Page 10

Nova

I t was gone two by the time Nova got back to the community center, and she was late for her afternoon shift. But as she ran in through the front door, she crashed into a tall, broad-shouldered figure clutching an oversized potted plant.

“No running in the community center!” shouted a deep, booming voice. “Oh, it’s you .”

Nova’s heart sank as she saw her predecessor, Beryl, blocking the corridor. Although she’d been fired five months ago, the woman still found excuses to visit several times a week. On Wednesday, she’d come to retrieve a large box of tea bags and had proceeded to spend an hour sitting at Nova’s desk, counting the tea bags individually to make sure none had been used in her absence.

“Hi, Beryl.” Nova tried to dodge past the woman, but she stood with her legs astride.

“I came to rescue Stephen.” Beryl indicated the yucca plant in her arms.

“Ah, is that yours? I’ve been trying to revive it.”

“Kill him, more like,” Beryl muttered. “Sandy told me about the stolen money.”

“Yeah, it’s been a nightmare but—”

“Do you have any idea how long it took us to raise that? It’s not like London down here; we don’t just get handed money on a plate.”

From further along the corridor, Nova heard a raised voice coming from the office. For once, it didn’t sound like Sandy.

“I’d better get down there, it sounds like something’s going on.”

Beryl didn’t move. “The whole of St. Tredock pulled together to raise that money, and we won’t forget whose fault its theft was.”

“Beryl, I need to get past, please .”

For a moment, the woman stayed where she was, glaring down at Nova. Then she slowly and deliberately stepped aside. Nova squeezed past her and hurried along the corridor. As she got nearer to the office, the voices inside grew louder.

“I have this afternoon slot on a permanent booking and have done for years.” Nova recognized the rich baritone of Serge, the yoga instructor who ran a session from the center every Friday.

“I was told the hall was free when I made the booking,” said an irate female voice. “And I’ve got thirty four-year-olds and Cornwall’s premier Elsa impersonator about to turn up for a party.”

As Nova stepped into the office, she saw Sandy standing between Serge and a woman dressed as Olaf from Frozen , complete with carrot nose.

“All right, please let’s stay calm,” Sandy said, fiddling with the worry beads round her wrist. “I’m sure there’s a simple explanation.”

“If the community center is going to cancel my slot without warning, then I’ll take my business elsewhere,” Serge said.

“I paid my deposit for the room, look!” The woman thrust her phone in Sandy’s face, almost knocking her glasses off. Sandy spotted Nova and scowled.

“Ah, there you are. Please can you check the bookings diary? There appears to be a mix-up.”

“Of course.” Nova opened the calendar on her computer and cringed when she saw that the regular yoga class had been taken out and a birthday party booked in for a two-hour slot.

Sandy spent the next ten minutes groveling to the group of middle-aged ladies who’d turned up for their yoga, and had to give them each a full refund and offer Serge a month of free room hire to stop him complaining to the council.

“How the hell did that happen?” Sandy demanded once they’d all left. “Serge is always in the diary, who put the party in instead?”

Nova swallowed as she saw her own name next to the woman’s details. “I’m sorry, I must have accidentally deleted Serge’s booking.”

Sandy didn’t say anything as she stalked back to her desk, and Nova felt her chest tighten. Try not to cause any more trouble , Sandy had said this morning, and just five hours later, Nova had already door-stepped a grieving woman and messed up an important booking.

Nova kept out of her boss’s way for the rest of the afternoon, dealing with the sugar-hyped four-year-olds from the party running wild round the community center while their parents ignored them and drank wine. Once the party had finished, the main hall looked like a bomb had hit it—the mother hadn’t cleaned up, despite Nova’s pleas—and so she fetched some black bin bags and began to sweep up the mountains of confetti, glitter and crushed Pom-Bears.

“Need a hand?” Lauren appeared in the doorway, brandishing a dustpan and brush.

“Thanks,” Nova said. “How are you? Today’s been so hectic, I’ve barely seen you.”

“Fine, thanks, although Sandy’s in another stinking mood: I offered her a cup of tea earlier and she bit my head off. I know she’s stressed about the budget, but she doesn’t have to be such a cow about it.”

“I think her mood is partly my fault.”

Lauren looked over at her. “Nova, you have to stop beating yourself up. I know leaving the office unlocked was an unfortunate mistake, but not everything that’s gone wrong since then is your fault.”

“No, this really was. I double-booked the main hall and Sandy had to deal with the fallout.”

“Oh, shit,” Lauren said. “That will explain all the shouting I heard earlier.”

“I just don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Nova slumped down in a chair. “I used to be really efficient, but at the moment I’m all over the place. I’ve caused nothing but trouble since I started here.”

“That’s not true. And look: you’ve moved to a new town hundreds of miles from home, you’ve got a new job and you’re getting married a week from tomorrow. Your life is a whirlwind, so it’s no wonder if you’ve let a few things slip.”

“Craig keeps calling me Ditsy Davies,” Nova said. “And his mum thinks I’m completely useless. I swear, she must have texted me about ten times to remind me I need to confirm the timings with our wedding photographer.” She held up her phone to show Lauren the stream of messages, many of them in caps lock.

Lauren gave a soft chuckle. “Don’t take that personally, Pamela is a complete control freak. Sam and I always joke that it’s remarkable she’s letting this wedding go ahead at all. In all the years we’ve known Craig, his mum has never thought anyone was good enough for her precious son.”

“Yeah, well I think she’s quickly changing her mind about me.” Nova sighed and shook her head. “Sorry, I shouldn’t moan to you; you’ve got your own problems to deal with, all thanks to me.”

“Don’t be silly, you can moan all you want.”

“Thanks. Honestly, if it weren’t for you and Craig, I think I’d have already run back to London with my tail between my legs.”

“I don’t think anyone would blame you if you did. I can’t imagine leaving my friends and family to move two hundred miles away, let alone living with Pamela Pritchard!”

“I didn’t mind moving; to be honest, after my dad died, I was glad of the change of scene.”

“Yeah, but give yourself credit too. The way you’ve uprooted your life for Craig is impressive.”

“And now this place might close and I won’t even have a job. Neither of us will.” Nova’s stomach lurched at the thought. “Do you think the council will really shut us down?”

“God knows. They’ve been slashing our budget for years, so I guess it’s not a complete surprise. Although the way they’re trying to pin this on the missing money, rather than just being honest and saying they want to sell the building, makes my blood boil.”

“Everyone’s going to blame me for this, aren’t they?” Nova said, remembering Beryl’s words earlier. “If this place closes, I’ll forever be known as the girl who got the community center shut down.”

“People’s memories are short, they’ll soon forget about this once a new piece of gossip comes along. And if they don’t, you can always—”

Lauren was interrupted by the bang of the front door opening.

“Sorry, we’re closed,” she called out, but a moment later they saw PC Khan put his head round the door.

“Afternoon,” he said, nodding to them both. “I’ve just popped in to give Sandy an update on our investigation. Is she still here?”

“She’s in the office,” Lauren said. “Okay if we come too?”

Nova and Lauren followed him down the corridor. Sandy was sitting behind her computer, but her head jerked up as soon as she saw the police officer walk in.

“Yusaf, please tell me you’re here with good news?”

He waited until Nova had closed the office door. “I’m afraid not. In fact, things are a lot more complicated than we originally thought. As well as being the main suspect for the theft of your money, Michael Watkins is also now the prime suspect in a murder investigation.”

“What?” Sandy said, at the same moment Lauren muttered “Bloody hell!” Nova did her best to feign shock, given she didn’t want any of them knowing she’d been to visit Michael’s wife and already knew this.

“On Wednesday, Michael’s mother was killed in the home she shares with Michael and his wife. I can’t go into too much detail at this point, but it appears Michael packed a bag and fled the house soon after, and he hasn’t been seen since. In fact, as far as we can ascertain, it seems likely that Nova here was the last person to see him at her book club.”

“So that means our money has disappeared too,” Sandy said, slumping back into her chair. “Shit!”

“Do you have any leads on where he might be?” Lauren asked. “A man doesn’t just disappear, for God’s sake.”

“I’m afraid it seems he has,” Yusaf said. “This morning, his car was traced to a deserted lane in the middle of Bodmin Moor, but there was no sign of Michael. It seems likely that he drove there after your book club and then abandoned his car and carried on by foot or transferred to another vehicle.”

“Can’t you track him via his mobile phone signal?” Nova asked.

“We’ve tried but he must have switched it off, or else it’s run out of charge.”

“He must have an accomplice,” Lauren said. “You can’t just disappear off the face of the earth without help.”

“His wife has mentioned a possible other woman in Michael’s life, and this is another line of investigation.”

“So, what’s the plan now?” Sandy asked. “How are you going to find him?”

“We have teams out searching for him around the Bodmin area, in case he’s gone into hiding there, and obviously we’ve alerted our colleagues nationwide as well as Border Control. Assuming he’s still in the UK, then at some point in the coming weeks he’ll have to emerge from hiding, and we’ll be ready to catch him when he does.”

“But we don’t have weeks!” Sandy said, her voice sounding horribly desperate. “We need to find our money now or the council will shut us down.”

Yusaf shrugged. “I’m afraid that without Michael, there’s not much we can do about that. I interviewed the other members of the book club and, as you know, they all have alibis for arriving and leaving the center. So, it seems the only person who could have taken the money was Michael or…” He trailed off and there was an awkward silence.

“It wasn’t me, if that’s what you’re suggesting,” Nova said, feeling her face flush. “Why would I steal from my own place of work and risk losing a job I love?”

“Aren’t you and Craig getting married next weekend?” Yusaf’s tone was soft, but Nova knew what he was insinuating.

“Craig’s parents are paying for the wedding. But even if they weren’t, I’d never do anything to hurt the community center. Sandy, you believe me, right?”

She looked at her boss, but Sandy was staring at the squeezy stress ball in her hand and wouldn’t catch Nova’s eye.