Please Forgive Me by Melissa Hill

but.
    Introductions were quickly made, and Leonie learned that Dan and his partner Phil owned and ran The Crab Shack.
    Dan cocked his head at Alex. ‘I’d be careful around this one if I were you,’ he warned Leonie jokingly, but there was a fondness in his voice that made her suspect this kind of teasing was par for the course. ‘She might look cute on the outside but underneath lies a heart of pure steel.’
    ‘Do you mind?’ Alex cried, feigning annoyance. ‘Leonie’s new here and I told her I’d show her the best seafood place in town. Do you want me to take her to Joe’s instead?’
    ‘OK, OK,’ Dan put his hands up in surrender. ‘I’ll leave you guys to it then. Leonie, great to meet you, and you’re welcome here anytime.
    ‘Thanks, nice to meet you too.’ He seemed lovely and despite their banter Alex seemed very fond of him also.
    ‘Don’t mind him, he can be full of it but he’s good fun,’ the other girl said when Dan had taken their order. ‘I’ve been coming here for years and I meant what I said, just wait until you taste Phil’s chowder. It’s out of this world I promise you.’
    Alex hadn’t been exaggerating. The food arrived soon after, and Leonie lifted off the top of the sourdough bread bowl and dipped the crust into the creamy seafood mixture before discovering that it tasted just as good as it looked; much better than the stuff she’d been getting from street sellers up to now.
    ‘I don’t mean to be nosy but what did Dan mean by that oil story he wanted you to do?’ she asked and Alex rolled her eyes. ‘OK, I guess I should tell you, Dan and Phil are conspiracy theorists. You name it… aliens, fake moon landings, dodgy presidential elections…’ She shook her head. ‘Hell, they even spend their summer vacations down in Roswell.’
    Leonie smiled indulgently. ‘And what kind of piece did he want you to do?’
    ‘Well you know this whole oil crisis thing that’s going on now? According to Dan and Phil it’s all just another government smokescreen to keep us afraid and in line and there’s no shortage at all – just lots of stuff that hasn’t been tapped yet.   And they want me to uncover this so-called ‘conspiracy’ and broadcast it to the whole world. As if,’ she said, taking a chunk out of her sourdough. ‘But even if I did want to do it, my producer wouldn’t touch it.’
    Leonie loved hearing this kind of thing. Only in America, and all that. ‘So is there any truth in it?’
    ‘Probably,’ Alex replied matter-of-factly. ‘I’ve heard there’s something like a trillion barrels in the Rockies.’
    ‘Really?’  
    ‘Sure. Anyway, better change the subject,’ she murmured, lowering her voice as Dan approached again. If he hears me talking to you about this, he’ll never leave it alone and we could be here till midnight!’
    ‘No problem.’ Although in truth, Leonie wouldn’t mind hearing some more about those conspiracy theories. That kind of thing was right up her street, wasn’t it?
    ‘So hey, I’m sorry for being so full-on yesterday – about the whole flowers thing, I mean.’ Alex said then.
    ‘That’s no problem. I’m glad you didn’t need my help in the end – not that I don’t think I could have helped much anyway as my boss won’t give out customer information,’ she added apologetically. ‘And it turns out the order came in through the internet.’
    Alex shrugged. ‘That would have been more than enough to figure it out.’
    ‘Really? How? There was no name or address on the order …’
    ‘Doesn’t matter. We could still have traced it thorough the IP address.’
    At Leonie’s blank look, she went on. ‘It’s kind like a unique computer address? It’ll tell you where the sender is located, or at least, where his computer is located. And if you know that much then you have a very good chance of tracking the person down.’
    Leonie was amazed. ‘You can actually do that? Find someone through their computer, I