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“Fine. I’m sorry.” Kirsty pinched the bridge of her nose. “You need to break in at the back of the shop.”
“We tried, but it was too dark and we forgot to bring a torch.”
Kirsty wanted to bang her head against the wall.
“What the heck is Shona doing?” she said.
“She’s picking the lock with some bobby pins. She saw it on CSI.”
Kirsty didn’t say anything.
“It’s taking a wee while. It’s harder than it looks on TV.”
“Look,” Kirsty said. “Lake is sitting beside the living room window. You guys need to keep it down. Every time there’s a noise he looks at the curtains. He’s going to see you.”
“Well, distract him,” said her mother. “For goodness’ sake, Kirsty, use your womanly wiles.”
“I did not just hear that coming from your mouth,” Kirsty said.
“What? Do you think I’m too old to know about womanly wiles? I’m fifty-six, Kirsty, I’m not dead. Get in there and be distracting.”
She pointed her phone at Kirsty to make her point. Then she dropped it. Kirsty watched her fumble for the phone, then try to figure out how to dial Kirsty back. Meanwhile, behind her, Shona was trying to pick a lock with hairpins and Heather was sitting on the edge of the pavement eating a chocolate bar. Kirsty dialled her mother back.
“Just smash the window,” she said.
Her mother looked horrified.
“I can’t smash a piece of glass that big,” her mother said. “That’s wrong. Plus you were complaining about little noises. That would be a big noise. You’ll have to do a lot of distracting to make sure he didn’t hear that.”
“Smash the little window. The one on the door,” Kirsty said. She was beginning to believe that she got her intellect from her father.
“Oh,” her mum said.
She turned and said something to Shona. The three women looked at the door. Shona shrugged and Heather nodded.
“Okay,” her mother said, “we can do that, but we’re worried about an alarm. Does Lake have the shop alarmed?”
“How the heck should I know?”
“Kirsty Campbell, if I hear that tone again we’re all going home.”
“Fine. I’ll find out.”
“Lake,” she shouted as she covered the mouthpiece on her phone. “Just curious, but does your shop have an alarm system?”
“Subtle,” she heard her mum say. “Very subtle.”
Lake was about ten seconds away from rolling on the floor with laughter. When he’d sauntered up the hall to hear what crazy pep talk Kirsty was giving herself, he really hadn’t expected this. He’d peered around the door, saw her at the window and on the phone, listened for a minute with a grin on his face, then went to look out of the living room window. This was priceless. The Three Stooges were breaking into his shop. He hadn’t seen anything this hilarious since—well, ever. Kirsty’s dinner was getting cold, so he reached for her plate and ate her steak while he watched the show.
“Lake,” Kirsty shouted from the bedroom. “Just curious, but does your shop have an alarm system?”
He choked on a bit of steak. He thumped himself on the chest while tears streamed down his face, he was laughing so hard.
“No,” he shouted in a strangled voice. “Why do you ask?”
“No reason,” was the reply.
He wiped his face and grinned widely. One thing was for sure: Kirsty was not cut out for subterfuge. He watched as her mum talked some more on the phone while staring up at Kirsty. He could see where Kirsty got her skills. Lake poured himself a glass of wine and settled back. He knew he should intervene and stop the women from breaking into his place, but he honestly couldn’t. He really wanted to see what would happen next.
