‘I’ll go up,’ said the female officer in uniform.
‘I think I need to come, as does Mrs Reynolds. We can’t upset the girls. But first ...’ She looked back at the detective superintendent. ‘What’s the plan?’ she said as if they were discussing something quite normal instead of a team of police detectives coming into Callie’s house late at night at her actual fiftieth birthday party.
Callie stared at her old friend in horror.
‘We are here to arrest Jason Reynolds and search the house,’ said the officer calmly and this time Callie felt her knees go totally and everything went hazy and then blank.
When she woke up, she was sitting on one of the squashy chairs in the kitchen.
‘Lucky they caught you,’ said Brenda, waving a glass of brandy in front of Callie’s nose.
‘Was that a dream, did that really happen?’ said Callie.
‘No dream,’ said Brenda bitterly. ‘All true. At this exact moment, there are police officers getting everyone out of your house, carefully taking every computer and every bit of paper with them and they’re searching the whole place.’
‘Oh God,’ said Callie. ‘No,’ she said, pushing the brandy away. ‘You know I don’t like spirits.’
‘I know you don’t like spirits, but drink this because you are going to need it.’
Brenda held the brandy glass up to Callie’s mouth and made her drink it, like Callie used to make Poppy drink things out of a beaker cup when Poppy was a baby.
Her baby.
‘Where’s Poppy?’ she said in alarm.
‘It’s fine for the moment, I got one of the waitresses to go up there and the female Garda is there too. I’ve told her there’s something strange going on but the police are here to fix it and you’re sorting it out, and will be up in a minute. The men are not going near her room until you are ready to be there and supervise, but to be honest I’d say get out of here pronto, both of you. We need to get you and Poppy somewhere safe before the story hits the media.’ Brenda appeared to be thinking about it. ‘I don’t even know if you can bring your clothes or what,’ she added in a very matter-of-fact tone. ‘They’re not the Criminal Assets Bureau, so they can’t impound it all or anything, but when the Fraud Squad come, they’re going to be looking at every asset in terms of legal redress.’
‘What story? This is a mistake, surely? Jason will sue.’
Brenda patted her hand tenderly.
‘Callie, the Fraud Squad don’t make mistakes.’
‘But us? Jason’s a businessman.’
‘Drink,’ was all Brenda would say.
Callie shuddered as she finished the rest of the brandy. She hated all strong spirits.
‘What do we do now?’ she said, making herself come back into the world again.
Everything still felt very unreal. She wanted another Xanax, a whole one, and to go to bed and find out this was all a dream.
‘You prepare yourself for the next shock,’ said Brenda, patting her hand.
‘I’m not preparing for any shocks until I have Jason beside me and I find out what the hell is going on,’ said Callie, as the alcohol hit her system, putting fire in the hold. ‘The embarrassment,’ she went on.
The people at the party knew all the gossip columnists in the country. Everyone would be writing about this. Jason would go mental. ‘Where is Jason? I hope he’s trying to turn the police away.’
Brenda perched on the edge of the armchair.
‘That’s what you needed the brandy for,’ she said.
Callie stared up at her.
‘They can’t find Jason.’
‘What?’
