Iris didn’t look convinced but, as they couldn’t locate the missing item and nobody had time to spend hours looking for it, even she had to admit that Cathy’s proposal made the most sense. Judging by how long they’d already spent on the task, it didn’t look as if it would turn up even if they did. The easiest thing was to cut their losses and simply get another and hope something like this didn’t happen again.
Eighteen
Cathy took the box out from the bag and looked at it. In the end, she’d been able to pick up a comparable blender quite cheaply; though it wasn’t quite the same as the one that had gone missing, she hoped it would be good enough for Iris.
By the time she’d finished at the shops – having got a few bits and pieces for herself and stopped for a quick coffee and a chat at Ingrid’s – dusk had been falling and so Cathy had forgone her plan to walk back home along the canal path. It probably wouldn’t have made any difference anyway. She’d caught sight of herself in the mirror as she’d come through the front door and by now her hair was windswept, her make-up had worn off and she looked tired. It was probably just as well she hadn’t met anyone interesting on her way home.
She shrugged off her coat and left it on the bed to put back in the wardrobe later, and then took off her boots, going back downstairs barefoot. By now, the heating had come on and the house was warm.
It was as she was putting the kettle on for a well-earned brew that her phone began to ring. She smiled to see it was Erica.
‘Hello… how are you?’
‘I’m alright,’ Erica said. ‘I’ll be better when Malc goes to work and he’s out of my hair. He’s on the noon shift and he’s driving me mad. When he’s on the day shift he’s normally out of the house before I get up… God, I wish he was on day shifts all the time!’
‘Poor Malc,’ Cathy said. ‘Did you call for anything in particular or just a chat? Not that I mind a chat, of course, as long as you don’t mind the sound of the kettle boiling and me clanging around. I’ve just got in and I’m parched. Which reminds me, I went into Ingrid’s today. She had a new coffee cake on the menu; you’ll have to try some next time.’
‘Sounds good,’ Erica said, but now her breezy tone seemed to have disappeared. ‘I did actually call for something in particular. It’s going to sound a bit weird but… well, I seem to have taken a blender home from St Cuthbert’s kitchen…’
Cathy frowned. How did someone take something like that home by accident? She’d admit to putting things in weird places before now, but to take something like that home from someone else’s kitchen by accident? And Cathy knew Erica wouldn’t have done it on purpose… It didn’t seem to make any sense.
Unless it wasn’t Erica. Tansy? Would Tansy have done something like that? If so why? And why would Erica feel the need to cover for her? Why not just admit what had happened and have a good laugh about the silliness of it?
‘I’m glad you’ve called me about it,’ Cathy said. ‘Iris was stressing a bit when she couldn’t find it so I went to the shops to get another. Now that it’s turned up I can take this one back for a refund. Thanks for letting me know before I opened it.’
‘I’m really sorry,’ Erica said. ‘I feel like a total idiot.’
‘Why?’ Cathy put Erica on the loudspeaker and sat the phone on the counter while she went to fill the kettle.
‘I just do. It’s a really stupid thing to happen, isn’t it? I have no idea how it got in my bag – it was just there when I looked this morning.’
Cathy frowned again. Something about this didn’t stack up at all. ‘It probably just fell in. It’s funny how these things can happen. Maybe you walked past it on the way out and knocked it into your open bag or something. Or you were having a senior moment and dropped it in. It is a bit strange but it doesn’t matter – at least we’ve found it.’
‘I can get it to you first thing if you like.’
‘There’s no need to make a special trip. I’ll call Iris and let her know we’ve got it and then I’ll take this other one back to the shop. We won’t need it until next cookery club so just keep hold of it and bring it when you come… You are coming to the next one, aren’t you?’
Cathy didn’t know what made her ask that; she could only say there was something in Erica’s tone that didn’t sound happy at all, and it was definitely more than Malcolm driving her mad.
‘I think so,’ Erica said, confirming Cathy’s suspicions, because she didn’t sound very certain.
‘Of course,’ Cathy said, trying to sound casual, ‘I’ll understand if you’re busy. I can’t expect everyone to be free every week…’
‘I’ll come,’ Erica said. ‘I’m not sure about Tansy for next time but count me in.’
Cathy gave a half smile as she dropped a teabag into a mug. She couldn’t say she was particularly gutted at the thought of no Tansy next time and she didn’t think anyone else would be either. ‘I understand. It’s full of people much older than her, isn’t it? I’m quite surprised she’s done the two weeks she has if I’m honest – not sure I would have been up for a club full of old folks at her age.’
‘Oh, it’s not that. I think she’s enjoying the baking – she actually loves cooking. She used to say, when she was little, that she wanted to be a chef. It’s just… well, I think she’s a bit busy, that’s all.’
Cathy recalled now the look of intense concentration on Tansy’s face when they finally got down to baking, and she could see what Erica meant because it had looked as if her niece had been deadly serious about the cookery aspect of the session, even if she appeared to hate everything about the socialising. But hadn’t Erica said once before that Tansy had very few friends? Still, it didn’t seem the time to point that out.
‘College or something, I suppose?’ she said instead, gifting Erica an excuse.
‘Something like that, yes.’
‘It’ll be a shame to lose her from the numbers but it’s OK. Maybe she’ll give it another go when she’s less busy?’
‘Maybe,’ Erica said, though she sounded unconvinced.
‘OK. So I’ll see you there if I don’t see you before?’
‘It’ll probably be there; I’ve got quite a lot on this week – family stuff, you know…’
‘Oh. Well, that’s OK. I hope you get whatever it is sorted.’
‘Thanks. And I’m sorry again about the blender.’
‘Don’t give it another thought,’ Cathy said, now thoroughly convinced that Erica hadn’t taken the blender at all and that it was most likely Tansy. But if that was the case, it was a puzzle Cathy was sure she’d end up giving a lot of thought to.
Nineteen
It was nearing the end of November, and with Christmas now feeling closer, Fleur had bought bundles of sturdy mistletoe sprigs, dotted with pearly berries, to sell on the stall. Cathy thought them gorgeous, though she couldn’t help but feel a little sad about the fact that she had no reason to have a sprig up in her house. As Fleur unpacked them to display, she bound up the odds and ends that had come free and gave them to Cathy.