have been Doug.
The blonde receptionist raised oh-so-polite, perfectly sculptured eyebrows as Lola sashayed past the desk. ‘Better now, madam?’
The receptionist who was so perfect, naturally, that she’d never been to the loo in her life.
Lola nodded and beamed at her. ‘Yes thanks. Much.’
The woman placing the order rested threadbare elbows on the counter and said, ‘It’s the most marvellous book, you know. Called When Miss Denby went to Devon. By Fidelma Barlow.
Have you heard of it?’
‘Sorry, no, that one’s passed me by.’ Lola typed the details into the computer.
‘Oh, it’s unputdownable, an absolute joy! I can’t understand why it isn’t a Sunday Times bestseller. It deserves to be made into a film!’ The woman nodded enthusiastically. ‘Miss Denby would be a wonderful role for Dame Judi Dench.’
Lola checked the screen. ‘Okaaay, yes, we can get that for you by Friday.’
‘Lovely!’ The woman’s face lit up. ‘Can I order fifty copies please?’
‘Fifty! Gosh.’ Maybe it was for a book club. Hesitating for a moment, Lola said, ‘You have to pay for them in advance, I’m afraid.’
‘Oh no, it’s OK.’ The woman shook her head. ‘I don’t want to pay for them.’
‘I know it’s a lot of money. But somebody has to.’
‘But not me! I just want you to put them on the shelves. Make a nice display like you do with the Richard and Judy books. Right at the front of the shop,’ the woman said helpfully, ‘so that people will buy them.’
By the time Lola had finished explaining the niceties of stock ordering to a disappointed Fidelma Barlow, it was almost eight o’clock, kicking out time. Fidelma, shoulders drooping, left the shop.
Lola, who knew just how she felt, dispiritedly straight- , ened a pile of bookmarks and wondered if she could bear to go along to the party tonight that Tim and Darren had invited her to ... except she already knew she couldn’t, which meant she was now going to have to come up with a convincing reason why not.
The next moment she looked up and almost fell over. There, standing six feet away like an honest-to-goodness mirage, was Doug.
Lola’s heart, which never listened to her head and hadn’t yet learned to stop hoping, went into instantaneous clattery overdrive.
‘Hello.’ She clutched the computer for support. ‘What’s this? Is my mum on the telly again?’
Doug smiled slightly. ‘No.’
‘My dad then? On Crimewatch?’
‘Haven’t spotted him on Crimewatch. Maybe he was the one in the balaclava.’ Tilting his head, Doug said, ‘But you’re half right. I am here because of your dad.’
‘You are?’ She hadn’t been expecting him to say that. ‘We had a chat on Saturday night.’
‘You did?’
‘He didn’t mention it? OK, obviously not. Well, we were at the Savoy.’
Lola boggled. ‘My dad was there?’ So that was why his mobile had been switched off. And to think he could have come along to the cinema with her instead.
‘Well, we didn’t communicate by telepathy. He spoke to me about you. Quite forcefully, in fact.’
Doug paused, then glanced over at a nervously hovering Darren who was waiting to empty the till. ‘Sorry, could you just give us a couple of minutes?’
‘Um, but I need to get the—’
‘Darren?’ Lola murmured the word out of the corner of her mouth. ‘Go away.’
‘OK’ Defeated, Darren slunk off.
‘I was watching you with that woman just now. The one who wanted you to stock her book,’
said Doug. ‘You were really nice to her.’
‘That’s because I’m a really nice person. Believe it or not. And you were eavesdropping.’
‘Not eavesdropping. Listening. Like I listened to your dad on Saturday night.’ He waited, gazing directly into Lola’s eyes. ‘I know why you took that money when my mother offered it to you.’
‘What?’ Lola felt as if all the air had been vacuumed out of her lungs. How could he know that?
It wasn’t physically possible, it just wasn’t.
Doug gave an infinitesimal shrug. ‘OK, I don’t know exactly why. But I do know it didn’t have anything to do with a Jeep.’
‘How? Why not?’ Anxiety was now skittering around inside Lola’s stomach like a squirrel.
‘Because you told me you could never tell me the reason you needed the money. And that’s what you said to your fathertoo.’ Doug tilted an eyebrow at her.. ‘But if the Jeep story was true, there’s no reason why you couldn’t have told us that. Therefore it stands to reason that it wasn’t.’
Lola felt dizzy. This was like being cross-examined on the witness stand by a barrister a zillion times cleverer than you. In fact this might be a good moment to faint.
‘So basically,’ Doug continued, ‘you needed the money for something that meant far more to you than a Jeep. It
