Delivery Detective


Cynthia had decided to work part-time for a grocery delivery service after her husband had died. Sure, she still got his pension and all of their other worldly possessions, but she was still fairly lonely and isolated. Bill had been the social one and, even then, many of their friends were too sick to meet up or had already passed on. She sighed as she got into her car to wait for an order. It was fairly early in the morning but a surprising number of people tried to squeeze in a last-minute delivery before work or early enough to cook with the rest of their day off. She got a new order from someone named Alex. She double-checked the address. It was a flat in London. Alright, that was fairly close to both her and the supermarket but maybe he had the flu or was old like her or something. She started up the car and went off to the grocery store. All of the items were fairly simple to find. There was no soda or chips or candy. Cynthia wondered if she was shopping for some sort of healthy person. Well, she had odder customers. She clicked off each item well before the allotted time was up and went on her way. Her car was old but it had been made to last. She started it up and off she went. Cynthia was pleasantly surprised by the parking near the flat. It was a proper flat, not student housing like she'd first assumed it might be. She carried up the first round of groceries and knocked softly on the door. It was pulled open by a young man in shorts and a button-down. He'd missed one of the buttons, leaving the shirt slightly askew. "Are you Alex?"

The man nodded and offered his hand. "Cynthia?"

She nodded and handed him the groceries. He winced slightly after he took them. "I can carry them to your kitchen if you need help."

Alex gave her a half-smile. "No, thank you. I'm not quite that bad off. Yet, anyway."

Cynthia felt a stab of concern. "Yet?"

Alex waved off her concern as she brought up the next round of bags. "Don't worry about it."

Cynthia wondered if the poor young man had cancer or something like that. She'd heard awful things about lupus, too. Cynthia was left wondering after she brought the fifth round of groceries up. Ah, well, he probably had a family or something to help. Still, maybe he would order groceries again. She should probably read some mystery novels again if she was this bored. There were new books out in that murder baking series she liked. Plus, there was a new recommendations tab that the app had…updated with. That was probably it. Maybe she was just reading too much into it. There were manual labor jobs that caused injuries, too.

Cynthia had been delivering groceries once a week for several weeks when the usual order didn't come in. She knew there wasn't a whole lot she could do. Maybe order a wellness check? That did seem like a bit of overkill for a missed grocery order. Perhaps she would check on the young man if this kept up, though. It was the neighborly thing to do. Even if they weren't neighbors and it was considered a bit old-fashioned these days. Cynthia sighed as another order came in. This one looked finicky to do on time. She wasn't even sure that there was French cheese at the local supermarket, let alone the variety the customer seemed to want. Every so often she got someone who was just determined to leave a bad review. Cynthia started up her car and went shopping. There wasn't much she could do for Alex while she worked her usual hours. Maybe he would like cookies? Everyone liked homemade cookies. She'd return to his place after work and poke around a bit. Cynthia doubted his neighbors would notice anything. It was very rare to have nosy neighbors these days. Most of them would just call the police instead of doing an in-person confrontation. Her phone buzzed. It was an invitation to a disco night. That was odd. Everyone around her knew that she hated disco. Mostly because she'd had an epileptic sister and the social scene had taken its toll on her too early. Cynthia rolled her eyes and turned the invitation down. It was odd of Edna to forget that but everyone slipped once and a while. Oh well, time to investigate the nice young man.

The apartment had all of the windows closed and locked. Fair enough. The plants appeared to be wilting, so Cynthia brought out a bottle of water to help the plants out. It also gave her a reason to be here in case anyone spotted her. The door suddenly swung open to the man in question. A quick peek showed Cynthia an open suitcase in the background. Alex just looked confused. "Cynthia?"

There was a bright red handprint near his collar and he looked like he'd been hit with a closed fist in several other spots. Cynthia would know. She had been to her fair share of bra-burning protests. Those had been rather fun. "Hello, Alex. I thought I would check on your plants."

It could be said that Cynthia was not exactly the best liar. Her husband had called her hopeless. She had been rather offended by that. "My plants?"

Cynthia beamed at him. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. "Yes, these flowers are quite rare this time of year."

It was winter so that was probably accurate. There were times that Cynthia wished she had the brain for some of the more housewife-type things, like which flowers bloomed when. Thankfully, Alex seemed to not be the overly curious type. He smoothed his hair back. "Oh yeah. I fertilized them specially last week."

Cynthia nodded along as he began to talk about the different kinds of fertilizers like she had any idea of what he was talking about. There were different soil types in London. Alex seemed to finish and glanced at her. "I think that sounds about right, my dear. I do apologize if I startled you. I'm a bit touched, as they say."

Alex let out a slight laugh. Cynthia felt like she was not in on the joke. "All good. Just don't check on the flowers at night. You'll probably get robbed or something."

Cynthia let out a sigh and nodded. She finished watering his plants. Alex looked slightly harassed at this point. "Well, now that your plants aren't in danger, I had better go."

Alex's mouth twisted into a wry smile. Cynthia gave him a look. "So, it was just the plants you were checking on?"

Cynthia felt a faint breath of amusement. She hadn't smiled since her husband had died. "I'm afraid the flowers are the fairest right now. You know how it is."

Alex barked out a laugh. His shirt slid down to reveal the tip of a very large scar. "Oh yes, the pretty ones get all the attention."

He was still laughing as he closed the door on her. Cynthia decided that she would worry about the enormous chest scar once she got home. Alex, it seemed, bore watching.


Fin


Written for Prompt #110 by mediaboy. This is the 39th work in the Winds of Change 2022 Alex Rider Prompt event, where a new prompt (plus a short 1-3K work) is posted every day. For more details, see the AO3 collection :) Want to discuss? Leave a comment beneath, or join the discord (Link on AO3 Fics or just PM me, lol).