by Cathy Ace
Ten foot-throbbing minutes later, Annie saw a black cab coming toward her, with his light off. She didn’t care. She leapt out into the road in front of him, waving her arms like a butterfly in need of Ritalin. ‘STOP!’ she screamed, and he did.
Sticking his head and a fist out of his window, the cabbie shouted, ‘What the ’ell are you playing at, love. Nearly ran you over, I did. You could at least wear something white so a bloke would stand a chance of knowing you was there. Git off the road.’
Annie rolled herself along the hood of the cab until she reached his window.
‘Listen, doll, you gotta help me. My name’s Annie Parker and I’ve been kidnapped.’
‘Yeah, right. And I’m the Queen of bleedin’ Sheba,’ replied the cabbie wearily.
‘I need to get to the closest police station, quick,’ gasped Annie. She reached for the handle of the passenger door and prayed it wasn’t locked. A millisecond later, and it would have been, but, as it was, she managed to pull open the door and she threw herself onto the floor. ‘I’m going to hide down here till we get there. I don’t care which one you choose, just don’t stop till you get there. Please hurry?’ She curled herself into a ball and began to sob.
‘Care in the community, my foot,’ said the cabbie, who turned on his meter, did a three-point turn and swung onto the South Circular. ‘Best pull yourself together, love, and get your story straight. We’ll be at Brixton nick in five minutes,’ he called over his shoulder.
Annie was trembling, crying and laughing. ‘Oh, good,’ she said. ‘I hope I bump into my mate the dishy Detective Sergeant Bill Edmunds. I’m sure I’m looking me best.’
The cabbie slammed the window on his passenger. He hoped that someone at the station would fork out for the fare.
FORTY
‘Is there a Chrissy here? Chrissy, anyone?’ A young officer was wandering the street outside the Hoop and Stick as the last of the police cars cleared out. Christine was sitting on the curb, her head in her hands. The police had asked that she present herself at Bethnal Green police station at ten the next morning. She’d worn herself out swearing at Alexander and he’d very sensibly retreated to a nearby wall to sit and swing his legs.
‘Chrissy? Christine?’ called the policeman.
‘I’m Christine – here.’ She stood and waved.
The young officer, who was wearing just shirtsleeves – which puzzled her – said, ‘Message just come through from Brixton station. They have a friend of yours there by the name of Annie Parker.’
‘Is she all right?’ Christine’s voice quivered with emotion.
‘A bit banged about and dehydrated, so they’re sending her to St Thomas’s hospital for a check-up. The police doctor has given her the once over. Nothing broken. No major trauma. Apparently she’ll be fine, when she’s had a smoke.’ He smiled. ‘Seems she was quite insistent about that.’
Christine laughed and hugged the very surprised policeman. ‘Thank you. I’ll meet her at the hospital.’
‘She’s OK then?’ said a voice close to Christine.
Turning to face Alexander, she hissed, ‘Yes, no thanks to you. I’m off. A friend needs me. Goodbye.’ She turned on her heel and made her way to her car.
Alexander watched as she stomped off. He’d give her a while to cool down, then he’d try to reach out to her again. Now was not the time. He’d have to work hard to come out of this without the coppers beginning to get interested in him. He’d always kept out of trouble; always kept well away from the law, except to have a few carefully selected senior officers as acquaintances. Now he was on their radar, and all because he’d stepped in to try to keep a friend of Christine’s safe. If there was any justice, he’d skate. But he reminded himself that he, of all people, knew how very unjust the world could be.
FORTY-ONE
Carol, Annie and Christine didn’t meet up as a threesome until Thursday lunchtime at the office. Annie had been kept in a hospital bed, being ‘observed’ by various members of staff, and fussed over by her mother, who’d arrived at her bedside with a wide selection of delicious foodstuffs, all of which, apparently, required the liberal application of hot sauce. Christine had spent the majority of the time with either the police, or Annie. Carol had been taking care of business.
When they all finally stopped hugging, Carol told Annie to settle herself on the little office sofa and said, ‘I promised Mavis I’d get you to phone her as soon as you got out, Annie. So why don’t we try to reach her now? Let’s all get her on a video chat.’ Annie and Christine agreed, and soon it was as though all four women of the WISE Enquiries Agency were, once again, in the same room as each other.
‘It’s been a while since we all saw each other as a foursome,’ said Mavis, smiling. ‘You dinnae look too bad, Annie. Good girl.’
‘Gordon Bennett, you’ve gone all Scottish on us, Mave,’ chuckled Annie. ‘You’d better be careful, doll, or they won’t let you back into England.’
‘How are you doing, Mavis?’ asked Carol quietly.
‘I’ve had a surprisingly good time with my boys and their boys,’ said Mavis quite cheerily. ‘Nice to have a bit of time with the wee ones, and I’ve been getting out for some good long walks. I’d forgotten how lovely it was here. The air is very fresh, you know.’
‘And haggis for tea every night?’ quipped Annie.
‘No’ every night,’ replied Mavis.
‘Carol’s got some news,’ said Christine.
‘Everything’s all right with the baby, I hope,’ said Mavis, sounding concerned.
‘Oh, yes, Bump is just fine, thanks. I just wanted to let you know that the police have informed us that they picked up Olive and Merle Saxby at Heathrow Airport with a bag containing all the stolen Waterloo Teeth. They’d been in London for a few days, and were about to head off to Texas with them. The police picked them up on Wednesday. So, when you speak to your chum, Althea, you can tell her they found the dentures.’
‘I still can’t believe Olive was mixed up in it all,’ said Annie. ‘I hope they find out she had no idea what was going on.’
‘You can also tell Althea that Jacko had all the scans of Althea’s netsuke collection ready to print up,’ said Christine. ‘Just like you said, Mavis, it was the chap with the experience in dental work who was the one doing all the polishing up and so forth. They’ve charged Mickey James with his murder. I expect it’ll all come out in the trial – exactly what happened at the Dower House to set him off.’
‘According to Bill Edmunds it doesn’t take much to set Mickey James off on a wobbly,’ said Annie.
‘Oo-er, did someone get a visit from a certain detective sergeant while she was in her hospital bed?’ asked Carol with a wicked glint.
‘Might have done,’ replied Annie with a grin. Despite her coloring, it was possible for her to blush, and she did. It made her sweat.
‘I’m glad to hear it,’ said Mavis. ‘So, what’s next?’
‘The duke has paid us,’ announced Carol.
‘That was quick,’ replied Mavis.
Turning to Christine, Carol said, ‘It seems he came into a very large cash sum, because Alexander Bright bought the Winston Churchill dentures from him. He’s paid us, and put the rest toward new security systems for Chellingworth Hall and the Dower House, it seems.’
‘Nice woman, Althea,’ said Mavis wistfully.
‘You liked her, didn’t you?’ observed Christine.
‘Aye, and I don’t say that about many folk,’ said Mavis thoughtfully.
‘Well,’ continued Christine, ‘I know you’ll be seeing her again on Monday, when she arrives there for your mum’s funeral, so maybe you’ll tell her that, to her face. You should. She’d like it. And we’ll all be there too. We wouldn’t miss it. We won’t have you alone. We know that the rest of your family will be there, but now you’ll have all of us as well. We hope that will be acceptable.’
‘Aye, it will be. And we’ll all need to have A Serious Chat, after the service,
’ said Mavis gravely.
‘What about?’ asked Carol apprehensively.
‘Well, here’s some food for thought for you girls. I’ve had a day or so to think about it, and I have my own opinion about the matter. But we’re a democracy, so here are the facts.’
Annie sat upright on the sofa, her eyes wide. The energy in the office had changed completely.
‘Come on, Mave, what?’ she shouted at the laptop screen.
The three woman in London watched as their colleague in Scotland hooked her hair behind her ears and straightened her small, defiant shoulders. Mavis spoke with simplicity. ‘We have an offer on the table, girls. Althea and Henry Twyst have proposed that we make use of a recently renovated barn on their estate to house our new place of business. Our office. If we did that, I would give up my little place in Finsbury Park and take up residence at the Dower House. I think Althea and I would get along together there very nicely. We enjoy each other’s company. There’s an apartment in the barn, big enough for one, and I thought it would suit Christine very well. I dare say you could keep on the flat in Battersea, my dear, since it’s your father’s property and you don’t pay any rent on it. Carol? There’s a three-bedroomed house overlooking the village common in Anwen-by-Wye you could have. And for you, Annie? They have a tiny, thatched cottage, just a two-up, two-down, but certainly big enough for one, three doors along from one of the village pubs. Not the Coach and Horses. We could all live there, use the office there, and head out on our field work from there, without any of us having to spend any money at all on office premises, or homes. It’s well-positioned for us to gain access to most arterial routes, as we all know. Althea and Henry are so utterly delighted with what we have done for them, that this is their gift to us. On top of our fee. There. That’s about it. It’s a lot to take in, and I dare say you’ll have some questions, which I’ll probably not be able to answer, but, for now, I think that’s all you need to know to be able to consider it as individuals. We can make a decision as a group when you’re here on Tuesday. You can ask Althea anything you want to know at that time. Don’t tell me what you think now. I’m off to see my boys and I’ll leave you with it. I’ll tell Althea I’ve passed the offer on to you all when I speak to her later today. Right-o – off you all go now then. I’ll say goodbye.’
They saw Mavis reach forward to hit the keyboard on her computer, and she was gone.
The room fell flat.
‘Leave London?’ said Annie in a horrified tone.
‘A three-bedroomed house in the Welsh countryside?’ muttered Carol, her eyes ablaze.
‘A barn conversion as an office and an apartment?’ mused Christine, smiling.
Silence.
‘Mavis is right,’ said Christine eventually, ‘we all need to give it some thought before we talk about it.’
‘Too right,’ said Annie quickly. ‘Can’t see it being your choice to move out there, Chrissy,’ she sneered. ‘Wouldn’t see much of your Alexander then, would you?’
‘He’s not my Alexander. Besides, why on earth would I want to see him again?’ snapped Christine. ‘He completely undermined me, and broke my trust.’
‘He visited me in hospital and explained everything,’ said Annie quietly. ‘Told me all about how he needed to get me away from the lot at the Hoop and Stick, and keep me somewhere safe. He was right to knock me out, you know. I’d have tried to escape otherwise, and the other lot might have found me. Then who knows what might have happened to me. I forgave him,’ said Annie thoughtfully. ‘Maybe you could do the same? I mean, he’s ever so good looking and not like the usual plonkers you go about with.’ Christine glared at Annie. ‘Sorry, doll, but they are. And he’s got stacks of dosh, which never hurts. And, of course, he always seems to know someone, who knows someone you need.’
Christine fumed silently for a moment, then leapt out of her chair. ‘I’ll forgive him when hell freezes over,’ she said angrily.
‘Well, I tell you what, while me and Car go out for a special coffee, and talk about this idea of moving to the wilds of Welsh Wales, which I can already see she fancies the idea of, you can sit here and get a bit chilly, ’cos he’s right by the door with the biggest bunch of yellow roses I’ve ever seen. Ta ta, Chrissy. See you later.’ And, with that, Annie and Carol dashed past Alexander, pulling on their coats and rolling their eyes at each other like schoolgirls.
‘Yellow. For friendship,’ said Alexander timidly holding out the flowers. Christine folded her arms and plopped herself back down into her seat.
As he approached, he laid the roses gently on her desk. ‘Christine, I respect you too much to beat about the bush, so I’ll come straight out with it. I know I have some questions to answer about this whole business, but, even before I get to those, there’s some stuff about my past that I must tell you. I’ll make it as brief as I can, and I realize that what I say might turn you against me forever. I have worked hard to redeem the actions of my past, but I fear it might not be enough. Indeed, whatever I do for the rest of my life, it might never be enough. But, if you will listen, I will tell you. Then you can decide if you would like to consider being my friend. And I emphasize the word friend.’
‘I’ll listen,’ said Christine abruptly, not looking up into his eyes, ‘but don’t bother trying some old sob story on me. It won’t wash. Just because my father has a title doesn’t mean I’m an idiot.’
‘You’re the most sharp-minded woman I think I’ve ever met, and I’m not hoping for tears, but understanding,’ replied Alexander.
‘Go on then,’ said Christine.
Alexander perched on the edge of the sofa. ‘I need to tell you about someone called Issy,’ he began. ‘He was a boy who did some very bad things. He was a boy I used to be …’
