Page 69 of The Clockmaker's Cottage
Another long stretch of silence followed, and she realised Theo must have ended the call.
Pippa found she was holding her breath and tried to tell herself the odd ache blooming under her ribs was nothing dramatic. Just the residue of awkwardness. Of overhearing something she shouldn’t have.
Except… it didn’t feel like nothing.
Not at all.
It felt suspiciously like jealousy. Loud, neon, ‘hello, yes, unfortunately I exist’ jealousy.
Which was ridiculous.
Absurd.
Absolutely not allowed.
But the thought of Clara– beautiful, elegant, history-with-Theo Clara– trying to reel him back in made Pippa’s chest tighten in a way she hadn’t experienced in years. Trying to bat the feelings away and distract herself, she woke up her phone. Surely there had to be some information somewhere about this high-profile secret client Wetherby had written about.
The room was dark except for the glow of the screen and the bedside lamp. Outside, the wind and rain rattled the cottage gutters, and from the room next door she could hear Theo tossing and turning in bed.
She typed,‘Wetherby Vale Brothers high-profile commission’.
Nothing.
Well… not nothing. There were a few articles about Wetherby’s theft from the Vale Brothers, but nothing new. There were mostly short local news items. A police press release. A crime forum years later where someone named ClockFan1972 who also was obsessed with the Vale Brothers had written a forty-paragraph theory involving a disgruntled apprentice, a jealous brother-in-law, and a forged Tudor timepiece.
But nothing that mentioned the client.
The mythical, hushed-up, highly important client who had commissioned the secret Vale Brothers project. The one everyone kept referring to like some sort of horological Voldemort.
Pippa clicked another link. Then another and another.
She refined her search:
‘Andrew Wetherby family’.
‘Wetherby court case’.
‘Vale Brothers secret commission’.
Still nothing. It was like the universe had collectively agreed not to talk about it online. Which of course was an exaggeration as this crime happened before the internet existed. But Pippa was determined to find something. She tried again.
‘Andrew Wetherby interview’.
A handful of links popped up. Most were dead ends, or subscription-only articles from newspapers with paywalls the size of Buckingham Palace.
But then one link caught her eye.
A lifestyle magazine.
A women’s magazine, actually, calledHerSpace: the kind you usually found in waiting rooms, filled with relationship advice, slow-cooker recipes, and tearjerking real-life stories.
Sandwiched between ‘Seven Signs You Need a Holiday’ and ‘My Mother-in-Law Stole My Wedding Dress’ was the headline:
THE CLOCK CRIME: HOW ONE WOMAN LOST HER HOME, HER HUSBAND, AND HER FUTURE IN A SINGLE WEEK
Pippa’s pulse raced.
She clicked on the link and the article loaded slowly, as if knowing full well it had excellent gossip and wanted to build suspense.
