“What?” Jayne’s eyes are so round. She hangs on my every word.
“Can you cope here on your own? Can you support Emily?”
She nods.
“I’d like to go to Edie’s house and check on Imogen. I want tosee if Edie’s back. If she is, I’m going to talk to her about the letter and also about Toby. She needs to know about this.”
“You could just call her. And don’t forget this is Ruth talking about a suspicion. She might be wrong.”
“This is delicate. It’s a conversation that needs to happen in person. And it does need to happen.” Of course, Edie won’t be there, but I’m not going to leave Imogen’s side while there’s a possibility that Toby might be predatory.
“Imogen is vulnerable,” I say and my voice cracks. Jayne lays a hand on my arm.
“Go,” she says. “I’ll look after Emily and I’ll text you if we hear from Paul.”
“And if Toby comes back here,” I say.
“I won’t let him in. Don’t worry. And I’ll call you.”
“Attagirl.”
I’m just leaving when she says, “But what if Edie’s there and she’s dangerous?” I see real fear in her eyes. You can’t believe how gullible people are, even those who think they aren’t. Edie would never hurt anyone physically. “We should let the police handle this.”
“I need to check on Imogen,” I repeat. “That’s nonnegotiable. Whatever else happens, I’ll deal with it.”
I give her a look which I know she’ll interpret to mean that she and I are in this together, a team, more capable than other people because of what we’ve been through in the military. And she’s so into the idea that she offers me a small salute in return.
“Go,” she says, again, and this time she packs the word with intensity. “But be safe.”
“Mark picked you up from music camp?” Toby wants to confirm. He looks confused.
“Yes.” Imogen wonders whether to tell him about Mark’s behavior. She still feels nervous to and decides not to say anything for now. It’s enough just to feel safer with Toby here.
“It would have been nice to hear from him,” Toby mutters. “He didn’t tell anyone else where he was.”
He seems upset but Imogen doesn’t pry. She doesn’t really care. Perhaps the long weekend away fell apart for all of them and nobody went on it. Her mum will be happy to hear that.
It’s starting to get dark. She switches on a light, Edie’s favorite, a standard lamp with a tasseled flamingo pink shade.
Toby gets up. “Do you mind if I use the bathroom?”
“It’s upstairs,” she says automatically, then, “but you know that.”
His phone has slipped out of his pocket and lodged between the cushion and the sofa arm. She reaches for it. He won’t mind if she uses it to try to call her mum again. She’s getting worried.
There are a ton of texts from Ruth on the phone, like, more notifications than Imogen has ever seen on one screen. She taps in “123456” anyway, makes a point not to read Ruth’s messages, and tries to call her mum, but gets no answer.
Her fear feels like a restless weight in her chest. Something she wants to rip out. She longs to see the sweep of headlamps into the drive before it’s black out there. Her mum will be freaking out behind the wheel by now, if she’s not close to home. What if she’s had an accident already?
She turns on the television to distract herself but can’t find anything she can bear to watch. Toby is still upstairs. Out of the corner of her eye she sees his phone keeps lighting up.
She can’t resist picking it up and peeking at one of the texts. She can say she opened it by mistake. It’s long. And nuts. Wow. Ruth is kicking off. It seems like shehatesToby.
Imogen glances over her shoulder and turns off the TV. In the quiet, she’ll hear the bathroom door when he comes out. The loohasn’t even flushed yet. Her and her mum’s home isn’t very big so you can hear everything.
She reads more. It’s a very long text and it gets much worse. When she’s finished that message she reads the next one. She can’t look away. Ruth is accusing Toby of horrible things, of chasing girls not much older than Imogen. Of wanting to do things to Imogen herself. Of encouraging young women to kill themselves.
Are you planning to do this to Imogen, too?Ruth asks.To take advantage of her grief?Then,You disgust me. You’re a danger to young women and girls.
