Page 9 of Be More Lucy

Em woke up to a buzzing sound. She picked up her phone from the bedside table. Lucy. She didn’t usually call at 9 am on a Sunday. Em got out of bed and walked out onto the landing so as not to wake Jack. She could hear her dad and his partner, Cynthia, chatting in the kitchen downstairs.

‘Oh good, you’re up.’ Lucy’s voice was very bright and breezy for someone who’d been knocking back tequila shots a few hours previously.

‘I am now.’ Em said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Can I borrow you for an hour?’

‘When?’

‘Now?’

‘Now? I’m not sure how much use I’ll be to you. I hardly had any sleep last night.’ Em had been mulling over Jack’s proposal before she’d finally nodded off at about 4 am.

‘Neither did I, but we’ll be fine. I need to see if Adam really is at the tennis club this morning.’

‘Why do you need me for that?’

‘It’s Jack’s car that I need. Adam won’t recognise it.’

Em yawned. ‘But you’re not insured to drive it.’

‘No, but you are.’

So much for a lie-in. Lucy was difficult to refuse when she’d got an idea in her head. ‘Shall I come and pick you up then?’

‘No need. I’m outside.’

Em looked out of the landing window. Lucy waved from the pavement. ‘I got an Uber to drop me here.’

‘It’s a good job I said yes,’ Em laughed. ‘Do you want to come in for a drink while I get dressed? I’m sure Dad and Cynthia would like to see you.’

‘Much as I love your dad, not this time. We need to get going. Time is of the essence, as they say.’

Em went back into the bedroom, where Jack was gently snoring. She tore a page from the notebook in her handbag and left him a note.

Five minutes later, Em was reversing Jack’s car off the drive. ‘I need to be back here by one o’clock. Cynthia‘s cooking Sunday lunch.’

‘That’s fine. We aren’t going very far.’ Lucy tapped the destination into the car’s satnav. It was only three minutes away.

‘Are you sure you’ve got the right address? I thought the tennis club was in the other direction?’ Em said, as she started following the satnav’s instructions.

‘We’re not going to the tennis club. We’re going to Adam’s house.’

Em raised her eyebrows.

‘I couldn’t sleep when I got home, so I decided to do a bit more research on Adam. I know the church Charlotte’s family go to, so I looked through their Instagram feed, and there he was in a photo with some kids.’

‘And it was definitely him?’

‘The caption read “Thanks to Adam Washington for helping out with Sunday school this week”.’

‘I thought his surname was Jones?’

‘That’s what he told me. But, unless he’s got a double who’s also called Adam, it’s Washington. He’s listed on the church website as the contact for the youth group, and it gave an address for sending in application forms. That’s where we’re going now.’

‘But that could be where the person who does the youth group admin lives?’

‘I wondered that too, so I did a Land Registry search on who owns the house and, lo and behold, there was his name along with a Mrs Eve Washington.’

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