Star Pupil

Chapter fourteen

"Who is it?" a voice asked us behind the door. "I'm looking for a Seamus Keith." I said, stepping back from the door. Zara and I waited for a moment until I heard bolts on the door being unlocked. An old person then opens up the door just a crack, only showing his face.

I can't get a good look of him but he appears to have hazel blue eyes, a white 'stache and because I'm guessing he's near his 70's, he has a set of wrinkles on him. "Who are you both?" the man asked us. "We're students of Boothwood, we came to you for help." I said.

The man took one look at us both and said something to try to make us leave but we were not fooled by that. "If yousens want to look for help, please ring up the NSPCC." He said, closing the door, but I managed to stop it with my big hand blocking it. Kinda hurt but Zara and I needed to see if it's him.

"Few of our caretakers were just killed by a man in a Boothwood school uniform this week and our Principal Gallagher wouldn't listen to us. We think you know who's doing it, right?" THAT got his attention.

Hopefully I've convinced him to open the door for us to hop inside for a chit-chat. Yes I did. "Come on in and I'll talk to you both. Wipe your feet on the mat, please. Keeps the house clean." He said. He opened the door for us to hop inside. Wow, from the moment I got in the main landing here, I feel nice and toasty within seconds!

I had a look around the house while standing in front of the door and thought to myself "What a nice house" because it IS a nice house! It reminds me of my grandparent's house in Downpatrick, except its more wide open spaced.

"I'm making some tea, do you kids want some?" Mr Keith asked us. And yes, I knew right away it's him. I could do with some tea right now, since he asked us. "Uh, yeah sure, if that's no bother." I replied. "Awk, don't be silly. Sugar and milk?" Mr Keith asked. I usually take milk in my tea. "Just milk please. Zara?" I said, turning to Zara, who hasn't been speaking much.

"Same as him." She said. "I'll be right back, here take a seat." Mr Keith pointed to the sofa in the living room over to our left. "After you" I said to Zara, as she moves over to the sofa. I followed her to the living room until we both sat down on the sofa beside each other.

This should be good, tea and chit-chat on a Thursday night. "Are you OK, babe?" Zara asked me. Realizing that I have a bit of a frown-y look on my bake, I changed my face up before answering her. "Yeah, am fine." I said, smiling.

I had another good time to look at the house, even though I'm on the sofa still, I looked at this amazing fireplace that is sitting between this old TV and a bookcase. I was thinking "this guy's really well into reading like us".

I heard footsteps approaching behind us and, it's no biggie. It's just "Crazy Keith" walking to us with his tray with our tea and mugs with milk. He walked over to the mini table, where he sat down the tray before pouring his tea from his pot into our mugs and handing two of them over to us.

"Here you are. Enjoy your tea." Said Mr Keith, as he sat down on the armchair with his cup of tea. Wow, a nice hot sip of tea sure relieves me and Zara from our stress. Since it's like 7:30 in the evening, I'm guessing this tea is decaf. Should have asked Mr Keith if he was making decaf tea.

"Thanks, sir. I forgot to introduce ourselves: I'm Jake and this is Zara." I said, leaning over to Keith who shook my hand and Zara's hand before sitting back down. "Nice to meet you both. So this man in the school uniform, he killed the others, right?" he said.

"Yeah, do you know who it is?" Zara asked him. Just as we're drinking our tea, we listened to our dear friend Crazy Keith telling us the story. Luckily, I've got my phone out and started to record it via voice memo.