‘Oi,’ Jo said, in my direction. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Nothing. I’m just enjoying my tea.’
‘Interesting,’ said Jo, ‘given that you’re not actually eating it.’
After a pause I apologized. Told them I knew I must seem insane. Told them I was trying so very, very hard to pull myself together, but that I wasn’t having much luck.
‘Did he break your heart?’ Rudi asked. ‘The man?’
Everyone stopped talking. Neither Jo nor Tommy could look at me. But Rudi did, Rudi with his little almond eyes and his perfect child’s understanding of the world.
‘Did he break your heart, Sarah?’
‘I . . . Well, yes,’ I said, when I found my voice. ‘Yes, I’m afraid he did.’
Rudi wheeled from side to side on his heels, watching me. ‘He’s a villain,’ he said, after careful consideration. ‘And a fart.’
‘He is,’ I agreed.
Rudi gave me a hug, which brought me to the very edge of tears.
Tommy was holding my phone, staring thoughtfully at Eddie’s Facebook page. ‘I do wonder about this man,’ he said, after a long silence.
‘You and me both, Tommy.’
‘The WheresWally hashtag, for starters,’ Tommy said. ‘Isn’t that a bit odd? His name’s Eddie.’
Jo opened a packet of dried fruit and nuts for Rudi. ‘Eat them slowly,’ she told him, before turning to Tommy. ‘Where’s Wally?is a series of books, you plonker,’ she said. ‘Don’t you remember? All them pictures of crowds with Wally hidden in them?’
Rudi began picking out raisins and discarding the nuts.
‘I know whatWhere’s Wally?is,’ Tommy said. ‘I just think it’s a strange thing to say about someone whose name is meant to be Eddie.’
I shook my head. ‘That’s just what you say when you’re looking for someone. Scouring crowds. Needle-in-haystack job.’
Tommy shrugged. ‘Maybe. Or maybe not. Maybe he’s someone else entirely.’
Rudi perked up. ‘Do you think Eddie is a murderer?’ he asked.
‘No,’ Tommy said.
‘A vampire?’
‘No.’
‘A gas man?’ Jo had recently explained Stranger Danger.
Tommy stared thoughtfully at my phone. ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ he said. ‘But there’s something fishy about this man.’ Then suddenly he sat up straight. ‘Sarah!’ he whispered. ‘Look!’
I took the phone from him and found he’d opened up myMessenger. Then everything surged forward and into free fall, like water from a weir.Eddie was online.He had read my messages. Both of them. He was online now.
He was not dead. He was somewhere. ‘What were you doing in my messages?’ I hissed.
‘I was being nosy,’ Tommy said. ‘I wanted to see what you’d been saying to him, butwho cares? He’s read your messages! He’s online!’
‘What did he say?’ Rudi was trying to grab the phone. ‘What did he say to you, Sarah?’
Jo confiscated the phone and took a good long look.
