I don’t know what is going on, but I hope there’s no truth in the Twitter rumours. I trusted you, Ewan. I believed you were a good person. Even when you treated me like rubbish yesterday morning. If you have any decency at all, let me know what the hell is going on.

As she pressed the send button, she felt tears spring to her eyes.

‘It will all come out in the wash, as Grandad would say,’ Lorcan offered.

‘I hope he’s right,’ Jo stuttered.

‘Jo, you should know by now. My Grandad is always right.’

32

The Imitation Game

‘I’ll track him down and kick him square in the arse!’ Noah, enraged by what he had heard, said. The anger in his voice made Paddy jump to attention and start barking protectively. It wasn’t often that Noah raised his voice.

‘Well, I’m still waiting to hear from Graham and from him. So there might not be any need for arse-kicking. And really, I’d prefer if there was no actual arse-kicking and it was all just some sort of massive overreaction on my part,’ Jo said, but she knew she was being naive. The Twitter storm had grown to Gale Force Ten as the day had progressed. What had started off with one or two accusations of plagiarism had escalated into double figures at last count.

Jo reached across and ruffled the fur on the back of Paddy’s neck and he lay his head on her lap as if trying to offer her some comfort. She was still in Libby’s flat, with Lorcan and now also Libby and Noah who had appeared just after lunch – both of them with faces like thunder ready to put a hit out on Ewan McLachlan.

‘If he has a reputation for this kind of thing, how can he get away with it time and again?’ Noah asked.

‘He has deep pockets, I suppose,’ Lorcan shrugged. ‘That’s all I can think of.’

‘I can’t believe this. This is my fault. I sent him your work when I could’ve just minded my own stupid business. And I had him in the shop.’ Libby looked bereft.

‘It’s not your fault,’ Jo said. ‘God, how could we have known? Let’s wait for answers. We just have to be patient.’

Graham Westbury had emailed Jo to tell her he would call her at 4 p.m., so there was still an hour to wait until she spoke to him. Noah, Libby and Lorcan were trying to help her keep her cool. They weren’t being particularly successful, despite their best intentions.

Moments later, her phone beeped and five sets of eyes, including Paddy’s, darted to the kitchen table where her phone sat. Jo picked it up and saw, with more than a pang of unease, who the message was from.