The Tangled Web

by Lacey Dearie

  They both giggled at Flic’s use of the words “Internet café.” The truth was the café was just a ten year old computer with basic Internet access and a Greek keyboard in the middle of a corridor on the way to the gym.

  ‘Alright. I’ll try not to wake you when I come back upstairs,’ Vicky said.

  ‘I don’t mind. I’ll probably be awake anyway. I’ll need the gossip before I can get back to sleep,’ Flic rolled her eyes.

  Vicky slipped her jeans on and exchanged her nightdress for a vest top before grabbing the set of keys Flic was keeping in her bedside table’s drawer. She tiptoed across the cool wooden floor and out of the bedroom, peering over to the sofa bed in the living room which Lumi was sleeping on. She was sure she could see Lumi watching her, even though she was motionless. She treaded softly over to the sofa bed and held her breath as she examined Lumi’s face more closely. Her eyes were half open, but she was snoring gently. Vicky crept towards the door and put the key into the lock. She noticed Flic getting up to close the bedroom door properly.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Flic worried.

  ‘Nothing. I thought Lumi was watching me, but she’s asleep. I think she sleeps with her eyes open!’ Vicky whispered.

  ‘Doesn’t surprise me. Now, get out of here!’ Flic commanded before closing the bedroom door over.

  Vicky turned the keys and stepped out of the apartment. She closed the heavy front door as quietly as possible. The last thing she needed was for Lumi to wake up again and start asking questions.

  She found that the middle-of-the-night air was no cooler than the daytime air. A breeze blasted into her face as she descended the stairs and she felt like she had stepped into a hairdryer. She walked down the stairs and across the hotel gardens towards the main building. The traffic never stopped in this town, she realised. She heard cars in the distance, some kind of insects buzzing and clicking amongst the plants in the garden and a soft meow from one of the resident cats waiting to be let inside to sleep in the cooler, air-conditioned reception area.

  ‘Hello wee pal,’ she greeted the cat softly. ‘Come on in.’ She opened the heavy glass door and stepped through, the cat eagerly following her.

  ‘Good morning,’ a voice cheered from behind the reception desk. She looked up to see the receptionist smiling at her. She looked cool and unruffled, like she had the sweat patches airbrushed out of her. How did the locals do it?

  ‘Good morning,’ Vicky cringed. She had assumed she would be alone, forgetting that the reception was open around the clock, even if the bar shut early. ‘I’m just here to use the computer,’ she explained.

  ‘You’re in luck, it’s free,’ the receptionist joked.

  Vicky faked half a laugh and rushed through the door marked “Sauna, Gym, Internet Café.” There was nothing wrong at all in using the facilities at this time in the morning, she knew. Yes, it was a bit strange, but people kept strange hours on holiday. She felt guilty though, as if she was doing something wrong. She told herself it was probably just the nerves making her feel that way.

  Vicky sat down at the chair in front of the computer. It reminded her of one of the unwelcoming plastic chairs she’d had to sit on at school. Hard and mis-shaped. One size fits all, regardless of whether you were a tiny five year old or a six foot three inch tall seventeen year old about to leave. She adjusted the position of the bulky monitor to remove the glare from the harsh white lights on the ceiling from the screen.

  She placed her fingers nervously on the keyboard. She recognised a few of the characters from the Latin alphabet. On closer inspection she saw that most keys had a Greek letter and a Latin alphabet letter. Great! It wasn’t going to be as difficult to use as she had thought it would be when she previously visited to write a blog and given up upon seeing the Greek keyboard.

  She rolled the mouse to remove the screensaver – a picture of Petra tu Romiou - Aphrodite’s birthplace. She clicked on the Internet Explorer icon and logged onto her webmail account. She had been hoping that Pamela’s email wouldn’t have arrived yet. She was out of luck though. The thought of getting commission on completion of a successful assignment was clearly enough incentive for Pamela to get the email sent quickly.

  She opened the email and read:

  “Hiya biatches!

  I trapped Christos using a different account. He clearly wasn’t responding to Kayla, so I invented Jessica, a sultry and slightly seedy brunette. Login using the email address I’ve sent this email from and the password is bumhole. I’ve attached a copy of the chat me and him had. He’s a total creep. Haha! Didn’t have to try too hard, and as soon as we’d had THE CHAT, he deleted me and blocked me! How do you like that? You can still see the messages he sent, you just can’t contact him through the account.

  Hope you’re having a shit time in Ibiza :P

  Mela Moo :) xoxoxo”

  Vicky felt her heart sink into her stomach. She could guess what was coming. Christos had been warned about someone called Kayla trying to virtually seduce him. He had no reason to suspect Jessica was a fake. Her mind raced with all sorts of scenarios. Maybe he was still winding Pamela up. Maybe he had guessed.

  No, she thought. If he had guessed, he would have spoken to her about it and they would have had a good laugh. She had to know for sure exactly what she was dealing with. She logged in to the fake account and opened up the exchange of messages between Jessica and Christos.

  She skimmed over the first few lines. There was nothing interesting there. They were talking about the weather and football. Then she stopped in her tracks.

  “I’m glad you added me. It’s always a pleasure to speak to someone as pretty as yourself.”

  He was coming onto her. HE was coming onto HER. Pamela hadn’t needed to do much work at all. It was all him. She read on.

  “Have you got a boyfriend then?”

  “What are you wearing tonight?”

  “No, I’m not attached.”

  “Have you got any more pictures?”

  “Fancy a private chat? You know what I mean ;)”

  She felt nauseous. She felt worse than she had felt when she found out about Ian all those months ago. This was like watching someone fall from a mountain in super-slow motion. She felt powerless and physically sick and heartbroken all at the same time. How could he do this? Her friend. Her confidante. The person she trusted with all her secrets. The person she had sought comfort from every time she had her heart crushed. He had listened and comforted and made her feel like he was on her side. All this time, he was no better than any of those men himself. He sucked!

  She read over some of the information Pamela had created on the fake profile to see what kind of character Jessica was. Female. In her twenties. Worked as a waitress. Liked posting pictures of herself in her underwear on her profile apparently. Where did Pamela get these pictures? She would deal with that problem later.

  She clicked on the attachment and began to read the private chat. It was too explicit right from the start and again she felt a wave of nausea batter her senses. It was bad enough that he had typed those words to someone other than his girlfriend. It made it worse knowing that he had typed those words to her little sister. How could he?

  She reminded herself that he hadn’t known it was Pamela. In his mind, he was talking to Jessica, a woman in her twenties. But still. He should have known better. Jessica could have been a ninety year old man for all Christos knew.

  Her anger began to take over and she switched on the printer next to the monitor. She didn’t know what she would do with this information, or if she should do anything at all. She knew the best thing to do would be to ignore Christos from now on. She should not contact him again, delete his number, block him online and get Scarlett to deal with him whenever he came in to the office. She knew she wasn’t strong enough to do that though. She knew herself too well and guessed that she would have to speak to him about this and find out why he did it, if he had done it before, if it was a regular thing…if his girlfriend kn
ew. Dozens of questions poured into her thoughts.

  Was she a potential cyber-shag for him? Is that why they had become close? Did he have plans for her? Was she supposed to be so grateful for all the attention and comfort and friendship that she started some kind of affair with him?

  She couldn’t do this any more. She couldn’t think. She had to print the chat and the messages and take them to Flic. Flic would know what to do. She prayed that the printer was quick but it took ten minutes to print. She attempted to busy herself with a game of solitaire on her phone and an online tarot reading while she waited. When the printer finally completed the job she gathered up the loose sheets of paper and hurried back to the apartment, completely forgetting to even acknowledge the receptionist on her way. She forgot to enter the apartment quietly, but it seemed that Lumi was in a deep sleep anyway and had even closed her eyes by the time Vicky came back.

  She pounced onto her bed and tapped Flic’s shoulder.

  ‘Flic, wake up,’ she whispered.

  ‘I’m awake, I’m awake. What did you find?’ Flic blustered, suddenly alert as she reached over to switch on the light.

  Vicky thrust the papers into Flic’s hands. Flic skimmed over the first few lines.

  ‘But this is a chat with someone called Jessica,’ Flic blinked.

  Vicky nodded. ‘Yeah. Pamela decided Kayla wasn’t hot enough so she started this account instead. I had no idea. Clearly Christos didn’t either.’

  Flic read on and alternated between small gasps and tuts. To Vicky’s relief, the disappointment was clear in Flic’s eyes too. Thank God she hadn’t been the only one to be taken in. Although, she guessed that Flic wasn’t feeling hurt to the same extent that she was.

  ‘Are you ok?’ Flic asked, folding the papers over and placing them at the foot of the bed, as if the distance between them and the words on the sheets of paper would make them any less disappointing.

  ‘No,’ Vicky shook her head.

  Flic patted her arm reassuringly. ‘Need a hug?’

  Vicky nodded and leapt towards Flic. When the hug was over, Flic swept away a few strands of hair from Vicky’s forehead endearingly and said, ‘Do you know what we need? A good night’s sleep. Everything will seem better in the morning. Let’s put the light out.’

  ‘I’m not sure I’ll manage to sleep,’ Vicky laughed dryly.

  ‘You’ve got to try. This is your first child free weekend since Sasha arrived, and who knows when you’ll get another. You need sleep to think clearly,’ Flic reminded her.

  Vicky nodded and rested her head on the pillow. She was still dressed in her jeans and vest top and dismissed the idea of changing from her head. She was sure she wouldn’t sleep. She knew she was too angry to sleep. She told herself she was too disappointed to sleep. And then she drifted off.

  *****

  Vicky awoke the next morning to voices in the living room. Her eyes sprung open and she leapt up. It was even hotter in the room than it had been the previous night. The air conditioning had been switched off at some point and she felt uncomfortable in the clothes she had kept on since her trip to the Internet café. She would have to change.

  She twisted round to look at the time on her phone. It was after ten. Her phone was displaying a blinking red light. She had a message.

  Please don’t let this be from Christos, she thought. She opened the inbox. It was from Christos.

  “Kalimera agapi mou :) What are you up to today? Fancy meeting like we talked about? I’ll be at Aphrodite’s Birthplace at 2 o’clock waiting for you. C xx”

  Damn. She would have been so excited about that a few days ago. Now, she wasn’t sure how to feel about it. She held the phone in her hands awkwardly, feeling like it was a broken egg and was creating a gloopy mess all over her hands.

  The voices lowered in the living room. It sounded like Adam was here already. He’s on the ball, Vicky thought. She opened the door to the living room and saw Flic, Lumi and Adam sitting on the couch poring over the chat between Christos and Jessica.

  ‘Morning sleepyhead,’ Adam smiled.

  ‘Morning,’ Vicky muttered. She took a seat on the sofa across from the others and tried very hard not to look at the papers they were holding.

  ‘Looks like Pamela might follow Dad’s footsteps and have a similar career,’ Adam sniggered.

  Vicky scrunched her eyes wishing she had never seen the things Pamela said to Christos in that chat. She knew it was acting and it was supposed to be someone called Jessica. But that was her little sister! It just wasn’t right, in her mind.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Flic quizzed Adam. ‘Your Dad’s a mystery shopper.’

  Adam smiled with his lips, but not his eyes. There was no pleasantness in his expression. ‘Our Dad IS a mystery shopper. But that’s casual work. It’s not how he made his fortune.’

  ‘What did he do before that?’ Lumi asked.

  Flic remained silent. She could guess. She remembered the library she had found in Vicky’s house on her first evening there. She had been told that Vicky and Adam’s father was an avid reader. She was now guessing the library was his and not his wife’s.

  ‘Have you ever heard of the WanderLust brand?’ Adam began.

  Lumi shook her head to indicate that she did not.

  ‘It’s a brand of paperback books. They’re romantic fictional novels. Most of them are erotic too, but not all of them. They’re all based in exotic foreign countries. Our father has been a writer for them for the last thirty years,’ Adam explained.

  ‘Hmmm.’ Lumi’s face twisted as she appeared to think this over. ‘These books are for men or women?’

  ‘They’re aimed at women. He uses a pseudonym,’ Adam clarified.

  ‘What does this mean?’ Lumi asked.

  ‘It’s a pen-name. A name he just uses to write. He’s called Daisy D’Souza. He doesn’t like to publicise what he does because Vicky and I have always been a bit embarrassed,’ Adam said.

  ‘That’s nothing to be embarrassed about! Your Dad’s a successful author!’ Flic cried.

  ‘Flic, their father pretends to be a woman and writes dirty books. I would be embarrassed too,’ Lumi scolded her.

  Flic stared at Lumi. Vicky thought Flic looked ready to lunge forward and push Lumi out of the window. She decided to bring the conversation back to the original subject, however painful that might be.

  ‘This is not the issue here! The issue is Pamela having that chat with Christos. My friend, Christos! And now, he wants me to meet him today. He just sent me a message asking me to meet him at Aphrodite’s Birthplace,’ Vicky croaked. She could feel a tear or two becoming eager to escape, but she held back. Why should she cry? She had done nothing wrong, she thought angrily.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ Flic asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Vicky admitted.

  ‘I think you should go meet him. There is no decision to make,’ Lumi asserted.

  ‘What?’ Vicky responded, feeling puzzled.

  ‘Go and see him. Ask him for his side of the story. This could be a fake. It could be another Christos. Maybe he knew it was Pamela and was playing a trick. You need all the facts,’ Lumi declared.

  ‘It’s up to you,’ Adam reminded Vicky.

  ‘I’m not sure I can do it. I don’t know if I’m ready to see him,’ Vicky fretted.

  ‘We will go. All four of us. We will support you. You can have privacy to talk to Christos and you can come home with us. I would like to see this place anyway. It’s an important tourist attraction,’ Lumi smiled.

  Vicky nodded. It would be much easier to face Christos and speak to him about this if she knew that Adam and Flic were waiting for her when it was over.

  ‘Ok, I’ll go if you all come with me,’ she agreed.

  ‘What about the job we’re here to do in the first place? Shouldn’t we be concentrating on getting the evidence on George?’ Adam reminded them.

  ‘I haven’t heard from him yet. I’m planning to text him tonig
ht. I thought maybe we could all go out for a few drinks and I will suggest he and I meet in a bar?’ Lumi proposed.

  ‘I suppose that would be alright. If that doesn’t work out, we’ve always got tomorrow,’ Adam decided.

  ‘Vicky, what time are you meeting Christos?’ Lumi asked.

  ‘Two o’clock,’ Vicky replied, double-checking the message from her phone.

  ‘Excellent. I will go down to the mini market and buy food for breakfast,’ Lumi decided. She grabbed her phone and her own key to the apartment and scuttled through the front door.

  Adam walked towards the door, waited for Lumi to disappear down the steps, and then closed it again and attached the security chain.

  ‘There’s something not right about her. I don’t think she’s intending to meet George at all,’ he scowled.

  ‘What? Ever?’ Flic checked.

  ‘I don’t know. She’s not making any efforts at contacting him today and she’s not exactly preparing herself for seduction, is she?’ Adam frowned.

  ‘Maybe she’s stalling. Maybe she’s trying to extend the trip,’ Flic said, shuffling around the kitchen, collecting up all the knives from the drawers to hide them before Lumi returned.

  ‘I think you might be right. She’s got nothing to go back for now. She might be trying to spin this out. But whatever it is, we still need to be on our guard,’ he advised them.

  ‘I was never OFF my guard with her,’ Vicky snorted.

  ‘Maybe one of us should have gone to the shop with her,’ Flic worried, before adding, ‘Look! We’ve got tons of cereal left. And half a loaf of bread. There was no need for her to go shopping again.’

  ‘I’ll go after her,’ Adam volunteered. ‘I should have offered to go instead of her. I think one of us should be with her at all times. I don’t trust her one bit.’

  *****

  Lumi raced down the pale marble steps and narrowly avoided stepping on one of the hotel cats as she reached the bottom. She looked over her shoulder to check that she hadn’t been followed. She knew none of them trusted her, especially Vicky. She thought Adam was probably the only one on her side. He didn’t suspect her at all, she decided.