Fraser chuckled. ‘I agree. Everything okay?’
Effie flopped back down on the window seat. ‘Not really.’
‘Is it Liv?’
‘It’s John.’
‘You know that’s not his real name, right?’
Tears stung Effie’s eyes and she had to take a moment to control them before she could speak. ‘I do but I don’t want to believe it. Is that crazy?’
‘Noooo,’ said Fraser, sitting down next to her. ‘Maybe a little,’ he added as he gave her a nudge. ‘It’s not your fault. This is this person’s job. This is what they do. They defraud people in the worst way possible.’
‘It’s horrible. John asked me for money again.’ She looked sheepishly at him.
‘Please tell me you didn’t send him any.’
‘I was tempted but I didn’t. He keeps messaging.’
‘Have you not deleted and blocked him?’
Effie stared down at her phone but didn’t answer. She wasn’t a good liar and Fraser had known her her whole life so it was pointless even trying to hoodwink him. ‘Effie?’ he prompted.
She looked up. ‘Do I have to?’
‘You must or they’ll just keep badgering you. I can do it if you’d rather.’ He held out his hand.
‘No, it’s okay.’ She unlocked her phone, and blocked John’s number and email.
‘Well done.’ Fraser patted her arm. ‘Feel better?’
‘Not really. Now I feel awful for what I said to Liv. And there’s no way to put that right because she’s gone.’ She looked at Fraser.
He rubbed a hand over his chin. ‘Sometimes you just have to let people go.’
‘Even the good ones like Liv?’
He scratched his head. ‘I don’t know with Liv. I know what your dad would have said.’
Effie chuckled. ‘That bird’s a rocket; she’s tuned to the moon,’ she said mimicking her father’s strong Scottish accent. ‘But I liked that about her.’
‘I suppose.’ He didn’t sound convinced. ‘She’s about as stable as Bitcoin. One minute she was batshit crazy and doing my nut in and the next…’
‘She is one of a kind,’ said Effie. ‘Look how she stepped up to help – and I know I didn’t behave well but she was trying to protect me from John. She has a good heart. We need people like that in our lives. Don’t we?’
‘I suppose we do,’ he said.
*
Liv found herself sitting in a tiny room at a small police station with only a plastic cup of water for company. She’d never been in trouble before and she didn’t like it. Well, nothing serious anyway: scrumping apples, late return of library books and the one time she was evicted from McDonald’s for accidentally chucking a chicken nugget at someone’s baby.
Now she’d somehow found herself arrested and detained at a police station. She’d almost laughed when Robbie had arrested her, but it had quickly become apparent that it was no joke. She’d pleaded her innocence but Robbie was having none of it. He’d locked up her car and taken her to the police station. He’d had to rush off before she was checked in so he’d left her with an unsmiling bald policeman who had thankfully removed the handcuffs, taken all her details and got her a cup of water. Now she was sitting in a featureless room feeling like she was in a TV cop drama.
Robbie had said that if she’d done nothing wrong then she had nothing to worry about, but as a police officer he had to investigate thoroughly. Her brain started to escalate the situation. What if nobody believed her? What if she’d been framed? Did that mean a trial and a criminal record? The door opened and she jumped. Immediately she feared that made her look guilty.
‘Miss Bingham, I’m Sergeant Robertson. I’d like to ask you a few questions.’
She swallowed hard. This was scary. What if she got them wrong? She really didn’t want to spend Christmas in a cell. Did you even get a Christmas dinner? And if it was would it be haggis?
