The Perfect Murder (short story)

The Perfect Murder is a short story by the British politician and author Jeffrey Archer, first published in his 1988 anthology A Twist in the Tale.

Plot

The story is told in the first person by a married man who has been having an affair with beautiful, 31 year old Pimlico secretary Carla Moorland. After he sees another man leaving her flat, he assumes it's her lover and the two quarrel, ending in him accidentally striking her dead. He leaves unnoticed, then anonymously tips off the police so that the man he saw, a 51 one year old insurance broker called Paul Menzies, will be arrested. The murder inquiry receives vast media attention and Paul Menzies is eventually convicted and brought to trail. The protagonist takes time off work, and puts his family life on hold, attending and sitting in on the courthouse hearings everyday. His guilt grows ever larger, and his fear that Menzies will be found innocent and the police find himself as the real murder consumes him. Despite his fears of being caught, the protagonist returns to the courthouse every day, waiting for the court of law to find Menzies guilty. The protagnist's fears that he will be caught, continues to grow yet after a lengthy trial and jury deliberation, is happy to know the jury has reached a verdict. The protagonists returns to the courthouse to hear the verdict, as the foreman is asked to stand by the judge, the protagonist stand and delivers the verdict of "Guilty" – revealing to the reader that the protagonists was never in any real fear of being caught as he was on the jury and in which no one would suspect him of the murder.