Page 62 of The Island in Bramble Bay
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CHARLIE SAT IN Jared’s car wondering what to do. He couldn’t believe he’d left Jessica’s place without a second thought about how Jared was going to get out. But also, he couldn’t believe the effect Jessica had had on him. Now that he’d had a few minutes to catch his breath, he could feel his mind clearing, which was good because he needed to think about how to get Jared out without having to go back there himself.
He pulled out his phone, about to call Jared but realised that if he was still undiscovered in Jessica’s house, he wouldn’t be for long if his phone wasn’t on silent. He couldn’t take the risk. Then in the rear-view mirror, he saw something moving and realised it was Jared sprinting towards him. The adrenaline that must have been coursing through Jared was almost palpable and jolted Charlie into action. He started the car, leant over and pushed open the passenger door and thanked god they were in a Tesla with superior acceleration for a quick getaway.
‘Go, go!’ said Jared breathlessly as he slammed the door.
‘Shit, what happened?’ asked Charlie. ‘Did she catch you?’
Jared shook his head but was still getting his breath back so didn’t say anything more.
‘Is it her? The hack?’
‘She’s involved in it at least.’ He took a minute, then elaborated. ‘She’d left her emails open and there were some between her and Drew. I took a couple of shots of what I could find. I think it’ll be enough. I know I said it might be her but now we know, Christ, I can’t actually believe it.’
‘So, I guess we tell Ed and the team and let them deal with it.’
‘They’re gonna have to tell the cops. They’ve been doing it through the dark web from what I could see. They won’t be able to trace the hack without Drew’s help.’
‘Well, we’ve got to hope she’s willing to end it.’
They got back to the office and as soon as they’d told Ed and Jared showed him what he’d found, they called the police. There was nothing more that Charlie could do to help. He just hoped that Jessica would do the right thing.
He took an Uber to San Francisco having arranged a room at The Battery.
‘Good Afternoon, Mr Mackenzie. Great to see you again.’ said the receptionist.
‘Thanks, it’s good to be back.’ He signed the check-in sheet and waited for the key.
‘We have a key outstanding from your last visit?’
‘Oh,’ said Charlie, surprised. ‘I’m pretty sure I gave it in before I left.’
‘Let me check the records.’ She tapped the keyboard for a couple of minutes. ‘It seems there was a duplicate key issued during your last stay?’
Charlie frowned. He had never asked for a new key but then maybe it hadn’t been him that asked. ‘Do you know which receptionist issued the duplicate?’
‘It was Daniel.’
Daniel had worked at The Battery for years and Charlie knew him well. And he knew Jessica well and unfortunately hadn’t been working at all while he was staying there with Maggie. Perhaps Daniel had thought he and Jessica were still together when she had been visiting for work lately.
‘It was issued to a friend and I don’t like our chances of getting it back. Charge it to me if it’s a problem.’
‘It’s no problem, Mr Mackenzie. We just have to make sure the keys are accounted for. We can disable the missing one on our system.’
Daniel. He could imagine Jessica sweet-talking him into giving her a key and that was how she’d got the photo of him sleeping.
He let himself into his room, stripped off and collapsed into bed. Asleep almost before his head hit the pillow.
Charlie woke up and switched the news channel on. The High 5 hack was still leading the news and they were showing footage of Drew being arrested at his apartment while the voiceover informed him that he was a ‘disgruntled employee’ of one of their collaborators. Clearly, Ed was aiming to downplay the link they had with him.
He lay back and closed his eyes again, wondering how it had come to this with Jessica. She must be completely unhinged to have gone to these kinds of lengths to hurt him.
His phone vibrated with a FaceTime call from Maggie.
‘Hey, Maggie, how are you?’
She looked great. She was sitting in the office on Bramble Island. Before, she’d always called him from his house but since he had taken the motorboat to Sandbanks when he left, she had no way to get there now. He knew she didn’t like calling him from Bramble Island because the connection was slow and they could get interrupted, so he thought it was a little odd.
