Thursday 2 October 2014

The Hunter (4)



I have to admit I was not expecting her to say yes. And if she did, I was not expecting her to mean it. But the pleading look in her eyes told me she was serious, DEADLY serious.
I'm no gangster, I'm no killer, I write about Vinny the Diamond but he's a figment of my imagination, or someone else's if you believe the accusations of plagiarism. I’m certainly not someone who can get people killed and I'd only said I could bump her husband off as a joke, something to make her smile. He was making her life a misery, threating to withhold the alimony he owed her. Threatening to stop her from seeing her own kids. So I said it as a joke. But sometimes people mix up my fiction and reality. They forget I am all words and no action. But Ana was my friend and the way she looked at me said don't let me down in my hour of need.
As I didn’t know any real life Vinnys I decided to do it myself, I mean how difficult can murder be? You get a gun, you pull the trigger. The difficult part was escaping arrest but I'd seen enough CSI, I'd read enough Nesbo to know you can get away with murder. If I planned it well, I could do it and set Ana free from her pain.
Getting hold of the gun was easy and remarkably cheap, getting access to Ned's apartment was simple too, he just let me in. I thought I'd be nervous with gun in my hand but my heartbeat was normal and breathing was shallow as I pulled the trigger. Then I planted the gun in his hand to make it look like suicide. Now the escape plan; back the way I came, open, brazen, I had nothing to hide, after all Ned had killed himself. At home I burnt the gloves, washed the clothes twice and made sure my hands were super clean. To top things off I had an alibi. Magda had been sleeping soundly in my lap all night. The drugs saw to that. I can’t believe I’d drugged my own girlfriend just to get an alibi.
24 hours passed. I read somewhere that most murderers are caught within that time. 48 gone, still no police at my door. The plan had worked, nearly.
 It was two policemen in uniform that picked me up, eliminating people from their enquiries they said. 10 minutes at the police station they said, nothing to worry about they said.  So I didn't worry, after all it was suicide wasn't it?
But the detectives who replaced the uniforms were none to friendly.
‘We'd like you to explain something,’ the ugly one said.
They showed me CCTV footage. Me going to Ned's flat, me coming away again.
‘What happened while you were there sir?’ The ugly one was the only one speaking.
‘Ned, he err phoned me,’ I said searching for the next words, ‘told me he was going to do something silly. So I went over there, he was fine when I got there, said he'd calmed down. So I left.’
The coppers looked at each other.
‘Why did you stroll?’ Ugly again.
‘What?’
‘If my friend told me he was going to top himself, then I would run over there.’
‘He cries wolf a lot,’ I said.
‘Still serious enough for you to go.’
‘Yes but you know,’ I said.
They looked like they were buying it.
‘And why the gloves sir?’ It was the other one who spoke. ‘Explain the gloves, it was 22 degrees that night.’
My mouth opened but no words came out, I'd run out of lies.

‘Maybe we can see those gloves sir?’ He asked and I knew it was game over.

1 comment:

  1. there some stories which make the reader/viewer sympathize with the criminal... this is one of the... I really hope he will find an alibi for the missing gloves :-) but in this case feeding the girlfriend drugs won't help I suppose... great story:-)

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