The Three-Month Rule

Chapter 30 - Behind the Mask

The next day...

She carefully walked down the steep concrete steps, careful not to spill the hot earl grey teas in each hand.

"Hey, Lucy, I brought you a tea," Allegra said as she reached the bottom. She rounded the corner and into what was once their office. "Can you just log on to your laptop and –"

She stopped, realising that her best friend was not in there. Her bags were at her desk and her laptop was open, so Allegra assumed she had gone to the upstairs toilet.

She placed the teas on the desk and sat down in Lucy's chair, logging on to her laptop to see a picture of the two of them as her background.

Allegra smiled to herself, finding solace from the memory.

She clicked on the mail icon at the bottom of the MacBook screen and Lucy's emails popped up. Allegra moved the cursor to the 'sent mail' button as her eyes subconsciously scanned the screen, careful to avoid any private information.

She stopped, unknowing why at first, but when her eyes moved back to an email, her body turned numb.

Their office had deteriorated in the months leading up to December- the damp in the walls had increased after the snow had fallen; a leak decided to begin in the ceiling, so a bucket was placed between their desks to catch the dripping water; and a strange smell had filled the room. It was a cold place to be, especially in winter, as none of the plugs were safe to use and there was no heating, and the damp only made things worse.

Allegra clicked on the first email that Lucy had sent to Taylor Swift- her full name, date of birth and home address were amongst many of the personal details that she had forwarded. Allegra's shaking hands managed to pull her phone from her pocket, and she took pictures of all of the emails they had exchanged.

The police had confirmed that the nail varnish that Taylor was wearing in the picture that Naomi found, and the nail varnish that had been used to write the letters were likely to be the same shade but had said it wasn't enough to bring Taylor into the police station as Allegra had no valid proof that she could be involved in her harassment.

But this... This was enough.

In a state of panic, Allegra quickly turned in the chair, kicking over Lucy's bag. A quiet sharp clicking noise filled Allegra's ears, as if she had knocked something out of the bag. She bent down and slowly leant it up against the desk again, revealing a small vial of red nail varnish.