(2012) Evie Undercover (41 page)

He stared around the room, deep in thought.

Rachel and Jess would definitely
have
rung him if they’d heard anything so there was no point in ringing them that evening. Getting in touch with
Pure Dirt
was a non-starter. H
e could hardly ask them if they’d pass on Evie’s details so that he could track her down
. T
hat would really make the editor’s day
.

He swivelled round in his chair and stared through the window at the walled garden
below.
The
agency
was going
to be his only hope, and that was a very slim hope
–
the
y
’
d probably never even had her full details as the whole thing had been a set
-
up, a supposition rather borne out by the fact that no one had returned
any of his
call
s
.

But the agency was all he had.

Unfortunately, once again it was much too late on a Friday evening for there to be anyone
on the premises
so he’d have to wait until Monday morning before he spoke to them. There was no point in leaving yet another phone message. That meant that there wasn’t a lot he could do that weekend, apart from visiting Rachel and Jess,
which he’d
do first thing the following morning. Even if they hadn’t heard from Evie, it would be nice to be able to t
alk to them about her, and the three of them might
even
come up with something if they brainstormed some ideas about where
she might have gone
.

Also, h
e’d ask them for the contact details of Evie’s parents in Australia
,
and
then
he’d call
her parents. But t
here was no point in trying to get their number that evening because the time difference meant that he wouldn’t be able to ri
ng them until the following day
. The girls were probably right in thinking that
she
wouldn’t have gone to Australia, but she might just have phoned her
family
and given them some idea of where she was. It was a long shot, but any sort of shot was worth pursuing.

At the same time, he’d
tell the girls
that he was going to hire a detective at once
.
The more people looking for her, the better.
A
s far as he was concerned
, Evie had had
enough
breathing space in which to sort herself out, and she might be more than ready to be found, especially when she knew that the truth was out
and nothing very terrible had happened
.
And he
was desperate
to see her.

So
,
Camden Town the following morning it was, and the
n the
agency on Monday. Feeling better at having a plan of action, he swung
back
round to fa
ce his desk, finished his whisk
y and went back downstairs.

He reached the foot of the stair
s and stepped over his
coat
. T
here was a very good dry cleaner’s in Camden Town,
he remembered
;
he
could
drop
it off
on
the
way to visit Rachel and Jess. He
rested
his glass on the bottom stair and picked up the
coat
to check the pockets –
he’d
once sent a jacket to the cleaner’s
that had in
its pockets the
only copy of the many billable hours he’d worked on a case. He’d
never made
such a mistake again.

He
checked
the
outer pockets
–
they were
empty
–
then
he
dug deep into his inside pocket. His fingers closed around a small package
– it was
the present th
at he’d bought for Evie. H
e’d planned to give
it to
her on the Friday night that she’d finished working for him
, as a way of
mark
ing
the start of their new relationship. Not surprisingly, however, he’d forgotten about it in the turmoil of the last two weeks.

Getting exactly the thing he’d wanted for her had t
aken some organising, but he’d managed it, and he’d been certain
that it was going to have been worth every minute of the trouble he’d gone to when he saw the expression on her face as she opened it.

He took the package
out of his
pocket, unwrapped it and lifted out the piece of carved onyx. He stared at it with satisfaction
–
yes,
Evie was going to love it. Just one problem, though
–
he had to find her
first
if
he
wanted
to
give it to her.

All of a sudden, his heart leapt, and he gasped out loud. What an idiot he was!
He knew exactly where he would find Evie.
It was all but staring him in the face.

He thumped the worktop with his clenched fist, and then, smiling broadly, he reached across
to
the telephone
and pulled it
towards him.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

And then there were two

Evie sat under the
loggia
, staring across the distant hills as the sun set over Todi.

The deep red sky, streaked with crimson and vermilion, was slowly fading into
the black of night
.
As she
gazed at the panorama in front of her
,
t
he first light of evening came on in the heart of the old town of Todi, followed by another light, and
an
other, until the town was ablaze with silvery lights, an island of glittering diamonds
adrift on a sea of dark
ening
hills.

A little way down from the old town, just beyond the outer edge of the town wall, the
ancient
white stone of
the
large round dome of the Santa Maria della Consolazione shone pale in
the night
.

If only it was always that easy to see the light, she thought ruefully.

In her mad panic on that dreadful Friday in London, all she’d been able to think about was getting out of
the city
as fast as she could
and going
somewhere miles away where no one would find her. She’d been
so
sure that once she’d escaped London, she’d see cle
arly what to do about Tom
and the mess she was in
. I
t hadn’t worked out like that
, though,
and she still hadn’t a clue
what to do next.
And
time
was fast running out.

She pulled her yellow cardigan more closely around her shoulders, stood up and started to stroll through the spotlit gardens towards the paved steps that led down to the pool and the olive groves.

She couldn’t imagine
how she’d ever thought that coming back to the house
where she’d fallen head over heels in love with
Tom
,
could
help her to think clearly
.
She’d desperately missed him for every single minute of the two weeks that she’d been in Italy
.

Every step that she
took
in his house reminded her of the steps she’d taken with him; the plastic glasses that she used were the glasses that she’d used with
him
; the bed she slept on
was the bed she’d chosen with him
; the
lavender-scented
Italian air she breathed was the air that she’d breathed with
him
.

He was
on
her mind
every
second
of the day
, surrounded
as she was
by all
her
memories of him
.

If anything, she was even more confused about what to do than when she’d left London. It should be a simple choice
–
either move to Italy and take the job with Eduardo, or turn down Eduardo’s offer for a second time and
return
to London to try to convince Tom that no matter what it looked like, she didn’t write that story. So why couldn’t she decide what to do?

Was it fear that was stultifying he
r?

T
he magazine article was only one of the things she’d have to answer
to Tom
for. Even if she managed to convince
him
of her innocence
–
and it was a bloody big
if
–
she’d still have to convince him that it was a temporary aberration that made her agree to work for a fetid rag like
Pure Dirt
in the first place, and then she’d have to explain why she’d passed on to Gabriela what he’d told her in
confidence
.
Was she afraid that
a
failure
to convince
Tom would
mean the end of all
hope
, and it was that trace of hope
that was keeping her going?

How could
she
have been so stupid as to h
ave been taken in
by Gabriela
that easily!
And how could she have been so silly as to let herself get so drunk that evening that she blurted out something that she’d had no intention of ever telling anyone?
And
then what happened afterwards
…
how could
any woman
be
as
scheming and manipulative
as Gabriela
?
And why?

It must have been Gabriela who dropped
off
the story that Wednesday morning. No one else – not even Rachel and Jess – knew what Tom had told her. It
made sense of
why Gabriela had always been there, no matter which way she turned, watching over her, making sure that she rang the editor on the Tuesday night, and not on the Wednesday morning.

Gabriela must have phoned her on the Wednesday afternoon to check that she hadn’t spoken to anyone at
Pure Dirt
during the day. She
must have
wanted to make sure that she didn’t
learn
about a
story
being
delivered
until it was
far
too late to do anything about it. Gabriela would assume that she’d panic on
the
Friday
as soon as she found out,
and
get out
of London fast,
which is what she’d done.

If she’d been able to think more clearly, she
might
have
come up with
a better plan of action than runn
ing away. She
c
ould have challenged Gabriela on the Friday
,
and stayed on that evening to tell Tom what had happened. But her head had been all over the place and she’d been in a
frantic state
. All she’d been able to see in her mind
’s eye
was Tom’s face when he learnt the truth about their trip to Italy, a
nd she’d been overwhelmed by the anguish she’d felt
.

And
she’d been c
ertain
that Tom wouldn’t believe her.

W
hy would he? He’d have
thought that in
the hope of
hang
ing
on to him
and his lifestyle
, she was trying to put the blame on a charming
woman, who had
abs
olutely no reason at all to want to hurt him
. Gabriela would come across as innocence itself and would deny that she
’d ever been told Tom’s story, and i
t would be impossible for her to prove that she had.