Crimes of Passion : An Erotic Romance Story (7 page)

This time Kelly lunged at Stride, but Eddowes and Chapman caught him, Nichols slammed Edmund back in his seat.

“If you two don’t settle yourselves, I’ll turn you both in!” Nichols shouted.

“
I know I was high and drunk, and not in my right mind, but I swear to all of you, as soon as we were finished, we laid down and fell asleep,” Kelly  cried. “I didn’t kill her!”

“Did you both fall asleep?” Chapman asked.

“I did. But I swear I felt her laying on top of me before I drifted off,” Kelly said, collecting his emotions. “She never woke me. I didn’t hear or see anything else until this morning with the screams.”

“So that means that at some point in the night Melody left the lounge with the killer,” Eddowes suggested. “After all, if none of us heard or saw anything, and the loun
ge didn’t show any signs of struggle, she must’ve left willingly.”

“Perhaps she had another client,” Chapman added. “The other two girls left at some point---it’s not customary
to sleepover after the deed is done, especially if we were all exhausted and wasted. If you think that we all finished up by half past eleven, then there were at least five more hours of good money to be made.”

“That’s true,” Nichols said. “But after Stride and mine’s girl left, I still remember
seeing Melody sleeping next to Kelly. When did you all’s girl leave?”

“We aren’t sure,” Chapman answered. “But she didn’t wake us either.”

“Did anyone else see Melody stirring in the night?” Nichols asked, addressing the room. “Stride?”

             
All of a sudden Professor McGint entered the classroom.

             
“Gentlemen? What are you doing here on a Saturday afternoon? Students are not permitted to be on university property without teacher supervision.”

             
“We’re sorry your honor,” Nichols replied. Perhaps it was for the best--- Avery was the quickest on his feet. “We are just very anxious for the upcoming midterm and thought we would meet here to develop a study strategy.”

             
He gestured to Kelly’s name on the board, “We just appointed Mr. Kelly to be the lead captain.”

             
“Well that’s certainly a wise decision, but you boys should be back at your homes with your families. Certainly you must realize that there’s been another murder in White Chapel?”

             
Chapman gasped and the rest of the boys did their best to look alarmed, “Truly sir? Do they think it’s the Ripper?”

             
“Currently the police have no leads, but it does appear that Miss Melody Young was slain in the same fashion as Miss Monroe. This time there was some bruising around the neck, but her throat was slit in a sloppy fashion.”

             
“Does that mean it’s a copycat?” Eddowes asked.

             
“Unless the Ripper has lost his skills to drink,” McGint replied, taking up a stack of parchments from the backside of the podium. “But we will discuss it further on Monday. I suggest you all make haste and do straighten up before you leave.”

             
As soon as McGint was out of sight, the boys gathered their things that Eddowes and Chapman had salvaged from Lancaster’s Pub and made their way towards the door. Nichols turned to them and gave them one last piece of advice: “For now we go with Kelly’s story, and we keep quiet---separately---for the next few days. Do not say anything to the police. Don’t even approach a pub or brothel in the West end. Lay low and make your faces scarce until we find the time to speak again. Now if you will all excuse me, I’m going to stop by the library and do whatever it takes to solidify our alibi.”

             
Nichols quickly disappeared down the hall, and out into the crowded street. Eddowes and Chapman left a few minutes later, hoping no one else would spot the group together. As Kelly was about to leave, Stride yanked him by the collar and pulled him back into the classroom.

             
“We need to talk,” he said, closing the door behind him. “Have a seat.”

             
“I don’t see what you could possibly have to say to me,” Kelly said, growing impatient, and pushing his way back towards the door.

             
“I was the last person to see Melody Young alive,” Stride confessed, wiping his forehead with his brow. He looked into Kelly’s eyes with a vulnerable expression, his hands trembling. Stride continued, “Second to last it seems.”

A chill ran down Kelly’s spine and he was speechless.
He went to the center of the room and made his place in one of the desks. Stride lit up a cigarette and took a seat beside him.

“What are you saying Edmund?” Kelly whispered intently.

“I was
also with Ella Monroe in that alleyway the night she died, and I was with Melody Young this morning. Now they’re both dead.” Stride exhaled a puff of smoke and looked to his hands. “John, I know full well that we are enemies, but I’ve always respected your mind. You are the only one I trust who could possibly help me make sense of the situation. The cops, they just want a name to close the case.”

“
And why should I believe you? Why should I even help you? Why are you telling me this?” Kelly asked, reveling slightly in Stride’s moment of need.

Stride leaned in close. “Because without my confession, you are the last person to see Melody Young alive, and without you, someone is going to succeed in framing me.”

The blood drained from Kelly’s face, as he realized the true severity of the situation. His drug-induced haze, the euphoria he felt after making love to Addison, everything had blinded him of the blood that was collecting on his own hands.

“Tell me everything,”
Kelly said, and he leaned back, awaiting Stride’s vivid recollection.

Stride lit up another cigarette before he began:
“It’s no secret that I have always had a certain hatred towards the fairer sex. I suppose it all began the summer when I caught my delightful mother fucking our family’s coachman behind the stable of our country home. She was positively giddy with dirt up her back and hay on her dress, and the old shit grunted as he thrust his old cock in and out of her. Her faced was flushed bright red, and she took it like every one of those whores in the streets. Over the years there were more of them, I’d watch from time to time, all the while hating her--- hating them--- but my stupid father never got wise. He adored her to the ends of the world, he worked to give her and my siblings the very best things, and that is how the bitch repaid him. Sucking the cocks of the hired help.

“So I guess from then
on that affected how I viewed all women. I proposed to Addison to keep my family happy and because I thought she was a good woman, but in time she’ll no doubt have her legs spread behind a barn too.”

Kelly shifted uncomfortably in his seat
remembering his time with Addison. In a way, part of him felt sorry for Edmund Stride, but he wasn’t prepared to give him any reason to halt his confession.

“Then once I could withdraw from my trust fund I began frequenting brothels and pubs, playing the card tables, and buying expensive bottles of Absinthe along with beautiful women. I’d get stoned and we would fuck. That was the only time I was
ever happy. I felt like a wild animal, and laying a bird down and driving it to her, hearing her scream, it made me feel like I was finally putting her in her place. You can’t get fucked over if you’re the one doing the fucking.

“And t
here were a few times recently, I admit, I took it too far. I became violent. The night I stepped out with Ella Monroe I got high on ether. She took me to an alleyway to make things a little more exciting, and she started sucking me off. Everything felt so amazing, until she began to get a little cocky, a little patronizing. Like I was some sick pervert and she was better than me.
A whore was claiming she was better than me.
So I grabbed her by the back of the head and I fucked her in the mouth until she couldn’t breathe. After I came, I threw her down and she choked for air, crying, as I tossed money at her feet. I knew what I had done was wrong, but the high and my anger turned me into an animal. But I tell you, she was alive when I left that alley. Someone must’ve gone back in after me.”

Kelly was sweating at Stride’s chilling confession
wrapped in a dark, twisted history. Even if what he said was true, and he was being framed, Edmund Stride’s deep-seeded malice and cruelty towards women put him only steps away from becoming a killer to rival Jack the Ripper. Kelly tried to conceal his fear. He swallowed hard before posing the next question. “And Melody Young?”

“I was just as high as everyone else…but after Avery and I were
done with our girl, he fell asleep and I sat up, looking after you and Melody. I was annoyed by your perpetual naiveté. How you were trying to turn fucking a whore into some romantic story about how you lost your virginity. I heard you utter Addison’s name, and I got pissed, so I decided I would get back at you by fucking the shit out of your new little girlfriend.

“
It wasn’t hard. I took a wad of notes from my jacket pocket and stepped over to her. I nudged her with my foot til she awoke, and I dangled the money above her head like a baited hook. She got up, we dressed, and she followed me to the alley. I told her to hike up her skirt and face me, I wanted to see her face as she took in a real man. I spit in my palm and wet my cock before I jammed it in her. She was a little dry, so she cried out when I thrust it in her at first, but I wouldn’t stop. Then she tried to push me away, and I was positively livid. She wasn’t going to take you for free and turn me down when I was paying for it.

“W
hen I pushed back she hit her head against the wall. She started to whimper, but I was so pissed, so I covered up her mouth and wrapped my fingers around her throat and slowly squeezed as I fucked her. Her eyes showed me she was petrified. It was the darkest thing I had ever done.

“
Eventually she lost consciousness and I let go of her throat, but I thrust in and out of her until I finished---her body relaxed after she passed out so I had no trouble getting it in. I wanted to show her who was boss, who was the better man. After my orgasm came, and I held the limp girl in my arms, I became terrified at what I had done. I rested her body against the wall and I returned upstairs to drown myself in drink. I woke up, still dressed when I heard the screams.”

Kelly crossed to the window, as if he were about to vomit hearing Stride’s disturbing confession. He imagined Melody’s terrifying last moments, as she
found herself helpless against the forceful Stride before she was slain at the hands of an unknown killer---
did she see him before he slit her throat
? Kelly opened the window and took in a deep gulp of air.

“But I didn’t murder her,” Edmund said, coming up behind him and closing the window.

“But you’re just as guilty for your crimes,” Kelly answered in terror. “You nearly strangled two defenseless girls and left them in the streets. You deserve to see the inside of a prison cell as much as Jack the Ripper.”

“I know! I know Kelly! I realize---but I can change!” Tears welled up in Stride’s eyes.  “I can change!” Edmund became hysterical and his body crashed against the wall. He slid to the floor and covered his eyes.

Kelly was speechless as Edmund writhed on the floor, until Stride reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out a deck of cards. He handed them to Kelly and whimpered, “I don’t know how they got there.”

Kelly opened the small card box and pulled out the red deck. All of the cards were in order
and crisp, as if the deck had never actually been used. He filed through the numbers as he passed through the suits, and a chill ran down his spine as he reached the royals. Kelly gulped as he made his way through the entire deck.

“Three of them are missing,” he finally said.

“I know,” Edmund said wiping his eyes.

“But there have only been two murders.”

“I know,” Stride answered, looking up at him in desperation.

Kelly exhaled deeply as he tried to think of what to do. Edmund was a cad, and this could all be one large trick--- he had already gotten Kelly to place his fingerprints on a key piece of evidence--- but deep in his heart he believed Stride was innocent.

“If there is one more card out there, then that means the there is one last intended victim. The only thing you can do to save yourself is to stay away, Edmund,” Kelly answered. “Go straight home, stay in your apartment, don’t drink, don’t get high, and don’t let anyone else in.”

Edmund anxiously nodded his head in agreement.
Kelly extended his hand and pulled Edmund up off of the ground.

“I will do my best to help you,” Kelly promised, “But in return you have to try to change your life for the better once it’s all said and done.”

“I promise,” Stride replied, with all of the vulnerability of a scared child.

“Go home Edmund. I’ll come to you after I’ve figured something out.”

Before he left the classroom, Kelly stopped at the blackboard and cleared his good name.