I have to think for a moment. ‘Retrace my steps, I suppose.’
‘Right, so let’s retrace yours and Adam’s,’ she says briskly. ‘When did you last see him?’
‘It was after our date, when we had our row.’
‘And why did you row?’
Unknown
‘Because Nate burst in and Adam got the wrong idea.’
‘Nate. Exactly,’ says Robyn. ‘He’s the cause of all this. So, first things first, you need to break the bond you have with Nate once and for all.’
‘Tell me someth P€ell me sË€eth P€eling I don’t know,’ I sigh. Only that day I’d received another missed call from him, and I’ve had to completely give up watching TV. Every time I turn it on it’s Big Bucks.
‘Seriously, Lucy, otherwise this will never get resolved and you might as well give up now.’ She gives a little snort. ‘It’s like with Chinese medicine. You don’t try to treat the symptom – you need to fix the cause: you and Nate.’
Walking along the street listening, I have to admit that for someone who believes in angels, she does talk a lot of sense sometimes.
‘You need closure,’ she says determinedly.
‘And how do you propose I do that?’ I sigh dejectedly. ‘The Strategy didn’t work. Nothing worked.’
‘True,’ she agrees reluctantly. There’s a pause and I can hear the TV blaring away.
‘What are you watching?’ I ask absently.
‘CSI. I’m getting ready to go to my new drumming circle, but I thought I’d watch five minutes. I’m just at the part where they’ve gone back to the scene of the crime to try to get some answers—’ Suddenly she breaks off. ‘Oh wow, that’s it!’
‘What’s it?’ I ask, puzzled.
‘You need to go back to the scene of the crime! The answer’s right there. You have to be like Catherine Willows. That’s where you’ll find your answer.’
‘What do you mean?’ My ankle has now started throbbing from all this rushing around and I flag down a cab.
‘It means you have to go back to Venice.’
I almost drop the phone. ‘Don’t be so ridiculous!’ I exclaim.
‘It’s the only way. Otherwise, forget it, wave goodbye to Adam.’
The cab swerves to the kerbside and I reach for the door. ‘Are you mad? I can’t go rushing off to Italy on a whim.’ As I tug the door open, the opposite door is suddenly flung wide open and someone else jumps in the other side.
‘Hey, this is my cab!’ I cry indignantly.
‘Lucy, you have to go,’ urges Robyn on the other end of the line.
‘Robyn£ Li‘Lucy Koby,’ I gasp into my phone, as I climb into the back seat, ‘I’m not going to Venice!’
Just then I come face to face with the stranger who’s trying to steal my cab.
Only it’s not a stranger. It’s Nate.
Chapter Thirty-Six
‘I’m going to Venice.’
Walking into the kitchen the next morning, I find the radio playing, tea brewing and Robyn sitting cross-legged at the kitchen table in her tie-dye pyjamas. ‘You are?’ She looks up from buttering a slice of raisin toast and grins widely. ‘Awesome.’
‘Well, I’m not sure I’d call it “awesome”, exactly.’ More like desperate, I think, plopping myself down next to her. After my run-in with Nate last night, finding myself next to him on the back seat of a cab, my mind is made up.
‘Wanna slice?’ she proffers.
‘Mmm, yes, thanks.’ I nod, as she passes one to me.
‘So when are you going?’ She looks at me expectantly.
‘Erm . . .’ I pause. It suddenly hits me that I haven’t thought about that bit yet. In fact, now I am thinking about it, I realise there’s quite a lot of bits I need to think about. Like how I’m going to afford a flight to Italy, or pay for a hotel, or get time off work . . . Anxiety rumbles. ‘I’m not sure yet,’ I say vaguely, taking a bite of raisin toast.
‘Well, you need to go as soon as possible,’ instructs Robyn. ‘You mustn’t delay.’
‘Right, yes, mustn’t delay,’ I murmur, chewing slowly, my mind whirring. God, this is all beginning to seem a bit overwhelming.
‘And of course Nate has to go with you.’
I nearly choke on my raisin toast. ‘What? You mean Nate and I have to go to Venice together?’ I turn to her in astonishment. ‘I thought the plan was to get rid of him, not fly off to Italy with him!’
Calmly taking another slice of toast from the huge stack on her plate, she begins buttering. ‘It will only work if you both go,’ she says matter-of-factly.
‘Says who?’ I cry, waving