Page 4

Nova

The storm was still raging the following morning, and so after eating breakfast with Craig and his parents, Nova left the house and headed into work early. Wet days inevitably meant the community center would be extra busy. As soon as the doors opened at ten, young families would start to arrive for the under-fives drop-in session, the Tai Chi class would no doubt turn into an extended coffee morning, and the after-school club would be full of restless kids who’d rather be playing outside. Plus, there would inevitably be leaks to deal with; the center’s ancient roof was in desperate need of repair and let water in whenever it rained heavily. Work to fix it was due to start the week after next, but until then, Nova knew that she and Lauren would have to spend the day emptying buckets around the building.

Sandy and Lauren were on the early shift and their cars were already parked up when Nova arrived at the community center, as was a police patrol car. She ran inside, shaking the rain out of her curly hair as she walked down the corridor toward the office. As she approached, she heard the raised voice of her boss. This in itself wasn’t unusual; Sandy was a woman who’d been known to have emotional outbursts over everything from too many e-mails in her inbox to not enough sugar in her coffee.

“I know it’s horrible to even suggest it, but Nova was the last one here.”

Nova ground to a halt a few meters from the open door. Why was Sandy talking about her?

“Are you sure you didn’t take it home by accident?” Lauren said. “Maybe you put it in your handbag without thinking and—”

“Of course I didn’t! I put it in the tin before we locked up the office together. You saw me do it, remember?”

“Did anyone else know it was here?” This was an unfamiliar male voice.

“Not a soul,” Sandy replied. “I only collected it yesterday afternoon, and it was just me, Lauren and Nova who knew it was on-site.”

Nova’s heart rate started to climb. She straightened her dress and stepped into the office. Sandy was sitting behind her computer, her face flushed and her curly gray hair even more chaotic than usual. Lauren was on her hands and knees on the floor, going through a drawer, and a young male police officer was leaning against Nova’s desk. They all turned to look as she walked in.

“Morning. What’s going on?”

“The roof money’s been stolen.” Lauren’s eyes were wide, and Nova felt her stomach drop.

“How? Did someone break in?”

The police officer shook his head. “There’s no sign of a break-in, the windows and doors are all secure. I’m PC Yusaf Khan, by the way. You’re Craig’s fiancée, aren’t you?”

Nova nodded. “Yes, hi. How did the thief get in?”

“We don’t know, but the office door was unlocked when I arrived this morning.” Sandy made no attempt to hide the accusation in her voice.

“It was definitely locked when I left last night.” As she said this, Nova ran over the evening in her mind. She’d gone to get her copy of Where the Crawdads Sing from the office before the book club meeting, but she’d locked it afterward—she clearly remembered the key in her hand—and then she’d not gone back to the office again. “Someone must have come in after I went home.”

“We’ve already checked the CCTV footage from the front door,” Yusaf said. “Sandy left at 6:50 and Lauren at 6:59, after which the only people to enter the building were the four members of your book club.” He consulted his notepad. “One of them, a guy none of us recognized, ran out at 7:24. Then Phyllis Hudson, Arthur Robinson and Ash Chalabi all left together at 7:46 and you left six minutes later. After that, there’s no one else on the CCTV camera until Sandy arrived at 8:35 this morning.”

“Which means that the money must have been taken by someone during the book club meeting,” Sandy cut in, staring at Nova with beady eyes. “Did you go back into the office last night?”

“I did, but I promise I locked it again,” Nova said, more emphatically this time. “How much was taken?”

She saw Sandy blink before she answered. “Ten thousand pounds. The first installment for the roof repairs, to be paid to the builders up front today.”

“Oh shit!”

The community had spent more than a year trying to fund-raise for a new roof, and they still hadn’t hit the full target. Nova knew that first ten thousand pounds had been vital so that emergency work could be done to stop the roof literally collapsing on them before the whole thing could be replaced. And now that money was gone. She looked at Sandy, who had slumped over her desk and was letting out a low moaning sound.

“Nova, can you talk me through what happened during your book club?” Yusaf said. “Where did it take place?”

“In Tintagel, the small meeting room.”

“And apart from when people arrived and left, did anyone go out of the meeting room during the book club, say to the toilet?”

“No, we all stayed in the room.”

Yusaf studied his notepad. “Right, well Phyllis arrived first and on her own so potentially she could have broken into the office and taken the money then.”

“No, I met her in the hallway,” Nova said. “I was just locking the office when she came in and she and I walked to the room together.”

“Okay, that’s helpful.” He scribbled something down. “Arthur Robinson and the teenager, Ash, arrived together and they both left with Phyllis, which means that if any one of them stole the money, there would have been a witness.”

“I’m sure it wouldn’t have been one of them,” Lauren said. “Arthur and Phyllis use this place all the time, they’d never do anything to harm it. And I’ve known Ash since he was a baby; he’s a good kid too.”

“Who was that other man?” Sandy asked Nova. “I’ve never seen him here before.”

“His name’s Michael. This was his second time at the book club.”

“He arrived on his own and then left after ten minutes,” Yusaf said. “So theoretically, he could have stolen the money on his way in or out.”

“But how did he unlock the office?” Lauren said.

“He might have picked the lock, I guess. Although he did a bloody good job, as I already checked, and it doesn’t look like it was tampered with.”

“So maybe it wasn’t locked in the first place,” Sandy said, looking at Nova again.

“Sandy, I swear—”

Nova stopped as a thought occurred to her. She remembered stepping out of the office and putting her key in the lock, but then the front door had banged open when Phyllis came in and scared the life out of her. She felt her insides curl.

“What is it?” Yusaf asked.

“I don’t know, but it’s possible I might not have locked the door properly. I got distracted when Phyllis arrived and—”

“Bloody hell, Nova!” Sandy exploded. “You know you have to keep the office door locked when we’re not in here.”

“I know, and I was definitely in the process of locking it when Phyllis came in,” Nova said quickly. “She just made me jump so there’s a chance I didn’t turn the key.”

“Do you realize what this means? If you did leave the office unlocked, then the money won’t be covered by our insurance. We’re screwed!”

“Hang on a second, Sandy,” Lauren said. “Even if Nova did forget to lock the door—which we don’t know for certain—she can’t be blamed for the money going missing, can she? I mean, she didn’t steal it herself.”

Nova felt a rush of gratitude for her friend, but Sandy ignored her.

“It must’ve been that Michael man,” she said, looking at Yusaf. “You can see him running out on the CCTV footage: he clearly took a chance on the door, saw the petty cash tin and swiped it on his way out.”

“He does seem like our most obvious suspect,” the police officer said. “Do you have any contact details for him?”

Nova nodded, relieved she’d at least remembered to get the names and addresses of each member when they started at the book club. “I’ve got it written down, hang on.”

She crossed to her desk and began searching through the piles of paper with shaking hands, aware the others were all watching her as she sent pages flying. Finally, she located the records from the book club.

“His name is Michael Watkins,” she said, and Yusaf scribbled it down. “His address is 8 Mountfort Close, Port Gowan.”

“I have to get to the station now, but I’ll pay this Michael Watkins a visit later,” Yusaf said. “And I’ll chat to the other book club members as well, just to be safe. Have you told the council yet?”

Sandy shook her head, and Nova saw her shoulders sink. “They’re going to have a field day with this.”

“What do you think they’ll do?” Lauren asked.

Sandy didn’t reply, but her eyes flicked to Nova, and she felt a wave of nausea. Of course; someone would need to take the rap for the missing money, and as the person who forgot to lock the door, it was going to be her.

“Let’s just hope it was all an innocent mistake and this Michael hands the money back,” Yusaf said as he walked to the door, but it was such an unlikely idea that no one bothered to answer.