Page 60 of Love Me Till Wednesday

‘Problem?’ Nick asked.

‘Yeah, you might have to rethink your travel plans.’ She showed him the text.

‘Someone from last night’s audience must’ve said something.’ Nick looked fed up.

‘But how did they know where I lived?’

Nick sighed. ‘The bloke who walked past when you were letting me in. I remember why he looked familiar now. He was the one who rumbled us in the cafe.’

‘We could do without this today.’

‘The downside of fame. Suki’s normally on it straight away. I’m surprised she hasn’t called.’

‘That might be because you tuned your phone off,’ Lisa said.

‘Bugger!’ She watched him go out into the hall and retrieved it from his coat pocket. As soon as he turned it on, it lit up with a stream of notifications.

Ed walked in. ‘You should keep that back door locked, you know. ‘

‘Pete must’ve left it open. But we’ve got bigger problems than that.’ Lisa filled him in on the situation out the front. ‘Has Suki been in touch?’ she asked Nick.

‘Yes. There are a few from Adrienne too, but those can wait. I’m going to phone Suki.’ Nick said. Lisa watched him click on Suki’s number.

‘There are a load of photographers outside,’ Pete said as he returned to the kitchen from his nap.

‘Yeah, Jules said,’ Lisa sighed.

They all listened to Nick, who was now talking to his PR.

‘Yes. Really? Yes, they’re outside Lisa’s now.’ He turned to Pete. ‘How many?’

‘At least six.’

‘You heard that? OK. OK. Yes. Yes. Do you think that will work? Sorry, I’m making this a crap Friday for you. Thanks.’

He ended the call and turned to the rest of them. ‘She says stay put for now. She’s trying to pull some strings to get them to back off by promising an exclusive interview with me about the book.’

‘With six of them. How exclusive is that going to be?’ Lisa asked.

‘Yes, I know. It’s not hopeful.’

Ed looked up at the bank of clocks. ‘We can’t stay. We’ve got to go, else we’ll be late.’

‘What do you suggest we do?’ Lisa asked.

‘We could smuggle Nick out in Lilith,’ Pete suggested.

Nick looked baffled. ‘Who the hell’s Lilith?’

‘Lilith,’ Ed said proudly,’ is our low-key form of transport.’

‘She’s not that low-key,’ Lisa said, recalling the number of people who’d stared at them on the way back from the studios last night.

‘She is for this situation. No one’s going to bother about her at this time of the morning. They’ll think we’ve just picked up a corpse and are on the way back to undertaking HQ.’

Nick looked even more confused now. ‘Will one of you tell me what you’re talking about?’

‘That is Lilith,’ said Ed, opening one of the window blinds and pointing to the hearse parked at the bottom of the garden.

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