Page 52 of Hold Your Breath
With a final frustrated glance at her cabin, he melted into the shadows.
Chapter 10
She was standing on tiptoe, reaching for the package locker key in her post office box, when she smelled him.
“Hey, Jim,” she said without turning to look. Her fingertips brushed the plastic end of the key and managed to slide it farther out of her reach. Lou bit back a bad word. Sometimes it sucked being short. “How’re things?”
“Bad.”
“Oh?” Bouncing off her toes in a little hop, she finally snagged the key, although she scraped her knuckles on the box door on her way down. “Ouch.”
“They’re always watching me.”
“Who?” She turned to face Smelly Jim, shaking her hand to ease the sting.
“Government agents.” He took a step closer, and Lou breathed through her mouth. “They’re watching you, too.”
“I know someone is,” she muttered, thinking dark thoughts.
Jim seemed pleased she was taking him seriously. “I’ve seen him.”
“Really?” It was probably just part of Jim’s delusion, but maybe he had actually seen someone following her. “Anyone you know?”
Jim shook his head, and Lou felt a pang of disappointment. It would’ve been so easy if Jim could’ve just told her the name of her stalker. If Jim didn’t know the guy, then he wasn’t a local. Smelly Jim kneweveryonein town. In fact, Lou would not be surprised if Jim had dossiers on everyone he’d ever met stored in his trailer.
“What did he look like?”
With a sound of disgust, Jim spat out, “Typical fed.”
“Uh… I don’t know what that means. Was he tall or short?”
“Average.”
“Okay.” Although she reminded herself not to get too excited about eyewitness testimony from Smelly Jim, she couldn’t completely quash the bubble of hope that rose in her chest. “Dark hair or light?”
He shrugged. “Couldn’t tell. He was wearing a hat.”
“Oh.” She tried to think of other descriptors. “Was he a white guy?”
He nodded, and Lou felt that surge of hope again.
“Glasses?”
“Dark ones, yeah.”
“Beard?”
“Nah.”
“Mustache? Any kind of facial hair?”
Smelly Jim thought about that for a second. “Nope.”
“What did his face look like? Handsome, ugly, scar, big nose, anything?”
Making a face, Jim said, “Kind of a pretty boy. Soft-looking.”
“What was he wearing?”
