Times of Trouble (28 page)

‘
Lucy speaking,’ she
said, as if aggravated at having to answer the phone.

‘
Hi, is Bill there?’
The lies had flowed so easily with Lily Cohen, but this girl’s tone
made me nervous, and I rushed my question.

‘
Who are you looking
for? This is a bad line...’ No shit. I’m calling from a laptop in
Sydney.

‘
I’m looking for Bill
Holland. Is he there? He’s a friend of mine.’

‘
No he isn’t. He
hasn’t been in for weeks.’ Ok, at least she knew who I was talking
about.

‘
Really? That’s
strange. The reason I’m calling is to let him know I’ve lost my
mobile so he won’t be able to contact me. Do you know when he’ll be
back?’

‘
No, I was just
saying to our bar manager that someone ought to report him missing.
He’s usually hanging around the place every afternoon, but no one
has spoken to him in ages.’

Interesting. ‘Do you
think it’s possible he’s gone on holiday, and not told
anyone?’

‘
No idea love. You’re
his friend, shouldn’t you know that?’

Lucy suddenly sounded
hostile, like there was something about me she didn’t trust. Time
to get off the phone. But first I needed a contact number for
him.

‘
Yeah, but he hasn’t
been able to call me since I lost my phone. Could you give me his
mobile number? It saves me calling around for it.’ Did I sound
casual enough?

Lucy wasn’t saying
anything. But she hadn’t hung up either. I heard the bleep of
mobile phone buttons. I exhaled, she was obviously scrolling
through for his number.

‘
0785 737 2052’ She
recited it quickly, as if she didn’t quite trust that she should be
giving it out.

‘
Thanks so much, when
I get onto him I’ll tell him to drop into the club and show his
face.’

‘
Ok, bye.’ She hung
up.

So, that was a
coincidence. Bill Holland was ‘missing’. I would have thought if he
was planning a holiday or wasn’t going to be in his own club for
‘weeks’, he would mention to someone where he was going? I had got
a bit flustered during the phone call, but managed to get what I
wanted. A phone number. Liam’s account still had enough money for
another call, but I’d have to make it quick in case there were
other calls to be made. It was such a good run, I felt like I was
jumping hurdles and getting close to the finishing line.

I entered Bill
Holland’s number, and my momentum came to a dead end. The phone
didn’t ring. Instead, a woman’s voice recited: ‘The phone you have
dialled is currently switched off. To notify the person of your
call, hang up after the beep. Normal call charges will....’ I hung
up, not wanting to leave the Skype number. Would it come up as a
private number or the number on Liam’s account? I tried calling my
own mobile, the sound of the ring piercing the silence and
reverberating around the quiet flat. ‘Private number’ showed up on
the screen. Good. I was anonymous. I tried Bill’s number again, and
again the phone was switched off. Maybe he was asleep. I would have
to try again later.

I closed down the
laptop, and put it back where Liam had left it. He would know I had
been using it when he next logged onto Skype; the calls I had made
were logged in the system and no doubt could easily be seen by
anyone who knew where to look. I would have to come clean about the
notebook, the codes and the people I had spoken to. But not until
he came home. He was still staking out the hospital, and wouldn't
be leaving until later in the evening.

So what next? I had
been active all day and the hours had passed quickly, but now I
felt suddenly useless. My days were so long and uneventful at home
that I often had moments like these, when I had nothing better to
do than sit and think about life. At such times I would usually sit
down at Picasso and spend one or two hours practising just to pass
the time. I was staring at my giant, ugly hands, which were flat
down on the table in front of me, wondering when they would next
play a piano, when Andy came out of his room.

‘
Did I hear you
talking on Skype?’ he asked.

‘
Yeah, I was using
Liam’s laptop. Sorry, was I disturbing you?’ I hoped he didn’t over
hear too many details.

‘
No, I was just
wondering why you weren’t using your mobile?’

‘
I’m trying to do
some investigating without using my own number. Skype comes up with
a private number when you call people, and I’d prefer to remain
anonymous.’

‘
That makes
sense.’

He took a few steps
closer and picked up my mobile phone from the table.

‘
But you do know you
can use your mobile phone to make private calls. You just need to
set it to withhold your number. It will come up as
private.’

‘
Really? Can you show
me how to do that?’

‘
Sure, I’ll set it up
for you.’

He sat next to me,
and took me through my phone menu, into settings I never knew
existed. He sure knew his way around a mobile.

‘
See, now you are set
to ‘withhold’ so your number won’t come up.’

I could use my phone
now, instead of Skype. I wouldn’t need Liam’s laptop.

‘
Thanks, that’s
really useful.’

Andy seemed like he
genuinely wanted to help. ‘Are you trying to call people who might
have seen Sophie recently?’ he asked carefully, aware of the tense
vibe I was always letting out when asked too many questions. But I
was at a dead end. It wouldn’t hurt to tell him what I was trying
to do.

‘
I need to contact
some people who were listed in Sophie’s notebook. I found it at a
flat she was living in. It had the names as codes, but I worked out
who they were.’

‘
Good one. So where
have you got with the calls?’

‘
The one I was just
trying to call has his phone off. I think he might have something
to do with the people who are after Sophie. I can’t tell you why,
it’s all too complicated. But since his phone is off, I can’t
really do anything else for the time being.’

Andy had his hand on
his chin again. He looked like he was fertilising an
idea.

‘
You know, there are
a lot of things you can find out about a person from their mobile
phone. Even when a phone is turned off, just the number can be
useful... if you have the right software...’

‘
What software do you
mean? Do you have something I could use?’

‘
Depends. What do you
want to find out?’

‘
Everything! Could
you tell me when this phone number was last used? Who it has been
calling?’ This was sounding too good to be true. Andy looked more
cautious all of a sudden.

‘
I worked as a
contractor on a program the police and government agencies use in
investigating crimes, potential terrorist threats and all that. It
basically coordinates with all the phone providers and requests
information on particular numbers. If you have the right password,
you can get information on any phone in the world.’ Andy spoke
quietly, as if he could be in trouble if overheard.

‘
That’s amazing!
Please tell me you’ve got the password.’

He exhaled deeply,
preparing me for an answer in the negative.

‘
I don’t. It changes
every day, and the people authorised to use it are given a new
password each morning. But I can hack into the system and find out
what it is. I got authorisation to use the system, back when I was
working on it. I still know how to get in without them knowing I
have. It would be completely illegal... but if it would help to
find Sophie...’

I could have hugged
him.

‘
That is brilliant!
Let’s do it!’ My mind raced forward, wondering what information we
could gain from this software. First, I needed to know where Bill
Holland was. Then I needed to know who he was speaking to. But what
could we find out? Was it going to be a list of unknown numbers? I
couldn’t believe this sort of information was available to the
authorities. So many people would stop using mobile phones if they
knew it existed.

I followed Andy into
his bedroom, where a built in desk covered an entire wall. There
were four computer monitors, a couple of keyboards, and various
other bits of equipment I didn’t recognise spread out along the
huge work area, and two office chairs. The room wasn’t very large
and the desk was obviously the focal point, leaving only enough
space for a single bed crammed into the corner. I wondered why he
didn’t put the desk in the spare room I was sleeping in. Then I
realised I was sleeping in his room. This was the spare
room.

Andy was already
typing furiously. An array of numbers and letters filled one of the
screens. He was either writing or unlocking code. It was more
complicated than a foreign language; it looked like a cat had been
walking to and fro across the keyboard for hours. But Andy could
obviously see what it all meant, and it wasn’t long before he
turned his head and said to me, ‘we’re in.’

I clapped my hands
together, and said: ‘Right. You need the phone number. It’s 0785
737 2052.’

Andy entered the
number so quickly his fingers reminded me of mine gliding over
piano keys. The computer program didn’t look like anything I’d seen
before. There were all sorts of lists and menus all over it. I
didn’t know where to look. Andy was filling in the blank sections
and getting the software to request information on the
number.

‘
So what do you want
to know?’ he asked.

‘
First, when was the
last call made? Second, where was it made?’

‘
That should be easy
enough.’ Andy seemed to be enjoying himself now. ‘Ok. The system
should have those details in a sec.’ He used the mouse’s cursor to
point at places on the screen, as he scrolled down the page. ‘Ok,
the last call was made on the 25
^th
November.’

‘
That’s odd. The
person I spoke to at his workplace said he hadn’t been around for
weeks. And he hasn’t made any phone calls for almost two months.
Maybe he has another phone?’

‘
Possibly. Or he’s no
longer around.’

That was the other
option. Mum must have told him about the murders of Sophie’s
friends. He was right to consider the person I was looking for was
potentially another victim.

‘
Can you tell me the
phone number that was the last to call him, and the last one he
called?’

‘
They are the same
number, a mobile.’

I jotted down the
number as Andy read it out to me, wondering how it might be useful.
I had to remind myself we still weren’t sure how this Bill person
was involved, if at all.

‘
How often did he
call that number in the past? Was it likely a number of someone he
knew well?’

Andy obediently
scrolled through the list, and pressed a key to put all the phone
numbers in order.

‘
He’s had the number
for five years, according to these records. It looks to me like he
only started calling this number regularly in the last year. It is
called at least once a day, some days a lot more often. He also
received calls from this number often.’

‘
Probably a
girlfriend,’ I suggested.

‘
That would make
sense. Or a colleague. What else do you want to find
out?’

‘
Can you find out
about text messages?’

Andy grinned. We were
onto something.

‘
That’s what I was
working on when they contracted me. I installed a function that was
able to read the memory off a phone and recreate text messages that
have been sent to and from the phone. Even ones that have been
deleted.’

‘
No way! That’s
incredible! You could rule the world with that sort of
information.’

‘
People
do.’

Andy’s fingers were
dancing again, and within seconds, there was a list of hundreds of
entries of text messages. I thought back to the information we knew
about when Sophie first got into trouble. Mum had got the email
from her at the middle of October.

‘
Can you search for a
particular word, or set of numbers?’

‘
Sure
can’.

‘
Ok, search for
‘black mail’.

Andy looked puzzled,
but he didn’t question, and typed in the commands.

‘
There are literally
hundreds of text messages here’, he said. ‘This guy was a text
freak. It will take a sec to search through.’

The computer slowed
down as it tried to process the search. It was a long shot, but it
was worth a try. After about a minute, the screen showed something
even I understood; ‘your search brought up 0 results.’

‘
What about black
mail in one word?’

Andy typed it in and
again it took an age to come up with ‘0 results.’ Andy
shrugged.

‘
What about 35,000?’
I suggested.

‘
As in
35k?’

This time the
computer seemed to whiz a bit quicker. and suddenly honed in on a
message, highlighting the ‘35’ it had found in yellow so it jumped
out at me. I quickly read the message, recognising who it was from.
Danny.