Page 27 of One Last Gift

“Well, the thing is,” Linda said slowly, “I’m not going to be able to afford to do that.” She sighed. “Oh, Cassie love, I just don’t have the money. I’ve been keeping my head above water—just—and I thought we’d turned a corner, thought I’d be able to make it work, but with this…It’s something I can’t come back from. I don’t have the money to redo the place, and there’s no way I’ll be able to borrow any more money. The bank has already been sending me letters, reminding me how much I owe them—as if I didn’t already know.” The letters she’d seen after Christmas, Cassie remembered. She’d forgotten about them, of course, too torn up by everything else, but she had a flash, then, of the Urgent notice. “So I don’t really have a choice,” Linda finished.

Cassie pressed her free hand to her head, tried to think. “How much money would it cost to fix the damage from the pipe leak?”

Linda hesitated. “About thirty thousand, I think.”

“Thirty thousand?” Cassie exclaimed, causing Josh to look at her again. But seriously—what had happened with the bloody pipes? “Sorry,” she said quickly, aware that she probably wasn’t helping. “But, look, that’s not completely out of the realms of possibility. Even if you can’t get a loan, there must be a way to raise that sort of money. We can think of something. I’ll help you.”

Linda paused for long enough to let Cassie know that there was something else. “The thing is, there’s a developer who’s made an offer on the place.”

“Already? I thought you said this only happened last week?”

“Yes, but they’ve been sniffing around for a while now—they must’ve known I wasn’t doing too well, I suppose.”

“Well, don’t take the offer,” Cassie said sharply.

“Cassie love, I’m not in the position to—”

“Please, Linda. Just…Wait, OK? At least give me time to…think.” The office door swung open, and Robert strode in. She jumped. “Sorry, Linda, I’ve got to go,” she said quickly, looking down at the desk as she felt Robert’s eyes on her. “But I’ll call you back later.” She heard Josh calling Robert over, trying to distract him. “I’m going to figure this out, OK?”

“I hope that wasn’t a personal call, Cassie,” Robert said, the moment she was off the phone. Cassie decided it was safer not to answer that. Robert picked up a pen off Josh’s desk and started tapping it against the back of Josh’s monitor. Josh watched Robert’s hand and the pen with an expression of distaste.

“The Easter egg treasure hunt,” Robert demanded. “Where are we with that?”

Cassie shot Josh a panicked look. “I’m doing it,” Josh said easily.

Robert paused briefly in his tapping, stared over at Cassie. “But you do it every year.” Cassie fought to keep her expression neutral.

“Well,” Josh said, “I’m having a go this year. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Robert still looked suspicious, though he resumed his tapping. “Fine isn’t really good enough. Cassie is better at this sort of thing than you.”

“Consider this me branching out. Growing into my role.” Josh’s voice was deadpan.

Robert spared him a brief glance, then looked again at Cassie. “You should supervise.”

“I will,” she said immediately, even though it was a lie. Josh could handle the treasure hunt, she was sure—it was for kids, for God’s sake, and he’d watched her do it enough times.

“Fine,” Robert said, and left the office, taking Josh’s pen with him.

Josh glanced at her. “Are you OK?”

She nodded. It was different, but she couldn’t help it—it made her think of Tom, of the treasure hunts he’d done for her, the one he’d set up before he’d died. She still hadn’t been able to start it, in the two and a half months since she’d gotten the first clue, even though it had been playing on her mind constantly—wondering what the clues said, what they led to. What he’d been planning for her. Not that she could explain any of this to Robert. He expected her to be running as normal by now, and she was doing her best to convey that.

“I’ll take care of it,” Josh said soothingly. “Don’t worry. Robert can sod off—it’s only a stupid treasure hunt.” He grimaced. “I didn’t mean…”

“No. I know what you mean. And thanks.”

Josh hesitated. “And…Linda?”

Cassie blew out a breath. “Another story.” And she proceeded to fill him in.

—

When Cassie got back to her flat that evening, Hazel was making supper, though judging by the steam and the swearing, it was not going well. Cassie walked into the kitchen and peered into the pan to see a congealed mass of rice—Hazel had not gotten any better at cooking since they’d left university. She looked mournfully at Cassie. “I tried.”

“And that’s what counts.”

Hazel held up an open bottle of white wine. “I opened it for the risotto, but since that’s not going well it’s probably best to drink this, and that way the food might taste better.” Hazel poured her a glass, and Cassie took it gratefully.