Image credit: Fer Gregory

“We’ve worked out how not to see each other when we don’t want to,” Gabriel is saying down the lens, ‘Just for the dramatic effect of the film, you see. And you’re right, Roger was a cheap bastard. He has no cameras of his own in here, so it doesn’t matter that you can see me on our film now. And Natalie told him to leave the door open for her when she buzzed him, so she could let herself in and so stay invisible until she got into the flat. Perfect eh? The perfect murder.”

I am in shock. I’m just sitting there, a million questions racing through my inebriated but suddenly very awake mind, unable to articulate any of them, not even the most obvious one, the one bubbling to the surface of my inarticulate wonder and dread.

Gabriel has anticipated this on the film though. He continues his soliloquy.

“You’ll be asking how? With this.” He holds up a hypodermic needle for the camera to see. “It’s wonderful how not only are we invisible, but so are our clothes and anything we carry on our person. Far more advanced than those old Disney type invisible man characters. I suspect it’s that we inhabit another space, so to speak, so everything with us also inhabits the invisible, but that’s just a theory. Anyway, it’s very effective. I’m sure you’ll agree. And what did this contain? Absolutely nothing, which is the whole point my friend. I’m sure you’ve seen enough B Grade noir films to know that an oxygen bubble into the blood stream goes straight to the heart and…kapow!”

I blink at the screen. In my peripheral vision I realize Gabriel is watching me intently, but is happy to allow his filmic ghost to continue the explanation.

“What we don’t know, because let’s face it, none of us are medical people, is whether that is detectable, whether the bastard’s post mortem will show the cause of death. But there will be no murder weapon left at the scene of the crime, and.as all the security cameras will testify, we were never here. No-one was, no-one remotely near the time of death. What a little puzzle for them if they do realize it’s murder. And what’s more, no-one knows we have any connection to him. Natalie made it her business to meet him, but never where anyone would know, and she never used her own name, of course, in case he told anyone else. Though he probably wouldn’t have. He obviously wanted to nail her and I’d guess he never talks of conquests till he has them, oops sorry, had them, everything’s past tense now for our dear Roger. And as for forensic evidence, if we actually leave any, and perhaps we generally don’t, it will never be tied to us. We don’t have criminal records, we are quite invisible in that respect too. So, the perfect crime, using the technology that is anticipated to protect and identify the criminal to actually protect us! Isn’t it beautiful?”

(c) Helen M Valentina 2015, All Rights Reserved