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‘You’re going to miss him. Aren’t you?’
‘Everyone leaves home eventually,’ he says, because no words exist to describe his turmoil at Max’s upcoming departure. Now, even more so.
‘Well – you’ve still got me and Mum. We’re not going anywhere.’
‘You’ll be off some day, no doubt.’
‘Uh-uh. I’m staying right here. Got to look after Mum.Andmy current favourite stepdad.’
‘Noted, regarding the current.’
Tilly grins. ‘And for as long as you continue to behave.’ She leans over to kiss his cheek, then swings open the door. ‘Black,’ she says, glancing over her shoulder. ‘The shirt, I mean. If in doubt, choose black.’
Joseph thanks her, waves her off. He parks in the multistorey above the Sainsbury’s and takes the stairs back to ground level. On his way he passes two CCTV cameras andforces himself not to look. He doesn’t see any cameras outside the vape shop on the high street, where he pays cash for a 120 GB data-only SIM card. In the Costa Coffee opposite, he orders an Americano and carries it to an empty table. Then he takes out Claire’s iPhone. His thumb slides over the case, feeling the empty spaces where some of the sequins have come loose.
You like how I’ve ABBA’d it up, Joe?
I’m sure Benny and Björn would be proud.
When he pops the phone from its case, a scrap of notepaper falls into his lap. With shaking fingers he unfolds it. There, in his late wife’s handwriting, he sees a list:
Max school shoes
Washing machine guy
Max dentist appt
Joe passport photo
Clothes for Friday
Make hair appt
Toby birthday present
Call Jane
Suddenly, it feels as if all the air’s been sucked out of the coffee shop. He’s looking at a simple to-do list, hurriedly scrawled and long since forgotten. And yet it radiates the aura of a sacred artifact, his own Rosetta Stone.
Typical that Claire had prioritized the tasks benefitting him or Max. Incredible that he doesn’t even remember Toby or Jane. Their names trigger no memories whatsoever, belonging firmly to thebeforeand not thenow.
Joseph refolds the slip of paper and tucks it into his wallet. Using the tool that came in the package, he swaps Claire’s old SIM card with the one he just bought. Then he connects her phone to a brick charger in his pocket and switches iton. The Apple logo appears, replaced a few seconds later by Claire’s old screensaver.
It’s a snapshot from six years ago, taken by a waiter in a Tuscan restaurant – Claire and Joseph and Max, surrounded by fairy lights and raising their glasses to the night. Claire is resplendent. Max is guffawing. Joseph – his face unmarked by the fathomless loss to afflict him a year later – is barely recognizable.
The image blurs. Air rushes back into the shop. He clutches the table, breathes deep, rocks back and forth until he’s fully returned to the present. Then he goes online and searchescrompton missing person.When nothing comes up, he tries again at a county level, but the most recent news story is from a week ago, about a young woman from neighbouring Shipley reported missing four days prior.
Joseph sweeps the coffee shop with his gaze. Then he typeshow long corpse start decomposing.
The answer, he discovers, is between twenty-four and seventy-two hours. During the first stage, autolysis, a build-up of carbon dioxide leads to increased acidity in the tissues, causing cell membranes to rupture.
The second stage is bloat. Enzymes leaked during autolysis begin to produce gas. The corpse increases in size, sometimes dramatically. Bacteria, reproducing exponentially, cause skin discolouration. An unpleasant odour attracts insects and carrion feeders.
The third stage, he learns, is active decay. Fluids begin to leak from orifices. Organs and muscle start to liquefy.
Joseph stops reading, waits for his nausea to pass. Then he addshot weatherto his search query and confirms that when the ambient temperature is higher, a corpse produces gas at a much faster rate, creating more openings in the skin for flies to lay their eggs.
He stands up so abruptly that a couple at the next table reel away from him. Stumbling out of the Costa, Joseph leans against a lamppost and recovers his breath. He needs to dispose of the dead man urgently, and think about what to do with the Honda once it’s done.