Amy is enjoying the view but she is also aware that Steve has been determinedly looking down at his phone for the entire ride.
“It’s a beautiful view, Steve,” says Amy.
“I’m okay,” says Steve, still looking at his phone. “Are we going much higher, Ferdy?”
Ferdy, the taxi driver, turns around almost 180 degrees. “Another two kilometers up, then three kilometers down. You want me to speed up?”
“Yes, please,” say Amy and Rosie.
“No, thanks,” says Steve, eyes still glued to the phone on his lap.
Amy looks down at his phone. “What are you reading?”
“Nothing,” says Steve.
Amy takes a closer look. He does actually mean “nothing.” The phone is off.
“Why is your phone off?”
“I read something in the paper about roaming charges when you go abroad. Someone went to Tenerife and had a five-grand bill. So I’m keeping it off.”
“If it’s off,” says Rosie, from the front passenger seat, “why are you looking at it?”
“We’re just…” says Steve, tilting his head toward the window without raising it. “We’re just quite high up. And I don’t see any barriers.”
Ferdy turns 180 degrees again. “You’re safe with me. Never had a fatal accident.”
“Turn your phone back on,” says Amy. “It won’t cost you anything unless you download something without Wi-Fi.”
“Will they have Wi-Fi at the hotel?” Steve asks.
“One of Condé Nast’s Ten Most Luxurious Hotels in the World?” says Rosie. “Yes, they might have Wi-Fi.”
Steve switches his phone back on, and it slowly springs to life with message alerts.
“Are any of those from Hampshire Police?” asks Amy.
“They’re mainly Margaret from next door, sending me pictures of Trouble.”
“Trouble?” says Rosie, reacting to the word like a meerkat.
“Steve’s cat,” says Amy.
“A cat called Trouble,” says Rosie. “I like the sound of her.”
“Him,” says Steve.
“Well, you can’t have everything,” says Rosie. “Ferdy, why does everybody here wave at you?”
“They all know me,” says Ferdy. “I’m a politician; they see me on the news sometimes.”
“And Companies House have sent me all the information I requested on Vivid Viral.”
“And?” asks Amy.
“It seems to be a new name for an older company. Felicity Woollaston Associates,” says Steve. “A theatrical agency, TV and what have you.”
“Can I ask why you’re driving a taxi?” Rosie asks Ferdy. “If you’re a politician.”
“Because I always lose,” says Ferdy, swerving at the last moment to avoid a concrete truck. “Every time I lose.”
Ferdy beeps his horn at a group of young children waving at him from a bright yellow veranda.
“They still seem to like you, though,” says Rosie.
“That’s because I lose,” says Ferdy. “If I’d won, they’d hate me. That’s politics.”
“Felicity Woollaston is the sole director of the company,” says Steve. “Born eighteenth of March 1951.”
“Is that before or after you, Rosie?” Amy asks.
“I’m talking to Ferdy, dear,” Rosie replies.
“What’s a woman in her seventies doing single-handedly running a digital media agency?”
Amy shrugs. Perhaps Steve does have a point, though. Why Vivid Viral? Amy will be annoyed if this whole investigation ends up being solved by Companies House rather than by a gunfight.
“Will you look into her a bit more?”
