Paparazzi by Jo Fenton (best free e reader .txt) 📕

“Sure.”

“Is everything okay?” Joanna touches my shoulder, and I turn to look at her. She looks worried, but I think the trip out has been good for her.

“I think so. Cheryl’s got some stuff going on at school. She wants me to get home.”

“Course. Why don’t we drop you straight home, then you can call Will when you need to collect your car, and he’ll pick you up?”

I agree, and thank them, then type back in my phone. ‘Back in about 30 mins. See you soon. If you can get Dad to order or cook pizza, I’ll be eternally grateful.’ I forget sometimes to use text-speak when I’m messaging her.

‘k.’ There’s no other response, so I guess she’s too stressed to worry about my perfect grammar. Hopefully she’ll pass on the message about pizza. I don’t feel ready to deal with her problems on an empty stomach.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Jumping out of the car as it stops in front of my house, I notice there’s a rustle in the bushes. My pulse rate picks up a few notches, but Will is watching me as I put my keys in the door. I unlock it and step inside before turning to wave goodbye. As the car moves away, I shut the door quickly and lock and bolt it from the inside.

I take a deep breath as I hang up my coat in the hall cupboard, and the scrumptious aroma of garlic bread assails my nostrils.

“Mum! You’ve been out for ages. Are you okay?” Cheryl appears in the hall, and I wrap my arms around her. She responds by hugging me back fiercely, and I feel her sobbing against my shoulder.

“I’m sorry, darling. I’ve had a busy day with the investigation. Why don’t we sit down, and you can tell me what’s happened?”

There’s a sniff and a hiccup from my daughter, as she extracts herself from the hug. She wipes her sleeve across her eyes, but pops into the downstairs loo to get some tissue for her nose. She’s still in there sorting herself out when Matt emerges from the kitchen holding a takeaway box.

“Garlic bread. Fourteen inches. You’re going to have to help us eat it, Becks.”

“Did you get any pizza?”

“Obviously. Nine-inch veggie for you – no olives, but with pineapple.”

“Perfect. What are you and Chezz having?”

“Sharing a fourteen-inch cheese feast. Oh, and some chips. And there’s Phish Food ice cream in the freezer.” Matt gives me a sheepish look. “I might have gone a bit overboard. Sorry.” He lowers his voice. “She’s had a shitty day at school. She needed a treat. You look like you need one too.”

“It’s been intense. Don’t worry about the food. It will hopefully provide lunch and dinner for tomorrow as well, otherwise we’ll all end up in hospital having heart surgery. We might need to work on improving the nutrition in this house, but that’s something we can worry about tomorrow or Wednesday. Let’s take this in the lounge and eat, and you and Cheryl can tell me what’s happened.”

Cheryl appears at this point, with a red nose and red-rimmed eyes. “I need to eat.”

We settle in the lounge with Big Bang Theory playing on TV, as we guzzle an extremely unhealthy but tasty feast. I’m desperate to ask my daughter about what’s happened today, but she seems a bit calmer now she’s eating, and I don’t want to upset her again. Instead, I fill them in on the case so far. They’re interested, but that elephant is lurking again, possibly lured by the smell of pizza. Now we’ve eaten, it’s time to address Nellie directly.

“So, Cheryl, you’ve had a bit of a respite, but there’s no point you going to bed without discussing this. You’ll only stew all night. What happened today?”

“I guess you’re right, Mum. But we’ve not had ice cream yet.”

“That can be your reward for telling us everything now. Come on, love. You’ll feel better.”

“Okay. Wendy did her bit, and must have contacted the head first thing this morning, cos we had a ‘special assembly’ straight after lunch.” Cheryl makes inverted commas in the air with her fingers. “The whole school was made to attend, and Wendy stood there talking about cyber-crime and bullying.”

“Did she keep quiet about your involvement?” asks Matt.

“Yeah of course. She said her team are always on the lookout for this sort of thing, and will soon have the names of the people who posted these images.” She has a mouthful of lemonade, swallows hard, and takes a deep breath. “It was after she’d gone that things got weird.”

“In what way?”

“At afternoon break. Elaine and Karen apparently called all the girls over to them. I was with Dan, and didn’t know, cos obviously she was excluded, but at the end of break, Elaine cornered me, and said, ‘It had to be you. No one else would tell on us, and you’ve refused to stop being pals with Fat Danni.’. I said, ‘Stop calling her that. Why are you being so horrible to her?’ I didn’t want to get into a discussion about what I might have said to anyone.”

“What did Elaine say to that? I assume she’s one of the girls who posted this picture?”

“Yeah, I think she’s probably the one who did it, cos she’s the real leader of the two. Karen just does what she’s told. Elaine turned really nasty when I stood up for Dan. There was no one around. She’d cornered me outside, and the bell had gone for the next lesson. She spat in my face, and said, ‘You’ll be next. I don’t give a…’ – she swore at that point; I don’t want to repeat it – ‘who you tell. You can sneak to the… er… queen of England for all I care. My dad’s a barrister, and he’ll make mincemeat of you in court. He’ll prove that you and Fat Danni planned it all to get us into trouble.”

“And no one