or whether he topped himself, it was the drugs messing with Will’s mind that made all the problems.’
Both the old men nodded sincerely. ‘It’s true. It’s terrible what these young fellows pump into themselves.’
The cook was weaving between the tables holding Leon and Dave’s breakfasts. ‘There you go boys. Enjoy.’
‘Cheers, Joe,’ Leon said, as he grabbed the salt and showered it over a set breakfast, with extra sausage, extra fried egg and four slices of toast. ‘I’m absolutely famished.’
The cook looked at Dave. ‘Course, you know the real reason why Leon doesn’t like kids doing drugs?’
Dave shook his head. ‘Why?’
‘ ’Cos he wants all of yous in his pub, drinking his beer and smoking his cigarettes.’
Dave smirked, but the two old geezers at the next table started wailing like it was the funniest thing ever. One of them pounded the table so hard that the brown sauce bottle tipped over and rolled on to the floor.
‘That’s a good one. He wants them in his pub … hahaah!’
The other old man exploded into a machine-gun laugh, right in Dave’s ear. ‘Leon’s beer and fags,’ he snorted. ‘Good one Joe.’
*
James lugged his stuff to the laundrette and spent twelve quid washing the smell of smoke out of clothes and bedding. He got into a tedious conversation with the manageress.
She rambled on about her son, who was in the army. She told James it would be a good career for a handsome boy like him. James didn’t mind answering the first couple of questions, but when it started to seem like the woman wanted to know his entire life story he got ratty. He leaned forward and lowered his voice.
‘You know, I can’t really talk to you,’ James grinned. ‘You see, I’m a secret agent. I work for an undercover organisation called CHERUB and if I told you any more, I’d have to kill you.’
‘You don’t have to be bloody sarcastic,’ the woman said sourly, crossing her arms as she stormed off in a huff. ‘I was only making a bit of conversation to pass the time.’
James felt like an asshole. He’d only made the comment out of boredom, but the woman looked really upset. Then the door jammed on one of the dryers and he had to go and ask her for help. The manageress did her job switching off the power to reset the machine, but the look on her face as she refunded James’ coins could have cracked a boulder.
Two and a half hours after entering, James emerged on to Palm Hill High Street holding four giant carrier bags of dry washing. He threw them into the back of Dave’s car, which was parked on a double yellow.
‘What’s the matter with you?’ Dave asked, as James slumped miserably into the passenger seat beside him.
‘I’d sooner have spent the morning in school,’ James huffed. ‘That’s how bad it was.’
Dave didn’t look sympathetic. ‘Yeah? Well I just spent a morning washing and hoovering out cars. This woman brought in a part exchange. Her kid must have spat about fifty lumps of gum into the ashtrays and I had to chip it all out.’
‘Gross,’ James gasped, screwing up his face. ‘I guess that is worse than doing the laundry.’
Dave smiled. ‘I signed up for parachute jumps, exotic islands and getting chased down mountains by masked men on snowmobiles.’
‘Yeah,’ James giggled. ‘And what do we get? Chewed-up gum and laundry duty.’
‘Anyway, the Chairman was heading down to Whitehall for some meeting and John hitched a lift in the chopper. So we’re meeting up at Millie’s house for a conference. It’s ten miles out, over Romford way. Get the map book from under the seat. I know how to get out there, but I’m not sure about the local streets when we arrive.’
*
Millie lived in a semi-detached house, with a Toyota RAV4 finished in a girlie metallic purple on her driveway. She opened her front door as they pulled up and the boys walked down a hallway and through to the kitchen. John Jones sat at a knotted pine table, with two plates of sliced cake set out in the centre.
James and Dave both used the toilet before settling down and grabbing chunks of Battenberg while Millie made the tea.
‘I bumped into your sister early this morning,’ John said, looking at James as he bit the marzipan off the edge of his cake. ‘She’s just got back from the summer hostel.’
James nodded. ‘Did she say anything?’
‘Not much,’ John said. ‘She’s looking very tanned and she