Page 266 - Bridget Jones's Diary - by Helen FIELDING

'Well, if that's the way you look at things. I mean you're probably going to

have one less present to buy anyway . . . ' said Jude accusingly.

In the end I decided to put the wastepaper basket in my Knowledge Corner
and went out to the greengrocer to get some plants with round leaves to put in
the Family and Helpful Friends Corners (spiky-leaved plants, particularly cacti,

are counterproductive). Was just getting plant pot out of the cupboard under sink
when heard a jangling sound. I suddenly hit myself hard on the forehead. They
were Tom's spare keys from when he went to Ibiza.

For a moment I thought about going round there without Jude. I mean, she
rang the police without telling me, didn't she? But in the end it seemed too mean,
so I rang her and we decided we'd get Shazzer to come as well, because she'd
raised the alert in the first place. As we turned into Tom's street, though, I came
out of my fantasy about how dignified, tragic and articulate I would be when

interviewed by the newspapers, along with a parallel paranoid fear that the
police would decide it was me who had murdered Tom. Suddenly it stopped
being a game. Maybe something terrible and tragic actually had happened.

None of us spoke or looked at each other as we walked up the front steps.

'Should you ring first?' whispered Sharon as I lifted the key to the lock.

'I'll do it,' said Jude. She looked at us quickly, then pressed the buzzer.

We stood in silence. Nothing. She pressed again. I was just about to slip the
key in the lock when a voice on the intercom said, 'Hello?'

'Who's that?' I said tremulously. 'Who'd you think it is, you daft cow.'

'Tom!' I bellowed joyfully. 'Let us in.'

'Who's us?' he said suspiciously.

'Me, Jude and Shazzer.'