Page 61 of The Wedding Cake Wish
‘And can I take some of those gorgeous-looking muffins forthe journey back?’
‘Yes, of course.’
‘Sorry. We’re in a bit of a hurry, otherwise we’d have comein for a coffee.’ I glance anxiously at the door to the men’s toilets.
‘No worries, Ruby. A bag of muffins coming up,’ she sayscheerfully, and I scrabble for my purse, just wanting to get out of there asfast as possible.
I hand over the money for the muffins and take the bag Saraholds out. ‘Better go. Lovely to meet you.’
The door to the men’s toilets opens and I flee from thecafé.
‘Maybe see you again? Give my love to Ellie!’ Sara calls asthe door shuts behind me.
I race back to the car and dive in, and Hudson – changed andback in the driver’s seat – looks at me as if I’ve finally lost my marbles.‘What’s going on?’
‘I’ll tell you later.’ I point at the van. Rory’s getting inand starting the engine. ‘Just drive. Follow that car.’ I grin. ‘I know it’s acliché, but I really have always wanted to say that, and you beat me to it inthe taxi last night.’
‘Just a walking cliché. That’s you, Rubes,’ he teases.
‘Hey you!’
‘Now, if you could possibly be quiet and refrain fromleaping out of the car again?’ He starts the engine and we zoom off. ‘I need toconcentrate here.’
‘Yes, boss. Certainly, boss.’
We tail the red van as it motors out of Amberley. Afternavigating a series of roundabouts, at which I’m terrified we’re going to lose sightof Rory, it finally becomes clear he’s heading for the motorway.
‘Maybe he’s going home,’ I murmur.
‘I guess we’ll find out.’
‘As long as we don’t lose him.’
Hudson shakes his head firmly. ‘We won’t lose him.’
True to his word, Hudson does a brilliant job of tailingRory. Every so often, on the motorway, the red van disappears ahead around abend, and then my heart starts to race, thinking we’ve lost him. But Hudsonnever lets up, doggedly sticking behind him and catching him up whenever Roryovertakes and we get stuck behind another car in the fast lane.
My heart is in my mouth for most of the journey, but it’sexhilarating at the same time – sitting beside Hudson, each of us striving forthe same goal: Catching Rory before he has a chance to wreak any more chaos.
‘I think hemustbe going home,’ I murmur, as wedrive ever closer to Sunnybrook.
‘Possibly.’
‘What shall we do?’ I cast a nervous glance at Hudson.‘Confront him at his flat?’
He nods. ‘I think we’ll have to. We can’t risk a repeat ofthe chaos he caused today.’
‘He might be going straight to his mum’s, of course. To makesure she’s all right. Although he knows Shirley’s there to keep an eye on her.’I stop as a thought occurs. ‘Hey, maybe Shirley’s the third girl. Why didn’t Ithink of that before?’ I scramble to find the photo. ‘She did say they went toschool together, although they didn’t become really good friends until shemoved in next door to Rachel about ten years ago.’
‘Stick your phone light on and have a look,’ says Hudsonurgently.
‘Okay, okay.’ I grab my phone, my hands trembling slightly.‘Shirley seems so nice, though. Quite the opposite of that witch, Stephanie. Ican’t imagine Shirley being our arsonist.’
‘It was a long time ago. When they were still kids,’ Hudsonreminds me. ‘People can change.’
I shine the light on the face of the third girl, and myexcitement fizzles out. ‘Nope. I’m pretty certain that’s not Shirley.’ I screwup my eyes, trying to picture her. ‘Shirley’s a big woman. I don’t meanoverweight. I just remember noticing she had really nice hands but they were onthe large side with long, elegant fingers. Whereas the girl in the photo herelooks quite slight and small-boned.’ I shake my head. ‘It’s definitely notShirley.’
We sink into silence for a while, watching the red van upahead. I’m starting to get a headache from having to concentrate so hard and Ican tell Hudson’s getting weary because he keeps stifling yawns.
