LOST LIVES

She sat in the Starbucks cafe, sipping coffee and staring out of the window. The blood stained knife lay next to her, covered with her blue silk scarf. Patricia finally broke down and cried. Apparently taking another human life can be emotionally exhausting. She could hear the siren of the police cars at a distance.

                Two months ago…

                Patricia could see her husband, Alex, changing to man, she never knew. Her gut feeling told her something was amiss. Alex was a celebrated painter in Edinburgh. His works were exhibited all over the world and rich connoisseurs paid high sums of money for them. Lack of inspiration often made him distrait, but this time it was different. He seemed perennially distracted. Their conversations got increasingly incoherent. Patricia was a lawyer with a firm in Edinburgh and spent lot of time in various parts of England and Europe for work. Alex mostly worked in his studio at home. Alex was forty-five years old, Patricia was forty. They had been married for twelve years.

Patricia consciously tried to push back the thought that Alex was having an affair, but the idea slowly started taking hold of her. She had no illusions that a handsome man, in his mid-forties, with artistic inclinations can be quite irresistible for many young and nubile. For two weeks Patricia desperately tried to have a meaningful conversation with Alex, but he always shot her down. Wanting and wishing to be proved wrong, Patricia hired a private investigator named Richard Harvey.

One month ago...

                Patricia could not believe her eyes and her misfortune when Richard first showed her the photographs. Though she suspected Alex of having an affair, what shocked her was how happy he looked in the photographs. The photographs were mostly blurry, and the woman’s face was not clearly visible, but Patricia did not fail to see the joy on Alex’s face. Something she had not seen in years. ‘The woman in the picture is Epiphany. She is twenty five years old’ Richard informed. ‘She works in a gallery in Edinburgh. I am assuming that is where she met your husband’ he added. There were photographs of two of them kissing at the Royal Mile, holding hands and strolling in the Greyfriars cemetery, having candle light dinner at a fancy French restaurant. Everything that Alex and Patricia had not done together for many years but always wanted to. There was also a photograph of them checking into the Radisson Blu Hotel in Edinburgh. It was dated the day, Alex had apparently gone to Belfast to meet a new gallery manager. Patricia did not cry. Over twelve long years of marriage, something within her had also turned cold. While she walked out of Richard’s office, the plan to do the unthinkable and unforgivable slowly dawned on her.

That fateful day...

Patricia was at a Starbucks down the road from her house. She could see the front door of her house through the glass walls of the cafe. She had a warm cup of coffee on the table. It was two ‘o’ clock in the evening on a Saturday. She had left the house in the morning telling Alex that she will be travelling to London for work. She went to her sister’s house few blocks away. Patricia knew from Richard that Alex and Epiphany often met at their house when Patricia was away from Edinburgh. She knew it would be no different this time. At one thirty in the afternoon, she got a call from Richard informing that Alex had just picked up Epiphany from the gallery. Patricia reached the café as quickly as possible. No sooner had she settled down with her coffee, she saw Alex and Epiphany walking in through the front porch of the house. Alex had his right arm wrapped around Epiphany’s shoulders.

Patricia could feel the anger swelling within her. Looking at the photographs was one thing, but seeing them in person, killed her inside. It hurt so much that she wanted to shout, but that was not the plan. She picked up her phone and called her home number. Alex answered the phone. ‘Hi honey! You alright?’ asked Patricia and just to hear Alex’s response she added ‘hope you are missing me?’ ‘Like you wouldn’t believe!’ Alex replied. Patricia thought she heard a chortle on the other side. ‘Stick to the plan’, Patricia told herself. ‘I need a favour’ Patricia continued ‘there are some papers with my secretary at the office. Can you kindly pick them up? I need to read them tomorrow evening when I get back to Edinburgh’. ‘Do I look like your errand boy, Patricia?’ Alex grumbled. Patricia was prepared for that. ‘Damn it Alex! Either you do that, or I can tell someone to pick them up and drop them at home’ Patricia said in a disgruntled tone. She knew, Alex would not take the risk of having a stranger knocking on the door, when Epiphany is around. She also knew that Alex will not take Epiphany with him. In case if anyone from Patricia’s firm got suspicious. ‘Ok, fine!’ said Alex and abruptly hung up.  In few minutes Patricia saw Alex outside the door of their house. She took a long look at her husband as he walked towards his car. She knew next time they see each other it would be under different circumstances. He looked handsome in his leather jacket, faded jeans and three day old stubbles. His salt and pepper long hair was parted in the middle. A style Patricia always admired. It would not take more than half an hour for Alex to get back. Patricia had to move fast. The knife was already strapped to her forearm, hidden below the sleeve of her jacket.

           The Catfight...

Patricia slowly unlocked the door of her house and stepped in. She was wearing flat shoes to avoid giving away her presence pre-maturely. The element of surprise was key. The house was eerily quiet. She could hear the micro-wave oven humming in the kitchen. She quickly moved towards the kitchen with long strides and peeked inside. Fortunately for Patricia, Epiphany was sitting on a stool by the kitchen table with her back towards the door. She was wearing a short polka dot pink dress. Her golden brown hair was tied in a short horse-tail, exposing her petite back and tapered waist. There was a bowl of pasta and a glass of red wine by her side on the table.  She had earphones clipped around her head. Patricia, slowly took out the knife and swiftly moved towards the table. As she drew closer, she could hear Toni Braxton’s faint voice pouring out of the earphones. “Un-break my heart..” she sang. The irony was surreal.

Standing little behind Epiphany, Patricia plunged the knife right in to her back. Epiphany shrieked in pain.  The blood soaked her pink dress. The knife had lodged between two vertebrae in the spine. Patricia had to wiggle the knife a little left and right to get it out. As Patricia drew the knife out, Epiphany turned towards her. For the first time Patricia realised how beautiful the young girl looked. The beauty was obvious despite the fear and pain that contorted the youthful face. She had a soft pale face with rounded cheek bones and straight thin nose. Her eyes, bordered by high eye brows had a brownish tinge. ‘God! You are so pretty and so young!’ Patricia almost gasped. Partly out of jealousy and partly to avoid looking in to the helpless brown eyes, Patricia plunged the knife through Epiphany’s right eye. Her scream, echoed through the empty rooms of the house. The eyeball squished below the knife like a ripe grape. Blood came oozing out of the eye socket. Epiphany’s limp body hit the floor.  The headphone unhooked from the cell phone and Toni Braxton’s voice now filled the kitchen. ‘Un-cry these tears...’ she sang. Patricia was little out of breath. She took some pasta from the bowl and washed it down her throat with a sip of red wine. ‘Hmmm, yummy!’ she said licking her thumb. Her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. She knew, it was Alex, irate over the fact that there were no papers to be collected. Patricia flipped the phone out and declined the call.

Despite the excruciating pain, Epiphany was trying to crawl her way to the door. ‘Yuck! Common! Don’t go bleeding all over my kitchen now, you b****!’ Patricia said as she kicked Epiphany right in the stomach. Epiphany toppled over and lay on the ground facing the ceiling. Patricia kneeled beside her and looked into her eyes, or what remained of them. Blood poured out of the right eye, tears out of the left. Patricia shouted ‘Why?’ as she drove the knife through Epiphany’s thin neck. It was a rhetorical question. Epiphany gagged and then shuddered like a beheaded chicken, before all of her went silent and motionless. Patricia stood up and took another look at Epiphany’s mutilated body. She felt a sense of pride and relief wash over her.

                In the end it does matter...

Patricia knew she could never get away with the murder, she had no plans to. She took another sip of the red wine. She could wait in the house for Alex to come back. But Patricia could not bear to see him create another scene. She had too many of them over last few years. As she stepped out of the house, she realised she was still carrying the blood drenched knife in her hand. She was too tired to care. She could see Alex’s car approaching from a distance from the right of her house. For a moment, she was tempted to stay back and deal with Alex the same way she dealt with Epiphany. But she changed her mind. ‘One murder is enough for one day’ she thought and in not so distant past she loved that man.

Patricia, quickly walked left towards the Starbucks. She entered the café and took the table she left not long ago. Surprisingly the lukewarm coffee was not cleared. She kept the knife on the table and covered it with her blue silk scarf, mostly out of common decency. She knew she was not fooling anyone. She could see the store manager making a hurried call.  She took a sip of the coffee and looked out of the window. She finally broke down and cried.