The Agent
Beep! Beep! Beep!
My alarm blared through my ears, jolting me out of the deep sleep I was floating in. For once, I was having peaceful dreams. Ones about my father solving crimes and arresting criminals like he was in a television show. Probably an after effect of falling asleep to his case files.
I rolled over in my bed and pressed the stop button on my phone. I raised my arms over my head and stretched my limbs out.
Wait - how did I get in my bed?
I never came upstairs. I fell asleep on my reading chair. How the hell did I end up here?
I shot up in bed, glancing around for any hints that might jog my memory. Did I wake up in the middle of the night? Sleepwalk myself up here? What did I do with Dad’s files?
My heart almost stopped at the thought of something happening to them. I hopped out of bed and jogged downstairs to the living room. Frantically, I looked around the room, searching for his notebook.
A flash of blue caught my eye, and I saw it sitting nicely on the coffee table, closed and safe.
But I didn’t do that.
Someone had been in my house. Touched my belongings. Touched me.
My stomach rolled as I headed back upstairs to check the activity on my security system from my phone. The notifications bar was empty. No entry alerts. No motion triggers. Not even an open window.
Sighing, I clicked out of the security system and went into my surveillance camera footage. I watched the overnight hours on the fastest setting, waiting for the moment I transitioned from the living room to the bedroom. The scene never came.
In one frame, I was still fast asleep on my chair. In the next one, I was lying in my bed. At least ten minutes of footage was missing. Where the fuck did it go?
There was only one person I could think of who would pull a stunt like this: the man after my life.
But if that was the case, why didn’t he just kill me? With me asleep and unaware, he had the perfect opportunity. He could’ve easily slit my throat or shot me or injected me with poison. So, why didn’t he?
A knock at the door interrupted any answers that might’ve come to mind.
I checked the doorbell camera to see Logan standing on the other side of the door. Sighing, I hurried back downstairs and opened it for him. “Hey, Uncle Logan,” I greeted, forcing a smile.
“Hey, Simone. Sorry to pop up on you. Were you still sleeping?”
“No, I was awake.” I moved aside. “Come on in.”
He waltzed through the door with his hands in his pockets. “I was just coming by to check on you. We haven’t really talked lately.”
“Oh, well, I’m fine.”
“Are you?” He asked, his eyes brow raising. “Ever since the Witsec fiasco, you’ve been off. More tense. A little jumpy. Easily agitated.”
“Okay, so I’m still pissed that case - and the one after it - went to shit. So what? A girl can’t be disappointed in herself.”
“It’s alright to be disappointed, Simone. But it’s not alright to beat yourself up over it.”
“I’m not,” I insisted. “I’m just…” I trailed off, taking a moment to scrape together a lie he would believe.
“I’ve got a lot of other stuff going on in my personal life.
Maid of honor duties, not strangling the other bridesmaids, bouncing back from a breakup.
There’s an endless loop of stuff rolling through my mind on a daily basis. That’s all.”
He tilted his head. “Are you sure? Because if you ever wanna-“
“I’m sure,” I cut him off. I really wasn’t in the mood for one of the “I’m here for you” speeches. Not when I’d already gone to him and he shut me down.
His eyes went past me and into the living room. “You’re reading your father’s journals again?” He said, more of a statement rather than a question as he jutted his chin towards the notebook on the table.
“Yeah. I just…I’ve been missing him lately.”
“What case are you reading about?”
“His last one.”
His jaw ticked. “You know he never closed it, right?”
“Wow, way to spoil the ending, Uncle Logan.”
The ends of his mouth lifted the tiniest bit, his smile tainted by the sadness that always came whenever he talked about my father. “He did his best,” he murmured, almost to himself. “He was really close to catching the culprit before…” His gaze lowered as he trailed off.
“Did he kill him?” I asked. “The criminal?”
“Not by his own hand. A king pin with that much power wouldn’t want a federal agent’s blood on his hands. But, the department always had suspicions his death was premeditated.”
I frowned. “He never stood a chance, did he?”
“Unfortunately not.” He patted my arm. “Take it slow today. Everyone needs a moment to breathe every now and then.”
“I will. Thanks for checking on me.”
“Of course.”
My smile fell the moment I closed the door behind him. As much as my body ached for a break from all the madness, I couldn’t take one. Not today. Not after this motherfucker has been in my house.
I needed to catch him before he pushed past any more of my boundaries. And I really needed to do it soon.