Chapter 2
Mrs. Grant started staying with Robin and Janet as she lost her entire family in a ship wreck when they were travelling to Nigeria and that time she was only 30. Her husband was a sailor in an Oil ship and Mrs. Grant was the only person who escaped the tragedy and from that day she has been baby sitting and doing other part time jobs to make a living.
Robin spent the entire week in a whole new world with his new nanny and even Mrs. Grant started finding a grand child in Robin. Stacy, Annie and Archer came down to Robin’s house on Sunday as Mrs. Grant had promised to take them out to the park. Mrs. Grant requested Janet to join them as she wanted to know more about Robin and Janet because now she was becoming a soul part of the family. Even Janet loved spending time with Mrs. Grant and she was trying to find her long lost mother, in Robin’ new nanny, who abandoned her and ran off with a boyfriend after her dad’s death.
They reached the park near the floating harbor of Bristol in a cab. The children started playing around and Mrs. Grant and Janet sat on a bench from where they could see the kids and also got a magnificent view of the harbor. Janet was looking at the kids playing and Mrs. Grant broke her silence by asking about Robin’s dad. She saw tears running down Janet’s cheeks and her lips were trembling as if to say something.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you dear” said Mrs. Grant.
“That’s fine Mrs. Grant. I am trying to get over it” said Janet. She didn’t speak for a minute and then wiping her tears with a napkin started talking about Alfred Scott, her love, her husband, her little Robin’s dad.
“Alfred and I were law students at the University of Bristol” said Janet. “He was from Scotland and his dad Richard Scott was a great magician from the isle of Lismore. Richard Scott is a multi millionaire and is now retired from all his activities and spending his last days in Lismore near the St. Moluogs Parish cathedral where his wife was buried. I first met Alfred at the Bristol international balloon fiesta. He was a very nice guy but was never interested in the magical world. Alfred did learn some magic from his dad when he was a little boy but as he grew up he forgot most of it and never showed any interest in his father’s field. Once his mother died, he moved to London and started staying with his uncle. We started going around and our favorite meeting places were the Wills memorial building at the top of Park Street and the Victoria Rooms which is owned by the university. I have never met his dad but we did receive a card from him, sending us his wishes, on our wedding day. I also remember Alfred calling up his dad on the day Robin was born and even the name Robin was suggested by Mr. Richard”.
“I can never forget that dreadful night of 18th October 2001. It was our anniversary and Robin and I were eagerly waiting to hear Alfred’s footsteps at the door because we knew that he would be coming with a very special surprise gift as usual. But on the contrary what came instead was the news of Alfred’s death. He was shot in his car on his way back home” said Janet. “I still don’t know why anyone should kill a person like Alfred. But what we lost on that day was the light of our life. What did Robin do to lose his loving dad at such an early age? The police are still not able to find out who had killed my husband. Why should anyone do that to my family?” Janet bursted out in tears and her body was trembling in grief.
“Didn’t you inform the tragedy to Mr. Richard?” asked Mrs. Grant.
“I tried contacting him several times but there was no response from his end” replied Janet.
“Don’t weep my dear. Your grief and pain will surely be answered by God” said Mrs. Grant trying to console Janet. Mean time Robin came running to his nanny asking why his mom was crying.
“Its nothing my dear, lets get back home. Your mom is not feeling well” said Mrs. Grant.
Days and months went by and each day Janet and Robin were growing closer to Mrs. Grant. Janet slowly started finding more time for Robin and the presence of Mrs. Grant is the house helped both Janet and Robin slowly come out of the grief that struck them. Mrs. Grant taught Janet the art of stitching and also taught Robin to sing traditional Gaelic songs
Mhurchaidh Bhig a chinn a chonais
chan ioghnadh tu dhol a dholaidh
Mrs. Grant and Janet even went to Robin’s school to watch their Inter school annual sports as a part of which they were to play a soccer match against Bristol eastern public school who was central public school’s main rivals and three time champions. This was the first time Janet was going to see her kid play. It was always Alfred who used to accompany Robin everywhere. Both dad and son were like friends and Janet knows that she will never be able to cover up the big hollow created by Alfred’s death in Robin’s life. Still Mrs. Grant insisted Janet to come and watch her kid play.
Robin was the under 8 sports hero of his school. The coach Mr. Woolmer had great hopes and praises for Robin. He felt Robin would be a future Olympic medalist. But other than coach Woolmer, no other teachers in the school had a good opinion about Robin. They had only complaints about Robin of not being studious and attentive in class.
All the girls were cheering for Robin as he went into the ground. Archer was the goal keeper for central public school team. It was a battle between the three time champions and the last year runner ups. Janet saw her Little Robin playing like a real hero on the ground. He was dribbling like Maradonna, scissor cutting like Pele, bending the shots like Becham and heading his way through like Ronaldo.
Finally after 1 and a half hours of play central school came out victorious registering 3 goals against 1 on the scoreboard of which all the three came from Robin’s boot. He even secured the first place in 100 and 200 meters race, high jump and cycling. And when Robin was declared the over all under 8 champion, Stacy couldn’t stop herself. She ran to the ground, hugged Robin and kissed him on his cheek. Robin felt embarrassed and started blushing.
“Coach Woolmer was right, our little Robin is a super star dear” exclaimed Mrs. Grant.
With Mrs. Grant around every day was new and exiting and even Stacy, Annie and Archer started spending most of their time at Robin’s house to hear Mrs. Grant’s stories of great sailors and also vampire stories which Robin loved to hear. They also loved the chocolate puddings and cookies she prepared for them. The kids even started helping Mrs. Grant is her house hold works when ever she was busy b’cos everything in which she was involved was fun.
Sometimes Mrs. Grant used to tease Robin mentioning about Stacy b’cos Stacy always says that Robin is her boy friend. That is the only time when Robin looks shy and embarrassed with a cute look on his face. Even Robin has a soft corner for Stacy but Mrs. Grant likes the way Robin denying this fact. Archer always goes round Annie trying to give her chocolates and flowers but she calls him a “nut pig”. Mrs. Grant started loving little Robin to such extend that if he was not around she felt like her world was going to come to an end. Even Robin had the same feeling towards Mrs. Grant.
Slowly 3 years had passed in Janet’s and Robin’s life after they lost Alfred. It was 18th October 2004. Mrs. Grant, Robin and Janet went to the church in the morning to pray for Alfred’s soul. They then went to the cemetery and laid white lilies on Alfred’s grave. Mrs. Grant and Robin slowly started walking back to the church as Mrs. Grant felt Janet would like to spend some time alone near her husband’s grave.
Suddenly they heard a pistol firing and Mrs. Grant turned back and found that Janet was shot and she fell on top of Alfred’s grave and the white lilies were covered with her blood. Mrs. Grant and Robin saw a guy wearing a long black jacket, goggles and a cow boy hat running to a car which was parked near the compound wall of the cemetery. He got into the car and drove off.
Robin was so terrified at this sight that he started screaming and ran towards his mom. He hugged his mom’s dead body and wept himself to a state of exhaustion. Mrs. Grant tried consoling Robin but all in vain. Tears were rolling down Mrs. Grant’s cheeks as well. She had lost a daughter, and her little Robin was weeping on his mom’s dead body.
“What is happening to this family” mumbled Mrs. Grant
The police came to the scene and took Janet’s body for postmortem. The body was later handed over to Mrs. Grant and Robin as they were the only known relation for Janet since Alfred’s Uncle who was in London died of brain tumor couple of years back. Janet was then buried near Alfred’s grave.
As the events progressed Mrs. Grant was taken into police custody for interrogations on Janet’s murder case and she did give the descriptions of the man who shot Janet and then sped away in a car. It was detective Bruce who was investigating Janet’s case as well. The evidences never took the case any forward as the police was not able to find the long black jacket guy.
Robin was bewildered and losing his state of mind with all the series of tragedies occurring to him. Mrs. Grant felt that she had to do something to bring Robin back to normal and the only way was to take him away from Bristol where he would not be haunted by the thoughts of his parent’s death.
Mrs. Grant searched all around the house for any of Janet’s or Alfred’s diaries or any information that would lead her to Mr. Richard, Robin’s grand father. Finally she got the card which Mr. Richard had sent to his son and Janet on the day of their wedding from one of Janet’s wardrobe.
Finally she felt that she had landed on something which would help her get in touch with Mr. Richard. She was not sure whether Mr. Richard would be still alive or not but decided to give it a try. She tried contacting Mr. Richard several times but never got any response. Finally she decided to take Robin to his grandfather during Christmas.
Mrs. Grant started spending most of her time with Robin trying to cheer him up. She used to take him to football matches, movies, and parks and tried to get all those horrible thoughts of his parent’s death out of his mind. Even Stacy felt really bad for Robin. She felt that now she was the only person for Robin and she had to give a new meaning to his life.
One day Robin and Stacy were strolling along the school ground and suddenly they heard the sound of a pistol firing. Robin turned back and saw the black jacket guy who had killed his mom was trying to shoot him. Robin started trembling with fear and his heart was pounding and he could feel his blood pumping and rushing up to his brains. He felt like he was about to faint.
“Run Robin, run for your life” screamed Stacy “He is trying to shoot us”.
Suddenly Robin regained his state of mind and he knew that he had to save himself. “There is no way I am going to let this guy kill me like my mom” said Robin in a stiff voice. At that moment Stacy felt like she was standing beside a man who is going to control his destiny. Robin grabbed Stacy’s hand and started running. They ran past the school gate and got into the street.
“Stacy, you get into that book shop now” screamed Robin. “That guy is after me and there is no way I am going to put your life into danger”.
“No Robin! There is now way I am going to leave you alone” said Stacy. “I am going with you whatever happens”.
“Get into that book shop now” yelled Robin. He sounded really tough for the first time in his life. Stacy didn’t dare to disobey Robin and she slowly ran into the shop. Robin waited till he was sure that Stacy was safe. By that time the black jacket guy had reached almost near to Robin.
He immediately put on his roller skates and started skating through the footpath. The black jacket was chasing him and Robin knew that one accurate shot from the killer’s pistol would end his life. Robin was skating his way along a street which had very few people. He knew that he had to deviate from the path and get into a busy street if had to hold any chance of escaping from the killer. And he did exactly that.
Robin started skating his way through a busy street pushing away people who came into his way. Suddenly he saw two people carrying a huge glass frame in front of him who were about to load it into a truck. Robin immediately sat down and skated his way beneath the glass frame. He then saw a group of kids in front of a shop and he knew that with this speed he was going to go straight into that crowd and hit them down. Robin immediately adjusted his position and once he reached near the group, he jumped into the air and flew right above the kids to avoid banging them down. The kids started clapping their hands seeing Robin fly right above their heads.
Robin turned back and saw that the black jacket guy was still behind him. He felt that there was no escape. Robin immediately removed his roller skates and started running as fast as he could and went and banged into a person who was about to get into a car. He looked up and saw that it was detective Bruce. Robin heaved a sigh of relief.
“Hey young man, I guess I have seen you somewhere. Aren’t you Janet’s son?” asked Mr. Bruce. “I remember seeing you with Mrs. Grant the old lady. How come you are here?”
“Mr. Bruce, the guy who killed my mom is chasing me and trying to shoot me” said Robin.
“Where is he?” asked Bruce.
“He was right there behind me” said Robin pointing his fingers to the crowd behind them. But there was no one to be found wearing a black jacket that Bruce and Robin could have nailed as a suspect.
Bruce immediately understood that the black jacket guy who killed Janet was now behind Robin. “‘But why should this guy try to kill little Robin” asked Bruce to himself. Bruce offered to drop Robin to his house because he wanted to meet Mrs. Grant as well.
As detective Bruce was driving Robin back to his home, he was thinking about the incidents which have been happening to Robin’s family. Alfred was killed on 18th October 2001 and exactly 3 year after that mishap, Janet was killed by a black jacket guy and today the same guy tried to kill Robin.
“Would this be the same person who would have killed Alfred as well” asked Bruce to himself. “If so why should this guy try to finish off this entire family? What has this guy got to do with Robin’s family”?
It was a mystery and Bruce knew that he had a task on hand to unveil the whole case to get this killer behind bars.
Bruce parked the car and accompanied little Robin to his house. Mrs. Grant heard the door bell ring and opened the door happy to find little Robin. She was a bit astonished to see detective Bruce.
“Why are you looking so tired my dear?” asked Mrs. Grant looking at Robin’s pale face.
“Oh! It’s nothing Mrs. Grant. I feel a bit tired after my soccer practice at school” replied Robin.
“Good evening Mrs. Grant” greeted detective Bruce. “I am sure you would be surprised to see me here at this time of the day”.
“Well that’s true Mr. Bruce” said Mrs. Grant. “But I am sure there would be something important which would have brought you here”.
“Well yeah! You have guessed it right. I really do have something important to discuss with you Mrs. Grant and I would love to do that over a cup of coffee” said Mr. Bruce smiling.
Robin ran upstairs and Mr. Bruce made himself comfortable on the German sofa in the living room. Mrs. Grant made him a hot cup of coffee. “Great coffee Mrs. Grant’ said the detective. “Now let’s get into the matter which made me visit you. The black jacket guy who killed Janet appeared again today and tried to kill little Robin. Robin was lucky that he jumped into me before the killer could harm him. I suspect that this would be the same person who would have killed Robin’s dad as well. I don’t think Robin is safe anymore here in Bristol”.
“So what do you want us to do detective?” asked Mrs. Grant.
“I think you should take Robin away from Bristol until we are able to capture this killer and put him behind bars” replied Mr. Bruce.
“Even I felt the same thing” said Mrs. Grant. “I tried contacting Mr. Richard Scott, Robin’s grand dad but in vain. I had decided to take Robin to him in Lismore during Christmas. But now that things have taken such a turn, I think we should make the travel as soon as possible”.
Mr. Bruce nodded in agreement. “I don’t think we should be discussing all these to Robin” said the detective. “After all he is just a kid”.
But Robin was listening to all their conversation. The black jacket guy had killed his dad and mom and is now after him. But why? Who is this guy?
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