'I’m clearly not. This is delicious. I like it. I love this funny little tradition we have.'
'We have loads of them, don’t we?'
'Yes, it takes a bit of getting used to,' Nina replied.
'I bet it does. It doesn’t seem like that to me, though; I’ve lived here all my life.'
'Yes, you’re lucky. Talking about living here all your life, I met someone recently who you know. I’ve been meaning to mention it to you forages. I keep bumping into her and she gives me, well…' Nina trailed off, not sure whether to divulge her feelings about Lindsay.
Nancy put a spoonful of chowder into her mouth. 'Oh, right, yes, who? I hope they said nice things about me.'
'Lindsay? Do you know her? Actually, I also bumped into her when I was with Birdie when I first bought the property, but Birdie was quite strange. I’ve never seen her behave like that. I kept forgetting to speak to you about it.'
Nancy slowly put her spoon down on the side of her plate, didn’t say anything for a minute, picked up her gin glass, took a huge gulp, and then put it back down. 'Right, so you bumped into Lindsay, did you? If it’s the Lindsay, I think it is… Well, I only know one.'
'I did.'
‘What did she look like?’
‘Brown sort of lanky hair. I don’t mean to be nasty, but cheap, bright clothes.’
‘Oh, no.’
'Is something wrong with her? You’re also reacting in a strange way. Birdie clearly doesn’t like her. I assumed they’d just fallen out over something. She said she was a friend of yours. No, not a friend, an acquaintance, I think. Birdie told me to steer well clear.'
Nancy shook her head. 'Birdie was funny to her?’
‘Yes. Very.’
‘She’s no friend of mine, that I know for sure. I can’t believe she’s got the front to come back here.' Nancy nodded. 'I suppose the time is up now.'
Nina looked confused but thought that maybe her feelings about Lindsay were along the right lines. 'I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Who is this woman? What’s wrong with her?'
'Lotsis wrong with her. How do you know about her? Has she been hanging around you or something?' Nancy asked.
Nina frowned. 'Well, she does seem to have bumped into me in a few places. She was outside the cottage, and she said that she knew you.’
'She doesn’t reallyknowme, but she did. She was a friend of one of the girls who worked in the kiosk at the station. Have you spoken about this to our Robby?'
Nina shook her head and frowned. 'No. Why would I? She did say she knew him but I didn’t really think much about it. I thought she was just a Lovely, you know?'
Nancy took another huge sip of her drink. 'I don’t know if I should tell you this or you should wait until you've spoken to our Robby.'
'You’re not making much sense. What are you talking about? Just tell me. How bad can it be?Whois she?’
Nancy shook her head. 'Look, put it this way; she’s trouble.'
Nina nodded. 'Yes, Birdie said the same.Whyis she trouble? What has she done?'
Nancy sighed. 'It’s a bit of a long story, but basically, she's a scammer. Simple as that. At least, that is what she would be called these days.'
Nina wrinkled her nose up. 'What? What do you mean? What sort of a scammer? What does she scam people out of? Money?'
Nancy sighed again. 'Not just money. It's not just about money. She’s... Well, she’s sort of really nasty, evil. I don’t know what the word is. She takes joy from horrible situations. She plays on people who have had bad things happen to them. It became apparent that she thrives on doom.'
Nina was confused. 'What do you mean "she takes joy in horrible situations"? Did she do something horrible toyou?'
'Sort of. She's justgenerallyhorrible,' Nancy replied.
