Stumbling into Mischief

Eleven

Once he left Aiden Royce's house, Richard went to the library to pick Clare up. She was interviewing Laurance Cassidy - the man who was at the pub on the night of the murder.

Richard stopped at a café on the way and bought them both a drink. Clare preferred coffee in the mornings; so he got her a coffee and himself a tea. He liked coffee too, but not quite as much as tea.

Tea would always be his favourite. Whenever life gave him lemons, he'd make a nice cup of tea.

Richard parked outside the library and began to wait, hoping Clare wouldn't be too long.

He decided to text her - to let her know he was waiting - with the hope that it might make her come quicker. He hated rushing people, but sometimes it just had to be done. Waiting was an awfully painful thing.

However, there was a problem. He couldn't decide how many x's to put at the end. His mind was telling him four, but that seemed far too much. He didn't want Clare to think he was the kind of man who did his flirting through text messages.

One and three were completely ruled out, as they were odd numbers, leaving him with two. Two seemed quite acceptable.

However, his obsession was just too powerful. It was four or nothing.

Waiting outside the library. R xxxx

Richard quickly sent the text, before he could change his mind, and shoved his phone back into his pocket.

And then he sat for a moment, looking for something to do. Already bored.

He noticed the radio - the most confusing part of his car. It had twelve little buttons, and Richard didn't know what a single one of them did. It was one big mystery.

After studying the little buttons for a while, Richard mangled to switch the radio on and go through the stations until he came across Heart. That was Clare's favourite station, apparently.

* * * *

About ten minutes later, the door opened.

"Hello!" She chirped as she jumped in, sounding extremely jolly.

Richard watched with a smile, and then held the coffee out to her. "Morning. There you go."

"Oooh! Thank you. That's very thoughtful of you." Clare replied gratefully, taking the cup. "How are you?"

"Not too bad, thanks. And you?"

"I'm very good, thank you." She said, looking at him expectantly for a moment. He could tell she was desperately trying to hide her excitement about the interviews.

"So come on, you first! How did it go with Aiden?" She asked quickly.

"Mm. He was decent, actually. Not what I expected at all."

Clare shuffled closer and nodded, sipping her coffee.

"Really? What happened?" She asked.

"Well, he said he was at home, alone, on the night of the murder - so no alibi."

Clare nodded. "What about his relationship with Jess?"

"It was good, apparently. He told me he'd never hurt her - so, according to Aiden, all the things we've heard about him are wrong."

"Right." Clare nodded. "Was there anything strange... or suspicious about him?"

Richard nodded. "Mm. There was one thing, actually."

"What?"

"When I got there, he really didn't want to let me in. He was going on about how he should have been warned and everything."