Forward Slash. Mark Edwards

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СКАЧАТЬ looked at him.

      ‘Amy. You can’t do that.’

      ‘But like you said, the police don’t want to know. They’ve made that clear already.’

      Gary sat down on the sofa and rubbed his face with the palm of his hand.

      ‘OK. I understand. If it’s what you think you need to do.’

      ‘I’m going to try the police one more time, though. Just so it’s on record.’

      Gary paused. ‘Fair enough. And if they won’t help you, I will. It’s not safe for you to do it on your own.’

      ‘But …’

      ‘Don’t argue, all right? I want to help you. I really like Becky. She’s a … mate. I’m not taking no for an answer.’

      She noted his eyes had misted over as he’d delivered these words. ‘Thanks, Gary.’

      His mobile rang.

      He muttered an apology before answering it. ‘Hi. Yeah, sorry … I’ll be there in ten.’

      Amy looked at him quizzically

      ‘Sorry, I’m meant to be meeting my mate for a drink. I’m already late. But call me if you need anything. And let me know what the police say. Are you going to stay here?’

      ‘Not for long. I ought to get back. Boris needs feeding.’

      ‘Is that your bloke?’

      She laughed. ‘My dog.’

      ‘Oh. And do you, um, have a bloke?’

      ‘No.’ Amy spoke a little more curtly than she’d intended. Surely, he wasn’t trying to hit on her? That was the last thing she needed.

      Gary walked over to the door, then hesitated and turned back.

      ‘I know what else you could do. You could put an appeal out, see if anyone’s seen her.’

      ‘What, like a poster?’

      He grinned. ‘For someone who runs a website, you can be surprisingly old-fashioned.’

      ‘I guess I’m an old-fashioned kind of girl.’

      ‘I was thinking you could use social media. You do use Facebook and Twitter, right?’

      ‘I use them a bit. Facebook, of course, for keeping up with friends, and everyone keeps telling me I need to use Twitter for my business, but I don’t really have time.’

      ‘Well, I’ve got a friend who’s an expert at all that stuff. Social networking. Maybe he could advise you of the best way to go about it. I’ll give him a call, see what he says.’

      Gary left and Amy went back over to the desk, tapping the names of the three men who had sent Becky messages into the Notes app on her phone. She called the police station and, after being passed around, was told someone would call her back.

      She intended to go home but got drawn into surfing through Becky’s web history, trying to find some clue. She logged into CupidsWeb again and trawled through profiles, read through Becky’s Inbox repeatedly. The room grew darker around her and she felt sleep tugging at her.

      Soon, she was dreaming – that Becky was back, with a golden tan, telling Amy about the wonderful time she’d had in Cambodia. ‘I went to the Killing Fields,’ she said. ‘Lovely place. You should go sometime …’

      She jerked awake, lifting her head from the desk. The room was almost dark, her neck throbbed and it took her a second to recall where she was, to remember that Becky was missing and to realize what the noise that had woken her was.

      Somebody was unlocking the front door.

       6

       Becky

       Saturday, 8 June

      ‘Wait for me, Kath, what’s the matter?’

      How Kath can run so fast is beyond me, considering the amount of fags she smokes, but she seems annoyed about something and is doggedly jogging much harder than me. We’re on our third lap of Dulwich Park and I’m too knackered to speak. I stop, and bend over to put my hands on my knees, panting. A man riding one of those reclining cycles almost crashes into me. Katherine stops too, but continues to jog on the spot. She scowls at me.

      When I get my breath back enough to speak, I straighten up, trying to rub a stitch out of my side. ‘What?’

      Her shoulders slump a little.

      ‘Nothing – well, nothing that’s your fault anyway. Shit date the other night – he took me out to dinner, and I must have eaten a dodgy prawn. When I got home I spent the whole night puking my guts out. Still feeling a bit rough today.’

      ‘Oh, no! Poor you. Can’t believe you can feel that rough and run so bloody fast, though … Who was he? And what did you tell Clive?’

      I walk over to a nearby bench and sit down on it. Katherine looks disapproving, but joins me, looking at her watch. ‘Might do another lap in a minute, but let’s have a rest anyway.’

      She takes a big suck on her water bottle and hands it to me – as usual, I’ve forgotten mine. I feel dehydrated; crusty, like an empty hull.

      ‘So?’

      ‘Oh, yeah … It was just really disappointing. He’d seemed like such a laugh in his profile, and then on the phone – you know, one of those really confident, quirky guys who say outrageous things. Sexy.’

      I wipe my dripping face with my sleeve, and feel spikes of damp hair plaster themselves to my forehead. I remembered back to my first date, Big-Bum Shaun. ‘And then they turn out to be the opposite of sexy.’

      ‘Tell me about it. When I got to the restaurant I didn’t even recognize him at first, he looked so embarrassed – and embarrassing. He was quite a lot fatter than I thought he’d be and he had these awful smokers’ teeth, really yellow and crumbly and disgusting. I realized that he hadn’t been smiling in any of his profile photos.

      ‘Good on the phone, rubbish in the flesh.’

      We watch a sparrow land on the topmost, flimsiest branch of the bush opposite. The branch bows, taking the bird with it, until both are horizontal, and the sparrow flies off, looking confused.

      ‘It was such a bloody waste of an evening. I only agreed to stay for dinner because I was starving, and I’d told Clive I was going out for a meal with the girls and he’d think it was weird if I came home so early having not eaten.’

      I stand up, mostly to try to quash the impulse to say, Well that’s what СКАЧАТЬ