The Ice Queen

We shared a few lingering, sated kisses before fixing ourselves to go rejoin the party. It was then that the shouting started. It was Jack and Kirov. We both froze, staring at each other in fear, listening. Then she kissed me and put a trembling finger to my lips.

"Wait here", she said, and then left to go downstairs.

That was the last time I saw her alive. The shouting continued for a few more minutes before two shots put a sudden, violent end to the argument. I should have run downstairs just then but I didn't. I stayed in the bathroom, shaking in fear, a coward to the last. I waited until I heard someone leave the house. Then silence.

I crept out of the bathroom to the top of the stairs and looked down to see Jinny and Jack in the hall, their bodies lying still on the cold tiles, blood seeping from their bodies in large pools. My stomach heaved and to my shame I fled the house without even checking if they were alive. I could have, should have, called an ambulance. Jinny could have been alive, she could have been saved.

So here I am now in this cold cell, my bad conscience torturing me, until finally the detectives come back in. Maher sits down and opens her file. She pulls her jacket closed around her chest, denying me my pleasure this time, and wastes no time telling me the latest.

Forensics had found semen on Jinny's body, fresh from just before her death, and that it wasn't Jack's. So I can either volunteer a blood test or they will get a court order. I shake my head.

"There's no need," I tell them.

I confirm then that I was at the apartment that evening and that I had sex with Jinny just before the shooting. I insist on my plea of innocence but they charge me with murder nonetheless.

"You may nominate a solicitor now," says Connolly, "Or the state will appoint one on your behalf."

I dictate my solicitor's details to him, Maher watching on, cold and impassive. Then she closes her file and leaves. Connolly gets up and looks down at me, shaking his head.

"Does the Inspector remind you of someone, Michael?"

I look at him, confused by the question at first until it occurs to me at last. "Yeah, she's very much like Jinny," I reply.

He nods, "She's Jinny's sister."

"I'm sorry," I start but Connolly cuts me short.

"Don't be sorry. Just let us know when you're ready to cooperate."

"Cooperate? I have told you everything."

"No, Michael!" he snaps, "You haven't told us about Kirov. And now we know why. To tell us about Kirov you have to tell us about being at Behan's apartment on the night of their deaths. You also have to confess about you and Jinny, about having sex with her upstairs in the bathroom, minutes before the killings. And you know you have to tell that to Inspector Maher. So, Michael, when you decide to get over yourself, when you start thinking about Jinny for once, maybe you can help us get Kirov? Otherwise, we'll make sure you do the time."

With that, he leaves me in the cell with a choice: serve a life sentence for a murder I didn't commit or testify against Valery Kirov, one of the most dangerous Russian mafia leaders in Europe, a man who had the power and influence to intimidate or kill a star witness, no matter how well protected. So I do the time and live, or testify and die. Difficult one isn't it?