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Chapter 7 No One to Talk to

‘Charley, who’re all these people?’

Bruno’s mother looked at the stories about Miriam’s murder and the photographs of Guy that Bruno had cut out of the newspapers.

‘I met Guy Haines on a train,’ Bruno said. He liked saying Guy’s name, and he wanted to talk about the murder. ‘Someone murdered his wife.’

‘Who did it?’ she asked.

‘They don’t know. It’s a very difficult murder, a clever one, I think,’ Bruno said. ‘You know, Ma, Guy was the nicest man I ever met, but his wife was a —’

‘Charley!’ his mother said. ‘You’re in your grandmother’s house and she doesn’t like bad language.’ She looked at the glass of whisky in his hand. ‘Oh, Charley, you haven’t had breakfast yet.’

‘Whisky’s good for me, Ma.’

‘Don’t drink too much,’ she said. ‘Come out later. You’re in California and the sun is out. It’s a beautiful day.’

But the whisky wasn’t good for him. Every morning he had a pain in his chest and he couldn’t breathe. When his mother left, Bruno thought about the murder. He felt so powerful — he took away life, like God! He wanted to tell everyone about the murder, about his one great act. Most people, ordinary, common people, never had one great thing in their lives.

‘The newspapers,’ he thought. ‘I could tell them all about murder. I could teach them!’

Bruno really wanted to talk to Guy about the murder, but he did not dare to phone or write to him yet. But he had to talk to Guy soon, he wanted his father dead quickly, and he wanted Guy to do it.

Bruno’s grandmother walked into the room.

‘Have breakfast with me, my dear,’ she said. ‘Then I want to go out. A film, perhaps, a good one with a murder in it, or an amusement park?’

‘An amusement park,’ Bruno said with a smile. ‘I like them.’

When they got back to the house in the afternoon there was a letter for Bruno:

Dear Charles

I don’t understand your letter. I don’t know you very well so please don’t phone or write to me or my mother again.

Guy Haines

Bruno felt the terrible pain in his chest that he got in the morn ings, and then he started to cry.