‘Yes!’ Barbara had cried. ‘You’re the boss! Of course you can!’
‘What if they start throwing money at me?’
‘No! Of course you can’t refuse that.’
She smiled. Because today was a good day. The Penthouse Pair could wait for a reply. Sidmouth already had its answer. There was no mass leak of radiation, and it sounded as if it had not even been a deliberate attack. Whatever the biker was doing was not terrorism, right? Unless he wanted to put all those dangerous ampoules into the water supply. Therewasthat. She wished she could get Edward’s view.
Stevie drifted into Kim’s thoughts. She would be so thrilled to be out of isolation. Was that a happy picture in her mind’s eye, of Stevie putting her wedding dress into storage for another day? The wedding was due to have been in four days’ time … Kim hoped it would stay cancelled.
Kim took her mobile out of the office because she did not want her young staff to hear. She took the stairs at a clip andemerged from the front door, where there was a bench by a quiet stretch of road that caught the sun at this time of day.
‘Stevie?’
‘Who goes there?’
‘You sound – wait.’ The volume on her smartphone was quiet, and she turned it up. ‘You sound fine.’
‘Just fine? Well, apparently I’m not in prison no more.’
There was a voice in the background. Stevie spoke to someone else. ‘It’s Kim, Mum. Okay, I’ll tell her it’s not a prison.’ Then back to the phone: ‘It’s not a prison, Kim. Officially not a prison. It’s my bedroom at home and I’m now allowed downstairs. Bye, Mum.’ A door closed in the background. ‘Well, itwasa prison. Fucking shite bollocks fuck, and excuse my French.’
‘But you’re out! Out of Isolation Station! You must be excited … the wedding?’ Kim dared the question.
Silence.
‘Stevie?’
‘I put Roddy in the bin.’
Kim’s heart lurched. ‘Oh Stevie,’ she gulped. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘I thought you wanted me to!’
‘No, I mean, I’m just sorry you’ve had to go through all that.’
‘I broke his sunglasses.’
Kim snorted, tears in her eyes. ‘Accidents happen.’
‘Because I feel he was breaking me. I’m a little scared now.’
‘You’ll find someone else in a second!’
‘Not scared of being on my own. Scared he’ll come back at night and hurt me. He knows where my bedroom windows are, and I only have one eye left to lose.’
‘Then come and stay at mine,’ said Kim without hesitating, brushing the tears away.
‘What if he attacks the vicarage with Mum and Dad there?’
‘Why don’t you all stay at mine?’
‘All three of us? How big is your house?’
‘It’s a two-bedroom flat.’
‘What, so I have to sleep in bed with them likeCharlie and the Chocolate Factory?’
‘Okay – I have to be honest. The spare room only has a single bed.’
