CHAPTER THIRTY #2
The next step, obviously, was to let Jacks and his shadowy team of geeks see if they could trace the source; and she would, were it not for the fact that she simply couldn’t bear for anyone to see this latest message.
At the very least they’d wonder if there was some truth to it, or, worse, much worse, they’d picture her in a state of writhing and moaning masturbation with God only knew what sort of stimulating devices.
Who knew how vivid and graphic their imaginations might be?
They might also want to call the stalker’s bluff and ask for photos!
Obviously he didn’t have any because it hadn’t happened.
However, he could easily Photoshop her face onto some hideously pornographic images and even if, in the end, it could be proved it wasn’t her, people, Jacks included, would still feel they’d seen her like that.
So she couldn’t ask Jacks to get involved.
What she had to do was change her phone and the number …
Except everyone would want to know why she’d taken such a bizarre decision at this stage of a series.
It would make no sense to them, any more than it would to Aiden if she asked him to check the flat for some sort of bugging device – or devices, plural.
She looked around the office, wondering if she was being watched even now.
It was impossible to tell when she had no idea how covert surveillance was set up, much less carried out.
But maybe she was in danger of blowing this out of proportion.
Whoever was behind it hadn’t threatened her physically, nor was he suggesting he might.
In fact, in the grand scheme of things, these messages weren’t actually that bad; no rape or murder threats, no mention of her children, nor even a suggestion of going public with fake masturbation photos.
Nevertheless, she still didn’t want anyone seeing the latest text, so the best thing to do was drop it into the folder with the others, and feel thankful that she had plenty else going on right now to distract her.
*
It was on Thursday afternoon while everyone was at their desks working on ways to create a big finale that Mia rang.
Immediately scrabbling to take the call, Cristy alerted the others and waited for Mia’s image to fill her computer screen.
‘Mia?’ she said, when nothing happened. ‘Are you OK?’ She could hear breathing and the sound of someone moving, but still no one spoke. ‘Mia?’ she called again.
‘She’s coming for me,’ Mia cried, still not in vision. ‘I know she is, but I’m not going to let her in. Tell her, she can’t come in.’
With a quick glance at Connor, Cristy said, ‘Are you talking about Sadie, Mia?’
‘I’m talking about Lottie. She’s coming for me … You’ve poisoned her against me, told her all your ugly lies … Those people she’s with are imposters. You brought them here, so you have to make them go away.’
Realizing she was talking about Sadie, even if she didn’t recognize it herself, Cristy said, ‘Mia, listen. Sadie just wants to talk to you, to make sure you’re OK after the shock of everything …’
‘Tell her to go away!’ Mia yelled. ‘I don’t want her here. She wants to kill me.’
‘That’s not true,’ Cristy argued gently. ‘She still cares about you …’
‘She wants to punish me for keeping her away from that doctor. I regret it now, but she won’t listen.’
Back to Lottie. ‘It was a long time ago,’ Cristy said. ‘What happened then …’
‘It wasn’t my fault what happened to her mother! I didn’t do it. You have to tell her that.’
‘Please, just let Sadie come and talk to you,’ Cristy said. ‘If you like, David Gaudion can come with her …’
‘No! I don’t want her here. I just want you to know that if anything happens to me it’ll be down to you and everything you’ve done to turn my niece against me. Lottie is very angry about it. Very angry indeed.’
As the line went dead Cristy looked at the others, feeling as mystified and disturbed by the call as she could see they were.
‘She’s clearly completely lost it,’ Clove said quietly.
Cristy nodded. ‘When I spoke to Sadie last night she told me this was happening and it’s upsetting her quite a lot. The ridiculous part of it is that she’s as afraid of her aunt as Mia now seems to be of her, which is why I suggested David should be there when they meet.’
‘Is Sadie up for that?’ Jacks asked.
Cristy nodded. ‘So’s David, it’s just a matter of getting Mia to open the door.’ To Connor she said, ‘Did you manage to record any of that?’
He nodded. ‘Most of it. Do you want to send it to Sadie?’
‘It won’t be anything she hasn’t already heard, but I think we should.’
An hour later, having listened to the playback, Sadie came through on FaceTime looking tense and pale. ‘I don’t know if you want to get my response on record,’ she said, ‘but if you do, I’ve already prepared something that I can read out.’
As Connor hit the right buttons and Clove got ready to make notes, Cristy said, ‘Where are you?’
‘At home. Dad and Jasper are with me. We went down there a few minutes ago to try again, but everything’s bolted from the inside and she didn’t even answer when we called out.’
‘We saw her watching us from an upstairs window,’ Jasper added.
Faintly spooked by that, Cristy said, ‘OK, we’re recording now.’
SADIE: ‘I’ve made four or five attempts to see my aunt since the last episode about my mother coming to Guernsey was dropped, but without any success.
I’ve no idea if she’s heard it, but I think she probably has and that’s why she won’t see me.
She’s managed to convince herself that I’m blaming her for what happened, but as I keep telling her, I don’t blame her for anything, and all I want now is to move on with my life.
Having said that, it’s not my intention simply to abandon her; she isn’t getting any younger and nor is she in great health, so it would be cruel of me to carry on now as if she never mattered at all.
She did matter, a great deal, and she still does.
You can’t just wipe out all the good someone has done in your life, as if it never happened, especially not when there has been a lot of good.
So I want her to understand that we – I’m speaking for my father and uncle now as well – wish her no harm and we never will. ’
CRISTY: ‘When you went to see her earlier, did she realize that the man with you was your father?’
SADIE: ‘I’m not sure, but I thought, if she met him and saw for herself just how gentle he is she’d be more likely to let us in.’
CRISTY: ‘Will you try again?’
SADIE: ‘Of course. I have no plans to leave Guernsey yet, and I certainly won’t without seeing her first. Dad, Lukas and Evie are flying back at the weekend and Jasper’s going with them to look at a few job opportunities that Lukas is setting up for him.’
CRISTY: ‘So your long-term goal is to relocate?’
SADIE: ‘I think so. We’ll need a fresh start after all that’s happened, I just want to be sure that Mia is properly cared for before I go and that might take a while. It doesn’t matter though, there’s no rush, and obviously I’ll come back to visit on a regular basis.’
CONNOR: ‘So when do you intend to try seeing her again?’
SADIE: ‘Are you asking because you’d like me to record it?’
CONNOR: ‘I confess it did cross my mind.’
SADIE: ‘I’ll do my best, and if I can’t do it myself I’m sure David will help out. He’s bringing Cynthia over in the morning. It’s possible Mia might be more willing to open up if she’s there too.’
CRISTY: ‘Just to explain, David and Cynthia are good friends and long-time neighbours in Guernsey.’
CONNOR: ‘OK, well, let us know how it goes and if anything happens in the meantime, you know where we are.’
SADIE: ‘Thanks – and thanks too for all the support you’ve given me throughout this. I feel as though you guys are more like friends now than anything else.’
CRISTY: ‘We’re OK with that, and obviously really glad we were able to play a part in helping you to find out who you really are.’
After the call was over and the recording checked, Cristy sat back in her chair and said thoughtfully, ‘That could be a sign-off for the last episode.’
‘Just what I was thinking,’ Connor agreed. To Jacks he said, ‘Bookmark it for a quick find. Any thoughts, Clove?’
Looking up from her notes, she said, ‘Not about Sadie’s input, but I’m worried that airing anything Mia said just now is going to be considered exploitation of someone with profound mental health issues. Something like that could backfire on us horribly.’
‘We’ll take advice before using anything,’ Cristy assured her.
‘If it turns out we can’t run her actual words, we’ll do as we did after Connor and I paid a visit and found her sitting under a noose.
We’ll describe it the best we can and try not to sound in any way judgemental or unsympathetic to someone who’s … ’
‘Completely fucking nuts?’ Clove suggested.
With a wry smile, Cristy said, ‘Yes, but obviously not in those words.’ She glanced at her phone, tensing as a text arrived, but it was only Aiden letting her know that he’d be staying with her again tonight.
Happy for that, she sent a quick message to Matthew asking if he’d managed to make contact with Pearl or her parents yet.
You mean the other grandparents? he replied.
Deciding not to grace that with a response, she reminded Connor that they had some final promos to record for Iz and followed him through to the studio.
*
‘Wow!’ Connor declared in amazement, when he walked into the office later and Cristy practically leapt out of her skin. ‘Nervy or what?’
‘Sorry,’ she gasped, pressing a hand to her thudding heart, knowing it was an overreaction, but there it was anyway. ‘I didn’t hear you … I thought you’d gone home.’
‘Just about to. What’s going on?’ he asked, clearly noticing the way she’d quickly shut her phone down.