He already had everything. On the rare occasions we did get together it was a bit jarring. He was living in a different world, driving a brand new car with golf clubs in the boot, eating in restaurants I wouldn’t dream of going to. He was way ahead of us and it was all so effortless.’
‘I see. So tell me about this other girl at college,’ Tom said, ‘Amy, the one who called the police when he hit her.’
‘Oh that,’ Mark said as if it was no big deal. ‘Well I guess it all came up in court, so it’s no secret. In our first year Richard was an absolute hound. He had a different girl every week, or as near as. Most of us were lucky to get one a term but with Richard it was easy. He had the looks, he had the patter, women just fell for him but he never showed any inclination to stop rutting around,’ Birkett smiled grimly, ‘until he met Amy.’
‘Then he changed?’
‘We were in our second year by then. We’d moved out of halls and were sharing a grotty place on the edge of town. We threw a house-warming and she showed up with her mate.’
‘Is that how he met her?’
Birkett nodded. ‘She was a fresher and didn’t know anyone but I tell you every bloke in that room stopped what he was doing when she walked in.’
‘Good-looking?’
‘Stunning.’
‘So every guy wanted her but Richard was the one who started going out with her?’
‘Predictably so – and to be fair to him he did carry on seeing her. This wasn’t a one-night thing for once.’
‘How long were they in a relationship?’
Birkett shrugged. ‘Six months or so, but back in college that’s a lifetime.’
‘So what went wrong?’
‘Who knows, but one day Amy suddenly called it off.’
‘And you don’t know why?’
‘Who can tell for sure what goes through a young girl’s head? I got his side of it, of course. He was devastated. He thought they were a permanent item. Apparently she didn’t.’
‘Why not?’
‘He said she wasn’t ready for it. Amy was too young and wanted to see the world and other people. She was a bit of a free spirit and Richard was quite old-fashioned in some ways, which is a bit of contradiction when you consider what he was like in his first year.’
‘What happened?’
‘He tried to get her back,’ said Birkett, ‘and failed.’
‘And took it badly?’
‘He lost the plot and a lot of his pride along the way. I don’t think he had ever been rejected by a girl before in his life,’ Birkett said with some satisfaction, ‘and he had no frame of reference. He just couldn’t accept or deal with it, let alone move on. Lord knows we tried to persuade him to forget her but he just couldn’t or wouldn’t.’
‘So she called the police on him?’
‘That was a while later. He made a fool of himself on more than one occasion before they reached that point.’
‘Go on.’
‘He’d wait outside the lecture hall so he could intercept her and hassle her; he’d turn up at her house at all hours. She told him to leave her alone but he wouldn’t, he even threatened some guy he saw her with and challenged him to a fight. It was all a bit pathetic if I’m honest. We were embarrassed for him.’
‘And it clearly didn’t win her round.’
‘No,’ he said, ‘but she did sleep with him once.’
‘What?’
‘He’d calmed down a bit, hadn’t seen her for a while and we happened to be out at the same club as her. She was with her mates, celebrating her birthday and they had a big heart-to-heart in the corner.’ He put his palms up as if to illustrate how crazy that sounded. ‘What can I say? Emotions run high when you’re that age but whatever was said, he spent the night with her. The next morning he seemed to think they were back on again but that wasn’t her understanding. I think she looked upon it as break-up sex, a way to end it all amicably or possibly it was just a bit of drunken fun on her birthday. You’d have to ask her.’
‘Maybe I will,’ said Tom. ‘Was that when he lost it?’
‘Soon after,’ said Birkett, ‘when he found out she’d shagged somebody else. Then he lost it big style,’ confirmed Birkett, ‘shouting at her in the street, calling her names …’
‘What kind of names?’
‘Whore, slut, that kind of thing.’
‘When did she call the police?’
‘When