Page 40 of The Plot Twist

‘Male or female?’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Male or female?’ Verity’s voice was icy cold. ‘Was the other person male or female?’

‘Male. Definitely. Verity, where are you going with this?’

Verity sat back in her seat and swirled her wine around in her glass. ‘Just thinking.’

There was a long pause. Allie wondered if she should be offering more wine, some snacks, maybe Verity’s blood sugar had plummeted and that was why she was being so antsy about a snippet of gossip that Allie had innocently thought would amuse her.

‘Any interest in sharing with me what you’re thinking?’ Allie asked eventually.

Verity leaned back in her chair, far enough that Allie considered warning her to be careful. Her kitchen chairs weren’t the most robust and Allie feared Verity was about to plunge backwards and she really didn’t have the time for a long wait in A&E.

‘Well, there are loads of rumours flying round about Jake. One being how he got to where he is now. Another being just what dirt he holds on people to allow him to get away with behaving in the way he does. But the one I’m thinking of, is the rumour about his monumental drug habit.’

Allie’s eyes went wide at Verity’s words. ‘You don’t think…?’

Verity nodded slowly and shifted in her seat, inching herself forward. Allie could sense the excitement and tension building in Verity. ‘Allie, think very carefully. The voice you heard in the bathroom with Tessa. Could it have been Jake’s voice?’

Allie cast her mind back to the night of the party. To the bathroom where she had gone to escape from the party. She remembered hearing the voices and initially thinking that she was about to interrupt an illicit tryst before quickly realising that she was overhearing something quite different. She hesitated. ‘I’m not sure … maybe? Yes? I think it could have been him?’

She looked up and saw Verity staring at her. ‘But even if it was, what good will it do us?’

Verity suddenly looked deflated. ‘I’m not sure,’ she admitted. ‘I guess I just had a crazy idea that if we could expose Jake’s drug habit then maybe I could get my job back, be your editor again.’

‘Er yeah, about that,’ Allie said awkwardly. ‘I’m not sure this is the right moment to confess this outright but as it stands, right at this moment,’ Allie flailed around trying to find the right words, ‘I don’t actually have a book for you to edit.’

Verity gave her a strong look of disappointment. ‘I had guessed that.’ Allie hung her head in shame, mortified that Verity had known all along. ‘And we’re going to fix that,’ she said briskly, ‘just like we are going to fix Jake Matthews.’ A smile started playing around Verity’s lips. ‘I’m beginning to get an idea…’

Allie took a deep breath, this was more like it, she was starting to see the old Verity in front of her, therealVerity. And god, how she had missed her.

‘OK, so, Jake first, what’s your plan?’ Allie asked.

‘Tessa must be what, twenty-two? Twenty-three?’ Verity mused. ‘Definitely no more than twenty-five right? And she’s Jake’s assistant?’ Allie nodded again. She trusted Verity to know this kind of thing. ‘Which makes what he is doing wrong on many different levels, right?’ Verity continued.

‘IF he is,’ Allie countered, nervous that Verity was going to go off on a wild goose chase based purely on hearsay from Allie.

Verity flapped her hand at Allie in a dismissive gesture. ‘Not only is he doing drugs at a work party, but he’s doing them with his assistant and, if what you’re saying is correct, he got Tessa,his assistant, to get those drugs for him!’

‘We can’t prove any of this!’ Allie protested.

‘No, we can’t. But I could ask Tessa about it.’ Verity’s eyes sparkled.

‘Hang on,’ Allie asked in confusion, ‘I thought you’d signed an NDA?’

‘Yes and?’

‘So, you can’t very well march up to Tessa and ask her if she’s been doing coke with her boss and if it was him that asked her to get him that coke.’

‘Actually,’ Verity grinned, ‘the NDA was quite specific. You see I can’t speak to you,’ she pointed at Allie, ‘or any other authors, but it makes no mention of other employees.’

‘Right,’ Allie folded her arms across her chest, ‘so you’re just going to come straight out with it and ask Tessa whether Jake Matthews is using her as a drugs mule?’

Verity’s face fell. ‘God, you’re right. I can’t, can I?’ She wrung her hands nervously, immediately making Allie feel terrible that she had banished confident, poised Verity and brought back cowed, broken Verity.

‘But maybeIcould?’ Allie’s words surprised even herself. What on earth was she signing herself up to?

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