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This is really Chapter 1, Part 2
What I am looking for is if the background is believable and interesting. This is unedited.
The apartment was a mess. The smell of gunpowder was heavy in the air almost like after a fireworks display. My nose burned and I wrinkled it. There was something sad about walking through a dead person's apartment. It always reminded me of my gramz's house. My mom and I had the unfortunate job of cleaning out her house. I remembered my mom's muffled sobs and how gramz's perfume was everywhere. It was as if she was still there. Every once in a while I could swear I could still hear my mom's cries when working.
First things first, I searched my BOT for gloves and full body suit. These things were wonderful. My hair and any other DNA particle would be contained within this lightweight plastic babies. I would have bought stock in the company that had manufactured these suits if they would have let me. I put the gloves on with a snap that echoed through the empty apartment.
The penthouse amazed me. I was expecting elegance- expansive paintings and curios. What I found was comforting wood furniture. Dark wood with scrollwork, deep colors of mahogany browns mixed with royal purple and gold made up the fabrics and enhanced by plain white walls. Bay windows that reached from floor to ceiling, looked out over early morning sun. I swiftly strode over and closed the thick gold fabric, for privacy. Although it didn't seem possible that any one could see in here.
Next was assessing the condition of the bodies. I forced myself to walk past the overturned loveseat and follow the hall to the bedroom. There I found Mr. and Mrs. Grossman.
Lily Ann was where she was supposed to be, lying on the bed, curled up on her side, like she was sleeping. At least he got that much right. Her short blonde hair was prefect, as if she had just stepped out of the salon.
Along with the directions to the site, came the instructions on how the job was to be set. This was a homicide/suicide situation. Mr. Grossman had found a note from his wife's lover. He was distressed and angered. Then pulling out the .38 revolver he'd bought for protection last fall, he shot Lily while she slept. Then he turned the gun on himself. Thus the murder/suicide.
Easy right? Some how our "man" was surprised. I could just imagine what had happened. Maybe Mr. Grossman wasn't sleeping. Maybe he was stronger then the assassin. So I was called. I reached up and scratched the back of my head through the hood in frustration.
First to position Carter's body. He had managed to get to the bathroom. The floor was a complete mess. I had to try to get most of his blood contained, so that I could make the scene believable by having the blood around the body. The hard part was getting the blood and brain matter to splatter on the wall beside the bed to make it look like he had off'd himself right there instead of getting killed in the bathroom. I'm guessing the Company owned a lab where all my neat little gadgets were manufactured. I even had this little bottle that held a serum that would halt the blood from congealing. A couple of drops of this and the magic begin, if only for a while, undetectable to most tests. That is one my favorites.
Another was the turkey baster. Yeah, you read that right, turkey baster. It's great for blood splatter.
My bangs had fallen in my eyes as I lifted the body up. I had to grab him from behind, with my forearms under his armpits. What struck me as odd was that his heels left lines in the carpet. Dragging him right under my nose made the smell of copper and gunpowder more overpowering.
After I had Carter positioned I started on the bathroom. As I wiped up blood, the little that was left, I caught myself revisiting how I had gotten the job as Closer.
I hadn't been wealthy or poor. I was average middle class. My father had been a salesman for a sporting goods store, the only one in our small town. He was a bear of a man, barrel chested with a dark beard and white teeth flashing under his mustache. My dad was a good salesman. He laughed easily and often.
Mom was a stay at home mom and it drove me crazy. She was over protective and I didn't understand what my dad was doing with her. I still don't. By the time I was fourteen, I spent nearly no time at home. My friends were more my style. They had parents that worked.
It just so happened that I had been out prowling around the neighborhood, looking for some friends that were suppose to meet me, when I noticed a strange car parked in front of a friends. I sneak up to the window and looked between the partly closed curtains.
I watch in horror as my friends parent were murdered. Yeah, so they had been the local drug dealers, so they were basically bad people. It was still wrong to take another's life.
After I had witnessed the ‘execution' I stumbled back and fell over the decorative rock border. Hearing the commotion, the assassin raced outside to find me limping towards the trees.
Se captured me and was about to do away with me when the black masked female received a phone call. After a few clipped responses she hung up and hauled me into the strange car.
I found myself, a little later, sitting on a hard, red chair in a nondescript room. Nothing to see but gray cinder blocks for the walls, the chair I was sitting on and the bright overhead light.
I'm not sure why they didn't just get rid of me. Would have been easy. My parent's didn't know where I was. All Sunsaray would ever tell me afterward was "They liked my fire." Guess my answers were acceptable.
They didn't let me go home right away. That worried me for a time. Even though I wasn't on the best of terms with my parents I still didn't want them to worry. I still had school and friends. What would they think?
Sunsaray was my official contact. She actually went to my house, and talked to my parents. She gave them some song and dance about me bring questioned by government official about the recent disappearance of the town's drug dealers, my friends parents. As soon as they heard government official they stopped asking questions and demanded I have a lawyer. Sunsaray assured them I already had representation and that I would call them soon. They sought it, the poor dears.
Noise from outside the penthouse apartment brought me back to the present. I couldn't imagine who was out there.
Copyright 2008 Brooke
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