Title: Gossiping Gladys
Fandom: Spooks (MI5)
Rating: G
Length: 312 words
Summary: Lucas' neighbour is a gossip

The door of the neighbouring flat slammed shut and Mrs Wood heard the man’s voice say, “Ssh, keep your voice down so that nosy parker next door doesn’t hear us,” followed by a woman’s giggles.

She turned to her husband and said, “That Mr North, he’s late for work again.  He told me he’s got a job in the city and starts at nine o’clock.  He’ll never be there on time.  And he’s had a woman stay over.  Disgusting I call it.”

Mr Wood merely grunted and continued to read his paper.

“Right,” Mrs Wood continued, “I’m off to meet Doris and we’re going down the Co-op.  The best loaves always sell out before ten, and unlike some I want to get there on time.”

She met her friend Doris at the bottom of the stairs.

“Hello, Gladys,” Doris said.  “How’s that handsome new neighbour of yours?”

“Late for work again.  And he’d a woman stay over.”

Neither Doris nor Gladys noticed two men nod to each other and slip into the block of flats.

The men went upstairs, and one slid a skeleton key into Lucas North’s front door.  It opened and they went in, closing the door quietly behind them.

“Put your hands in the air,” a female voice said firmly.

Both men did as they were told, at the same time calculating how between them they would take out this lone woman.  To their great surprise they found they were facing not just by Ros Myers, but also Lucas North holding his own gun.

Lucas grinned, “You believed gossiping Gladys, didn’t you?  She was clearly so keen to tell her husband about how I’d had a woman to stay overnight that she failed to realise my colleague was the only one who left, and I came back inside.  Now, would you like to tell us who you’re working for?”