~Blair~
I woke with a raging
headache. The problem was I had no clue why I had it. I remember going to one of
the clubs in the area, needing to relieve the stress after dealing with the
therapist. Even the pleasant supper with Bonnie hadn’t managed to do that. I
also remember meeting someone at the club, his propositioning me and my leaving
with him. And his wanting me to do something.
I remembered cuffs and a gag—and
shivered as I crawled out of bed and headed to the bathroom for a hot shower
and a dozen aspirin. Okay, maybe not that many but damn…
Half an hour later I was
feeling marginally better. I sat at the kitchen table with a big glass of
orange juice and some toast, glancing over when Bonnie came in. She took one look at me and shook her head.
“I heard you sneak out.” She
gave me an amused smile. “From the look of it you probably crawled back home.”
“No, I walked. Just had a
couple more than I should have.” I wasn’t willing to admit to her that I didn’t
even remember the end of the night because I didn’t want her to worry about me.
Hell, she’d probably insist I go back to the therapist if I told her that. And
that creep was history as far as I was concerned.
She patted my shoulder then
asked if I was feeling well enough to go to work. I assured her I was and went
to get dressed.
By the time we got to the
diner my headache was pretty much gone, which was a good thing because it was
one of those days when it seemed everyone and their brother decided to come in
for either breakfast or lunch, or both. By the time three o’clock hit, both of
us and the cook, who was Bonnie’s business partner, were dead on our feet.
“Right now, if I never see
another burger it’ll be too soon,” he grumbled as he cleaned the kitchen while
Bonnie and I went through the normal closing procedures.
“I’m with you on that,” I
agreed, reaching up to shut off the small TV in the corner. We kept it going
all day for those regulars who liked to know what was happening in the world.
“Hang on a minute,” Bonnie
said as one of those special bulletin things flashed on the screen. A very
sober-faced reporter came on to announce that some man, who had apparently been
murdered last night, had finally been identified as a business man from out of
town who had been staying at a hotel a few blocks from the apartment building
where his body had been found. And a few blocks from the diner, I realized, although
of course that wasn’t on the news. A blurry picture behind the reporter showed
a man of about thirty-five, I’d have guessed. He looked vaguely familiar though
I wasn’t sure why, so I shrugged it off, figuring maybe he’d been in here at
some point for lunch.
I asked Bonnie if he looked
familiar to her and she shook her head. When I said I thought maybe he’d come
in for a meal she nodded. “Hard to tell, but then he’s pretty average looking
so if he did, he didn’t stick in my head.”
At that point the story was
over and I shut off the TV. Whoever he was it wasn’t our problem. As Bonnie
commented, he was just an unfortunate victim of the rising crime rate in the
city.
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