You Have Been Murdered!. Michael Scopus

It was a sunny Monday morning and the sunshine flooded the bedroom of the London flat despite the thin, flower-patterned curtains still being closed. He could smell the roses in the vase on the bedside cabinet that he had bought for Kathy yesterday. He smiled. He was happy. He reached over to Kathy and gently brushed her golden hair from her face, and she opened her eyes. He smiled again and she smiled back. Kathy and David had been together now for almost a year. David had his own flat less than a mile away but increasingly spent more nights at Kathy’s place. They had met when David first started doing jobs for the Mitchell gang. Jack, the youngest member of the Mitchell gang, and David had become good mates almost immediately due to their mutual love of fast cars. Jack had brought David to his mum, Debbie’s fortieth birthday party where he had first met Kathy. Kathy, as it turned out, was actually Jack’s aunt although only five years older than Jack and they had grown up playing together in the same East London street.

      David moved to get up.

      “Oh no . . . ” She moaned as he sat up in bed.

      “Sorry babe but I gotta go.” David apologized.

      Kathy’s face registered disappointment and David noticed.

      “Hey, you know I agreed that I would drive for the Mitchells today.” David gently reminded her as he sat on the side of the bed and pulled on his socks.

      “Is Jack going with you?” Kathy asked.

      “No, it’s just me and Gazza,” David said calmly although he was bracing himself for what he knew was coming.

      “Just the two of you?” Kathy said incredulously and now sitting up in the bed.

      “More money that way, Sweetheart. Split it fifty-fifty.” David replied, standing up and pulling on his trousers.

      “I don’t like you working with Gazza, David. He’s a nutcase!” Exclaimed Kathy.

      “Gazza? Nah he’s just a big kid really. Besides, he’s taking all the risk, I’m just doing the driving.” David assured her.

      “I don’t like it, David.” Kathy was upset and wanted David to recognize the fact.

      “Hey, don’t worry yourself, babe,” David reassured her. “I can take care of myself and besides it’s just this one more job and then I’ll have enough cash to go legit.”

      “But it’s always just one more job!” Kathy sulked.

      “Babe don’t be like that . . . ” David glanced at his watch. “Besides you better get up and get yourself off to school. You don’t wanna be late again and get in teacher’s bad books.” David grinned mischievously.

      “But I am the teacher!” Kathy replied her face broke into a reluctant smile despite trying desperately to show how upset she was.

      “And the most beautiful one at that!” David replied planting a kiss on her forehead. With that, David pulled on his sweatshirt, picked up his shoes and made for the bedroom door.

      “Would you like me to make you some coffee?” She called behind him.

      “Coffee? Nah, I’ll grab some on the way. See you tomorrow tonight though eh?” he replied.

      “Yeah and BE CAREFUL!” She emphasized.

      “For you, babe, anything,” David reassured her.

      Kathy reached over to the bedpost where David’s Spurs cap was hanging and placed it on her head.

      “Aren’t you forgetting something?” She said coyly.

      “Oh, yeah, chuck it here, love,” said David.

      “Come and get it!” Kathy replied temptingly as she pulled the duvet up to her eyes.

      “Oh, so now that’s your game, is it?” David replied and ran and dived onto the bed as Kathy pulled the duvet over her head and let out an ear-piercing shriek.

      ♦ ♦ ♦

      The kettle was whistling. David smiled to himself as he savored the memory. He turned off the kettle and placed the coffee jar back into the cupboard.

      “I’ll grab some on the way.” He repeated to himself.

      David missed Kathy and reflected on the futility of his life without her. He picked up the leaflet from the kitchen table that he’d been given on his last drop yesterday. He had read it last night before he went to bed. He read it again and noticed the telephone number on the bottom of the leaflet.

      “Why not?” he thought to himself.

      Pulling his mobile phone out of his pocket, he dialed the number.

      “Hello, Roy speaking.” answered the voice.

      The Most Northerly Mosque

      Inverness, Scotland

      In a small side street in Inverness, a dilapidated stone building is undergoing renovation. The building was built in the 1800s as a church for the Free Church of Scotland and paid for entirely by donations from the local community. In its heyday, the church was often full to capacity as people came from far around to hear the enigmatic pastor James McDougal speak. After the Second World War, membership began to decline as the old pastor and many other older members gradually died off and the new generation found other things to do with their time other than attend church. Since the late 1980s, attendance had fallen to a mere handful. In 1991, the building was noted to be in need of structural repairs which the small congregation could not afford. As a result, the building had lain dormant for a number of years. Since then the old church had been partially repaired and used successively as a childcare nursery, a social club for highland walkers and more recently, a drop-in youth center. However, the building was officially condemned by the local council two years ago as more serious repairs were required, and since then the old church had stood empty. It had now been purchased quite cheaply by the local Inverness Islamic Society as a property in need of major renovations.

The Malik family are today visiting the old church building that the Islamic Society plans to convert into a mosque. Dr. Malik had been for many years a respected urologist at the city’s Raigmore Hospital and as the Chairman of the Inverness Islamic Society, he has been tasked with overseeing the conversion works to be done for the mosque. Dr. Malik had come to the UK from Islamabad in Pakistan with his family as a small boy and they were one of the first Muslim families to immigrate to Inverness. Dr. Malik was visiting the building today for a preliminary inspection with his two sons, Yousef and Afzal and his only daughter, Nilofer. His oldest son, Yousef is twenty-one years old, unemployed and considers himself a strict Muslim. Yousef was very proud of his family’s leading role in building the mosque and had already started an online website touting the mosque as the ‘UK’s most northerly Masjid.’4 Nilofer is twenty years old and studying for a medical degree and has hopes one day to follow in her father’s footsteps. Nilofer feels protective about her youngest brother, Afzal who has only just turned seventeen years old. She feels that Yousef is a bad influence on him with his strict understanding of Islam and she is suspicious of Yousef’s so-called friends. Afzal left school at sixteen much to his father’s disappointment with very poor grades and only a single GCSE in math. He had gotten a job at the local Tesco supermarket but quit after only two weeks. A kind-hearted young man, his lack of academic ability is only surpassed by the abundance of his love for his family. His loyalty to his siblings is conflicted between the reciprocated love of his sister and respect for his older brother.

      Inside the old building, there are large empty plastic paint tubs doubling as buckets strategically placed around the floor to catch the water from the leaking roof. A few old broken wooden chairs make up the sum of the furnishings and an old gray tarpaulin doubles as a carpet covering part of the floor. The floor itself is covered by layers of dust and several of the walls have holes in them where the plaster has come away. However, none of this dampens the enthusiasm of Dr. Malik.

“So, this is the south-east side