Page 152 of Don't Believe A Word

Connor said, ‘Remember when we told Mia about the injunction? She seemed not to know what we were talking about.’

It was true, she hadn’t, although it was hard to see how that was relevant now when the fact that Sadie hadn’t told her didn’t change anything … Unless … Cristy needed to get this straight in her head, could see the reason, almost hear it, but the others were still talking …

‘Have you heard anything from Sadie or Lukas since last night’s drop?’ David asked.

‘Actually we have,’ Connor replied. ‘I’ll send it over as soon as we’re done with this call.’

Cutting across David’s response, Cristy said, ‘Did Victor Dubois say anything else you can share?’

‘Not to do with this, but I’m having lunch with him later if there’s anything in particular you’d like me to ask?’

‘There is,’ Cristy replied. ‘I’d like to know if Mia had been in touch with him in the last couple of weeks about her will.’

‘Sure. What are you thinking?’

‘All kinds of things right now, but getting an answer to that might explain a lot and help us decide how to respond to the video you’re about to watch.’

*

‘Hey, team,’ Jacks sang out, going to drop his backpack on his chair and fishing out various objects.

‘You need to see the little gift of a video we’ve received from Sadie and family,’ Clove told him.

‘OK, cool. Here’s your old phone, Cristy. Like I said last night, highly recommended that you abandon it from hereon, but there’s something that came in while it was being worked on that I think you’ll want to hear.’

‘Who’s it from?’ Cristy asked, taking the mobile as if it might burn her. ‘Please tell me it’s not the creep who’s been texting …’

‘No more from him,’ Jacks assured her. ‘I mean, I think there were a couple, but Clyde – he’s the one who’s been checking it out – assured me he’s been shut down. Apparently there was some sort of spyware on it that’s gone now, but he doesn’t think it’s worth going with that phone again in case there was something he missed.’

‘OK, fine. We’ll get into how it got there later. Where’s this something you want me to listen to?’

‘Regular voicemail. First one. Is that coffee still hot?’

As he went to fill a mug for himself, Cristy called up the message and put the phone to her ear. Moments later, as she registered what was happening, she felt herself turning faintly dizzy.

‘What is it?’ Connor wanted to know.

Hitting the playback again, and putting it on speaker, she set the phone on her desk so everyone could hear what was happening at the other end of the line. It began with distant, indecipherable voices, and the sound of someone moving around, footsteps, items being shifted. There was some talk, Mia saying she hadn’t been sure Sadie would come, and Sadie asking why she’d think that. Sadie again, ‘Come along, it has to be …’ There was more movement followed by Mia saying, ‘We shouldn’t be in here, Lottie won’t like it.’

The gentle rasp of Mia breathing filled the next few minutes and a faint noise that wasn’t possible to decipher. Sadie spoke, but her voice was too far away, too faint for them to make out what she was saying.

Cristy rewound and replayed, but it did no good. She let themessage run, and Mia’s voice was suddenly and briefly clear as she said, ‘What are you doing?’

After that only the occasional words were audible ‘… waiting,’ ‘mother,’ ‘afraid’. Mostly it was like a background mumble; they couldn’t even tell who was speaking, only that a lot was being said.

Filled with frustration Cristy held the phone out to Jacks.

Taking it, he said, ‘I’ll do my best, but don’t hold your breath.’

*

Almost an hour passed as Cristy, Connor and Clove walked the harbourside, giving Jacks the space to download, enhance, remove, audio-cleanse, test, search for more software, even make a couple of calls for additional expert advice. No one spoke, they were too tense, almost too afraid to share what was going on in their minds, to state what they were expecting, or hoping for. Cristy wasn’t even sure she knew, and guessed it was the same for the others. It was best simply to try not to think about it, not to let their imaginations run wild, although of course it was impossible not to.

Finally, Jacks texted to summon them back and as soon as they entered the office he gave them a thumbs up.

The unravelling of relief was almost palpable, as they sank into their chairs and Jacks hit play.

Cristy’s eyes widened with amazement and awe as both Mia’s and Sadie’s voices came through, stripped of the stifling muffle of background sound. It was the audible version of a film being processed, first nothing, then something, then a perfectly intact image. Yes, a few flaws here and there, some words missing …