Chapter Twenty Eight
L ucy looked from George to Cal and didn’t know what to do. In her heart she knew that Cal wouldn’t do something like this, couldn’t do it. But George was standing there with his face paling now and his hands trembling and Lucy had put everyone into this position in the first place.
“Let’s calm down,” she said, voice hoarse. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Let’s calm down.”
“I am calm,” Cal said. Even though she looked a bit like she’d been hit by a truck. “And let me make this easier for you.”
She pulled a wallet out of her back pocket, grabbed the notes inside, took what she needed and banged the cash down on the desk. Then, without another word, she walked straight out of the bakery.
Lucy didn’t move. She couldn’t. She realized that in the space of a second her life had gone from promising to ruins and she didn’t know what she could do to fix it.
“George…”
“I know,” George said. “I know. But Luce… I don’t know what else to think.”
“She didn’t do this.”
He looked miserable. “I don’t want her to have done this, Luce. Believe me, I really don’t. I know I was reluctant. But she was nice. Friendly. Funny. She adores you, truly she does. I don’t want this to have happened. But…”
“But you don’t see another way that it could have,” Lucy finished, thinking about everything that everyone had ever told her about Cal.
George sighed. “Luce, she was in here alone. I’d just finished showing her everything and then the bookshop bell went and I went over there. She offered to stay, said she’d be fine, that she had to wait for you anyway. And then…” He looked down at his hands. “And then I was longer than I’d thought. A customer wanted some recommendations and I got to talking and… it was probably ten minutes that I was gone.”
Lucy glanced around her. “And Cal was alone that whole time?”
George stepped around the counter, came to her and took her hands. “I don’t know what to say, Luce.”
“Was she alone here?” Lucy pressed. “Think about it George. Did you hear the shop bell?”
He closed his eyes, breathed deep. “Um, yes, yes, I did actually. More than once as a matter of fact.”
Lucy saw a glimmer of light. “So she wasn’t here alone all the time, was she?” Her eyes went to the counter. “And that’s not the stolen money.”
George followed her gaze.
“You said it was sixty pounds, two twenties and two tens. That’s a fifty and a ten. She took everything out of her wallet, you saw her. That’s not the stolen money, she put it there just to keep us away from her.”
“To stop us calling the police maybe,” agreed George. He stood a little taller. “Are you sure that you’re not just looking for excuses, Luce?”
She looked at him helplessly. “What else can I do, George? She didn’t do this. I know that she didn’t. There has to be another explanation. None of this makes sense. She knew you would check, she knew that she was the only person in here, why would she be stupid enough to take cash that could so easily be traced back to her?”
Just like before. Something didn’t add up. Before Cal had been caught putting money back, which made no sense either.
“So what did happen then?” George asked her. He took her hands. “Listen, I know there are feelings here. But are you sure that you’re not thinking with, well, um, not with your head?” He shrugged. “Maybe it’s compulsive. Maybe she’s a narcoleptic or something.”
“Narcoleptic?” asked Lucy confused. “Oh, kleptomaniac.”
“That’s the one,” George agreed. “Maybe she can’t help it.”
“She’s not a kleptomaniac. I’d have noticed.”
“Then what? She’s just someone very, very unlucky who happens to be around when other people steal things?” asked George. “What are the chances of that?” His phone beeped in his pocket but he ignored it. “I can see that you don’t want to see this.”
“It’s not a matter of don’t want to see it, it’s…” She sighed. “I can’t explain it. I know she didn’t do it, George. I know in my gut. She wouldn’t. But I can’t see what else happened.”
There was a clattering of feet on the pavement outside and then a banging as a small child hit the bakery window with their fists. Lucy looked over to see Moira Hadley pulling her youngest away from the smeared glass. Moira pulled a face and rolled her eyes, then propped the child up on her hip and came into the bakery, holding the door so that her other children could follow her in.
“Twice in the space of fifteen minutes, you’re going to start thinking I’ve got some kind of bread addiction,” Moira said.
“It’s fine,” said George, painting on his best smile and going around the counter. “What can I get for you?”
Moira sighed. “Well, Riley had some of your biscuits and the others decided they wanted sweets from Mr. Gupta’s, but now Harley has changed his mind. So another biscuit, if you don’t mind.” As she was talking, Riley banged in and out of the bakery door, setting off the bell. “Sorry about that,” said Moira. “She’s been like that all morning. ”
“Looks like we’re all out of biscuits,” said George, looking at the display racks.
“Right, Callan Roberts served me and she had to go in the back to find some,” agreed Moira.
“Oh, yes, there’s some cooling in the oven.”
But Lucy was already starting to put things together.
“Wait, you were here earlier,” she said to Moira.
“For my sins,” Moira laughed.
Lucy looked at George, then back at Moira. “And Cal had to go in the back, meanwhile, Riley is going in and out and ringing the bell like that?”
Moira nodded, frowning in confusion.
Lucy looked at George again, raising an eyebrow.
“Alright, alright,” George said. “I get your point. Let me get those biscuits first.”
He got the biscuits, wrapped them up, and Moira paid. Lucy couldn’t wait for her to be out of the door before she spoke. “See? There are other possibilities!”
“Like what? Like a burglar snuck in while Moira was standing here waiting for her biscuits?”
“Oh no,” Moira said, overhearing them as she corralled her youngest back out of the shop again. “I’d have noticed a burglar. There definitely wasn’t one of those. Elspeth was in though.” She finally succeeded in getting all her children out of the shop.
“Elspeth?” Lucy asked, wondering what the school teacher could have wanted.
“I’ll call her,” George said immediately, looking slightly less pale. He pulled out his phone and then stood there for a few seconds looking at the screen.
“George?” Lucy said. She growled. “Fine, I’ll call her myself.” She was about to pull out her phone when George shook his head.
“No, don’t, listen…” He took a deep breath and his cheeks turned red. “I’m sorry Luce. I really am. I thought… Well, with her past it was hard not to think that…” Another deep breath. “Lucy, I really apologize. And I’ll go find Cal as soon as I’ve locked up her e and apologize in person.”
“Wait, hold up, what’s happening?”
Silently, he handed her his phone. She read the message and read it again. “I thought Pen was out of touch during the honeymoon.”
“She is,” George said. “About business stuff, Ash insisted. But I guess Elspeth didn’t know that and texted her anyway.”
“And then came in to get the sixty pounds she was owed for the fundraiser while Cal was in the back,” groaned Lucy.
“She must have been in a hurry.” George looked faintly sick. “Lucy, there’s no way I could have known, I’m so sorry.”
“This isn’t your fault,” Lucy said. “If Pen was a little more financially responsible, that would help.”
“You know Pen,” George said.
She did know Pen. The Pen she had first met had been deep in debt. And whilst Ash had helped her get her finances straight, she still didn’t really have a head for money. Which might explain why she’d had the bakery and the bookshop sponsor a readathon for the school and had failed to set aside the money to donate.
Lucy pulled out a chair and sat down, her legs weak and her heart beating too fast. “Oh George, what am I going to do?”
He sat down opposite her. “We’ll both go. I’ll apologize profusely. And you’ll explain everything. Cal’s a good person, she’ll see that it was all a mistake.”
But Lucy knew Cal. She knew just how important being trusted was to her. It was part of the reason that she’d encouraged George to let her take over the shift in the bakery in the first place. To show Cal that she was trusted around town.
And now this.
She felt guilt weighing hard in her stomach. She should have spoken up sooner, should have defended Cal while Cal was here to be defended. But she’d been so shocked, so surprised, that she hadn’t opened her mouth. Now she regretted it deeply.
“She’ll understand, Luce,” George said gently.
“Will she? ”
He sighed. “Listen, I know that you’ve been feeling lonely, I know that you’ve been looking at me and Billy and at Pen and Ash and that you’ve been thinking that you want what we have. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But you need to remember that you’re only seeing the surface of things.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that you see us all at our best. You don’t see the work that goes into having a healthy relationship. That stuff happens behind closed doors.” He smiled at her. “I’m not an expert at all this either, Billy’s been the best teacher. But I have learned one thing. And that’s the number one rule to a healthy relationship is healthy communication. So if you’re going to do this right, then you need to go and talk to Cal.”
“She’s going to be so hurt and so angry.”
“It’s her right to be those things. But she’ll never understand if you don’t explain to her,” George said.
Lucy took a deep breath and then nodded. “You’re right.” She looked at her watch. “I’ll go now, I just hope that I can find her.”