Alibi – A short crime story

The club reeked of booze and cigarettes. Loud songs vibrated through speakers. Jonathan couldn’t help bobbing his head to the beat as his legs gyrated to the rhythm.

“Do you want another drink?” Daphne asked before placing a subtle kiss on his lips.

“No, we should go. It’s very late now,” he said as he gently fondled her hair. 

“Why don’t you love spending time outside? You barely drank anything and you seem to always push me away babe,” Daphne complained.

Jonathan turned away slightly and rolled his eyes.

“Don’t you dare roll your eyes at me, boo! That’s disrespectful,” Daphne humphed before pouring herself a drink and gulping down the contents.

“I’m sorry but you know I have to report at work tomorrow and I don’t want to go there. My darling,” he said seductively and embraced her.

“But it’s just a drink babe. Just a drink and I ordered this specially for us,” Daphne humphed again and Jonathan struggled to compose himself so as not to roll his eyes.

“We can take it home and continue the fun at home. What do you think?” Jonathan asked, barely able to hide his frustration.

“Alright,” she said and called a waiter.

Jonathan settled the bills before they stepped outside, Daphne interlocked her arms with him for support as she was slightly drunk.

Outside, a couple were kissing passionately and a man was smoking beside their car. 

“Please excuse us,” Jonathan spoke politely to the man standing beside his blue sedan car.

“Sorry mate,” the man with sand and pepper hair apologized and walked away.

Jonathan opened the door and helped Daphne into her seat. She smelt of liquor and vanilla. 

As he closed the door, he saw a woman walk towards a blue Ferrari parked adjacent to his car, her lips curled in a smile and he smiled back, politely.

He entered his car and drove away. 

When he got to his house, he carried Daphne -bridal style- out of the car and into the luscious white bedroom beside his parlor.

He undressed her and kept the liquor beside his bedside table.

He quickly changed his clothes and went outside, towards the shed at the backyard. 

Once he was inside the shed, he pulled a box of gardening tools away and a shutter door lay on the concrete floor, he pushed it open and let himself down.

The fluorescent bulbs flickered as he walked towards a compartment. An iron workboard lay in the center of the room and a woman tied to a chair sat in the shadows beside the workboard and freezer.

Jonathan grabbed a scalpel from the tools neatly arranged on a table beside a cabinet of chemicals and removed the tape from her mouth.

“My client seems to think you are important. So what makes you important?” he asked impatiently as the scalpel flirted with her pale skin.

I swear!!, I don’t know what you are talking about. she whispered as tears rolled down her eyes, trembling in fear…

“Hmmm… I believe you,” he said and smiled at her.

He opened a drawer and reached into it for a phone. He dialed a number but there was no response.

“What then do I do with you? You don’t want to say the truth, neither do you want to be honest with me…,” he combed his hand through his dense brown hair. 

“I’m serious, I know nothing. I just used to work for the Snakes and Scorpions Club but other than that, I know nothing. I just danced for money,” she cried

Jonathan nodded as he stood by the work table, backing her and pulled a syringe which was filled with morphine

“This shouldn’t sting,” he said and forcefully injected her hand. 

She just sat visibly trembling and tears dripping down her eyes, he smiled…

“I don’t know why I’m being easy on you. Maybe it’s your ocean eyes, they remind me of someone,” Jonathan said and threw the empty syringe away.

He grabbed a chair and sat beside the girl whose eyes now weaved in and out for consciousness.

“Did you see anything that night at the club, he asked?”

“Did you see Alec shoot the minor who he had just raped?” 

Not wanting to speak, she received a resounding slap from him…

She screams in pain but he asks again, this time on a higher pitch.

“Did you see Alec that night when he shot the minor?”

“Yes,” the girl said, shaking and crying profusely in fear.

“Did you tell the police?” 

“I… I… reported to the police before running off to Spain,” came her slurred reply.

“Then you know you deserve to die” he said and slit her throat with the scalpel.

The warmth of her blood and its metallic fragrance filled his eyes with bloodlust. He brought his hands to his nose and inhaled with such joy.

He opened a body bag and untied the body before placing it into the bag and dumping it in the freezer where another body was lying frozen.

“Babe?” 

Jonathan turned around and saw Daphne with a bottle of liquor and two glasses. She was still tipsy.

“What was that thing you put in the freezer?” she asked still wobbly and her voice was slurred.

“How did you get here?” Jonathan asked suspiciously 

“The shed lights were on and the door wasn’t properly closed. I thought you couldn’t sleep so you came here to work. 

You are always working,” she said and hugged him, “you smell like blood. Are you a butcher?” 

Jonathan stared at the ignorant woman coldly. 

“Babe, why are you looking at me like that?” she asked quizzically.

“How did you know I was here?” Jonathan asked, his suspicion growing.

“I told you already. I came to the shed and found this latch door and I opened it and saw that the lights were on. I came here to join you. 

You weren’t in bed babe and I woke up to a cold bed. You know I don’t like sleeping alone,” she pouted and he nodded, the scalpel still in hand.

“But why is there blood on your hand?” Daphne asked as she managed to pour liquor into the glasses, “we’ve dated for what, two years and I’m just finding out you are a butcher?”

She handed him a glass and looked around. He gulped it down and handed her the glass. 

“No wonder they say cohabitating is good. I only thought you were–”

Jonathan smirked as the scalpel  tore a vein in her neck and she clutched onto it as she realized what he’d done.

“I was pregnant, that’s what I wanted to tell you…”

Jonathan slashed at another vein and another until she fell on the floor, lifeless. 

He poured himself another glass and gulped down its content.

“FUCK!” he shouted as tears cascaded down his eyes for the first time in ages.

“You shouldn’t have come down here. You shouldn’t have,” he said and held her body as more tears rolled down his eyes.

He felt around her stomach and muttered unintelligible words.

“I never would have thought that the unbreakable machine would fold or weep for a woman,” a lady in a blue fur coat whose hair was styled in a ponytail said as she walked into the compartment.

Jonathan ignored her as he held onto Daphne’s body.

“What a waste. You thought you could live a normal life, eh? If not today, she’d have found out when you married ‘Butcher’,” the lady said and chuckled.

She poured herself a glass and sipped. 

“At least, the job is done. I’ve taken care of the loose ends–”

“But you haven’t disposed of the bodies.”

“I’ll take care of that. Just be on your way,” Jonathan said.

“I’m the only one you should be with. I understand your job because we do the same thing. And I love you, don’t you see?” 

“GET OUT!” Jonathan shouted and his vision blurred. 

He gulped and his chest tightened. He clutched his chest as his heart beat increased sporadically and he began to sweat profusely.

“What’s wrong?” the lady in blue asked as she ran towards him but Jonathan was already coughing up blood and his veins were very visible on his head.

“Jonathan!” 

He slumped.

The lady in blue went back to the shed and returned with gasoline. She spilled everything on the compartment and set it on fire before walking out, a smirk on her face as she cleaned her hands on the fur. 

In the main house, she switched on the gas and walked away briskly to her Ferrari which was parked outside.

Behind her, the house exploded and the night sky flickered like the sun had kissed the moon.

Love this author READ her next story: FLIP- THE BEST CRIME FICTION

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