Belinda shrugged. ‘Not my job. I did wonder, of course, but I’m a local hack, not an investigative reporter, and in any case, I’m kept too busy to look into things too deeply. The flower show has to be covered, and the swimming-club galas, and the main problem is finding a good lead story for the front page each week. Sometimes they come looking for you – parents of sick children raising funds to take them for treatment abroad, or whatever, the occasional bit of excitement like a shooting or a drowning, or plans for a new supermarket causing an upset, but sometimes I’m struggling, and it all eats into my time.’
Movement in the main office on the other side of the window attracted my attention – a tall figure in a leather jacket had come in and was walking up the aisle between the desks. Josh! My heart skipped a beat.
A moment later the door opened.
‘Oh, sorry Belinda, I didn’t realize you had someone with you . . . Sally! What a surprise!’
‘Hello, Josh,’ I said, thinking: That was a tall one! Surely Josh had seen us through the window – the slatted blinds were open and he’d been heading straight for us.
‘Just filling her in on a few details, Josh. Things that aren’t in my cuttings files that you so generously made available to her,’ Belinda said, her tone heavily overlaid with sarcasm.
‘In that case I’ll leave you to it.’
‘It’s OK – I’ve got to go out now in any case.’ Belinda got up, reaching for her jacket and slipping it on.
I got up too. ‘Thanks very much, Belinda.’
‘No problem. Though I’m not sure I’ve been much help.’
‘You have, actually.’
‘Good.’ She grabbed her bag, slid a shorthand notebook and a pencil into it, and left.
‘So what’s she been telling you?’ Josh asked when we were alone.
‘Background stuff about Dawn, mostly,’ I said.
‘Oh come on, it must have been a bit more than that.’
‘Background stuff is very useful. I’m looking for someone who might have wanted rid of Dawn – permanently – remember. And she also said the girls were very reticent about the fire. I think I should try to talk to Lisa Curry again – for all the good it will do.’
Josh sighed. ‘Oh Sally, is there no way I can talk you out of going on with this?’
‘None,’ I said flatly. ‘And by the way, I’ve been trying to get hold of you. Tara said she’d left a message on your mobile.’
‘Oh, I haven’t picked them up lately,’ Josh said blithely. ‘And I try to avoid Tara’s as long as possible, anyway. They usually mean more work. Now if I’d known it was you . . . I must give you my number. I don’t know why I haven’t. So why were you trying to get hold of me? Something nice, I hope.’
‘Actually I wanted to rearrange for tomorrow. I went to the meeting of Compton Players last night, and there’s another on Wednesday. I’d really like to make it.’
‘That’s me put in my place then,’ Josh said ruefully.
‘Oh no, it’s not like that! It’s just that . . .’
‘I know. Your investigation comes first.’
‘Couldn’t we make it another time?’
‘What about tonight then?’
‘I thought you said you were busy tonight.’
‘Things change,’ Josh said breezily. ‘If you turn me down, I’ll know you really are trying to avoid me.’
Though I was a bit puzzled as to why he was now suddenly free tonight, a little shiver of warmth tickled deep inside me.
‘You’ve talked me into it.’
‘I’ll pick you up at about eight.’
‘Fine. And now I have to go and collect my new laptop. Exciting or what?’
‘Sally, you are incorrigible.’
I grinned. ‘I know.’
Twelve
Next day I spent a good long while transferring all my notes to my new laptop, and drinking plenty of strong coffee. Goodness knows, I needed it!
Josh and I had spent another very pleasant evening together, checking out the merits of yet another country pub. I filled him in on my visit to the Compton Players, though I didn’t, of course, mention the fright I’d had when I thought I was being followed on the way home, and Josh regaled me with some amusing stories of situations he’d encountered in his line of work – the nonagenarian who couldn’t find her false teeth and refused to be photographed without them, the time he’d been trying to capture scenes of heavy snowfall, slipped and ended up in a deep drift.
When he drove me home we spent a good quarter of an hour getting to know one another more intimately in the privacy of his car, parked well out of the sight-lines from Mum’s bedroom window, and Josh suggested that our next date should be him cooking a meal for me at the cottage he was renting on the outskirts of Stoke Compton.