Chapter 11

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       Slowly everything came back into focus. I was lying on my back on the floor with the worst headache of my life.

"So you're back with us?" said a vaguely familiar, but cold voice.

Jasmine's face came into view above me. "Sorry about your best frying pan, I think I dented it," she said.

"Jasmine, w-what's going on?" I stammered.

She sat down next to me, and I noticed with some alarm that she was holding my biggest and sharpest carving knife.

She continued casually, "They say all good things must come to an end. Well Josh, this is the end, the end for you that is. I'm moving on."

"What are you talking about?" I managed to gasp, "I thought you loved me."

She laughed, but there was no humour in it. "You are so naive, Josh. I was using you, Things were getting too hot for me in Melbourne so I moved here, looking for some gullible guy who would fall for me and let me move in with him. Enter Josh Campbell. If I'm living quietly with some respectable man then I'm not conspicuous, but Dan's brother Morgan still found me. You should have listened to him, Josh, but you were too starry-eyed in love with me."

The pain in my head was making me dizzy, but I grasped everything she said. "So you did push your ex-boyfriend down the stairs?"

"Of course I did. He deserved it. He was cheating on me."

"And Nikita? Her too?"

Jasmine nodded. "She was a threat to my nice little cosy set-up with you, and you would have ending up cheating on me with her. I could see it coming. So she had to go. Too bad the fall didn't kill her. At least she couldn't identify me, so she gets to live."

"And what about me?" I asked, struggling to lift myself into a sitting position.

She lifted her foot and kicked me so I was lying on my back again. I groaned in pain.
She continued in a casual voice, "I probably just would have left you, Josh, but you couldn't stay away from that little tramp. You would have cheated and the thought of that makes me really angry, so now you have to pay the price just like Dan did."

"But I wouldn't have cheated on you," I groaned.

"Shut up," she snapped, then softened her tone. "Poor Josh, it was a terrible thing. I went out to get wine and someone broke into the flat to rob you. You tried to stop them but they stabbed you." She held up my carving knife.

I tried to stall her. "But Jasmine. I love you, and you loved me.

Again she laughed that humourless laugh. "Fools rush in, Josh. You loved me but I never loved you. Well maybe I did start to like you a little bit, and admittedly the sex wasn't too bad, but you were a means to an end, a convenience. Do you know how much I hated waking up every morning having to look at your stupid geeky face? Looking at it now makes me just want to punch it!"

I couldn't believe it. My girlfriend was a murderous psychopath, and she was about to kill me. I had to stop her, to save myself somehow.

"If you kill me the police will know you did it," I gasped.

"Josh, Josh, give me some credit," she said with an evil smile, "I'll wipe my prints off the knife and throw it out the window, then I'll go to the liquor mart down the road. I'll arrive home to the shocking scene, call the police, and they'll be out looking for some fictitious burgler-murderer. I'm a good actor, I can cry very convincingly. Even if they do suspect me they won't be able to prove anything. No witnesses. After this I think I'll move on again. Maybe to Brisbane. Anyway it's time to finish this. Goodbye Josh. |

As she raised the knife above her head I knew this was my last chance to save myself. I lashed out with my left foot knocking her off balance. She fell on the floor with the knife slipping from her grasp.

"Nooo," she screamed as she reached out to pick it up. 

This gained me two valuable seconds in which I reached around to pick up one of the dining chairs and hurl it at her. The chair hit her side on, knocking her to the floor again. But this time she managed to retain hold of the knife which she had just picked up. She screamed again, pushing the chair out of the way, scrambling to her feet and lunging at me holding the knife in front of her. I was only half on my feet, but as I tried to get out of the way of the knife I tripped and ended up lying on the floor again.

This is the end, I thought as I watched Jasmine's face, twisted with rage looming over me. She lifted the knife above her head about to strike.

"Goodbye Josh," she said again with a smile.

If there is ever such a thing as divine intervention, that's what happened next.
There was a loud pounding at the door. "Open up, police," a voice yelled.

Before I could shout out, Jasmine responded with lightning speed. She wiped down the handle of the knife with her sleeve and threw it on the floor next to me, then she rushed to the door, flinging it open.

"He's trying to kill me!" she shrieked, "Watch out, he's got a knife!"

It was a convincing act, and the police fell for it. The two detectives drew their guns.

"Wait out here in the hall, Miss," one of them said, "You're safe now."
The officers then slowly advanced on me.

"Stay where you are," one on them said, "and kick that knife over to me."

I complied as I shouted to him, "You don't understand, Jasmine was trying to stab me, I wasn't trying to kill her."

"Get to your feet," Brennan commanded, "Hands behind your back."

A minute later I was handcuffed as I desperately tried to tell them they had the wrong person.
"Jasmine's the one you want, she was the one with the knife trying to kill me, not the other way around."

Brennan pushed me onto the couch. "Sit there and don't move." He then called for the crime scene squad, and the police van to take me to the station. The other detective brought Jasmine back into the room. She sat in a chair crying, explaining how I had confessed to her that it was me who had pushed Nikita down the stairs so that she would stay away from me, and when Jasmine had said she would tell the police I had grabbed the knife and tried to kill her. It was a convincing act. Too convincing.

I was taken to the police station and charged with two counts of attempted murder. They all believed her. As much as I hated to say it, Jasmine deserved a medal for that brilliant piece of acting.

I sold my car to pay for a good lawyer who pointed out to the prosecutor all the holes in their case. After two weeks the charges were dropped and I was released, but Jasmine also walked away. The police would not listen to me trying to explain how she had confessed killing her ex-boyfriend, and trying to kill Nikita and myself as well. Not enough evidence, they said, it's all hearsay, and my lawyer agreed.

"Just be happy they've dropped the attempted murder charges against you," he said, "Leave it and move on with your life."

Move on with my life? Easy for him to say. My employers at the surveyor's office decided not to renew my contract so I was I out of a job. Most of my friends stopped talking to me, and I had lost my car. My photo had been all over the newspapers and TV, so as far as the general public was concerned I was still guilty. I stayed at home because whenever I went out there was always someone pointing and whispering.


Almost at the end, continue to the Epilogue to see how the story finishes.
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