‘No,’ said Jake. ‘Like we said, we were curious to know what happened to the books.’ He smiled. ‘We’re interested in old books.’
Gemma gave a scornful laugh.
‘Do me a favour!’ she said derisively. ‘No one comes all this way just to look for some old books.’
‘Jasper Brigstocke did,’ pointed out Jake.
‘Yeah, but that’s cos he was gonna make money out of ’em. No one does nothing if there ain’t a profit in it. What you really after?’
‘Just some of the old books!’ repeated Jake.
Gemma looked at them suspiciously.
‘All right,’ she said. ‘You don’t want to tell me, that’s fine. But I can tell that you’re after something from the de Courceys. So why don’t we work together? I know all about them. I can put you on to stuff. We can all benefit from this.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Lauren apologetically. ‘It really is just the books we’re interested in.’
Gemma sucked on her milkshake for a while longer, still studying them. Then she gave a toss of her head and said airily, ‘Well, if that’s your story, all right. But if you change your mind, we’d be better off working together on this.’
‘What makes you think we can be any help to you with the de Courceys?’ asked Lauren.
‘For one thing, you’re older than me,’ said Gemma. ‘Like I said, I’m only fifteen. I can’t sue people on my own, and my mum don’t want to get involved. But you can.’
‘Why would we want to sue the de Courceys?’
‘That’s your business,’ said Gemma. ‘But, like I say, whatever it is, we’ll get better results working together.’
‘OK,’ said Jake. ‘We’ll think about it.’
‘Where can we get hold of you if we need to?’ asked Lauren.
Gemma took out a scrap of paper and wrote an address on it in scrawling letters.
‘This is the park where we live,’ she said. Beneath the address, she wrote a mobile number. ‘And this is my mobile. What about yours?’
Jake was reluctant to give their details to this girl. She seemed intense. She’d already hung around outside in the street and waited for them at the solicitor’s office. He was worried that if they gave Gemma their address, she’d turn up at their flat and start harassing them.
Fortunately, Lauren had had the same doubts, and was already handling it. Lauren wrote her mobile number on a torn-off piece of the table napkin, adding her name after it.
‘This is my mobile,’ she said. ‘We’re in between places at the moment, so we can’t give you an address.’
‘Mobile’s fine,’ said Gemma.
She took out her mobile and dialled the number Lauren had written. Immediately, Lauren’s mobile rang.
‘That’s all right then.’ Gemma smiled, clicking her phone off and cutting the call.
A shadow fell over the table and they heard a young man say, ‘Gemma!’ in a weary tone of voice.
They looked up. A boy of about eighteen was standing there, looking at Gemma, and Jake and Lauren could see at once the family resemblance between them. Her brother, thought Jake.
‘What?’ demanded Gemma irritably.
‘I just had a phone call from Mrs Ward at the solicitor’s,’ he said. He let out a groan. ‘Gemma, you’ve got to stop doing this!’
‘Doing what?’ demanded Gemma.
‘You know what I mean,’ he said. He looked at Jake and Lauren, and then appealed to Gemma: ‘Maybe it’d be better if we talked about this outside, in private.’
‘No!’ said Gemma firmly.
‘They’re talking about taking out an injunction against you for harassment,’ he said.
‘Oh yeah!’ snapped Gemma. ‘I’d like to see ’em try!’
‘They’re solicitors, Gemma . . .’
‘Yeah, small-town solicitors,’ sneered Gemma. ‘Well, I’m gonna get me some big-time solicitors, and then we’ll see what that creep Ainsworth does!’
‘Gemma, this is crazy talk . . .’
‘Oh yeah? You’re just prepared to take it lying down, are you? Just like Mum. Well, I ain’t! You can do whatever you want, Dan. Me, I’m going to get what’s rightfully mine!’
With that she got to her feet, pushed past him and stormed out of the burger bar. He stood looking after her, helpless.
‘Trouble?’ asked Lauren sympathetically.
He turned back to them.
‘It’s not your problem,’ he said.
‘In a way it is,’ said Lauren. ‘We’re after some information about the de Courcey family.’