Chapter 13

On Tuesday afternoon Samantha's mobile rang. It was Ian Frobisher.

"Hello, Samantha," he said. "It appears that your ex is innocent."

"What?"

"Starback lives in England."

There was a stunned silence.

"Are you still there, Samantha?"

"Yes. You're serious, aren't you?"

"Completely. I must admit it ghasted my flabber too."

"Do you know his real name?"

"Yes. It's Tony Morgan."

"I don't believe it ... Actually, thinking about it I can."

"Do you know him?"

"Yes. He works for my firm. He took me out to dinner once. It was not a success."

"Oh! Do you think the tweet was some sort of revenge?"

"Could be. Do you know anything more about him?"

"No but he must be pretty warped to do something like that though."

"I agree."

"Do you want us to look into it a little more deeply? I warn you it could turn out expensive."

"Not if he ends up paying."

"Very well. I'll let you know how things go."

"Thank you, Ian. Goodbye for now."

"Goodbye, Samantha."

"What was all that about?" asked Henry. Samantha told him. Henry shook his head in bewilderment.

"What did you do to make him vindictive like that?"

"I was a complete idiot to ever go out with him in the first place but I'd always found him amusing the few and short times I'd met him so, when he asked me to go out to dinner with him one night, I thought it might be quite fun. It didn't take me long to find out that he was far too pleased with himself. He drank too much, talked about nothing but himself, laughed at his own jokes, which weren't very funny, and made suggestive remarks. He wanted to dance but I pleaded tiredness so he went and found a taxi. He insisted on seeing me home. As soon as the taxi moved off he was all over me. I managed to fight him off sufficiently to shout to the cabbie to stop. The cabbie pulled him off me, bopped him when he tried to put up a fight and drove me home. Bless his heart, he refused to take any payment. He also gave me his name in case I wanted to press charges.

"The next morning I went to Tony's office and told him what I thought of him. I told him that I would tell nobody but if he ever approached me on anything other than a business matter I would see he was fired. He started to swear at me and call me names so I walked out on him. I have never spoken to him again."

"Phew! How long ago was that?"

"Six or seven weeks."

"I wonder what he'd have done if this opportunity hadn't come up. He knew your address."

"I shudder to think. Probably nothing actually. I'd guess it was a spur of the moment thing and he was probably tight."

"So what's Ian going to do?"

"See what else he can find out about him."

"Such as?"

"I've no idea but I'm quite interested."

"Nosy parker."

"Yup!" She grinned. "Be warned. You'd better not cross me, matey."

"Yes, ma'am. No, ma'am. Three bags full, ma'am."

She rose from her chair. "Come here, little brother, and give your big sister a kiss."

He obeyed giving her a chaste peck on the lips. She smacked his bottom.

"You can do better than that, lover."

"Ah, that's better." He gave her a kiss that left her gasping. She pulled him tightly to her laying her head against his chest. "Thank you, my sweets. I needed that."

Things went quiet after that. The mob at Carlton Parva thinned out to a few diehards. Henrietta was able to visit them on Thursday without being followed. Samantha told her the story.

"Ugh!" said Henrietta. "I'm glad you didn't bring that rat home."

"No fear!"

"And," went on Henrietta sternly to Henry, "don't you start getting any ideas about taking the law into your own hands, my boy."

"No, Mum."

She smiled. "Good! I can have him all to myself."

Her two children roared with laughter.

Ginny stuck her head round the door. "Am I missing something?" she asked.

"Mum's going to bash that Tony Morgan up all by herself," said Henry.

"That's no laughing matter," replied Ginny sternly. "She might do him serious damage."

All four collapsed with laughter.

Ian rang Samantha again on Friday afternoon.

"First off, I owe you an apology," he said. "I meant to ask you on Tuesday but didn't want to bother you again. I have written to your ex telling him about the tweet purporting to have emanated from him. I told him that we had established that he was not responsible and said that should he be approached by the media that he could refer them to us to vouch for his denial."

"Thanks, Ian. That was good of you and clever to think of it too. What's second?"

"I'd rather you didn't ask how the information was obtained but Tony Morgan is a very nasty piece of work. He has several screen names. He uses one to satisfy his sadomasochistic tendencies."

"Oh God!"

"He also has a penchant for pubescent girls."

"That'll do, Ian. I don't want to hear any more."

"Sorry, Samantha, but I just wanted you to realise what an extremely unpleasant individual he is. We have indirectly steered the police in his direction and I imagine they will be moving in on him in a few days not to mention his correspondents."