Chapter Twenty-Seven

“Don’t you get any holidays from the supermarket, Richard? You seem to be working all hours there and I don’t suppose it is all that well paid,” said Fiona as Richard tightened the strings of his violin. His mind went back to the holiday in Spain that Maya had assured him would be the best thing to bring out his tan... and the thong would let the tan spread where it never did usually. He knew he had done the right thing in refusing to go. Spain was an expensive place to visit for any length of time, but more particularly for a month and Maya had already bought him his violin and he just couldn’t accept any more. He had insisted she tell him how much it cost so that he could pay her back in installments, but she refused point blank and told him, with a broad grin on her face, that his services were more than ample repayment. He had even tried buying her little presents like cheap ear rings and the likes and Maya had always accepted them, making a great fuss and saying how beautiful they were, but he never ever saw her wearing them...

“I can have a holiday any time I want,” he replied to Fiona’s enquiry, “but as you say the money is poor and I don’t want to have any free time until perhaps I can get a better situation with them... behind the tills or something like that.”

“But you have the money that Maya left you. Surely that will tide you through until you get through music college... will it not?”

Richard looked at Fiona for a few seconds with curiosity before he replied.

“Yes, that is true Fiona, but as you know, I want to start a music school when I get through the college and that will take a fair amount of money... at least to start off with until some money comes back in... and anyway, I insist that you take my rent money for my stay here and that‘s only fair.”

“Don’t think about paying me for the rent then Richard. You know you can stay here for as long as you want and also when you go to college, you won’t need to live in there, will you. You can always stay here, rent free and that will give you a little start in all that you want to do.”

Richard smiled and Fiona thought she saw something in that smile that she had never seen before.

“Richard,” she asked, “surely there must be some one... some girl that you fancy... well now that Maya is no longer with you?”

“No Fiona,” he replied firmly, “I shall never ever find anyone like Maya. She was and still is the love of my life, wretched though I may seem to be. She made me rich in everything she said and did for me.” Fiona was a little upset and then it seemed like a glimmer of light as Richard went on. “I have looked at you often, Fiona... thinking I might recapture something of Maya in how you look... how you smile... anything... and yet, I cannot see anything that resembles your mother.”

Fiona coughed lightly. Richard had touched on a subject that she rarely discussed with anyone, but she thought this might be the ideal time to tell Richard what was on her mind. It might... just might bring him closer to her.

“Richard, you will never see anything of Maya in me. You see... Maya was never my mother... not me real mother. My father, Major Morray-Smith, married my mother when I was two years of age, but she was never my mother. I don’t think she could have had children then, but don’t ask me why... ”Fiona wouldn’t disclose the story of little Marianna her mother had and who died so soon after she was born... “There was some trouble and she didn’t like to talk about it. Maybe it was being married to my father. Sometimes that can affect people have children together, if you know what I mean and yet if they chose to have other partners, there would be no problem. I don’t know who my mother is. My father wouldn’t tell me and I was brought up to believe that Maya was the one I should call my mother. Perhaps this is the reason why we never ever really bonded as a mother and daughter usually are. I don’t know, but now you know. Maya and I were STRANGERS nearly all of our lives.”

Richard rubbed his chin with his fingers as he looked at Fiona. It was as if he was making comparisons between Maya and the girl he thought to be her daughter, but Fiona was glad she had told him her news. It had weighed on her for some time, whether it was the right thing to do or not... but now with Maya gone, she thought that perhaps Richard would see her in a different light; see her as a person in her own right and not an appendage to the woman he adored... but Richard took out his violin and began to play Chopin’s polonaise.

The news that evening announced that a young woman had been strangled near the local Town Hall and the police were anxious to trace anyone who had been near the scene that evening. They were also anxious to talk to her boyfriend, but he never surfaced and Richard wondered why... Perhaps the lovely Lisa Frankland never actually had a boyfriend, or was that too strange to imagine; perhaps she was hoping that Richard would stay with her at the dance for the whole evening, but Richard had his doubts about that when he thought of how Lisa had treated him when she met him in the supermarket and the way she called him the hated name... He knew in that moment when she spoke, he wanted to slap her face, but that would have defeated the purpose of his sweet talk... for what he had intended to do to the lovely Lisa afterwards...

All had gone according to plan and Richard played happily on his instrument whilst Fiona wondered what was on his mind... hoping it could be her...

“Are you working this evening, Richard?” Fiona enquired and he shook his head slowly without taking his eyes from his music sheet. “Perhaps we could go out somewhere to eat?” she went on, but Richard continued playing his Chopin piece and even Fiona wondered what was on his mind when his eyes looked so strange; stranger than she had known him to look before. Fiona was a little afraid, but she felt that her heart would resolve the problem and soon Richard and she would be more than friends.

“I have some more work to do on this piece,” he muttered with his biro stuck between his teeth and Fiona went into the kitchen to make the coffee, but when he knew she was definitely in the kitchen from the sounds of clattering dishes, he took out his little book to have a fresh look

“Strange,” he muttered, “very strange. Scarlet, Richard Joseph... I have never seen this name under S for sugar, when I looked there before... Wonder why Maya stuck it in the back cover of her book and why there is no telephone number, only an address attached... and with three little asterisk signs at the side.”

Fiona came in from the kitchen asking what Richard was talking about and he made an excuse he had been counting something on a paper connected to his work in the supermarket, but by this time he had resolved to visit Mr. Scarlet at his home address

“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...”