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“Later, okay. We’ll talk later, I promise,” she said. “Marianne sounds worried. I need to deal with this. Try not to snoop while I’m gone.”

She pulled on her underwear, blue jeans, slippers and her green sweater. There wasn’t enough time to do anything with her hair so she pulled it up into a knot on the top of her head and secured it with a clasp. Jack looked grim when she left the room, but she could only deal with one thing at a time.

Davina saw Marianne first. She was positioned at the bottom of the stairs, her arms folded and her face dark with worry.

“What’s up?” Davina said as she went down to meet her.

Her friend gave her a look that was one hundred percent sympathy.

“I’m so sorry, Davina,” she said, as she motioned to the front door.

Standing in the doorway was one of her bosses, Patricia – the producer – and behind her, smiling like an evil accomplice, was Derek.

The bottom

fell out of Davina’s stomach. Marianne squeezed her arm.

“I tried to get them to come back later, but they wouldn’t.”

“Its okay, Mar,” Davina said fighting nausea. “There was always a chance this would happen.”

It was a mark of how good a friend Marianne was, that she never even hinted at an I-told-you-so. Davina made herself walk down the last few steps to the door.

“Davina,” Patricia said primly. “I assume you know why we’re here?”

Davina glanced at Derek.

“I’d say it was mainly because Derek’s ego can’t handle rejection.”

Derek went purple. Patricia’s mouth quirked slightly but she quickly reverted to stern.

“Derek tells me that you’ve been helping yourself to equipment that belongs to Brighton Buzz.”

“When you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so good,” Davina said wearily.

“She has a basement full of stuff.” Derek pointed at her while he told tales. He looked exactly like the kid in school that everyone hated.

“Here.” Patricia thrust some paperwork at her. “This is a list of everything we found to be missing. If it is all returned by the end of the day, we won’t press charges.” She paused. “You’ll also find your official dismissal notice in there, too.”

Davina’s fingers shook as she took the paperwork. She could hardly breathe, let alone think straight.

“Fired?’ Her voice was a squeak.

Patricia’s face softened. She took a step closer to Davina and lowered her voice.

“There was nothing I could do,” she said. “Derek went straight to the top. If you’d asked me, I would have let you borrow the equipment. I’m really sorry you didn’t ask.”

“So am I,” Davina said.

“Is that it?” Derek demanded. “Is that all she gets? She stole from the studio. Where are the police? Why aren’t they here?”

Patricia and Davina stared at the preposterous man. Davina imagined his tiny head popping like a grape.

“I could call the police,” Patrica said, her voice strained, “but you would be arrested too. After all, you’ve been working with the equipment all week, so really you’re in this as deeply as Davina. I think it’s time to shut up now, Derek, and thank your lucky stars that you still have a job.”

Derek made some humphing noises, glared at the two of them and then stomped back to the car.

“If he wasn’t so ridiculous he’d be really dangerous,” Patricia said as they watched him go.