Fast Fiction: The Suspect
The woman in the restaurant had jet-black hair, a full fresh face and supple lips. And the narrator of this story had the ability to read the words being shaped by those lips. Richard Mallinson's short story reveals surprises about the woman and the narrator.
Something that the man facing her said must have amused her. She gave a throaty laugh and at the same time closed her eyes.
She had jet-black hair, a full fresh face and supple lips.
Other people in the restaurant turned and no doubt liked what they saw. I certainly did.
She stopped laughing and opened her eyes. I saw her lean towards the man and smile an intimate smile. I went on watching as she sipped her wine.
She began to speak to the man.
Lip-reading, I saw that she was telling him about a coming visit to a cottage in France, where she hoped to finish writing her book on Flaubert.
She went on talking even when she realised I was watching her - but of course she didn’t know then that I was a lip-reader.
As my late father used to say, ‘All detectives should be lip-readers.’ Being a lip-reader had once helped him nick a gangster.
Now this may seem odd, but I was reluctant to arrest her. I would rather have gone to France with her. I could have been helpful. I had read three of Flaubert’s novels and could recall the plots, settings and characters.
I knew by heart the poignant demise of Emma Bovary. ‘She fell back upon the mattress in a convulsion. They drew near. She was no more.’
But it was not to be. I mean it was not to be that I would be going to France - or that she would be going either.
Of course I didn’t intend to arrest her at the table. That would have been crass and not my style. I would wait for her outside, caution her and then tell her that she could finish her book on Flaubert while doing time.
Later I wondered if my father, during his long but not illustrious career, had ever arrested a writer.
Somehow, I doubted it.
But, then, I’ve never nicked a gangster, have I?
