It wasn't me - Chapter 1

Before we get started, let me just clarify something to you all: it
wasn't me. I expect you get that a lot from suspects, but really, it
wasn't. I don't have an alibi. I was there on October 21st and I did
have a knife. But it wasn't my knife that killed them. It isn't my DNA
on their clothes. Those aren't my fingerprints on the guilty knife.
This is all a big mistake. You can question me and charge me, but I
have faith in the system - you won't convict me. The innocent can't get
convicted, can they? A question mark in my thoughts already, and I'm
only ten sentences in - a bad sign.

"We're going to have to question you," said the police officer. It was
clear from his voice that he'd been through this countless times before
- his voice was suddenly dull after the excitement of the murder. It
was the throbbing, needling knowlege I knew all too well - paperwork.
"You're entitled to have a lawyer present -"

"I don't want a lawyer," I blurted out. My head was spinning. My
insinct told me I hadn't done it but instinct was not the reliable
thing it used to be. Lawyers with their legal rubbish made me nervous -
I needed my calm. They can't convict the innocent. They can't convict
the innocent. Am I innocent?"

The policeman looked over his glasses at me, a more human appearance
coming through.
"Mr. Smethwyck, I strongly advise you have a lawyer present what with
the charge you might face?"
"No. I'll be fine." What a strange lie.
"Okay then," he shrugged. Another idiot ready for questioning. The word
grew in the back of his mind, forcing its way through in the form of a
headache: paperwork, paperwork, paperwork, paperwork?

***

Lily Abercrombie sat in the restaurant, sipping her coffee, baby in the
buggy beside her. She looked out onto the street; bored. She wished her
husband would hurry up - watching nameless, almost faceless people go
by was tedious. Lily liked excitement - and her husband Kako agreed. A
tall, dark-haired man sipped his tea behind a newspaper. He looked with
the premonition that Lily would shortly be leaving. He sighed quietly.
He did not want Lily to ever leave - he loved her. He eyed the baby,
asleep. How he hated it.

Five minutes later Kako returned to his wife. He kissed her, and the
other man's face drained from colour in fury. The TV on the opposite
wall showed a rugby match as they left with their child in tow. Barely
thirty seconds after they departed there was a newsflash: the nuclear
power plant had de-stabilised and a gas was spreading. If inhaled it
would fll the victim with aggressiveness in large quantities. The
inhabitants of the city fled indoors. The man left the
restaurant.

The night grew steadily darker as the gas drifted down. The man looked
up briefly. He still had time, precious time, to seek out his beloved
Lily. He was sure he could divert her from the attentions of Kako - but
the baby? Lily wouldn't give up on the accursed baby, all dribbles,
cries and piss; NO. He shook himself. The path his thoughts took him
was a violent one. He would find Lily and what would come would come.
The News had said that he had two hours until the gas spread itself
over the city.

It began to rain weak acid - and the gas pelted towards Earth.

***

"Mr. Smethwyck, it is entirely plausible that you DID attack Kako and
Lily Abercrombie because of the gas - we aren't sure of the
side-effects as yet and it may also have affected your short term
memory."
"It wasn't me," I replied.
"So you say, but there are fingerprints. YOUR fingerprints."

That hit me hard. I could not remember touching Lily or Kako. I wanted
to touch them, I remember that. I wanted to caress Lily and to pound
Kako into a pulp but the opportunity hadn't come...the screams and
commotion cut my reverie of passion and anger short. I was so SURE that
was the niggling, needling thing - but here was firm evidence that I
had.

"Were you involved with Lily Abercrombie?" he asked. I decided to tell
the truth - and avoided elaborating. Lily could not have had an affair
-painful though it was to admit, she loved her goddamn Kako too much.
The truth, but not the whole truth.
"No."
"Did you know her?"
"I..." I could no longer lie, "I knew her."
The policeman's interest perked.
"Go on."
"She was a friend - I hadn't seen her for six months before
today."
"And Kako?"
"An accquaintance. I knew him through Lily." And wasn't that the
truth.

"Were you ever involved in a relationship with Lily?" Hell. I couldn't
lie. I couldn't avoid the blantant question.
"We were married."
There was a spark in the policeman's eyes that I didn't like - he
though he knew that I was the killer, and I begged him with my mind to
reconsider. I was the only suspect - what could be said or done on my
part? The evidence was stacking up.
"When?"
"Ten years ago for six years. We maintained friendship after the
divorce though...it had just fizzled out, y'know?" The policeman looked
at me and I could tell that he didn't believe the friendship had
continued. He didn't believe that I didn't love Lily. He was right on
one account.

***

"Mr. Smethwyck you are under arrest on suspcion of the murders of Lily
and Kako Abercrombie."