Chapter 24
‘You used it to find Jasmine!’ Miranda yelled, after quickly telling the room what she’d learned from the emails. ‘You scanned a photo of Mum and used it to find her clone. It’s sick. Vile.’
I noticed that she directed her anger at Zack rather than her dad. And instead of trying to pass the buck on to Charles, Zack took it.
‘She’s not quite her doppelg?nger,’ he said in a steady voice. ‘Jasmine isn’t one hundred per cent identical to Elizabeth.’
Holly had been standing when Miranda burst into the room and flung the laptop at her husband. Now, she dropped on to the nearest kitchen chair, looking like she’d been shot.
She lifted her face towards Charles. ‘Is this true, Dad?’
His tone was as calm as Zack’s. ‘Not an exact match, no. I can see the difference, of course. I thought you would be able to as well.’
‘But it’s … gross.’ Holly sounded like she was about to start crying.
I went over to stand behind her, putting my hand on her shoulder.
Gross was right. An app that could not only identify anyone from a photo or even partial photo but find anyone who looked like them.
It was a weapon for creeps and stalkers.
And Charles had used it to find himself a wife.
For all intents and purposes, Jasmine was physically identical to Elizabeth.
It was as if he’d discovered a time machine that had helped him go back in time and bring his thirty-four-year-old, healthy wife into the present day.
Except that wasn’t quite right, was it? Jasmine wasn’t Elizabeth. She was her own person. She just shared a face with a dead woman.
‘Does Jasmine know this is how you found her?’ I asked.
‘Of course not,’ Charles replied.
‘But don’t you think she’ll find out, when you reveal this app to the world? You must have thought of that?’
‘Perhaps. But I honestly don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. Everyone has a physical ideal, don’t they? I could have used Tinder or one of these other apps to find her, but that would have taken a lot of swiping. This is just a more efficient way to do it.’
Holly and Miranda both stared at him.
‘So yes, sure, I used our app to find her. But if I’d met her and she’d been awful, if she wasn’t warm and funny and clever and all those things, if there hadn’t been any chemistry, I would have gone home and forgotten all about her.
I think when I explain all that she won’t be bothered at all.
In fact, I think she might find it charming. ’
‘Charming?’ Holly said. ‘That you used an app to find someone who looks exactly like your first wife? That you lied to her about why you were in Miami? That you set up your “meet cute”? Oh Dad, you really don’t understand women at all, do you?’
He made a soft grunting noise.
‘You must have known it was wrong,’ Holly said. ‘Otherwise you would have been upfront from the start.’
‘Actually,’ Zack said, ‘we can’t allow news of Fase’s existence to leak.
If our competitors get wind of it … Or, even worse, if some leftie newspaper finds out about it and starts banging on about privacy and human rights …
We need to launch it as a fait accompli.
Get it out there before anyone has the chance to stop it. ’
‘And in the meantime, I’ll be talking to my friends,’ Charles said.
His friends in high places.
‘This is going to make everyone with Gravitas shares extremely rich,’ Zack said. He directed his gaze at Miranda then Holly. ‘Including you two.’
I couldn’t see Holly’s face from where I was standing; could only hear her voice. ‘But it’s immoral. Making keyboards and mice and hospital equipment, that’s good, honest business. That’s what you’ve always said, Dad. This is wrong.’
Zack bristled. ‘Is it immoral? Think of how many criminals this app will help catch. It could be used in the fight against terrorism. To find missing people and bring them home to their loved ones.’
Charles nodded along.
‘But what about its other uses?’ Holly argued.
‘What if some weirdo comes into the shop where I work and takes a secret photo of me? He could find out where I live, what I’m into, all my personal details.
That’s what you did with Jasmine, isn’t it?
So you’d know what to talk to her about?
It’s like Groundhog Day. You know, when Bill Murray talks to Andie MacDowell hundreds of times and finds out everything about her so he can manipulate her and make her fall for him. ’
‘Firstly, it’s like everything on the internet. You just have to be more careful about what you put out there. Secondly, I really don’t think it’s immoral. It’s progress, that’s all. The next step on from all those hook-up apps.’
‘An efficient way to start dating someone who looks like your first love,’ I said.
‘Exactly.’
He hadn’t caught the irony in my tone.
‘All we’ve done is help two people, Charles and Jasmine, find love.
It’s a beautiful thing. We are helping to spread happiness.
Charles here had his wife stolen away from him when they were both young.
He spent all those years fulfilling the promise he’d made to Elizabeth.
Focusing on his family. That and growing the business.
And all that time, Charles – sorry, I don’t want to put words into your mouth, sir – couldn’t find anyone who lived up to your mum.
A woman who could match perfection. Until Fase helped him find Jasmine. ’
‘And we fell in love,’ said Charles.
I thought I could understand the psychology behind this. When Elizabeth died, Charles had fixed her in his mind as his ideal. A saint. The perfect woman, taken tragically young.
‘But Jasmine isn’t Elizabeth,’ I said, returning to a thought from a few minutes earlier. ‘She’s a completely different person. She doesn’t even have the same accent.’
‘Of course not,’ Charles said. His voice was soft.
Almost dreamy. ‘Girls, I thought I would never find anyone who would come close to being as wonderful as your mum. But Jasmine is like that. She’s close to perfect.
I think of it as a wonderful piece of luck that this amazing woman happens to be wrapped in the same skin as the first woman I loved. ’
I couldn’t tell if he actually believed this or if it was a line he was telling himself to justify what he’d done.
Miranda, who had been quiet since her initial outburst, looked utterly exhausted, like she was finding it difficult to stay upright.
Charles went over and laid a hand on her arm. ‘Sweet Miranda. I know how loyal you are to your mum. That’s a wonderful thing. But I promise you, I’m not trying to disrespect her memory. All I want is a second chance at happiness.’
She nodded slowly. I could see that she was torn. She wanted her dad to be happy. She loved him. And, apart from her anger-and-grief-driven outburst a minute ago, being at odds with him caused her enormous pain.
‘You should have told me,’ she said. ‘It’s the secrecy … You don’t need to keep things from me.’
‘I know, Mirrie.’ It was the first time I’d heard him call her this. ‘I’m sorry.’
He pulled her into a hug, patting her back and making soothing noises. When they broke apart, she had tears in her eyes, and she grabbed a sheet of kitchen roll, blowing her nose. And then, before my eyes, she changed. Pulled herself up to her full height, stood straight.
‘Well, I still think it’s sick,’ Holly said. ‘And when Jasmine finds out how you found her, you’re going to get a shock.’
Charles tried to interrupt her, but she went on. ‘It’s not just that. It is disrespectful to Mum’s memory. I don’t get how you can look at Jasmine and not just see the wife you lost, knowing it’s not her.’
‘Oh, as if you cared,’ Miranda said.
Now, Holly got to her feet. ‘What?’
‘You never cared about Mum, not really. That Hogmanay, when she was dying, you were too busy sneaking off to see that boyfriend of yours. You and Lewis, hanging out with Jimmy and Morag. I was here, looking after her. Me and Dad.’ She was standing beside Charles now, and he reached out to take her hand.
‘That’s a lie!’ Holly’s voice went up an octave, almost shrieking with outrage.
‘No, it isn’t. You and Lewis went out drinking and doing drugs while I sat by our mother’s bedside, reading to her, talking to her. As soon as she was dead, you disappeared. You fucked off to Asia to shag God knows how many men, to do God knows how many drugs, working in a titty bar—’
‘It wasn’t a titty bar!’
‘While I was left here to try to keep the family together. To help Dad through his grief.’
‘I ran away because I was hurting. I was so young, Miranda. I tried, I really fucking tried. Don’t you remember?
I revised for my A-levels. But when I sat down to take that first exam, it was like …
’ She groped for the words. ‘It was like I was staring into the void. I needed to get away. Running was the only thing I could do.’
‘All the way to Thailand without even a goodbye.’
‘I was having a breakdown, Miranda!’
‘Huh. Do you think it was easier for me? I wasn’t much older.
Lewis was no use. He was in his own world, writing poems about his grief.
Meanwhile, I was the one who had to look after Dad.
The one who stayed at home, keeping my promise to Mum to ensure the whole family didn’t fall apart.
It’s me who’s always ensured we have these get-togethers and aren’t strangers.
And that’s what I’m doing now. Mum told me Dad would meet someone else one day.
Maybe she’d actually be happy that his new wife looks so much like her. ’
‘What?’ Holly was outraged. ‘You hate Jasmine! You’re the one who accused her of being a gold-digger. You didn’t do anything when Lewis told you he was planning to kill her.’
‘No!’ She took a threatening step towards Holly. ‘That’s a lie. Your stupid boyfriend misheard or is making it all up.’
‘I’m not making it up.’
‘Enough!’ Charles roared it. ‘All of you, shut up.’
Both women went quiet. Again, it was like they were children.
‘Your brother is dead.’ Charles lowered the volume a notch. ‘And my wife is missing. Every minute that passes, with the police doing nothing to find her, she’s in more danger of being my second dead wife.’
Everyone, including me, stared at him.
‘I can’t sit around here with my thumb up my arse,’ Charles said. ‘I’m going to look for her.’