“Right, Jess, let’s find your paperwork and make some more calls.” Train driver Andy and the insurance company would be hardest. Veronica and Alexis would wait.
The bundle of money was still playing on Simon’s mind and he hoped that somewhere along the line, one of the phone calls would answer that question but he certainly wasn’t going to ask about it. If it was Jessica’s fair and square then no one else need be involved. If it wasn’t hers then maybe not even their mother should know about it. He’d cross whichever bridge needed crossing and deal with whatever he found on the other side.
With no sign of paperwork downstairs, Simon went to the back bedroom, which he knew Jess had been using as a study the past few months.
On a bookshelf were over a dozen ring binders, each labelled with their relevant contents. Another of Jess’ skills was organisation; the advantage of being a secretary, Simon supposed. He chose the ‘Utilities’ folder first and called the companies involved. As each phone call progressed, Simon got into a better routine of explaining that his sister had passed away and that their services were no longer required. He left the electricity company til last and was asked to give a final meter reading when he was ready to sell the house. He’d been warned that it could take a few weeks to be granted power of attorney but he’d been given a Green Form and Social Security paperwork so he could make the necessary arrangements. Collecting the death certificate was the next step. Like Marion, keeping busy was helping him get through what needed to be done.
The next thing he’d need to look for would be her Will, or at least a solicitor’s letter or some confirmation that a Will had been registered. Of course, although the police saying Simon was her next of kin, his mother was legally but he’d honour Jess’ wishes if she wanted to leave anything to friends.
He remembered the four phone calls he’d yet to make. Train driver Andy had his voicemail on so Simon left a message in a similar manner to the others but added, “Would you call me back. I’d like to know more about what had happened to my sister. I’m sorry. I realise it’ll be hard but I need to speak to someone who was there.”
The insurance company was very understanding. Mortified she’d made such a horrendous mistake, Claire said she’d deal with the police and would only call Simon when she needed to.
He then looked down at Jess’ mobile which had sprung back into life and was almost at full charge. It only then occurred to him that he could have swapped their batteries over but he’d been busy and neither Veronica nor Alexis had called in the meantime so he couldn't see that matter being particularly urgent. He pressed the ‘names’ button and tapped the down key a couple of times. He found ‘Alexis mobile’ and jotted down the number. He scrolled back up to start from the end of the alphabet but there were no Vs. So Jessica knew Alexis but possibly not Veronica. But why had Veronica been calling Jess’ house? Alexis must have been staying there or passed the landline number as a secondary contact number for some reason.
Simon dialled Alexis’ mobile number from the landline. It rang for ages and Simon expected it to go to answerphone when a woman answered.
“Hello?”
“Oh, hello. Is that Alexis?”
“No, it’s not. Who’s this?”
“I’m Jessica’s brother, Simon.”
“I’m sorry, Simon, but I think you’ve got the wrong number. There’s no Alexis or Jessica here.”
“So you don’t know Jess?”
The woman paused. “I don’t think so. No, I don’t.”
“Sorry to have troubled you.”
“No problem,” the woman said and hung up.
###
Chapter 17: Beth and Nate
“Whose phone is this?” Beth growled at her husband as she disconnected the call.
Nate hesitated before saying, “Mine.”
“Why did someone ring asking for two women and why have I never seen it before?”
“It’s a replacement. I lost my other one so I got this… cheap… and I guess it’s still got an old number.” He held his left hand out, palm side up.
“How cheap?” Beth’s eyes narrowed, phone still clasped in her right hand.
“From Camden market,” he said, hand still outstretched.
“If you’re lying to me,” she said, reluctantly putting the phone on his palm.
He opened his black leather jacket and slipped the phone into an inside pocket. “Honey. I promised.”
“You did and I won’t forget it. Any more trouble and you’re out of here. You understand? I’m not bringing this baby up with its father in prison.”
Nate longed for the other look to return, the vulnerable one. He wasn’t so keen on this look. This look implied that it could hurt him at any time. Carrying a sprog obviously didn’t mellow her and from what he’d heard of hormones, he thought he’d better lock away the kitchen knives.
Something was niggling at the back of Beth’s mind as she went to do the washing up that evening. She’d known Nate for long enough to know when he was telling the truth, which wasn’t often. Even a simple question like ‘does my bum look big in this?’ gave him away. Not that she was overweight. The never-going-to-happen-in-real-life figure of Lara Croft was, Beth knew, how Nate liked his women and Beth’s size twelve frame would never match it but somehow they’d been attracted to each other and after three years, had got married. Beth wasn’t so sure what she saw in him these days but she was a traditional woman and took her vows very seriously. Sickness, health, richer, poorer it was, and that was how it was going to stay; until prison or another medium separated them.
She couldn’t however, get the phone call out of her mind. The chap, Simon, had seemed convinced that either of the women he mentioned… Beth racked her brain… that Alex, no, Alexis, or Jessica had a connection to the phone. He’d been quite desperate so it had clearly been important. She knew there was more to it than her husband was letting on and she was determined to get to the bottom of it.
“You’re up late, Beth.”
Beth nodded.
“Aren’t you tired?”
She shook her head.
“And you don’t normally like Top Gear.”
She shrugged.
Nate wasn’t thrilled by the silent treatment but at least she was spending time with him. They usually did their own things when a programme was on that one favoured more than the other. He’d go down the pub during her soaps and she’d read her book when he had blokes’ shows on.
Beth, on the other hand, had one thing in mind. To get to the leather jacket that was slumped over the end of the sofa. Nate’s end. The jacket went everywhere with him; everywhere except bed and she was going to get that mobile phone if it killed her. Or him. You’ve been reading too much, she thought, letting your thoughts get away from you. It was a wrong number and Nate’s right, he got it from someone who buys and sells and the last person wasn’t careful enough. She hoped that was it was but she had to know for sure.
She finally broke her silence. “Cuppa?”
He looked at her sincerely. “Mmm, please. Thank you.” He then returned his gaze to Jeremy Clarkson and ‘The Hamster’.
Beth figured that if he wasn’t going to go to bed then she’d make him something that would encourage him.
She returned a few minutes later with two cups of steaming hot chocolate. Whenever she was feeling amorous, which was less often than him, it always did the trick. He’d drink, feel sleepy and relaxed and lead her upstairs.
She’d waited until a few minutes before the end of the programme knowing he’d not be interested in the documentary that followed. And true to form, he’d not even needed to let the credits roll when he was rubbing his eyes, stretching his arms and yawning.
“Are you coming up, Beth?”
“Sure, in a minute. Let me do the washing up and I’ll be with you.”
“OK.” Then, with a wink, he said, “See you up there.”
Beth wasn’t in the mood but maybe by the time she’d done
the washing up, after checking the phone of course, he might have fallen asleep.
As he got up off the sofa, he went to grab his jacket.
“You’re taking that to bed?” she asked a little too quickly.
Nate laughed. “You’re right, wasn’t thinking. I’ll hang it up in the hall so you don’t tell me off for cluttering the place.”
Beth smiled half-heartedly and followed him out to the hall, pausing a little too long, while he put his jacket on the hook.
“Beth?”
“Mmm?”
“Are you following me?”
“No, sorry. Just, er, going to the kitchen. But was… was waiting for a kiss.”
Nate grinned. “Come ‘ere.”
Beth did as she was told and felt his tongue dart into her mouth. As she backed off to go to the kitchen, he kept hold of her with his right hand and rubbed her stomach with his left. “I’m pleased, you know. It was a shock. I can’t wait for another Nate.”
Heaven help us, Beth thought as she turned and walked slowly to the kitchen.
As she stood by the sink she waited until she heard the bathroom sink taps run before going back into the hall. She slowly pulled back the left side of Nate’s jacket and pulled out the mobile.
Walking back into the kitchen, she shut the door and pressed buttons, grateful that whoever the phone had belonged to hadn’t been security-conscious enough to put a code on it.
Once she’d worked out how to take off the key lock, she pressed the ‘menu’ button, the phone not too dissimilar to her own, then went into the call history. She knew that the last person to ring was Simon when the caller ID had come up as ‘Home’. So Nate had to be lying and had no rights to the phone. The least she could do was to return it to its rightful owner but she didn’t recognise the area code. With the phone in her hand, she returned to the lounge and pulled open a drawer that contained the phone directory. The first section after the index and introduction was a numerical listing. 01632 came up as Eversley. She didn’t even know where that was.
Returning to the kitchen, she saved the phone number into her own mobile’s contacts list and went further back into the call history on Nate’s mobile. There were seven in a row from someone called Veronica.
Beth came out of the history listing and went into ‘names’. She scrolled down to see if Simon was in there but was surprised to see that there were only five names in the entire list: Cherry, Daniel, Home, Sindy and Veronica. Daniel had to be the boyfriend, so the three women must be girlfriends; the only three that Alexis had presumably. Not even Jessica had made the list.
Beth looked at the clock on the top right of the screen. 10.45. It was too late to ring Veronica or Simon and certainly too late to ring the other names. She didn’t bother writing down their numbers as there were no recent calls from them, missed or otherwise.
The toilet overhead flushed so she quickly put the keypad back on ‘lock’ mode and crept back to the jacket before the bathroom door opened. She did the washing up then joined her husband upstairs.
Beth thought of more than England in the next few minutes and when Nate was snoring away next to her, she turned to face the wall and went to sleep, a frown planted on her face.
###
Chapter 18: Simon
Phoning the bank proved to be more of a tricky order for Simon. They’d been, naturally, reluctant to give him any details over the phone but had made an appointment to see the bank manager the next day to discuss her affairs.
Simon had just put down the phone handset from speaking to the bank when it rang. “Hello?”
“Hello. Can I speak to Simon?”
“Speaking.” He paused to let the caller continue.
“Hello, Simon. My name is Andy Baker. You phoned and left a message. About your sister. I’m the train driver.”
“Yes. Thank you for calling back. I’m so sorry for what happened.”
“Shit, so am I. If I could have stopped the train, I would have. Please understand that.”
“Oh, I do. The police say it was an accident, that my sister’s car clipped a van on the ice and got stuck on the track. Do you remember what happened? Were you hurt?”
“Cuts and bruises. We all escaped with cuts and bruises. Thanks to your sister. She was so brave, so calm. She tried to drive the car off the track but it wouldn’t budge. Did you know that? I slammed on the brakes as soon as I saw her, of course.
The two guys from the van ran…”
“You saw the van drivers? Have you spoken to them?”
“Yes, at the scene. They’re shaken up as you can imagine. They tried to help but couldn’t get to her in time. Neither of them was injured and no real damage to the van. I think the police took it for tests.”
“They have. I’ve seen it, in the police impound. Dented wing, that’s all.”
“And the mess that your sister’s car… I’m sorry. You don’t want to hear that.”
“I’ve seen it. She didn’t stand a chance.”
“What would you like to know?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know. Your side of events.”
Andy recalled the morning as best he could, as Simon sat on the sofa taking it all in. It was much as the police had described it and Simon was reassured that it had been quick and Andy agreed that it appeared to be a freak of nature, bad timing.
“Thanks so much for ringing, Andy. It can’t have been easy.”
“Of course, I wanted to. I feel for you, mate. If there’s anything else you want to know. You have my number.”
Simon thanked him again and hung up.
With the Veronica and Alexis matter still up in the air but looking like being unsolvable, all Simon could do was continue going through the paperwork. He’d deal with the other people in Jessica’s mobile’s phone list another time.
He looked at her bank statements in preparation for the meeting for the following day. He’d assumed that the two files had been one recent and one old but each one was a separate account, both with the same bank, both the same type of account so it didn’t make sense. It was only when Simon looked at the far right side balance column that it became clear. One was a standard account with a salary going in and utilities, shopping and cash coming out. No lump sum mortgage payments but Simon guessed these were coming out of the other account. The other statement, however, had far more going in than coming out. Simon flicked through the statements until he reached the oldest at the back. The account had been opened just under a year earlier and there were regular deposits of a few hundred pounds at a time; more money than a regular day job could ever pay. It would explain the roll of money downstairs but not how it had come to be there. It also explained why there were no mortgage payments.
No mortgage? Jess, what on earth had you got yourself involved in? Simon thought as he put the latest statement on top of its predecessors. He heard a click downstairs as the CD came to a stop. Poor old Ludwig had been playing his heart out, mostly ignored.
Simon switched on Jess’ computer, which lit up an ‘apple’ logo and waited to be asked for a password. From conversations from behind their respective laptop over their mum’s dining table at Christmas, he knew the two possibilities that his sister used and he was greeted with a picture of a leopard after tapping in the first.
Letting the start-up programmes load, Simon went to the box room over the hall, but it contained a bed, ornaments dotted on shelving, TV and a few books; no personal items – a guest bedroom, nothing more.
He then headed into Jessica’s bedroom and to a wall of three wardrobes. Opening the left door of the first one, he hadn’t known what to expect but he wouldn’t have been surprised to see a pole dancer’s outfits or whips and chains. He wasn’t disappointed. Both sides were packed with designer eveningwear; he was no expert but it smelled of money. He opened the next wardrobe, which was stuffed with enough clothes, shoes and handbags to kit out a small boutique. The third wardrobe contained business suits, jumpers, skirts and a thin raincoat;
the Jessica he’d known. The woman who owned, and presumably wore, the contents of wardrobes one and two was for no one he knew. Jessica’s life involved another woman; a girlfriend, had to be. “Come out the closet too, Jessica, you’re so busted.”
All Simon had to do was wait for Alexis to turn up. It was clear she lived there from the clothes she had, more than Jessica’s. She’d obviously lost her mobile but she had to come back for her stuff.
Failing that, maybe Veronica would break her word and call.
Simon checked Jessica’s emails; a mixture of friends, colleagues, and spam. Having deleted the spam, he replied to the rest, recognising some names from the phone calls. He copied and pasted the text from one to another, personalising as necessary as he went along. He’d heard his sister talk about some of them but he’d never met them and realised that was a side of Jessica’s life he knew little about. Having replied to most of them, it occurred to him to ask them about Alexis so contacted them again. As it was unlikely he’d get quick answers, he shut down the computer.
He went into the box room, picked a book at random, a thriller judging by the cover, and headed downstairs. Holding the book in his left hand, he tugged the lounge door handle with his right so that the door was at as near to a forty-five degree angle as he could get it, then lay the book on the hall floor, aligning the spine with the radiator.
He slammed the front door behind him then drove away, singing along to Heart FM.
###
Chapter 19: Simon and the Bank Manager
After Jessica: A mystery novella Page 5