Page 56 of Play Our Song

Tilly looked back over her shoulder, desperate for one last glimpse of Sophie, but Sophie was hidden behind her computer.

“Not a sausage,” Max sniffed when they got back out onto the street. “Which only means that they’re clever enough not to leave anything in plain sight.” He sighed. “I don’t think we’ve got enough for a warrant, though, not without more than Len Dodds seeing the odd car at night.”

“Agreed,” Tilly said. “It was only a thought.”

“Not a bad one,” Max said. “But let’s keep our options open, shall we? And you did the right thing. We had to have a look.”

But Tilly wasn’t so sure. Not now that she’d seen Sophie’s face. She had an uncomfortable feeling that she and Sophie were about to have an unpleasant discussion.

Chapter Twenty Three

Paul Farmer slammed down the hood of the car he’d been working on and patted it. “Good as new,” he said. He turned to Sophie. “You can give Ad Park a ring and tell her that her car’s ready to be picked up.”

“Right,” Sophie said, writing a post-it and sticking it on her computer. “And then I’ve ordered the parts you wanted. They’ll be in on the sixteenth.”

“Good. I’ll just go and wash my hands.” He disappeared off into the bathroom.

Sophie sighed.

This wasn’t what she’d wanted to do with her life. Sitting at a tiny desk in a cramped garage, smelling of oil and ordering car parts. Alright, she did some accounting, but this wasn’t what she’d trained for.

Not for the first time, she thought about applying for other jobs. At the beginning, this had all been temporary. Her dad had needed the help, and she’d just finished school. But over time, it had turned into an expectation.

Which was why she couldn’t apply for another job. Her dad would be so hurt.

“What you thinking about, Soph?” he asked as he came back in. He perched on the edge of her desk. “Not still worried about the police thing, are you?”

How was she supposed to answer that? Of course she was. She’d tried to file it away in her mind, tried to forget about it, but of course she was worried about it. Her love interest had raided her work-place.

Okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it was kind of true, too. And yes, she knew that Tilly had a job to do, but she could have sent a text or something instead of just turning up like that. There was more to it, though. Like the fact that she’d been sitting there at her desk while Max and Tilly were walking around, expecting them to find something at any moment.

She’d been so sure that Gio and her dad hadn’t done anything. Right up until the police arrived. Then she’d just been waiting for the piano to fall on her head.

They weren’t going out at night, she was sure of that. She was relatively sure that they had nothing directly to do with the stolen cars. But… but there was that little sneaky suspicion in the back of her head. That worry about why Gio had a new car, about the raises they’d been promised.

“You don’t need to be worried about the cops,” her dad said now. “They’re just giving us a hard time. It’ll clear itself up.”

“Right.”

“We haven’t done anything, you know that, don’t you?”

She nodded. Her dad reached over and took her hand, giving it a squeeze.

“You do a good job here, Soph,” he said, his eyes blue and a bit misty looking. “And I’ve been meaning to talk to you about it for a while now. I know that this isn’t your dream job.”

“But—”

“Nah, let me finish,” he said. “I know it’s not what you’ve always wanted to do. But I also know that you’ve got a good head on your shoulders and, well, I’m not getting any younger, am I?”

“You’re fine,” Sophie said. “And you’ll stay fine as long as you take your meds.”

“I can’t stay fine forever,” he said, squeezing her hand again. “And it’s important to have things sorted out.” He rubbed his nose with his hand. “Here’s the thing. I know you can be trusted. So when I go, I want to leave the garage in your hands.”

She opened her eyes wider in shock. “Me? I always thought—”

“Gio’s a good boy and he’s good at his job, but he can’t run the place and both you and he know it. I’ll expect you to keep him on and pay him a good salary, but the actual day-to-day running of the place, well, that’ll be down to you. I’ll talk to Gio about it. Not now, but closer to the time.”

Sophie swallowed, nodded, unsure of what she was supposed to say.

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