Hannah had not lived so long on the outside of the law by answering questions first, she attacked with her fingernails, going for his eyes and ran out the room as he staggered but didn’t fall.
Mother scooped me up protectively as Hannah screamed her vengeance from down the street and the dazed and blinking officer stumbled out after her.
I didn’t see the chase but when I heard the gunshots, I knew it was over.
* * *
Now there isn’t much to mention. Only the police has asked me to go to Newgate to identify the wounded widow in her hospital wing bed but mother refuses me to go. I saved new newspaper clippings of her trial, how her dead children and lovers had been exhumed and their guts were found rotten with arsenic.
Mother threw all the papers away, saying they were not mementos to save. She had been hurt by the betrayal of her friend – lately, she has been hurt by a lot of things but now we have a future and a peaceful one since the judge has donned his black cap and Hannah will meet her maker next week.
I think this will be my last story. The life of a writer is too exciting for me and I will be happy enough working in a hat shop after all.
Good night.
Matthew Wilson is a UK resident whose stories have been published in Horror Zine, Star*Line, Zimbell House Publishing and many more, he is currently editing his first novel.