Looking for JJ by Anne Cassidy

go?” she said.
    “Yep, I’m moving on today. My investigation? That girl I told you about? It’s come to nothing.”
    “Oh,” Alice said, a smile settling on her face. The newspapers looked ruffled as if he’d been reading them somewhere.
    “I’ll still get paid, though. So it’s no skin off my nose.”
    “Have a good trip,” she said, handing him his change.
    “Sometimes people don’t want to be found,” he called.
    She nodded, watching him as he struggled out of the café door and walked towards the station.

 

     
     
    The flat smelled of rich spices. Alice inhaled the aroma all the way up the stairs, speeding towards the top, keen to see Rosie and tell her about the detective’s departure. When she threw open the kitchen door she saw Rosie seated at the table. Opposite her was Kathy, her mother. Both women were cradling cups of coffee.
    “Hi, Kathy,” Alice said, grinning at the older woman, her heart racing.
    “Hello, Alice love,” Kathy said.
    “How are you?” Alice said, lightly, pulling a chair out, easing herself down on it.
    “Never been better, sweetheart.”
    It was her usual kind of answer. Kathy was a relentlessly cheerful woman who didn’t seem to have a bad word to say about anybody. Rosie adored her, phoning her almost every day, talking for ages and then going through the conversation again with Alice, keeping her up to date on her mum’s new clothes or hairstyles.
    Kathy was very different to Rosie. She was smaller and thinner and dressed up every day as though she was always getting ready to have her photo taken. She wore trouser suits from Marks and Spencer’s and her hair, a shocking red colour, was always neatly styled. Her skin was perpetually tanned from frequent holidays to an apartment in Majorca which she owned.
    “My neighbour is going to the Maldives for her holiday!” Kathy said, looking faintly shocked. “It’s a long way to go to lie on a beach.”
    “But it’s beautiful, Mum, I’d love to go there.”
    “Honestly,” Kathy said, turning to Alice, pulling her into the conversation, “I’ve tried to get her to come to Majorca for the last five years. Will she come?”
    “I’ll come,” Alice said.
    She was only joining in the playful banter, but a strange light-headed feeling came over her because she suddenly thought, I could go! Why not?
    “You come any time you like sweetheart,” Kathy said, picking up her coffee mug and peering into it. “Maybe you can persuade my Rose to come as well. Yuck, I’ve had enough of this coffee. I’ll be running to the loo all the way home.”
    “I’ll drive you,” Rosie said, picking up the cups and taking them to the sink. “You’ll be OK on your own, won’t you Alice?”
    Alice nodded, pushing down a tiny blip of disappointment. She had looked forward to having Rosie to herself. She had envisaged the two of them chatting about the newspaper story, about Derek Corker and his hope - less detective work. She was feeling pumped up with confidence. He’d stood next to her, talked to her on three occasions and yet he’d never once realized who she was.
    And then, floating around the edges of her mind, was this idea that she might go with Kathy to Majorca. It had only been said as a joke, but why not? She so much wanted to talk to Rosie about it, to hear Rosie’s soothing words and feel that finally, after many months, things were going to be all right.
    But Rosie’s car keys were rattling.
    “I’m not an invalid,” Kathy was saying. “Tell her, Alice, that I’m capable of getting the bus!”
    Alice shrugged her shoulders. “She likes taking you home,” she said, rolling her eyes as if she also was vexed with Rosie’s over-protective attitude towards her mother.
    “I suppose so,” Kathy said, sighing, as though it was something she had to bear.
    Alice leaned across and gave Kathy a kiss on her powdery cheek. She listened for a few moments as the two women disappeared down the stairs. She would have to