Lottie would also read out some snippet about the current scene that she thought Bella ought to catch up with. Eventually daylight disappeared, leaving only the firelight and the glow of a table lamp in the corner of the room.
Lottie cast the last bit of newspaper on to the floor, yawned, and said, ‘You can’t beat a lazy Sunday with an old mate. What do you want to do this evening? Telly, a movie or a DVD?’
Bella looked up from the last colour supplement she was leafing through. ‘Whatever. Don’t ask me to make decisions.’
‘DVD then. Something with a happy ending.’
‘Sounds great. I suppose I ought to call my mother, too. This should be late enough for her.’
Lottie gave a crack of laughter. ‘Too right, even if she danced till dawn.’
‘She’ll probably have an early night, though. So I’d better move sharpish before the window of opportunity snaps shut.’
Bella went to retrieve her shiny new mobile from her beside table. Then remembered she had put it in the bag Lottie had lent her last night. After turning over all the various piles of clothes in her room, she found the bag under the bed.
She took it back into the living room. ‘Sorry, Lotts, I forgot. I should have given this back to you this morning.’ She emptied it out and retrieved her lipgloss, the cab company’s card, her running away money, even a scrunched-up handkerchief.
There was no phone.
‘Oh, hell! I must have lost it.’
Lottie was calm. ‘Problem of being plastered in a new place,’ she said tolerantly. ‘Walk me through what you did when you came home last night.’
They went to the front door and did the whole action-rewind thing. It was no help. Bella had not put the phone down on the hall table, with her keys. She had not left it tucked into the pocket of Lottie’s coat. She had not even taken it into the bathroom with her and put it in the bathroom cabinet, which Lottie said that she herself had done several times.
‘Damn. It’s got all my numbers in it,’ said Bella, furious with herself.
‘OK. When did you last use it? I mean, you called the minicab, right? What did you do after that?’
Bella bent her mind to the problem. Her memory was hazy but she was almost certain that she had called the cab before Silk Shirt appeared. ‘I suppose I might have left it on the table in the courtyard,’ she said doubtfully.
‘That’s easy then. I’ll call them.’
‘Actually, they might be miffed. I did leave a bit of a mess in the courtyard,’ said Bella uneasily.
‘Well, I don’t suppose they’ll have dusted for fingerprints. If they ask, I’ll just deny all knowledge. I’ll call. You have another look in the bedroom.’
But their hosts had not found a phone. And, even though Bella stripped the bed back to the undersheet, it was nowhere in her bedroom. Then Lottie called the minicab company, while Bella, reminded, put fresh sheets on the bed and hovered up the twiggy fallout.
The minicab company hadn’t found it either but the car Bella had taken home was presently on another job. They promised to check and call back if they found it.
‘Only one thing for it,’ said Lottie. ‘We call your phone and see if someone answers.’
She did.
And someone did.
‘Hello? Who is this? I think … What?’ Pause. ‘Er, no, not me. It’s my friend’s phone. Maybe you should talk to her.’
Lottie handed the phone across to Bella with a very odd expression on her face. She went into the kitchen, closing the door behind her ostentatiously.
‘Hello?’ said Bella, puzzled.
‘Who is this?’
Even through a cheap mobile’s tinny reception, Bella knew those dark brown tones. She looked down at her bare toes and saw they were curling into the rug with appreciation.
‘Um – me.’ It came out in a squeak. She cleared her throat, tried to imagine a gargle, tried to imagine she was speaking slowly and clearly to someone who didn’t understand English very well, and tried again. ‘I mean, Bella Greenwood. We met last night and you’ve got my phone. Hello.’
‘I thought it was probably yours.’ Oh, yes, it was him all right, that hint of laughter in the smoky voice. Her toes wriggled.
‘Er – really? Why?’
‘Pink and sparkly, covered in ivy, just a bit battered.’
‘Oh.’
‘It’s a compliment,’ he assured her. ‘How many people do you know whose mobile phone is completely unmistakable?’
Bella cheered up a little. ‘Well, if you put it like that—’