Jemima Entwhistle (Slight Return) – Bentley 52

[For a quick guide go here: Quick guide.

For back story go here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and more recent Bentley episodes especially this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

Jemima Entwhistle was enjoying her shopping spree, such that it was. Of course there were hardly any shops open but that didn’t really matter. Her knowledge of where to look for the prizes and the bargains was good enough. 

In other words she was pretty much entirely window shopping, going out of her way to find the shops she’d been told had links to Aston. These weren’t always the ones she thought they’d be. Jewellery shops of course, but then there were also the occasional normal looking corner shop. Down at heel, poor selection of newspapers and magazines shops, and yet still probably doing enough business of some kind to make it worth his while. Jemima Entwhistle was visiting a lot of shop fronts, and, as she noted to herself, many of these were indeed just fronts.

Finding she wasn’t really achieving anything by just looking, Jemima started being a bit more open about the purpose of her trip. Every now and then she’d stop someone and ask them if they’d heard of Mr Aston, or if they knew where he lived. A couple of people semi-indicated the shops she was already scouting out, most people either feigned ignorance or genuinely didn’t know. 

Aligning this activity to being in the employ of a railway company as an area manager was a little testing for Natalie, but she’d somehow squared the circle. She decided she was just new to the area and wanted to understand what her local clientele were like. She’d been told, she told herself, that a man called Aston was particularly keen on trains and would have extra insight into what made the services appealing to the locals. As it appeared the pandemic might just ease enough for national travel to become a ‘thing’ again she felt this was the right time to do a bit of investigating. So far, so good from a back story point of view, she thought, the trouble was actually moving the front story forwards.

“Not really getting anyway here,” she said to Bentley over the phone at coffee time. 

“Keep at it,” advised Bentley. “Have you been to 116D yet?”

“Actually no,” said Jemima. “That’s a point.”

According to Bentley 116D was down an alley, between buildings rather than a building itself. Easy to miss at first, said Bentley, but be persistent and you’ll find it. Back in character again, Jemima Entwhistle was having great difficulty in justifying this particular part of her exploration, but gradually she told herself it was to do with finding one of the few people who still remembered the golden age of trains. When the services were regular, prompt, clean and exciting. Maybe she, as an area manager, could recapture some of that romance. Even if it was from only ten years ago.

There was a full height iron gate across the alley it but Jemima found that it was unlocked. She walked down the passageway, trying to ignore the slight smell of sewage, and found himself by a door. Not just any door, but the door to 116D. Bobbled and frosted windowed and dark. No one in after all, thought Jemima. Maybe this was all a wild goose chase. Maybe Aston wasn’t the key to anything. Maybe they’d never find him.

——

Aston slunk down the walkway, knocked twice and then stood straight in front of the door. Bentley’s door.

He didn’t bother knocking again. In one movement he kicked the door by the Yale lock. 

The door gave at once, woodwork splintered and the door shifted with such force it bounced back against the wall. As part of the same movement Aston raised his gun. He was hoping to get it to shoulder height but it was only at his hip when his eyes registered the gun pointing back at him and then, behind that, Lawrence staring intently.

Jemima Entwhistle heard the click and thought it was the gate. But then she realised gates like that don’t make that kind of noise. And then she realised she was looking down the barrel of a gun. Behind hers was Aston junior, also known as Norman. 

“What now?” screamed Lawrence, towards Bentley, over dramatic as ever, but never one to miss an opportunity for a shout.

“What now, do you think, Natalie?” asked Norman, cooly, in control and loving it.

Bentley received a text from Shiela. Short and to the point:

- Knowles is here and he has a gun. What now?

Bentley looked at Lucky and felt anything but.