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Chapter 45
The doorbell turned out to be a little old gray haired lady with a glint in her eye. It was my very own private eye (retired).
"Ron said you would be in and working," she said, as she followed me down the stairs to Smokey's Web site offices.
I completed the sentence for her.
"And, if he isn't, give me a full report and you can bet he's for the high jump!"
"You guessed it!" She smiled and took her seat besides my favorite computer terminal on which I had just been reading Gerda's emails.
"I'm afraid I haven't got any sherry for you to drink," I smiled.
It was good to see her. She was uncomplicated and I knew where I stood. She'd helped me but I knew she wasn't here on a social visit and was keen to hear her news.
"The reason I'm here..." she started portentously "is because I have some strange news about Jennifer. You must judge for yourself whether it is good news because it seems to deepen the mystery rather than explain anything."
"Whatever information you have will be appreciated," I said, suddenly glum. "I've had some news from Gerda about Bruno but only stuff that confirms he is not a very nice person to know."
"The question might now be whether Jennifer is a nice person to know. I'm afraid you must brace yourself for some news that you may not like to hear."
I felt my blood running cold and my face warming with embarrassment. I knew she was going to tell me that Jennifer was seeing somebody else. Bruno was an unpleasant threat but it had never occurred to me that there might be somebody perhaps more Jennifer's age in competition with me.
"There's somebody else, isn't there," I rushed the words out impulsively.
"Will you let me tell it my way? I prefer to give a full report because it helps me think through the facts again as I explain them to you."
I nodded, not trusting myself to say any more.
Her wavering voice grew gradually stronger as she talked and became involved in her account.
"As you know, I've been making it my practice to walk past Jennifer's apartment whenever I had the opportunity and especially if it didn't take me out of my way. Gradually, as I visited at different times of the day, I have been able to identify some patterns in her habits. If you want written details, I can provide them."
She looked at me expectantly. When I nodded my head to say no she said, "I understand, dear. You just want the results."
I nodded again and she continued.
"Every other day, I observed that she would leave the apartment at one o'clock and walk quickly off in the direction of Queensway underground station. One day, I followed her. She did indeed catch the underground train at Queensway Station but after a couple of stops, she left the underground system and walked down into Mayfair. There is a small quite private garden area down there. She entered the garden and then sat for a few minutes in the sun on a bench by herself. A young man with dark hair and a black beard then appeared. He was wearing a white shirt with a tie and dark trousers and sat on the bench beside her. After a few moments of conversation, they left the gardens together and walked directly to a nearby hotel where they had lunch. When they had finished their lunch, I lost them for half-an-hour. They were probably somewhere in the hotel which is modern with many rooms. They may have been upstairs in one of the bedrooms particularly as I covered most of the ground floor searching for them. When I saw them again, they were leaving by the front of the hotel walking close together but not hand-in-hand. They seemed to be on very friendly terms because at one point he put his arm around her waist to guide her through a group of pedestrians and she didn't seem to mind. They parted in the street near the underground station but I wasn't able to see if they kissed. Jennifer then made her way back through the underground to her apartment."
"It hadn't occurred to me that there may be somebody else," I admitted.
She nodded understandingly.
"Life is always more complicated than it seems," she said philosophically.
"I was hoping that she would go away on holiday with me too. No wonder she wasn't keen."
"There is something else I have ascertained," she said, with a note of triumph in her voice as if she were about to play her trump card. "She goes out late at night and there is a special babysitter who comes to watch over her child while he is asleep. Often, she doesn't return until the small hours."
She must have been able to see the black cloud that was now hanging over my head because she leaned over and put her hand over mine. It was a gesture of complicity and of understanding.
"It just seems to get curiouser and more curiouser and none of it is good," I said. "You've done an awful lot of work on my behalf and I feel I owe you."
She tightened her grip over my hand.
"There is one way that you could repay me," she said with a smile, squeezing my hand gently.
I suddenly felt ill at ease. Could it be that she had designs on me as some sort of toy boy. A strange mixture of emotions flooded through my body. What would I say? Would I be able to do what she wanted? Why did it feel so wrong? After all, many older men fantasized about persuading young females to satisfy their desires out of gratitude, why wouldn't an older woman do the same?
But she quickly put an end to my worries.
"This is what you can do for me! Will you give me a drive in that beautiful new car of yours? I have to meet an old school friend this afternoon and it would be so nice to be chauffeur-driven. It would be a real tonic to see her face because she's always had more money than me and I would love to tweak her tail."
The relief I felt was indescribable.
"Madam," I said, "I'll go and find a peaked hat."
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