‘I don’t know, I didn’t ask.’
‘You didn’t ask?’ she said incredulously.
‘Well no, the man had clearly gone to a lot of trouble to preserve his anonymity. I didn’t want to ruin that by unmasking him or asking the T-rex for some ID. But I can confirm he was a man. Or a very deep-voiced woman.’
‘I can’t believe you didn’t find out,’ Zara said.
‘It just didn’t seem fair, not when he was on his back like a beached whale.’
‘And you didn’t recognise the voice?’ Alex asked, clearly playing along.
Quinn shook his head. ‘But I did collect the bauble from him.’
He handed it to Zara.
‘It’s a rugby ball!’ Zara said in delight.
‘Ah, that would explain the message,’ Alex said, quietly. ‘You like rugby, Quinn, you should have this bauble.’
‘Ah, umm, no, I mean, I do, but I’d rather someoneelse had this bauble.’
‘No, you haven’t had one yet, you should have it,’ Zara insisted.
‘Max and Xander like playing rugby too, maybe we can give it to one of them,’ Quinn tried.
‘And Mr Gillespie next door loves watching rugby, we could give it to him,’ Alex said, giving Quinn a look that said she knew she was fighting a losing battle.
Zara shook her head. ‘No, I want Quinn to hang his bauble on our tree next to ours. It’s a family tree and he’s part of our family.’
Fortunately he hadn’t painted this bauble for anyone specifically, just as another clue for Alex, but it looked like he’d now inadvertently given himself one of his own baubles.
‘OK, we can hang it on your tree,’ Quinn said, giving Alex a shrug.
‘Shall we go home?’ Alex said. ‘I’ve got something I really need to take care of.’
She gave Quinn a look and he quickly started the engine. ‘Yes, let’s go home.’
He drove deliberately round the full length of Christmas Gardens just to make sure Max wasn’t flat on his back somewhere, struggling to get out of his costume, but when there was no sign of him, he drove back up the hill towards Alex’s house as Alex hurriedly packed all the snacks away.
They walked back into the house. There was no sign of Immy but Jacob was curled up in his basket fast asleep.
‘Go and brush your teeth and get changed for bed, I’ll be up in a few minutes to read you a story,’ Alex said to Zara.
‘Can Quinn read it to me?’
‘Yes, of course,’ Quinn said.
‘Yes!’ Zara ran upstairs.
Alex looped her arms round his neck. ‘So it was you, all along?’
‘Yes, are you mad?’ He wrapped his arms around her.
‘No, not at all. How could I be mad?’
‘Well, I never directly lied to you, but there was a whole lot of deception.’
‘In the best possible way. This was such a lovely thing to do. Thank you.’ She leaned up and kissed him, pressing herself up against him, and he held her tighter.
