The Liberation of Alice Love - Abby McDonald [108]
“That’s very…Zen,” Flora said dubiously.
Alice smiled. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m sorry about all the inconvenience it caused for you, and Stefan, and everyone, but…” She shrugged. “She didn’t leave me any worse off, in the end.”
“But didn’t someone have to pay?” Flora asked. “Money can’t just appear, right?”
“So some multibillion-pound banking corporations had to eat into their profits.” Alice remarked with a grin, “Let’s all take a moment to weep.”
Flora giggled. “Alice!”
“What? You know it’s true.”
“I know, it’s just…Where did this come from?” Flora looked at her, clearly taken aback. “You’ve always been the one going on about rules and doing the right thing.”
“You make me sound so exciting,” Alice remarked drily.
Flora giggled again. “No, it’s good. I think. You seem…happier now.”
“See?” Alice flashed her a grin. “This mess hasn’t done me any harm at all.”
Perhaps Ella had even planned it that way.
***
When they were nearing the outskirts of the city, Alice had Flora call ahead to the first victim and set up a brief chat. Illana Mayers still lived at that same address as before and would be happy to talk to them. Soon, they were turning up Elmwood Avenue: the former home of one Miss Kate Jackson.
Flora climbed out of the car, looking around eagerly, but her face quickly settled into a more bemused expression. “It doesn’t look like a hotbed of fraud and deception…”
Alice had to agree. The suburban street was quiet, leafy, and entirely unremarkable. Semidetached houses lined the road, divided by hedges and freshly painted fences, and although there wasn’t anything as idyllic as children playing freely in the street, there were enough toys scattered in front gardens and bicycles leaning against garage doors to prove the area a family-friendly zone.
“Why would Ella bother living somewhere like this?” Flora followed her up the road. “It’s miles out of the city center.”
“I don’t know…” Alice looked around, trying to put herself in Ella’s mind-set again. By now, it was simple. “Maybe she wanted the peace and quiet. Or maybe she just figured people around here wouldn’t be shredding all their important documents.”
“Weird.” Flora shrugged. “I mean, what does she do—just pick a place, and show up, and start stalking people?”
“Not stalking,” Alice corrected. “Watching.”
“Like there’s a difference.”
The address from Nathan’s file was near the top of the road: a large Victorian with gravel in the front yard and four buzzers lined up beside the door, marking the separate flats. Alice tested the door before calling up, but it was firmly locked, no doubt an aftereffect of the fraud. Sure enough, when Illana buzzed them in, there was a pile of letters jumbled on the doormat and a simple hall table for post and other deliveries: an invitation for theft and mail tampering if ever she saw. No security cameras either, of course, and she would bet that the residents didn’t know each other well enough to guess if that nondescript woman slipping in behind them was a friend dropping by or an imposter set on stealing their life savings.
Illana was waiting in the doorway on the second floor. A nervous-looking woman in her early thirties, she was outfitted in baggy sweatpants and a T-shirt, with her dark hair scraped back in a ponytail. “Hi,” she greeted them with an awkward smile. “Come on in. I can’t talk long, I’m afraid, but maybe it will help…”
“Thanks so much for seeing me.” Alice quickly moved to reassure her: giving a friendly grin and whipping out her notebook and pen. They followed her through to the sitting room, which was strewn with magazines, dirty cups, and random items of clothing.
“I’m sorry about the mess.” Illana blushed. “I didn’t have any time…”
“Oh, no, it’s fine!” Alice insisted, as Flora plucked a pair of tights from the couch and took a seat. “You should see our place—you can barely see the floor sometimes.” Flora raised an eyebrow at the obvious untruth, but the white lie worked: Illana perched on the edge of a chair, seeming to relax.
“So, you want to know about the