It had been ridiculously easy to track down Theo Pargeter on the Internet. There were only three people with that name in the UK, and one of them was eighty-six years old, a retired priest living in Aberdeen.
Not likely to be him.
The second Theo Pargeter was fifteen, lived with his parents in London, and was keen on skateboarding, thrash metal, and hanging out with his mates at the local skate park.
Even less likely to be him.
The third and final Theo was thirty years old and ran a garden craft business on the outskirts of Bristol. The website showed what was sold there: gates, wooden and iron; outdoor furniture; stone urns; paving slabs; wall plaques; statues; and water features.
On the home page were a couple photographs taken outside the shop. One of them featured Theo. He was wearing a khaki shirt, jeans, and desert boots and was half smiling for the camera with the air of someone not entirely relaxed about being photographed. Medium height, slim build, short brown hair, pretty good-looking… Yes, it was easy to picture younger versions of this man and Sophie choosing to be with each other. Until something had happened to end the relationship, something calamitous enough to cause Sophie to steer clear of all men as a result.
Suicide had been mentioned, but no one had died. Had Sophie been the one who’d attempted to end her own life? And why? Josh shuddered; the mere thought of it was enough to cause his stomach to contract with fear. What if she’d succeeded?
The only other thing he knew was that Theo hadn’t physically hurt her.
Could he phone him? Just pick up the phone, ascertain that he was speaking to the Theo Pargeter who’d once been married to Sophie Wells, then ask him straight out what had happened between them?
Except how likely was it that this would get him the result he was after? Why on earth would a complete stranger tell another complete stranger such an intensely personal story over the phone?
No, this definitely wasn’t the way to go. Josh took out his cell phone, brought up Google maps, and found the location of the shop in Bristol. It wasn’t too far from the M5. He had a couple unavoidable meetings tomorrow morning, but once they were out of the way, there was nothing to stop him from jumping in the car and driving up there himself.
He had no idea what he would say, or if he stood the remotest chance of getting an answer. But it was the kind of conversation that definitely needed to be carried out face-to-face.
***
At two o’clock the next day, Josh was getting ready to leave.
“What’s this?” Dot saw the car keys in his hand. “Where are you going?”
She sounded alarmed. He’d already decided that telling her what he was planning to do ran the risk of increasing the alarm. Not wanting to hear that confronting Sophie’s ex-husband might be a terrible idea, he said casually, “Just heading into Exeter to pick up a few things.”
“What kind of things?”
Okay, now he couldn’t think of any kind of things. “A birthday present.”
“Whose birthday is it?”
“Seriously, what is this? Twenty questions?”
“Well, anyway, you can’t go,” said Dot. “I need you here.”
“Why?”
Now it was her turn to look shifty and hesitate in search of a plausible answer. Honestly, if they’d been a couple of criminals, they’d have given themselves away in no time flat. At last, Dot shrugged and said, “I can’t tell you. It’s a surprise.”
“What sort of surprise?”
She shook her head. “Now we’re going round in circles. I’m just trying to do what I was asked to do and make sure you’re around when…the thing happens. It’s going to be any time now.”
Josh looked at her and wondered what the thing could be. His thoughts went instantly to Sophie. What if she loved him and couldn’t hide her real feelings a minute longer? Never mind what had happened in the past; none of that mattered. All he needed to know was that he meant the world to her and please could they just be together forev—
“Oh, my giddy aunt,” squealed Tula, hurtling up the steps into reception. “There’s a limo coming up the drive that’s almost as long as the drive! Is Beyoncé coming to stay and nobody thought to tell me?”
Josh looked at Dot. “Who is it?”
“I told you. A surprise.” Her light blue eyes sparkled with relief at not having to keep the secret anymore. “Go and see for yourself.”
Okay, if there was one thing he was absolutely sure Sophie wouldn’t do, it was turn up in a stretch limousine in order to declare her undying love for him. But just on the off chance, he followed Tula outside anyway.
Because wasn’t that what made surprises surprising?
It wasn’t just any old stretch limo either. Finished in silver chrome with the sun bouncing off its polished surfaces, it was blindingly bright, the kind of effect favored by the more flamboyant look-at-me Premiership footballers.
“This is so exciting,” Tula said softly, to the left of him. “If it was my car, I wouldn’t have blacked-out windows, though. I’d want everyone to see me in it!”
The limo slowed to a halt, its doors flew open, and out leaped three people. Predictably, none of them was Sophie.
To the right of him, Dot smiled and said, “There you go. That’s why I couldn’t tell you—they wanted it to be a complete surprise!”
Josh looked at Jem, Bonnie, and Cal, three of the four members of Go Destry. Only Dizzy was missing. Jem’s hair was even blonder, Bonnie’s was much longer, and Cal’s, shaved at the sides, was spiky and silver-tipped. As always, they were dressed to be noticed in the kind of outfits most people wouldn’t leave the house in.
Josh waited. There had been no contact between them since the day they’d sacked him as their manager. Basically, he’d neither planned on ever seeing them again nor expected it to happen.
The awkward little moment was broken by Jem breaking into the kind of skyscraper-heeled run that could so easily have resulted in a broken ankle. She stopped less than a meter away from him, her huge sapphire-blue eyes swimming with tears, and said in a voice trembling with emotion, “Oh God, Josh, you have no idea. We’ve missed you so much.”
***
It was all very Disney. Josh was perfectly well acquainted with Jem’s ability to cry on cue. But he did the decent thing and greeted them as if they were old friends. Then, because all eyes were upon them and Griff was now barking and leaping up and down like a mad thing on springs, he ushered them inside the hotel and into the empty drawing room.
Ironically, the room that had been the cause of his first-ever encounter with Sophie.
So much for his trip to Bristol this afternoon; he had a feeling that was no longer going to happen.
“Okay, cards on the table,” Jem announced; out of the three of them, she’d always been the one who’d done most of the talking. “We’re sorry. We messed up big time. We thought we were doing the right thing and we were so, so wrong. Our new management guys suck.”
“I could have told you all that.” Josh shrugged. “In fact, I did. But you didn’t listen.”
Bonnie said, “You’re, like, a zillion times nicer than them. They treat us like total idiots.”
Sometimes no reply was necessary. A look sufficed.
Well, it would suffice if the people on the receiving end didn’t think so highly of themselves that the possibility of irony wouldn’t even occur to them.
“They’re the ones who are idiots,” Jem exclaimed. “They’re making all these terrible decisions, forcing us to do stupid things… We’re going to end up a laughingstock!”
“Right.”
Cal joined in. “You should hear the tracks they want us to record for our next album. It’s all so lame, like music for little kids. And the prototypes for our new dolls are just crappy. Mine makes me look like a complete dick.”
“That’s very sad.” Josh eyed them gravely. “But I don’t know why you’re telling me this. You need to speak to your management about it.”
“Except they don’t listen.” Bonnie fixed him with a pleading gaze. “Not like you used to.”
“Okay, so here’s the thing,” said Jem. “We don’t want them looking after us anymore. We want you.”
“We’re so sorry.” Bonnie clasped her hands together as if she were praying. “For everything. All we’re asking is for you to take us back.”
“And we’ll work so hard for you,” Cal said earnestly. “Swear to God, no more messing about and backchat and giving you a hard time. None of that stuff.”
“We didn’t appreciate you before.” Jem looked as if she might be about to burst into tears; her bottom lip was doing its quivery thing. “But that’s because we were stupid and took you for granted. We wouldn’t make that mistake again.”
“Where’s Dizzy?” said Josh, though he had an inkling.
Bonnie shook her head. “He’s just taking things easy, having a bit of a rest…”
“He’s in rehab.” Cal was blunt. “Drying out, getting himself clean. But he’s going to do it. And he wants you back, same as the rest of us.”
“We’ve stopped all that too,” Jem added. “No more messing ourselves up. It’ll be a fresh start. We want to come back bigger and better and stronger than before. And with you managing us, we can do that; we know we can.” Her eyes lit up at the thought of it. “Go Destry rides again!”
“Look, it’s nice of you to make the offer. I’m flattered.” Josh surveyed their hopeful faces. “But I’m not interested. I’ve moved on. I’m living back here now and—”
“Not so fast,” said Cal. “What d’ya think of the limo?”
“It’s very…silver.” Well, it was better than saying it looked like a giant toaster on wheels.
“It’s yours.” Cal nodded his spiky head in triumph. “You can have it. And it’s called chrome-wrapped, not silver. Anyhow, if you come back to us, it’s all yours.”
Josh envisaged the chaos he would cause attempting to maneuver the ultrastretch limo through the narrow, cobbled streets of St. Carys. It would be like attempting to fit a brontosaurus into a rabbit hutch.
Then again, if he went back to managing Go Destry, he wouldn’t be here in St. Carys, would he?
He looked at Cal. “You don’t own the limo. It’s hired.” Apart from anything else, it had been driven down here by a uniformed chauffeur.
“I know that. But on the way down, we found out how much it’d cost us to buy it.”
“I live here now. I’m helping to run this hotel.”
“But we need you,” said Jem. “We really do. Even if it’s just for the next couple years…”
“We flew all this way to ask you,” Bonnie added. “We made the effort so you’d know how serious we are.”
“And we’ve changed.” Jem’s heart-shaped face was both saintly and penitent. “We’re better people now. I guess we were kind of idiots before, but we’ve learned our lesson.”
Josh nodded. “I’m sure you have, but the answer’s still no.”
Cal said, “But—”
“Okay, listen to me.” Jem’s voice rose above the others’ clamor of protests. “Don’t say no yet. You need time to think about it. We’re gonna give you forty-eight hours. How about that? And after you’ve considered all the angles, then you can tell us what you decide.”
“What will you do in the meantime?”
“Just hang out here, I guess. Chill for a couple days.”
“And where will you stay?” said Josh.
“This is your hotel, right? We’ll stay here.”
Josh silently marveled at their assumption that there would be rooms available; it wouldn’t occur to them that they might need to book ahead. Luckily, there’d been a cancellation.
“I’ll need to check with reception. You girls will have to share,” he told them.
“Cool, I guess we can do that. Just like in the old days.” Bonnie’s smile was bright and brave. “When we were poor.”
“Is there much to do here?” Cal was gazing out of the window, sounding dubious. “Not exactly Caesar’s Palace, is it?”
Jem gave him a sharp nudge. “Shut up. This is Josh’s place.” She turned back and said cheerily, “So we’ll do that, shall we? Ask that old woman on reception to fix us up with a couple of rooms? It’ll be great!”
They were evidently at a bit of a loose end; with their lead singer tucked away in rehab, there wasn’t a great deal else the rest of them could do. Go Destry without Dizzy was like the Rolling Stones without Mick.
“Fine, then,” said Josh. “But the old woman on reception is my grandmother. And if you really want to live until the weekend, it might help to know that her name is Dot.”