‘Just finishing off the last job and then I’m done and dusted until after the wedding.’
‘Excellent. I’ve been meaning to say to you. Has anything else happened with Lindsay? Have you still not seen her around?’ Nancy asked, her voice lilting into a question at the end.
Nina hadn’t told anyone what had happened at The Summer Hotel, not even Robby. She’d decided, once she’d realised a few days or so later that Lindsay had vanished, that no one needed to know what had gone on. She’d keep her cards close to her chest. 'I haven’t seen her, have you?'
'No, not at all, and I’ve asked around. It seems like nobody has seen her anywhere. I wonder what happened.’
Nina wasn't sure what had happened, nor did she care. ‘No idea.’
Wherever Lindsay was, Nina was fairly sure her vanishing wasn’t just to do with what Nina had said. Lindsay was an experienced criminal who had a serious track record with tried and tested results. One slightly tense exchange wouldn’t have put her off as far as Nina could see, but then again, maybe Lindsay had always worked on the notion that people had no idea what she was doing. Now, with the internet, it was a different ballgame altogether.
Perhaps Lindsay had realised that she’d been rumbled and had given up the ghost. Nina wasn’t sure what the reason was, but as long as Lindsay was gone, she was happy. She just hopedthat they'd seen the last of her. She tuned back into Nancy, who was still discussing the fact that nobody had seen Lindsay anywhere in Lovely Bay.
'I was talking to the bloke who works with me here at the station, and he said that he hadn’t seen her. I also chatted with Clive this morning when I was on my way to work. Nobody has laid eyes on her. It's like she’s just completely scarpered. One minute she was here, nearly every day, and the next minute she’s gone.'
'Well, all I need to know is that she’s stopped turning up by coincidence in the same places as me.’
'Yeah, hope so. That must’ve been horrible. What an absolute creep.'
'Yes, I know, and an evil one at that.' Nina contemplated launching into the fact that she’d had the ding-dong with Lindsay at The Summer Hotel, but she changed her mind. Better that no one knew.
Nancy continued, 'Actually, I found myself googling her the other day. I had forgotten how bad it was before. She really is not a very nice character. When I told you to google her that night, I hadn’t thought about it for years. Then, the other day, I was sitting with my feet up having a coffee, and she popped into my head, and I looked her up. It was not one of my better moves.’
‘I told you how bad it was. There are so many articles about her.’
‘I know. The worst thing about it all was that she worked in a hospital! In children’s nursing! Can you imagine? Someone like that being around children. I bet she was so smug, too.’
‘Oh, for sure! Always the way. Probably Miss Sweetness and Light on the outside to the parents.’
'What makes someone do that?'
'I don’t know. I suppose she’s not really right in the head.’
'Why would you enjoy somebody else’s trauma and drama?' Nancy asked.
'Who knows? Just think, if it wasn’t for the internet and the fact that we can access this information, no one would really have known. I mean, it might have been in some paper somewhere, but chances are she could have done it again and again.'
'Yeah, the internet has changed a lot of things. We can see exactly what she was convicted of and what she got up to. Thank goodness.'
'Makes you think that youalwayshave to watch your back,' Nina said.
'Yep, you do. Even in somewhere like Lovely Bay, where our crime rate is almost nil, sometimes people come along and like to disturb the peace.'
'They certainly do. They drop in somewhere and spoil it for everybody else.'
'Yes, exactly. Well, let's hope she doesn’t darken our door again.'
'No, hopefully not. Hopefully, we’ve seen the last of the likes of Lindsay, her dark ways and her dreadful garish clothes.'
45
Nina was in the back room of the deli, laying the tables for a speakeasy event that night. It was her very last job before the wedding. She had just finished putting glasses on the tables and was chuckling to herself at the sound of the Shipping Forecast that was accompanying her work when Birdie came in with two cups of tea in her hands.
Birdie lifted her chin to indicate to Nina to come into the kitchen. Nina followed her in. ‘Thanks, I needed a nice cup of tea. I didn’t have one earlier.’
Once Nina had sat down, Birdie tapped her hand on Nina’s knee and sighed. ‘I’ve got to tell you something. I wanted to let you know before the big day.’ Birdie had averyserious look on her face. ‘I’d like to call it gossip, but it’s too significant to call it that. It’s not tittle-tattle.’
‘That sounds ominous. What do you mean?’
