with the resources they had.
This is ridiculous. I’m going to finally call this in when I wake up again, there is absolutely no excuse. The longer I put it off, the more likely it is that another friend is going to get shot and end up dead or in the hospital.
I shuddered to think what my boss was going to have to say when I told him that there had been two deaths, a shooting, an explosion, and my own attempted murder that I had not reported. It wasn’t something I wanted to face on three hours of sleep.
I went back to bed and tossed for a half an hour before I drifted into an uneasy slumber. Fraught dreams haunted me with ghost-like images and silenced guns.
A few gun shots woke me with a start, and I lay in bed listening intently for ten minutes, head cocked. There weren’t any more sounds, and I shrugged it off. Must have been in my dream. I’m going to have the worst wake-ups in the world for the next couple of years, aren’t I?
I climbed out of bed and got dressed in light running clothes so that I could work out some frustration.
As I got out of the bathroom, there was a knock at the door. I opened it up and was shocked to see Kat standing there. There were a couple other men from the club standing guard at the end of the driveway, playing cards on a crate flipped upside down.
“Oh, hi Leslie!” She was cheerful, smiling.
My hackles rose, and I backed away slowly. “Kat,” I acknowledged.
She took my backing away as permission to enter, and stepped inside. When she closed the door behind her, I felt like screaming a warning out to the other men, but before the thought made it to my mouth the door clicked shut. She locked it after, seemingly as an automatic reflex. Automatic, or entirely on purpose?
“Jed sent me over to help keep an eye on you, I thought I’d come in and see how you’re doing. He mentioned that you had a late-night visitor last night, I can’t believe how scary that must have been.” She kept a careful eye on me as she spoke, as though she was curious to see how I reacted to her words.
I can’t believe how bold she is, is she back to finish the job?
I wished that I had grabbed my gun and kept it on me before I opened the door. My eyes flicked to the drawer in the kitchen where I kept it before I controlled myself and brought my gaze back to rest on her eyes. Maybe I could turn this around and find out what I needed to know about her.
“Yes, that’s true. The murderer was here last night, and I would be dead right now if I hadn’t heard him. Or her.” I said the last pointedly, and watched as her eyes opened and then narrowed.
The tension in the room was thick enough to cut. I watched her hands in my peripheral vision, careful to make sure she didn’t make any sudden movements towards a concealed gun. Or knife. She proved that she knows how to use one of those to deadly effect perfectly well.
“Her, huh? That’s interesting. You think the killer may be a she?” It was almost too obscene that we danced around the fact that was by now glaringly obvious. It seemed as though both of us knew that she was the killer, and were just avoiding flat-out saying it.
“Oh, I’m pretty positive of that,” I said. “There have been some things that have tipped her hand.”
“Is that right?” she asked. “You know, Jed wouldn’t believe it.”
I barked a short laugh. “Of course he wouldn’t. He’s been completely blind to the possibility. He doesn’t want to even entertain the notion.”
It was about time to fight or flee. The level of anticipation in the room was getting to unbearable heights.
I had no weapon on me, and there were none close enough to grab before she could get to me.
With a quick lunge, I knocked Kat into the wall. She was strong and wiry and surprisingly hard to budge, but she hit the plaster and fell to the floor. I grabbed at the front door and twisted the handle, wasting valuable seconds before I remembered that she had locked it.
With a
This is ridiculous. I’m going to finally call this in when I wake up again, there is absolutely no excuse. The longer I put it off, the more likely it is that another friend is going to get shot and end up dead or in the hospital.
I shuddered to think what my boss was going to have to say when I told him that there had been two deaths, a shooting, an explosion, and my own attempted murder that I had not reported. It wasn’t something I wanted to face on three hours of sleep.
I went back to bed and tossed for a half an hour before I drifted into an uneasy slumber. Fraught dreams haunted me with ghost-like images and silenced guns.
A few gun shots woke me with a start, and I lay in bed listening intently for ten minutes, head cocked. There weren’t any more sounds, and I shrugged it off. Must have been in my dream. I’m going to have the worst wake-ups in the world for the next couple of years, aren’t I?
I climbed out of bed and got dressed in light running clothes so that I could work out some frustration.
As I got out of the bathroom, there was a knock at the door. I opened it up and was shocked to see Kat standing there. There were a couple other men from the club standing guard at the end of the driveway, playing cards on a crate flipped upside down.
“Oh, hi Leslie!” She was cheerful, smiling.
My hackles rose, and I backed away slowly. “Kat,” I acknowledged.
She took my backing away as permission to enter, and stepped inside. When she closed the door behind her, I felt like screaming a warning out to the other men, but before the thought made it to my mouth the door clicked shut. She locked it after, seemingly as an automatic reflex. Automatic, or entirely on purpose?
“Jed sent me over to help keep an eye on you, I thought I’d come in and see how you’re doing. He mentioned that you had a late-night visitor last night, I can’t believe how scary that must have been.” She kept a careful eye on me as she spoke, as though she was curious to see how I reacted to her words.
I can’t believe how bold she is, is she back to finish the job?
I wished that I had grabbed my gun and kept it on me before I opened the door. My eyes flicked to the drawer in the kitchen where I kept it before I controlled myself and brought my gaze back to rest on her eyes. Maybe I could turn this around and find out what I needed to know about her.
“Yes, that’s true. The murderer was here last night, and I would be dead right now if I hadn’t heard him. Or her.” I said the last pointedly, and watched as her eyes opened and then narrowed.
The tension in the room was thick enough to cut. I watched her hands in my peripheral vision, careful to make sure she didn’t make any sudden movements towards a concealed gun. Or knife. She proved that she knows how to use one of those to deadly effect perfectly well.
“Her, huh? That’s interesting. You think the killer may be a she?” It was almost too obscene that we danced around the fact that was by now glaringly obvious. It seemed as though both of us knew that she was the killer, and were just avoiding flat-out saying it.
“Oh, I’m pretty positive of that,” I said. “There have been some things that have tipped her hand.”
“Is that right?” she asked. “You know, Jed wouldn’t believe it.”
I barked a short laugh. “Of course he wouldn’t. He’s been completely blind to the possibility. He doesn’t want to even entertain the notion.”
It was about time to fight or flee. The level of anticipation in the room was getting to unbearable heights.
I had no weapon on me, and there were none close enough to grab before she could get to me.
With a quick lunge, I knocked Kat into the wall. She was strong and wiry and surprisingly hard to budge, but she hit the plaster and fell to the floor. I grabbed at the front door and twisted the handle, wasting valuable seconds before I remembered that she had locked it.
With a
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