Mindgame by Anthony Horowitz Read Free Book Online

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    FARQUHAR: ( Gently .) Why didn’t you tell me this before?
    STYLER: Because… ( Pause .) It was after what he did to my mother that I moved to London. My poor, beautiful, kind mother. The police asked me to identify the body. They tried to hide the worst of it but…the way he’d slashed at her. I couldn’t identify her. I couldn’t recognise her. It was as if some wild animal…
    FARQUHAR: And you wanted to meet Easterman. Why? What were you going to do if you found yourself in the same room as him? Did you want to kill him?
    STYLER: No. I wanted to understand him. That’s all. I thought, if I wrote about him, I might be able to…
    FARQUHAR: What?
    STYLER: ( Surprising himself . ) …forgive him.
    FARQUHAR: Forgive him?
    STYLER: Yes.
    FARQUHAR: You really think you could do that?
    STYLER: Yes.
    A pause. FARQUHAR picks up the telephone.
    FARQUHAR: ( Into the telephone .) Nurse Plimpton. Could you come back please?
    STYLER: May I have another cigarette?
    FARQUHAR: Help yourself.
    STYLER takes out his crumpled ten-cigarette packet and opens it. He takes out a cigarette and lights it.
    Is that better?
    STYLER: Yes.
    A pause. STYLER smokes.
    FARQUHAR: If you were to meet Easterman…
    STYLER: What?
    FARQUHAR: You wouldn’t be afraid of him?
    STYLER: Afraid of him?
    FARQUHAR: Yes.
    STYLER: Should I be? Is he still dangerous?
    FARQUHAR: He’s unpredictable.
    STYLER: Unpredictable.
    FARQUHAR: Which can be very dangerous indeed.
    STYLER: Well, you’ll get some security…
    FARQUHAR: Not at this time of night. Security will have gone home.
    STYLER: What about Borson?
    FARQUHAR: He’s on the gate.
    STYLER: Maybe I could meet Easterman in his cell.
    FARQUHAR: Both of you in his cell?
    STYLER: Him in his cell. Me outside.
    FARQUHAR: It’s sound-proofed. The walls are two-foot thick.
    STYLER: Oh. ( Pause .) Could you restrain him?
    FARQUHAR: Restrain him?
    STYLER: In a strait-jacket or something.
    FARQUHAR: ( Frustrated .) Mr Styler…
    STYLER: What have I said now?
    FARQUHAR: I thought I’d explained the philosophy of Fairfields to you. But now I wonder if you listened to a single word I said!
    STYLER: I listened.
    FARQUHAR: The whole purpose of this institution, the founding principal, was to try to get beyond the terror that has for so many years imprisoned the mentally ill.
    STYLER: ( Helpless .) But you said he was in a cell…that the walls were two-foot thick.
    FARQUHAR: That’s his choice. It is Easterman who is hiding from us.
    STYLER: I don’t understand.
    FARQUHAR: Well maybe if you put yourself in a strait-jacket you’d begin to. In fact that’s not such a bad idea. Have you even seen a strait-jacket, Mr Styler? Have you ever held one? Have you ever put one on?
    STYLER: No. Of course not.
    FARQUHAR: Then it’s time you were educated.
    STYLER: Wait a minute…
    FARQUHAR: Let me show you what I mean.
    FARQUHAR goes over to the door through which he made his first appearance and opens it. Now we see that the door has been subject to one of the many changes that have taken place throughout the first act. On the other side there is no longer a corridor but a cupboard with three shelves cluttered withbooks, papers and medical equipment. FARQUHAR takes out a strait-jacket.
    STYLER: What’s going on here?
    FARQUHAR: What?
    STYLER: That cupboard…
    FARQUHAR: What about it?
    STYLER: You came in that way.
    FARQUHAR: I’m sorry?
    STYLER: You came in that way.
    FARQUHAR: You think I came in from a cupboard?
    STYLER: No. You came in that way. But it wasn’t a cupboard.
    FARQUHAR: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
    STYLER: It wasn’t a sodding cupboard.
    FARQUHAR closes the door.
    FARQUHAR: We were talking about insanity.
    STYLER: Yes…
    FARQUHAR: Put this on.
    STYLER: I’m not sure that I want to.
    FARQUHAR: Of course you don’t want to. If you wanted to, there wouldn’t be any