That afternoon I decided to go and meet Mum from work.
I had to wait for her to finish her clinic, and as soon as she saw me standing at reception she asked, ‘Libby, darling, is anything wrong?’ It made me realise that I’d never surprised her by meeting her from work before. Maybe I should do it more often now that it was within walking distance.
‘I just wanted to walk you home,’ I said. ‘And talk to you on your own.’
‘Really? Well, let’s go.’
As we set off along the street together she asked, ‘So what have you been up to today?’
‘I went round to Tansy’s. Her mum’s just got home – she’s a doctor who’s been working for a charity in Africa. She went to set up a health clinic and train local nurses in a very poor village.’
‘That sounds amazing,’ Mum said.
‘Yes, but it must be awful not to see your mum for four months. I guess you can understand why Tansy’s so angry with her, can’t you?’ When she didn’t answer immediately, I said, ‘I mean, you’d never go away and leave us for that long, would you?’
I was surprised when she said, ‘To be honest, I don’t know. If Grace was older … well … the chance to make that sort of difference doesn’t come around very often.’
‘So you think it’s OK for Tansy’s mum to just go off and leave her?’
‘I’m just saying that these decisions aren’t always as black and white as they appear. After all, she’s being a wonderful role model for Tansy.’
We walked along in silence for a bit as I thought about it. Maybe she had a point. Though I doubted Tansy would ever see it that way.
‘So did you want to talk to me about something in particular?’ Mum asked.
‘Um …’ Now that the time had come I wasn’t sure I could actually do it.
‘Does this have anything to do with the call I had from Aunt Thecla this morning?’ she prompted me. ‘She’s coming round after dinner tonight to talk to us. She wouldn’t tell me much but she says it’s about her missing money. I haven’t told your dad yet.’
I swallowed, knowing I couldn’t put it off any longer. So I took a deep breath and told her the truth. ‘I put back Aunt Thecla’s fifty pounds and she’s just found it.’
Mum stopped walking and stared at me. ‘Are you telling me it was you who took it?’
‘No,’ I said quickly.
She gave me a narrow-eyed look. ‘Then who did?’
I shook my head. ‘I can’t tell you …’
Mum sounded annoyed as she said, ‘That’s not how it works, Libby. If you don’t want to be held accountable then you have to tell me what you know. Was it Grace? Because if you think you’re doing her a favour by covering up for her –’
‘It wasn’t Grace!’ I protested, and instantly I could see that she’d never really thought it was.
‘So it was Bella!’ she stated firmly. (After all, it’s not rocket science. Not when there are only three of us.)
‘Yes,’ I said shakily. ‘But, Mum, she needed the money really badly.’
‘What for?’
I knew that if I told the truth then everything would come crashing down. Sam would be in trouble as well as Bella, and the two of them might be separated forever and never get a chance to make up. Plus Bella would hate me – and I mean really hate me.
‘I can’t tell you,’ I said.
Mum’s eyes went cool. ‘Then I shall have to ask Bella.’
We walked the rest of the way home in complete silence.
If Mum had been a better investigator (I mean of something other than people’s flossing habits) she’d have stopped me from rushing upstairs to talk to Bella the second we got in. After all, you only have to watch any detective show on TV to know that you never let suspects talk to each other before you interrogate them.
So while Mum was in the kitchen recounting everything in a stressed-out voice to Dad, I was in our bedroom warning Bella that Mum knew she’d taken the money. And that she needed to come up with a really good reason for needing fifty pounds. And that she needed to come up with it fast.
A few minutes later Dad’s voice was yelling up the stairs, ‘BELLA! GET DOWN HERE! NOW!’
Mum and Dad shut themselves in the living room with Bella while I went into the kitchen to join Grace, who was sitting drawing at the table.
‘Mummy says Aunt Thecla is on her way round,’ she informed me without looking up.
‘Oh great,’ I said.
At least Dad and our aunt were speaking to each other again, even if it wasn’t under the best of circumstances. Prompted by Mum, I’d apologised to Aunt Thecla for not telling her the truth about the money and then been dispatched to help Grace get ready for bed. Bella was interrogated for ages, and by the time they finally released her I was already in bed. She came into our room looking exhausted.
‘So …’ I murmured nervously. ‘Do they know about Sam?’
‘Of course not!’ She sniffed. ‘I told them I wanted the money to get my hair dyed pink before we started school.’
‘What?’ I started to laugh.
She grinned too. ‘I said I wanted to stand out from the other girls.’
‘Oh, Bella, that’s brilliant!’ Not only was it totally believable that my sister would do something like that, but it also made sense that she couldn’t have gone to Mum and Dad to borrow the money. ‘But wait … didn’t they ask why you hadn’t used your own money?’ I was thinking about her savings, which I knew she’d given to Sam.
She nodded. ‘I told them I spent everything on a really expensive goodbye gift for Sam.’ Bella has always been able to think on her feet – and lie convincingly if she has to.
‘So are they really mad at you?’ I asked.
‘Aunt Thecla definitely is. Mum and Dad were so relieved I hadn’t gone through with the hair-dyeing thing that it sort of took the edge off it! Though they’ve taken away my phone again and I’m grounded for the rest of the holidays.’
‘What about me?’ I asked nervously.
‘Oh, I told them you didn’t know I’d taken the money until afterwards, and that as soon as you found out you insisted we had to put it back.’
‘Thanks, Bella.’
She shrugged. ‘Well, thanks for not telling them about Sam.’
I paused. ‘Have you heard from him yet?’
‘No. I was going to go and find him at the garage tomorrow but I can’t do that now …’
‘I’ll go to the garage for you,’ I said quickly. ‘I can give him a message.’
‘Would you?’
‘Of course! I’ll go first thing tomorrow morning. You could write him a note.’
‘Thanks, Libby. Listen … about all that stuff I said to you when we argued … you know I didn’t mean any of it, right?’
I sighed. ‘I hoped you didn’t.’
‘I’m sorry. I just get so angry sometimes that it all spills out.’