Page 89 of You Belong With Me

Edie, having unburdened herself, stood feeling foolish. She was no expert on iPhones and hoped to hell there wasn’t a simple explanation for the anomaly, that she hadn’t taken a shit situation and made it even worse, while making an absolute imbecile of herself and traducing Iggy.

Edie waited for someone to quietly correct her understanding of the vagaries of messaging formats owned by tech conglomerates.

‘All right, Jessica Fletcher! I have no idea what you’re on about,’ Iggy said. ‘Jesus Christ, how weird …’ Iggy’s nose waswrinkled in disdain, but his cotton-cloth white skin, curiously, had turned Heinz tomato.

‘Is this true?’ Fraser said to Iggy.

‘No, of course not! Don’t listen to Princess Nut Nuts there,’ Iggy said.

‘Oi, watch your mouth,’ Elliot said. ‘Don’t insult my girlfriend.’

‘You know my passcode,’ Fraser said, thoughts ticking on, clearly willing to at least entertain this possibility.

Edie’s body flooded with a fresh wave of adrenaline. Could she really be right?

‘You’ve had it since we saw The Chemical Brothers last year?’ Fraser said.

‘Seriously, you gavehimfull access to your phone?’ Elliot said to Fraser.

‘Only to book an Uber!’

‘Did you change your passcode afterwards?’ Elliot said.

‘No, but he was only using it once to book an Uber!’

Elliot pinched the bridge of his nose.

Eyes moved to a hunted Iggy, whose demeanour suggested he might just have done more than book an Uber.

‘When was this gig?’ Elliot asked Fraser.

‘Uh … December? Yeah, definitely – mid-December.’

‘Right before the leaks started, around Christmas,’ Elliot said, looking back at Iggy.

‘Whatever, my dude,’ Iggy said, raising his palms. ‘I have literally no idea what this is about. I’ve only looked at my own phone.’

He put his handset, in shockproof case, on the table.

‘If we looked at your WhatsApps, we’d not find any journalists in them? No tips for them about me?My dude,’ Elliot said.

‘No,’ said Iggy, though he was still scarlet. ‘I’m not showing you my WhatsApps. None of you would want everyone browsing yours, either.’

‘Let’s try this another way: Fraz, have all these stories been things you’ve referred to in your messages? Like Cameron’s song?’ Elliot said.

‘Ehm … I’m not sure? There’s been a few. As you madeabundantly clear,’ Fraser said, row still fresh and stinging.

‘Cameron’s song? Do you mean “Last Time”?’ Molly said, in a small voice.

‘Yes,’ Elliot said. ‘The one about …’ He looked over at Edie. The most recent invasion still hurt, too. ‘… Us.’

‘You did discuss that with me on WhatsApp?’ Molly said to Fraser. ‘I sent you a link because I wasn’t sure which song it was?’

‘Oh, OK. There we go,’ Fraser said, looking back at Iggy.

‘How about if we check your photos from their engagement party?’ Elliot said to Iggy. ‘Any shots of me and Edie on that we might recognise?’

‘If it was him, he’d have deleted them?’ Fraser said. ‘He’s not stupid.’

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