Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
The next morning, I was setting up the sign for the Oxford Bookship on the towpath – slightly later than usual, having been delayed by saying goodbye to Jack before he headed off on a trip to the wine wholesaler – when Hilda suddenly started growling.
‘Hey, girly, that’s not like you. What’s the matter?’ I asked as she backed up.
Spotting Liam hurrying towards us, I rested my hand gently on Hilda’s head to reassure her.
‘You got my text then? You found her in Jack’s shed?’ said Liam, his phone already out ready to record my reaction. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I got the DM from a viewer saying they thought they’d heard her in there. I’m so happy she’s back safe and sound.’
He tried to stroke Hilda, but she moved behind me, burying her head in the folds of my skirt, no doubt pretending to herself that if she couldn’t see Liam, he wasn’t actually there.
I slid my mobile out of my pocket and surreptitiously pressed the record button before resting it on top of the shop sign.
It wouldn’t be a professional shot, but as long as it picked up what was said, that was what mattered.
‘I did find her. Can you send me the viewer’s DM? I’d really like to send them a personal thanks for letting us know where she was.’
Before he could respond, I plucked his phone out of his hands.
‘Which platform was the message on?’ I asked, as casually as I could manage, while my heart pounded with adrenalin.
‘I can’t see anything in your Insta DMs.’ I clicked into a storage folder and started spooling through the raw footage in there. ‘No, nothing on your TikTok either.’
‘Maybe it was on YouTube. Actually, I might have accidentally deleted it,’ said Liam. ‘Can I have my phone back, please?’
I channelled my inner Miss Marple and prepared myself for the confrontation. ‘No, I’m going to keep hold of it for now. There was no DM, was there?’
Liam gaped in horror at me. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘You didn’t need a private message to say where Hilda was because you knew exactly where she was all along.’
‘That’s ridiculous,’ he said. ‘Of course I didn’t know that.’
He even had the audacity to smile at me. He wouldn’t be smiling for much longer.
‘You knew because you put her there, after you stole her and kept her hostage on your boat first. There’s proof here. I can’t believe you had the audacity to film her on board there.’ I turned the phone round so he could see it. ‘Look, that’s the upholstery on your bench. It’s unmistakeable.’
Liam tried to snatch the phone back, but I neatly sidestepped him.
‘That’s from when we had that drink together,’ he said.
I shook my head. ‘You’re going to have to try harder than that. I didn’t bring Hilda with me then. And the footage has a date stamp of Saturday lunchtime.’
He was starting to look unsettled now.
‘The date settings on my mobile keep playing up. I can explain, it’s not what it looks like,’ he said, lunging for the phone again. I held it out of his reach.
‘I found her. And I was looking after her for you,’ he tried again.
I shook my head. ‘You should stop lying now, Liam. Every moment of the search for Hilda is etched into my memory. I’m not going to get over the trauma of it for a long time.
And I know for a fact that the time on this date stamp is before I bumped into you on Saturday afternoon.
I was on my way to search Castle Mill Stream, but you said you hadn’t seen her.
I needed to get back to tell the Food and Fiction guests the event was off so I foolishly believed you…
’ The words caught in my throat and I swallowed, steeling myself to get to the end of this confrontation ‘…I believed when you said you hadn’t seen her, and I trusted your promise that you’d keep an eye out for her when you were travelling on the Lydia.
But Hilda was actually on board your boat the whole time and you were trying to keep me away from Castle Mill Stream, because you knew if I went anywhere near, she would have barked to let me know where she was.
You pretended to be my friend, but you stole my dog and cast my boat off to cover your traces.
’ Liam was shaking his head, but I pressed on.
‘I’m naively hoping it was a spur of the moment thing after you happened to find the Bookship unlocked, but your later actions suggest there was something much more calculated going on.
If you’d let her go after keeping her in your boat for a couple of days, I probably wouldn’t have suspected you, but you broke into Jack’s shed and locked her in there to make it look like he was the one responsible for her disappearance.
And you only made up the bit about receiving a DM tip-off after I got in touch asking if you’d heard anything.
How long were you going to leave her locked in there by herself?
’ With an effort, I lowered my voice. I refused to lose my dignity in front of this man.
‘What were you hoping to achieve by setting Jack up? Did you imagine I was going to accuse him? I think you did this hoping that he would be publicly vilified, in some kind of misguided revenge for losing your job. Which was entirely your own fault, let’s be quite clear about that.
The whole thing is unforgivable. Can you imagine how frightened Hilda must have been? ’
‘I took good care of her the whole time. I never intended for her to stay in the shed for long. I left her with food and water,’ Liam attempted to defend himself, finally recognising there was no point trying to deny it any longer.
‘Oh well, that makes it all okay then,’ I said sarcastically.
His shoulders relaxed a little.
‘In case you’re in any doubt, no, it bloody doesn’t.
It was totally irresponsible behaviour. What on earth possessed you?
I don’t know why I’m surprised though. Kidnapping Hilda wasn’t the first time you’d tried something reckless as part of your mission to frame Jack, was it?
’ I was pacing up and down now, unable to contain my nervous energy.
‘My stolen cable that you so kindly managed to find a like-for-like replacement for? What are the odds that if I compare the cable I’m using with the serial number on my original receipt, it will turn out to have been my own power cable that you oh-so-kindly “lent” back to me after you nicked it?
If I push Eric, will he let slip it was you who instigated the complaint which led to the spot inspection?
I’d be willing to bet my mooring I’m right.
’ I jabbed my finger towards him. ‘There you were all the time, pretending to be the hero, creating situations to make Jack the scapegoat and drip-feeding me your insidious hatred of him. Did you plan for me to snap and accuse him of doing all these terrible things live on your channel, destroying his reputation for you? He tried to be your friend. Your nasty vendetta against him sickens me.’
I stared at the man who was shrinking before me, wondering why I’d ever considered him charming.
‘I did it for you too,’ he tried.
I actually snorted in disgust.
‘What kind of warped logic is that? I’m at a complete loss as to understand why you would think stealing my dog and putting me through all kinds of stress would be something I would welcome.’
‘I thought it would boost your online profile. And mine,’ he added in a quieter voice.
His response nearly took my breath away. I shook my head.
‘I’m sorry, I must have misheard you, because I thought you said part of your motivation was for social media likes, and no one in their right mind would think like that.’
‘I figured creating an online buzz would help get you more customers. And get me more followers.’ His tone suggested he still thought it was a perfectly reasonable course of action.
‘You were grateful for the support I gave you. Nobody would have turned up to your stupid dating night if it wasn’t for me,’ he added.
I shook my head.
‘No, you don’t get away with saying that.
There are at least three new couples who would argue the Blind Date with a Book night was anything but stupid.
And you didn’t think it was foolish when you were wringing it for content, did you?
You promoted my events of your own accord.
And there’s a big difference between reposting an ad for a dating night and being cruel to a defenceless dog for clicks. ’
Liam’s face was ugly with anger. ‘You’ve no idea what it’s been like for me.
I used to have a flat in Canary Wharf, and ever since I lost my job thanks to Jack bastard Siddall I’ve been stuck slumming it in a caravan on water.
You don’t know how tough it is trying to carve out a niche as an influencer.
Sure, it’s good to have fans, but the reality is that it’s hustle hustle hustle all the time.
Viewers are so fickle. Half of them don’t even bother subscribing to the channel or watching my posts all the way through to the end, and all sponsors care about is the metrics.
’ He put on a silly voice. ‘“How many subscribers? How many views?”’ Liam threw his arms up in the air.
‘My numbers were falling until that video of you jumping onto the Wine Barge went viral. Then suddenly my channel was on the hot list again and the sponsors were chasing me for partnerships rather than the other way round. And then after that, my DMs were full of “How’s that book girl doing?”, “Has she saved any more boats?” Yadda yadda yadda.
My viewers wanted drama, so that’s what I had to provide for them.
I had no choice but to do the things I did. ’
‘You always have a choice, Liam. The real issue is whether you’re decent enough to make the right one.’
He shook his head, as if trying to block me out.