Page 71 of Sun, Sea & Strawberry Shortcake
‘But she’s gone.’ I stare up at him in dismay. ‘They’ve justleft. Bee and Jodie.’
‘What?’ He looks like he might actually cry.
I grab his arm. ‘But don’t worry. I’ve got Bee’s phonenumber.’
‘Don’tdothat to me.’ He slaps his hand across his heartwith relief.
Smiling, I delve into my pocket but my phone’s not there.It’s not in the other one, either, so I get up, searching around the kitchenfor it. ‘Where on earth... ? I had it earlier because Bee andJodie were leaving and we were exchanging numbers, and Jodie...oh, no. Jodie’s still got my phone.’ I slap my hand across my forehead with agroan. ‘I don’t believe this. How can I contact Bee to tell her the great newsifthey’vegot myphone?’
‘Don’t panic,’ says Mitch. ‘Just use my mobile to call yoursand they’ll hear it and realise what’s happened. Easy!’
‘Of course.’ Relieved, I punch in my own number, but it goesstraight to voicemail and my heart sinks. ‘The battery must have run out. Itcould be ages before they find it. Or it might be lost.’
*****
A little later, I’m sitting in the cottage kitchen withHudson and Mitch, trying to fathom out how to find Bee.
Poor Mitch confessed he hadn’t eaten properly for daysbecause he’s been living in his car, so we’ve ordered pizza. And in themeantime, he’s already crunched his way through an entire family bag of cheeseand onion crisps and is currently wading through a pack of sausage rolls.
Hudson was totally confused by the rambling tale we toldhim, about Joanna, Mitch and Emerald’s inheritance, but I think he’s almost gothis head around it.
‘But how did Joanna find out that Emerald’s Anna was nowknown as Bee?’ he says, looking at Mitch. ‘Youdidn’t know that.’
Mitch shrugs. ‘No idea. She’s a better detective than I am,I suppose.’
‘Hang on.’ I turn to Hudson. ‘Didn’t you say Joanna used towork for a charity before she came to work for you? And anadoption agency?’
He frowns. ‘She did. Do you think she managed to getinformation about Anna? Her adoptive parents and suchlike?’
I snort. ‘She probably bribed an old colleague for theinformation!’ I swivel my eyes at Hudson. ‘Sorry.’
He laughs. ‘You don’t need to apologise about bad-mouthingJoannanow!’
‘I suppose not. Since I wasright all alongabouther!’
He flicks his eyes to the ceiling. ‘Yeah, yeah. You don’thave to keep going on about it.’
‘Now, now. No arguments,’ grins Mitch.
I suddenly remember something. ‘Hey, I saw you and Joannahaving words in the street. She told me you’d yelled at her and she was reallyscared of you.’
Mitch laughs. ‘All lies. She must have seen me parked in thelane and wondered what I was doing. So she came out to challenge me, recognisedme and realised I was onto her. I accused her of being up to no good and shesaid it was a complete coincidence she should decide to take a holiday here.And obviously, I knew she was lying. I asked her if she’d found Anna, but shepretended she didn’t know what I was talking about.’
‘But shehadfound her. And it was Bee. So she setabout trying to scare her away from the village before you had a chance to findher for yourself.’
He snorts. ‘Yes. Incredible. The woman’s clearly several sausagerolls short of a picnic.’
‘And very dangerous.’
We all murmur in agreement, and lapse into a silence that’s brokenonly by Mitch getting up to put another sausage roll in the microwave. But justas he’s setting it off, the doorbell rings.
Mitch’s eyes light up. ‘That’ll be the pizza.’
Grinning, I go to the door, expecting a man in a helmet witha large flat box.
But the two people standing there have neither boxes norhelmets.
I stare at them in amazement. Then I leap forward with aloud and very excited squeal and embrace them both with the level of enthusiasmusually reserved for meeting dearly loved relatives from Australia at theairport.
