‘Afterwards, I realised that she wore the same clothes and stuff that were in the pictures of the accident.’
‘That’s disgusting. Then what?’
‘Then, years later I got contacted by a solicitor who was acting on behalf of a group of men, mostly, who she’d done similar things to. Much worse things, actually. She wouldpretend she was pregnant and get them to pay to, well, you know… They wanted to know if I would give evidence.’
‘And did you?’
‘Yes.’
‘It went to court and she was convicted of loads of different things. She couldn't come near any of us for five years, but that was ages ago. I haven’t even thought about it until now.’
‘Right. Okay, well, let me come clean. I already know about her. Nancy told me.’
‘What? Why?’
Nina sighed. ‘She’s been hanging around me.’
Robby swore repeatedly. ‘Ahh! What? This is a nightmare.’
Nina wasn’t entirely sure what to say for the best. ‘How does she know about me, do you think? It can’t be a coincidence.’
‘I can only assume she has fake profiles all over the internet and has somehow found out about us or I don’t know.’ Robby turned the palms of his hands up and shrugged.
‘Right.’
‘Then there’s the Andrew thing.’
Nina frowned. ‘What’s that got to do with it?’
‘I havenoidea, but if Lindsay found out about him and you being a young widow… I don’t know. I might be completely barking up the wrong tree, but I would lay money on it that it’s that. She’d like that…’
‘This is awful.’ Nina swore.
‘I know.’
‘I don’t think she will last long, though. Everyone in Lovely knows about it. Or at least they did. It was a long time ago now, though, I suppose.’
‘I hope not.’
‘Hang on. So why haven’t you told me about her? What do you mean she’s been hanging around?’
Nina shook her head. ‘I didn’t think anything about it at first other than that she was odd and I got the wrong vibes. Then I bumped into her with Birdie, then she asked me for a quote and got my number. Yeah, it’s been sort of nothing and something at the same time. I’ve been so busy that I just didn’t mention it. I just kept thinking it was odd and then forgetting to bring it up. Then I said something to Nancy and that’s when I found out.’
‘Right. I can’t believe she’s back.’
‘What are we going to do?’ Nina asked.
‘I’ll have to speak to her.’
Nina made a strange squealing sound. ‘No! I tell you what we’re going to do: absolutely nothing.’
‘I’m not having her here. What if she tries something?’
‘Like what? She can try. She can’t actuallydoanything to us.’
Robby swore. ‘Nope, sorry, Neens, I need to get rid of her.’
‘How?’
