The Ultimate Community

by J Meverington

  A text message pinged causing them both to jump. Alice picked up her phone and gulped as she read the message.

  I know you’re back in London and Damion is with you. Watch your back, I’m coming to get you.

  With shaking hands, Alice passed Damion her phone.

  ‘I’m ringing Doofy,’ he said, and headed into his bedroom.

  Alice could only hear his muffled voice through the wall, so had no idea what was being said.

  After a while he came back out and sat on the couch next to her.

  ‘Allie, you need to trust me on this, but for now, you need to keep away from Dr Smith, at least until I’ve worked out what’s going on.’

  ‘But why?’

  ‘It’s a long and complicated story which I don’t have time to go into now.’

  ‘But... I have an appointment in a few days.’

  ‘Postpone it. I have Doofy coming over to help deal with your text messages.’

  ‘Do you think they’re related to Dr Smith?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  Chapter 23

  Doofy arrived a week later. He’d flown into London and had spent the last few days visiting his parents in Oxford, so he was fresh and ready to start his investigation.

  ‘Beer?’ Damion asked.

  ‘Yes please,’ Doofy replied.

  ‘Allie?’

  ‘You know I don’t drink anymore so stop asking me!’

  ‘Oh yeah, sorry. Cup of tea?’

  ‘Yes, that will be great, thanks.’

  Damion grabbed two beers from the fridge for him and Doofy and put the jug on to boil for Alice.

  After a brief catchup, Alice told him about the text-messages she’d been receiving, then handed him her phone.

  ‘Can I keep your phone for a few days?’

  ‘Sure. I’ve given up drinking so I’m not in contact with my friends at the moment. I only use it to listen to music, I can get a cheap phone which will do the same thing.’

  ‘Hey, do you guys mind if I give Chas a call, I’ve not been able to get hold of him for the last couple of days.’

  ‘Sure, you need to keep your husband under control while you’re away,’ Damion joked. Doofy didn’t look so amused.

  As Doofy dialled, Alice heard the American dial tone going through, a single long beep, rather than the two short rings they got here. Nostalgia shuddered through her bones, and she was glad she no longer lived there.

  ‘Um... who’s this?’ Doofy said, into the phone.

  A loud voice on the other end mumbled something Alice couldn’t make out, but by the look on Doofy’s face, it wasn’t good news. He took the phone into the spare room for privacy.

  After a while, Doofy came out shaking his head.

  ‘Everything okay, mate?’

  ‘It sounds like Chas has taken in a homeless guy.’

  ‘What! Why?’

  ‘He’s been acting weird, I’m not sure what’s going on with him.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘For example, the other day we went shopping. Chas drove, and we ended up at Walmart.’

  ‘What’s wrong with Walmart?’ Alice asked.

  ‘Absolutely nothing. But it’s out of character for Chas to shop there. He’s always been a designer clothes kinda guy. I’ve teased him about it for years, telling him to stop wasting his money, that he could buy the same stuff at Walmart for a fraction of the cost. But he never listened, always liking the finer things in life. According to him, the more you paid for something, the better it was.’

  ‘Haha, sounds like you, Damion,’ Alice said.

  ‘Hey, I’m not as bad as I used to be!’

  ‘You should have seen the way his eyes lit up in Walmart. He ran around like a child let loose in a sweet shop and even bought a shirt and tie combo.’

  ‘Nooooo,’ Damion exclaimed. ‘That’s sacrilege.’

  ‘To Chas it would have been once. Then he bought shoes. Cheap ones, not his traditional Italian leather. At the checkout, the cost came to less than the price of one shirt at his normal shops. I tell you, he had me worried.’

  ‘Do you think he has money problems? A secret gambling addiction perhaps?’

  ‘Not that I know of. I quite liked the change in him though, so I never worried about it too much. But now he’s inviting homeless people into our house, I’m not so sure.’

  ‘Hey, we can sort Alice’s problem out. Why don’t you head home and make sure Chas is okay?’

  ‘I’ll wait a few days, if I haven’t heard from him by then, I’ll head back. He’s a big boy and can take care of himself.’

  ‘Another beer?’

  ‘That’s for sure!’

  ‘Are those yours,’ Doofy said, pointing to the headphones on the table.

  ‘Yes, they’re fab, the sound’s amazing.’

  ‘Chas has the exact same ones, and he wears them all the time. I talk to him and realise I’m talking to myself.’

  ‘They’re designed for a music app I listen to.’

  ‘What’s the app called?’ Damion asked.

  ‘MooSickCool,’ Alice said. She picked up the headphones and showed Damion the famous icon of a cow playing a piano in the snow.

  ‘Never heard of it. Is it new?’

  ‘We’ve had it in the States for a while and Chas has been listening to it for over a year.’

  ‘I’ve only just started using it, but I love it. All the music is free, and there’re no ads or talking.’

  ‘How can they run a radio station without ads?’ Damion asked.

  ‘It’s Indie artists wanting to make a name for themselves. No mainstream rubbish here,’ Alice replied. ‘It’s addictive. I’m starting to get anxiety about you taking my phone away!’

  Doofy laughed. ‘Not to worry.’ He fished around in his bag and pulled out a phone. ‘Here’s a brand new one you can use. Just don’t use email or any form of social media. Also, don’t text any of your friends from it. I’ll check out the MooSickCool app and see if it’s safe to download for you. I don’t want anyone to track you.’

  Alice took the phone and thanked Doofy for it, relieved he was here to help catch the culprit.

  Chapter 24

  Alice sat in the lounge twiddling her thumbs wondering how long Doofy would be. The walls of the apartment were closing in on her, leeching the air from her lungs. She needed to get outside, feel the breeze on her skin, anything other than being cooped up.

  She put on the television to distract herself, but her nerves stretched tight across her forehead making it impossible to concentrate. It scared her that someone was following her, knowing her whereabouts, and also Damion’s. Who would have it in for her?

  Doofy came out of his bedroom/makeshift office. Alice muted the TV and looked up at him.

  ‘I think you need to sit down,’ he said.

  ‘I am sitting down.’

  ‘Okay, then I had better sit down.’

  Damion wandered over. ‘Have you found anything?’

  ‘Yes, and it’s not good news, I’m afraid. I’ve done some research into the MooSickCool app, and its founder is Charles Montgomery.’

  ‘No way,’ Alice and Damion said simultaneously.

  ‘Yes way. No more of that music for you, Allie. I’ve yet to investigate deeper, but I suspect the app is being used to spy on people, probably collecting data, that sort of thing.’

  ‘Explains why it’s free,’ Damion said. ‘Do you think Charles is using the app to spy on Allie?’

  ‘I ran into him the other day at yoga. He seemed fine, couldn’t imagine why he’d do that.’

  ‘You did yoga?’ Damion asked.

  ‘Allie’s meeting up with her stalking ex-boyfriend and you’re incredulous about yoga? You two are both weird.’

  ‘Hey, it’s all part of my health and fitness plan, so stop teasing. Anyway, Charles apologised about how he’d treated me. He insisted he’d never text-messaged me.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me this?’ Damion said.
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  ‘You were in France, and I didn’t think it was worth mentioning, and I believed him when he said it wasn’t him.’

  ‘Well, I’m sorry to say this Allie, but the evidence so far is pointing in his direction. I’ll investigate further, but in the meantime, I don’t want you leaving the apartment on your own. Make sure either myself or Damion is with you.’

  Alice agreed as fear crept in, making a home in the pit of her belly. Was Charles after her again? He’d been pleasant the day she saw him, so detached, like he had more important things on his mind. If he was out to get her why didn’t he do something at the time? Confused and scared, Alice craved a drink. And not a green tea sort of drink but something to take away her apprehension. If she ever needed Dr Smith, it was now.

  Alice was meeting with him the following morning, but she remembered Damion’s warning about seeing him. If he couldn’t give her a good reason not to go, then why should she listen to him? But she couldn’t go out alone. It was a stalemate.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Damion asked.

  ‘No, I’m freaked out by the whole thing and I need a drink. I’m supposed to be seeing Dr Smith tomorrow and I think I should go.’

  ‘No Allie, that’s not a good idea, I’m not sure we can trust him.’

  ‘Who’s Dr Smith?’ Doofy asked.

  ‘He’s a doctor I’ve been seeing to help me cure my addictions. He solved my drinking problem in one session, but it doesn’t last, and I need to keep going back.’

  ‘Sounds like a chiropractor, go once and you’re hooked. Why don’t you trust him?’ Doofy asked Damion.

  Damion let out a big sigh. ‘It’s a long story.’

  ‘Is it related to the messages Allie’s been receiving?’

  ‘I don’t know. Possibly. I have reason to believe Dr Ethan Smith may have a relationship with Charles Montgomery.’

  ‘You’d better tell us what’s going on,’ Doofy said.

  Chapter 25

  Damion sat down in front of them, leaned forward, placed his forearms on his thighs and clasped his hands together.

  ‘Like I said, it’s a long story, and top-secret. What I’m about to tell you can’t leave this room. Ever. Can I have your word?’

  Nerves tingled in the pit of Alice’s stomach, wondering what he was about to reveal. Both she and Doofy nodded.

  ‘Allie, there will be a lot of sensitive information about your mother here, and your adopted parents. Are you sure you can handle it?’

  ‘I’m sure.’

  ‘It started about 30 years ago. Martin Bickford-Smith was an organ transplant surgeon, and your mother, Camilla, was his wife. As I’ve told you before, Camilla had a nervous breakdown, and moved to a commune to recover. Meanwhile, Martin Bickford-Smith had, with the help of a computer expert, created an application that could download memories and knowledge into the brain via a computer program.’

  ‘No way,’ Doofy said.

  ‘Yes way, and it worked.’

  ‘But how is something like that even possible?’ Alice asked. ‘How does it work?’

  ‘It involves recording electrical activity and pulses within the brain. When Martin Bickford-Smith died in a car accident, he’d had the latest copy of his brain restored into a younger man.’ Damion paused. ‘This younger man lived in The Community. I’m sorry to tell you this Alice, but that younger man is Ethan Smith.’

  ‘You’re kidding me!’

  ‘No. I knew him when I lived there. He’s had a facelift and changed his looks, but it’s him. It’s his eyes, that intense brown stare is unmistakable.’

  ‘So, you’re telling us this shrink Allie has been seeing, is from a commune, and he’s had the brain of a surgeon downloaded into his?’ Doofy asked.

  ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.’

  ‘Sounds far-fetched, like something out of a Hollywood blockbuster. How do you know all this?’

  ‘I was there when it was happening, I saw it first-hand.’

  ‘This is heavy stuff. Does that mean he can perform surgery? How much of the surgeon’s brain is absorbed?’

  ‘I’ve no idea what they can do with a downloaded brain.’

  ‘That explains how he’s achieved so much at a young age,’ Alice said. ‘But how do you think he’s related to Charles?’

  ‘Charles worked for Martin and was hired to keep me from finding you, which is why he manipulated you to move in with him.’

  ‘So, he was never into me?’ Alice asked, feeling used.

  ‘Not sure, he may even have been brainwashed himself. I don’t know the ins and outs.’

  ‘I’d love to get hold of that computer program,’ Doofy said.

  ‘I’ve got his old laptop in my closet if you want to check it out. There’s a backup of Ethan’s original brain on there. That just sounded weird saying it out loud.’

  ‘Do you mind if I have a look?’

  ‘Sure, help yourself.’

  Damion got up and disappeared into his room, emerging a few seconds later with the laptop and handed it to Doofy.

  Alice tried to digest this new information. Downloading memories? It sounded futuristic. Was it really possible? Is that what Dr Smith had done to her? Downloaded crap into her brain? She shuddered. Then a random thought crossed her mind. If Ethan had lived in The Community, then he would know her mother. Now she needed to see him more than anything.

  Chapter 26

  Alice watched TV while Doofy checked out the laptop, but she found it hard to hide her agitation, not used to sitting around doing nothing. Since giving up drinking, she had even more energy and realised that could be why she drank so much, to slow herself down. She was over it; the text-messages, the threats, the sense of danger.

  After an hour, Doofy came out of his office.

  ‘Right, we need to make a list of all the people who might have it in for you, Allie.’

  ‘I can’t think of anyone.’

  ‘Okay, then let’s list everyone who’s had major part in your life, and go from there. We’ll put Charles Montgomery at the top of the list. Anyone you work with? Perhaps some jealously at being the boss’s daughter?’

  ‘Frederick was peeved when I gave Allie a job at The Crypt, but I moved her to The Community Bar when he complained,’ Damion said.

  ‘He complained about me?’

  ‘Yeah, you kept calling him Freddy. He hated that. You were too upbeat for that place, anyway.’

  Alice laughed out loud. She had known it annoyed him, but she hadn’t realised that was the reason she’d changed jobs.

  Doofy jotted down Frederick’s name. ‘Anyone else? What about your friend Katie?’

  ‘No way, we’re best friends.’

  ‘Sometimes it’s the people closest to us we least suspect.’ He took Katie’s details from Allie. ‘You need to mention everyone you can think of.’

  Alice thought about Peaches Campbell, but that was a lifetime ago. Peaches had hated her at school, but surely, now she’s rich and famous, she wouldn’t care about her.

  ‘Allie?’ Doofy prompted.

  She told him about Peaches and how she’d seen her the other day on a video. Doofy wrote the details on his tablet.

  ‘What about Jason?’ Damion said. ‘You broke up with him, maybe he’s holding a grudge. Have you heard from him since?’

  ‘No. I tried calling him, but his phone’s been disconnected.’

  Doofy sat up straight, hearing this news. ‘Did you not think that was strange?’

  ‘Well, of course. And here’s the weird thing. I went to the gym where he worked, but there’s no record of him having worked there.’

  ‘And you didn’t think to mention this?’ Damion sounded frustrated.

  ‘To be honest, I’d forgotten about it, with all this other stuff going on.’

  ‘Okay, well tracking this Jason guy down is a good place to start,’ Doofy said. ‘Where does he live?’

  ‘Wimbledon. Don’t ask me his address though, I’ve no idea.’

&nbs
p; ‘You dated him for six months and don’t know his address? Did you never visit his place?’ Damion asked.

  ‘No, he always came here. In Wimbledon, he shared a room with another guy. They had a full house most of the time, and he always complained how messy it was.’

  ‘What about his family? Did you meet them?’

  ‘No, he’s from Sydney, and all his family live there.’

  ‘Maybe he’s done a runner back home,’ Damion suggested. ‘That would explain why his phone has been disconnected.’

  ‘Doesn’t explain why he lied about working at the gym,’ Doofy said.

  ‘It’s a shame you don’t know where he lives. What about his friends? Didn’t you go to their place for a barbecue not long ago?’

  ‘Oh yeah, in Hampstead. Tash and Kevin’s place.’

  ‘Do you remember the address?’ Doofy asked.

  ‘No, but I could find my way back. It was close to the tube station. And I remember the house as it had a black door with a number ten on it. It reminded me of 10 Downing Street.’

  ‘Well, why don’t we go there now,’ Doofy said. ‘As it’s Saturday, hopefully someone will be home.’

  ‘Good plan, I’m so sick of being cooped up in this apartment.’

  They all caught the tube to Hampstead, and Alice led the way. Despite all the houses looking the same to her in England, she had noted the directions, knowing she would leave early.

  They stopped at the bottom of the steps.

  ‘This is it,’ she said.

  The three of them climbed the steps and Doofy knocked. They waited for a short while, then the door opened, and an elderly lady appeared.

  ‘I’m looking for Tash,’ Alice said.

  ‘I’m sorry, you have the wrong house,’ the lady said, and shut the door on them.

  ‘That was weird,’ Alice said.

  ‘Are you sure this is the place?’ Damion asked her.

  ‘Positive. I even recognised the strange colour scheme inside, the striped wallpaper.’

  ‘How long ago were you here?’ Doofy asked.

  ‘About three months ago. They could’ve moved.’

  Doofy knocked again and the same lady answered the door.

  ‘I’m sorry to bother you again,’ Doofy said, ‘but my friend visited this house a few months ago when her friends still lived here. How long ago did they move?’