Page 76 of Killing Mind

‘Cancel it,’ Kim said, grabbing her coat.

‘But, boss… we told her…’

‘Stace, it’s fine. Just cancel it,’ she said, heading out of the office.

She intended to go and collect Tiffany herself.

Sixty-Two

It wasn’t even seven and Tiff was already exhausted.

Britney had taken her on a whirlwind tour of the whole site.

She’d been in and out of all the buildings, except the small barn right at the end which apparently was not yet finished.

She’d seen the yoga room, the meditation room, the crystal therapy room, the massage room, the reading room, the inner reflection room, the colour therapy room and the reiki room.

‘Is there a TV room?’ Tiff asked. After a long shift as a police officer she often returned home and unwound during a couple of hours of mindless TV.

‘Spoken like a true zombie,’ Britney said, digging her in the ribs. Tiff laughed, unable to believe she had only known this girl for a few hours.

‘What’s a zombie?’ she remembered to ask. It was getting difficult to keep track of the fact she was supposed to know nothing about the place.

‘People out there,’ Britney said, moving her head to signal outside. ‘Do you know how the telly box has killed conversation. Why would you sit and watch other people doing stuff instead of doing it yourself?’

‘So, you have no televisions on the premises?’

Britney shook her head. ‘No computers, no smartphones, no tablets or…’

‘But how do you survive?’

Britney turned to her laughing. ‘You really think you need 3G to stay alive?’

‘Well, there’s 5G now,’ Tiff corrected. ‘And I didn’t mean to physically survive but just get things done.’

‘How old is your phone?’ Britney asked, taking a seat amongst the fairy lights in the courtyard.

Tiff followed suit. ‘About a year old,’ she answered.

‘And what do you use it for?’

‘Social media, taking photos and sharing on insta—’

‘Photos of what?’

‘Anything, really.’

‘Why?’

‘I like to share, I suppose.’

‘How old were you when you got your first phone?’

‘Eleven, I think.’

It was Ryan’s old Nokia after her mother had bought him a new one.

‘And you didn’t die prior to getting one.’