She didn’t get a lot of mail, especially the kind that had actual stamps on it. It worried her. Who would be writing to her now, after all these years? She didn’t have time to open it. She’d forgotten to set her alarm last night and had woken up in a panic, thirty minutes later than normal. She stuffed the letter down into her purse and took a big slurp of coffee from her to go cup. She’d deal with it later.
Despite being late leaving the house she managed to make it to office with two minutes to spare. She hadn’t escaped what was going to be a sucky day though. Within seconds of hanging up her dripping jacket – the heavens had opened as soon as she’d opened her front door – she was summoned to the managers office. There was a problem with her last two reports, he’d said and she had to go through them with a fine toothed comb until the problems were spotted and corrected. Even if that meant staying after hours. Oh, and there be no overtime pay for any hours worked after five o’clock. She left his office with rage bubbling inside her. She felt like quitting on the spot. That would show him. But the rational side of her told her that she needed this job. Just a few months until she would have enough to move on again.
That stray thought led her mind back to the letter in the bottom of her purse. Maybe, she’d need to move on earlier than she thought.
She sighed, as she returned to her desk to begin unravelling the reports she’d spent so long on. If she slogged her guts out between now and lunch, then no-one would bother about her going out for her break. God knew she’d need to get out from under the fluorescent lights at some point before dark.
Several hours, and chronic eye strain later, she grabbed her coat and bag and escaped the office before anyone could object. There was a nice little cart at the end of the street that sold the best dirty hotdogs in the world. Hurrying through the crowded side walk, she gave the vendor a bright smile as she ordered and paid for her lunchtime choice. Hurrying away from the cart, she managed to secure one of the few empty seats in the plaza opposite. Maybe her luck was turning round. Momentarily feeling lighter and happier, suddenly the memory of the unopened letter crept back into her mind. She’d wait until she’d finished her lunch and then she’d open it. If her move needed to happen earlier, then the sooner she found that out the better.
The sky darkened and began to let go of a light drizzle as she finished the last slurp of her soda. Well, it was now or never. Although, she could just dump the letter in the garbage and carry on with life. Ignorance was bliss, right? No. Ignorance put you in danger, so she needed to open the damn letter.
It took for her to dump her bag out onto the seat beside her, for her to find it. It had wiggled its way right down to the bottom, where the lining in her bag was giving way to the constant wear and tear of everyday life as a well used purse. Having stuffed the letter in her pocket to stop the drizzle from soaking it, she shoved everything back into her purse and sat back down. Whatever was inside this envelope, she knew she could handle it, but that thought didn’t stop her hands from shaking as she ran a thumb nail under the gummed down flap at the back of the envelope. The last time she’d had one of these it had arrived two years after she’d left. She still didn’t know how they’d found her that time, or this one.
Sliding the folded cream sheet from its envelope she didn’t know what she expected to see. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and unfolded the sheet.
She opened them again and blinked several times, taking in the three words written in slanting script in black marker.
Bang! You’re Dead.
She didn’t see where the shot came from. She didn’t even have time to cry out, the bullet pierced her brain so quickly that it left her last thought unfinished. Those around the plaza said it came from nowhere, so fast that the report of the shot was merely an echo.
The rain was significantly heavier when Detective Harvey Laraine arrived at the scene. It had been taped off and the body had been covered. The rain didn’t seem to be keeping away the gawkers though. The local cops filled him on what they knew, one them handing him a cream sheet of paper containing three words. Damn, Harvey thought. Looks like I’ll be on overtime tonight.
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