Who Wants To Live Forever?. Steve Wilson

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СКАЧАТЬ before leaving the flat, and leave it at that. Then you’ll not be disappointed. But I knew that I’d take no notice of my own advice.

      ***

      I arrived early at the college that evening, fully expecting that there would be new faces in the class, but I was to be disappointed; Gail was the only other person there when I arrived, and by seven o’clock there were just the six of us who had been present a week earlier. It was noticeable that Mike and Emma chose not to sit with us, but took seats at the other circular table. But there was no sign of Louise, and as the clock ticked on to ten past I began to think that the cancellation letters had been sent out but hadn’t arrived in time.

      It was a surprise, then, when Louise walked in a couple of minutes later. “Sorry I’m late,” she said, “but I’ve been on the phone to the Education Department to see if anybody else has enrolled.”

      “And have they?” I asked, unable to keep the fear out of my voice.

      “No, I’m afraid not,” she answered in a sad voice. “But not to worry,” she added, her tone now much more upbeat. “I’ve managed to persuade them to let us continue. Now, let’s get started, shall we? We’ve a lot to cover tonight. Mike, Emma, as there’s only going to be us seven here, come and join us at this one table, please.”

      Reluctantly, the couple moved over to join us, and I noticed a smile of what looked like satisfaction on Louise’s face. Perhaps she couldn’t say so officially, but I guessed she had felt challenged by last week’s attitudes and was determined not to allow them to cause any disruption to her class.

      “Right, let’s begin. As I said last week, I want to concentrate over the next nine weeks on nine specific events that took place across the county over the last century. At first, you might think that there is nothing about these cases that warrants them being given more attention than any other occurrences, but I hope that by the time we reach the end of the course you will be able to see the connection between them all.

      “Before I start, though, I want to set the general scene, and I intend to do that by talking about crime in Lancashire. If we look at the decade from the mid-thirties through to the end of the Second World War, it’s probably fair to say that the crime rate in Lancashire was fairly low, at least in comparison with the type and severity of crimes that we see today. Take youth crime, for example. Children at that time were still mischievous, but not malicious. One of their favourite pastimes was to tie adjacent doorknockers together, knock on the two doors, then run off to watch and laugh as the two householders tried in vain to open their front doors to see who was calling. It was mischievous rather than malicious, and nobody was hurt by it. In general, people could walk through town at night in perfect safety, and it’s become almost legendary now how people would go to the shops without bothering to lock their front doors, yet nothing would ever be stolen.”

      “Yeah, but that’s because they had nowt to steal.”

      “Perhaps that’s so, Mike, but nowadays, their home would be vandalised whether there was anything worth stealing or not. Women, especially, could feel safe when they were out. There were areas where police had to walk in pairs, because they were considered fair game for a beating when the pubs emptied at closing time, but they also gave as good as they got, without having to listen to claims of police brutality.”

      “You’ll be telling us Gene Hunt was a good cop next,” sneered Mike.

      “I’m neither condoning nor condemning anybody. I’m just telling it as it was,” said Louise, a little exasperated. “Nowadays, smacking is not allowed, but in the thirties police and family members dispensed a good old-fashioned clip round the ear to straighten out wayward children. And it used to work, because nobody wanted to be on the receiving end twice. The police would often use their cape as a weapon, swirling it round and clouting people on the shoulders. With the thick collar and fastening clasp, it was a very quick, effective and painful means of dispensing justice.

      “So, and now we come to the point of all this. With major crime a rarity, when there was a murder, it grabbed the headlines; far more so than would happen today, when suspicious deaths are unfortunately all too common. So what I want to talk about next is one of the stranger deaths that occurred in the county. It happened just over a hundred years ago, in Manchester. I know that isn’t in Lancashire now,” she added before anybody could interrupt, “but Manchester and Liverpool used to be as much a part of Lancashire as Lytham St Annes is. This course will look at events that occurred across the old historic county.”

      I could see that Mike was itching to contradict Louise, despite Emma’s attempts to quieten him. For the next twenty minutes, I sat and listened to what I considered to be a rather unnecessary argument about whether or not a variety of locations were suitable subjects for a course about Lancashire.

      Louise looked at her watch. “We’ve spent quite a bit of time on this discussion. I suggest we go for our break now, then we can start on the real content of tonight’s session when we return in twenty minutes.” And without another word, she stood and walked out of the room.

      ***

      As I sipped my coffee Trish came over to join me. “That was a little unexpected. I’m glad she suggested a break. I was dropping off to sleep. Who really cares whether Todmorden is in Lancashire or Yorkshire? Unless you’re from there, I suppose.”

      I nodded my assent. “I thought I was the only one. I hope that the rest of the sessions don’t get hijacked, as I was quite intrigued when she said we were going to look at a strange death. I know,” I added quickly, “it sounds a bit morbid, but I thought it would be interesting. I get the impression, though, that whatever content was included in the course, he wouldn’t be happy. Even his girlfriend — I’m assuming that’s what she is — was trying to calm him down, but he seems intent on confrontation. I don’t think he likes the fact that he’s in a group with so many oldies as I’m sure he refers to us, but that isn’t going to change. They could have helped change the dynamic if they’d encouraged some of their friends to enrol, but they were no more successful than the rest of us in getting new people to come along tonight. So this is the group, like it or not. I just hope that Louise hasn’t had second thoughts about twisting the arms of those at the department and letting the course continue. Half of me dreads going back in case she’s had a change of heart as a result of his aggressive negativity, and she’s used the break to cancel the remainder of the course.”

      “Me too,” added Trish. “And it would be such a shame, for I’m with you on this. It isn’t being morbid at all. In fact, I was hoping the strange death would be a puzzling murder. Now that would be fascinating. Don’t you agree, Debbie?”

      Debbie walked across, having obviously heard the tail-end of our discussion. “I’m not too sure. Perhaps I haven’t got the same kind of gory interests as you pair,” she added with a semi-laugh, “but I was hoping perhaps for more, well, shall we say historical facts to be discussed.”

      As she spoke Debbie looked directly at me. Her blue eyes, sparkling as the light reflected in them, seemed to bore deep into my soul, and I found myself floundering beneath her gaze.

      “He seems to have gone into a trance. What did you do to him?” Trish laughed, enjoying my obvious discomfort when I realised I had missed part of the conversation.

      Mumbling something about it being an age thing, I led the three of us back to the classroom, hoping that there would still be a class to attend.

      ***

      When we returned, Louise was finishing off putting some stapled sheets on our tables. “I’ve СКАЧАТЬ