The camera person without doubt had hidden well enough behind a large van but didn’t expect Sean to make him out. Hurrying out the front door with his barely laced boots, Sean pulled up his hood, slipped his hands into his pockets while holding his caliber in place in case of any unexpected situations.
“Good morning Mr. Simon”, the lady cleaning the hallway greeted him.
Almost forgetting he had signed in with the fake name, Sean looked up and noticed the elderly lady waving at him. “Good morning Henrietta… how are the kids?”
“They are giving me hell as usual, but what is life without them?” the lady giggled before turning away immediately.
Sean managed a smile, slipped into an elevator with opened doors as the last occupant stepped out from it. Stretching some bit and taking in deep breaths almost as though he was about making a drug bust or a call on the door to a terrorist cell, he punched in the button for the ground floor before slowly retreating and resting his back against the aluminum wall.
Smiling tenderly with copious amount of thoughts swarming his mind, he murmured, “You’ve got to stop messing with me Luke!”
He wouldn’t put it past the man to have private investigators tail him and it was going to irritate him and also affect the effectiveness of his task in finding Susan’s killer. Hearing the doors chime open and the fresh breath from the ground floor unlike the humid ones he encountered on the top floors hit his face, he walked out immediately, barely granting any notice to the lad at the reception waving in his direction.
He didn’t think he had the time, considering the photographer he had spotted might be moving at any point in time. Although, he counted the stalker leaving immediately as unlikely, having seen the same van parked outside for the past three days. He had mistaken it for an electricity or cable company but now it seemed clearer.
Feeling the safety of his handgun still in place, he walked out of the building doing well not to arouse suspicion or any form of unwanted attention to himself; donning the hood was and jogging boots were meant to give the impression he was going out on a morning run.
“There you are”, he purred gently like a predator knowing his prey’s fate would soon be decided by him.
The figure, so consumed with paying attention to his window and awaiting it to come open again had not seen Sean approaching from his blind side having used the cars lining the opposite side of the street as his cover. Upon catching sight of Sean a tad too late, he took to his heels, running through the early morning crowd of people hoping to get to work and knocking some to the ground in the process.
“Hey! Watch where you’re going dummy!” a disgruntled man yelled in anger.
Without turning around, the man yanked up his hood and raised a middle finger at the commuter he had shoved aside to make his escape. “Fuck off!”
Sean paused, scoffed and smiled. “Saucy… I see”.
His stalker was definitely young, apparently from his slender build and athleticism which made it rather difficult to catch up with him. His feet moved fast enough to get him a good few feet ahead and his endless swerving and cutting though corners indicated just how well he was used to being chased. He never made his runs in a straight line and Sean barely managed to keep up but remained relentless.
Hearing himself breath aloud and painfully as his stalker made good pace ahead, Sean looked to the streets in confusion on what next to do. Sighting a motorcycle nearing from the end of the street, he hurried into the road with his arms spread apart and creating some falsehood to indicate his body was larger than it was.
“Get off the fucking road!” the man raged before pulling his bike to a halt a few inches before Sean’s knee.
Staring down at his knee and smiling awkwardly, Sean spoke, “That was a close one mate… what say I borrow your bike for a minute or two and we’re even for trying to break my legs?”
Looking perplexed and scoffing with disbelief, the man took off his helmet. “You must be joking”.
Sean barely granted him another opportunity to speak before ramming his fist into his face and shoving him off of his bike to assume control of it.
“Thanks mate!” Sean smiled and revved the motorcycle into action before speeding off.
He wasn’t about letting his stalker get away; he would sweep every corner of the streets if he had to.
“This will make a good morning exercise”, he thought to himself.
***
Still living in the horror of his discovery and barely able to sit or remain still in a position for long, Jake paced around his room and paused momentarily as he had done for the umpteenth time to see if there was a secondary spot he might have missed, before continuing in his pacing again.
“This is crazy”, he thought.
He walked back to the air conditioning vent to search through once again but it definitely wasn’t there and with every realization and reminder that the sacredness of his home had been violated, he wonder how he had been so lax and reckless. There was no doubt about the doer being pretty good though.
“The fucker disabled the surveillance cameras!” he raged and kicked hard against the already tipped table in his room.
Distraught and unsure of what next to do, he walked over to the upside down couch and yanked off his coat before heading to the door and halting within two feet from it as a loud bang emanated from the
