Chapter Twenty-Six

RICHARD studied his suit the following morning in the sunlight to ensure there were no ‘tell-tale’ marks that would give him away, but there were none and he turned on the television to watch the early morning news before he went to work at the supermarket.

The news was without incident and Richard became a little anxious that he hadn’t done his job properly the night before, but he contented himself to waiting until the afternoon news before he formed any conclusions in his mind and of course, before he scored the name of Reynolds through with the thick black biro in his little notebook. He was becoming more concerned as he thought over his plans until he was quite sure that they would produce the results he sought... However the news reached him sooner than he had anticipated when he scanned the morning paper where he worked and found that a second man had been attacked in the identical way to one a few days ago and the police were suspicious of foul play. The attack was identical to the one done on another man a few days before the man was found to be dead... and also the act was done outside a public house, but on this occasion an instrument was used and the police concluded it to be either a very sharp knife or a dagger as there were no ragged marks to the cut. It was clean and the police presumed the victim must have died soon after the incident from some passer by who tried to stem the bleeding without success. It was assumed that the killer went for the jugular to be sure of the kill...

“If you want to read that bleedin’ paper mate, you’d better pay for it,“ someone cried from behind the newspaper counter, but Richard closed the newspaper, returned it to where he had found it and continued with his shelf stacking.

“Hi there... You’re Richard Bright, aren’t you?” a voice came from somewhere behind the shelf he was stacking with baked beans. He turned around and a beautiful blonde girl stared down at him where he was kneeling on the floor.

“Yes...”he replied rather warily, as by this time he was nervous of anyone who might recognise him and connect him to the killings, but he couldn’t recognise the girl until she introduced herself rather breezily.

“I’m Lise,” she said, “Lise Frankland. Don’t you recognise me? I used to be Lisa but I think Lise is much more sexy... don’t you think?”

Richard stood up and came closer to the girl’s face, but he was unable to see anything of the Lisa Frankland he had known at school. All he could remember about her was that she had led the giggling crowd of girls and the mocking laughter where he was concerned and he considered her at that time to be a right bitch.

“Lisa... Lisa Frankland” he said as he looked closer at her face, but she contradicted him telling him again that she had changed her name to Lise. The obvious blonde rinse had completely baffled Richard and he just barely recognised the rather plain looking girl he had known at school.

Oh! Yes... I remember now,” he said as he smiled, “You have changed a lot Lisa. I would hardly have recognised you as you are. I mean, your hair and...”

“Lise,” she reminded him again with a curt smile and then she stroked her bosom with pride.

“I don’t suppose you would recognised me Dickie,” she said as she flickered her long dark eyelashes at him “I’ve ‘blossomed’ somewhat, don’t you think?” Richard was mesmerised for a moment but it wasn’t the beautiful transformed Lisa that had that effect on him. He stared at her as she called him Dickie and the connotation of that word, from his school days made him angry, however she prattled on with her attributes to impress him, or so she imagined. ”Tell you what,” she gabbled, “You can take me to the hop tonight. There’s a dance on at the Town Hall and Brian... he’s my fella, he’s on the buses till midnight and can’t take me. He’s a bus driver, you know. Works on the 82 he does.”

Richard was stunned at Lisa’s proposal, but suddenly his eyes took on an affected look and he agreed to meet her under the arches at 9.pm that evening where he would willingly escort her to the ’hop’

Lise tripped off from the baked bean counter but not before she smiled again at Richard, telling him that he had improved a lot since he left school where she thought he was a bit of a drip. He thanked her and waved her goodbye.

“You’ll be sure to be there won’t you,” she called out as she left him “Cos I’ll be all dressed up and I don’t want to be disappointed. My Brian likes to see me all dressed up, you see.”

“Richard muttered his goodbye again and Lise minced off feeling very happy that she looked so beautiful for her Brian.

That evening about three minutes to nine, Richard stood under the shade of the arches waiting for the lovely Lise. She was punctual and arrived at exactly nine o’clock.

“Oh, you shouldn’t have put your best suit on for me, Dickie,” she said, “I’ll only need you till Brian comes and then... well, if you don’t have anywhere else to go, you might pick up a girl here at the town hall, and as I said, you look a bit better than you did at school... Well, even you would have to admit that, eh?”

Richard sighed and was beginning to feel bored, but he smiled through his empathy.

“Yes, even I can see that,” he said in agreement, but before Lisa could turn to go into the Town Hall, he stopped her and held her arm for a moment.

“I know I won’t be needed when Brian comes along, but... but would you do me one favour before we go into the dance, he asked and Lise looked at him in surprise.

“Sure I will,” she said, “but I’ve just noticed... you used to stutter a lot, didn’t you? You don’t stutter now and that makes you look a lot different too. Why, I think you could be quite handsome if only you’d smile a little.” Richard smiled ‘a little’ at Lisa’s request before he spoke. “Well what was it you wanted then?” she asked, “I hope it won’t affect my make-up whatever it is. My Brian liked to see me well made-up.”

“No... no it won’t affect your face at all.” he replied with a grin...”I just wanted to know if you would let me kiss you... Just a gentle kiss would do.”

Lisa raised her eyebrows in surprise, but she held her face out and puckered her lips where Richard put his hands around her throat as he touched her lips with his own, but as he lingered for a moment, his hands tightened as Lisa tried to scream. Within a few minutes she slouched to the ground and as Richard checked the pulse on her wrist, he noticed that the beautiful Lisa or Lise had pissed herself as she died.

Richard walked away whistling to himself at first before he broke into an uncontrollable giggle... which later became a mad laugh and he made his way back to Fiona’s flat, “Nobody calls Richard Bright a prick...”he shouted into the air... ”Nobody,”