Missing Person

by Mary Jane Staples

  Boots had been driving around side streets, hoping to spot the car while trying to convince himself it was reasonable to assume the people he was looking for had his stepfather somewhere in Guildford. Chinese Lady was very dubious about that. Rosie, a staunch ally of her father, went along with all his assumptions and suggestions. Polly, while high on adrenalin at simply being in company with Boots, felt they were chasing a needle in a haystack.

  Boots had passed the junction and pulled up close to the kerb. Polly sighed.

  ‘All right, I’ll take a turn, I’ll go,’ said Boots.

  ‘No, I will, let me,’ said Rosie, and was quickly out of the back seat she was sharing with Chinese Lady.

  ‘Mind how you go, Rosie,’ called Chinese Lady.

  Rosie dashed across to the policeman on point duty. She waited until he indicated she could address him.

  ‘Oh, sorry to bother you, Mister Police Officer,’ she said, giving him the smile of a young lady who’d been waiting all her life to talk to a traffic cop, ‘but did you happen to see a – yes, a wine-coloured Austin saloon car in yesterday’s traffic?’

  The policeman, holding up two facing lines of vehicles, while motioning other lines through, cocked a paternal eye at the engagingly attractive schoolgirl.

  ‘Well, now I come to think of it,’ he said, ‘I noted an over-loaded brown lorry and a Green Line bus, and I’ve got an idea I also saw a dustcart.’

  ‘Oh, that’s no good,’ said Rosie, ‘my father won’t thank you for that.’

  ‘I’m ’eart-broken,’ said the bobby. He brought the moving flow of traffic to a halt and released the stationary vehicles. Rosie, on the little island with him, waited just in case he had real information up his sleeve. ‘What’s this partic’lar car done, miss? Robbed your dad’s bank?’

  ‘Daddy doesn’t have a bank of his own,’ said Rosie, ‘he uses Lloyds.’

  ‘Well, you can tell him I now recollect some such car as mentioned,’ said the amiable bobby. ‘I recollect it tried to slip through as if it was in a hurry, but I waved it down, made it stop and pointed a reprovin’ finger at it.’ He used a hand to keep the moving traffic on the go. ‘Why’s your dad interested?’

  ‘Oh, he wants to get in touch with the people in it,’ said Rosie, quickening. ‘Did you see who was in it?’

  ‘A gent and a lady in front, two gents in the back,’ said the constable. He reversed his hand signals. ‘Would your dad like them arrested?’ he asked, a twinkle in his eyes.

  ‘Oh, no, thanks,’ said Rosie, ‘we only wanted to know if they were in Guildford yesterday. Thanks ever so much, Mister Police Officer, I like you.’

  ‘Same to you, miss,’ he said, and kept a line of vehicles stationary as she ran back to Boots’s car. She got in.

  ‘Rosie, that bobby told you something,’ said Polly.

  ‘Yes, you were there quite a bit, Rosie love,’ said Chinese Lady.

  ‘Well, you see, he did spot that car,’ said Rosie, ‘he mentioned it tried to dodge his signal to stop because it was in a hurry.’

  ‘Reasonable,’ said Polly.

  ‘I suppose so, if it wanted to get out of the area as quickly as possible,’ said Boots.

  ‘Daddy, the policeman told me there were four people in it, three men and a lady,’ said Rosie.

  ‘The woman again,’ said Boots reflectively, ‘the one Captain Arnold glimpsed sitting next to the driver. So there were two men in the back, were there, poppet?’

  ‘That’s what the traffic policeman said, Daddy.’

  ‘I think your theory’s just been blown up, Boots old scout,’ said Polly.

  ‘Yes, if it was still in a hurry,’ said Chinese Lady. ‘Well, that would of meant they weren’t thinkin’ of hidin’ Edwin away in Guildford.’

  ‘Or that they were simply in a hurry to get to where they were going,’ said Boots, ‘which could be this side of the city.’

  ‘Boots, I don’t like all these ifs and buts,’ said Chinese Lady.

  ‘I think one thing’s certain,’ said Boots, ‘and that’s that wherever they were going, they’re there now. I don’t favour chucking Guildford away. Let’s search the streets this side of it.’

  ‘I think we all need a break,’ said Polly, ‘let’s find an oasis where they serve food and drink to the weary wanderer.’

  ‘Yes, what d’you think, Daddy?’ asked Rosie.

  ‘I think your Nana could do with a break,’ said Boots.

  ‘I could do with my life like it was before all this happened,’ said Chinese Lady.

  ‘Yes, it’s all a blessed worry, Nana, and that’s only half of it,’ said Rosie. Borrowing a phrase from Chinese Lady’s book, she added, ‘But we’ve still got to keep body and soul together.’

  ‘I propose an uplifting drink first, reviving and slightly intoxicating,’ said Polly, as Boots began a new search on wheels, this time for a licensed restaurant.

  ‘I know we’re all in a state about Edwin,’ said Chinese Lady, ‘but I hope no-one’s goin’ to make that an excuse for gettin’ drunk.’

  ‘I’m not, Nana, I’m under age,’ said Rosie, and patted Chinese Lady’s hand and then gave it a little squeeze. ‘Daddy will find Grandpa, I’m sure he will.’

  ‘Bless you, Rosie.’

  Food and drink were all very well, but the thought of a banquet itself wouldn’t have changed what they all felt, that they really had no idea where to look for the missing person. Boots also felt a call on Sir Henry Simms might become necessary. But for the moment, he still wanted to keep the problem to the family in the hope that a real clue would suddenly show itself.

  Rachel, arriving at the offices of Adams Enterprises in the middle of the afternoon, did not announce herself but went directly to Boots’s office. Finding him absent, she knocked on Sammy’s door and showed herself.

  ‘Hello, Sammy, how’d you like this unexpected picture of me?’

  Sammy, looking up from his desk, decided that if he hadn’t had Susie as the permanent picture in his eye, he’d settle for a large photograph of Rachel, inclusive of her remarkable legs.

  ‘Well, what can I say, Rachel old love, except it’s a pleasure?’ he said.

  ‘Could you manage a smile?’ asked Rachel.

  Smiles, thought Sammy, were a bit hard to deliver at the moment. The family had serious worries, and of the kind that didn’t make sense. Tommy and Vi, who’d been told, and Emily and Susie simply couldn’t believe that Chinese Lady had lost her better half in the space of a few minutes, which was what it amounted to. Boots had talked about the possibility of him being in some car or other, but Boots, Sammy thought, had something on his mind that he was keeping back. Boots was the sort of bloke who could always keep his cards close to his chest.

  ‘Well, you know me, Rachel. When I’m up to me ears in me business affairs, me commercial responsibilities get the better of me sociableness. That doesn’t mean I ain’t pleasured to have you walk in like the Queen of Sheba. Mind, I say that as a respectable married husband with no thoughts of upsettin’ the apple cart.’

  ‘Same old Sammy, ain’t you, lovey?’ smiled Rachel. ‘Where’s Boots?’

  ‘He’s out on specialized business,’ said Sammy.

  ‘That’s your department,’ said Rachel.

  ‘He’s still out,’ said Sammy. ‘Might I ask why you want him?’

  ‘Oh, we all want a bit of Boots,’ said Rachel. ‘Me, Susie, Emily, Vi and I daresay several others.’

  ‘Not Em’ly,’ said Sammy, ‘she’s had all of him since they got churched. Might I mention this female weakness for my eldest brother is gettin’ indecent?’

  ‘Oh, some of us have got a very indecent weakness for you, Sammy,’ purred Rachel. ‘Well, I’ll see Boots another time. I was just passing and it’s not important. Would you like to take me to Lyons now, for tea and a bun?’

  ‘We’ll get talked about,’ said Sammy, ‘and if ’Is Majesty the King finds out I won’t ever get me knighthood. Still, I’ll chance it an
d tear meself away from me work for fifteen minutes.’

  So he took her to Lyons, which was close by, and they had tea and a buttered bun. They were very old friends and very compatible, but Rachel said nothing to him about what she was doing for Boots, and Sammy said not a word about his missing stepfather.

  Mr Finch had a quiet day, and spent most of the time reflecting on his situation. It was impossible, of course, to accept there was no option but to have these people inform Maisie of his accomplishments as a German agent during the war. The shock would destroy their life together, particularly as he had recruited Elsie Chivers. To go to Germany for a week and then return to act as a double agent, would he be able to live with that? And would British Intelligence find his return credible? He could dismiss the threat of being tried as an accomplice to murder. Anything Elsie Chivers might have told the Germans would never stand up in court, not while she was being treated for disorders of the mind. The rest, however, would disillusion Maisie. How true it was that skeletons in cupboards were always liable to come to light.

  The senior man sat in the room with him, the other man sleeping, apparently. His guard said nothing to him, immersing himself in a book, a biography of Bismarck, the virtual founder of the German Empire, the Empire that had crashed in 1918.

  Mr Finch had only very faint hopes of being found. He wondered if Boots had made contact with the Whitehall office, rather than with the police. He’d give it careful thought, but Mr Finch fancied he’d come down on the side of Whitehall. He’d favour the more discreet line. He wouldn’t have the faintest notion of what caused his stepfather to disappear, but he’d know it would be the work of professionals to try to trace him.

  Dan was home a little earlier than usual. Not finding the girls anywhere downstairs, he armed himself mentally before going up to face Tilly. He heard Bubbles and Penny-Farving giggling in her bedroom. He put his head round the open door. There they were, in Tilly’s bed, cuddling their dolls.

  ‘’Ello, Dad,’ they said.

  ‘Half a mo’,’ said Dan, crossing the floor and looking down at them, ‘what’re you doin’ in Tilly’s bed?’

  ‘She put us ’ere,’ said Bubbles.

  ‘A tin of pins fell off ’er table,’ said Penny-Farving.

  ‘There was ’undreds on the floor,’ said Bubbles, blue eyes angelic.

  ‘Bubbles made it fall,’ said Penny-Farving.

  ‘It sort of tipped up and fell,’ said Bubbles.

  ‘Well, me awkward sausages, I hope it doesn’t mean I’ll get me head knocked off,’ said Dan. ‘Stay there for a bit.’

  He knocked on Tilly’s living-room door.

  ‘All right, I know it’s you,’ called Tilly, ‘so come in.’

  Dan opened the door with caution, and just wide enough to put his head in, the while preparing himself for having her chuck something heavy at him. Nothing of a dangerous kind arrived, however. Nor did anything else. Tilly was at her sewing-machine, feet working the treadle, hands sliding material under the fast-moving needle.

  ‘Um – Tilly – sorry if the girls—’

  ‘Pick them pins up,’ said Tilly.

  ‘Beg yer pardon?’

  ‘You ’eard,’ said Tilly. ‘And your gels knocked them there.’

  Dan looked. The lino of the floor beside the table glittered with a multitude of scattered pins.

  ‘Um, listen, wouldn’t it be better if we made the girls pick ’em up as a punishment?’ he suggested.

  ‘The way them young mites be’ave ain’t their fault,’ said Tilly, ‘it’s the fault of their parents. They’ve got a selfish mother who’s off her rocker, and a dad who’s easy-come, easy-go. So you pick them pins up, I’m busy makin’ the dresses for the gels.’

  ‘Ruddy rockcakes,’ muttered Dan, ‘what a terror.’

  ‘What’s that you said?’ demanded Tilly.

  ‘Nothing much,’ said Dan, and went down on his knees. ‘I’ve been thinkin’ lately it wasn’t too clever, fallin’ for Elvira on account of how she looked in her tights and spangles.’ He began placing pins in the empty tin. ‘A bloke ought to have some sense, but I suppose a bit of heavy love and passion knocks it out of some of us.’

  ‘A bit of what? Don’t you talk indecent to me, Dan Rogers, or you’ll get the toe of me shoe in yer eye. I’m proud of my integrity, I’ll ’ave you know.’ On the other hand, she thought, isn’t my integrity a bit old at twenty-six?

  ‘I’m proud meself of what you’ve got, Tilly,’ said Dan, picking up pins, ‘and all the time you’re our lodger I’ll guard it with me life. If Elvira had had a fair amount of it, she’d have married me before we – well, you know what I mean. Oh, sod that, I’ve stuck a pin in me thumb.’

  ‘Serve yer right,’ said Tilly. ‘And pardon me, but what d’you mean? You’ll guard what with yer life?’

  ‘Your integrity,’ said Dan.

  ‘I’ll guard that with me own life,’ said Tilly, ‘I don’t want you anywhere near it. I told you, I’ve met some of your kind.’

  ‘It’s a hard life for a woman like you, Tilly,’ said Dan, moving about on his knees. ‘Havin’ accident’lly seen you lookin’ as ’andsome a lady as ever graced me eyesight, it occurred to me then that some disrespectful geezers probably aggravate you by tryin’ it on—’

  ‘You’re aggravatin’ me something chronic,’ said Tilly, ‘I never ’eard more saucy talk in all me life. What with lumberin’ me day after day with them motherless gels and talkin’ the way you do, I’ll be after new lodgings while I’m still sane.’

  ‘I think that’s the lot,’ said Dan, coming to his feet with the tin full of pins. Advancing to stand beside her chair, he placed the tin on the open lid of the sewing-machine. ‘There we are, Tilly.’

  Tilly looked up at him. The blind was down in the window opposite, shutting out the light that flooded into her own window and brightened her eyes and face. Cheerful Dan, an outgoing and extrovert bloke, acted on impulse. He kissed her on her mouth. Tilly stiffened with outrage. Dan lifted his head. ‘Now what made me do that?’ he asked. ‘Sorry, Tilly, the old Adam came over me.’

  Tilly sprang up and darted for her egg saucepan. She was fond of a soft-boiled egg occasionally. She grabbed the saucepan. Dan left at speed. She flew after him. Down the stairs he leapt and tripped halfway. The stairs gave him a walloping, and he hit the passage floor on his back.

  ‘Got yer!’ cried Tilly. Dan, bruised and winded, played possum, his eyes closed. The noise had brought Bubbles and Penny-Farving out to the landing, and they peered down through the banister rails. Tilly stooped, the saucepan a threat in her hand. Dan kept his eyes shut and let a groan escape. ‘I’m not fallin’ for that,’ said Tilly. ‘Get up and take a bashin’ like a man.’ Dan, wisely, refused to move. ‘Oh, come on,’ said Tilly, ‘you’re not ’urt, are you?’

  ‘It’s just me broken back,’ said Dan weakly, and Bubbles and Penny-Farving came scampering down the stairs.

  ‘Dad, what you doin’, lyin’ there?’ asked Penny-Farving fearfully.

  ‘Oh, our dad ain’t goin’ to die, is ’e?’ asked Bubbles even more fearfully.

  Dan opened his eyes. He saw the anxious faces of his angels. He smiled and winked at them.

  ‘It’s all right, me loves,’ he said, ‘it’s sort of more comfortable here than gettin’ me head knocked off. I’m surprised you managed to upset Tilly’s pins all over her floor when you promised me this mornin’ you’d be as good as gold. You can’t blame Tilly for bein’ cross.’

  ‘Oh, the aggravation I’m gettin’ would make a saint weep,’ breathed Tilly. ‘I’m leavin’ these lodgings as soon as I can find a new place.’

  ‘But me and Bubbles like yer, Tilly,’ said Penny-Farving. ‘Can you make our dad get up, please?’

  Dan got to his feet, picked up his girls, cradling them together, and said, ‘No damage, sausages. Now thank Tilly for lookin’ after yer this afternoon, and say sorry for upsettin’ her tin of pins. She’s makin’ the new dresses fo
r you, y’know.’

  ‘Sorry, Tilly,’ said Bubbles.

  ‘Fanks for havin’ us,’ said Penny-Farving.

  ‘Bless you,’ said Tilly, and gave Dan a vexed look before going up to her room. What a shocker that cheerful Charlie was. Pinching a kiss and making sneaky reference to what she looked like in her underwear. If she didn’t watch him, she’d have another George Rice on her hands. Still, she had to admit he was a very affectionate dad, even if an irresponsible man. Anyone could see Bubbles and Penny-Farving were the light of his life. Why he couldn’t have made Gladys Hobday marry him in the first place, as soon as he knew she was in the family way, was something he’d live to regret if she wouldn’t get spliced to him now. He was big enough and strong enough to give the woman a shaking and to carry her off to a registrar and make her go through the ceremony on pain of cutting her legs off. That would keep her off her tightrope for good. The trouble was, of course, he couldn’t say boo to that woman. Blow it, thought Tilly, I ought to get up and leave and find other lodgings, but I’m stuck with the feeling that if I don’t get him to marry the girls’ mother, no-one else will.

  She heard the girls downstairs in the kitchen. They were shrieking with laughter. He was playing games with them, of course, as if he didn’t have a care in the world, nor his illegitimate young daughters either.

  Tilly thought, why should I worry?

  I’m daft, that’s why.

  Apart from the information gleaned from a traffic policeman, the long day had proved fruitless for Boots and the others. They’d discovered not the slightest sign of the car in Guildford. Chinese Lady was mentally worn out. She’d said more than once to Boots that he’d have to go to the police. Give it a little while longer, that was his response. Yes, give it a little longer, Nana, Rosie had said. Polly had been a stalwart in going along with all Boots’s suggestions and actions. Well, Boots was an ex-Tommy of the trenches and she an ambulance driver, and that made them comrades of a very particular kind, never mind that he had a hundred ways of avoiding making love to her. In Guildford during the afternoon she’d bought herself a new dress and some lingerie, saying she was beginning to feel grubby. Rosie whispered to Boots that she felt a bit like that too. Rosie liked to be immaculate, to wear fresh undies every day. So Boots gave her the money to buy what she felt she needed, since they intended to return to the hotel just in case any real clues had turned up or Captain Arnold might have remembered something he’d forgotten. Polly and Rosie were against going back there feeling grubby. Chinese Lady was not conscious of feeling grubby. Her only need was for her life to be as ordered and undisturbed as it had been two days ago. She would have asked for the police to be contacted and for Boots to drive her home had she not had unspoken faith in what her eldest son might still accomplish.