she and Magnus split up.  She didn’t
say anything else,’ Flic intimated. 

‘Do you realise how serious this could be?  I’m going to
lose my job!  My brother will never speak to me again!  Peter is probably going
to write another story!’ 

Vicky felt a few tears welling up in her eyes.  She wished
right now she could be at home in her bed, watching recordings of Tellytubbies
with Sasha.  Why on earth didn’t she appreciate how enjoyable a simple
uncomplicated life could be?

Flic stood.  She walked over to her suitcase and removed
her netbook.  She passed it to Vicky. 

‘I’ll tell you what you’re going to do.  First thing you do
is remove that thread from Tête-a-net.  Then you deactivate your profile.  I’ll
do the same with mine.  You dismiss any questions from your boss about a
holiday this weekend as weird unexplained rumours.  Say you’ve planned a trip
for next year to Cyprus with Sasha.  That’s what you meant about leaving on a
jet plane.  You can worry about actually getting there later.’

‘What about being sick?  What if my boss phones me?  What
if he drops round to my house looking for me?’  Vicky wiped away a tear and
wished Flic had the answer to every problem.

‘You’ve got a conference call facility on your home phone,
don’t you?’ Flic’s question was met with a nod from Vicky.  ‘Great!  If we time
it correctly, Pamela can have a conference call with you and your boss.  She
can phone you on your mobile from home, and phone them at the same time, then
stay silent while you do your dying swan routine.  If they have caller ID or
dial 1471, the boss will see it’s your home number and it will have been you
that’s been speaking from that number.  Simple!’

‘How do we get Pamela to agree?’ Vicky sniffed.

‘I’m sure we can think of some kind of bribe,’ Flic replied
dryly.

‘Ok, that’s that problem dealt with.  Just a few hundred
others to solve now,’ Vicky grimaced. 

‘There are NO problems.  Only challenges.  I think you
should be more worried about Pamela’s comment about Christos.’

*****

Adam signed off from Tête-a-net and stared at the desktop. 
It looked like Vicky had deleted her profile from Tête-a-net in the last half
hour.  A damage limitation exercise, no doubt.  He wondered how she would get
round this one if her boss heard about her trip.  He couldn’t believe she had
announced online that she was going away.  He really thought she was smarter
than that.

He was tempted to say that it was HER problem – her own
doing and she needed to take the consequences.  A year ago, that’s exactly what
he would have said.  But things had changed.  She hadn’t been herself.  He
realised that she wasn’t the same person she was before and part of it was down
to the depression she went through after Sasha’s birth.  The rest of it was
just stress and stupidity.

He sighed heavily and wondered how he had become the big
brother here when it was Vicky who was older.  He felt like she had her finger
on the self-destruct button and he was determined to stop her from pressing it.

There was only one thing he could do.  He couldn’t fix
anything from here, in Inverness.  He couldn’t let her fly off to Cyprus and
make more mistakes.  He opened up the browser and searched for Glasgow
Airport’s website.  There were two flights to Cyprus the following day, five
minutes apart.  He removed his credit card from his wallet and decided that his
next search online would be to find out which flight was cheaper.

27

15
^th
July

‘I still haven’t got a reply from Pamela.  She must have
gone to bed early last night,’ Flic scowled.

‘That would be a first.  I don’t understand what she could
possibly have meant when she said she got him.  Christos knows not to say
anything that could be construed as being flirty to Kayla,’ Vicky huffed.