In Love with Richard

by Paul Kelly

  “Good morning,” he said breezily to the lady who answered the door of the address he had found under S. in the little book. “Could I speak to Mr. Scarlet please?”

  The lady looked strangely at him for a few moments, before she answered.

  “I’m sorry... Mr. Scarlet is no longer with us. I am Mrs. Scarlet and my husband died of a heart attack just three years ago,”

  Richard didn’t know what to do or where to look when Mrs. Scarlet made her announcement but a few seconds later a little boy appeared at the door from behind his mother. He looked about fourteen and was wearing calipers... one on each leg.

  “Go indoors Ricky,” the lady said and ushered the little boy back into the house, but Richard pricked up his ears when he heard the name the lady called the boy.

  “Is that Richard... Richard Joseph Scarlet?” he asked and the lady smiled.

  “Yes,” she said, “called after his dad. Looks like him too, but he can’t walk properly you see.”

  Richard commiserated and asked Mrs. Scarlet if she knew a Maya Thompson and her face lit up when she said she did.

  “Maya is our photographer and she’s been very kind to Ricky. Took us both off for a holiday, three years ago to Scarborough, just after my husband died... Best holiday my Ricky has ever had. She really spoiled him and I was ever so grateful. There is no way I could have afforded a holiday like that... and it was for two weeks too.”

  Richard looked past the lady as she stood in her doorway, hoping to catch another glimpse of his namesake.

  “Did you know that Mrs. Thompson passed away a short time ago... well about a year ago now,” he asked and Mrs. Scarlet drew in her breath as she touched her bosom with both hands.

  “My God... I didn’t know. My Ricky will be so upset when I tell him. Are you Mr. Thompson?” she asked and Richard looked down for a moment before he answered.

  “Yes... Yes, I am Maya’s husband,” he said and Mrs. Scarlet hunched her shoulders as she offered Richard her sympathies.

  As Richard left the house, he knocked into someone coming from the other end of the street and he found himself concerned that others might be around when he was doing, what had to be done, although he was always very careful to check the scenes before he acted...

  “Can you spare 20p for a cup of tea, Guvnor,” asked the man as he steadied himself, after his clash with Richard, but Richard ignored him and went his way, just as an ambulance careered past him followed by a police car at high speed.

  “Give me a chance,” he said with a wry smile on his face, “I haven’t done anything yet...”

  Chapter Twenty- Eight

  RICHARD TOOK ANOTHER LOOK at the little book where he had scored off so many names, but there were quite a few more that he had to deal with. He wondered what the men thought when he was about to send them to their Maker... or even better still... what Maya would have thought... but after a few seconds of dwelling on that, he sighed, rolled his eyes and grinned as he went to another page in the little book and he spotted the name Sharma; the Sharma that was included with the Ms. and he hoped he might be able to guess, if he couldn’t find, what the M. stood for when suddenly at the bottom of the page, he noticed, in very small letter. Sharma, Mumtaz, esq., “Sharma,” he read out aloud, like a teacher calling out the daily register, but no Mr. Sharma responded to his name. Maybe Mumtaz could be his surname and he would therefore be under the Ms in the book, he thought, but when he looked there, he could find no trace of a Mumtaz...

  “Mumtaz Sharma,” again Richard called out aloud... “We should meet, my friend... and very soon.” With that he pulled out his Michael knife and breathed over it before he polished it and wrapped it again in its scabbard.

  “Is that Mr. Sharma’s residence?”

  The tedious telephone task that preceded his ‘duties’ made him yawn until a high pitched voice answered to say that Mr. Sharma was not in at the moment but that he would be back very late that evening.

  “Oh! I am so sorry. I have some important news for him. Is there any way I can speak to him urgently?”

  “Yes, you can contact him on his mobile. He’s a cabby. The number is... have you got a pen?”

  “Yes.”

  “The number is 034-9564-1867... Got that?”

  ”Yes thank you. I’m most grateful and I am sure Mr. Sharma will be pleased with his news. Thank you.”

  Meanwhile Richard gathered a few more names together from the book. It was quicker work than he had thought it might be and twice as interesting. Maya would be pleased, he thought as he considered how he was ridding her lovely body of all the scum that cluttered her beautiful life...

  “Mr. Sharma... oh Mr. Sharma... Mumtaz... I think we should meet because I am a friend of a lady who had been very kind to you; a lady by the name of Thompson, Mrs. Maya Thompson.”

  Before Richard could utter another word, his mobile recorded the screeching of brakes, somewhere in the background before anyone spoke.

  “Who the hell are you and how did you get my name?”

  Richard grinned before he answered, but this time he had no intention of giving his identity to his proposed ‘victim’... That just wasn’t necessary.

  “My name doesn’t matter, but Maya was very kind to you and I think now it is time that you returned the favour, don’t you?”

  There was a long silence apart from car horns sounding in the background.

  “Favour... what do you mean by favour? Are you some sort of a pervert? If you’re looking for someone to fuck you mate, you’d better get stuffed elsewhere. I’m not into that kind of thing, Sweetie... Goodbye.”

  Richard jumped as his phone clicked twice before it went dead, but he telephoned again and again and a third time until Mr. Mumtaz came back.

  “I told you to...”

  “No, Mr. Mumtaz, you don’t tell me anything,” said Richard, “It is I who am telling you. Now listen sharply and don’t make me loose my temper.”

  Richard arranged to meet Mr. Sharma outside a pub in Shoreditch... A public house address was always useful...

  ***

  “Another pub murder...” Richard read in the newspaper the following morning... “MURDER... This time in East London and the police believe it is the work of a serial killer as the manner of killing is the same as it has been in the last few cases so recently. Murder by a sharp instrument where the jugular of the victim is severed... The pattern is always the same.”

  Richard listened to Fiona as she started to sing in the bathroom and he continued to eat his corn flakes. Life was getting so tedious and he thought of some ways to brighten it up a little.

  “Eeni, meeni, mini mo... Catch a... .Oh hello. Is that Mr. Moffat?

  An effeminate voice answered his call on the other end of the line and Richard stood away from the mouthpiece as he considered what he should do next... the voice was nothing like he expected, but it definitely was male.

  “Mr. Moffat? Is that the same Mr. Moffat who knows Mrs. Thompson? Mrs. Maya Thompson?”

  Again as he had expected there was a long silence on the telephone before anyone spoke.

  “No... I think you must have the wrong number. I don’t know anyone of that name.”

  Richard looked perplexed and for a moment he wasn’t sure what he should do. This had never happened before and he had contacted everyone he wanted to contact with very little trouble, if any.

  “Is there another Mr. Moffat at your residence?” he asked with raised eyebrows, wondering what to expect next.

  “Well there’s my father and my younger brother, but I don’t think my brother would know anyone by that name. Just a minute and I’ll ask him.”

  Richard could hear people talking somewhere on the line for a few minutes before the effeminate voice came back to him again.

  “No... I�
�m sorry, my brother doesn’t know any Mrs. Thompson. I didn’t think he would as he’s only nine, but my father might... and he’s not at home at the moment.”

  “Is there anyway I could get in touch with your father?” Richard asked and the answer he received quite shocked him into memories of the past.

  “Well, he’s a bouncer at the Club Napoli... Do you know it?

  “Yes... yes, I think I do, thank you. I will get in touch with him there,” said Richard as he thought about his old friend Barnes, whom he knew had frequented Maya’s flat before he went to prison on the drugs charge and he had been a bouncer at the Club Napoli... Wasn’t it a small world... A very small world indeed...

  Two days later around ten o’clock in the evening, as he was about to go into the Club Napoli, a hand landed on his shoulder.

  “I.D. please.” said the man with the rough hand. “Only members in here to-night, Sir...”

  “Oh! I’m sorry... I don’t really want to come in, but I was told I might meet a friend of mine here... His name is Barnes, Rudolph Barnes,”

  The man at the door looked strangely at Richard with his mouth half open.

  “Barnes doesn’t work here no more,” he said sharply. “Who are you and why did you want to speak to Rudolph?”

  Richard looked up at the sky and saw that a full moon slipped out from behind a dark cloud.

  “He was a good friend of a friend of mine... A Mrs. Thompson,” he said and the man at the door went pale.

  “I don’t know nuffink about Maya. I think you had better go now, Sir,” said the bouncer, but Richard had got the answer he had been waiting for...

  “I didn’t tell you her name was Maya. So how did you know who I was talking about, Mr. MOFFAT?”

  Richard said no more and the moon disappeared behind the cloud again as he walked off, wiping his Michael knife with his clean, white handkerchief...

  “Eenie, meeni, mini mo... caught Mr. Moffat by the toe, he sang as he sauntered back to Fiona’s flat, resolved to remove another M from the little book when he got home.

  “Not many more to go now,” he said “I think I’ll need a new blade on my Michael knife. What a shame... I hope they don’t cost too much.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  RICHARD COULD HEAR THE SCHOOL BELL toll as he walked past St. Michael’s. It brought back so many bad memories that he wished he had never visited the place again and thrust his palms against his ears to avoid the din.

  It took him a few painful moments to look at the place. It looked the same and he could hear the voices again; the voices that taunted and humiliated him in the not too distant past... in the days before he met Maya and his face lit up when he thought of the lovely and happy times he had spent with her, only to be clouded by the sudden thought again of how... AND WHY she died...

  “It’s not... It can’t be... It is. You’re Richard Bright aren’t you?”

  Richard turned around suddenly to be greeted by his old Headmaster, standing before him with a scroll of some kind under his arm.

  “G... g... g... good morning, Mr. W... W... Walker...

  The Headmaster looked sadly at Richard having remembered the last time he had anything to do with him and that was due to the supposed tragedy with some supposed murder or other, which turned out to be a fallacy and Mr. Walker raised his eyebrows with pleasure, accepting that Richard Bright still had his stutter.

  “What are you doing now, Richard,” the Headmaster asked as he folded his notes and changed them to his other hand.

  “I... I’m still working at the s... s... supermarket, Mr. W... W... Walker,” he replied nervously, “ but I... h... h... hope soon to be enrolled at the R... R... Royal college of Music.”

  Mr. Walker beamed a smile of approval and added that he always knew that Richard would do well with his music, before he shook hands with his ex-pupil and strode back into the school again, just as the bell stopped tolling.

  “Nice to see you again, Richard,” said a young female voice from the back of the playground. “I remember you from the fifth form. Do you remember me?”

  Richard screwed his face up in the sunshine as he shielded his eyes from the sunrays with his hand and scanned the face of the young intruder.

  “I’m... s... s... sorry,” he said, “I don’t think I... r... r... r... remember you.”

  “Janine Mercer,” the reply came and gentle. “I’m teaching here now. Have been for the past six years or so...”

  Richard looked closer and a smile broke out over his face as he suddenly remembered who this young woman was. She had been one of the nicer girls, he could remember and he didn’t think she was one of the gang of girls who made his life a misery.

  “J... J... J... Janine Mercer, why of course... I am so... s... sorry I didn’t recognise you, but you are so... well g... g... g... grown up from those days gone by. I think you must have been in the... b... b... b... brainier section of the school to have trained as a... t... t... teacher. I just work at a... s... s... s... supermarket and even then, I don’t have anything... s... s... s... special to do there at all... only shelf packing.” Richard said and Janine smiled again.

  “It takes all kinds and shelf packing is as necessary as anything else, Richard,” she said, “Have you met any of your old friends from school since you left?”

  Richard lowered his head when she said that. He could hardly tell her that Lisa Frankland had crossed his path, could he... especially if she already knew, as he presumed she would, that Lisa Frankland wasn’t in the land of the living any more.

  “No... no, I haven’t met any of my old friends,” he said politely, hoping that Janine would believe that he did have a few friends from his school days.

  “You’ve turned out to be a nice looking guy, Richard and I hope I don’t embarrass you when I say that... Got yourself a nice girlfriend, I’m sure,” she added as she looked at Richard to see his response, but Richard looked down when she said that and his face coloured red. “Tell you what,” Janine went on, having guessed that there was no girl in Richard’s life from the way he looked. “I have a list in my class of many of the pupils where were at school when you were here with us. You’ll probably recognise some of them, although I doubt if you’d know them now. They’ve all grown up into beautiful young ladies. There’s some telephone numbers on that list too as I remember. Hold on a minute and I’ll get it for you.”

  Very quickly Janine Mercer returned to the school and within a few minutes she reappeared with the promised list, which she happily passed to Richard, but at first he was reluctant to take it... He hesitated but Janine insisted.

  “You might find it interesting to know the girls you went to school with, Richard and maybe if you go though the names, one of them might come up that could be a very good friend... or more,” said Janine as she left Richard with a smile to return to her classroom. Richard studied the list dispassionately. There would never be a name there that would compare to Maya’s, but as he had a closer look at the list, Lisa Frankland’s name screamed at him from the top of the two pages that Janine had given him and he wasn’t at all pleased about that.

  “Thank you... Janine... m... m... m... may I call you... J... J... Janine?” Richard called after Janine and she waved back at him.

  “Of course... everyone does. The days of titles are out now Richard. Be good and look after yourself. Perhaps we might see you again soon... If ever you’re passing St. Michael’s”

  She waved Richard goodbye again and he walked away slowly, thinking that not everything or everybody who came out of St. Michael’s were odious., however the names that were on that list that Janine Mercer had given him were not all what he would have described as friends... not by a long shot.

  It was Fiona who broke the silence as Richard sat thinking about his new list and what he should do about it.

 
; “Richard, I have a day off tomorrow. Do you fancy going for a drive somewhere and maybe take some driving lessons. I’d be happy to teach you,” she said and Richard looked up, startled. He wasn’t aware that Fiona was in the room.

  “No sorry Fiona,” he replied, “Can’t do that. I’m working tomorrow and besides, I’d be a hard one to teach. You should know that by now.”

  Fiona screwed her face up and poked her tongue out at the mirror.

  “But you don’t work all day, do you... and besides, I can accommodate anytime, having the whole day to myself.” Fiona called out and Richard put his list into his pocket.

  “No... not tomorrow Fiona... sorry but, I have several things I have to do and tomorrow would the best day for me to start,” he said with a grin.

  Chapter Thirty

  “MARTHA PEABODY,” Richard spoke the name aloud. “That one was a right bitch and she should get her desserts. I always believe in looking after people who have ’looked after’ little ole me.”

  Richard played with the page in his notes from the school and made a note of the telephone number.

  “Is that Mrs. Peabody?”

  “Yes, it is. Who is that and what do you want?”

  Richard was surprised at the blunt way the lady spoke.

  “I wanted to talk to your daughter, Mrs. Peabody... I am an old friend of Martha’s. We went to school together.” he said, but no sooner had he completed his sentence than there was a burst of tears on the other end of the line before the telephone was cut off. Richard tried again, but the line was engaged. He thought of an alternative idea as he telephoned St. Michael’s to speak to Janine Mercer

  “Hello Miss Mercer... Janine... It’s Richard Bright here. I... h... h... hope you are alright.”

  “Yes, I’m fine, Richard. What can I do for you?”

  “W... w... w... w... well, I know you’ll think I’m... v... v... v... very forward, but I thought I would phone one of... th... th... those girls on the l... l... list you gave me, but I couldn’t understand... wh... wh... what... went wrong as all I got was someone... c... c... crying on the phone.”