J & P Book 5 - Never Let Me Go

Chapter Four

It was really cold now, and it was getting quite late, but Aimee felt warm with the excitement of the breakthrough she had just made. After all the searching, all the hard work, it seemed that she was on the home straight. And, from what Patrick had just said; it sounded as if her hunch could be spot on. It had been worth the gamble.

She'd tracked down the house from looking at video archives relating to little Andrew's kidnapping, as the press had reported from outside Jenny's front door. There weren't many houses down Theatre Close, it had been easy to work out which one it was. She'd not told Patrick that, as she'd been worried she'd got it all wrong and didn't want to sound like a complete stalker, but she thought she'd be honest with Jenny when she got the opportunity to speak to her.

Patrick seemed like such a lovely guy; she'd really warmed to him. Seemingly his wife Claire was not quite as friendly, but then Aimee didn't know what had happened in the past to cause her to react like that. It had been a bit awkward, but she wasn't to know that Jenny had moved out and remarried. She wondered what could have happened. Having a child abducted must be a stressful experience, perhaps it had driven the two of them apart.

She trotted back to the bus stop, where she would wait for her bus to the tube station, and get the tube home. Tomorrow was Sunday; hopefully she would hear from Jenny tomorrow, and hopefully head back in this direction to meet her, and find out if there was any chance that she could be the Jenny from the picture.

She sat on the bench, and got her phone out of her bag. No messages yet. Patrick had thought she wouldn't be in touch tonight, she was away. Of course, probably away with her new husband. Aimee wondered what he was like. She wondered if he was better looking than Patrick. That would be quite tricky; Patrick was rather handsome.

She opened Tinder, and started looking though. She swiped left, left, left. It was interesting to see the different men around here; but unfortunately, they didn't all seem to be as dashing as the man she had just met, who, unfortunately, was definitely unavailable. She'd find someone eventually, she knew, but she just felt so lonely. Perhaps meeting some new family would help to plug the gap.

***

Aimee woke up the next morning, it was very dark outside and felt cold. It was quite late. She immediately looked at her phone. Nothing yet.

She stretched and yawned, and got up out of bed, opening the curtains. Rain. As she'd thought. She put on her dressing-gown, and headed out of her small bedroom and into the lounge, where she found her father, sitting reading his newspaper, smoking.

"Mum would hate it if she knew you were smoking in the house," she sighed, as she sat down next to him.

"Mum's not here," he barked, without looking up at her.

Aimee sighed, and stood up again. "Have you had any breakfast?"

There was no response, as Aimee wandered through to the kitchen. She put the kettle on to make a drink for herself and her father (they were both tea drinkers) and contemplated what to have for breakfast.

"Did you go out last night?" she heard her father call.

"Well, not really, just.. visited a friend, that was all," Aimee said. She wanted to keep her cards close to her chest, until she had proof that she had found his long lost daughter.

"Roxanne, was it?"

She shook her head. "I do have other friends."

"Boyfriend..." he asked, curiously.

"No, no," Aimee said, hoping she wasn't blushing. "Definitely not. They're a married couple, actually."

"Oh," Alan said. "Nothing weird, is it?"