Finding Milly

by Nathan Burrows

  ‘I was mortified, to be honest,’ Jimmy replied, still grinning. ‘Milly used to jump up and down on that chair when she was a child. That’s why the springs have gone.’

  Laura looked at him, her smile slowly fading.

  ‘I was talking to Gareth yesterday,’ she said in a quiet voice. ‘He told me, er, he told me what…’ Her voice tailed away, and Jimmy realised that she didn’t know quite what to say. ‘I hope you don’t mind him telling me,’ she said without looking at him.

  ‘Not at all,’ Jimmy replied. ‘Of course I don’t mind.’ He smiled at her, a genuine smile. Not one to make her feel better. ‘The whole thing was a bit of a surprise, to be honest.’

  ‘I’m sure it was,’ Laura said, finally looking at him. ‘I’m sorry you had to find out that way, that’s all.’

  Jimmy paused for a few seconds before saying anything else. He wasn’t sure what Gareth had told Laura about what they had planned next and didn’t want to drop him in any trouble with the young woman. He looked at her, feeling both happy and sad in equal measure. Happy for Gareth who was—hopefully—at the start of a relationship with this woman, and sad because she reminded him of what Milly could have become if things had turned out differently. If he was a better father, for example.

  ‘It’s not illegal, you know,’ Laura said, almost in a whisper.

  ‘I’m sorry?’

  ‘It’s not illegal. What Milly’s doing.’

  ‘Oh,’ Jimmy replied. ‘Okay. I’d not really thought about it like that.’

  ‘I mean, there're elements of it that might be, but from what Gareth said she’s not breaking the law.’

  ‘Good.’ Jimmy knew he sounded sharp, but couldn’t help it.

  ‘Sorry, Mr Tucker,’ Laura said with a sigh. ‘I’m talking like a lawyer. I can’t even begin to imagine what you must be going through right now.’

  ‘I don’t mind.’

  ‘About Gareth and I talking about it?’

  ‘No, not that. I mean, I don’t mind about that either, but I’m talking about what Milly’s doing. I don’t mind that.’ Jimmy swallowed the lie and paused before continuing. ‘She’s a grown woman, and if that’s what she wants to do then I should support her in it. I’m her father.’ Laura was looking at him, her mouth half open. It took her a few seconds to reply.

  ‘Seriously?’ she said before her mouth returned to being half open.

  ‘I’d rather she wasn’t doing it, but if that’s her choice, then so be it.’ Jimmy looked at his cup of tea, wondering if he could pick it up without spilling any. ‘I don’t have to like it, but it’s her body, her choice.’ He reached out and picked up the dainty cup before putting it straight back down. ‘Sorry,’ he said, staring at the now full saucer. ‘I spilt a bit.’

  ‘Let me grab a tissue,’ Laura said, her voice breaking. Jimmy knew it wasn’t just for the tea, but to wipe away the tears that had appeared at the corners of her eyes.

  He blinked. He was going to need some as well.

  Chapter 35

  Jimmy opened the door to the hotel room in response to the three sharp raps on it.

  ‘Room service,’ Gareth said in a brusque voice as he swept past Jimmy and into the room. ‘Blimey, this is all right, isn’t it?’ he said, looking around the room. ‘Bit posh for the likes of us, though.’ Jimmy looked at the other man, wondering if he knew what the inside of Laura’s office looked like.

  ‘I should make you take your shoes off, mate,’ Jimmy replied.

  ‘Bloody right,’ Gareth said. ‘Very nice, this is.’

  Gareth was wearing a suit, and the difference it made to his appearance was remarkable. Jimmy, in contrast, was still wearing jeans and a sweatshirt but his uniform for the evening was hanging up in the wardrobe and his now full bottle of painkillers was in the small bathroom.

  ‘Dave and Charlotte will be here soon,’ Gareth said. ‘He just texted me. They’re on the Number 24. Some pissed bloke’s fallen off his bike on the Yarmouth Road, so they’ll be late.’ Jimmy looked at the clock on the wall. It was almost half-past five, so they had plenty of time.

  ‘Good stuff,’ Jimmy replied. ‘Dave was saying earlier that Charlotte’s well up for this.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Gareth replied with a frown. ‘She’s a strange one, isn’t she?’

  ‘Your boy Dave seems happy enough.’

  ‘It’s an observation, not a criticism,’ Gareth said with a sharp laugh. ‘Her voice does my head in though. I don’t think she’s got an off switch.’

  ‘Thanks for all this, mate,’ Jimmy replied. ‘I do appreciate it.’ Gareth made a sound that was something between a forced sigh and a laugh.

  ‘No worries,’ he said. ‘But let’s see how we get on before we sleep together, yeah? I need a pee. Excuse me for a moment.’ Gareth wandered over to the bathroom and walked into it, lifting the toilet seat before unzipping his fly. He left the door open as he did so. ‘Hey Jimmy?’ he called over his shoulder.

  ‘Yes, mate?’ Jimmy replied.

  ‘Can I have some of these painkillers?’

  ‘You fill your boots, fella,’ Jimmy said with a chuckle.

  Jimmy and Gareth spent the next twenty minutes talking through their plan for the evening. Gareth had thought of one or two refinements to it, all of which Jimmy agreed with. It was risky to an extent, and there was a lot that could go wrong, but hopefully by the end of the evening Jimmy would be a lot closer to the centre of the web that Milly seemed to have been caught up in.

  There was another knock at the door, and Gareth got to his feet to open it.

  ‘Gareth, Jimmy,’ Dave said as he walked into the room, closely followed by an excited-looking Charlotte. The young man put a suit carrier on the bed and threw his laptop case next to it.

  ‘How'd you get on?’ Gareth asked him. Dave was about to reply when Charlotte cut him off.

  ‘We did it, we did it,’ she said, clapping her hands together. This was the first part of their plan. A keystroke logging device on one of the hotel’s computer terminals.

  ‘Hang you on, Charlotte,’ Dave said. Jimmy laughed at hearing the phrase—Dave would never be anything other than a Norfolk boy. ‘We planted it, but I don’t know for sure yet if it’s working.’

  ‘How did you distract the receptionist?’ Gareth asked Dave.

  ‘He didn’t, I did,’ Charlotte replied. ‘She was a right stuck up cow, so she was.’ Jimmy thought back to when he’d checked in earlier. It had been Alaina on the front desk, the same dour-faced woman from his previous visit. ‘I told her I’d been caught a bit short and asked if she had any emergency sanitary products. Once she understood what I was talking about, she couldn’t have been more helpful.’

  ‘That’s brilliant, Charlotte,’ Gareth said with a grin. ‘Lover boy here never would have thought of that.’ Charlotte beamed at him, revelling in the praise.

  ‘Mind you, the thing she gave me is like a bloody nappy. I would have to be desperate and wearing very baggy clothes to actually use it.’

  ‘Thanks for that image, Charlotte,’ Dave said as he unzipped his neoprene laptop case. ‘Let’s see if it’s working, shall we?’

  An hour later, they were almost ready. Jimmy and Dave had both changed. There’d been a lot of nervous jokes about how much Dave looked like an estate agent, with Charlotte trying to defend him. According to Gareth, Dave wearing a suit just made him want to punch him in the face.

  ‘Well, you look the part at least. Very retro,’ Gareth said with a smirk as he looked at Jimmy.

  Jimmy was wearing his best and only suit. Despite the fact that he’d only worn it a handful of times since he’d bought it, it still fit him well. When he’d bought it—at Hannah’s insistence—the style had been the height of fashion. Now, thirty years later, it was again. Jimmy ran his fingers over the lighter in his pocket, remembering a conversation he and Milly had about the suit a few years ago. He’d been trying to make the point that one day the suit would come back into vogue. Milly had responde
d by saying that it was a fine suit if you were about to be cremated, but it was never going to feature on the front cover of GQ magazine. When a few years later a bearded hipster wearing a very similar suit had appeared on the cover, he’d bought a copy and taken great delight in showing it to Milly.

  The most nervous of them all was Charlotte, although Jimmy could see how hard she was working to hide it. She was in the bathroom, getting changed, and when she stepped back into the room, Jimmy gasped. She looked nothing like she had done when she’d walked in there.

  Charlotte was wearing one of Milly’s dresses from her wardrobe—a slinky black dress that showed off the few curves she had to perfection. A light matching scarf was draped over her shoulders, and her calves were taut and defined from the Jimmy Choo high-heels she was wearing. The whole outfit was perfect.

  ‘Jesus wept, Charlotte,’ Dave whispered. ‘How much are you again for the evening? I’ll pay it, no problem.’

  ‘Fuck’s sake, Dave’ Gareth snapped with a dark look at him. ‘Really?’

  ‘Shit, sorry.’ Dave looked at Jimmy, realising his mistake. ‘I didn’t mean–‘

  ‘Dave, don’t worry,’ Jimmy waved his hand to stop him apologising. ‘You’re right. She’s stunning.’

  ‘Right, we all set?’ Gareth asked. ‘Jimmy, could you run through this bloke’s description again?’ Jimmy reached into his suit pocket for Milly’s phone. He’d texted Gregory earlier on, asking for a description so that “Nikki” didn’t approach the wrong man.

  ‘He’s about five eight, medium build, grey hair,’ Jimmy read from the screen. ‘He’ll be wearing a navy blue suit with a pink shirt.’

  ‘Ouch,’ Gareth grinned. ‘Navy blue and pink? We should be able to spot him a mile off.’

  Jimmy sat in his predetermined position at the end of the hotel bar, a cup of coffee next to him and a copy of the Financial Times spread out in front of him. He could see Dave through the doors to the bar, sitting at a table in the foyer with his phone pressed to his ear. In front of him was his laptop, the screen open. Gareth had been right earlier—the young man looked every inch the estate agent. Tucked into a booth in the rear of the bar was Charlotte, who had arrived a few minutes after Jimmy. The barman had gone over to her when she first sat down, presumably to see if she wanted a drink, but whatever she had said had done the trick as he was now polishing glasses behind the bar. Jimmy glanced at the clock on his phone. It was a couple of minutes before half-past seven.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Jimmy saw a man in a navy blue suit walk into the foyer and stand a few feet away from Dave. He looked around for a few seconds before walking toward the doors to the bar and had almost reached them when Gareth appeared from nowhere and bumped into him before apologising profusely. Jimmy watched as the man in the dark blue suit laughed nervously and said something to Gareth. By the time “Gregory” walked into the bar, Gareth had disappeared.

  Jimmy kept his eyes firmly on the newspaper as the man approached. Behind the bar, the barman put his polishing cloth down and walked over to greet him.

  ‘Good evening, sir,’ the barman said. ‘What can I get you?’

  ‘I’ll have a half a Stella, please.’ Gregory’s voice was so quiet that Jimmy strained to hear him.

  ‘Certainly. Will there be anything else?’ Gregory looked around in Charlotte’s direction.

  ‘I’m meeting someone here. Can you give me a second?’

  Gregory walked over to Charlotte’s booth as the barman started pouring his beer. He returned a few seconds later.

  ‘Large vodka and tonic, please,’ Gregory said. Jimmy hid a smile. Good girl. Sting the man for a drink before we sting him for everything else.

  ‘Would you like that on your room, sir?’

  ‘Yes, please. One oh four.’ Jimmy grimaced. That was a couple of rooms along from the one he’d stayed in the other night. Gregory here obviously preferred to spend his money on things other than decent hotel rooms.

  ‘Could I have your room key, sir?’

  Jimmy glanced at Gregory as the barman asked him this. The other man patted his suit pocket before frowning. He ran his hands over his other pockets before looking at the barman.

  ‘I must have left my wallet in my room. Do I need to get it?’ Jimmy held his breath for a moment, returning his attention to the newspaper. The barman stared at Gregory, no doubt summing up the chances of being scammed. Eventually, Jimmy saw him smile.

  ‘Don’t worry, sir,’ the barman said. ‘That’ll be fine. I’ll just charge it to your room without it.’

  Thanking the barman, Gregory picked up his drinks and walked over to where Charlotte was sitting. As he did so, Jimmy folded his newspaper on the bar and looked in the mirror behind the barman. He had a good view of the booth that Gregory was now sitting in. Gregory had slid in next to Charlotte, briefly running his hand over her arm as he did so. Jimmy had no idea how that must have made Charlotte feel, but it made even him shiver.

  Jimmy pulled his phone out and tapped out a quick text to Dave. Three digits. 104. Through the doors to the bar he saw Dave pick up his phone, glance at it, and without looking away from his laptop give Jimmy a brief thumbs up. His fingers started moving rapidly over the keyboard as Gareth reappeared and sat down next to him.

  They were now in Charlotte’s hands. The next move was hers to make. Jimmy watched her in the mirror. She was talking to Gregory while she sipped at her drink, and Jimmy wondered what they were talking about. What Milly would have been talking about if it was her. As he watched, Charlotte tilted her head back, and he heard her laugh tinkling across the bar. Gregory smiled, pleased that whatever he had said to her had made her laugh.

  Jimmy watched them for a few moments until he noticed that Charlotte had inched her way to the edge of the curved bench that she and Gregory were sitting on. She put one hand on Gregory’s for a few seconds before pushing her clutch bag to the centre of the table. Charlotte stood, her hand still on Gregory’s and pointed at the bag. Smart move, Jimmy thought as he realised she was asking him to mind her bag for her. Without as much a sidelong glance in Jimmy’s direction, Charlotte got to her feet and walked toward the toilets at the rear of the bar. Gregory’s greedy eyes were fixated on her backside as she walked away from the table. As Charlotte disappeared through the door of the ladies, Gregory looked back round and for a split second, his and Jimmy’s eyes met in the mirror.

  ‘Excuse me, mate?’ Jimmy called out to the barman.

  ‘Yes, sir?’ the barman, who was polishing yet another glass, replied.

  ‘Can you tell me where the toilets are, please?’

  As Jimmy had hoped, the barman pointed towards the back of the bar. If Gregory was still looking in his direction, he would see the barman pointing them out to him. Jimmy made a concerted effort not to look in the direction of the main doors to the bar as he got to his feet and started ambling towards the toilets. As he got to within a few feet of the table Gregory was sitting at, he heard Gareth’s voice calling out behind him.

  ‘Hi, sorry to disturb you,’ Gareth said. Jimmy turned round to see him also walking towards Gregory’s table. Gareth was looking at Gregory with a disarming smile, clutching a thick black wallet in his hand. ‘I think you dropped your wallet in the foyer?’

  Jimmy and Gareth reached Gregory’s table within a few seconds of each other. Gregory, who didn’t seem to have registered Jimmy’s presence, was staring at his wallet in Gareth’s hand. He was about to say something when Gareth slipped into the bench seat next to him. Jimmy stepped across and did the same on the other side of the bench. Gregory wasn’t going anywhere.

  ‘Wait, what?’ Gregory said, his voice high pitched. Jimmy could see confusion turning to fear on his face in the space of a few seconds.

  ‘Hi, Simon,’ Gareth said, still smiling.

  ‘My name’s not Simon,’ Gregory replied, his voice trembling. ‘It’s Gregory.’

  ‘No, it’s not,’ Gareth said as his smile started to fade. ‘You�
��re Simon Timpson. Did you have a good drive here from Cambridge?’

  Chapter 36

  ‘What’s going on?’ Gregory—now called Simon—exclaimed. He started to get to his feet, but Gareth put a meaty hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down again.

  ‘Stay where you are, Simon,’ Gareth said with just the slightest hint of menace.

  ‘I told you, my name’s not Simon,’ he replied.

  ‘Yes, it is. Your name’s Simon, you live in Trumpington just outside Cambridge, and you’ve driven here hoping to have sex with the young lady you were just talking to.’ Even though the light in the bar wasn’t particularly good, Jimmy saw the colour drain from Simon’s face.

  Jimmy silently blessed Dave, sitting in the foyer on his laptop. The key logger he’d attached to the hotel receptionist’s computer earlier on when she was helping Charlotte with her female emergency was obviously working. The only thing Dave needed to start data mining the hotel’s computer was a room number, which he could use to get a name and a credit card number from the hotel’s computer system. Dave had assured them that with just those bits of information, he could get a lot more. Jimmy was looking forward to finding out just how much information that was.

  ‘Who are you?’ Simon’s eyes darted from Gareth to Jimmy and back again. ‘Are you police?’

  ‘Much worse than that, mate,’ Jimmy said, smiling.

  ‘I’ve been mistaken for many things over the years,’ Gareth added, ‘but never Old Bill. How about you, Jimmy?’

  ‘New one on me, too.’ As he said this, Charlotte was walking back from the ladies' toilet. She stopped by the table and leaned forward at the waist. The black dress fell away from her chest giving all three men an unrestricted view, but Simon was the only one who took the opportunity to look.