Page 7 of Girl, Unmasked
Snatching up her trusty cricket bat from its place by the couch, she gritted her teeth and stalked down the hall with murder on her mind.Could be a person, could be a rat – either way, something was getting cricket batted.She listened as she stalked through her ground floor, bat cocked and ready to swing.
Heavy breaths rattled her lungs while she scanned for any sign of disturbance, but everything remained exactly as she'd left it.
Then, again – that tapping and scraping.It sounded like bare branches raking across glass.
Louder.
And unless Sophie was going senile, it was definitely coming from inside the old supply closet at the end of the hall.
Every true crime show she'd ever watched painted the insides of her mind.Her memory snapped back to that schlocky script with graphic depictions of nameless womens’ tortures as vivid as fresh bruises.Was that what awaited her?A stalker crouched among her stockpile of soup, ready to pounce the second she let her guard down?
Only one way to know for sure.
Sophie adjusted her grip on the bat.She flexed her fingers and tried to remember everything her old man had taught her about swinging for the fences.There wasn’t much.Just swing like hell and damage your triceps in the process.That was the gist of it.
She sucked down a lungful of air and in one fluid motion wrenched open the door as she brought the bat whistling through in a vicious arc.
A yowling, furry beast exploded from the depths of the closet, launching directly into Sophie's face in a whirlwind of claws and teeth.She staggered back with a startled yelp, instinctively throwing up her hands to protect her eyes as the orange dervish ricocheted off her head and streaked down the hallway in a blur.
‘Goddammit!’
Sophie spit a clump of cat hair from her mouth, lowering the bat as her heart battered itself raw against the inside of her ribs.‘Marmite, you motherf..’
She let the moment hang, then stomped after her stupid pet as her pulse returned to normal.She should’ve known.Leave it to Marmite to send her jumping at shadows like a twitchy ferret.
A few seconds later, she found the Tom sprawled on the couch, contentedly licking its own backside with the smugness only a cat could muster.Sophie glared at him and momentarily contemplated the idea of interrupting his cleaning session with a cricket bat.
‘You’re lucky I’m not a dog person,’ Sophie said.She fished for a cigarette from her back pocket, but that was when a sudden question hit her between the eyes.
How the hell had Marmite gotten himself locked in the cupboard?
Cats were ninjas, sure, but Sophie never met one with opposable thumbs.
A sick feeling spread through Sophie's gut as the truth assembled itself piece by piece.
Someone had been in her apartment.Someone with hands.Someone who'd trapped Marmite in that closet while she was at work.
The realization slammed home just as the floorboards behind her creaked.
There was no time to turn, no time to bring the bat up in a wild swing.Just a blur of shadow in her peripheral vision and a starburst of pain as something cracked hard against the base of her skull.
Sophie hit the deck, and she suddenly knew no more.Only darkness, rising up to swallow her whole.
CHAPTER TWO
The first week of February and D.C.had frozen over.Glacial temperatures had plagued the city for weeks now, which was why Ella was still under the bed covers despite her needing to be at the office in an hour.She never ran this late, and the cold usually didn’t bother her.
‘You know what I’ll never understand?’said Luca.‘Ties.’
‘What about them?’
‘What’s the point of them?’
Luca Hawkins was dressing himself in the mirror, and the new dress code around the office demanded all rookie agents wear suits and ties at all times.Luca, a man who lived in shorts, hadn’t taken the news well.
‘They hide the buttons.Or just add color.’
Luca huffed.‘God, this is awful.Edis didn’t make us dress like this.’
