Sabrina hurried her way to the front door that everyone else had already streamed out of and then, BANG!
‘We really must stop bumping into each other like this.’ Lowen Kellow gave her a wry smile.
Sabrina’s nostrils flared as she glared at him. ‘And you need to start looking where you are going?’
‘Mark, meet Jilly Dickens. She runs our pop-up Christmas gift shop, Tinsel Town. She should have been a Hollywood actress with a shop name like that.’ He laughed. The suited man looked slightly awkward. Sabrina felt sick. ‘Mark is from County Homes.’
‘Hi.’ Sabrina rushed past him. ‘Must get on, Tinsel Town,’ she exaggerated the two words, ‘sadly isn’t able to run itself.’
Lowen turned his attention to Linda. ‘Ah. Just the lady. I’ll have one of my special coffees, please. And Mark, what’s your poison?’
Frank looked over at Linda and winked. ‘All OK, Mrs Harris?’
She gave the big man a thumbs up and turned to the coffee machine.
Sabrina was just unpacking a box of silver and gold tinsel when her shop bell went. She was faced with an attractive woman, the same height as her, with a white-blonde crop and black statement spectacles.
‘Hi.’ Sabrina smiled and stopped what she was doing.
‘Hey. I’m Glanna Pascoe. From the Hartmouth Gallery.’
Her partner, Oliver had been right. Aside from the woman’s plumper, currently bright red lips and doe-shaped brown eyes, she could see there was a similarity between them.
‘I’m S… Jilly. So lovely to meet you, at last.’
‘Yes, sorry, I was going to fit your sign for you, then I had an exhibition going on in St Ives, so it’s been all go the last few weeks. Good old Oliver. It looks great!’
‘Yes, I’m so pleased with it, and the fact we can detach it so easily when Brian comes back is the cherry on top, so thank you.’
‘We aim to please.’ Glanna’s eyes went to the expensive baubles in a box on the countertop.
‘Also, I’ve been wanting to see you and say that the painting of yours in Isaac Benson’s holiday cottage is so gorgeous.’ Sabrina grinned.
‘Remind me, is it the ferry coming in with the rainbow in the distance’?’
‘That’s the one. You are so talented.’
‘Thank you. I feel so blessed to have been gifted with a creative talent.’
‘You really should.’ Sabrina found her thoughts leading to her first drama class at school realising that all she had ever wanted to do with her life was act. Oh, to be young again with not a care in the world and the dream of Hollywood still a possibility. Where had that passion gone? Did adulthood just kick your dreams out of you? Or maybe with everything that had happened recently, her priorities had just been reset.
‘How’s your day going, anyway, Glanna? I guess like all of us, your weekdays are far quieter than the weekends?’
‘I was giving a lecture to the art students at the University this morning, so I enjoyed that.’
‘Ah, yes, Frank mentioned that at the meeting this morning. I’d love to be able to teach.’ She stopped herself from saying ‘my craft’. ‘I expect your ears were burning. Alicia is going to be in touch about some flyers for the Victorian Fair.’
‘That’s fine. I try and make as many of the meetings as I can but if I can’t the big man is particularly good with the minutes after. I just had a bit of a weird moment in the gallery, though. A reporter from a publication I didn’t even recognise came in, looking for someone whose description fitted mine. A well-known actress has evidently gone missing or something and there is a reward out to find her.’
‘Oh. How odd.’ Sabrina put her head down and started to fiddle about with some tinsel, heart pounding. ‘Right. Well, I hope the woman’s OK.’
‘I take it no one came in here?’ Glanna started looking through the jumpers.
‘No, but I’ve not been back from the meeting long. What did the reporter look like?’
‘It was a woman– short, ginger hair. I saw you arrive earlier and assumed as you and I have kind of the same hair and big glasses, they might have put two and two together and made eight, like local reporters usually do.’
‘Did they have a photo of the actress?’
