Someone Who Isn't Me by Danuta Kot (romance novel chinese novels .TXT) 📕

through her morning appointments, and Poppy’s appointment time drew near, then passed. Kay waited, and she waited, but there was no sign of her. She tried Poppy’s number a couple of times, but it just said the phone wasn’t available – no chance to leave a message even.

Her client after Poppy turned up and Kay went through her session with him, then the client after that, a young woman who seemed to be getting her life back on track.

Like Poppy had been doing.

It wasn’t until late afternoon that Kay was prepared to admit that Poppy wasn’t coming, and she wasn’t going to get in touch.

Then her phone rang. She grabbed it and checked the screen.

It wasn’t Poppy – it was Becca.

‘Becca love. Is everything OK?’

‘Why wouldn’t it be? Can’t I just phone you without anything being wrong?’

So that’s a no. Becca’s instant defensiveness told Kay at once that something was up. ‘Of course you can. Don’t be daft. So, how are you?’

‘I told you. I’m fine.’ There was silence, and Kay waited. Her heart sank a bit. Becca obviously had something she wanted to talk about, but wasn’t sure where to start. ‘I need some money,’ Becca said abruptly.

Becca hated asking for money, and would routinely reject any offers Kay made to help her out. ‘Of course,’ Kay said again. What had happened to push Becca to the point where she had to ask? Kay needed to tread carefully here. Becca was perfectly capable of taking offence at any questions. ‘How much do you need?’

There was a long silence, then Becca said reluctantly, ‘I dunno. Maybe fifty?’

‘When do you get paid again? I’m only asking because I don’t want to leave you short,’ Kay added quickly.

‘You won’t. Look, forget it, I’ll be fine—’

‘No, it’s no problem, I’ll transfer it to your account later today. So, how’s it going?’ Kay changed the subject quickly before Becca could get into her stride.

‘Yeah. OK.’

‘Why don’t you come and visit – or better still, why don’t I come and see you?’ Becca didn’t have transport apart from the bike, and getting to Sunk Island on public transport was impossible.

‘Yeah, OK.’ Becca seemed distracted, and Kay’s worries began to grow.

‘Let’s fix a date, now.’

‘Yeah… I just… Look, you know the police…’ Becca began.

‘What about them?’

‘Well, you know, if they think you know something…’

The alarm bells were starting to go off. Becca and the police formed a toxic mix. She had never been charged with a crime, but she’d come to police attention more than once, and years ago, before she’d come to Kay and Matt, she had spent time in a juvenile detention centre. She had been suspected of setting fire to the house where her mother and stepfather lived. The case had been dropped for lack of evidence, but the police at the time thought Becca had done it. Kay had never believed it. ‘Something about a crime? Something the police should know?’

Becca immediately went on the defensive. ‘What do you mean, something they should know?’

‘OK. Sorry. Go on.’

‘If there was something… someone had been telling you lies, you know, about what they were doing? And you don’t know what’s true anymore and what isn’t?’

‘I can’t say, Becca. I don’t know enough. Who’s been telling lies?’ She was completely at sea now. Someone had been stringing Becca along by the sounds of it – and Becca valued truth, at least from people she trusted, more than anything. Maybe she would remember she trusted Kay and would tell her more. ‘Who was telling lies?’

‘I don’t know!’ Becca’s frustration burst out. ‘I need to find something out, I need to tell someone, only I don’t know which one to…’ She broke off.

‘To believe?’ Kay couldn’t pussy-foot around. This sounded too serious. ‘You could tell me. If I knew what was happening, I could give you some advice.’

‘No. Look, forget it. I’m just being, you know, parathingy, like Matt used to say.’

‘Paranoid? Matt never said you were paranoid. He said you had good reasons to be suspicious of people. Wouldn’t it help to talk about it?’

‘No. It’s OK. I’ve decided what I’m going to do.’ Before Kay could respond, Becca said abruptly, ‘What do you do with cats? Kittens.’

‘Kittens?’ Kay blinked, wrong-footed by the change of topic.

‘Yeah. There’s this kitten, and I don’t know, I mean, what it eats and that kind of stuff. You know.’

‘Hang on. What about this—’

‘I told you. I’ve decided.’

‘So what are you going to do?’

‘Nothing,’ Becca said. ‘I’m not going to do anything. I don’t want to talk about it.’

She was seconds away from hanging up. Kay said quickly, ‘OK. I didn’t know you were planning on getting a kitten. How old is it?’

‘I didn’t,’ Becca said indignantly, picking up Kay’s unspoken comments. ‘It was just living in the yard, and someone… well, it needed a home so I’ve got it in the flat.’

It was probably feral. Like Becca. ‘That’s a start. Keep it warm and feed it. There’s cat charities – do you want me to look some up for you?’

‘Listen, you couldn’t look after it, could you? For a while.’

‘I’d love to,’ Kay said. She liked cats. ‘But there’s Milo.’ Kay was pretty sure Milo would enjoy a kitten too, but not in a good way. ‘It wouldn’t be safe.’

There was something wrong, Kay knew it, and she needed to get Becca to talk. The kitten was a way in – like Poppy and the haircut, though so far that hadn’t worked. ‘Why don’t I come up to visit at the weekend? Then I can see the kitten. How does that sound?’

‘Yeah. Maybe. I’m working.’

‘All weekend?’

‘Not… I might… Let’s go out. I’ll meet you in town and we can go out.’

Now the alarm bells were ringing loudly. Becca’s evasiveness confirmed her suspicion that something bad was going on, something Becca knew she wouldn’t like. Something presumably tied up with this police thing she had been asking about. Should she challenge Becca now? No, better wait until they could meet face