I See You(101)

‘Mum, you’re bleeding!’

I feel the wetness trickle down the side of my neck.

‘Are you going to do as you’re told?’

I nod my head, the tiny movement causing another trickle of blood to escape from the cut on my throat.

‘Excellent.’ Melissa gets up. She brushes her knees, then pulls a tissue from her pocket and wipes the blade of the knife carefully. ‘Now, sit down.’

I do as I’m told. Melissa returns to her desk. She taps the keyboard and I see the familiar background to the findtheone website. Melissa enters a user name and password, but the site looks different; and I realise she has logged in as an administrator. She minimises the window then opens a new one, making several swift keystrokes. I see an Underground platform. It’s not busy; there are about a dozen people standing up, and a woman with a wheeled shopper sitting on a bench. I think at first we’re looking at a photograph, then the woman with the wheeled shopper stands up and begins walking along the platform.

‘Is that CCTV?’

‘Yes. I can’t take the credit for the cameras, just the redirection of the footage. I contemplated installing my own cameras but it would have meant restricting myself to just a couple of Underground lines. This way we can see the whole network. This is the Jubilee line.’ Another flurry of keystrokes, and the image changes to a different platform, a handful of people waiting for a train. ‘I can’t get the whole network, and annoyingly there’s no opportunity to control the direction of the cameras – I can only see what the operators can see. But it’s made the whole operation far easier, not to mention more interesting.’

‘What do you mean?’ Katie says.

‘Before I had the network I never knew what happened to the women. I had to take them off the website once their profiles were sold, as well as check they hadn’t changed jobs, or altered their route to work. Sometimes it would be days before I’d realise a woman was wearing a new coat. That’s not good for business. CCTV means I can watch them whenever I want. It means I get to see what happens to them.’

She continues tapping at the keyboard, before pressing enter with an exaggerated flourish. A slow smile spreads across her face as she turns to us.

‘Now, how about we play a little game?’





34


Kelly looked at the phone on her desk and steeled herself to dial. She had tried several times, always cancelling the call before it started ringing, and once hanging up just as it was answered. Before she could change her mind again, she picked up the phone and dialled. Cradling the receiver between her shoulder and her ear she listened to the ringtone; half wanting it to go to voicemail, half wanting to get it over and done with. Nick wanted everyone in the briefing room in ten minutes, and she’d be unlikely to get another chance to make a personal call till much later.

‘Hello.’

At the sound of Lexi’s voice, Kelly was suddenly mute. Around her everyone was getting ready to go into briefing; picking up notebooks and bending down over their desks to read last-minute emails. Kelly contemplated hanging up.

‘Hello?’ Then again, annoyed now. ‘Hello?’

‘It’s me.’

‘Oh. Why didn’t you say anything?’

‘Sorry, there was something wrong with the line, I think. How are you?’ An email pinged into her inbox and she moved her mouse to open it. It was from the DI. Is that the kettle I can hear boiling? Through the open door to the briefing room Kelly could see Nick on his BlackBerry. He looked up and grinned, making a drinking action with his free hand.

‘Fine. You?’

‘Fine.’ She nodded to the DI and held up her forefinger, intended to indicate she’d only be a minute, but the DI had already looked away.

The stilted conversation continued until Kelly could bear it no longer.

‘Actually, I rang to say I hope you have a good time tomorrow.’ There was a pause. ‘Tomorrow?’

‘Isn’t it your reunion? At Durham?’ Did she sound enthusiastic? Kelly hoped so. However much she hated the idea of Lexi back on that campus; however much she would baulk at doing it herself, she had to accept what Lexi had been telling her for years. It wasn’t her life.

‘Yes.’ Suspicion lingered in Lexi’s voice. Kelly could hardly blame her.

‘Well, I hope you have fun. I bet some people won’t have changed at all. Who was that girl you lived with in your second year – the one who only ever ate sausages?’ She was speaking too fast, the words falling over themselves in her effort to be as light-hearted and as supportive as she knew she should have been when Lexi first mentioned returning to Durham.

‘Gemma, I think.’

‘That was it. Weird as they come!’

‘Sis, what’s going on? Why did you really call?’

‘To say sorry. For interfering in your life; for judging the choices you made.’ She took a deep breath. ‘But mainly, for not staying on the phone that night.’

Lexi made a small sound; a stifled cry from the back of her throat. ‘Don’t, Kelly, please. I don’t want to—’

She sounded so distraught Kelly almost stopped, hating the fact she was hurting Lexi. But she had already waited too long to say it. ‘Just hear me out, and then I promise you I won’t ever mention it again.’ She took Lexi’s silence as acceptance. ‘I’m sorry I hung up on you. You were frightened and I wasn’t there for you, and there isn’t a day goes by that I don’t feel guilty about it.’