walls. Not now we’ve got the broken glass.’ She pretended to wince.
‘Thanks, Scarlett. I appreciate it.’
‘And I mean it. Stay as long as you want.’ She shrugged. ‘Make it permanent, if you want.’
‘That’s kind. And no disrespect, but I like having a place of my own. I just need to think about where I want to be then find a house that fits the bill. If I can get a bit of breathing space at yours, I won’t be rushing into the wrong choice, making it too easy for him to find me.’
We set off through the afternoon traffic, hoping to make it back to Essex before the roads grew too congested. Scarlett’s offer was kind, but if I’m honest, I couldn’t stomach the idea of living in the fake-tan belt permanently. Not to mention the fact that I’d never see any of my other friends, for whom Essex loomed large in the imagination as a wasteland devoid of culture, cuisine and conversation. I hadn’t made my mind up where I was going to settle, except that I knew it would be outside London. And not Essex.
‘You need to get a new phone as well,’ Scarlett said. ‘And a new email address. Just for your mates and for Maggie. You don’t want to be dealing with his shit on a day-to-day basis, but you do need to keep a record of it.’
What she said made sense. And I’d deal with it in the morning. I’d hoped for a different outcome from the day. I’d hoped it would end with Pete in a police interview room or about to be served with court papers for an injunction hearing. But it wasn’t the end of the world. One way or another, I was determined not to have my life defined by one twisted inadequate.
Realising I wasn’t the only one being stalked by a twisted inadequate probably shouldn’t have made me feel better, but it did. Within days of me setting up base camp at Scarlett’s, Leanne came back from a night on the town bursting with indignation. It soon became clear that her anger was covering a much deeper seam of unease.
She was sitting at the kitchen table, defiantly smoking, scowling into a mug of tea. She didn’t look up as I brewed a coffee and sat down opposite her.
‘Rough night?’ I said.
‘You have no idea.’
‘What happened? A few too many cocktails?’
‘Huh. I wish. No, I got monstered by this mad fucking stalker chick who thinks Scarlett is her best mate because she donated a few signed boxes of Scarlett Smile to some fucking charity fundraiser. I’d barely walked in the place when she started hovering, doing that, “Don’t you remember me, babe?” thing. It’s always a bit dodgy when they pull that because I’ve got no idea whether they really know Scarlett or not, you know? So I have to busk it. Like, pretend I’ve got a shit memory for faces. Anyway, I thought I saw her off OK. Only I hadn’t.’
‘That must have been uncomfortable.’
‘It was more than uncomfortable. It was fucking spooky. It was like she was glued on. I couldn’t shake her off. And because she was acting like we was best mates, I couldn’t just tell her to fuck off, not in front of everybody. Because that’s the kind of thing that goes straight into the morning papers and on to the Internet. “Foul-mouthed Scarlett devastates charity supporter.” You know what they’re like.’
‘How did you handle it then?’
Leanne suddenly looked shifty. She stubbed out her forbidden cigarette on the underside of the table, a move that Scarlett would have raged at her for. ‘I’d had enough. I couldn’t get a minute’s peace. She kept going on about how she wanted me to come back to her place for a party. Wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I went off to the VIP loo, knowing she’d follow me. Only, I didn’t go into the loo. I went out on the fire escape. And she came after me. I pretended I’d gone out for a fag, and once I’d lit up, I stubbed it out on her neck. Then I kicked her down the fire escape.’
I was shocked and I must have shown it.
‘Well, what else was I going to do?’ Leanne demanded. ‘She wasn’t going to back off. She was doing my head in. And I got rid of her in a way that won’t blow up in Scarlett’s face. She should be grateful. That’s one less mad stalker bitch on her tail.’
Of course I’d known that Scarlett and Leanne had come up as street fighters. But this was the first time I’d seen such stark evidence of how unpleasant things could get if you pushed one of the Higgins girls too far. I knew how scary obsessed fans could get, no denying that.
But I really didn’t warm to Leanne’s way of dealing with it.
27
‘And did your plan work?’ Vivian asked, tapping the keys of her computer to bring up an urgent message from the Chicago office. ‘Did you manage to escape from Pete Matthews?’
‘Amazingly, it did. He turned up at Scarlett’s place a couple of times, but we didn’t answer the intercom and he never caught sight of me, as far as I know. Various friends called to say he’d been looking for me, but nobody grassed me up. I stayed with Scarlett for about six months altogether, while my house was being sold and I was figuring out where to move to. Eventually I—’
Vivian held up one finger. ‘Could you bear with me a moment? I need to deal with this message.’
The email was from her boss.
Vivian:
I’ve had a message from our colleagues at State. The Embassy in London has been inundated with media inquiries about your Amber Alert kid. They’ve been told he’s the child of a reality TV star who died last year and they need an update. I’ve told them the circumstances, but I need a here-and-now from you.I understand from your brief that Jimmy Higgins’ guardian is a writer? Is there any possibility that this could be a publicity stunt? Abbott says she inherited the kid but no money. Could there be a book in the works that she’s trying to build up a profile for?I shouldn’t have to remind you that I need you to stay on top of this. The timing couldn’t be worse from an agency point of view. I can’t spare someone to come out there and hold your hand. Let’s get a good result on this one.
Succinct and to the point. Demanding the sort of response she really didn’t have. And throwing a spanner into the works of her witness interview. First things first. How could she dress up this scenario to make it look as if she had some kind of a clue what had happened to Jimmy Higgins? She bit her lip and considered how best to say nothing at all.
We’re pursuing all avenues to trace the movements of Jimmy Higgins and his abductor, who was dressed in a replica TSA uniform and is believed to have left the precincts of the airport. We are also working with Scotland Yard detectives to develop leads on both sides of the Atlantic. Jimmy’s guardian, Stephanie Harker, is giving her full cooperation as we all work to bring Jimmy safely home. Anyone with any information should contact blah blah blah.That’s really all we have at present. This is not a straightforward Kidnap for Ransom. As yet, we are not clear what the motive might be, but it does seem likely that the child was taken by someone who has a personal connection. I’ll let you know as and when I have anything substantive to report.
It looked woefully thin and it wasn’t going to win her any friends in high places, but better that than to promise what she couldn’t deliver. She read it through again and removed the word ‘replica’ because it was pointlessly speculative.
The second paragraph posed a more thorny question and one she couldn’t really answer except to say her gut instinct was that Stephanie Harker was not a con artist, nor the agent of this crisis. When men claimed gut instinct, it was taken seriously. But still women were condemned to ‘feminine intuition’, as if that were somehow inferior. In Vivian’s experience, the women were on the money more than men, if only because girls were conditioned to listen and pay attention much more than boys were.
