The people at work would be expecting him. They may call her when he didn't answer his phone. But she could say something... anything. What could she say? He had gone to work? No, that would be too obvious. Someone could easily disprove that, especially as his car was in the drive. She could say they had an argument and he went for a walk. That she had noticed the car was still there and assumed he was staying with a girlfriend. After all, everyone knew he had girlfriends, right?
When she got to work and went to put the kettle on, she saw her hands were, in fact, shaking. When had this started? They weren't like that in the car...
“Good morning Anna.”
Anna jumped and turned to see Tina. She must have stared, because Tina looked startled herself.
“What's the matter?” Tina asked.
“You're early.” Anna improvised.
Tina burst out laughing. “Can't I be here on time for once?”
Anna shook her head. “No, it's good. Coffee?”
Tina nodded and unpacked her bag. “Why are your hands so shaky?”
“The shock of having someone other than me in here.”
“What did you think it was? A ghost?” Tina laughed some more.
Anna froze again. No, of course not... She sighed and tried to steady her hands as she made the coffees.
“Something's different.” Tina said as Anna handed her the coffee.
“No, it's the usual blend.”
“I mean with you.” Tina looked Anna square in the eye.
Anna shrugged, looked to her feet, then back up. She had to come up with something... anything... or at least use the planned argument. What was it? She sighed. “I think Jake left me.”
“Oh my God, no.” Tina put her coffee down. “How? Why?”
“Well, I asked him to wear the ring, we argued, he said he wanted more freedom in a relationship and he left. Normally he goes for a walk, but he wasn't back this morning. He's probably with that girl.” Anna sighed again.
“You'll be fine without him. You two were pretty independent anyway, right?”
Anna nodded. “Yeah, to be honest I'm glad.” Was she really glad? That he was gone? Yes. That he was dead? Maybe. No, she couldn't be. She shook her head and sighed again. “I'll manage.”
“Attagirl.”
The rest of the work day wasn't so bad. Nobody called her from Jake's work in the end. And she didn't have anyone guessing Jake was dead. She just didn't talk about him and felt her hands go shaky now and again. But other than that it was fine. Even the drive home went as usual.
It was on the way up the stairs that she felt nervous again. Like she would open the door and see him staring at the TV screen again in his boxers. She unlocked the door and walked in. The apartment was dark and empty. Impulsively, she put on every light in the house. It felt cold too. She put the heating on before having a look inside the kitchen. The case was still there. Tentatively, she shoved it aside. No marks or stains under it. No blood dripping out of the edges. Just the case resting in the middle of the floor. She couldn't even smell anything. It was a pity to open it back up. But she opened it anyway. She unzipped the case and flung the lid over. The smell hit her hard in the face. It smelled of a butcher's shop in a public rest-room. She looked at the towel that covered his face. She peeled it back.
His skin had lost every drop of colour, even his lips, even his under eye purple bags. It was paler than she had ever seen anyone. Even when people were very ill, they had some blood flow deep under the skin that made them look pinkish or grey. He looked like someone had stretched translucent white silk over something faintly blue and grey. There was no warmth to his colour at all. His hairs looked like they were drawn on his face and head with black marker. His lips had pulled back from his teeth and his eyelids had opened slightly, revealing not just the white, but some of the coloured iris and black pupil as well. His teeth and tongue, faintly visible between the stretched lips, looked bone dry.
Anna retched and ran to the bathroom, flinging herself over the edge of the toilet bowl where she heaved until she brought up yellow bile. Whatever had gone in that day was coming out. She dried her face with some tissue and flushed it. She would have to go back to the case. She would have to cover his face again and zip him up. She drew a deep breath and wandered into the kitchen again. Strangely, the smell was hardly present. She knelt down beside the case and reached for the towel.
“You know, I really wish you wouldn't do that.” Jake said.
Anna froze, the towel slipping through her fingers and landing on his face.
“Oh great, more humiliation. As if sitting in a travel case in my own shit wasn't enough.” Jake continued. The towel over his face didn't move and the voice wasn't muffled by the fabric.
Anna slowly lifted it off him again.
“That's better.” Jake said as his now open eyes were revealed. The face didn't move.
“You're alive? Oh my God, I'm so sorry, I thought I'd killed you.” Anna gasped, touching his face. It was ice cold.
“You did. Fucking idiot. Why would you shove someone in the kidneys before checking your hands?”
“I'm sorry, I- I... I'm going mad.” Anna said to herself. She dragged the towel over Jake's face again, closed the case and made her way into the living room, where she curled up on the sofa. The silence was blissful, but short.
“You're not going mad, ya know? Well, you are, but you can't leave me here. I mean, I might not be alive, but I'm still your boyfriend. Unless that whole knife to the guts thing was a breakup.” His voice came through as loud and as clear as if he were sitting next to her.
“You're not real.” She replied.
“Of course I am. Come back in. Have a look.”
“No, you're not. The voice. It isn't real.” Anna contested.
“I'm here, aren't I? Look, can we have this argument when I'm not sitting in my own shit? This isn't dignified, Anna. At least get me a shower, put me in some nice clothes and swap these plastics out before you lock me away.”
She tried to ignore the voice as she made herself a microwave pizza for dinner and as she ate it, watching a soap, but it seemed the voice was louder than anything else she could hear. In the end, she finished half her dinner and went to bed.
“I'm still waiting Anna.” The voice came from next to her. She rolled over in bed to face the usual empty space. “No, not in there. But come to think of it, you never did zip up the case...”
Anna gulped. “Leave me alone!”
“Look, I'm just joshing ya, if I could move I'd be in the shower by now. Come on sweetie, lend me a hand.”
Anna sighed. “Will you let me sleep if I do?”
“Of course sweetie.”
Getting up, she went into the kitchen. Sure enough, the case was unzipped. She zipped it back up and dragged it into the bathroom. She collected some more plastic bags to line the case and a bin bag to throw away the previous wrappings. Then she unzipped and unwrapped him. He was in a mess. The blood was drying and crackling all over him. There were feces all down his legs from where she had thrown his body around. Gross. She tried moving his body, but it proved impossible. His torso sat up in the case and rested against the side of the bath. She would have to get him in from inside the bath. She stripped off and got into the bath, dreading the feel of his cold, dead, stained body against hers. She grabbed him under the armpits and slowly heaved him in, slipping over and over. Once he was laying down in the bath, she put the hot shower head on and hosed his body down, again and again, with hot water until he looked clean enough to use a sponge on.
“Ah, that's better.” Jake said. She had almost forgotten why she was going this.
“Please don't speak.” She asked.
“Sorry sweetie.”
The silence was almost as bad as him talking. She finished washing him down, packed the newly cleaned and dried towels around him to dry him and went to find some clothes. “I feel insane” She muttered as she took his favourite shirt and a pair of jeans
into the bathroom.
“You are.” Jake replied. “You know, all that time in a case has got me thinking... what about our holiday?”
“What about it?”
“Well, don't we still have the first tickets? Argentina for two?”
“I suppose.” She said, struggling to wriggle the corpse into a shirt.
“And that's next month, right?”
“Yeah.” Why was she still talking to a corpse? It felt strange. But she couldn't help but answer.
“Are we still going?”
Anna paused. “You're dead.”
“But you could bring me. We could go together. Have a great time.”
“You're dead.” Anna repeated. She awkwardly finished forcing his jeans up and buttoned them before relining the case. It was easier to get him back into confinement when she had something solid to grip onto, though his arms were still awkwardly positioned. She forced them down hard with the case lid. There was a crack.
“Watch it!” Jake complained.
“A deal's a deal. It's bedtime.” Anna left the case in the bathroom and went to bed. He left her alone to sleep. But she couldn't drift off.
Perhaps she should go on her trip to Argentina? Just not in a month. Tomorrow. And not for a few days. Forever. She could hop on a plane and disappear. It would be fine. Easy, even. And how would people track her if she actually went on her round the world trip? She could leave Jake here and all. Just pack up and go.
The next morning, she awoke to her alarm and turned it off before the volume went up. Today was a new day. She packed her bags with everything she would need. Four changes of clothes, make-up, hair products, shoes, some nice jewellery, money, passport. She logged online and booked a new ticket. She was pleased that she got a percentage off it for cancelling her old tickets.
“Aren't you forgetting someone?” Jake asked.
“You're back.”
“I'll always be here.” Jake replied.
Anna felt a chill run down her spine. “Even if I leave the case?”
“Even if you leave the case.” He sounded almost smug.
“Can't I get away?”
“Not from me. But we can both get away together. I mean, think about it. I can't cheat on you now, can I? And no money worries for me. Our savings will take you twice as far and you could even retire in some Asian shithole with the money we have. Just bring me with you and we're together forever.”
“That sounds convincing.” Anna smiled. It did. It really did sound nice.
“Maybe me dying was the best thing to happen to us.” Jake insisted.
“Maybe.” Anna added extra carry on to her plane ticket.
“When are we leaving?” Jake asked.
“This afternoon. Train down to the airport, then straight to Argentina.” Anna replied.
“That sounds awesome.”
Anna rang work and told them that she and Jake were back together and heading to Argentina early, that she was quitting and wouldn't be back. There were a few tears, but mostly nobody cared. She called her friends and told them she would Skype as soon as they were there. She rang the landlord and explained she would leave the last month's payment on the table and the keys through the letterbox. She called a taxi and asked the driver to collect her bags.
The driver seemed apprehensive about the smell. Anna could hardly notice it herself, but the man almost gagged when he picked up Jake's case.
Anna shrugged. “I didn't have time to wash the laundry before going. Sorry.”
The driver shook his head, dragged the luggage downstairs and threw the case in the back before slamming the boot shut.
“Ouch. Bastard.” Jake muttered.
“Soon we'll be in Argentina.” Anna smiled as she sat back in the passenger seat.
“We?” The driver asked.
“Uh, I'm meeting some folks there.” Anna smiled some more.
“Uh-huh.” The driver shook his head again and started the car.
Once they were there and unloaded, the taxi couldn't get away soon enough. He threw the cases down for Anna, got back in and drove off. He even forgot his payment. Anna shrugged. “All the more for us.” She started dragging the cases along the station. Even on wheels, Jake weighed so much they wouldn't turn and they were grinding and squeaking as she hauled him across to the right end of the platform. One side faced the rails and on the other was a small wall overlooking an artificial lake. She wondered why it was there and how come there was so little protection between her and the water. It seemed ridiculous.
Looking around at her fellow passengers, they all seemed to be staring at her. She lifted her hand to scratch her head and realized she was still exactly as she had come out of bed. Suddenly she felt self-conscious, but there wasn't anything she could do now. And still, they stared...
She sat down on Jake's case and sighed. Well, at least they wouldn't live here much longer. That way she wouldn't be the weirdo in town. Who cared what these people thought?
But chills travelled down her spine when she spotted the police officer out of the corner of her eye. She knew that the woman with the caramel skin and the blue shirt was looking for her. She had to be. She was glancing up and down, marching decidedly towards that end of the platform. The policewoman knew.
“She knows.” Jake said. “She knows what you did. She'll find the smell and find me and, well, who would believe you?”
Anna swallowed hard. Only one thing for it. She stood up and looked at the case.
“Anna? What are you doing?” Jake asked, sounding a bit nervous.
Anna began pushing the case towards the wall.
“You're only drawing attention to yourself sweetie.” He pressed.
She turned the case on its side by the tiny wall. It would easily flip over.
“Shit, Anna, don't do this. Don't do this to me.” The voice grew louder.
Anna glanced down the platform to see the officer start running towards her. She shoved the case into the artificial lake. At first it looked like it would get stuck on the concrete slope. But slowly it slid down, down, down into the water.
“You bitch.” Jake said as the officer's hand seized Anna's arm.
“Is everything OK?” The officer asked.
Anna shook. “Yeah.” Her eyes met the woman's. The officer wasn't impressed.
“You have to come with me sweetie.” She said.
Anna felt repulsed at being called that by anyone but Jake. She stared longingly at the waters that had swallowed his body for good.
In the station, the officer asked Anna a few random questions. Who she was. Where she was going. Why was she going so suddenly. Why hadn't she got dressed in the morning. Anna answered as honestly as possible. She was Anna Mann. She was going to Argentina. She wanted a break. She had been a bit late. Jake's voice was gone and her mind felt so clear, so fresh and invigorated. Officer Terry Welsch nodded, smiled, took notes and went to make a phone call. It was all seeming to look like the officer would write it up to misunderstanding. If Anna could get away before they trenched out Jake's body, then... Then maybe...
“Sorry sweetie.” She said, walking into the room. “We can't seem to find your bag.”
Anna sighed and groaned. “Great, I'll have to go clothes shopping in Argentina.”
“We could all do with some clothes shopping.” Terry sighed. “Speaking of which, it's warm in here.” She undid the very top button of her tight blue shirt, revealing more caramel skin and a necklace. A necklace Anna would have recognized anywhere.
Terry followed Anna's eye-line. “Oh yeah, my boyfriend gave it to me. Said his mother made him wear it for some charity thing. Well, I should say ex boyfriend. Fucker stood me up last night. Sort of like yours.” Terry laughed. “I guess I should throw it, only... I don't know, I kinda like it.” She shrugged and turned, walking to the door where she started fiddling with the AC. “I swear, it's awful in here. Maybe it's broke again...”
Anna glanced down at the table. The only thing on
it was a pen. But she'd seen in a film that a pen, driven through an eye or an ear with enough force, could easily kill...
Miss Murder Page 2