Savannah

24

Chapter Twenty Four: Part 2: Lauren's Plan

Meriam replayed Aarav's words in her head. He'd put a group together years ago. She got the impression the group was still operational. His words that he'd contacted two of them and they told him don't contact the others were strange. Too surprised, she hadn't asked him what the group did. Surprised, first, at what he said, and surprised, second, to hear him confessing to her. That he entertained any wrongdoing, she doubted, sweeping the idea out of her mind. Besides, that was long ago. She sat staring into space in her room, thinking.

Talia interrupted her thoughts. "Aunty, Lauren, come to see you."

Meriam rose and walked outside to the porch, where Lauren sat on the long wooden bench. She looked up as she saw Meriam. "Hello."

Meriam thought of telling her about Aarav's proposal, but thought maybe later. She sat next to Lauren. "Hi."

Lauren leaned closer, whispering. "Remember the last time we talked? Joe Cooper's brother?"

"Yeah."

"Remember that new sim I had?"

"Yep."

Lauren continued whispering. "Well, Enrique bought it for me, so it registered in his name. And I used it to call him so he may know it belong to a woman."

Meriam looked at her, her eyes narrowed.

Lauren looked around her before continuing. "I will use my old sim, so he won't think it's the same person. If I'm right and Tony Cooper connected to this Sex Island scam, I will know. From the research I did, they advertise the women over WhatsApp."

Meriam looked as Lauren opened WhatsApp on her phone.

Lauren continued. "I'll pretend to be ah man looking for ah woman."

Meriam leaned closer to see the chat screen. "Okay."

Lauren began typing in the WhatsApp chat and then backspaced it. "Help me out... What to write?"

"How about... Hi Tony, anything new?" Meriam said.

"Hymn. What about... Hi Tony, looking for..." Lauren typed and stopped, appearing to think.

Meriam thought, too. "Your best..."

Lauren continued typing and added. "Girl." She pressed send.

Meriam and Lauren stared at the screen. Nothing.

Lauren began texting again, but Meriam stopped her. "If you text too much, he'll think you desperate for his reply, and may realize you faking. Maybe give it a chance."

Lauren lay the phone on her lap. "Maybe he thinking it a setup."

Meriam and Lauren waited over five minutes, but there was no reply. Lauren looked to see if he'd come online and her eyes opened wide. She whispered to Meriam. "He's online."

They waited for his response and none came. He went offline, and up to half an hour later, there was no reply. While they waited, Meriam told her about Aarav's proposal and she was very thrilled to hear it. Lauren even confessed to informing crime stoppers about the phone number and that a woman had called a female Venezuelan friend from it saying help and that the Venezuelan friend thought it was her cousin. Lauren said she told them the number belonged to Tony Cooper, because when she called she asked for Tony and he said, speaking.

She said she reported it a few days ago and was thinking of telling Enrique when next she saw him.

Not long after Lauren said that, Enrique arrived at Meriam's home. "Hola," he said.