Crimes of Passion : An Erotic Romance Story (9 page)

The last thing
Edmund Stride saw before he died was a red playing card tucked playfully in Addison’s bodice. Moments later, John Kelly entered the building calling Edmund’s name. He frantically scaled the stairway, and a smile crossed Addison’s soft lips--- her knight in shining armor had arrived to save the day.

“
A special place in hell is waiting for you my love,” she whispered to Edmund, as Kelly reached the doorway. Then Edmund Stride closed his eyes forever.

              When Kelly entered the apartment, Addison turned around and the bloody knife fell from her hand. She looked to John but her voice was lifeless. Her hands began to shake and her body began to tremble. Her dress was ripped up the right side of the skirt. Tears welled up in her eyes and she ran to him, burying her head into his coat, staining his shirt with her bloody hands. Kelly’s stomach churned,
I’m too late.

“
I tried to end it. I tried,” Addison cried hysterically, her hands clutching desperately at the back of John’s neck. “I told him I was in love with you, and that I was leaving, and he became violently furious with me. I was so frightened.”

“Tell me everything,” Kelly replied, stroking her hair as he kept his eyes glued to
Stride’s lifeless body. His heart wrenched at the thought that such a beautiful creature was capable of such deception.

“John, he forced me to the ground, and he tried to strangle me. Then he took out his knife, and he cut up the side of my dress, before putting the blade to my throat---it was just like the Ripper.”

“I can’t believe it was actually him,” he uttered, pulling Addison in, luring her into a false sense of security. Blood pooled underneath Stride’s corpse from the wound in his back.

“Who knows what would have happen
ed if he hadn’t heard you coming up the stairway!”

Addison looked up at Kelly, whimpering softly; her eyes glistened and her cheeks were stained with tears. Her jaw quivered for a moment, and then she pulled John in for a passionate kiss. She pressed her body against his. Her hands travelled down his chest towards his belt, and the kisses became wilder, almost animalistic. She began to tug at his belt, like she had merely hours before, but this time Kelly had the mind to pull away.

“Addison…what
do you think you’re doing?” he said, removing her arms from his body and readjusting his clothes. “This is hardly the time.”

“
Don’t you love me John?” Addison pleaded, struggling to find a way back into his arms.

“
Of course I do, but that doesn’t change the fact that Edmund Stride just tried to kill you and he’s bleeding out on the floor. You’d have to be mad to be aroused at a time like this.”

Kelly struggled to maintain his composure seeing his
former colleague dead on the floor, but he had to preserve the farce---it was the only way he could catch Addison in a lie. He looked around Stride’s apartment and realized it was the same room in which he and Addison had made love. Addison backed into a corner and watched his movements vacantly, playing the part of the petrified victim with finesse.

John
paced back and forth, running his hand through his hair, as sweat formed above his brow and along the back of his neck. He approached Stride’s body and took out his handkerchief. Reaching down, he used it to pick up the bloody knife.

“
Edmund was a fiend and a womanizer, but I never wanted to accept that he was a murderer,” he said looking over the knife.

“Neither had I. B
ut I suppose even if you’re engaged to someone you never really know them,” Addison replied stepping towards Kelly and Stride’s lifeless body.

“That’s odd
,” Kelly said making an observation, as he switched the knife over and over in the handkerchief, leaving bloody residue on the cloth and part of his hand.

“What’s odd?” Addison asked, her voice worrisome.

Kelly looked to Addison, then down at the tear in her dress, neglecting her question.

“When did you say Edmund ripped your skirt?” Kelly asked
coming towards her.

“After he tried to strangle me and forced me to the ground. He
climbed on top of me and ripped my skirt with the knife.”

“It’s just odd because
looking at this blade, it appears as if it was made for a right-handed person. I could’ve sworn Edmund was left-handed. I used to correct his test papers in class and they were always filthy with charcoal stains. It must’ve been difficult for him to yield a dagger made for another man’s hand.”

Addison stepped closer, “Perhaps it was to throw the police off of his scent.”

He continued, “And you stabbed him when he was still on top of you?”

“Yes,
” she replied indignantly. “He was attacking me, and he had the knife to my throat, but then he heard you coming from the stairwell, and when he turned around I grabbed the knife from his hand and stabbed him in the back---it was self-defense---my darling why do I feel like you don’t believe me? Is this some sort of interrogation?”

Kelly wrapped the knife in the handkerchief and tucked it in his jacket pocket. “I’m just confused about one
detail. If you stabbed Edmund Stride in his back while he was on top of you, why is the only blood apparent on your dress around the bottom of your skirt?”

“He
tried to kill me John---I swear he tried--- he even gave me this,” Addison pleaded tearfully, pulling the third Jack from the safety of her breast. “It’s just like the ones they found on the other dead girls.”

“Yes, yes it is my darling, indeed it is,” Kelly said
pulling Addison in and kissing her on the forehead, exhaling a great sigh of relief. “Unfortunately, that small detail was never released in the incident reports. The only ones who knew about the cards for sure were the Yard investigators and the killer.”

The devil appeared before
Kelly in Addison Wilkes’s seductive eyes, and she looked to him with a fearless expression as she fell into his trap. Her lips curled into a malevolent smile and her gentle hand caressed his face as she spoke:

“
I am going to need you to defend me my love. I believe I’ve done something terrible.”