Page 55 of The Typo

‘Perhaps it’s time you started listening to them,’ she said gently. ‘Right, are you going to help unload the vehicle before we tip over into the ridiculous parking charges, or what? If we’re not careful, it’ll cost us nearly as much as the flights to Oz.’

I laughed. ‘You can take the girl out of Scotland…’

‘…but you can’t take Scotland out of the girl,’ she finished with a grin.

The subsequent rush to beat the price hike meant that there was no time for a protracted farewell. I hovered to one side as Cass and Gareth said goodbye to their parents, then there was another round of heartfelt hugs with me before they marched off towards departures, somehow managing to balance their huge pile of luggage plus handle the pram with aplomb.

I was dragging my heels on my way back to the taxi rank when I heard my name being called. I turned round and saw Cass running towards me.

‘You can’t have changed your mind already,’ I said.

‘I wanted to say thank you for the lovely online album. It made me cry for about the millionth time, but good tears. It was full of happy memories. And I meant to give you something myself. I can’t believe I nearly flew off to Sydney with it, honestly, my brain is like a sieve these days.’ She rummaged around in her handbag before finally fishing out a small cardboard box. ‘There you go.’

‘Can I open it now, or do you need to get going?’

‘Gareth will have my guts for garters—you know he likes to be queueing at the gate before it even opens for business—but I think he can wait another five minutes.’

I carefully untied the thin purple ribbon which fastened the box and opened it.

‘Tissue paper, how kind of you,’ I teased.

‘Keep going, dafty,’ said Cass.

I delicately unfolded the tissue paper to reveal a silver violin keyring.

‘Turn it over,’ she said.

‘Oh Cass,’ I said, trying, and failing, to stop my voice from breaking as my emotions got the better of me. Engraved on the keyring was the instructionBe brave.

‘It’s probably a bit of a redundant message now,’ she said. ‘But it’s still an important one. You’ve been so brave finding your way back to music. I want you to promise you won’t let anything get between you and your dreams again. I’ve had a lot of wobbles about going to Australia, but now it’s here I can’t tell you how excited I am. Being brave is really hard, but it’s better than letting fear hold you back, right?’

‘I’ll try,’ I said, giving her one final hug. I felt far from courageous at the moment.

Cass didn’t look completely convinced so I forced a smile on my face. ‘Stop making me blub, and get on that plane,’ I said lightly. ‘I don’t want either of us to incur the wrath of Gareth. See you soon, Cass.’

‘You will do, warrior woman.’

I waved her off once again, then hurried to the taxi rank. It was time to return to the city and try to pretend it was a normal day.

* * *

I walked into work later that morning fully intending to spend my lunch hour safely holed up in my office catching up on the podcast episodes I’d got so behind on. But that thought went out of my head as soon as I entered the foyer of the Edinburgh Variety. Something was definitely up. Colin was looking uncharacteristically worried as he shuffled papers around on the front desk, avoiding my gaze and trying to appear to be too busy even to say hello. Meanwhile, someone had set up a velvet rope in front of the door to the Cellar Bar. Its fabric should have been suggestive of VIPs, but there was something about the placement of the posts and the taut stretch of the cord which gave off crime scene vibes instead.

‘Good morning, Colin,’ I said, seeing as he seemed determined to pretend I wasn’t there.

He muttered something which might have been a response and then feigned sudden fascination in the health and safety notice on the box office wall. If I wasn’t mistaken, he was looking rather guilty. On the plus side, it made a change from him staring at my chest.

I toyed with sticking my head around the door of the main auditorium to see if Leonie was around. I could do with seeing a friendly face. And of course, it would be good to check on how the rigging was going for our next show and get a few snaps for the socials. The only way I was going to get through the day was by throwing myself into work. Whether I actually achieved anything productive was another question altogether, but the intention was there.

I decided to go and leave my violin in the admin office first. I was about halfway up the stairs when my phone bleeped twice in quick succession, an unusual enough occurrence for me to stop where I was and get it out of my handbag to check the screen. What if Cameron had finally got back to me?

Do not go straight to your office

It was a message from Leonie, quickly followed by a second one.

I’m in the lighting booth in the main theatre. Come find me. This is a 999 situation.

I turned on my heel and hurried back the way I’d come, some instinct telling me to tread as quietly as I could on the stairs. It obviously wasn’t quiet enough. As I reached the foyer, I heard the office door open behind me.

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