Flash Fiction: Death is just around the corner.
Flash Fiction: Death is just around the corner.
The couple sat up in bed and lit cigarettes.
There was silence until, “We can’t go on like this, Phil.”
“I know, Jessica, but what can we do?”
“We can kill my damned husband.”
Phil slowly shook his head and said, “I’ve thought about that but it’s too risky.”
Jessica said, “It doesn’t have to be murder. There is an accident and there is suicide.”
“Darling, the cops ain’t stupid. It would have to be pretty damned clever. I am his business partner and you are his wife.”
“We aren’t stupid, either. We just have to dream up the best way. There must be a way for the poor man to die without either of us being directly involved.”
Phil thought and said, “What if we can? Then what about us? Do we wait a year or two before we fall madly in love?”
“You have a point there, Phil, I can’t go a year without you. Let me think about it.”
* * * * *
A week later in another motel room, Jessica said, “Phil, you are correct about an accident and suicide. It has to be murder.”
“Then we are back right where we started.”
“No, darling, we’re not. I have it figured out.”
Phil listened to Jessica and said, “But what about us? We can’t go to the funeral of your murdered husband and then run off and get married.”
Jessica smiled and said, “It would make sense that we see each other openly because of the business. And we can still meet each other secretly for a few months Then, in our mutual despair, we can find each other.”
Phil said, “It makes sense. Let’s do it Friday night. I’ll be there at ten. You can see it and not recognize the man who shoots your husband.”
* * * * *
A few minutes before ten o’clock on Friday night, Jessica looked out her bedroom window and saw Phil coming toward the house. She called the police and sad, “There is a man sneaking up to my house and I’m afraid,”
In a police patrol car, Sergeant Larry Chambers responded to a call, “I’m close to that location. I’ll check it out.”
When the police car arrived, the officers saw a man in the doorway of the house and he was firing a pistol.
Sergent Larry Chambers jumped from his patrol car and shot the assailant. But it was too late. Jessica’s husband was also dead.
* * * * *
Two months later, Jessica said, “We did it, Larry. I’ve received a bundle of insurance money and a man wants to buy my company for ten million. You can quit that stupid police job and we can move far away and get married.”
H.D. Ingles Copyright © 2021
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