TOYL

and hoped that was the end of it.
    But he raced up behind her, the camera bouncing up and down off his pigeon chest.
    ‘I’ve got your photo,’ he said, struggling to keep up as Emma tried to out-walk him. ‘Here it is.’
    She didn’t stop to look at the photo he was holding up.
    ‘I’m going to put it on my bedroom wall.’
    ‘Please, Stephen, I need to get home,’ she said, resisting the temptation to snatch the photo from his sweaty hand.
    ‘Are you okay?’ he asked, now starting to jog. ‘Has someone upset you? Did he upset you?’
    ‘I’m in a hurry,’ she said, not knowing what he was talking about.
    ‘Getting home to your boyfriend?’
    Emma stopped. Maybe if she reasoned with him, ended this now, she could avoid problems later on. She had always believed that if you could just connect with someone, even the most unreasonable people could be brought onside.
    ‘Look, Stephen. You seem like a nice guy, but I’ve really got to get home. It’s getting dark and I have to get back.’
    ‘To your boyfriend, to Darren.’
    ‘Darren?’
    ‘Yes, Darren… Darren Clarke.’
    He was referring to her boyfriend’s on-screen character. He worked on the show too – that’s where they had met.
    ‘His real name is Stuart,’ she said, ‘but I don’t live with him.’
    Immediately she regretted telling him that.
    ‘I think you can do better than him,’ Stephen said. ‘You shouldn’t be going out with a criminal – not someone like Darren. What do you see in him?’
    Stuart played the “bad boy” of the show, and Stephen Myers obviously had difficulty in determining fact from fiction.
    ‘Please, Stephen, I have to go now.’
    She turned and began walking off.
    ‘Emma, I love you,’ she heard him shout. It took all her willpower not to break out into a run.

18

    Present day

    ‘Sorry I took so long,’ Lizzy said to Emma as she sat down at the table in the busy coffee shop. ‘It was tricky to get away,’ she added, placing her handbag on the empty seat. ‘It’s complete mayhem there at the moment – the girl taking my place is having real trouble learning the routines, and the director is in the process of having a mental breakdown. They wanted me to stay for another couple of hours really, but thankfully I performed okay so they let me go eventually.’
    ‘I’m sorry, Lizzy, for dragging you over here,’ Emma said. ‘I don’t want to ruin your big break. They aren’t angry with you, are they, for leaving?’
    ‘Nah, they need me, Em. There’s no one else who could stand in at such short notice. I like to think that it gives me a bit of leeway.’ She smiled. ‘Anyway, I told them my aunty was sick, and I had to go over and see how she was. I make a worryingly convincing liar, you know.’
    Emma smiled. ‘I’m lucky to have you on my side. You’re such a good friend.’
    ‘I know, I know,’ joked Lizzy. ‘So, what’s this all about? When you called I thought something might have happened with Richard.’
    ‘I spoke with Mrs Henderson,’ Emma said.
    ‘I thought you might.’ Lizzy didn’t sound at all surprised. ‘So, what did she say?’
    ‘Not a great deal – but what she did say was potentially really important.’
    ‘Go on, don’t leave me hanging in suspense.’
    ‘I think I know who attacked Richard. And he might now have Dan too.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘It’s a long story. Let’s get a coffee; I’ve got a lot to fill you in on.’

    ***

    ‘It started when I was working on the soap up in Manchester,’ Emma began, as they both sat cradling their cups of coffee. ‘I’d only been on the show for a few months and one day, as I was leaving for the night, a guy comes up to me and asks for my autograph. His name was Stephen Myers. I didn’t really think much of it, although he seemed a bit creepy. But the next day one of the other girls on the show warned me about him, saying that he had a history of following female cast members around, turning up outside their houses, sending them love letters. She warned me not to encourage him – not to talk to him again.’
    ‘So he was a stalker?’ Lizzy said, taking a sip of her coffee but not taking her eyes off Emma.
    ‘Yes. He’d already been warned by the police about what he’d done to another girl. She’d taken out a court order so he couldn’t approach her. Since then he’d gone away, until that day I met him.’
    ‘So what happened?’
    ‘I did just what the girl said. That night he was waiting