Long Lost
Lily walks up the stairs, her footsteps echoing around the quiet street. She stops and stands in front of the door. She buzzes the buzzer in front of her. A voice answers
"Morse?"
"By Morse, do you mean Endeavour Morse?" she asks
"Yep that's me. Who's speaking please?" the voice replies
Lily not knowing what to say just gets to the point
"Do you mind if I come up?"
"Yeah, of course." he answers and
buzzes the door open, Lily steps inside.
She trots up the stairs of the block of flats where the door is open with Morse standing by it waiting for her. Morse is taken by surprise when he sees a school girl walking up to greet him.
He says nothing for the time being and just invites her in. Once inside he then pops the question.
"So who might you be?"
"My name is Lily Milcook and I'm the daughter of your cousin Louise, I'm not sure if you know her"
"The name rings a bell but I can't say I know her" there is a pause where neither of them know what to say as they are both stunned by what's just happened but Morse being the grown up soon makes conversation.
"So you're a relation of mine?"
"Yes" she answers just looking at him with a smile on her face
"Does your mother know you're here?" Lily shakes her head
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to tell her" he tells Lily as after all being a police officer it's a force of habit to be responsible
"No please don't, I'll get into terrible trouble" Lily begs
"You won't get into trouble, I'll make sure of it" Morse insist
Lily smiles, she's quite taken to her newly discovered uncle.
"Do you know your home telephone number Lily?" asks Morse, standing by the telephone
Lily nods
"Its 01462 897595 "
Morse grins and congratulates his niece
"You're a clever girl knowing your number off by heart, that's very sensible. Hold on one second."
He dials the number and waits patiently for an answer. Suddenly a voice echoes down the other end of the phone
"Hello?"
"Ah hello, my name is Endeavour Morse is this Louise Milcook speaking?" he asks looking across at Lily who sits angelically on a chair of his
"Yes" the receiver of the call says
"Hello Louise am I right in thinking that you are my cousin?" Morse asks awkwardly
"Yes that's right"
"Ok you see I have your daughter round my flat, she came to visit me."
At this point Lily's smile fades as she thinks about the slack she'll get when she gets home
"oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. That's awfully impolite of her to intrude in on you like that"
" No don't be sorry" Morse tells her "I'm very pleased she has come to see me, now when we have finished catching up shall I drop her back home?"
"If you wouldn't mind"
"Not at all. Ok what's the address?"
"29 Fern Avenue"
"Ok thank you just finally I would just like to say that if I hear that she has gotten into any kind of trouble because she visited me then you and I will be having words. Ok thank you Mrs Milcook good day" and with that he puts the phone down.
"Was that Mummy?" Lily asks although she knew it was.
Morse nods
"Am I in trouble?"
"Not at all" there is another pause as Morse knows he's missed so much about this girl and has so many questions to ask because he wants to get to know her but doesn't know where to begin. He decides to make a start by saying
"So before we get chatting, can I get you a drink?"
"Just a glass of water please" Lily replies politely
"Of course" he gets up out of his seat and heads to the tap, he clanks around his cupboard to find a glass that isn't for whiskey, larger or scotch and before long walks over and hands her the water.
"So Lily why did you come and see me today?" he questions flopping into his chair
"Because I really want to get to know all the members of my family and whenever I ask Mummy about them she tells me hardly anything. I had to practically force her to tell me about you and all I got was a name"
"How did you find me?"
"I checked Mummy's address book, I thought it was an old address but I thought I'd take a look and see if you still lived there"
Morse smiles as he can see Lily has inherited some of his wit, logic and initiative
"So how old are you Lily" he asks
"I've just turned 13"
Morse is shocked at how old she is
"Wow" there is silence as Lily takes some sips of her drink
"So what do you do Morse?"
"I'm a policeman"
"A policeman? What the type that arrests people?"
"What other type is there?"
"I don't know"
"We don't just arrest people though, we do help people too"
She chuckles staring into her glass
"So what position are you?"
"Detective Constable"
"Detective? Wow you must be really smart"
"I must be"
The pair are interrupted by the chime of the clock striking 9
Lily turns her head to look at the clock and gasps
"Is that the time!?"
Morse then turns around to look at the clock also
"My goodness yes, we'd better get you home"
Lily is now in for a treat as she gets a ride in the good old jag, and because the conversion was flowing so nicely at the flat Morse continues it in the car.
"So um..." he begins turning round to look at his niece but he soon notices that the car journey has rocked her to sleep. Moments later they reach Lily's house. Morse smiles to himself and carries on driving without saying a word so the girl can continue sleeping.
Soon the jag reaches a grand country house surrounded by fields. He pulls up on the large gravel drive and steps out of the car. He approaches the door which is only a short distance from his car and gives it a little tap, a tall woman with dead straight blonde hair and a welcoming face soon appears behind the door. Morse who stands nervously on the drive begins shyly
"Oh hello" but is soon interrupted by the bubbly lady who is clearly to Morse's very accurate guess is Lily's mother
"You must be Morse" she interprets
"That's right, nice to meet you Miss"
"Oh please call me Louise. So how's she been?"
"As good as gold" he assures her
"Where is she?" she then asks looking round as her daughter is not in sight
"Um asleep in the back seat I didn't want to disturb her"
"That's fine, I'll go and wake her "
Louise treads over to the jaguar shimmering in the moonlight with her cousin following her
"May I?" she says holding onto the car door handle
"Of course" Morse nods
She opens the door and gives her daughter a gentle shake
"Rise and shine young lady" she jokes sternly. Lily sits up to find her mother leaning across to her
" Now come on you it's way past your bed time!" she wipes her eyes before hopping up, jumping out of the car and running down the driveway
"Thank you Morse" she shouts and then vanishes indoors
"Go on madam" Louise instructs
Morse chuckles and scratches his head shyly (as he normally does)
"Well thank you for bringing her home safe anyway" Louise tells Morse
"She's welcome anytime" he answers
"Good night Endeavour" she says throwing him a little wave and then heads to the house
"Good night" he replies opening the car door
"Try and stay in touch" she shouts to him
"I will" he agrees and then hops into the car
"I'll telephone" is the final thing she says before disappearing back into her country house
Morse gives a nod, he sits in the car still for a moment with his thoughts. Eventually he drives off, doing a little jump for joy in his head.
-The End