The following morning, Minnie went into the bathroom to get some privacy before taking out her phone.
She dialled Sylvie’s number.
It rang.
Her thumb hovered over the ‘end call’ button. But she forced herself to let it ring.
A sleepy voice answered. ‘Hello?’
‘Sylvie? It’s Minnie. I’m calling to say sorry. That you had to investigate on your own. That Derek was rude to you. There. I’ve said it. That’s all.’
There was a long pause. Minnie could hear Sylvie breathe gently. Her grip tightened on the phone.
‘Apology accepted,’ Sylvie said finally.
‘Good. Right. Bye, then.’
‘Wait!’ Sylvie said. ‘Are you investigating anything today? What’s going on? Where are you in the case?’
Minnie had no idea where they were in the case. Nowhere. ‘Dunno,’ she said.
‘Oh. Fine. Well, I can’t help today anyway. I’ve got performance classes. And I’m probably meeting my dad or something later. So, even if you needed me, I couldn’t come. I’ll see you around.’ Sylvie sounded crotchety and weird again.
Minnie sighed. This apology business was more complicated than she’d thought.
When Sylvie was off the phone, Minnie called Piotr’s flat. It was a bit early for Piotr, who liked to sleep in, but he had a younger sister, who was practically still a baby, so the Domeks were usually awake with the dawn.
His mum answered and got Piotr to the phone.
‘I apologised to Sylvie,’ Minnie said, before he even had a chance to say hello.
‘You didn’t?’ He sounded shocked. ‘I never, ever thought you would. What did she say?’
‘Something about a class. I don’t know. So, listen, can we be friends again?’
‘We were never not friends. I’m sorry I shouted at you,’ Piotr said.
‘I think I might have shouted first,’ Minnie admitted.
Piotr laughed. Minnie did too. It felt like all the tension of the last few days lifted with that laugh. As though she’d been carrying a heavy suitcase and now she’d been allowed to put it down.
‘Listen,’ Piotr said. ‘I didn’t get a chance to tell you last night, but I didn’t run after the van because when I looked through the dry cleaner’s window I noticed something.’
‘What?’ Minnie pressed the phone closer to her ear.
‘The T-shirt was still hanging in the shop. And it had something pinned to it. A label or something. I couldn’t make it out because it was too dark. We need to take a closer look at the T-shirt.’
Just then there was a bang on the bathroom door.
‘Minnie?’ Dad’s voice. ‘What are you doing in there? There’s a queue out here!’
‘Huh.’ Mum’s voice. ‘I knew one bathroom wasn’t enough for the four of us.’
Dad again. ‘It’s fine if people don’t hog it.’
‘We have to go back to the dry cleaner’s then,’ Minnie said to Piotr.
‘We’ve been there a lot,’ he replied worriedly. ‘He might get suspicious.’
‘Yes, you’re right. She and Sylvie can investigate this time.’
‘Sylvie has a class,’ Minnie said pointedly.
Piotr chuckled. ‘Don’t start.’
‘Minnie!’ The bangs on the bathroom door were solid thumps now.
‘Coming!’ she yelled. ‘Call Flora, Piotr. I’ll meet you there.’
Minnie was the first to arrive at the bench opposite ACE. What if today was the day Omar finally cleaned the T-shirt? What if he took it back to the peanut boy before Flora got there? Should Minnie follow? Should she go on her own? She forced herself to sit. Her trainers scuffed the dust beneath the bench. The sun was warm today and dappled shade from the plane trees fell across her. But the whispering leaves sounded like warnings. And the shouts of children playing hide and seek among the trees made her jumpy.
It was an anxious wait until Piotr got there too. ‘Andrew can’t come,’ he said. ‘His mum has a doctor’s appointment this afternoon and he has to wait with her.’ He sat on the wooden slats that formed the back of the bench.
Opposite, the lights were on and the faded sign read ‘OPEN’. They could make out movement inside, but they were too far away to see what Omar was up to. The minutes crept past as they waited for Flora. They couldn’t do anything without her. They barely spoke. Minnie lolled back against the warm wood. She pulled out her phone. Checked her messages – nothing. Checked the time. Flora had been ages.
‘Do you think Sylvie has stopped her coming?’ Minnie asked, ‘because I didn’t apologise well enough?’
‘Don’t worry. She’ll be here.’
But it was another hour of anxiously watching the shop before Minnie heard a rustling, panting sound. She twisted to see Flora racing towards them across the theatre square. She held a huge, pink, frothy dress wrapped in cellophane.
‘Am I too late? Did anything happen?’ Flora asked. ‘I’m sorry, Mum didn’t want me to come. She said I had to do my French conversation class. I said “Maman, this is plus important than learning to parlez Français” and she said I was a Philistine. Negotiation took a while. I’ve had to promise to do extra tuition later, which is a shame because I wanted to finish my book about beetles. Did you know you can tell how long a body has been buried by the types of beetle there are in the remains?’ Flora dropped onto the bench with an exhausted sigh.
‘What are you reading?’ Minnie asked in horror.
‘Forensic Archaeology: An Introduction, by Professor John Hunter.’
‘Well, stop it, it’s weird,’ Minnie said firmly.
Flora laughed. ‘Sorry.’
‘What’s with the dress?’ Piotr asked, looking at the exploded meringue of fabric in disgust.
‘Me and Sylvie were bridesmaids for my mum’s cousin,’ Flora said. ‘People ask you to do that sort of thing a lot when you’re a twin. I didn’t keep my dress, it was too ugly. But Sylvie still pretends to be a princess in hers. I’ve borrowed it. This is my plan for getting inside the dry cleaner’s. I’ll need a distraction from you two though once I’m in. You need to get Omar away from the counter somehow.’
It was all very well to say that, Minnie thought, but how were they actually going to do it? Especially if they didn’t want Omar to see them?
‘Leave it to us,’ Piotr said firmly.
Had he a plan? Or was he just trying to sound tough?
Flora carried her dress draped over her forearms like a priest’s surplice. She looked left, then right, then left again as she crossed the road.
Then she disappeared into the dry cleaner’s.
‘So,’ Minnie asked Piotr. ‘What’s your plan?’