Page 84 of (Not So) Mad About You

He nodded. “That I am. And it happens like that, doesn’t it? Changes just sort of happen whether you want them to or not. They creep up on you. Maybe the same will happen to whoever she is. Maybe she’ll change and then you can have each other the way you’d like.”

Bea smiled at him. He was trying to make her feel better. “Maybe,” she said. But she doubted it. Alli had specifically said that she didn’t want to change, that she didn’t think she had a problem and that she was in control.

“I’ll be off to watch the footie then,” Rob said.

“Enjoy,” said Bea, bending back down to her computer and starting to write again.

SHE’D ALMOST FINISHED her applications when the banging on the door came. “Can you get that, Rob?” she called through tothe living room.

She heard noises in the background, the door opening, the sound of voices. Then Rob was sticking his head around the door.

“Um, Bea?”

“Mmm?” She didn’t move her eyes from the screen.

“It’s the police,” he said carefully.

She did look up now. “Yeah? What do they want?” she asked.

He swallowed and looked pale. “To arrest you.”

Chapter Thirty Four

“Itold you we were in the same boat,” Izzy said.

“Not quite,” said Alli, shifting on the uncomfortable plastic chair. “I mean, one of us was actually at St. Hilda’s because they were supposed to be there. And then one of us was being paid to be there.”

Izzy pulled a face. “I was going to tell you, but…” She sighed. “Honestly, we needed the money. It wasn’t that much, but with the kids and everything, we needed it. I answered an ad online and when Luke offered, it seemed… almost like a holiday, I suppose.”

“Well, I did it to meet people,” Julia said from next to her. “And I did meet people, so as far as I’m concerned, Luke could have kept his money.”

Alli squeezed the bridge of her nose. “And now we’re all sitting in a police station, lovely.”

“I don’t think any of us planned on being here,” Marcus said. He was sitting on the opposite side of the corridor, facing the three women.

“And we’re only giving evidence,” pointed out Izzy. “It’s not like we’re arrested or anything.”

“Not like Josh,” said Alli. She shook her head. “He’s going to be in some real trouble if he’s not careful. He’s already got a record,that doesn’t seem fair.”

“We all know he had nothing to do with this,” Marcus said. “We’ll stick up for him.”

It wasn’t really Josh that she was worried about. She was pretty sure that he was clean and that the police would figure that out soon enough. Bea, on the other hand… Her stomach twisted in a little knot as she thought about Bea being interrogated by a police officer. Bea, who was always so anxious to please, who could barely stand up for herself.

“Do you all want to go out for a drink when we’re done here?” Julia asked.

“Yeah, maybe,” said Marcus.

Alli crossed her legs and tried not to think about Bea getting the third degree.

???

“I had nothing to do with any of this,” Bea said. “Surely you’ve all figured that out by now.”

“It’s a complicated case,” said the policeman opposite her. “We can’t take anything for granted, you must be able to see that.”

“I can,” Bea said. “But on the other hand, I only worked there for two weeks. I had no idea what Luke was doing.”

“You didn’t notice anything a little strange or off?”

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