Leigh Artera was not a man of many words, I had known that since I started working for him. He used to target me because I was new and made mistakes, but then he stopped, and it was only at the risk of not running off someone who could potentially be good for his team. Then Zoe came in a whirlwind of aggressiveness that no one expected.

And Leigh had a new subject.

And then Emily started with Zoe, much to her displeasure.

So, as Leigh had told her to “clean up her %^^!ing mess”, Zoe looked completely pissed off and ready to explode. She’d had enough.

I gripped her wrist underneath the table.

“Zoe,” I hissed. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“I won’t,” she said and glared at me. “I’m just sick of his %^%^.”

We watched Leigh and Emily leave and I said, “He’s our higher up, so we have to listen to him. Do you want to get fired?”

“I probably should have been,” she said. She stirred her coffee again and looked back at the doors. “Sometimes this job really sucks.”

“It only sucks when we don’t catch the bastards,” I told her. I reached across the table and gripped her hand. “But we will catch this guy, I promise.”

“Yeah,” she muttered and pulled her hand away. “I told Maddie Klein the same thing.”

“Do you think she believed you?” I asked.

“She probably would have if she had lived.”

I nodded. “Do you have the okay to go to her place?”

She laughed. “I don’t think Leigh will grant me permission. Maybe he’ll give it to you.”

I smiled a little. “Maybe. But you’re a member of the team and he should respect you all the same.”

“I’d like to see you tell that to him,” she replied. She shook her head. “I guess we should go call Mr. Page.”

“I guess we should,” I said and stood up. As we left the deli, I glimpsed out the window.

Across the street, against the wall of one of the shops was the man that Zoe had talked to. He had his eyes locked on the deli.

And maybe on me too.

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Author guidance for This story

Trusting a person is difficult - but trusting the wrong one can be deadly.

You should know that this is not a love story. It's a death story.

There are monsters all around us.

This story has three separate point of views.

Copyright - x_Alexithymia_x - 2012.

updated Jan 16 by x_alexithymia_x