Goodnight, John-boy: Chapter 35
Keen sighed and sipped his vodka and tonic. ‘I don’t know why Jean just didn’t forget it. All right, it was unfortunate that Konrad got all upset and jumped off the roof, but he’s in Heaven now.’
Welcome to Book Two of my dark comedy thriller series, Read Em And Weep.
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If you’re new to the Read Em And Weep series, start with Book One: Serial Killer.
KEEN SMILED AT THE INSPECTOR. His cool hairstyle and lurid Nehru suit contrasted with the Inspector’s conservative high street suit and his short back and sides haircut. ‘So you tracked him down, Inspector?’
‘I tracked him down, John. Got the full S. P.’
Fabulous sat forward. ‘I have so much harm I want to cause that young man, so much pain, I almost don’t know where to start.’
‘But we need to take our time, and take extra care,’ warned the grim-faced Inspector.
‘I know. I realise that.’
‘After all, he is Jean Ryan’s son.’
The Inspector and Keen were meeting at the cavernous City Golf Club by St Bride’s Church, just off Fleet Street. Keen enjoyed mixing with the journalists who frequented it, so he could tell them about all the wonderful work he did for charity. The walls were decorated with old golf clubs, but it was really just a drinking den when the Fleet Street pubs were closed in the afternoon.
Keen got the Inspector past the authoritarian, uniformed doorman, and remarked how that used to be his job many years ago at The Eight Veils and just how far up in the world he had come since. ‘From Sinner to Saint, that’s me,’ he said. The Inspector smiled noncommittally, knowing Keen was still both, as he was himself.
Keen was excited by the news coming over the ticker-tape machine chugging away in a corner. NASA had just publicly unveiled the space shuttle Enterprise in California and Keen wondered about visiting it for Tomorrow’s Britain.
Keen brought his mind back to the present. ‘So what else did you find out, Inspector?’
The burly policeman lowered his voice. ‘I visited the premises at Mordle Street. Told the owner I’d had a report of drugs being used on the premises. He was happy to show me around and prove his innocence. Basement room’s still bricked up. Hasn’t been touched.’
‘So Dave Maudling doesn’t know how his mother died or that she’s buried down the road from where his family used to live.’
‘It would seem so,’ said the Inspector carefully.
‘But he knows she’s dead,’ speculated Keen. ‘And he obviously knows I ordered her death. And maybe knows the Canon was involved.’
‘Maybe he remembered some conversation he overheard as a kid?’ suggested the Inspector.
Keen leaned forward. ‘You’d better alert the other party concerned. Just in case he pays them a visit, too.’
‘I’ve already done so, John.’
Keen sighed and sipped his vodka and tonic. ‘I don’t know why Jean just didn’t forget it. All right, it was unfortunate that Konrad got all upset and jumped off the roof, but he’s in Heaven now.’
‘You need to be a lot tougher if you’re going to survive in this world,’ remarked the Inspector, drinking his beer.
‘They’re not stoic, like our generation,’ agreed Keen. ‘Things we didn’t like, we just put up with. We didn’t make a song and dance about everything.’
‘This is it.’
‘In fact, a lot of youngsters were pleased when the Canon took an interest in them.’
‘Exactly. It was an honour for them.’
‘I remember it was a beautiful funeral,’ recalled Keen. ‘Little Konrad’s white coffin. And him dressed in white inside. White for innocence. Not like Mother’s funeral.’ His face clouded over. ‘She wore the brown robe of a sinner.’
‘I never understood how you put up with her, John,’ said the Inspector.
‘I had to, she was my mother,’ reflected Keen.
‘It was a merciful release.’
‘I thought Jean would understand about Konrad. She’d never caused us any problems before.’
‘You can never trust them, John.’
‘But I thought she was different. I thought she understood the official stuff was a smokescreen. That’s for the sheep, the bottom feeders, the outer circle. We are what it’s really all about.’
‘She played Mary Magdalene, John. She understood.’
‘She was reading, thinking too much, questioning. Foolish.’ Fabulous sighed.
‘So,’ he shrugged. ‘Now I have to deal with her loser son, too.’
‘What have you got in mind?’
Keen thought about it for a while. Finally, he decided.
‘The usual.’
Goodnight, John-boy is the second book in the Read Em And Weep series and you can buy it digitally or as a paperback.