Page 52 of The Silent Appeal

You hired my string quartet in 2018. I’ve never been a member of this group. Kindly remove me from your mailing list.

To: Kevin MacDonald

From: Isabel Beck

Date: January 29, 2025

Subject: [Automatic Reply] Re: Gerda Cristow

Hiya! Thanks for sending me an email! Unfortunately, this isn’t my email address anymore because what with one thing and another—boo, boo, triple boo—I had to get a new one. Love Issy xxx

Message exchange between Sarah-Jane and Kevin MacDonald on January 29, 2025:

4:17 p.m. Kevin wrote:

The moment it pinged into my inbox and I saw the name, I had a eureka moment.

4:18 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:

Please tell me you didn’t act on it.

4:18 p.m. Kevin wrote:

I don’t have her current email address.

4:18 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:

Thank God.

4:19 p.m. Kevin wrote:

But I know someone who does.

4:19 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:

Do NOT ask them.

4:20 p.m. Kevin wrote:

Never was a Fairway Player more suited to a role than Issy Beck to Gerda Cristow.

4:21 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:

We cannot invite that mousy nightmare into our midst again.

4:22 p.m. Kevin wrote:

Nonsense! It was years ago. Anyway, it’s entirely for the good of the play.

4:24 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:

Never has a Fairway Player created more angst and disruption. The group has literally not been the same since.

4:28 p.m. Kevin wrote:

People change. I remember she was super-keen and threw herself into the couple of plays she did, more so than many current members do now.

4:30 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote: