by Alex Slorra
For the next two hours, she did not dare move, not wishing to wake Anna and break their enveloped closeness. It was excruciating. She was filled with a need to touch her. However, her overwhelming desire, as she watched the light cast on the opposite wall slowly brighten and creep along the surface, was to protect her. She closed her eyes and fell asleep to Anna’s soft snores against her chest.
At 10:14 a.m. the clock berated Jessica, telling her she was a useless slob and must get up. Alone, she missed the warmth that had been beside her. It was more than missing her. It was if she had been on a secret island, an Eden laden with delights, to only have taken a wrong turn and, in the blink of an eye, she was in a foreboding underground car park with flickering fluorescent lights and no exit in sight.
She crawled from beneath the duvet and pulled off the T-shirt she had slept in. The cold room caused goose bumps to form on her bare skin. She’d have to skip showering since the morning was almost over. It wouldn’t matter anyway. She couldn’t stay, she knew the place she was destined for. It would be cruel to allow Anna to become more dependent on her. They had a connection, but the Eden couldn’t be explored further. Jessica’s future was inevitably prison, and she was being selfish, taking advantage of Anna’s openness and kindness. She needed to face the music.
Dressed in the clothes she’d arrived in, Jessica walked through the house to find it empty. The kitchen had not yet been tidied from breakfast, and dirty plates, open jam jars, and toast skeletons were left on the table. I’ll clean it up later. She hesitated, realising there was no later. She was leaving.
Outside, the sky was blue, devoid of clouds, and the air was warmer than in the house. To her right, the old Saab was parked in front of the double doors to Anna’s stone barn. She headed across the courtyard to a small, planked door at the end of the outbuildings. Behind it, there was a room that must have been an outhouse in the days before indoor plumbing. But now, it was where Anna kept her lawnmower. Jessica had remembered a fuel can of petrol was stored there. Her plan was simple: put the petrol in the car and drive off before there was any chance of goodbyes and possible tears. She knew she would cry.
The hinges on the weathered door squeaked when it was pulled open. Jessica reached down for a green petrol container perched on top of a mower. She grabbed the can, took it to her car, and poured half into the tank.
After returning the petrol container, she looked across the courtyard; Kermit was now standing on the Saab’s bonnet. She froze when a woman’s scream echoed around the farm.
Chapter Ten
JESSICA RACED TOWARDS the origin of the scream. It sounded like Anna and had come from behind the stables. She couldn’t tell what it meant and ran at full speed; an instinctive need blocked out all other thoughts.
When she rounded the corner of the building, Sarah was higher up the gentle incline that rose in the direction of Anna’s paddock. She had her arms crossed and wore a puzzled expression, which was highlighted by a smile. Below, Anna stood on a bale of straw. It must have been dragged a few feet outside of the polytunnel. Her arms were waving wildly towards the roof. Catching her breath, Jessica approached carefully, unsure of the situation.
“Are you all right?” Jessica asked, looking up to Anna on her bale.
Anna spun around and jumped down. She wrapped Jessica in a bone-crushing hug.
“I thought you’d been hurt—” Jessica’s words had been squeezed out of her and then stifled by a kiss. Time slowed as a hand slipped delicately onto her neck. Anna’s lips, hot and wet, pressed hard against hers before easing off much too soon. The tip of a nose brushed along the side of her own and eyelashes fluttered against her cheek as Anna slowly released her.
“I can’t believe what you’ve done!” Anna slid her fingers along Jessica’s arm to her wrist and then to her hand. She gripped it fiercely. Jessica winced; it was her cut hand. She was still recovering from the kiss when Kermit’s horns bumped her, causing her to fall into Anna, and the pair tumbled over the bale of straw into the polytunnel.
“Shit!” Jessica said, pushing herself up on her elbows. She had landed on top of Anna, whose arms were about her waist. “Are you all right?”
“Fine,” Anna said with a laugh.
About to roll off, Jessica found she couldn’t. She was truly stuck, trapped by Anna’s deep blue eyes, by her hands that clung tightly to the sides of her sweater and by Anna’s red lips, which Jessica was desperate to taste again. This woman had the ability to flip her world upside down, and now, all thoughts of leaving had been banished. Her mind turned to mush, and she let herself be captured. She closed her eyes as their lips made contact again.
This time the kiss was firmer, and there was a sense of urgency causing her to tremble from her core. Anna’s need seemed more desperate than her own and Jessica felt her hands slip under her jumper and T-shirt to touch the bare skin of her back. The kiss deepened, and their lips opened slightly. Anna’s tongue sought out Jessica’s. They shared the intimacy for a long moment until the need for air tore them apart. For an instant, Anna drew Jessica’s lower lip into hers, before it was pulled away.
“I… I’ve wanted to…wow.” Anna’s words were carried on rapid breaths.
Jessica didn’t know what to say. The kiss had been mind-blowing, and she had no brain cells left to respond.
“You… You fixed the roof,” Anna said, her breathing still ragged. Anna’s fingertips slid gently along her back before the pressure of her palms drew her in for another kiss. In the heated tangle that followed, they rolled to one side, bumping into the bale.
Jessica freed herself first, needing to get a grip on what was happening. As much as she enjoyed their heat, their connection, she knew it wasn’t right when a few minutes ago she’d been planning to leave.
She glanced up to see Sarah leaning over the bale.
“I was going to ask if you’re okay. But I can see you are.” Sarah smirked and quickly spun around. “I’ll catch up to Abbie and leave you two to have a roll in the hay,” she said over her shoulder with a laugh.
Anna’s hand, against Jessica’s cheek, forced her to turn her head and look into those beautiful blue irises again. “I was—I mean, I’m being a bit forward. It’s just you changed everything.” Anna grinned. “I don’t know how you did it, but you repaired the stables. Not one stall, but the whole damn thing!” Her words wavered ecstatically. “How the hell did you do that?”
Jessica double blinked. She’d never been kissed like that before. She hadn’t felt so stripped bare and enveloped in affection at the same time.
“We need to stop,” she blurted out.
“Okay.” Anna’s eyes narrowed. She rolled and jerked up to stand. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. It won’t happen again.” Her tone was formal, as if she was explaining to a police officer why she’d been speeding.
Jessica jumped to her feet and grabbed Anna’s wrist before she could walk away. She desperately reeled her in and gathered her into her arms. They stayed motionless for almost a minute. Jessica had her eyes shut and her cheek against Anna’s. It was impossible to say something that wouldn’t sting. She loosened on her hold on Anna. “Things are complicated, and I… Hell—”
“It’s okay. I get it.” Anna’s expression had lightened, but her lips were still pursed. “I’ll try to be better behaved.”
Jessica scrunched her brow. For the first time in a very long time, she needed someone more then she could bear. She tipped her head, pressing her forehead against Anna’s, and cupped Anna’s jaw with her hand. “You don’t need to. You’re already perfect.”
“God, I’m far from that.” At her hips, Jessica could feel Anna was twisting the folds of her sweater in her hands. “Anyway, I’m not the one who rebuilds a whole stable block in a week. I still can’t believe you did that.”
“David helped as well. And you already had the supplies, I just—”
“There’s no just about it. It’s a miracle… You’re a miracle.”
>
From the house came the distant sound of the phone.
“That could be my work friend,” Jessica said.
More ringing, then it stopped.
“You should stay and see if they call again.” Anna moved out of Jessica’s arms. “I should catch up to the others.”
Anna turned and headed up the hill towards the field beyond.
When the phone rang again, Jessica was already in the house. “Hello,” she answered.
“Jessica?”
“Yes.”
“Hi, it’s Chris. Sorry for not calling back sooner. I didn’t have much to report until this morning.”
“That’s okay. What’ve you found out?” Holding the cordless handset to her ear, she paced between the kitchen and the lounge.
Chris spent the first ten minutes recapping everything Jessica already knew. She tried not to show her frustration by yelling at him to get on with it.
“You said you were working on appraisals,” Chris continued. “So, I checked the audit logs. It has you logging in around eight a.m. and off at the end of the day.”
“Yes, that’s right. So?”
“No one had access to your laptop when you weren’t using it?”
“No, Chris, I always keep it locked and with me.”
“Okay, well, when I checked the authentication logs for the appraisal system, your connection had a different IP address from the previous day and the one you would normally be allocated.”
“Why’s that odd?”
“Because that’s not how our network is set up. The IP address you get is associated with your device. You’ll always get the same one.”
“Okay. So why would it be different?”
“You’re sure it was your laptop?”
“Yes, the case has a dent in a corner. No one swapped it. What are you getting at? Wait—” Jessica tapped the phone against her temple and took a few steps, before returning it to her ear. “If my IP address is recorded on the sabotaged systems, then it must have been my laptop.” She took a second. “So, what was I using? Just part of it?”
“Exactly. I think they cloned your hard drive and swapped out the internals. If they used your components in another laptop when it connected to the network, the hardware would identify itself as yours. The one you were using only had the original casing and different internals. That’s why there were anomalies in the appraisal system logs.”
Jessica rubbed her eyes. This seemed a long shot. “I guess that’s possible. But why not simply steal it?”
“They wanted it to look like you and not get caught. And, once you know what you’re doing, it only takes fourteen minutes to swap things out. I tried it myself.”
“Okay, but they still need all my login details.”
“Doesn’t matter. If they cloned your hard drive, they just need one password. The login when you open the lid. That’s easy to get by looking over your shoulder and watching key presses. Once signed in, the data will be decrypted, and other passwords are cached on the disc.”
Jessica sighed. It seemed pretty far-fetched.
“What’s wrong, Jessica? You don’t think I’m right?”
“I think it’s possible, but I don’t remember anyone having access to take it apart. And even if it was true, who’d believe it? It’s beyond a jury’s understanding.”
“That’s why I wanted to get hold of your laptop. You can tell if it’s been tampered with because two of the screws are under a warranty label. I’ve asked the police if I can look at it. I’ve not heard back yet.”
“They don’t suspect you’re helping me?”
“I’ve been assisting them with the investigation. I said I needed it to check if other servers had been affected.”
“Don’t get yourself in trouble for me.”
“No worries yet, Jessica. Try to remember if someone had access to your kit for more than fifteen minutes? It must’ve happened sometime before you started work that day. And I think you need to get a lawyer involved, a smart one. I’m not sure there’s much more I can do. All right?”
“Yeah… Thanks, Chris, for all you’ve done.”
“I’ll call you in a couple of days.”
The call ended, and Jessica returned the handset to its charging station. What Chris had told her was a possibility, but only if someone had physical access to her laptop. She didn’t think it was likely scenario, but it could explain how she had been framed.
She rubbed her temples and sighed, still unsure what to do. She’d have to wait. But she suspected the police would catch up to her. Britain had cameras everywhere. Sooner or later they would link her to her brother, his car, and then to her journey north. She wasn’t sure how many cameras there were in Northumberland, but she felt she’d made the right decision to stick to the back roads.
Once outside, her thoughts drifted to the kiss. Her mind backtracked further while her legs propelled her towards the black Saab. She had intended to leave without saying a word.
She leaned against the driver’s door, needing to work out what to do next. An odd clanking on flexing metal caused her to turn. Then a stink of musty cloth and grass caused her nostrils to flare. Kermit had jumped up onto the bonnet. The goat folded his muddy hooves under his bulbous belly and lay down. She glanced at him, noticing he was chewing on a scrap of blue fabric. Some poor soul had recently lost the rear pocket of their designer jeans.
She tried to formulate a plan of how to get a lawyer involved and when would be a good time to turn herself in. Should I wait for Chris’s next call? God, what am I going to do about Anna?
The dots wouldn’t connect. Her mind was filled with the sensations of Anna’s kiss, flipping her stomach upside down. Suddenly, she understood why. Apparently, I’ve been too stupid to see that I’m— She couldn’t bend this new realisation into something more convenient and rational. I’m falling for Anna and now…
“I’m so fucked,” she told Kermit.
The goat didn’t offer insight, continuing to grind his teeth on the patch of denim. A moment later, he farted.
Great. Jessica attempted to waft the smell away. Damn that roof. I shouldn’t have fixed it… She wouldn’t have kissed me then. And, damn you, farting goat! What the hell am I supposed to do?
ANNA AND SARAH lounged against the galvanised gate while Abbie exercised Daisy in circuits around the paddock. The day was exceptionally warm with a gentle breeze. The sky was clear and the sun, given free rein, had raised the temperature a good ten degrees.
“So?” Sarah asked.
Anna had been waiting for the question. However, knowing something was coming hadn’t automatically meant she was ready for it. “So, what?”
Sarah laughed. “You know what.”
Anna crossed her arms and turned to watch Abbie press her pony towards the hurdles again. The pony approached and slowed to a near stop, before stepping over the low bar, one hoof at a time. Anna couldn’t help but smile at her daughter’s audible curses of frustration. Although Abbie persisted in trying to get Daisy to jump, Anna had long since admitted defeat and given the pony the name Daisy because of her bovine jumping technique.
“Own up, kiddo,” Sarah insisted.
“Okay, okay. Yes, and yes,” Anna said, without moving her attention from her daughter and the pony-cow.
“Does that mean your sexuality confusion is sorted?”
Anna scrunched up her face in anguish.
Sarah laughed. “You don’t need to answer. It’s pretty obvious.”
“Look, it was one kiss. I was excited about the roof being done. Stop going on about it!”
“I’ve hardly said a thing.”
“You were about to,” Anna snapped.
“So, you’re not going to tell me why you’re all red and have straw in your hair?”
“Definitely not.” Anna quickly brushed her fingers through her hair.
“You know the I’ve-just-made-out look suits you.”
Anna spun on Sarah and pointed a finger in
her direction. “Anyway, it’s your fault for saying I’m not proactive.”
“Calm. Blame accepted.” Sarah chuckled. “Especially if I’ve gotten something off your list of woes.”
Anna rolled her eyes. “It’s likely added to it,” she muttered, stepping away from the gate. She called across the field to Abbie, “How about a picnic?”
Abbie smartly turned the horse, and it trotted over to where they stood. “Sure. Where?” Abbie asked.
Anna took hold of Daisy’s bridle. “I thought Coves Haven beach?”
Abbie eyed her mother with suspicion. “Why? You’ve never wanted to go there before.”
“Do we have to argue about this as well?”
“I’m not arguing. It’s just strange.”
“It’s not strange. It’s called getting some fresh air.”
“All the air here is fresh.”
“Not if you’re near Kermit.”
Abbie laughed and dismounted. “Can Katy come?”
“If her mum agrees. Let’s unsaddle Daisy. We’ll leave her to graze.” Anna undid the girth while Abbie took hold of the bridle.
Sarah joined them. “I don’t really do beaches.”
“It’s hardly a beach. It’s a strip of sand with rock pools. It’ll be too cold to do anything except eat a few sandwiches.”
“Do you know what happens when sand and sandwiches mix?”
“It’ll be fine.”
Anna dragged the saddle off Daisy’s back and walked past to place it on top of the gate. Abbie removed Daisy’s bridle, and the pony immediately dipped her head to graze on the emerald grass.
“Let’s head back and find Jessica,” Anna told Sarah.
Her friend bumped their shoulders and winked. “You mean your girlfriend.”
Anna’s cheeks flushed. She glanced to her daughter, who was a few feet away. Abbie showed no reaction to Sarah’s remark.