One Good Deed

It was just after 4:00pm and Kate yawned. She thought one more coffee would be in order to get through this last hour, but being a troubled sleeper, she was concerned about any lingering effects of caffeine disrupting her plans for an early night. Best not, she thought. She opened the office window and put her head out, taking a few deep breaths of fresh air. Kate loved this new office her team had been assigned to since the issues with a colleague in another department earlier in the year. Big windows, plenty of natural light and best of all, away from the eyes, ears and constant gossip of the main office. Silver linings. A silver Bentley was pulling up into the car park. Kate watched closely wondering if one of the directors had purchased a new car, for this was not the usual clientele of the cheap hotel which their offices were located beneath. A man got out. He was casually dressed in jeans, a t-shirt and trainers, and Kate noted with interest, quite a good looking specimen. He was unloading a cardboard box from the back seat of the car which looked to be full of files. The man placed the box on the ground for a moment and a gym bag was also retrieved from the back seat of the car. He placed the bag on top of the box and strode into the hotel. Kate noted that something remained where the box had been. It was small and black. Perhaps a notebook. She glanced at the entrance to the hotel. The man was gone. “Kate, can you have a look at this please?” Kate’s colleague Stephanie was waving frantically from the other side of the room. “I think I’ve messed up the formatting.” Kate hurried over. Stephanie was hopeless with Excel and they had accounts review meetings due in the morning. “Move up girl,” Kate said kindly “What’s happened?”

5pm. Home time at last. Kate gathered her things and wished her colleagues a pleasant evening as they rushed out the door. She glanced out the window again at the Bentley. The notebook was still on the ground. I’m going to get that and hand it in at reception, Kate thought. Nothing worse than losing things. She let herself out of the side entrance, collected the notebook and walked to the hotel reception. The desk was unmanned. She didn’t want to leave the book behind with no explanation, so she decided to visit the ladies room to freshen up before her travel home. When Kate returned she saw Kyle, the late receptionist, behind the desk. “Hi, one of the guests dropped this outside earlier,” Kate explained, showing him the notebook. “The guy with the silver Bentley.” Kyle looked confused. “Silver Bentley?” “Yes, over there, blonde guy in jeans and t-shirt, arrived around 4pm,” Kate said walking to the window. The car was gone now. “I’m not sure who you mean but you can leave it here in case he comes for it,” said Kyle. The reception phone was ringing and Kyle went to answer it. Kate studied the notebook. It was well used. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt this book was important to its owner. She slipped off the elastic closure and opened the notebook to view the inside of the cover. The front page was printed with the wording “in case of loss please return to…” Kate noted the name Sonny Nichols, and a mobile number. She glanced at Kyle, still on the phone and obviously dealing with a difficult customer. I’ll just text this number and let them know where the book is, Kate thought. She took out her mobile and composed a brief message. “Good afternoon, I have found a notebook which appears to belong to you in the car park of The Eslington Road Guest House. I have handed the book in to reception.”

Almost immediately the person on the other end began typing. Sonny: “My god, you’re a lifesaver, I’ve just realised I didn’t have it and I was panicking. I’m on my way to the airport” Kate: “Okay, what do you want to do?” Sonny: “There’s no time, I’ll send my address. If the book could be posted to me it would be great? But do me a favour, can you take a picture of the last three pages and forward to me? I need those.” “Sure,” answered Kate. She flicked open the book to the last pages. It looked like notes for a meeting accompanied by a number of diagrams. Kate snapped pictures of the pages as clearly as she could and forwarded them into the chat.

Later that evening, as Kate relaxed on her bright yellow, overstuffed sofa, she pondered the events of that day. It was interesting, the way life throws events at you. Stories within stories. On the one hand, she had helped someone to an extent she would never know. On the other hand, if she had not picked up the notebook and it remained where it was, likely Sonny would have come out of hotel and found it himself. That was in hindsight, though, and anything else could have happened to the notebook in the interim. Kate picked up her phone and brought up the pictures from earlier. Sonny’s notes laid out The Plan, The Problem and The Solution. The solution appeared on page 3. It was this that interested Kate the most, as she could clearly see numbers jumping out at her from words. Top to bottom and across. Kate loved crosswords and began writing down as many numbers as she could find. Seven, Five, Two, Nine, One, Nine, Third. Okay, so third isn’t a number but let’s call it 3. Enough numbers to populate a lottery ticket Kate noted with relish. How strangely your mind works, she laughed to herself, but the lottery was due tonight and she would play her usual numbers plus this ticket. They say that lottery tickets purchased instore are luckier, but Kate did not subscribe to this theory and handled the majority of her affairs online. Far more convenient, and numbers were numbers in her opinion. 1, 5, 7, 9, 29, 3. Are these the winning numbers Sonny?

The next day was hectic with back to back meetings, and Kate never stopped. It wasn’t until 2pm when she had a chance to grab the uninspiring ham sandwich which had been delivered and relax for a few minutes in the canteen. She flicked on the TV to watch the news. There was a breaking story that afternoon, covering a theft at the residence of ex supermodel and cosmetics mogul Adaline Amaritti. Documents of an undisclosed nature had been taken, although there were no signs of forced entry and a large sum of cash had been left untouched. The perpetrator had known the coordinates for Ms Amaritti’s safe and had to have been someone who was present at her residence late last night or sometime before 11am this morning. The story cut to a picture of Ms Amaritti’s boyfriend who had been seen leaving the property in the early hours of that morning and would likely be interviewed by the police. Sonny Nichols. Sonny.

Kate sat bolt upright. Is this happening? The person she had just come into contact with yesterday was on the news under the strangest of circumstances. Kate thought of the numbers she had spotted in Sonny’s notes last night. No, that’s too obvious, it couldn’t be. Could it?

Kate went back to work but spent the remainder of the afternoon with a niggling feeling that she knew something and should do something about it. Just before 5pm she dialled the number for Bella Dopo Cosmetics in New York. “Good afternoon, Bella Dopo, how may I direct your call?” chirped the receptionist. “Um, hi, this is Kate Fleming. I wondered if it would be possible to speak with Adaline Amaritti?”, “I’m sorry, Ms Amaritti is unavailable at the moment. May I take a message?” “Um, sure, uh, I saw the news this afternoon and I may or may not have some information about it. If someone could call me back I can explain?” The receptionist took down Kate’s number. “No problem, I’ll pass this on. Thank you for calling, have a great day.” The receptionist hung up and Kate sat staring at her phone for a few minutes. She half expected it to ring instantly with a breathless Adaline Amaritti on the other end begging to hear of the information which Kate might have. Her phone didn’t ring and Kate went home to pour herself a much deserved glass of merlot.

It wasn’t until much later that evening when Kate was scrolling through her emails that she spotted one from the National Lottery. There was news about her ticket and she was invited to log in to her account to find out more. Kate did so, fighting any feelings of excitement, for this happened every so often and the amounts she won were only ever enough to buy one or two future tickets. This time, however, was different. Kate had matched five numbers from Sonny’s ticket and the amount of $20,000.00 would be paid into her registered account within five working days. Unbelievable. Kate reread the message a few times and still couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Oh my god! She let out a shriek of delight and began bouncing up and down on her sofa. Bless you Sonny, villain or no you have just changed my life! This calls for more wine!

Just then Kate’s phone rang. The caller ID was withheld. “Hello?” Kate answered with trepidation. “Kate Fleming? This is detective Wes Anderson from the New York City Police Department.”