Jessica's Life Journey (17) - Goody Two-Shoes

Expect the unexpected, I often hear people say.

When Will's sister, Samantha appeared on the scene out of the blue, I thought that was it and no more unforeseen events could possibly occur but I was wrong.

Last Wednesday, taking advantage of a lull in the railway strike, I decided I would travel to Eastbourne to watch the much-heralded return to the tennis courts of Serena Williams who had teamed up with Ons Jabeur to play doubles.

Having checked that there was a train running, I made my way to Victoria Station and to my great surprise, on the station concourse I met my old mentor Hilary Moneypound.

After my application to join the Secret Service failed we had become friends and kept in touch, even though the lockdown had put a temporary halt to our socialising.

During the one and thirty minutes of the journey, we managed to catch up with each other's news.

I learned that while she was incapacitated with Covid 19 she had been sidelined to Human Resources and bypassed for promotion by a young and upcoming female for the coveted position of Head of Station. 

I told her that I had been able to put what she taught me about the Intelligence Service to good use in setting up the detective agency in partnership with Will.

My conversation then veered towards the recent events with particular emphasis on his erratic behaviour, mysterious absences and finally Samantha's arrival.

As I was talking to one of the top spooks, the preposterous idea that Sam might also be a spy had entered my head but it was too outlandish to contemplate.

Hilary didn't react to the mention of her name and I knew that my not-so-subtle attempt at eliciting confidential information was doomed to failure bearing in mind that it would be covered by the Official Secrets Act.

Of my concern about Will, she said that I shouldn't worry. He'd always been trustworthy during his employment with the Service; they had valued his technical skills and that despite the fact he was no longer officially on their payroll, they may still need to use his know-how from time to time.

To me, it sounded like an implied admission that he was doing so at the moment and his unexplained absences suddenly made sense but I was none the wiser about whether Samantha was involved.

Since joining us she hadn't put a foot wrong, tried to please everybody, and was well behaved at all times.

Uncle Jeremy had been captivated by her demeanour and suggested we employ this paragon of virtue as a receptionist at the agency to allow me more free time to carry out investigative work.

While I was on my way to the Sussex coast, deep in confabulation with Hilary Moneypound and looking forward to the traditional strawberries and cream at the tennis venue, the goody two-shoes was being shown the ropes by Will at the office.

Were there any more surprises waiting for me?

© Luigi Pagano 2022