“Yes, but get some perspective. Jail. Missing lingerie. I know what I’d rather have happen.”
She had a point.
“All the effort I put in to fighting Lake was pointless,” Kirsty said. “If I can’t take part in the show then Lake has won. I’m rubbish at war.”
“Not everything was a disaster,” Magenta said mischievously.
Kirsty eyed her curiously.
“What have you been up to?”
“Well, I didn’t want all those pictures we Photoshopped to go to waste, so I’ve been spreading them around the web. Look.” She handed her phone to Kirsty.
There was a Facebook page entitled “The real Lake Benson”. Kirsty started to laugh. The photo of Lake with a huge beer belly was particularly entertaining.
“Feel better?” Magenta said.
“A little. Still, it doesn’t solve the problem of a fashion show and no fashion.”
She plopped into her desk chair and stared at the walls.
“I’ll leave you to think about it,” Magenta said.
She gave Kirsty a pitying smile before she went back into the shop.
Kirsty sighed heavily. She wasn’t hopeful that Lake would find her missing underwear. She’d known Betty a lot longer than he had and knew how stubborn she could be. She needed a backup plan, and fast. As the first winter snows began to fall on Invertary, Kirsty spent her time calling all of her suppliers. The answer was the same across the board—it wasn’t possible to get the lingerie she needed in the time she needed it. In frustration, Kirsty stared at the walls in her design space.
Using her own work would be beyond crazy. There wasn’t enough of it for a start, and it was too fragmented to form a collection. As she scanned her drawings on the wall, her eye hit on one in particular. She unpinned it. An idea began to form, which was closely followed by a bubble of excitement. Before she could talk herself out of it, she snatched up her coat, called to Magenta that she was going out and went to
see her mother.
The women of Knit Or Die were in their usual spot at the back of her mother’s shop and they didn’t seem too happy to see her.
“If you’ve come here with more plans for illegal activity you can leave right now,” said Shona.
“I nearly died of a heart attack during that break-in,” Jean complained. “Not to mention it’s a miracle I’m still in one piece. I can’t pass a shop window without breaking out in a rash.”
“Don’t worry,” Heather told her. “It could have happened to anyone. I would have run through the window too if Betty was chasing me.”
Jean didn’t look so sure.
“I’m not cut out for a life of crime,” Jean complained, and no one disagreed with her.
“I don’t have any more illegal plans in mind,” Kirsty told them. “But I do need your help.”
They waited while her mother got her a cup of tea. The sound of the knitting needles clacking away soothed the nerves of everyone in the room. Once the mugs of tea had arrived it was time to talk.
“I have a bit of a problem with the lingerie for the runway show,” Kirsty told them. “Betty stole it.”
There were gasps all around and the knitting stopped. Instead everyone reached for the plate of chocolate biscuits that had appeared in the middle of the table.
“Are you thinking about a hitman?” Shona asked.
“No!” Kirsty stared at her.
“What?” Shona shrugged. “It seemed the logical next step to me.”
“Where would we even find a hitman?” Kirsty’s mother said.