Tuesday 16th October
Alice
Tom snuck back some time last night and out again early this morning before I woke up. I only know he came back at all because his protein shake container was in the sink. The stinky fucking thing. He couldn’t even be bothered to rinse it out. Lazy fucker. His mother has ruined him.
Anyway, I have more important things to worry about. Like how us girls find ourselves waiting in the police station the next morning, expecting a PC Graeme Edwards to come talk to us.
‘Hi,’ a giant of a guy says, suddenly in front of me. He towers over us. Thank God, he’s one of the good guys, otherwise I’d fear the dude. He must be at least six-foot-three and sports a goatee. ‘I’m PC Edwards. Come with me, ladies.’
We’re led into a room that smells of new paint, with a wooden table and blue plastic chairs. It’s not like how I imagined, but then I do watch a lot of US based cop shows. I kind of think I was expecting a dark room with a two-way window.
He gets out a notebook and pen. ‘So, your friends told me on the phone that an ex-boyfriend has posted private naked photos of you. Is that correct?’
‘Yes,’ I nod, swallowing hard at the reminder. It’s so embarrassing having to talk about it out loud. ‘It’s on a site called Revenge Porn Utopia. I can email you the link.’
He nods, writing stuff down. ‘That would be helpful. And do you have any proof that your ex-boyfriend is the one behind this?’
‘It’s fucking obvious!’ Brooke exclaims, throwing her hands up in the air.
‘Way to keep it classy,’ Evelyn snorts, rolling her eyes at Brooke. ‘Sorry,’ she apologises to the policeman, ‘just ignore her.’
I chew my lip, trying to think if I have anything solid. ‘I suppose I don’t have any rock-hard evidence. Just my word that he was the only person I sent the picture to.’
He grimaces slightly. Shit, does that mean there’s no hope? That the case has collapsed before it’s even fully opened?
‘Okay, can I have his name?’
‘Yep, Ted Cundy.’
He looks up mid-writing and stares at me. ‘And the fact his name was like Ted Bundy didn’t ring any alarm bells?’
I look to the girls, not sure if he’s joking.
‘Sorry, just my sense of humour!’ he snorts. ‘Very unprofessional of me.’
Brooke bursts out laughing. ‘I’ve been calling him Ted Cunty. I didn’t think of the Bundy thing.’
Trust Brooke to say the word cunt to a police officer. I raise my eyes heavenwards.
‘Do you think you’ll be able to get it taken down?’ I ask, ignoring her.
‘We’ll contact the site owners and tell them to remove the photo due to it being involved in a police investigation, and we’ll send an officer around there to arrest him. We’ll seize any computer items and send them to our high-tech crime unit.’
‘And they can prove if he posted it?’ I ask eagerly.
‘They can use the IP data to see if it was the computer that posted the photo. It can take a number of weeks though.’
‘But if you can prove that, you’ve got him, right?’
‘Well, then we’ll be able to interview him. Depending on the amount of evidence we’re able to obtain from high-tech crime we might then be able to send on to the Crown Prosecution Service. It’ll be up to them to decide whether to charge him or not.’
God, it’s all so confusing.
My stomach sinks. ‘Shit, what if he claims someone else posted it on his laptop? Is there anything else you can do but tell him off?’
It feels like too big a deal for just a bloody slap on the wrist.
‘I had it emailed to me,’ Brooke interjects. ‘Surely you can trace the IP address from that too? My boyfriend’s been trying to take down the site, but it’s always back up within an hour.’
‘Ah, now that’s something we can do,’ he says more positively. ‘If you could forward the email to me.’ He passes both of us his card. ‘And if anything else changes or progresses, feel free to contact me directly. Any time of the night.’
Evelyn is putting on her sexy eyes. She obviously thinks that’s his way of chatting her up.
‘Thank you.’
But I know as well as the girls, nothing will ever come of this. What a colossal waste of time.
* * *
Alice
He’s late home tonight. I know he’s avoiding me, but I’m trying desperately not to care. He’s probably out shagging everything he can in Brighton. Good luck to the dickhead.
I must have nodded off on the sofa when I get woken by the front door slamming. Damn it, I wanted to be in bed by the time he got in. He saunters in, throwing his keys on the hallway table.
‘Oh,’ he says when he spots me on the sofa. ‘I didn’t think you’d still be up.’
I shrug. ‘I fell asleep. So, I wasn’t waiting up for you or anything,’ I add quickly.
He winks. ‘Course you weren’t, sweetheart.’
I roll my eyes. He’s so bloody full of himself. How can one person be so bloody self-assured?
I get up to walk past him towards my bedroom but something moving across the floor catches my eye. I freeze as soon as I realise it’s a giant, big arse spider. FUCK! My worst nightmare.
Maybe if I stay still it won’t notice me and will go back to the depths of hell where it belongs.
Of course it doesn’t though. It instead darts towards me, its eight spindly legs faster than Usain Bolt.
‘Aargh! Aargh!’ I scream, jumping up on the coffee table. ‘Kill it!’ I yell at Tom.
His eyes are twice the size of normal. ‘What?’ he asks, like a stupid bloody male.
‘Kill it! KILL IT!’ I screech, jumping up and down so hard I’m sure the table is going to cave in.
‘Okay, calm your tits,’ he shouts, a stupid smile at the edges of his mouth.
He starts walking towards it, but his stupid giant footsteps startle it. It starts running towards me again.
‘Shit!’ I scream, leaping into the air and jumping onto him. I scramble high up him, holding onto his neck, my legs clinging on like a koala bear’s. ‘Kill it!’ I shriek, my voice so high it breaks. At this rate I’m going to have to burn the flat down.
‘I can’t see it,’ he shouts, staggering backwards with my weight.
I scramble even higher, clambering with my hands around his face.
‘Now I can’t see anything!’ he shouts, stumbling forward.
His shin hits the front of the coffee table making him fall forwards. We’re going down. We slam onto the sofa like a sack of potatoes. I fly down next to him, my arm crushed by his big stupid body.
‘Crap,’ I say, out of breath, still wondering where that bastard spider is. It’s as if I can feel it on me. Probably trying to get in my ear and lay hundreds of spider babies.
He stares back at me, his eyes incredulous. ‘So, I take it you don’t like spiders?’
‘Shit,’ I gasp. It’s still alive. I jump onto the back of the sofa.
He jumps up and eventually stamps his foot down. ‘There. Dead.’
I put my hand to my chest, feeling my erratic heartbeat returning to normal.
‘Is it really dead? I want to see its body,’ I demand. I don’t trust that he isn’t lying. Anything to get me to calm the fuck down.
He rolls his eye and lifts his shoe. There are the remnants of the squashed spider.
‘Excellent,’ I nod, swallowing down the fear.
He grins. ‘I thought you were a vegetarian. Aren’t you guys supposed to be friends with all animals?’
‘Not spiders.’ I shudder. ‘They’re different altogether.’
He smiles devilishly. ‘Well, at least now I know your weakness.’
‘I swear to God, Tom, if you ever threaten me with a spider I will fucking murder you in your sleep.’
He creases over laughing. ‘You make me die, Alice!’
Well, I suppose that’s one way to break the ice between us.