“Morning. What’s going on?”
“The roof money’s been stolen.” Lauren’s eyes were wide, and Nova felt her stomach drop.
“How? Did someone break in?”
The police officer shook his head. “There’s no sign of a break-in, the windows and doors are all secure. I’m PC Yusaf Khan, by the way. You’re Craig’s fiancée, aren’t you?”
Nova nodded. “Yes, hi. How did the thief get in?”
“We don’t know, but the office door was unlocked when I arrivedthis morning.” Sandy made no attempt to hide the accusation in her voice.
“It was definitely locked when I left last night.” As she said this, Nova ran over the evening in her mind. She’d gone to get her copy ofWhere the Crawdads Singfrom the office before the book club meeting, but she’d locked it afterward—she clearly remembered the key in her hand—and then she’d not gone back to the office again. “Someone must have come in after I went home.”
“We’ve already checked the CCTV footage from the front door,” Yusaf said. “Sandy left at 6:50 and Lauren at 6:59, after which the only people to enter the building were the four members of your book club.” He consulted his notepad. “One of them, a guy none of us recognized, ran out at 7:24. Then Phyllis Hudson, Arthur Robinson and Ash Chalabi all left together at 7:46 and you left six minutes later. After that, there’s no one else on the CCTV camera until Sandy arrived at 8:35 this morning.”
“Which means that the money must have been taken by someone during the book club meeting,” Sandy cut in, staring at Nova with beady eyes. “Did you go back into the office last night?”
“I did, but I promise I locked it again,” Nova said, more emphatically this time. “How much was taken?”
She saw Sandy blink before she answered. “Ten thousand pounds. The first installment for the roof repairs, to be paid to the builders up front today.”
“Oh shit!”
The community had spent more than a year trying to fund-raise for a new roof, and they still hadn’t hit the full target. Nova knew that first ten thousand pounds had been vital so that emergency work could be done to stop the roof literally collapsing on them before thewhole thing could be replaced. And now that money was gone. She looked at Sandy, who had slumped over her desk and was letting out a low moaning sound.
“Nova, can you talk me through what happened during your book club?” Yusaf said. “Where did it take place?”
“In Tintagel, the small meeting room.”
“And apart from when people arrived and left, did anyone go out of the meeting room during the book club, say to the toilet?”
“No, we all stayed in the room.”
Yusaf studied his notepad. “Right, well Phyllis arrived first and on her own so potentially she could have broken into the office and taken the money then.”
“No, I met her in the hallway,” Nova said. “I was just locking the office when she came in and she and I walked to the room together.”
“Okay, that’s helpful.” He scribbled something down. “Arthur Robinson and the teenager, Ash, arrived together and they both left with Phyllis, which means that if any one of them stole the money, there would have been a witness.”
“I’m sure it wouldn’t have been one of them,” Lauren said. “Arthur and Phyllis use this place all the time, they’d never do anything to harm it. And I’ve known Ash since he was a baby; he’s a good kid too.”
“Who was that other man?” Sandy asked Nova. “I’ve never seen him here before.”
“His name’s Michael. This was his second time at the book club.”
“He arrived on his own and then left after ten minutes,” Yusaf said. “So theoretically, he could have stolen the money on his way in or out.”
“But how did he unlock the office?” Lauren said.
“He might have picked the lock, I guess. Although he did a bloody good job, as I already checked, and it doesn’t look like it was tampered with.”
“So maybe it wasn’t locked in the first place,” Sandy said, looking at Nova again.
“Sandy, I swear—”
Nova stopped as a thought occurred to her. She remembered stepping out of the office and putting her key in the lock, but then the front door had banged open when Phyllis came in and scared the life out of her. She felt her insides curl.
“What is it?” Yusaf asked.
