The Tangled Web (9 page)

An awkward exchange of offers to change the meal and
confirmation that it was not necessary ensued before Flic made her way back to
the table and sat down across from Adam.

‘That was so embarrassing,’ she flustered.

‘Mmm-hmm,’ he sneered, stony-faced. 

Flic studied his expression.  His jaw was tight and his
eyes were cast downwards.  What had happened to change the friendly casual
appearance he had a few minutes ago to this hostility?  She was completely
befuddled.

She began to eat but with each mouthful she became more and
more paranoid about his surly demeanour.  By the time she had finished her
meal, he had been silent for a good fifteen minutes, finished his meal and
shandy and was looking at his watch.  She had made two attempts to start up a
conversation again, and failed.  She felt ready to scream with frustration. 

‘Shall we go?’ he snapped as she drained her glass.

‘Ok,’ she whispered.  This had to be the shortest, weirdest
date she had ever had.  She shuffled into her coat and slipped on her gloves in
preparation to leave.

‘Don’t forget your phone,’ he spat before turning towards
the door.

She absent-mindedly picked it up and slipped it in her bag
before saying a short au revoir to the drunk who was now back in his seat.  He
had probably been the friendliest, most sane person in that pub tonight.

She and Adam were silent for the first five minutes of
their journey.  Flic noted that Adam hadn’t opened her car door for her when
they were leaving – something she definitely did expect on a first date.  Maybe
it was a good thing their date was being cut short.  She couldn’t abide moody
men.  And he was certainly in a mood, although she had no idea why.

Her phone buzzed yet again and she had no issues with
picking it up straight away this time.  It was a text from Vicky.

“
Plz come over ASAP, major disaster re Peter. DO NOT MSG
HIM AGAIN
!”

Flic cursed inwardly.  What did that mean?

‘Can you take me to Vicky’s instead of my house please?  She’s
asked me to go over urgently.’ 

Adam tutted but seemed to be complying.  Flic’s annoyance
was increasing.  She couldn’t understand what his problem was.  One minute they
were chatting, about to start eating their meal.  The next, the weird drunk guy
from the table next to them grabbed her meal and she had a fight on her hands
trying to get it back.  That incident hadn’t been her fault.  Surely that
wasn’t the problem.  What happened between her leaving the table and returning
to make him so hostile?

Her phone was still in her hand when she got another
notification of a message from Peter.  It read, “
I’m onto u Flic
.”  She
felt blood surging through her ears and her face and neck felt hot from the
surprise and embarrassment that she had been found out so soon.  How could he
possibly have known?  Where did she trip up?  She didn’t even have a profile of
her own, on this site or any other, so he couldn’t have made a connection
between her and Jemma. 

Flic’s mind raced as she tried to think of an explanation
and failed.  Perhaps she had said something and let it slip.  Did she have some
kind of signature on her messages that she hadn’t been aware of?  She scrolled
through the archived messages right from the start.  There was nothing
incriminating. 

She did a double take as she reached the last message sent
by her.  This wasn’t right.  She looked again at the final messages between
Jemma and Peter -  she hadn’t seen Peter’s most recent one and the last one
from Jemma was baffling.  She hadn’t written it.  Only she and Vicky had the
password as they were going to keep the same password for all the active
characters, but Vicky didn’t know the username yet. 

The messages read, “
I’ll give u my number, if u think u
can handle my curly wurly, give me a call
” followed by her reply of, “
Listen
creep, if your curly wurly isn’t 12 inches long and covered in chocolate, I’m
not interested
.”

Flic mused that it was rather witty and she wished she had
thought of that herself.  But she hadn’t sent it. 

Adam pulled up outside his family home.  His father was
outside, wrapped up in a large jacket, hat and gloves, practising his putting. 
Adam merely waved at his father as Flic was leaving the car and then sped off.

‘Hi Flic!  Busy house tonight.  Scarlett’s here already,’
he advised.

‘Hi Bob.  Um…nice night for it!’ Flic flustered.  Putting
in the dark?  She found Vicky’s father really strange.

Equally strange was the fact that Vicky had asked to see
her when Scarlett was already here and she couldn’t get her head around the messages
that had appeared in the fake account.  Something had gone horribly wrong
somewhere and Flic was determined to get an explanation.

She knocked on the door.

‘Just let yourself in!’ Bob called over to her before
cursing succinctly as his ball landed in the replica of Loch Ness. 

She didn’t reply as she felt guilty for distracting Bob
enough already and made her way inside.  The first thing she heard was sniffing
coming from the living room.  Feeling like an intruder she nudged the door and
peered round the other side.  Scarlett was in tears with a lap full of sodden
tissues and Vicky sat next to her, her head in her hands, repeating, ‘Why did
you tell him?’

‘Can I come in?’ Flic asked gingerly.

‘You’d better sit down,’ Vicky replied.  Scarlett burst into
fresh tears at the sight of Flic.

‘What’s happened?’ Flic demanded.  She was getting more
worried now.

Vicky and Scarlett exchanged worried, anxious glances. 

‘Somebody tell me what’s going on,’ Flic pressed.

‘Scarlett told Peter about us.  She told him she had
employed us to set up a virtual honey trap.  That was this afternoon.  He knows
everything.’  Vicky shook her head as she recounted this. 

‘This afternoon?  But he’s been messaging me all night,’
Flic muddled.

‘He’s trying to see how far you’ll take it.  He said this
afternoon he wants to write an exposé on your company,’ Scarlett sobbed.

‘But it’s not a company!  It’s just a couple of daft women
kidding themselves!’ Flic protested. 

‘Is that really how you see this?  I thought we were
serious!’ Vicky gasped.  Her phone began to play the first few notes of A
Message To You Rudy and she reached over for it.

‘Did you log in to the account and send a message to him
tonight?’ Flic asked Vicky, remembering that this still required an
explanation.

‘No, I don’t know what username you’ve used,’ Vicky shook
her head while reading her phone’s screen.  ‘Flic, I take it your date didn’t
go well?’

‘No, it didn’t,’ Flic huffed.  She guessed that Adam was
texting Vicky about it.  She wanted to ask if he had intimated what the problem
was and why he had suddenly gone off her but at the same time, felt an unease
about doing so.  Did she really want to know?

‘Flic, Adam knows something about us too.  Read this,’ she
cringed, passing the phone to Flic.

“
Ur new mate is a tart. Caught her sexting some perv on
Tête-a-net while on our date! Fucking raging
!” she read aloud.

Flic’s face burned with shame.  He must have picked up her
phone while she was trying to rescue her salmon.  And had he sent that message
to Peter? 

She passed the phone back to Vicky and picked her own out
from her bag again.  What could she possibly say in her defence?

“
I’m sorry, it’s not what you think. Plz let me explain
.” 
She pressed send, reclined and sighed. 

All three women were silent, staring blankly at the wall
and going over the day’s events in their minds.  It had been a complete
disaster.  Scarlett had been in a major argument with Peter and was certain she
would be dumped.  Vicky and Flic were about to be exposed before they had even
begun this business venture, and Flic’s date had been a catastrophe.  She had
lost Adam’s trust before they had even finished their first date.  He thought
she was a cheat, and that was something she was definitely not.

‘Shall we have a drink?’ Flic asked them both.  Scarlett
had stopped sniffling and Vicky looked lost.

‘Why not?’ Scarlett quavered.

‘Well, there’s bugger all else we can do,’ Vicky shrugged. 

They relocated to the kitchen and sat at a small white
metal table.  Flic noted that it appeared to be a patio table, even though it
was indoors.  She was getting used to the eccentricities of this family though
and gently sat on one of the matching metal chairs, shivering at the coolness
of the metal permeating through the fabric of her dress.

Vicky removed a bottle of white wine from the fridge and
poured three glasses.  They drank in silence for half an hour.  Scarlett only
took a few sips and she didn’t seem to be enjoying it.  Vicky and Flic drained
their glasses and each poured a top-up before Vicky decided aloud, ‘We should
try and limit the damage.  Is there any way we can prevent Peter from writing
about us?’

‘I’m not sure.  He said it would make an excellent story. 
He seems determined to write about you,’ Scarlett scowled.

‘He can write about the business without writing about us. 
Could we get him to change our names to protect our identities?’ Flic wondered.

‘Possibly,’ Scarlett nodded.

‘You’ve got some real sucking up to do then,’ Vicky scolded
her.

‘I think I might be getting dumped.  He wasn’t impressed
that I didn’t trust him,’ Scarlett pouted.

Flic didn’t see how this was her problem, or Vicky’s. 
Scarlett should never have betrayed their trust by telling Peter about the
attempt to honey trap him. 

She looked at Vicky sternly.  ‘If we ever do anything like
this again, lessons will have to be learned.  No friends or family as clients. 
And we would have to get the clients to sign some kind of agreement to say that
they do not mention the investigation to the suspect prior to the full fee being
paid and our pictures taken off the profile used.  Under any circumstances.’ 
Flic was already thinking ahead to prevent her from becoming more angry at
Scarlett.

The James Bond theme tune sounded from the living room. 
Vicky rose from her chair.  ‘There’s the doorbell.  Dad must have finished his
putting and locked himself out again.’

‘We’ll still need paid, even though this has gone wrong,’
Flic reminded Scarlett once Vicky had left the room.

‘Of course.  Just send me a bill.  I’ll make sure I pay it
this week,’ Scarlett agreed.

Flic doubted they would see the money but simply nodded. 
She could see why Adam had no time for Scarlett.  She was undoubtedly the most
irritating, vacuous woman she had ever met.  Vicky deserved a medal for working
with her on a daily basis.

‘Do you hear that?’ Scarlett asked, narrowing her eyes.

‘What?’  Flic heard nothing.

‘Sounds like Vicky’s crying.’  Scarlett scrambled from her
chair through to the living room.  Flic’s instinct was to be dismissive but
after a moment she too heard a sob.  Curiosity gave way to worry and Flic
followed Scarlett, picking up her glass and transporting it along with her.

She reached the front door and found Scarlett repeating,
“Oh my God!” while Vicky was being comforted by Magnus.  Magnus had been the
person at the door.  Bob and Maria were dressing themselves in coats and
scarves and discussing which car to take, Maria wiping away tears at the same
time. 

Again, feeling like an intruder, Flic pulled back and stood
just inside the living room.  

She realised there was some kind of drama, but was
reluctant to ask what was causing the problem.  Scarlett had clearly asked
though.  Perhaps she should too.

She edged forward and tugged lightly on Magnus’s arm,
looking searchingly at him.  His own face was etched with concern and emotion
as he held Vicky close to him.  Flic’s brain tried to make the connection. 
Vicky and her family were distraught, Magnus looked emotional, and Scarlett was
shocked but not quite as bothered as everyone else.  It had to be a problem
with Adam. 

Her blood ran cold when Magnus whispered, ‘Adam has been in
a car crash.’

6

17
^th
January

‘There were nine in the bed and the little one said, roll
over, roll over,’ Pamela sang tunelessly.

‘It’s not really the time for songs,’ Maria fretted. 

‘So what do we do?  Tell Sasha that her uncle is getting
cut open and we’re all waiting to see what happens?’ Pamela blinked in her
mother’s direction. 

Maria burst into fresh tears.  Possibly the fourth or fifth
time she had cried that night already. 

Vicky shook her head sharply at her sister and mouthed the
words, “Good one.”

Pamela rolled her eyes theatrically, grabbed Sasha’s hands
and clapped them as she continued, ‘So they all rolled over and Magnus fell
out.’