Part 2 Victorian Noir

	“Don’t make me repeat myself. Did you kill Mrs. Williams and Elizabeth Powell?”

	The detective punches me in the gut.  I fall to my knees and double over with a groan. This time I don’t get back up. He proceeds to repeatedly kick me in the torso. When he’s done, I vomit what little food and water was in my stomach, eventually just dry heaving when the contents of my stomach empty. The detective, wearing a clean button up and overcoat, in contrast to the dirty cell, pushes his glasses up with his forefinger, steps back, and walks away, having seemingly given up for today. The sound of keys jingling could be heard as the guards lock the cell once more. Footsteps recede and the last of the glow from the candles disappear, leaving me in the pitch black.

	“Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.”

	My body is collapsed against the cold damp wall. I began coughing violently. I needed my medicine for my cough. Once the sound of a door shutting could be heard from somewhere, my mind bega to assemble the pieces together.

	The woman who’s murder I had been framed for was ElizaLaine Carter. She was an apprentice seamstress. She was a woman who would tailor my clothes for me. I had started seeing her more frequently about a week before her death for other reasons. I don’t know what happened that night, but someone else must have came into the room and killed her while we were asleep.

	As the deafening silence begins to fill the room once more, the depressing thought finally begins to settle in my mind.

	“She’s dead. ElizaLaine is dead…” I say, just to confirm this reality.

	I hadn’t really stopped to think about what that really means. I was too preoccupied with what was happening to me to really even think about Eliza.Laine’s fate. The memory of what I had witnessed that morning returns to me. There was blood everywhere. It was like a scene from a cheap pulp magazine.

	But who were those two other women? I don’t know them. I’ve never met them in my life. I assume these women were also killed in a similar manner. I hadn’t been paying attention to the newspapers lately, but Madam Dubois had warned me about a serial killer on the loose putting the entire city into a panic. Most of the details I learned from her, and filled in the gaps with what the detective has been asking me. But who would want to frame me? I don’t recall making any enemies.

	“Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.”

	These questions sit in my mind for a while, before the pain and hunger overtake me. In that cold, wet jail cell where the cold of winter seeps in and the light of day doesn’t reach, my consciousness blurs the lines between what’s real and what wasn’t. That damn ticking won’t stop. But I can only continue to endure, hoping that in the meantime, the real culprit will be exposed before they leave me to rot down here.

	Drip. Drip. Drip.

	I close my eyes and go to sleep to avoid thinking about the pain.


															Present

															Alexei

	The sound of keys jingling can be heard from beyond the darkness of my consciousness. Something’s going on. My mind recedes from the darkness, back into reality. There are people here. I open my eyes to see the guards standing before my door. The detective is standing to the side. What’s going on? It’s too early for another interrogation. The guards open the jail cell.

	“Get up.” The detective says.

	I don’t intend to make this difficult. I slowly get up, bracing myself. Yet the blows don’t come. The detective stands still for a moment, before speaking.

	“Come with me.” He demands.

	I slowly put energy into my feet and begin walking. We leave the cell and continue down the hallway. Eventually after turning right once and walking forward, we reach a set of stairs leading up. I vaguely remember this when they threw me down here. We climb the stairs and he opens a door. The light blinds me. It was the light of day. The entrance led to the inside of the Metropolitan Police building. I stepped out into the day, still dazed. There were people everywhere; Officers, office workers, detectives.  The first thing I notice is the odor of piss and shit being replaced with the scent of papers, ink, and cologne.

	Still in utter shock, “I-I’m being released?”, I stammer out. The detective turns around.

	“Hmph. Someone we couldn’t refuse stepped in and bailed you out.” He says coldly.

	“H-huh? Who?”

	The detective nods his head with a frown towards the entrance of the building, by the receptionist. Before I walk away, he pushes his glasses up,

	“Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other very soon.”  He says with a grin.

	I walk away from him at a very brisk pace. When I look by the receptionist, there is a woman in a wide brimmed hat with a ribbon on top staring at me. I have no idea who she is. I assume she is my benefactor? She is a person of stature like none I know. She wore a large black overcoat and carried a parasol. Her glossy dark brown hair reaches down her shoulders and she is tall, almost my height.  I begin to approach her, but I stop. It was a familiar face. One that reminds me of old times, forgotten pasts. Warm times. But the look on her face was anything but warm. Then her identity dawns on me. It was a woman I hadn’t seen in 15 years. The last person I expected to see. Time stood still for a moment. I just stood there and stared at her in utter shock and then panic. It was the girl I had married 15 years ago. It was my wife, Renee.


																			Present

																			Alexei

	Those distant verdant eyes seemed to be staring past me and looking into me at the same time, analyzing, judging me. There was a cold disdain in her expression. She stood there holding a parasol in one hand and the edge of her wide brimmed hat in the other. There was a dark green ribbon tied around her Her dark brown hair reached down past her shoulders and the scent of gardenias floated from her. She looked at me as if she saw me for what I was and was disgusted. I was stopped five feet away from her. I didn’t know what to say. What could you say to the woman you’d run away from fifteen years ago? Selfish, as I was, I was also a coward. I couldn’t face the consequences of my actions. I looked away from her gaze, I felt as if my mother had caught her son doing something very wrong. For a long time we didn’t say anything.

	“Well? Do you plan on standing there?” She says, interrupting the silence.

	“I-…” I begin to say only to be interrupted by a fit of coughing.

She began to walk away. I dropped my hand and began walking behind her as we left the police building.

	“How did you find me?” I asked. I had managed to successfully hide from my family for 15 years, what changed?

	“Once you were arrested and identified, word eventually reached my father that you had been found and he sent me to collect you. The detective was even kind enough to inform us about the whereabouts of your current living quarters.” She said coldly.

	My face turns red when she mentions it. It’s not a good look when your wife discovers you’ve been living out of the storage room of an establishment of suspect dealings. I scratch my head sheepishly looking for a way to explain that the rent was cheap.

	“Oh don’t trouble yourself. I don’t mind one bit.” She said, definitely minding a bit. She raises her hand by the street to call a carriage. A black carriage stops near us.

	“To the nearest clinic, please” she tells the carriage driver. The driver opens the door to the carriage and she steps in.

	“Wait, that isn’t necessary.” I just wanted to go home and take a bath, eat something, and sleep in my bed.

	“You need to be seen by a physician.”

She takes one look at me. I’m covered in bruises, my eyes are sunk in from barely sleeping, and I haven’t eaten much. I look like shit. I begin to argue, but the look in her eyes and everything that’s transpired tells me I’m not in much of a position to argue so I follow her into the carriage.



	The ride to the carriage was mostly silent. It wasn’t that there was nothing to speak about, surely a great deal has changed in both of our lives in the past fifteen years, however, there was no desire to breach the topic. How would one even start the conversation without getting over the obvious elephant in the room. I ran away from her. There’s no two ways about it. I was a coward who deserved to rot in prison, not for the crime I was accused of, but rather for the crimes I have yet to answer for.

	Renee broke the silence.

	“you know, if you try to run away again after all this, I will take back father’s support and when the police come looking for you, I won’t stop them this time,” she said coldly.

	Suddenly, the carriage came to a halt. I moved the curtains out of the way and looked out the window and my heart dropped.

	“Not this clinic” I thought to myself. There was no way this could possibly end well. Not if she’s here.

	The driver opened the door and offered Renee his hand getting out. I hesitated to get out of the carriage, but it’s too late to leave now. There’s no way she’d let me go home without seeing a doctor. I begrudgingly stepped off the carriage on to the ground.

	“So this is Felix’s clinic. I’ve never been here myself.”, She says as she read the sign out front. She walked to the front and opened the door. As we walked into the clinic, she raised her voice,

	“Is anyone here?” She said, raising her voice. I looked around the room. We were in the waiting room. There was no one here.

	“That’s odd,” she said, “Where’s Felix?”.

	“No Idea,” I lied. Most likely he’s away on business, since he does more than just run his clinic, although, what exactly he does, even I’m not sure.

	We walked into the examination room and found the doctor lying face down on her desk. The sound of slow shallow breaths could be heard from her.

	“Hello? Doctor?” Renee said as she gently shook her. No response.

	“AHEM. DOCTOR?” She said raising her voice. The sleeping woman jolted awake. She had black hair that went down to her jaw She was wearing a white coat, a black dress underneath, and a black choker necklace with a gem hanging from it. With wide eyes she looked around the room only to see Renee’s concerned face and me grinning. We made eye contact.

	“S-sorry, what do you need?” she asked with a sleepy look on her facedrowsily as she lookede stared to at Renee.

	“My husband is in poor condition and needs to be seen.” Renee answers swiftly.

	My smile drops.

	“Your husband?” She asks incredulously, glancing at me and then back to renee. Ah shit.

	“Alex is your husband?” She asks.

	“Uh, yes, this is my wife.” I say nervously, hoping to move on from this conversation.

	“wait, ‘Alex’?” Renee interjects, confused, “He’s a patient here? And Felix never sent word for me?”
	“Our clinic has a distinct ‘Hear nothing, say nothing’ policy. We don’t discuss patient details with outsiders.” The doctor replies.

	“I’m his wife.” She repeats.

	My eyes looked at the doctor pleading not to say anything more.

	“eeehh?” She said as a smile formed on the doctor’s face. I was dead.

	“Anyways, my name is Dr. Antanov, but you can just call me Mila. I’m the assistant doctor here. I’m going to need you to wait in the waiting room while I examine him” Mila says to Renee.

	“But-” Renee begins to protest, but obediently leaves the room without offering resistance.

	Mila pulled out some sort of wire and put it around her neck.

	“Sit down.” she says.

	There was a stool, so I sat down as she said.

	“What’s that?” I asked, pointing to the wire around her neck. I had never seen her with it before.

	“It’s called a stethoscope. We just had it delivered. They can let us hear things like breathing and heartbeats.”

	I sat there as she had begun to poke and prod at my chest with the device, telling me to breathe or placing the device over my heart. A frown had come over her face.  She asked me to take my shirt off and so I did, revealing several bruises on my chest and stomach.

	“What happened here? You certainly have a knack for finding trouble...” Mila said looking at me. She poked my bruise and I grimaced.

	“Well, I won’t ask. You’ll need rest and avoid physical activity. We’ll need to bandage you up and then I’ll give you some pain relievers as well.” She said.

	I was surprised. I thought she would take advantage of the situation to her sadistic benefit, instead she told Renee to leave the room and didn’t bring up my marital status.

	“But in exchange…” Mila said

	Suddenly I felt a cold finger touch my chest. The sudden cold sensation made me prick upright. She lightly traced her finger around my bruises, a ticklish sensation. Her finger gradually travelled down to my abs, never lifting from my skin once.

	“Can you feel it?” She asked.

“Feel what?" I asked, I didn't like where this was going...

	“Your pain tolerance. Can you feel it?” She asked

	“huh?”

	Jab. She stabbed her finger right into the blueish purple bruise, covering my mouth with her palm. A muffled scream of agony.

	“Consider that your punishment for not telling me you were married,” She states with a sly smile. I knew it was too good to be true.

	She takes out some white bandages and begins to wrap them around my stomache and torso.

	She finished wrapping the bandages and before I could react, gave me a back slap on my bruised back.  I winced but kept myself from screaming.

	“There we go, we’re all done now.” She said to Renee who was waiting outside.

	“Um, where is Felix? I need to speak with him” She tells Mila.

	“He’s currently at the general hospital. Do you need to see him right now?” She asked her.

	“Yes, it’s important.” Renee replied.

	“Alright then, I can walk Alexei home.” Mila concluded.

	“You know where he lives?” Renee asks eyeing me suspiciously. I could feel the sweat on my back forming.

	“Of course, I’ve been there often,” Mila said, “…to deliver medicine” she added at the end with a smile that hid her maliciousness.

	“Ah, I should’ve seen this coming,” I thought to myself.





																Present

															Alexei - 7:00 PM

	The sun had already set. The wind had picked up as the snow came down hard. Renee had followed us outside the clinic. In her hands, carried a letter, presumably meant for Felix. Snowflakes covered her hair.

	“Are you sure about this Doctor Antanov? I don’t want to be a burden on you, having to walk my husband home like this,” Renee said to Mila.

	“No no, it’s a physicians responsibility to take care of her patients,” Mila responded to Renee. Somehow, I doubted a physicians duty towards patients went to this extent.

	Before leaving, Renee walked up to me and placed her hands in mine.

	“I will meet you in front of the clinic tommorow before sundown.” Renee said to me.

	“Take care, my beloved,” She told me, “I’m glad to have finally found you.” For the first time today, she gave me a warm smile. It was a smile that brought me back to a time long past.

	“Yes,” I said with a smile back, “It’s been a long time”. It has been a long time. The smell of gardenias takes me back decades. A nostalgic memory. For a moment, I was a boy again. And then the moment ended and her hands fell from mine and she walked in the opposite direction. The fragrence of gardenias leaving with her.

	As the biting wind picked up, Mila turned to me and said,

	“You should probably head home before it gets colder.”

	I respond with a nod and begin walking in the direction of my home.

	As I walk, I direct a question at Mila.

	“So, you’re not going to say anything?” I asked.

	“About what?”  she replied.

	“That I’m married.” I said.

	Mila looks at me for a second and shrugged.

	“I don’t care,” she replied curtly. That was rather straightforward.
	“Well, I do care.” I replied without missing a beat. I hadn’t seen my wife in 15 years and I don’t know what she’d do if she caught me with another woman. Her threat still lingered in my mind. She’s the reason I’m out of prison and something tells me she wouldn’t keep me from getting dragged back there if she found out.

	We continue walking while discussing things that didn’t matter. She complained about the patients she had to see today. I listened and gave my opinion here and there. We walked through the streets full of people. Snow fell down hard, covering men and women in powdery white. There were many couples roaming around, walking in and out of stores. The men were probably buying their loved one gifts to try and woo them over. The winter solctice was coming soon. This was a time when men anxiously sought to progress their relationship before the holidays, when women sought to figure out men’s intentions, and when couples sought to start the new year’s relationship off with a kindled flame. I watched as men flirted and women responded coyly. My mind began to drift towards the near future. What was I going to do when the winter solctice arrived? My life was already complicated enough as is.

	Mila stopped talking and her eyes followed mine towards the couples walking around linking arms.

	“Oh, did you want to try that?” She asked coyly.

	“Try wha- huh?!”

	Mila quickly grabbed my arm and wrapped hers around it.

	“Next you’ll have to take me to a jewelry shop and buy me a necklace.” She said with a devious smile.

	“You know I’m poor, right? You ought to be buying me a gift.” I replied immedietely.

	“My my, that isn’t very chivalrous of you. The man always buys some sort of gift, ” she said.

	“And what could you possibly want from your patient anyways, doctor?”

	“The least you could do is buy me a pastry for all my troubles,” she said as we approached a pastry shop. Damn, I played right into her hands.

	I recognized the shop. It was a café and pastry shop run by a friend of mine. As we enter the pastry shop, I open the door for her in a highly exaggerated manner.

	“Oh my, my shining knight,” she said in a mocking voice as she entered. The dim light of lanterns filled the room with warm light as we left the cold darkness outside the door. The smell of baked treats filled the air. Couples sat at tables enjoying desserts. For some reason, in this romantic atmosphere, I felt oddly out of place, as If there was a single detail I was missing.

	When we reached the counter, Mila grabbed my arm once more, linking it with hers, and pointed to the sign with the menu. Lemon custard tart puffs.

	“Six lemon custard tart puffs please” She said as she leaned onto my side, laying her head on my shoulder. I take out my wallet to pay for the treat. The girl behind the counter glanced at me and paused, recognizing me.

	“Oh what’s this? Alexei, what are you doing here?” A familiar voice called out to me.

	“Hello, Illiya, is your mother in the back?” I asked.

	“Yes, she’s baking right now,” Illiya responded as she was writing our order down on a sheet. She was a girl in her teenage years, probably around sixteen.

	“Order!” Linde shouted. Her mother Nadia came out from the kitchen and saw me.

	“Oh my, aren’t you the casanova?” Nadia said. I quickly removed Mila’s head from my shoulder and brushed my shoulders off.

	“Don’t get the wrong idea. I barely know this woman.” I told her flatly.

	“You scoundral! After all that you did to me!” Mila said in a overly concerned voice. Lies. I grimaced as other customers turned to look at the commotion. Illiya stood there pretending not to notice the overly dramatic woman by my side.

	“You know, Linde was excited about the feedback you gave her. She wants your opinion again on her draft. She wants to meet with you again tommorow,” Illiya said to me.

	“I see, I’ll clean up the place before she comes around,” I said.

	I quickly found an empty chair and sat down somewhere to get away from the prying eyes. The warm lighting had begun to make me drowsy. My eyelids got heavy. In that sleepy night where a room full of strangers shared treats and sweets, my thoughts began to drift towards Mila. I wasn’t doing anything with her. I have nothing to worry about. She’s just a close friend of mine. That’s all.

	As these thoughts preoccupied my mind, a voice called out to me.

	“Alex!” Mila said with force. I snap out of my ruminations.

	“huh? wha?” I say in a daze.

	“I said lets go. It’s getting late,” she said impatiently pushing a brown paper bag full of tarts into my arms. The bell rang behind us as we left the store into the cold snowy night.





																			Present

																			7:30 PM

	We reached an open area with a big mass of people coming and going and stopped. In front of us was a large building with several floors and balconies on each floor. It was the bathhouse.


To be continued...

In the next scene, we meet the prostitute with the heart of gold...