Baz scribbled over what she’d written. She tore the page from her notebook and hurled it at her computer monitor with a shriek of annoyance.
Footsteps stomped rapidly down the hall and into the flat’s small study, just off the open-plan kitchen-diner-lounge. ‘Are you okay?’ Daisy asked, as she braced herself on the wall to pivot around the corner.
Baz let out a gruff sigh. ‘Fine, fine. I just hit a dead-end is all.’
Her granddaughter leant on the desk, her blond hair falling over her face as she did so. She peered at the screen. ‘Still trying to find the daycare’s landlord?’
Baz reclined in her ergonomic chair. ‘Looks like the whole thing is set up as a tax dodge.’
Daisy perched on the edge of the desk. ‘And you’d know all about that.’ She swept the hair out of her face.
Baz crossed her arms over her chest. ‘Jeepers. You make it sound like I’m some sort of … tax evader myself.’ She’d almost said criminal, but the thought of the things she got up to with her friends made her swerve tracks at the last second.
‘Only teasing.’ Daisy stood back up. ‘I’m sure you’ve come up against much worse. You’ll get to the bottom of it.’
Baz felt herself deflate, like a balloon with a slow leak. ‘That’s the thing. I’ve investigated more complicated ownership structures. But I did so with the aid of expensive tools for accessing paywalled data and I had all the might of the RCMP backing me up and…’ She gazed out the window.
Daisy wiggled her eyebrows. ‘You all right there, Nan? Did your CPU crash?’
‘Mmm?’ Baz chewed her lower lip. ‘Maybe that’s what I need to do,’ she muttered – more to herself than to Daisy.
Chuckling, Daisy shook her head. ‘You’re a million miles away right now, aren’t you? How about I make us a cuppa and you tell me about this maybe, eh?’
Baz mentally returned to the room with a start. ‘A cuppa? Listen to you! Pretty soon your friends in Canada won’t recognise you!’
Daisy turned on the tap. ‘Oh, don’t you start. Baba said the same thing to me.’
Baz’s heart stood still. ‘Did he? When were you talking to him?’ She knew her granddaughter was still in touch with Hari. Although there was no blood relationship between them, Baz and Hari had been together since before she was born. Daisy had lived with them for four years. To all intents and purposes, he was Daisy’s grandfather. Baz shook her head. ‘I’m sorry. That was rude – like you shouldn’t be talking to him. I promise I didn’t mean it like that. I was only curious.’
Baz swallowed as she got up and walked towards the kitchen. ‘How is he?’
Daisy flicked the kettle on and then hugged her grandmother. ‘No, I’m sorry, Nan. I wish I hadn’t said anything.’ She released Baz’s shoulders and turned to the cupboards. ‘But since you asked, he’s all right. He misses you too, you know.’
Annoyingly, Baz’s chin began to tremble. ‘Does he?’
‘Just because it had to be this way doesn’t mean it won’t hurt.’ Daisy dropped teabags into two mugs.
Baz opened her mouth to speak but no sounds came out.
Daisy reached down and squeezed Baz’s shoulders. Has the girl always been so tall?
The kettle clicked off and Daisy went to fetch the oat milk from the fridge.
Baz caught sight of the time on the microwave. ‘Oh, good heavens! I’m going to be late – and you know how Madge feels about tardiness. And I still have to go to the loo before I leave.’
Baz managed to get out of the flat swiftly. She rode like the wind to Deptford station. There were so many stations in London, it could be a bit overwhelming. Her flat was next to Deptford Bridge station – but that was different from Deptford station, which was about a ten-minute walk to the north.
When she got to the top of the ramp, the girls were visible in the distance. Baz couldn’t see individual faces yet. But Peggy’s mobility scooter was a dead giveaway. As she grew closer, Peggy’s faded pink hair was striking. And who else but Carole would pair the bold fabric of her dress with yellow tartan rain boots? As Baz drew closer still, she could make out Madge’s short curls.
Madge tapped her wrist. ‘What time do you call this?’
Heat rose to her cheeks as Baz checked her own watch. But the next thing she felt was confusion. ‘It’s half past.’
Madge flipped her nurse’s watch up and peered at it. ‘And forty-three seconds. We said we’d meet at 1:30.’
Baz bit her lip. ‘And I’m here? At 1:30?’ She wasn’t sure why her inflection was rising as though those were questions.
Peggy waved. ‘Oh, give over, woman. A, she isn’t late. And B, the train isn’t due for another thirteen minutes.’
Drawing in a breath, Madge pulled herself up to her full height. ‘That is beside the point. We set a time to meet; it’s only common courtesy for everyone to be here by that time. And besides, we still have to get into the station—’
Peggy raised a liver-spotted hand and pointed. ‘That station right there?’ Her fingers were tipped with perpetually chipped black nail polish. She steered her scooter towards the entrance.
‘—and pay for our tickets—’ said Madge, hustling to keep up with Peggy.
‘You mean touch our phones to the reader?’ The machine bleeped as Peggy did just that.
‘—and get to the platform,’ Madge continued as she touched in.
The two women carried on arguing as they headed further into the station.
Baz looked at Carole and said, ‘After you.’ Then she felt foolish when she realised there was a second card reader next to the one both Peggy and Madge had used. ‘How are you today, Carole? I feel like we never chat, just the two of us chickens.’
Carole nodded once and set off after Peggy. ‘Oh, very well. Very well, indeed.’ Without breaking stride, she spun around to face Baz and pointed, then continued her circuit and faced the direction she was walking in once more. ‘Of course, if you have a clutch bag, it’s meant to contain a basket of chicken eggs. Hardly anything remains of the ancient teachings at all. Such a shame.’
Baz frowned as they caught up with Peggy and Madge. ‘I hope I didn’t cause too much inconvenience with my tardiness, but I—’
‘You were right on time.’ Peggy crossed her arms over her chest. ‘And besides, we still have to sit out here in the frigid air for another eleven minutes waiting for the blasted train.’ She pulled a pink touque from her handbag and pulled it on over her spiky hair.
‘Yes, well,’ Baz glanced at Madge, ‘I still wouldn’t want to trouble anyone. Anyways, the reason I was…’ She paused to search for the right word.
‘On time?’ offered Peggy at the same time as Madge said ‘tardy’.
Baz’s breath caught. ‘The reason I was almost late is that I got carried away researching the company that owns the building where the nursery is. I followed the trail for as long as I could. It’s owned by an overseas company called Truffles Developments, which is jointly owned by a couple other companies with generic names, which are in turn owned by – I’m sure you get the idea.’
A cloud moved in front of the sun, casting the group into shadow. Madge pulled her coat’s hood up. ‘So did you find the answer or not?’
Before Baz could answer, the train pulled into the station. The women moved towards the area of the platform marked out for wheelchair users and others who required assistance. Apparently Peggy had notified them of their intention to take this particular train.
The attendant jumped out with the departing passengers. ‘Afternoon, ladies. Off for an afternoon of shopping in Borough Market?’
Carole looked at him with a very serious look on her face. ‘We’re off to see the wizard.’
‘Of Oz, you mean?’ The attendant grabbed the portable train ramp and positioned it in front of the open train door. ‘There you go, ladies.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ Carole stomped up the ramp and into the train. ‘What does a werewolf have to do with anything?’
Baz smiled at the attendant as she steered her scooter up the ramp. ‘Actually, we’re going to drag bingo.’
‘Oh, yeah?’ The attendant motioned for Peggy to board next. ‘Blokes dressed up as ladies, you mean? I don’t hold with all that.’
Peggy drove up the same ramp. ‘Maybe I don’t hold with men dressed up as train attendants.’
He ran over to the edge of the platform and hung the ramp back up on the wall. Task finished, he climbed aboard the train and did … something … that made the doors hiss closed.
As the train pulled out of the station, the man stabbed at the button to open the door to the next carriage along.
Peggy stuck two fingers up at the man’s departing back as he stepped out of sight. ‘Twat.’