Free The Midnight Hour by Neil Davies

job.”
    Jackie leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek.
    “See you later.”
    Karen followed her as far as the door and then, with a final wave, closed it behind her hurrying friend. She turned and locked the Yale, slid the new bolts across, top and bottom now, and hooked the new security chain in place.
    She walked slowly through the living room, a slight smile on her face, her first genuine smile since returning. Her nervousness, the remnant of her fear, was retreating. No one had been waiting for her, hiding in the darkness. She had known they wouldn’t be, of course. Too many experts had explained how that man could never have existed except in her own mind for her to think anything else. But fear didn’t think, and she had needed to see the empty apartment for that to finally fade.
    It was good to be back. Good to be feeling normal again.
    For a moment she did not move, just stood in the centre of her apartment with her eyes closed and her head back, savouring the freedom from the hospital and, more importantly, the freedom from her fear.
    But there was something she needed to do to bring closure to the whole, dreadful incident.
    She walked to her desk. She needed to take those photographs down from the corkboard. They would do her no good staring at her every time she needed to work. She would throw them away. She would not even look at them.
    She reached the desk, leant forward towards the corkboard and stared at the notepaper pinned alongside the photographs, strong, thick letters scrawled upon it.
    GOT YOU!
    She wanted to scream, opened her mouth to do so, but no sound came out. The trembling returned to her body, the fear to her heart. She clutched the edge of the desk to stop herself falling.
    He was real . And he had been in her apartment!
    Something dark covered her eyes and she blacked out.
     
    It was Jackie who phoned the police that evening.
    She returned to the apartment after work, just as she promised, but there was no answer.
    She didn’t believe Karen would have gone out alone, and she stood and hammered and rang long enough to wake anyone who might be sleeping. Several of Karen’s tired and irritated neighbours could attest to that.
    Given Karen’s recent history, the police had shared her concern.
    Jackie followed the police in, searching the empty rooms. She found Karen’s desk, the corkboard. She stared at the photographs. At the beach scene.
    At the man standing incongruously on the sand wearing a black, double-breasted business suit and wide-brimmed hat pulled down over his eyes. He was smiling, his teeth white and sharp in the darkness of his face. His hand lay heavily on the shoulder of a small, slender young woman. She stood just in front of him, head bowed, shoulder length black hair covering her face. Hanging from one limp hand by the strap of its carrying case was a camera.
    It was Jackie’s turn to scream!
     

THE PERFECT MARRIAGE
     
     
    3 rd March, 11:30pm
     
    I don’t think I can pinpoint exactly when I decided to kill my wife.
    You see, I think it’s an idea that’s been growing for some time, an idea whose time has come so to speak. All couples argue, true. All couples hate each other at times, also true. But when it gets to the stage we’re at now, where how I feel about her is so strong, so overwhelming, so hateful….well, murder seems the best way out of things.
    I know what you’re thinking. Why not divorce like other couples do? Why go to this extreme?
    Without going into details let me say one word. Money.
    Ok, some details then. For a start I doubt she’d give me a divorce. She relies too much on my salary. Second, I couldn’t afford a divorce. The way this country is she’d get more of my money than I would.
    No, sorry. My mind’s made up. Like I say, don’t know exactly when it happened but it’s happened.
    She has to die.
     
    5 th March, 10:45pm
     
    I hate coming home!
    Work’s bad enough with people putting on me all day, but walk through the