Page 66 of One Perfect Day in Lovely Bay
'It's about Estrella and the Peaceton store.'
Birdie's eyes narrowed. 'Estrella? Not even thought about her. She’s long gone. I thought we’d seen the back of her. What about her?'
'Well, when I was first working on organising the stockroom and going through the records, I noticed some discrepancies. I think she got wind of what I was doing…'
'Discrepancies? What sort of discrepancies?'
Cally turned her laptop so Birdie could see the screen. 'At first, it was just little things. A few items missing here and there, and numbers not quite adding up. There was so much mess and chaos. But the more I looked into it, the more I realised it was part of a pattern.'
Cally felt butterflies swarm through her stomach as she walked Birdie through her findings. She pointed out the inconsistencies in the stock levels, the odd spikes in certain product sales that didn't align with promotional periods, and the mysterious disappearance of newly delivered stock. As she spoke and pointed, Cally watched Birdie's expression change from confusion to disbelief and finally to white-hot anger. Birdie’s face became progressively redder and she pressed her lips into a thin line.
'Are you telling me,' Birdie said slowly, her voice low and controlled, 'that Estrella was stealing from me? Why am I asking that? I can see it.'
Cally nodded, relieved that Birdie had connected the dots herself. 'I think so, yes. And not just products. I believe she was manipulating the records to cover up cash discrepancies as well.'
Birdie swore. Cally blinked in surprise. 'That conniving little... I knew there was something off about her! But I never imagined she was a thief. Who does that? I was so good to her, too.’
'I'm sorry. I know this must be a shock.'
Birdie waved her hand dismissively. 'Don't apologise. You've done nothing wrong. In fact, you've done everything right. It doesn’t matter now. We’ll never see her again. Not heard anything from her…'
‘I wasn't sure at first. I wanted to be certain before I said anything. And then, when Estrella left so suddenly, I thoughtmaybe it wasn't worth bringing up. But it just didn't sit right with me to let it go. I couldn’t just be here and not tell you.'
Birdie nodded. 'You did the right thing. Even if Estrella's gone, we need to know the full extent of what happened. You know, when she first started, I had my doubts. But I was desperate for help, and she seemed capable enough. I should have trusted my instincts in the first place.'
'You couldn't have known. She was clever about it.'
Birdie tutted. ‘I should have been paying closer attention.’
Cally sighed. 'I can't help wondering why she did it. Was she in some kind of trouble? Or was it just greed? Idoknow I wasn’t keen on her from the moment I stepped in.'
Birdie shook her head. 'Some people just see an opportunity and take it, regardless of who it hurts.'
'I suppose.’
‘Well, at least I know what is what now.’
Cally felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. It was good, like really, really good, to feel as if she'd done the right thing. She'd spotted something others had missed, had trusted her instincts, and had taken action. Here she was, adulting in a real job. Trusted, wanted, and conversing as a valued part of a team. How good did that feel? Me oh my, so very good indeed.
41
Agood few months or so had gone by since the funeral. Logan had most definitely had his fair share of ups and downs, but overall, he was on the mend. Cally had navigated her way through it, seen the grief sequence she knew well come and go for him, and successfully made it through the other side. In a funny way, what had happened to Logan had made them much closer. Almost as if the shared knowledge of what it felt like to grieve was another connection between the two of them. Cally wasn’t quite sure if connecting over what grief felt like was a good thing or not. She supposed she didn’t have much choice in the matter.
After a nice long walk, she was on her way to view a flat on the other side of Lovely. As she came over the crest of a hilly residential area, she looked down at the bay in the distance. The sloping, tree-lined street she was on was oddly quiet with no cars and apart from a rustle of leaves and a few birds here and there, not a lot could be heard at all. As Cally walked along, she nosed at the white picket fences at the front of pretty houses, the shell-tile Lovely roofs, and a jumble of chimney pots here and there puncturing up into the sky. On the other side of the road, a couple ahead of her with a Labrador was taking a leisurely strolldown the hill in the direction of the bay and a man wearing a white cycle helmet passed her on an electric bike. He tipped his hand to his head and said hello as he cycled past, full of the joys of spring even though the cold weather had well and truly arrived.
Cally crossed the road, squeezing between a couple of parked cars, and then stood outside the block of flats where she was booked in to see a ground-floor apartment. The beautiful old 1920s building, painted a soft grey and white with a fence on either side of a central pathway entrance, looked just like her cup of tea. French doors led to stairs with a stained-glass window in the middle and tall glass panes flanked either side of the front door. According to the estate agents, the property was a small two-storey “boutique” building with four flats and communal gardens in an enviable position. As Cally stood looking up at the building, she couldn’t argue with that.
Initially, she had been in two minds about whether or not to arrange a viewing because, from the start of her property hunt, she’d been looking for a top-floor flat. In fact, being in a top-floor place had been on her non-negotiables list. From the moment she’d moved into Birdie’s flat, she’d just felt comfortable being up high and looking over rooftops. At the end of the day, she’d climb up the stairs, slip off her shoes, lock the front door, and say goodbye to the world. It had been a real positive in her life.
She stood pondering the fact that she preferred to be upstairs as she looked at the building. She stepped to her side, and just before she went in, turned around, and took in the landscape — a church spire, the sea in the distance, and lining up all the way down the road old television aerials butting up into the sky. As soon as she walked into the foyer of the Art Deco building, she liked it. With a wide staircase, a handmade timber banister leading up to the first floor, and a beautiful tessellated floor, she loved the feel right away. Rather than being dark and abit dreary as she thought it might have been, the entrance was bright and inviting by way of an Art Deco skylight in the middle of the second-floor roof. As she looked around, she nodded in appreciation at the survival of the original old doorbells on either side of the doors, the little pigeon holes in the architraves, and the old timber utility door to a service room underneath the stairs.
Turning past the stairs, she took in flat number two, where outside, a very well-cared-for, delicate-leaved palm stood beside an old 1920s door. A brass doorknob, matching letterbox, and fittings shone and a doormat welcomed. Just as Cally was about to push her finger into the old-fashioned bell, the door opened, and the estate agent, Ella, greeted her. Cally knew Ella from the chemist and via a few phone calls they’d had about property in Lovely Bay and she’d helped Birdie with scouting out for a new shop in a neighbouring town.
Ella beamed. ‘Our Cally. Good to see you. How are you?’
‘Good, thanks.’
‘So, what do you think of the street appeal? Nice, eh? I know you said you didn’t want a ground-floor flat, but how lovely is it outside?’ Ella asked with a wide smile.
