Royal Hastings, University of London Multimedia Art MA Final Project

Candidate name: Patrick Bright

Candidate number: 0883480

I lay low in Glasgow for weeks. I wore the second-hand clothes I found in the suitcase and told the family at home I didn’t want anyone coming looking for me, and to say I was in Manchester. Didn’t even go to Finny’s funeral. Ma’s cousins left me alone in their annexe and I got by selling little bags of heroin to fellows on the streets.

I was no big-shot dealer. Whenever I ran short of cash, I went out to the car and chopped a bit off the block to sell. I had no idea how much it was worth and probably sold short, but it was just to get by.

After a while the local dealers got wise to me and I told the cousins I was going to Newcastle. I drove straight to King’s Lynn instead. Saw it on a road sign and liked the name. Turned out King’s Lynn had a heroin problem too. I stayed in B&Bs and did the same, to pay the rent and buy food. It was survival. I was dead inside the whole time. I drove from city to city, town to town. Never staying anywhere longer than a couple of months. It got that I could turn up anywhere and know where the junkies would be. Could spot them even when they weren’t huddled in doorways, under piers or in car parks. I went in, did my business and hopped out before the regular chaps got territorial. And that’s how I lived for the best part of a year and a half. But eventually the second block started to run down. I finally turned the car towards London.

How I got the job at Modern Art is a miracle, or luck, or Finny was looking down on me and pulling strings. I was parked up in a back street as the sun came up one morning. You could drive right into London in those days, with no ANPR and no Congestion Charge. I’d just sold the last of my brick to the junkies behind Leicester Square and was wondering where I could go from there. Saw an old man struggling to carry a box into the back of a shop and jumped out to give him a hand. It was an art shop and we got talking about Schull and the artists who lived there. I showed him my little sketchbook.

By sunset I had a job in the shop, a room in the back where I kept an eye on the stock overnight, and even a parking space down the alley. Got rid of the dodgy Escort with its Irish number plates as soon as I could, settled in with a proper job contract and tenancy agreement. And there I stayed. Too scared to go home. Not even for Ma and Da’s funerals. Too scared to go anywhere.

Those were different times and the temporary passport served me well. That and the old boy’s lack of attention to detail in his paperwork. Patrick Bright got a bank account, then another. Enough to get by and yet not enough to get back. Even now, there’s nothing I want more than to return. I simply don’t know if I can.

When the masked men crashed through the back door, my blood ran as cold as if I’d died. Was this it? The scary chaps finally tracked me down to make me pay for stealing their goods? Or simply my payback for not saving Finn, not reaching out to stop him jumping over the rail? Not being there in that split-second he needed me.

I saw something in them, despite the masks. Junkies desperate for cash and chemicals. Thought an art shop would have both. When they didn’t find either, they smashed the place up, scared the girls. Police said we were lucky and told us to get CCTV ‘for next time’.

All our regular customers got to hear what happened. Some sent flowers and cakes. After a bit, Gela mentioned her new MA . The girls were all for it, said I needed something to take my mind off things. How did they know what my mind was on? The chap that Finn and I spoke to at the harbour, the men who drove us, Ma and Da looking at me, their sad, worried faces in the glow from the TV . Finn’s da through the cottage window as we sat trapped in the back of the two-door car. His eyes.

I didn’t know what had gone on at the radio museum and didn’t care. If Jonathan had got himself tangled up with a woman who treated him like she treated his Assignment One model, it was his call. I’d had a drink and wanted to get my head down. Then we found out about the super family room. I said I’d sleep in the people-carrier and suggested Cameron came too, but he was on his phone and didn’t reply. I went to the bathroom for a slash and to throw water on my face. The pipes were noisy. It wasn’t until I switched the tap off that I heard raised voices next door. Cameron. Ludya. Alyson. Jonathan.

Message group: 2024 Examiners, 30 May 2024

Karen Carpenter

A human finger? You’re having me on!

Ben Sketcher

Set in a block of clear resin. It’s been dried.

Karen Carpenter

No! It’ll be something else. Who’d want a dried finger as an ornament?

Ben Sketcher

Someone who needs the fingerprint to activate a biometric device.

Karen Carpenter

That’s impossible.

Ben Sketcher

Not at all. You pour a layer of clear resin into a mould and allow it to set. Then place the dried finger on top and press or weight it, so the fingerprint is fully visible. Then pour the remaining resin on top to seal it.

Karen Carpenter

Do people do that? I’ve gone all cold.

Ben Sketcher

They probably drained the finger of blood, then cauterised the stump with a soldering iron. The fingerprint is very clear. I know it can bypass biometric security software because it fooled the technology at RD 8 just now.

Karen Carpenter

Why did Patrick have a finger in resin? He sounds like such a nice man.

Tilda Ricci

Sorry, folks. I’ve been at a formal dinner and unable to check messages. I see you two have been busy. Have I missed anything?

Karen Carpenter

Scroll back ONLY if you’ve finished eating, Tilda. Ben will fill you in on the MMAM ’s event!

Karen Carpenter

Looks like he’s gone offline. Don’t blame him. Feel a bit queasy myself.

WhatsApp chat between Mae Blackwell and Gela Nathaniel, 30 May 2024:

Mae

There’s a gentleman in the foyer who introduced himself as the examiner for your course. We didn’t agree an examiner could come, did we? I’ve no idea how he got past security without an invite.

Gela

No, but I think Jem may have invited him through Central. She said something loaded about how great it would be if the external examiner could see the installation.

Mae

And it’s very hard to say no to Jem, I understand. Well, I’m not sure how he managed to get in, but he can wait in the kitchen area and ‘examine’ everything after our presentation. We’re about to start.

Metropolitan Police digital evidence log/Case no. 4617655/24/files retrieved 5 September 2024

WhatsApp chat between Patrick Bright and Jonathan Danners, 17 January 2024:

Patrick

What should I do?

Jonathan

Go home. Go to bed.

Patrick

What about Cameron’s family? He had a wife.

Jonathan

He told us he had an ex-wife. We don’t know if anything he said was true. He wasn’t a burned-out city suit, he was a PI . We’ve only just started going through his phone and already we can see he worked for the government, security agencies and big financial institutions.

Patrick

Is it too late to call the police?

Jonathan

After all we’ve done to cover for you? Patrick – do not go to the police. These WhatsApp messages will be picked over, for a start.

Patrick

Didn’t mean it to happen. Thought he was going for Ludya. Simply wanted to stop him.

Jonathan

That’s not even self-defence. You’ll get life. Anyway it’s too late now to chew over what should or shouldn’t have happened. It’s done and we move forward.

Patrick

What do I say to people?

Jonathan

We discovered we were all booked in one room. It caused a row over who had which bed. We decided to sober up, got a breathalyser test from the petrol station and when one of us tested negative at midnight, we drove home. The last bits are true anyway – except you say it was Cameron who drove, not me.

Patrick

But what happens next?

Jonathan

There’s a straightforward, logical solution. We just have to put our heads together.

Patrick

Can’t thank you enough for all you’re doing to help me.

Jonathan

Don’t thank us. You’re one of the team. And it’s your responsibility too. Think of a solution to this problem. In the meantime, go into Royal Hastings and keep Jem occupied.

Patrick

Why was Cam going to hit Ludya? What happened while I was in the bathroom?

Jonathan

Patrick, focus on what you have to do.

Doodle message group MMAM ( FTP ), 30 May 2024:

Jem Badhuri

THE EXAMINER IS HERE! I didn’t want to say anything earlier, but I invited the external examiner and he’s come!

Ludya Parak

How did he get through the gate? They wouldn’t even let our driver in.

Jem Badhuri

I don’t know, but he’s excited to meet the whole MA group.

Jonathan Danners

Not everyone is here, though, are they?

Jem Badhuri

I know you’re here, Jonathan, and Patrick and Ludya. I didn’t think Alyson would come, but she’s here after all. That just leaves Cameron.

Patrick Bright

Cameron is here. He’s been here the whole time.

Ludya Parak

Cameron

is sick.

Jonathan Danners

He’s on another job somewhere. He left the course. Gela just didn’t want to say.

Gela Nathaniel

Cameron is dead, Jem.

Jem Badhuri

What? No! He didn’t even see the installation. I’m gutted. I had no idea he was that ill.

Gela Nathaniel

He wasn’t that ill. He wasn’t ill at all. I see now.

Gela Nathaniel

Why he was suddenly on another job. Why he missed his son’s sports day.

Gela Nathaniel

Why, in the paperweight Patrick made for Cameron, the scorpion is dead.

Gela Nathaniel

But who did Patrick give the killer-scorpion to? The one poised to strike?

Gela Nathaniel

It happened when you went to Somerset, didn’t it, Jonathan, Suzie, Ludya?