Chapter 6
Lili locked up the shop and turned to face Tommo and Meg.
The three of them started walking, Lili studying passersby, looking for that familiar face.
On the last Friday of every month, she took staff members out for a drink in Mevagissey.
It had been a tentative idea but Em had insisted she go for it.
‘Don’t be a dick. Of course you must do it. Most of the managers I’ve worked with think criticism is the way to inspire staff, instead of free cocktails. It’s not rocket science.’
An assistant manager, Andrew, worked half of his time in Mevagissey, the other half at a Ware said my parents must be great to have let me get it done when I was sixteen.
’ A flicker of something painful crossed her young features.
Lili and Tommo shot her understanding looks.
Meg had confided in her two colleagues about how her parents had her when they were teenagers themselves and couldn’t cope.
Out of the blue they’d upped and left, selfishly expecting Meg’s mum’s parents to take on the responsibility of a baby.
Meg had effectively lost her mum and dad. Tommo had lost his husband. Lili met their earnest gazes. Okay. She could trust them.
‘This first-year anniversary of Em’s death has hit me harder than I expected, and to cap it all I’ve started getting these weird text messages…’ Cheeks blushing, Lili got up. ‘Look, you don’t want to hear all of this… Come on… I’ll get another round in.’
Tommo reached up and gently pulled her back down. ‘What messages?’
‘Oh, it’s nothing. Now, I don’t know about you two, but I want to try a Shipwreck Woozy. I’ll have the virgin one as I’m driving, but apparently the alcoholic version contains…’
Tommo raised his eyebrows and folded his arms, staring at Lili. Meg did the same.
Lili sighed. It took her back to the looks she’d get from her parents when she was little and had been naughty. When she was older, they became the looks that they gave each other. ‘You’ll think me crazy if I explain. I’ll lose all that respect you two show me, as your boss… Oh wait…’
The three of them smiled, then Lili reluctantly explained about the Knock Knock joke, the emoji… her list… her chat with Em’s parents and how adamant they’d been that their daughter was dead, but then she’d seen the psychic…
When she stopped, Tommo got to his feet. ‘Bloody hell, gal, I need that Woozy. And I’ll be having words with Joe later as to why he hasn’t texted me .’
Meg was about to speak when her phone rang. The call with her gran ended as Tommo came back, smelling of smoke. He dished out the drinks and collapsed into a chair.
‘Christ, you must have been as shocked as a fisherman hooking a shark, Lili. If Joe messaged me, I’d…
Damn, I’d be surprised above all else because he hated mobile phones.
’ His voice wavered. ‘He was a silly old sod when it came to technology. I’d do anything to be able to show him again, just once, how to copy and paste a link or use a gif. ’
Tommo would put on a brash, happy-sailor front, but Lili sensed that something sadder lurked underneath, trapped.
‘Em always seemed so extra, in all the best ways – no one’s ever laughed so loudly at my jokes as she did,’ said Meg. ‘Texting like this is exactly what she’d do, I reckon. What have you found out about those companies, on your list, that send pre-programmed texts?’
‘I tracked down a handful online. It took forever – but there isn’t much detail about how it works. You have to sign up to find out and I’m not doing that. Some charge several hundred pounds.’
Meg took out her phone and tapped for a few moments. She skimmed the page, then handed her phone over to Lili.
‘Here’s one. A company called Happy Ever Endings. Ring them. They might pick up, you never know. A lot of online businesses run 24/7.’ She shook her phone. ‘Go on. I want to hear what they say.’
‘They won’t just tell me. They’re out to make money.’
Tommo shrugged. ‘They may have good intentions as well.’
What the hell. She had nothing to lose. Lili pressed the call button and it rang out.
She was about to hang up – it was a Friday evening after all – when someone picked up.
Lili got to her feet and made her way outside, into the quiet, Mevagissey lit up as if it had not one but a hundred little lighthouses like the one on the end of the wall of the outer harbour.
‘Hello? I’m wondering if you can help me.’ Lili explained her situation to the woman who picked up.
‘I’m very sorry about your friend. It sounds as if you’ve researched what a service like ours does – how pre-planned messages can be activated by all sorts of things.
Like location – someone could programme a message to be triggered every time a loved one visited their grave.
Or on a particular date, say a birthday.
So I agree that… Em, was it? She could have programmed a message to be triggered by the words Knock Knock; she could have stored your favourite jokes and programmed in the appropriate answers – and appropriate emojis. ’
Lili held her breath.
‘But a text from a deceased loved one wouldn’t simply come through.
A link would have been sent that would have led you to a secure platform where the message could be viewed and then downloaded and saved if you wanted.
I think all companies like ours would follow that procedure.
I’m very sorry, but I don’t think the texts you’ve received were pre-programmed by your friend. ’
Lili made her way back inside and handed Meg her phone back. She told her and Tommo what the woman had said.
‘Ah. Yes. That makes sense,’ said Meg.
Tommo placed a hand on Lili’s. ‘How do you feel?’
‘Okay. Now I can rule out number four on my list. That leaves two options – either…’ Her face lit up. ‘It’s a living and breathing Em texting me…’
‘What, despite everything her parents said?’ Meg asked.
Lili coloured up. ‘Yes – because of the unfound phone… the passport… what the psychic said about faces… that emoji…’
Tommo rolled his lips together. Meg simply nodded.
‘Or,’ continued Lili swiftly, and she shrugged, ‘it’s someone else. And boy, that joker better be scared of ever meeting me if that’s the answer. But I’ve just got this feeling…’ Eyes shining, she went to buy crisps.
When she got back, Tommo was fiddling with a beer mat.
‘As you say, spit it out,’ Lili said to him, tearing open one of the crinkly bags.
‘We just hope you aren’t going to be disappointed if it’s not Em,’ he said. ‘The heart wants what the heart wants, but sometimes that means it leads us astray like… like a pod of whales that accidentally beach themselves, convinced they’re swimming in the right direction.’
‘You definitely pressed her name in your contacts list, when you messaged? The texts definitely came from her old number?’ asked Meg.
‘I did check. Of course I did. And remember, you reckoned this is exactly the sort of thing Em would do.’
Meg’s face softened. ‘Yes, but now it’s all sunk in… I don’t think it’s likely. Her parents saw the body. They saw the body, Lili. They’d know . Oh, I so very much want it to be her. But like Tommo, I… I also don’t want to see my brilliant boss get hurt.’
Lili’s eyes pricked. ‘I’ve got to get a definite answer. One way or another.’
Meg and Tommo looked at each other.
‘Then we’re here for you, gal, if you keep looking into this,’ he said. ‘Just… be careful. You don’t know what – or who – you are going to discover.’