17 Church Row

by James Carol

  ‘Is everything all right Nikki?’

  ‘Everything’s fine.’

  ‘Your heart rate is elevated and you’re just standing there. Are you sure you’re all right?’

  Nikki didn’t need either of those things pointed out. She could feel her heart beating uncomfortably against her ribcage.

  ‘I’m just worried about Bella, that’s all.’

  ‘Dr Santos is an excellent psychiatrist. Bella’s in very good hands.’

  ‘I know. It’s just that . . .’ Her voice trailed off.

  ‘I can switch the camera on in Bella’s room so you can observe what’s happening.’

  The suggestion hung in the air for a moment, drifting in the silent spaces of the kitchen. It might have been Nikki’s imagination, but it sounded as though Alice was talking more carefully than usual, as though they were co-conspirators. Her heart was suddenly beating faster than ever. Laura and Bella wouldn’t know that she was watching, but there was a word for that – spying. Alice was keeping quiet. Maybe she was trying not to pressure her; maybe she was giving her space to come to this decision in her own way, in her own time. And maybe she was just a machine that was waiting for its next instruction.

  ‘Switch the camera on,’ she said quietly.

  The Picasso disappeared, replaced with a wide-angle camera feed from Bella’s empty bedroom. Nikki could see the bed and the desk and the chest of drawers, so she knew Alice had the right room. What she couldn’t see was any sign of Bella or Laura.

  ‘Where’s Bella?’ The question came out as an anguished cry, loud and desperate.

  ‘She’s outside,’ Alice replied calmly.

  So why the hell why are you showing me a picture of her bedroom? There was time for the thought to form in her mind but before she could get the words out the picture on the screen changed, the camera zooming in on the patio doors. What had been an insignificant part of the overall picture now became the main focus. Bella sat cross-legged on the ground in the shade of the tree, drawing something on her pad. Laura was sitting cross-legged opposite her, watching intently. She had a pencil in her hand and there was a pad lying on her lap, but from this angle it looked as though the top sheet was blank. Their images were distorted by the glass, soft and mellow, like she was seeing them through the lens of a dream. Now that she knew they were there it was hard to believe that she hadn’t seen them straightaway. Eyes glued to the screen, Nikki backed up to the work island and sat down heavily on one of the tall stools. Her legs felt as though they were made from rubber but at least her heart was starting to settle into a more normal rhythm again.

  ‘Is there any way to get a better picture?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Nikki, I don’t have any cameras in the garden.’

  ‘What about sound? Is there anyway to improve that?’

  ‘If you want, I can access the built-in microphone on Bella’s tablet.’

  ‘Please.’

  The sound came on. At that moment no one was speaking, but Nikki could hear the wind whispering through the branches of the tree, and, off in the distance, the drone of an airplane. She was about to ask Alice if there was any way to enhance the sound when Laura spoke. Her voice was louder than the ambient sounds and as clear as you would get on a mobile.

  ‘What are you drawing?’

  Bella put down her pad and picked up her tablet. She tapped at the screen with her index finger. ‘The Cowardly Lion.’

  Nikki couldn’t see Bella’s mouth from this angle, which made it possible to believe that she was actually hearing her speak.

  ‘Is the Cowardly Lion one of your favourite characters?’

  Bella nodded.

  ‘My favourite character was always Toto. He was cute.’

  ‘I like Toto too, but he didn’t talk.’

  ‘Does it matter that he didn’t talk?’

  Bella hesitated then started jabbing at the screen of her tablet. ‘It would be better if he talked.’

  Why?’

  ‘I don’t know. It just would.’

  ‘Dorothy understands him. Isn’t that the important thing?’

  ‘It would still be better if he talked.’

  ‘Why is the Cowardly Lion your favourite?’

  Bella didn’t answer straightaway. She was biting her lip again, thinking. Nikki realised she was holding her breath and forced herself to exhale.

  ‘I like the way that he isn’t brave to start with and then he gets brave.’

  ‘When he’s scared at the start, does that make you feel sad?’

  ‘A little. I want to hug him and make him feel better.’

  Nikki wished it was that easy. She had brought both her children up to believe that a hug could solve almost any problem. The key word there was ‘almost’, because if there was one thing life had taught both her and Bella, it was that there were things that a hug just wasn’t going to cure.

  ‘Do you ever get scared?’

  There was a subtle change in Laura’s tone. This was a question that mattered. A shadow of guilt drifted across Nikki as she waited for Bella’s answer. She was suddenly aware that she shouldn’t be doing this. The relationship between therapist and patient was a sacred one. She almost told Alice to bring back the Picasso, but couldn’t quite get the words out.

  ‘Sometimes,’ Bella admitted.

  ‘What scares you?’

  Bella answered with a shrug.

  ‘Snakes scare me,’ Laura said. ‘They always look so slimy.’

  Bella shook her head and tapped on her tablet screen. ‘They’re not slimy. They feel dry.’

  ‘Wow! You’ve actually touched a snake.’

  She had. Shortly before the girls turned four they had visited Woburn Safari Park – it had been one of their last days out together. They had gone to a demonstration in the reptile house and at the end of the show all the kids had been invited up to the front hold one of the snakes. Grace had been first in the line, Bella second, but hadn’t that always been the way when they were faced with something new? With Grace gone, Bella had become even more timid. Nikki knew that she was partly to blame. She should do more to push Bella out of her comfort zone, but it was so difficult when there was so much danger out there in the world. Nikki had seen the emotions flit across Bella’s face. The smile as she had remembered holding the snake; the sadness when she remembered that Grace had got there first.

  ‘It was cool.’

  That was what the voice coming from the tablet said, but her face told a different story. Nikki just wanted to reach through the screen and scoop Bella up into her arms. This was one of those situations where a hug just might make a difference.

  ‘This is a story I need to hear.’

  Bella spent the next couple of minutes relaying what happened that day. The one thing missing was any mention of Grace. On the surface it was as though Grace had been whitewashed from the memory, but she was still there, hiding behind the veiled sadness in Bella’s eyes. Bella finished talking and Laura gently encouraged her back to her drawing. It was a good call. Push too hard and Bella was likely to bring down the shutters. Nikki had seen that happen before.

  For a while Nikki watched the screen. She knew she shouldn’t but couldn’t help herself. Bella was putting the final touches to her drawing. Watching her facial expressions was fascinating. They might have been distorted by the window but they were still distinct enough to tell the story of her emotions. The eyes narrowing in concentration; the frowns when things weren’t quite going her way; the lip biting. She had always been like this. Even when she was little she would get so absorbed in a task that the rest of the world ceased to exist. Laura was drawing too, although from this angle it looked more like she was just doodling. Most of her attention seemed to be fixed on Bella. Watching. Studying. Cataloguing.

  ‘You have a call, Nikki.’

  Nikki experienced a brief flash of guilt as she came all the way back into the room. For a second she felt as though she had been caught with her hand in the cookie
jar. ‘Who is it?’

  ‘I don’t recognise the number.’

  ‘You’d best put them on.’ Nikki waited for the click then said, ‘Hello, can I help you?’

  ‘Is that Nikki?’

  Sofia. Nikki recognised her voice straightaway. English delivered with a soft Spanish accent. But how could this be Sofia? Sofia was dead. All of a sudden Nikki could hardly breathe. Her head was swimming like she might pass out. ‘Sofia,’ she whispered, feeling like a crazy person because she was talking to a dead woman.

  ‘Not Sofia. Luciana.’

  Which explained everything. Luciana’s accent was stronger than Sofia’s and her English was hesitant because she lived in Spain and rarely used it. She had arrived in the UK yesterday to deal with the aftermath of her sister’s death. Nikki sympathised. The pain of packing away the life of someone you loved was something she understood. Some things just didn’t fit into a neat box. No matter how hard you tried there would always be something spilling out.

  ‘How are you holding up?’

  ‘Okay. I call because they have the autopsy.’ Luciana struggled to pronounce autopsy but there was enough there for Nikki to work out what she was saying. ‘Sofia had a drug overdose.’

  Nikki could feel the frown creeping over her face. This had to be a mistake. Some sort of misunderstanding. ‘Are you sure that’s what happened?’

  ‘I’m sure. My sister, she died of a drug overdose.’

  Chapter 36

  Catriona Fisher walked into the room, telling herself that she was in charge here. The suit she was wearing was brand new and expensive. Black, of course, because that showed you meant business. The heels were uncomfortable, but they added an extra couple of inches to her height. When you measured in at five foot two and three-quarters you played for every advantage you could get. Her hair had been freshly dyed for this meeting, the turquoise stripe replaced with a vibrant red one. Red was a warrior colour. It was the colour of danger.

  Her heels tapped against the tiled floor as she walked towards the large conference table. The meeting was being held in a corner office up on the thirtieth floor. Through the south-facing window she could see the city stretching out into the distance like some vast model village. The east-facing window showed the river snaking and widening. Some people would be impressed by this view. All Catriona saw was a missed opportunity. A view like this demanded floor-to-ceiling windows, but for some reason the architect had opted for half-length ones. The view from her penthouse was much more impressive, in part because it was so much better framed.

  She took her seat, then removed her laptop from its case and switched it on. The three chairs on the other side of the table were occupied by men in suits that were way more expensive than hers. Walking into the room she had felt overdressed; sitting down she suddenly felt decidedly underdressed. She looked at each of the three men in turn, starting with the one on the left. The standard advice to gain perspective in these situations was to imagine them sitting there in their underwear, but that really wasn’t an image she wanted inside her head. Instead, she thought of them as the Three Stooges. Larry, Moe and Curly. In that order, left to right.

  ‘In your own time’ Moe said. This got a chuckle from the two men sitting either side of him. He was older than the other two and clearly in charge.

  ‘Believe me, this is going to be worth it,’ she replied, somehow managing to maintain her smile when what she really wanted to do was stab him in the eye with something sharp. The laptop finished booting up and she quickly loaded the presentation that she had spent a large part of the last forty-eight hours working on. She turned the screen around and the Three Stooges repositioned themselves to see better. The introduction was impressive, even if she said so herself. It even looked good reflected in the window behind Moe. It started with a white screen to represent a blank sheet of paper. A single blue line appeared, then another, and another, faster and faster, the lines quickly coalescing into a drawing of the front elevation of 17 Church Row. Before you could take a breath the lines were fleshed out into a 3D rendering of the building, the view changing so that you could see every part of the house. As it slowly spun around on the screen, the image changed yet again, the 3D rendering turning into a picture of the actual house. Day became night, the lights came on, and the picture stopped moving, frozen on this image. Catriona had always thought that the house looked best when it was lit up like this.

  ‘My name is Alice and I am the future.’

  This had sounded much better in her office, with the sound turned up loud enough to shake her fillings and make her ears hurt. Through the laptop’s tinny speakers the moment lacked the impact it deserved.

  From here on it was Alice’s show as she took the three men on a virtual tour of the house, highlighting the highpoints and showing off every advantage she had to offer. Of course, this wasn’t actually Alice talking. Every word had been written by Catriona. She had agonised over the script, writing and rewriting until she was satisfied, then given it to Alex, who had taken her words and turned them into an audio file. The illusion worked, though. The presentation ended and the office fell silent. Catriona snapped the laptop lid shut and all eyes turned to her. The move was as calculated as everything that had preceded it. Alice had done her part; this was her show now. What she saw did little to fill her with confidence. Moe didn’t look impressed, and Curly just looked plain bored.

  ‘I don’t see what the big deal is.’ This came from Larry. He was sitting on the far left and was the youngest of the three by almost a decade. He was smiling smugly, like what he had just seen was just one big joke. ‘When you get right down to it, all we’ve got here is a house with an inbuilt VA. Houses have been around since we decided that we didn’t want to live in caves. As for VAs, they’re a gimmick. I’ve got one in my house. It was fun for five seconds, then when I realised it didn’t do half the things it was supposed to, it just became a pain. They’re more trouble than their worth, if you ask me.’

  ‘The Internet was a gimmick when it first got started,’ Catriona said. ‘Mobile phones, too. And personal computers. Now we can’t live without them.’

  ‘This isn’t in the same league.’

  ‘That’s because those things have become an integral part of our lives. It wasn’t always that way.’

  ‘If you say so, but do you know something? If I want a pizza I’ll just pick up the phone and call for one.’

  ‘But wouldn’t it be so much easier if you could just tell Alice what you wanted and let her do the hard work?’

  ‘What? And end up with the Vegetarian when I ordered a Meat Feast?’ he replied, provoking a laugh from Moe and Curly.

  ‘That’s not going to happen. With Alice if you ask for a Meat Feast, that’s exactly what you’re going to get.’

  Larry settled a little deeper into his seat and looked over at the other two men. ‘We’re wasting our time. I’ve seen this movie before and I know how it ends. Basically we lose a shitload of money. If this had been pre-Alexa then it might be worth a punt – we could probably make a quick buck based on the novelty factor – but you know as well as I do that you don’t get any prizes for second place. Particularly when you’re talking about the tech industry.’

  ‘You need to stop thinking of Alice as just another VA,’ Catriona told him. ‘She is so much more than that.’

  Larry went to say something and Moe put his hand up, stopping him dead. ‘Okay, Ms Fisher, you have thirty seconds to convince me.’

  ‘A home is a place of comfort and security,’ she said, ploughing straight in with a carefully prepared answer. ‘If you look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs then the need for shelter is right there at the bottom of the pyramid, holding everything else up. Now, that might be true for 99 per cent of the population, but I’m not interested in them. What I’m interested in is that other 1 per cent, because that 1 per cent holds 50 per cent of the world’s wealth. Do you think they go to bed at night worrying about whether or not they’re goi
ng to have a roof over their head the next day. Of course they don’t. Why would they when they probably own a house for every day of the week? So what does a house mean to these people?’

  Catriona stopped talking and looked at each of the men in turn starting with Larry and ending with Curly. ‘It’s a status symbol. It’s a way for them to shout out to the world that they’ve got something you don’t. And right now, that’s exactly what’s happening. I take it you’ve heard of Ethan Rhodes?’

  ‘The radio DJ?’ Moe said.

  Catriona nodded. ‘He’s not just any Radio DJ. He currently hosts Radio 2’s breakfast show. Nine million people tune in to hear him every day, and today when they tuned in they heard him talking about Alice. That sort of publicity you can’t buy. Then there’s the fact that he mixes in showbiz circles. These people have money. What’s more, they compete to outdo each other to be first in line to get whatever the next new thing is. And when they can’t be first, they go for bigger and better. This house is impressive, however, the next one will be even grander, and the one after that will be grander still. As for Alice, Professor Murray is constantly working to improve her program. You can guarantee that version two will be way more sophisticated than version one.’ A pause. ‘So what makes Alice so special? What sets her apart? Well, unlike all the other VAs on the market she doesn’t wait to be told what to do. She has the ability to learn and think for herself. Basically, she will anticipate your needs before you even know that you have them. A good way to think about her is that she’s every servant you’ll ever need.’

  Larry laughed at that. ‘A computer that can think for itself? That’s a little too science fiction, if you ask me.’

  ‘Not fiction. This is fact. Look, I have to admit that I was sceptical to start with, but Alice can think for herself. I’ve seen it with my own two eyes. And that’s all down to Professor Murray. Before moving into the private sector, he designed AI systems for the military. He’s light years ahead of anyone else in his field. Where everyone else was working to create Artificial Intelligence, he was working to create actual intelligence.’