Halfway through the first week at Kellington’s without Emily on her tail, Holly felt like her life was truly coming together in ways she could never have envisaged.

Most of Emily’s customers recognised her and made a beeline for her as they entered the store, and as a result, her month-end commission bonus was growing daily.

She felt delighted that she’d taken the trouble to introduce herself and say hello to the regular customers, even when Emily was the one who was benefiting from their spend. That decision was really paying dividends now.

They had all been terribly shocked when Holly enlightened them about Emily’s sudden departure from the store. Josh had advised her not to discuss what had happened unless the customers themselves raised it, but actually, she’d taken great delight in instigating the conversations.

The Fenwicks’ had been the best reaction. When she told them that Emily had left the store after damaging the Lalique vase, she thought Mrs Fenwick was going to need to be medically revived.

‘But why? Why would Emily do that?’ the woman had demanded, clutching her throat as if she couldn’t get her breath. ‘She was so conscientious.’

Holly had to be careful how she phrased what had happened, just in case one of the customers repeated something to Josh. She had to keep the pleasure off her face.

‘I’m sure she had her reasons,’ she said sadly. ‘I was so shocked when she led everyone to believe I had damaged the vase, and then… well, I can’t say too much, but when the flowers were found in her handbag, thank goodness I was cleared of suspicion.’

Mrs Fenwick gasped at Emily’s treachery.

‘You poor girl.’ Mr Fenwick shook his head. ‘What on earth must have got into Emily, to pull a stunt like that?’

‘It’s very sad.’ Mrs Fenwick nodded. ‘Emily always took such good care of us here, but…’ she grasped Holly’s hand and smiled at her husband, ‘I just know that Holly is going to do an even better job. Am I right?’

‘Of course.’ Holly beamed. ‘I’d be honoured to look after you from now on.’

And that had been the sum of it. Thanks to the Fenwicks’ superficiality, Emily was swiftly forgotten and it was business as usual.

Half an hour after Holly’s short conversation with them, the Fenwicks had spent another few hundred pounds in the store and Holly’s commission pot had risen yet another notch.

After the couple had left, Holly made a cup of tea and took it to her desk so she could complete the paperwork from their purchases.

On her way back across the showroom, she spotted that Martyn was free. She walked over to him.

‘How’s things?’

He looked up from his phone and smiled at her. ‘Good, thanks.’

She wasn’t quite sure how to broach the subject so decided to just jump in with both feet. ‘Listen, did you know the girl in the job before I joined?’

His smile faded. ‘Lynette, yeah. Only as a colleague, but… She was OK. Nice girl.’ He tapped his fingertips on the table next to him.

‘She left the job quickly, as I understand it.’ It was obvious Martyn felt a bit awkward, but she had to know. ‘What happened?’

Martyn looked at the stairs and back down to the floor.

‘We were told never to speak about it or it’d be a disciplinary,’ he said. ‘Sorry, Holly.’

‘Come on, you know I won’t say anything,’ she pressed him.

He glanced at the stairs again.

‘Look, you didn’t hear it from me but basically, Josh was shagging her.’

Holly’s mouth fell open. Josh? She would never have had him down as a sleazeball.

‘Emily told me she got rid of her. How did she do that… and why?’

‘Let’s just say things got complicated.’ Martyn sighed.

‘Complicated how?’

‘You don’t give up, do you?’ He laughed but shuffled on his feet. ‘Josh was… well, he was also shagging Emily. Neither of them knew about the other one.’

‘Josh was… with Emily?’ Holly also recalled that Josh was married. ‘What a rat!’

‘Yeah, I know. She was less of a dragon then. We suspected something was going on between them, but they were quite discreet.’ Martyn glanced around the showroom yet again, obviously nervous of Josh somehow gathering that he was gossiping. ‘Then Lynette came to work here and he started his double game.’

‘And Emily found out?’

‘She followed him after work, apparently. Watched as he met Lynette in a bar in town and screamed the place down, we heard.’

‘Did she make Lynette’s life hell, then?’ Holly shuddered, able to imagine just how miserable Emily Beech could make you if she set her mind to it.

‘Well… Lynette left under a bit of a cloud. She was found to be stealing. Items from the shop-floor displays were found in her car.’

Holly could hardly believe her ears.

‘Pretty much the same method Emily tried to use on me.’ She frowned. ‘Trying to convince everyone I’d broken the vase.’

‘Yeah.’ Martyn shrugged.

‘Pity everybody seemed to believe her at the time,’ Holly said acidly. ‘Still, the truth shone through, thankfully.’

Martyn looked relieved when she moved away. She stood near the window and sipped her tea, watching as the traffic crawled by, still in shock that she’d been such a bad judge of character with Josh.

The previous day, after clearing it with Josh, she’d transferred the contents of her own drawers over to the larger desk that sat close to the window. Emily’s old workstation. Josh had arranged for a couple of the warehouse men to relocate her computer there too.

It was a much nicer spot. From here she had an excellent view of the entrance doors, and it was easy to identify the genuinely interested window browsers and know what they had their eye on before they even entered the shop.

She had to hand it to Emily, she had been even cleverer than Holly had given her credit for. But now even Emily knew that things didn’t always go her way. She hadn’t been able to dispose of Holly quite as efficiently as poor Lynette.

Holly tapped at her calculator and happily added the day’s sales figures to a piece of paper. She was just leafing through a product brochure to find a particular code when, for no apparent reason, the hairs on the back of her neck prickled.

She stopped working and looked up, just in time to see a woman in jeans and a hooded sweatshirt turn and walk briskly away from the window. Had she been watching Holly working?

As soon as the woman was out of sight, the creepy feeling left her. It had been impossible to see any identifying features from the back, but the woman had been around the same height and stature as Geraldine. Or even Emily, without her heels.

If only she’d glanced up a couple of seconds earlier.

Holly knew that David finished his shift at one, so at twelve thirty she slipped out of the back entrance to visit his office, as he seemed insistent on calling it.

‘Holly,’ he beamed, putting down his flask. ‘How was your morning?’

‘Have you seen anyone skulking around here at all?’ She swallowed. ‘I thought I saw Emily just now, at the front window.’

David frowned. ‘Emily doesn’t work here any more. Josh told me to revoke her staff parking rights.’

Holly shook her head in frustration. Why did he always have to take everything so damn literally?

‘I’m fully aware she doesn’t work here any more, David. That’s my point. She shouldn’t be anywhere around here.’

He reached for his jacket. ‘I ought to tell Mr Kellington she’s been seen trespassing.’

‘No! I don’t want you to do that because I’m not sure it was her; it might have been… Oh, never mind!’

‘I’ll be round later to do some jobs for Mrs Barrett,’ she heard him call after her. ‘Will you be in?’

That was all she needed, David and Cora rattling on all evening. She needed space to get her head straight.

The awful thoughts had started to come back with a vengeance. She could feel them.