Remember Me Read online

  Remember

  me?

  FAUKON ABBEY MYSTERY

  By

  A.K. Lakelett

  Praise for A.K. Lakelett

  Remember Me?

  “As with the best of crime novels, Remember Me proves a tense and compelling debut as A K Lakelett takes a tried and tested formula and adds her own impressive twist. Creating something innovative in such a popular genre is no mean feat…” BookViral

  "This is a very different type of book, written much more dramatically and poetically than your typical mystery novel." Judge, Writer's Digest, 4th Annual Self-Published e-Book Awards.

  “Bravo to the author for taking a chance by using a combination of a very untraditional format for a novel — a play — and yet combining it with a standard novel storyline that’s suspenseful, skillfully paced, and intriguing.” Amazon Reviewer

  Missing Alibi

  “A timely and classic blend of suspense laced with one twist after another it’s one of those rare offerings that actually encourages the reader to solve the crime. Dense with plot intricacies, thick with atmosphere, and packed with a well-nuanced ensemble of characters…” BookViral

  “Ms. Lakelett’s plotting is devious and there is more than one candidate for villain in the running, which always makes the story more interesting, albeit more complicated. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and heartily recommend it to mystery lovers everywhere.” Amazon Reviewer

  Books by A.K. Lakelett:

  Faukon Abbey Mystery Series:

  Remember Me? – Faukon Abbey Mystery 1

  Missing Alibi – Faukon Abbey Mystery 2

  Faukon Abbey Mysteries Companion

  Occupational Hazard Novella Series:

  The Good Riddance Project

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  Contents

  Praise for A.K. Lakelett

  Welcome

  PROLOGUE

  Action

  Monday 12th of May, 2014

  Chorus

  Action

  ACT 1 - Death

  Action

  Julia – 1993

  Julia – 1994

  Chorus - 1994

  Action

  December - 1995

  Chorus

  Gateway Gazette, page 4

  Valley Police Report

  Court - April 1996

  Julia - 1997

  Chorus

  Monday 12th of May, 2014

  Action

  Chorus

  Monday 12th of May

  Tuesday 13th of May

  Wednesday 14th of May

  Thursday 15th of May

  Friday 16th of May

  Saturday 17th of May

  Action

  Chorus

  Monday 19th of May

  Tuesday 20th of May

  Wednesday 21st of May

  Thursday 22nd of May

  Friday 23rd of May

  ACT 2 - Inquest

  Action

  Chorus

  Tuesday 27th of May

  Wednesday 28th of May

  Thursday 29th of May

  Friday 30th of May

  Monday 2nd of June

  Action

  Chorus

  Tuesday 3rd of June

  Wednesday 4th of June

  Thursday 5th of June

  Friday 6th of June

  ACT 3 – Pandora’s Box

  Action

  Action

  Evie - 1994

  Chorus

  Saturday 7th of June

  Sunday 8th of June

  Monday 9th of June

  Tuesday 10th of June

  Thursday 12th of June

  Friday 13th of June

  Monday 16th of June

  Tuesday 17th of June

  Thursday 20th of June

  Monday 23rd of June

  EPILOGUE

  Chorus

  Thursday 10th of July

  Tuesday 15th of July

  Action

  Chorus

  Tuesday 25th of July

  Action

  Chorus

  Wednesday 26th of July

  Final Action

  Acknowledgements

  Copyright © 2016 by A.K.Lakelett, Faukon Abbey Publishing

  All rights reserved

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are a product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  eBook ISBN: 1-945479-00-0

  eBook ISBN-13: 978-1-945479-00-7

  ISBN: 1-945479-01-9

  ISBN-13: 978-1-945479-01-4

  To all of you who encouraged me to write, suffered through the rough drafts and still thought I was on to something.

  You know who you are and I couldn’t have done it without you, thank you!

  Welcome

  Thank you for coming. The play begins shortly; please turn off your phones, thank you.

  The play you’re about to see is a Greek Tragedy – reminding us that forgotten tragic events in our past can have consequences years later.

  For those of our customers who have not seen any of our plays before – a Greek tragedy begins with a Prologue, which introduces the drama. The Prologue is then followed by the entry of the Chorus, which consists of multiple members. The story is then told in three episodes or acts. The Acts are interspersed by the members of the Chorus explaining or commenting on the play. In the end there is an Epilogue, when the masks are dropped and everything is explained.

  The Action happens on the right side of the stage. When the right side goes dark, you will see the Chorus on the left side. Let the play begin!

  PROLOGUE

  Action

  Monday 12th of May, 2014

  Deep in a forest a man is walking, slowly surveying the nature around him. He slows down, leans his back against a mountain ash in full bloom. Deep sigh, hand touching chest; he sinks down along the tree trunk. The birds continue singing; the mountain ash scatters a few petals on his dark green moleskin trousers.

  Flecks of sunshine appear on his face

  All pain is gone

  Peace is restored

  Wind flutters scattering more petals

  A small butterfly rests on his nose.

  Chorus

  A person comes by, sees a man slumped by the mountain ash, and goes to him. Feels for a pulse, none to be found. Calls 999.

  There is a man here, there is a man

  he seems ill or maybe dead

  please arrive soon,

  don’t know what to do.

  Please come soon.

  After a while, an ambulance arrives.

  Ambulance man carries a bag

  sits down and checks the man.

  No pulse, feels a bit cold

  not stiff yet

  not long gone

  could be heart attack.

  No wounds.

  Police arrives

  checks the man.

  Who is he, no id in wallet.

  Did you know the man?

  The finder tells how he was found

  slightly shocked

  not nice to find dead men around.

  Do you not know the man?

  What were you doing here?

  Just walking my dog, she’s there.

  Can I go now, not nice to find dead men here.

  Action

  The murderer stops the car, checks for other cars, steps out, stomps foot multiple times on the dead man’s mobile phone until it breaks and then throws some of the pieces around. Back in the car, the murderer throws the rest of the mobile phone pieces o
ut of the window every now and then on the roadside.

  The murderer continues driving.

  Music plays on the car radio

  Are you lonesome tonight

  New station

  Girl from Ipanema

  Changes station

  And now the news

  In France the talks are continuing about the ban

  Tunes out, mind empty, continues driving

  road widens, a few cars appear

  traffic light

  but it changes to green – continue

  Continue driving

  Continue living

  Continue, continue, continue

  ACT 1 - Death

  Action

  Julia – 1993

  ‘Oh Mom, he is such a good-looking guy; I can’t believe he is interested in me! Me, a single mom, and he even loves Evie. And I’m not even a student! I met him at work, in the Library; he wanted my help finding some older law books comparing property laws in Scotland and England. He’s got such a bright future, he just needs to finish a few more classes and he’s ready for a big law firm and can start making big money.

  ‘I am so lucky to have met him, Mom! Just the other night he took me into a real posh restaurant, white tablecloths and real linen napkins. You should have seen the menu and the prices! I’ve never eaten real French food before; it was so good, although there wasn’t that much of it. He said it’s the new kind of cooking. He knows so much of all those things I never heard of, like wine. I didn’t really like the wine though, it was quite tart. I think I got a bit tipsy. He said one should always have red wine with meat and white wine with fish – with chicken you can have either.

  ‘He’s so clever. He comes from a really fine family too. I haven’t met his parents yet, but he’s promised we’ll go to see them soon. They’re abroad so we can’t see them yet.

  ‘I’m so lucky, Mom. Eric’s so nice. He carries Evie all over on his shoulders. He tickles her and she just giggles, she even started calling him daddy. Oh Mom, I’m so lucky.’

  Julia – 1994

  Crunch – the sickening sound of a cheek bone cracking. Julia feels her body hitting the wall and then slowly sliding down to the stone floor. She tries to crawl away and make herself as small as possible.

  ‘Please Eric, please. It hurts, please, Eric, please.’

  Chorus - 1994

  She gets beat up – she’s been bad

  She’s been bad, she’s been a flirt

  She’s been bad, where was his favorite bread?

  She gets beat up – she’s been bad

  She gets kissed where it hurt

  She gets smothered in kisses – I’m so sorry my love

  I’m so sorry – I love you so much

  She gets kissed where it hurt

  I don’t know what comes over me

  I love you so much, I can’t stand seeing you hurt

  I’m so sorry, this won’t happen again

  I don’t know what comes over me

  It must be the stress

  Getting high grades is so hard

  I want to be the best

  It must be the stress

  It’s ok, I’m not really that hurt

  It looks worse than it is

  Help me up

  I’m not really that hurt.

  Love and kisses, all good now.

  I can finish cooking

  Time goes by, the pattern repeats,

  She is weak, and doesn’t leave

  She’s been bad, she gets hurt

  But he loves her too

  He has just too much to do.

  Stress is bad.

  Action

  December - 1995

  ‘Hello, what is your emergency?’

  ‘Please help, I’m bleeding, he beat me up I’m bleeding. I tried to kill myself. He tried to kill me.’

  ‘Where are you, ma’am?’

  ‘Please come, I’m bleeding’………………..

  Chorus

  Gateway Gazette, page 4

  According to the police report, an emergency team and the police were dispatched late yesterday afternoon after a woman called about what appeared to be domestic violence. The Emergency Services were dispatched to the site where a badly injured woman was found and taken to the hospital. A girl of about seven years old was taken by Child Support Services until her next of kin can be found.

  A man suspected of domestic violence was found outside bleeding and taken to the hospital. According to the police report, he had been cut several times.

  Valley Police Report

  When questioned by the police the suspect stated:

  ‘It was self-defense; she came after me with a knife. I don’t know what happened; all of a sudden she went totally crazy; she grabbed a knife and came after me. I tried to defend myself and managed to land a punch on her. She got up and stabbed me in the side, sliced through my sleeve.’

  ‘I hit her and she fell down. I tried to run away, but she was between me and the door. When I tried to pass her to get to the door, she stabbed me in the thigh. I managed to get to the door. Got outside, and I must have passed out from pain.’

  Court - April 1996

  All rise, Court is now in session.

  Judge to the defendant:

  ‘You are charged with assault, causing bodily harm with a knife. Do you understand the charges laid against you?’

  ‘Yes, Your Honor.’

  ‘How do you plead? ‘

  ‘Guilty, Your Honor.’

  ‘Then I have no choice but to sentence you to three years in prison’.

  ‘Don’t worry Mom. Get better, I’ll see you soon.’ A small girl waved her arm. Her mother was taken to the cells to be transported to prison.

  The judge bangs the gavel down.

  ‘Next case’.

  Julia - 1997

  A year after getting out of the prison (she gets out a year early for good behavior), and having moved south, Julia marries a plumber, Arthur, who adopts Evie. Due to the adoption and Evie’s start in a new school with her new adoptive name, she is no longer “Evie – the girl with the mom in prison”. She now has a father and they are finally a family.

  Arthur adores both Julia and Evie, and pays for Evie’s Oxbridge education in finance. He is a successful plumber, with his own business, and he and Julia are very happy. They buy a house in Greece for their holidays and plan to retire there. A week after Evie graduates in May 2011, the plumber dies of a heart attack, leaving everything to Julia who moves to Greece in September the same year.

  During Julia’s prison time, Evie stayed with her grandmother who died shortly after Julia’s wedding. Julia’s stay in prison for domestic assault under mitigating circumstances is now well in the past so there is no information to be found, barring a short newspaper article.

  Chorus

  Monday 12th of May, 2014

  Daily Cuppa Tea Room

  Two middle-aged women enter, one in a grey woolen coat wearing sturdy and sensible brown shoes and the other wearing a moss green jacket and black trousers, both of which have seen better days.

  ‘Two teas – Darjeeling please.’

  ‘Anything else?’

  ‘Oh, that chocolate cake looks good; I’ll have a piece of that.’

  ‘And I’ll have a piece of that fruit pie, please.’

  ‘That’ll be six pounds fifteen pence, please.’

  ‘I’ll pay’, says the woman in the grey coat. ‘You paid the last time.’

  She counts the money on the counter.

  ‘Thank you, I’ll bring you your tea and cakes.’

  The women select a table by the window. They remove their coats, hang them on a coatrack standing between tables, and sit down. Both keep their hats on. Under the grey coat, a flowery housedress that has seen better days; under the green coat, a black t-shirt with dark spots visible under the arms. The waitress brings a big brown teapot with the teabag strings hanging, two plates with a slice of a cake and a piece of
fruit pie. The woman in the housedress pours in milk for both and then serves the tea. ‘Sugar?’

  ‘How have you been? How is Esmie, still at the nursing school?’

  ‘Been gardening a lot, her ladyship, tsk tsk, she is like a changeling, what do they call them – manicky depressionisis or somethin’. One minute she’s nice and all is lovely, like the other day: I forgot to wipe the dead leaves off the sill and it was all – no worries, and she wiped them of with her hand, all smiley. One day she wanted the stove to be polished with a toothbrush, and when a spot didn’t come off, she told me I was as useless as that old toothbrush I had used. Tsk tsk.’

  ‘Oh this pie is good. Mmm!’

  ‘Esmie’s doing good, how’s Wilbur?’

  ‘And now she’s gone mad – saw hhhrr-im doing that it was strange – no reason for her being there – him was gone. Sshhhe’s always cookin’ somting – foul smell.’

  ‘Oh this cake is good – more tea?’

  ‘Yes please.’

  ‘So then what?’

  ‘He was up to no good, surely killed ‘er – she complains every day, makes that foul stuff. I’m sure it was…’. She starts to cough hard, wipes her chin and blows her nose with the paper napkin, ‘schmurder’.

  ‘Sure up to no good.’

  The women finish their tea and cakes.

  ‘Oh look at the time, have to be going.’